Robert Pitcairn (midshipman)
| Robert Pitcairn | |
|---|---|
| Born |
6 May 1752 Burntisland, Fife, Scotland, Great Britain |
| Died | c. 1770 At sea / Uncertain |
| Occupation | Midshipman |
| Parent(s) |
John Pitcairn Elizabeth Dalrymple |
Robert Pitcairn (6 May 1752 – 1770?) was a midshipman in the Royal Navy. Pitcairn Island was named after him: he was the first person to spot the island on 2 July 1767 (ship's time), while serving in a voyage in the South Pacific on HMS Swallow, captained by Philip Carteret.
Pitcairn was born in Burntisland, Fife, in 1752. His father, John Pitcairn (1722–75), was a major in the Royal Marines who commanded the British advance party at the Battle of Lexington that fired the "shot heard round the world", and died from wounds after the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. His paternal grandfather, David Pitcairn, was a clergyman at Dysart, Fife, and his paternal grandmother Katherine was the daughter of William Hamilton. His mother Elizabeth (1724–1809) was the daughter of Robert Dalrymple. His uncle William Pitcairn (1712–91) was a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.
Among his eight siblings (four other sons and four daughters) were his brother David Pitcairn (1749–1809) who became a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London; his sister Catherine Pitcairn married Charles Cochrane, son of Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald, and first cousin of Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, who served in the British Army and died in 1781 in the Siege of Yorktown; and his sister Anne was the mother of Sir John Campbell (1780–1863).
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