death
of his father, who was a man of eminent repute in his neighbourhood;
and he did not leave France until his eleventh year, when he fled with
his paternal uncle, Matthew Labrune, across the frontier, and took
refuge with him at Berne, in Switzerland. There the uncle engaged in
business as a merchant, while the nephew, when of sufficient age,
desirous of following the usual career of his family, went into
Piedmont to join the little Huguenot army from England, then engaged
in assisting the Duke of Savoy against the armies of the French king.
Estienne was admitted a cadet in Lord Galway's regiment, then engaged
in the siege of Casale; and he remained with it for two years, when,
on the army returning to England, he received an honourable discharge,
and went back to reside for a time with his bachelor uncle at Berne.

In 1698 both uncle and nephew left Switzerland to settle in London as
merchants, bringing with them a considerable capital. They exported
English manufactured goods to the East Indies, Holland, Germany, and
Italy; and imported large quantities of raw silk, principally from
Spain and Italy, carrying on their business with uniform probity and
credit. In course of time Estienne married Magdalen Baudoin, the
daughter of a refugee gentleman from Touraine,--the members of
refugee families usually intermarrying for several generations after
their settlement in England. The issue of this marriage was an only
son, Stephen Riou, who, like his ancestors, embraced the profession of
arms, rising to be captain in the Horse Grenadier Guards. He
afterwards attended the Confederate forces in Flanders as an engineer,
and on the conclusion of peace, he travelled for nearly four years
through the principal countries of Europe, accompanying Sir P. Ker
Porter on his embassy to Constantinople. He afterwards settled,
married, and had two sons,--Philip, the elder, who entered the Royal
Artillery, and died senior colonel at Woolwich in 1817; and Edward,
the second son, who entered the navy--the subject of the present
memoir.

Edward Riou was born at Mount Ephraim, near Faversham, on the 20th
November, 1762. The family afterwards removed to London, where Edward
received his education, partly at the Marylebone Grammar School and
partly at home, where his father superintended his instruction in
fortification, and navigation. Though of peculiarly sweet and amiable
disposition, young Riou displayed remarkable firmness and even
fearl