INTRODUCTION. WILLIAM ANNE KEPPEL, Second Earl of Albemarle, whose military correspondence during the years 1746-47 Albemarle. forms the greater portion of the papers printed in The Earl of these volumes, was the son of Arnold Joost van Keppel, first Earl of Albemarle, and his wife Geertruid Johanna Quirina van der Duyn. He was born at Whitehall on June 5, 1702, and was baptised at the Chapel Royal, Queen Anne being his godmother. His father also had received abundant tokens of royal favour. As a lad of nineteen years he had accompanied William of Orange to England in 1688 as Page of Honour. Eight years later (1696) he was raised to the Peerage with the titles of Baron Ashford of Ashford in the county of Kent, Viscount Bury of Bury in the county palatine of Lancaster, and Earl of Albemarle, a town and district within the Dukedom of Normandy. He also enjoyed the esteem and friendship of Queen Anne and George the First. Before his death in 1718, his son, the second Earl, who had been educated in Holland, had returned to England and had been gazetted in 1717 to the Coldstream Guards. He was appointed to the colonelcy of that regiment in 1744. Meanwhile in 1742 he had accompanied Lord Stair to Flanders and had been present at both Dettingen and Fontenoy. After four years' absence he returned to England in the autumn of 1745 with the object of 1 Cf. articles on the first and second Earls of Albemarle in Dict. Nat. Biog., vol. xxxi., pp. 36, 44. d* serving as a volunteer under the Duke of Cumberland,' at that time confronting the crisis created by Prince Charles's bold march to Derby. Albemarle, who had left Flanders at four hours' warning, was compelled to leave his horses and equipment at Antwerp, and when Cumberland took the field in Scotland in 1746, Albemarle proceeded thither hurriedly with the modest outfit of six shirts, and found himself compelled "to borrow, hire and buy everything in a strange manner" in that country.2 While Cumberland remained at Aberdeen before his advance to Culloden, Albemarle was placed in command of the advanced post of the army at Strathbogie, "hardly ever pulling off my coat and breeches". On April 8 Cumberland left Aberdeen and on the 11th concentrated his army at Cullen. Albemarle joined him there that day. To the Duke of Newcastle he had already expressed his anxiety for an engagement which "would put an end to this cursed and unnatural rebellion," for otherwise he feared "these villains will Lead us a dance from one bad country to a worse," and he added, "throw ye worse people I ever knew; for I protest I prefer ye soil to ye Inhabitants, for more malice, falsehood, cunning, and self interest was never mett with in any country whatesoever". Anxious though he was for a decisive engagement, it would appear that even on the eve of Culloden Albemarle was doubtful whether Prince Charles's army would venture to meet Cumberland. The victory of April 16, in which he commanded the first line of the Duke's army, proved him incorrect in his anticipations. From Inverness, after the battle, he was ordered to Perth, much to his disgust, to join the Hessian troops under Prince Frederick of Hesse,' who had landed at Leith on February 8, 1746. They sailed from Scotland on June 10, 1746,8 and Albemarle was at once called 2 P. 7. 3 P. 3. 4 P. 2. Dict. Nat. Biog., vol. xxxi., p. 44. Scots Magazine, vol. viii., p. 289. 1 Supra, p. 6. |