of William, fourth Earl of Essex, by his second Countess, Harriett, daughter of Colonel Thomas Bladen. He was born Aug. 25, 1776.
We are not aware of the manner in which Mr. Capel passed his time as a Midshipman; but early in 1798, we find him serving as junior Lieutenant of the Vanguard 74, bearing the flag of Sir Horatio Nelson, by whom he was promoted to the rank of Commander in the Mutine sloop of war, immediately after the glorious battle in Aboukir bay, on which occasion he did the duty of signal officer.
On the 13th Aug. 1798, Captain Capel sailed for Naples with a duplicate of the Rear-Admiral’s despatches, and letters for different official personages, among which was one addressed to the chief magistrate of the British metropolis, accompanied by the sword of M. Blanquet, the senior French officer who survived the battle. From Naples, Captain Capel proceeded overland to England, where he arrived on the 2d Oct., and gave the first intelligence of the defeat sustained by the republican fleet.
On the 27th Dec. following, Captain Capel, (to whom Nelson had referred the Board of Admiralty for further information respecting the battle, at the same time describing him as “a most excellent officer,”) was advanced to post rank, and early in the following year appointed to the Arab of 22 guns. From this vessel he afterwards removed into the Meleager 32, in which ship he had the misfortune to be wrecked on the Triangle rocks, in the Gulf of Mexico, June 9, 1801[1]. Early in 1803, he obtained the command of the Phoebe frigate, and proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he continued to serve until after the death of his noble friend, the lamented Nelson.
In the month of April 1805, when that gallant hero pro-
- ↑ See Captain William Henry Dillon.
able estate annexed, was knocked down by Squibb, at Garraways, in 1808, for 64,000l. The grand junction canal passes through Cashiobury Park, Herts., the present residence of the Earl of Essex, and which is said to have been the seat of the Kings of Mercia, till Offa gave it to the monastery of St. Albans. The proprietors at first intended to make a tunnel under Crossley Hill, but were spared the enormous expence which would have attended such a measure, by the liberality of his Lordship.
