George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith
GCB FRS | |
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Birth name | George Keith Elphinstone |
Born | Elphinstone Tower, Falkirk, Falkirk, Scotland | 17 January 1746
Died | 10 March 1823 Tulliallan Castle, Kincardine, Fife, Scotland | (aged 77)
Allegiance | |
Branch | Royal Navy |
Service years | 1761–1823 |
Rank | Admiral of the Red |
Wars | |
Awards |
George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith
Career
Early service
George Elphinstone was the fourth son of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone, and his wife Lady Clementina Fleming, the daughter and heiress of John Fleming, 6th Earl of Wigtown. Elphinstone was born on 7 January 1746 at
Serving in Gosport on the
Post-Captain
During the American Revolutionary War he was employed against the privateers, and with a naval brigade at the occupation of Charleston, South Carolina. In January 1781, when in command of the 50-gun HMS Warwick, he captured a Dutch 50-gun ship that had beaten off a British vessel of equal strength a few days before. On 15 September 1782 in the Delaware Bay he led a squadron that captured the French 38 gun frigate Aigle during which Captain Latouche Tréville was taken prisoner. After peace was signed he remained on shore for ten years, serving in Parliament as member first for Dunbartonshire, and then for Stirlingshire.[2] He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1790.
Admiral
When war broke out again in 1793, he was appointed to the
At the close of 1798, he was sent as second in command to St Vincent.
He returned to the
He was made Baron Keith of the United Kingdom, an Irish barony having been conferred on him in 1797. On the renewal of the war in 1803 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, North Sea (which at the time included Nore Command),[1][6] which post he held until 1807. In February 1812 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the English Channel, and in 1814 he was raised to a viscountcy. During his last two commands he was engaged first in overseeing the measures taken to meet a threatened invasion, and then in directing the movements of the numerous small squadrons and private ships employed on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and in protecting trade.[5]
He was at Plymouth when
Family life
He was twice married: in 1787 to Jane Mercer, daughter of Colonel William Mercer of Aldie, and in 1808 to Hester Maria Thrale, daughter of Henry Thrale and Hester Thrale, who is spoken of as 'Queeney' in Boswell's Life of Johnson and in Madame d'Arblay's Diary. He had a daughter by each marriage, the second being Georgina Augusta Henrietta, but no son. Thus the viscountcy became extinct on his death, but the British and Irish baronies descended to his elder daughter Margaret (1788–1867), who married the Comte de Flahault, only to become extinct on her death.[5]
A portrait of him by Owen is in the
, Greenwich.Freemasonry
He was initiated into Scottish Freemasonry in Lodge Holyrood House (St Luke's), No. 44, on 16 June 1769.[7]
In fiction
Lord Keith and his wife 'Queeney' appear in several of the novels in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series. He is also mentioned in passing in Robert Brightwell's novel Flashman and the Seawolf, based loosely on the exploits of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (as is, in part, the character of Jack Aubrey).
Arms
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Citations
- ^ a b c d Owen (2009).
- ^ a b Hannay 1911, p. 716.
- ^ Hiscocks, Richard (17 January 2016). "Cape Commander-in-Chief 1795–1852". morethannelson.com. morethannelson.com. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
- ^ Hannay 1911, pp. 716–717.
- ^ a b c d e f Hannay 1911, p. 717.
- ^ "Lord Keith, en af Englands ypperste Amiraler", Åbo Tidning (in Swedish), no. 17, pp. 1–2, 28 February 1807, retrieved 3 July 2014
- ^ A History of the Mason Lodge of Holyrood House (St.Luke's), No. 44, holding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland with Roll of Members, 1734–1934, by Robert Strathern Lindsay, W.S., Edinburgh, 1935. Vol. II, p. 676.
- ^ "Keith, Viscount (UK, 1814 - 1823)".
References
- Owen, C. H. H. (2009). "Elphinstone, George Keith, Viscount Keith". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- public domain: Hannay, David McDowall (1911). "Keith, George Keith Elphinstone, Viscount". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 716–717. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- McCrannie, Kevin. Admiral Lord Keith and the Naval War against Napoleon (New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology). April 30, 2006
- Mercer, Keith. Mercer on McCranie, 'Admiral Lord Keith and the Naval War against Napoleon'. Beyond Nelson: The Life of a Forgotten British Admiral. Reviewed by Keith Mercer (Department of History, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia) Published on H-Maritime (November, 2006)
External links
- "Archival material relating to George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith". UK National Archives.
- Keith's Papers slowly being put online here.