Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith
January 7 1746-March 10 1823
George was born the 5th son of the 10th Lord Elphinstone. Two of his brothers went to sea and he entered the Royal Navy in 1761. First in HMS Royal Sovereign and then in HMS Gosport under the command of John Jervis. In 1767 he voyaged to the East Indies in the Company’s service (East India Company) He invested £2000 that started his own fortunes. He became a lieutenant in 1770, commander in 1772 and post captain in 1775.
In the war with the colonies he was employed against privateers, and the occupation of Charleston and then in command of the Warwick captured a Dutch ship. After the peace he was ashore for 10 years and took a Parliament seat for Dubbartonshire and then Stirlingshire. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1790.
When war with France broke out in 1793 he was given the 74 gun HMS Robust in which he took part in the occupation of Toulon under Hood. In 1794 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral, nineteen years since he became Post. He was sent to occupy the Dutch colonies at the Cape of Good Hope and India. He got a large share in the capture of the Cape in 95 and captured a squadron of Dutch ships at Saldanha Bay in 96. When the Nore Mutiny broke out in 97 he was appointed to the command and restored order, and then at Plymouth as well.
In 1798 he was appointed second to St. Vincent. It was a thankless position caught between Jervis and Nelson. After 1799 though he returned to the Mediterranean fleet as Commander in Chief. He and the Austrians co-operated in the siege of Genoa. And though successful, on land the forces lost to Napoleon at Marengo and the French hurriedly reoccupied Genoa. In 1801 the actions in Egypt saw him made Baron Keith.
When the war renewed he was appointed Commander in Chief first of the North Sea and then later the Channel fleet. In 1814 he was made Viscount Keith. When Napoleon surrendered it was Keith who was put in charge of the Emperor. Keith held fast against the man and thought Bonaparte a little ridiculous. Keith died in 1823 in Scotland. He had marred twice, the second wife Hester, known as Queeney. Each marriage had a daughter but no son. The Viscounty became extinct then at his death, though his estates and the Baronial title passed to his eldest daughter.
Previous Notables (Click to see the Blog):
There will be many other notables coming, a full and changing list can be found here on the blog as I keep adding to it. The list so far is:
Wellington (the Military man)
Horatio Nelson
Cuthbert Collingwood
Thomas Troubridge
Admiral Sir Graham Moore
Admiral Sir William Sydney Smith
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
Howe
Viscount Hood
Colin Mccaulay
Thomas Babington
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Napoleon Bonaparte
Packenham
General Banastre Tarleton
Henry Paget
Sir William Hamilton
Stapleton Cotton
Sir Charles Grey
Thomas Picton
Constable
Lawrence
Cruikshank
Gillray
Joshua Reynolds
George Romney
William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk 9th Duke of St. Albans
Horace Walpole
Thomas Coutts
Rowlandson
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Sir Marc Brunel
Marquis of Stafford George Leveson-Gower
George Stephenson
William Huskisson
Robert Stephenson
Fanny Kemble
Mary Shelley
Ann Radcliffe
Paul III Anton, Prince Esterházy
Charles Arbuthnot
Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton
Henry Herbert Southey
John Nash
Matthew Gregory Lewis
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Thomas Hope
William Beechey
Scrope Davies
Henry Holland
Sir Walter Scott
Lord Elgin
Jeffery Wyatville
Hester Thrale
William Windham
Madame de Stael
James Boswell
Edward Eliot
George Combe
Sir Harry Smith
Juana Maria de Los Dolores de Leon (Lady Smith)
Duke of Argyll, George William Campbell (1766-1839)
Lord Barrymore, Richard Barry (1769-1794)
Lord Bedford, Francis Russell (1765-1802)
Mr. G. Dawson Damer (1788-1856)
Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish (1748-1811)
Lord Foley, Thomas Foley (1780-1833)
Colonel George Hanger (c.1751-1824)
Lord Hertford, Francis Seymour-Ingram (1743-1822)
Lord Yarmouth, Francis Charles Seymour-Ingram (1777-1842)
Edward “Golden Ball” Hughes (1798-1863)
Earl of Jersey, George Bussey Villiers (1735-1805)
Sir John , John Lade (1759-1838)
Duke of Norfolk, Charles Howard (1746-1815)
Duke of York , Frederick Augustus Hanover (1763-1827)
Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc de Chartres, acceded 1785 as Duc d’ Orleans (1747-1793)
Louis Philippe, Duc de Chartres, acceded 1793 as Duc d’ Orleans (1773-1850)
Captain John (Jack) Willett Payne (1752-1803)
Viscount Petersham, Charles Stanhope(1780-1851)
Duke of Queensberry, William Douglas (1724-1810)
Duke of Rutland, John Henry Manners(1778-1857)
Lord Sefton, William Philip Molyneux (1772-1838)
Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour (1759-1801)
Sir Lumley St. George Skeffington Baronet (1771 – 1850)
Lord Worcester, Henry Somerset (1766-1835)
Lord Worcester, Henry Somerset (1792-1853)
Hon. Frederick Gerald aka “Poodle” Byng
Edward Pellew
Thomas Cochrane
Warren Hastings
Mendoza
Edmund Burke
The Dandy Club
Beau Brummell
William Arden, 2nd Baron Alvanley
Henry Mildmay
Henry Pierrepoint
Patronesses of Almacks
Emily Lamb, Lady Cowper
Amelia Stewart, Viscountess Castlereagh
Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey
Maria Molyneux, Countess of Sefton
Mrs. Drummond Burrell
Dorothea Lieven, Countess de Lieven, wife of the Russian Ambassador
Countess Esterhazy, wife of the Austrian Ambassador
Leave a Reply