Charles Knowles, 1st Baronet
Sir Charles Knowles, 1st Baronet (born 1704 in London , † December 9, 1777 in Guildford , Surrey ) was a British admiral .
Knowles was the eldest son of Charles Knollys (1662-1740) from his first marriage to Elizabeth Lister. His father was the illegitimate son of Nicholas Vaux, 3rd Earl of Banbury . His father claimed, ultimately unsuccessfully, the title of Earl of Banbury , which is why Knowles used the courtesy title Viscount Wallingford as his Heir Apparent at times .
Career
Knowles made a career in the Royal Navy . As early as 1741 he had taken part in the siege of Cartagena . From 1745 to 1748 he held the office of governor of Louisburg in Nova Scotia . From 1749 to 1752 he was a member of the House of Commons as an MP for the constituency of Gatton . From 1752 to 1756 he was governor of Jamaica . He rose to the military rank of Admiral of the White . On October 31, 1765 he was bestowed the hereditary title of Baronet , of Lovell Hill in the County of Berks in the Baronetage of Great Britain . In 1770 he was discharged from the Royal Navy at the age of 66 at his own request.
From 1770 to 1774 he was general manager of the Russian Admiralty under Empress Catherine the Great . As such, he was responsible for the expansion of the Russian fleet, which was successfully used in the Russo-Turkish War . In the naval battle of Çeşme from July 5th to 7th, 1770, the Ottoman fleet suffered a devastating defeat by the Imperial Russian Navy . Knowles was released into retirement in 1774 at the age of 70 at his own request, after the Peace of Küçük Kaynarca had been concluded on July 21, 1774 .
Family and offspring
Charles Knowles was the descendant of the English governor of the Netherlands Sir Thomas Knowles ( Knollys ), who married Ottilia von Merode in 1571, and of Francis Knollys (1514–1596), the minister under Elizabeth I and one of the guards of the Scottish Queen Mary Stewart was. Furthermore, Sir Francis Knollys is one of the ancestors of Winston Churchill and Diana Spencer .
His first marriage was on December 23, 1740, Mary Alleyne, daughter of the British lawyer John Alleyne, who was then living in Barbados . With her he had a son:
- Edward Knowles (1742–1762), who rose to captain in the Royal Navy and drowned in a severe storm as commander of HMS Peregrine in January 1762.
After his wife Mary had died in 1742, Charles Knowles married on July 29, 1750 in London his second wife Maria Magdalena Therese de Bouget, daughter of in Aachen living kurkölnischer Hofkammerrats Henri Francis, Comte de Bouget (1684-1743) from the family Bouget . He had two children with her:
- Anna Charlotte Christina Knowles (1752–1839), who was the lady-in-waiting of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia at the Russian court.
- Sir Charles Knowles, 2nd Baronet (1754-1831), who also became Admiral in the Royal Navy.
Web links
- Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com
- Bluepete
- Bouget family
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| New title created | Knowles Baronet, of Lovell Hill 1765-1777 |
Charles Knowles |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Knowles, Charles, 1st Baronet |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Knowles, Charles |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British Admiral, Royal Navy Admiral, Russian Navy Admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1704 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 9, 1777 |
| Place of death | Guildford |