| 1 | Name: | Stephen Adye | |
| Year Elected: | 1772 | ||
| Residency: | International | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
Stephen Adye (d. 24 March 1794) was a British military officer, a scholar of the military justice system, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1772. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich beginning in 1757, and, by 1780, he had become a captain in the Royal Artillery of the British Army. Adye experienced active service throughout his career, including a stint as a brigade major during the American Revolutionary War, but he is most well-known for his writings on and participation in the military judicial system. He worked as a deputy judge-advocate-general in North America throughout the 1760s. In 1769, he published an influential treatise on the judicial procedures of the army. He was interested in both the historical development of the army’s legal process and its contemporary applications. He believed that all soldiers should be treated equally in the eyes of the law, regardless of their rank, and that courts-martial could guarantee just outcomes to an even greater extent than civilian jury trials. Adye and his wife, Elizabeth Hitchcock, had three sons, all of whom joined the Royal Artillery and continued their father’s legacy. He retired from the army in 1790 and died in 1794 on the island of Jersey. (DNB) | |||