Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel (25 April 1725 - 2 October 1786), was a British admiral who held sea commands during the Seven Years War and the War of American Independence. During the final years of the latter conflict he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (116th in leap years). ... Events February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony. ... October 2nd is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Early life and career

The second son of Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, he went to sea at the age of ten, and had already five years of service to his credit when he was appointed to the Centurion, and was sent with Lord Anson round the world in 1740. He had a narrow escape of being killed in the capture of Paita (13 November 1741), and was named acting lieutenant in 1742. In 1744 be was promoted to be Commander and Post Captain. George Anson, 1st Baron Anson (April 23, 1697 - 1762) was a British admiral and a wealthy aristocrat, noted for his circumnavigation of the globe. ... Events May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 - Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). ... November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... Events April 10 – Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz December 19 – Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius William Browning invents mineral water Elizabeth of Russia became czarina. ... Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Events The third French and Indian War, known as King Georges War, breaks out at Port Royal, Nova Scotia Ongoing events War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Births May 19 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen of George III of Great Britain (d. ...

Until the peace of 1748 he was actively employed. In 1747 he ran his ship the Maidstone (50) ashore near Belleisle while chasing a French vessel, but was honorably acquitted by a court martial, and reappointed to another command. After peace had been signed he was sent into the Mediterranean to persuade the Dey of Algiers to restrain the piratical operations of his subjects. The Dey is said to have complained that the King of England had sent a beardless boy to treat with him, and to have been told that if the beard was the necessary qualification for an ambassador it would have been easy to send a Billy goat. After trying the effect of bullying without success, the Dey made a treaty, and Keppel returned in 1751. There were two Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle. ... Events April 24 - A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle with the intent to conclude the struggle known as the War of Austrian Succession - at October 18 - The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh Building of... Events January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain May 14 - First battle of Cape... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... For other uses, see Algiers (disambiguation). ... Though at least a proportion of them are better described as privateers, the Barbary pirates operated out of Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salè and ports in Morocco, preying on shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea from the time of the Crusades as well as on ships on their way to Asia... Events Adam Smith is appointed professor of logic at the University of Glasgow March 31 - The future King George III of the United Kingdom succeeds his father as Prince of Wales. ...

The Seven Years War

During the Seven Years War he saw constant service. He was in North America in 1755, on the coast of France in 1756, was detached on a cruise to reduce the French settlements on the west coast of Africa in 1758, and his ship the Torbay (74) was the first to get into action in the battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. In 1757 he had formed part of the court martial which had condemned Admiral Byng, but was active among those who endeavoured to secure a pardon for him; but neither he nor those who had acted with him could produce any serious reason why the sentence should not be carried out. When Spain joined France in 1762 he was sent as second in command with Sir George Pocock in the expedition which took Havana. His health suffered from the fever which carried off an immense proportion of the soldiers and sailors, but the £25,000 of prize money which he received freed him from the unpleasant position of younger son of a family ruined by the extravagance of his father. This article is about the 1756–1763 war. ... 1755 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1756 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1758 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1759 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1757 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... John Byng (1704 – March 14, 1757), British admiral, was the fourth son of George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, and entered the navy in 1718. ... 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Sir George Pocock (March 6, 1706 - April 3, 1792), British admiral, son of Thomas Pocock, chaplain in the navy, entered the navy under the protection of his maternal uncle, Captain Streynsham Master (1682-1724), in the Superbe in 1718. ... Havana (Spanish: San Cristóbal de La Habana) is the capital of Cuba and, with a population of 2. ...

Achievement of flag rank

He became Rear Admiral in October 1762, was one of the Admiralty Board from July 1765 to November 1766, and was promoted Vice Admiral on 24 October 1770. When the Falkland Island dispute occurred in 1770 he was to have commanded the fleet to be sent against Spain, but a settlement was reached, and he had no occasion to hoist his flag. 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Old Admiralty House, Whitehall, London, Thomas Ripley, architect, 1723-26, was not admired by his contemporaries and earned him some scathing couplets from Alexander Pope The Admiralty was historically the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ... 1765 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1766 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

The American Revolutionary War

The most important and the most debated period of his life belongs to the opening years of the American Revolutionary War. Keppel was by family connection and personal preference a strong supporter of the Whig connection, led by the Marquess of Rockingham and the Duke of Richmond. He shared in all the passions of his party, then excluded from power by the resolute will of George III. The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within the thirteen North American colonies. ... This article is about the British Whig party. ... Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (May 13, 1730 – July 1, 1782) was a British politician, most notable for his two terms as Whig Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1733 - December 1806), was one of the most remarkable men of the 18th century, being chiefly famous for his advanced views on the question of parliamentary reform. ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ...

As a member of Parliament, in which he had a seat for Windsor from 1761 until 1780, and then for Surrey he was a steady partisan, and was in constant hostility with the King's Friends. In common with them he was prepared to believe that the king's ministers, and in particular Lord Sandwich, then First Lord of the Admiralty, were capable of any villainy. When therefore he was appointed to command the Western Squadron, the main fleet prepared against France in 1778, he went to sea predisposed to think that the First Lord would be glad for him to be defeated. Location within the British Isles. ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Surrey is a county in southern England, one of the Home Counties. ... John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (3 November 1718 – 3 April 1792) succeeded his grandfather, Edward, the 3rd Earl, in the earldom in 1729. ... The First Lord of the Admiralty was a British government position in charge of the Admiralty. ... 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

It was a further misfortune that when Keppel hoisted his flag one of his subordinate admirals should have been Sir Hugh Palliser (1723–1796), who was a member of the Admiralty Board, a member of parliament, and in Keppel's opinion, which was generally shared, jointly responsible with his colleagues for the bad state of the Royal Navy. When, therefore, the battle which Keppel fought with the French on 27 July 1778 (the First Battle of Ushant) ended in a highly unsatisfactory manner, owing mainly to his own unintelligent management, but partly through the failure of Sir Hugh Palliser to obey orders, he became convinced that he had been deliberately betrayed. Sir Hugh Palliser (22 February 1722 or 1723 – 19 March 1796) was a British naval officer and the Governor of Newfoundland (a Commodore-Governor) from 1764 – 1768. ... Events February 16 - Louis XV of France attains his majority Births February 24 - John Burgoyne, British general (d. ... 1796 was a leap year starting on Friday. ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ... July 27 is the 208th day (209th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 157 days remaining. ... 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The naval First Battle of Ushant took place on 27 July 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, fought between French and British fleets 100 miles west of the isle of Ile dOuessant (Ushant to the English), a French island at the mouth of the English Channel off the north...

Though he praised Sir Hugh in his public despatch he attacked him in private, and the Whig press, with the unquestionable aid of Keppel's friends, began a campaign of calumny to which the ministerial papers answered in the same style, each side accusing the other of deliberate treason: The result was a scandalous series of scenes in parliament and of courts martial. Keppel was first tried and acquitted 1779, and then Palliser was also tried and acquitted. Keppel was ordered to strike his flag in March 1779. 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Service in Parliament

Until the fall of Lord North's ministry he acted as an opposition member of parliament. When it fell in 1782 he became First Lord, and was created Viscount Keppel and Baron Elden. His career in office was not distinguished, and he broke with his old political associates by resigning as a protest against the Peace of Paris. He finally discredited himself by joining the Coalition ministry formed by North and Fox, and with its fall disappeared from public life. Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (April 13, 1732–August 5, 1792), more often known by his earlier title, Lord North, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782, and a major actor in the American Revolution. ... 1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Painting by Benjamin West depicting John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin. ... The Right Honourable Charles James Fox (January 24, 1749 - September 13, 1806) was an English politician. ...

Last years and legacy

He died unmarried on 2 October 1786. Burke, who regarded him with great affection, said that he had something high in his nature, and that it was a wild stock of pride on which the tenderest of all hearts had grafted the milder virtues. His portrait was six times painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The copy which belonged originally to Burke is now in the National Gallery. October 2nd is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 – July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator and political philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig Party. ... Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (July 16, 1723–February 23, 1792) was the most important and influential of eighteenth-century English painters, specialising in portraits and promoting the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. ... The National Gallery from Trafalgar Square The National Gallery is an art gallery in London, located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (3 November 1718 – 3 April 1792) succeeded his grandfather, Edward, the 3rd Earl, in the earldom in 1729. ... Old Admiralty House, Whitehall, London, Thomas Ripley, architect, 1723-26, was not admired by his contemporaries and earned him some scathing couplets from Alexander Pope The Admiralty was historically the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ... Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (March 8, 1726 - August 5, 1799) was a British admiral. ... Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (March 8, 1726 - August 5, 1799) was a British admiral. ... Old Admiralty House, Whitehall, London, Thomas Ripley, architect, 1723-26, was not admired by his contemporaries and earned him some scathing couplets from Alexander Pope The Admiralty was historically the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ... Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (March 8, 1726 - August 5, 1799) was a British admiral. ...