George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard
John Crowley | |
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Personal details | |
Born | George Forbes 21 October 1685 Ireland |
Died | 19 June 1765 Ireland | (aged 79)
Political party | Whig |
Spouse |
Hon. Mary Stewart Preston
(m. 1709; died 1755) |
Relations | Arthur Forbes, 1st Earl of Granard (grandfather) |
Children | George Forbes, 4th Earl of Granard John Forbes Lady Mary Forbes |
Parent(s) | Arthur Forbes, 2nd Earl of Granard Mary Rawdon |
Education | Drogheda Grammar School |
George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard
Early life
Forbes was the son of Arthur Forbes, 2nd Earl of Granard and Mary, daughter of Sir George Rawdon, 1st Baronet, of Moira, County Down, was born in Ireland on 21 October 1685. He was for a time educated in Drogheda Grammar School.[2]
His grandfather,
Career
Churchill appointed him to the
In 1705, Forbes was second lieutenant of the frigate Triton, one of the most active cruisers in the navy. The Triton captured twenty-three French privateers in the Channel in fifteen months. He was in her at the siege of Ostend in 1706, where he was on shore, and first met, the Duke of Argyll, who commanded in the trenches. Forbes found his commission as captain of the Lynn frigate, in which he served as convoy to the Baltic Sea trade. The Lynn being ordered to the West Indies, Forbes was transferred to the Gosport, and on 3 January 1707 to the Leopard of 50 guns. On 6 March 1707, he was appointed brigadier in the 4th troop of horse-guards, of which the Duke of Argyll was captain and colonel.[3]
The
In 1708, Forbes became exempt from his troop and a brother of the
The Spanish king proposed that Forbes should put out to sea and seize the vessels on their return voyage. Forbes explained that England was at peace with the Genoese republic; but being pressed by the king, and the queen offering him her sign-manual for his indemnification, he started with his own ship, the Grafton of 70 guns, and the Chatham of 50 guns, Captain Nicholas Haddock, took the Genoese ships into Port Mahon, discharged the officers and crews to shore, landed the specie, amounting to 1,600,000 dollars, and returned with the ships to Barcelona. Charles III, greatly pleased, made Forbes a grant of the duty payable at the mint for coinage of the amount, and urged him to go back to Menorca and fetch the specie.[3]
Forbes, doubting the legality of the capture, excused himself until he should receive instructions from home, or from General Stanhope, the British ambassador and commander-in-chief in Spain, and, to avoid any appearance of backwardness, set out to confer with Stanhope. He joined the part of the allied army under Marshal Staremberg, and was slightly wounded while charging with Brigadier Lepell's regiment at the battle of Villaviciosa, 10 December 1710. Stanhope had surrendered at Brihuega the day previous. Forbes returned to Barcelona, and found orders from home forbidding the disposal of the Genoese treasure, which sorely disconcerted the Spanish court. Forbes came to England bearing an autograph letter from Charles III to Queen Anne. Eventually, the British government decided to retain the capture and indemnify the Genoese republic. In the end, Forbes accepted £ 6,000 in lieu of what had promised to prove a large fortune.[6]
In January 1711, the Duke of Argyll was appointed to the command in Spain. He set out leaving Forbes, who was to serve with him, in London to solicit supplies for the army, which was short of money. Forbes obtained an order for eight hundred thousand dollars of the Genoese treasure, and set off, riding through the Netherlands, Germany, the Tyrol, and Italy to Genoa, where he took ship, with such despatch that he reached Barcelona in twenty-one days from England. During that year, he served with the army in Spain, at the head of three hundred cavalrymen drafted from home, whom Argyll purposed to form into a new regiment of horse under Forbes's command. The regiment was never completed, as peace negotiations were too far advanced. A return of the army in Spain, dated 19 February 1712, is in Treasury Papers, cxliv. 23, and is the only paper of any interest entered under Forbes's name in the Calendars of State Papers for the period.
In 1712, Forbes was appointed to the
On his return home in 1719, Forbes, at the desire of George I, proceeded to Vienna, to carry into effect a long-cherished project of the emperor Charles VI, of forming a naval power either in Naples and Sicily or on the Adriatic, for which purpose Forbes received the rank of vice-admiral in the imperial service with a salary of twelve thousand florins a year, and unlimited powers of organisation. But the imperialist ministers looked coldly on the scheme, and adopted a policy of tacit obstruction, which at the end of two years led Forbes to resign his appointment in a private audience with the emperor, who presented him with a valuable diamond ring in recognition of his services. Forbes joined the king at Hanover, and afterwards returned home.[3]
In 1724 he was appointed to command the
Governor of the Leeward Islands
In 1729, he was appointed
Minister to Russia
In 1733 Forbes was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Empress Anna of Russia.[7] He negotiated and concluded a treaty – the first entered into by the court of St. Petersburg with any European state – for the better regulation of the customs, and for favouring the introduction of British woollen goods. After his return to England in 1734 the czarina, with whom he was a favourite, offered him supreme command of the imperial Russian navy, which he declined.[8] He obtained his flag rank and succeeded to the title of Earl of Granard on the death of his father the same year.[3]
Later life
In 1737, Granard, who was a member of the Irish Linen Company, and took much interest in political economy, was instrumental in introducing improvements in the Irish currency.[9] When the popular outcry against Spain arose in 1739, he was offered the command of "a stout squadron" for the West Indies, but declined, believing the ministry not to be in earnest; nevertheless when his senior, Admiral Edward Vernon, who had been laid aside, was brought back over his head and sent out, Granard considered himself superseded, and refused to serve again. His name was retained on the flag list, and half-pay was issued for him for some time, but on 31 December 1742 his resignation was finally accepted.[3]
The statement of some biographers that he continued in the service, and was senior admiral at his death, arose from confusing Granard – who was better known in the naval service as Lord Forbes – with his son, Admiral of the Fleet the Hon.
He was made a
Personal life
In person, Granard was of middle height and spare figure, with a dark complexion, and strongly marked features. In his habits he was very active and extremely abstemious, eating little and drinking nothing but water, customs to which he attributed his good health. He was a great reader, with a very retentive memory, and a quick, intelligent observer. The family manuscripts contain several treatises by him on subjects connected with political economy, geography, and the naval resources of different countries.[11][3]
In 1709, Lord Forbes married Hon. Mary Stewart Preston, the eldest daughter of
- Hon. John Forbes (1714–1796), the Admiral of the Fleet who married Lady Mary Capell, a daughter of William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex, in 1758.[3]
- Lady Mary Forbes (d. 1797), who married James Irvine of Kingcausie.[13]
Lord Granard died aged 80 in Ireland on 19 June 1765.[14][15]
Descendants
Through his eldest son, he was a grandfather of
Through his second son, he was a grandfather to twin girls: Katherine Forbes, who married William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington, and Maria Forbes, married John Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon.[13][10]
Legacy
References
- ^ "Sir George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard - Irish Biography". www.libraryireland.com. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ Lodge, Edmund (1832). The Peerage of the British Empire as at Present Existing: Arranged and Printed from the Personal Communications of the Nobility: to which is Added a View of the Baronetage of the Three Kingdoms. Saunders and Otley. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Forbes, George (1685-1765)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ CANNON, Hist. Rec. Life Guards, p. 169
- ^ Memoirs of the Earls of Granard, p. 86
- ^ Full details of the transaction are given in Memoirs of the Earls of Granard, pp. 87–93.
- ISBN 978-1-78374-057-4. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-903425-36-0. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ The details will be found in Memoirs of the Earls of Granard, pp. 145–51.
- ^ a b c Cokayne, George Edward (1926). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom: Gordon to Hurstpierpoint. St. Catherine Press, Limited. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. 212
- ^ See Mervyn Archdall, Peerage of Ireland, vi. 153.
- ^ a b c "Granard, Earl of (I, 1684)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ There is some uncertainty as to the day of his death, two different dates being given in Memoirs of the Earls of Granard, and other dates, all within the year, being given in other publications (see Notes and Queries, 6th ser. x. 312 also Ann. Reg., Gent. Mag., and Scots Mag. 1765)
- ^ "Notes and queries". 1849.
- ISBN 9781919655055.
- OCLC 48491998.