James Holburne
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The James Holborne born about 1706 would seem to have been a Grandson of Major General James Holborne of Menstrie, and born in the county of Clackmannan, by his fathers first wife Janet, the daughter of John Inglis of Cramond, and was made a Baronet in 1706, on the 21st of June, he succeeded to his fathers title upon his fathers death in 1736/7.
Like his brothers the young James entered into Naval Service. It has been said that he died at his home of Pencuit, Edinburgh about 1757/8, but the following extract from ‘battles of the British Navy’ implies a fatal wounding at sea:
‘A gallant action was fought this year 1757 by the Dispatch Sloop of Captain James Holborne, with a French privateer ['Prince de Soubise'] mounting 18 guns, with a crew of 170 men. The action lasted two hours, and the Privateer made several ineffectual attempts at boarding, but was beaten off with much loss. Captain Holborne, who behaved nobly, as mortally wounded by a flint stone about the size of a nutmeg.
In the fray of the same battle, fought on the 23rd December a Captain Death also died defending the ‘Terrible’, his ship, against the French..’
The "Dispatch" was a sloop of 269 tons and 14 guns, built 1745. In action on the 7th October, 1756, against a French sloop of greater force, her captain, James Holborne was killed.
