BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



EMINENT NATIVES OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



LORD ANSON: 



PERHAPS no other country in the world has produced so many 

 eminent and memorable men as England; and among the great 

 frames which adorn the history of this celebrated spot, several na* 

 tives of STAFFORDSHIRE will be found, whose genius or heroism were 

 conducive to national greatness. This midland county y^ remark- 

 able for having been the birth-place of several naval heroes, parti- 

 cularly an ANSON, a GARDNER, and a ST. VINCENT; names 

 which will be frequently repeated by every admirer of British en- 

 terprise, skill, and intrepidity. 



GEORGE ANSON, the fourth son of William Anson, Esq. and Eli- 

 zabeth, eldest daughter of Robert Carrier, Esq. was born at Shug- 

 borough manor-house, in the parish of Colvvich, in Staffordshire, 

 on the 23d of April 1697. The bent of Mr. Anson's genius was 

 directed rather to an active than a studious profession, and having 

 been instructed in the rudiments of a classical education, he was 

 entered as a midshipman on board a man of war, which sailed with 

 a squadron to the Baltic in the spring of 1716. On the 16th of 

 May in that year, Mr. Anson was promoted to the rank of Second 

 Lieutenant of the Hampshire; and thus at the early age of nine- 

 teen, the hero who was afterwards destined to exalt the naval cha- 

 racter of his country, had the honour to receive a commission as. 

 an officer in one of his Majesty's ships of the line. That his ar- 

 dour for distinction was stimulated by this early preferment will 

 not be doubted by the reader of his eventful history, yet no par- 

 ticular instance of his superiority of juvenile talent is on record. 



