7 
556 
London boards, if not upwards of 
that period. The remains of this 
veteran performer and respectable 
private character were interred in 
the burial-ground of St. Paul Covent. 
garden, on the 2ist, attended by a 
great number of theatrical gentlemen 
of the old school, to which he be- 
longed ; at the head of whom was 
the hoary but tough Moody. Packer 
was bred to the business of a sadler, 
and carried it on for some time in the 
neighbourhood of Swallow-street. 
30th. At his house on the Steyne, 
at Brighthelmstone, William-Henry 
Fortescue earl of Clermont, vis- 
count and baron of Clermont, in 
the county of Louth, knight of St. 
Patrick, and governor of the coun- 
ty of Monaghan, Jis lordship was 
born August, 5,° 1722; chosen 
knight of the shire for Louth in 
1745 ; sworn of the privy council, 
and appointed postmaster general of 
Treland in 1767 ; customer and col- 
lector of the port of Dublin in 
1787. He married, Feb. 29, 1752, 
Frances Murray,eldest daughter and 
co-heiress of Col. John Murray, 
M.P. for the county of Monaghan 
(by Mary only daughter and heiress 
of sir Alexander Cairns, bart. and 
widow of Cadwallader, the seventh 
lord Blayney) ; by whom his lord- 
ship having no issue, the earldom of 
Clermont, and the first barony of 
Clermont, granted in 1770, be- 
came extinct ; but the titles of vis- 
count and baron Clermont (which 
were granted July 23,1776, with 
special remainder to his brother, 
the right hon. James Fortescue, of 
’ Ravensdale park, co. Louth, and his 
heirs male) devolve to his nephew, 
William Charles Fortescue, of Ra. 
vensdale, M. P. for the county of 
Louth, now lord viscount Clermont. 
The deceased lord was the father 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
of the turf, and ranked among the : 
most intimate friends of the prince. 
His remains were interred in the 
family vault at Cuffingham, co. 
Norfolk. ; 
Oct. 2d. Near Colchester, aged 
about 46, James Ward, esq. a lieu- 
tenant in the royal navy, and only 
son of Ralph W. esq. After the 
usual course of naval education un- 
der Mr. Witchell at the royal Aca- © 
demy at Portsmouth, he, withthe — 
rank of midshipman, accompanicd — 
Capt. Cook in his last voyage round 
the world, and is the young officer 
alluded to in the account of that 
voyage as having been an eye-wit- 
ness of a cannibal repast in new 
Zealand. He wasalsoin the boat 
with capt. Williamson, close off the 
island on the shore of which the ce. 
lebrated navigator fell a victim to 
his too anxious endeavours to conci- 
liate the mistaken natives. Mr. W.. 
returned to England at the age of 
20, full fraught with all those high 
expectations of rising in his favourite 
profession which birth, wealth, and 
talents, joined to the experience and 
character acquired by such a voyage, 
and under such a master, appeared 
so ample to justify. This brilliant 
prospect, however, seemed only 
fully to open itself to his view to 
render the bitterness of disappoint. 
ment more complete. Not origi- 
nally of a robust constitution, and 
aware that his grandfather had died 
a martyr to the gout at the age of 
36, he adopted the earliest measures 
for warding off the dreaded foe ; in 
his anxiety to do which, it is feared, 
he injudiciously invited the attack. 
Habitually abstemious from infancy, 
he, on account of some.slight indis- 
position suddenly discontinued the 
use of wine and animal food ; a fit 
of the gout or rheumatism, or rheu- 
matic. 
