THE PEOPLE'S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. RIGHT HON. WILLIAM, EARL OF NORTHESK. WILLIAM CARNEGIE, EARL OF NORTHESK, was a younger son, though ultimately the successor, of Admiral, the Earl of Northesk, by his lady, Anne Leslie, daughter of the Earl of Leven and Melville. He was born in 1758, and, at the age of eleven, entered upon a sea-faring life, by embarking in the Albion, Captain the Hon. Samuel Barrington. He afterwards sailed in the Southampton, Captain Macbride; and was in that vessel when it conveyed the unfortunate Queen of Denmark to Zell. He also served as a midshipman in the Squirrel, whence he removed to the Nonsuch, with the appointment of an acting lieutenant. In 1777 he was confirmed by Lord Howe, and appointed to the Apollo; and, subsequently, obtained celebrity in his profession by his conduct in several important engagements. He was with Sir John Lockhart Ross, in the Royal George, at the capture of the Caracca fleet, off Cape Finisterre; at the taking of the Spanish squadron under Langara; and at the famous relief of Gibraltar. He was also with Lord Rodney in the West Indies; and promoted, by that gallant seaman, from the flagship, after the brilliant action of the 17th April, 1780, to the command of the Blast, fireship. His next vessel was the St. Eustatia, in which he was at the capture of the island of that name in 1781. On the 7th of April, 1782, he was posted, and, returning to England at the peace, paid off the Enterprise frigate; after which, a considerable period ensued without his being employed in actual service at sea. Family events, in some measure, contributed to this inaction. In 1788, by the death of his brother, he succeeded to the title of Lord Rosehill. In the same year he married Mary, the only daughter of William Henry Ricketts, Esq., of Longwood, Hants, and niece of Lord St. Vincent; and, in 1792, he succeeded to the honours of his noble ancestors, as the seventh Earl of Northesk, on the demise of his father. |