26a T H E L I F E O F 



able, that only one out of the feven. perifli^d, though after they 

 got on fliore, but few of them had the ufe of their limbs for 

 many days. 



In the year 1759, ^'^^ JVilliam returned to his native country. 

 The Eq/i India Company prefented him with a handfome ele- 

 gant gold-hilted fword, with a complimentary motto, expreffive 

 of their fenfe of his gallant fervices. Soon afterwards he was 

 chofen a director, and continued a member of that refpe<StabIe 

 body more than twenty years ; in which time he had filled both 

 the chairs. He was fifteen years deputy matter of the corpora- 

 tion of Trinity Houfe; a governor of Greenwich hofpital ; ferved 

 two feflions in parliament for IVeJi Looe; and on the 25th of Ju/y 

 . 1778, the King was pleafed to create him a baronet. 



He planned the reducSlion of Pondicberry during the Ame- 

 rican war, and received a rich fervice of plate from the India 

 Company, as a teftimony of their fenfe of his Ikill and judg- 

 ment in that affair. 



Ox the i6th December., 17S3, Sir William died, aged 62. In 

 the year following, a handfome building was ere6tedon his eftate 

 in Kent^i near the top oi Shoot efs Hill \ it is built in the ftyle of 

 a caftle, with three fides, and commands a mod extenfive view. 

 The loweft room is adorned with weapons peculiar to the dif- 

 ferent countries of the Eaft. The room above has different views 

 of naval a6\ions and enterprizes painted on the ceiling, in which 

 Sir William had been a confiderable a6tor. The top of the build- 

 ing is finiflied with battlements about fixty feet from the bafe. 

 The top of the battlements are four hundred and eighty feet 

 above the level of Shooter's Hill, and more than a hundred and 



forty 



