Rupert George
{{short description|British naval officer (b. 1747, d. 1823)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix = Sir
|name = Rupert George
|honorific_suffix = Bt
|image =
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|birth_date = 16 January 1749
|birth_place = St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin
|death_date = 25 January 1823
|death_place = Willesden House, Middlesex
|placeofburial =
|allegiance = United Kingdom
|branch = Royal Navy
|serviceyears = {{circa}}1771–1801
|rank = Captain
|commands = HMS Avenger
HMS Vulture
HMS Amphitrite
HMS Charlestown
HMS Thisbe
HMS Hussar
North American Station
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|awards = Baronet
Knight bachelor
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|laterwork = Commissioner of the Transport Board
}}
Captain Sir Rupert George, 1st Baronet (16 January 1749, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, Ireland – 25 January 1823, Willesden, London Borough of Brent, Greater London, England) was a British naval officer in the American Revolution, became the Commodore for the Royal Navy's North America Station (1792-1794). He then returned to England and became the first Commissioner of the Transport Service, where he stayed for 22 years.{{Cite web|url=https://morethannelson.com/officer/sir-rupert-george/|title=Sir Rupert George}}
He was the eldest son of Denis George and Sarah Young. In addition to their house at St. Stephen's Green, the family had a country estate at Clophook near Stradbally, County Laois. Denis George, Recorder of Dublin and later one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland), was his younger brother.
American Revolution
File:Thomas Whitcombe - The Capture of La Prvoyante and La Raison May 17th 1795.jpg (far right), Captain George's ship while at the North America Station in Halifax, Nova Scotia (1792-1794)]]
File:Combat naval de Louisbourg 1781.jpg]]
George became a Lieutenant serving on the Rose (1770), Enterprise (1775) and Robust (1779).
In the American Revolution, he fought on HMS Quebec with Captain George Farmer in the action of 6 October 1779. The following year he sailed on HMS Griffin and captured the French Privateer 'Le Général Villepatoux'.{{Cite web|url=https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=19236|title=French Privateer 'Le Général Villepatoux' (1780)|website=threedecks.org}} In February 1781, he commanded HMS Avenger.[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081774980&view=1up&seq=179 p. 157] In 1781, he was the captain of HMS Vulture, where he fought in the action of 21 July 1781.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0RJDQAAQBAJ&q=Sir+Rupert+George+1749-+1823.&pg=PR19|title=British Expeditionary Warfare and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1793-1815|first=Robert K.|last=Sutcliffe|date=March 19, 2016|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=9781843839491|via=Google Books}}
On 12 August 1781, while commanding HMS Charlestown, George captured the privateer Harlequin.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5WCAwAAQBAJ&dq=privateer+Harlequin+1781&pg=PA1781-IA48 British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers ... By Rif Winfield, p.1781] In November he was promoted to post-captain.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalindext02beat/page/53/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22|title = A political index to the histories of Great Britain & Ireland; or, A complete register of the hereditary honours, public offices, and persons in office, from the earliest periods to the present time|year = 1806}} While in command of Charleston, on 21 February 1782 took over Nararro and Philadelphia. In March he captured the de la Floride-Orientale and de la Georgie.{{Cite web|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076536380&view=1up&seq=378|title = Gazette de Cologne ... 1782 pt.1.}} He later joined HMS Thisbe (1790), which he sailed out of Nova Scotia.
French Revolutionary Wars
From 1792 to 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars, George served as the Commodore of the North America Station, commanding His Majesty's Naval Force on the Coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.[https://archive.org/details/transactionwome02torogoog/page/n24/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22 Women's Canadian historical society of Toronto. Transaction no. 1-10, p. 20] He commanded the only ship of war attached to the North America Station.[https://archive.org/details/collectionsofnov20nova/page/n104/mode/1up/search/George?q=%22Rupert+George%22 p. 59][https://books.google.com/books?id=7o0BAAAAQAAJ&dq=Hussar+%22rupert+george%22&pg=PA245 p. 245] He sailed the Hussar (1792) out of the Mediterranean for Newfoundland. In March 1792 he captured two privateers, Republicaine and Jou-Jou.[https://archive.org/details/armorialofjersey00payn/page/214/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22 p. 214] On 12 May, he arrived with the new Governor, John Wentworth after a five week crossing from Falmouth.[https://books.google.com/books?id=qLgTAAAAYAAJ&dq=Hussar+%22rupert+george%22&pg=PA100 p. 100]{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/collectionsofnov20nova/page/n146/mode/1up/search/George?q=%22Rupert+George%22|title=Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society|year=1880}}{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/s2492id1330050|title=The gentleman's magazine. Volume 93 (Being the Sixteenth of a New Series. Part the First.), January - June 1823|date=March 19, 1731|publisher=London : E. Cave|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/cochraninglisfam00eato|title=The Cochran-Inglis family of Halifax|first=Arthur Wentworth Hamilton|last=Eaton|date=March 19, 1899|publisher=Halifax, N.S.|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite web|url=http://lordbyron.org/persRec.php?&selectPerson=RuGeorge1823|title=Sir Rupert George, first baronet|website=lordbyron.org}} In May 1793, he captured the St. Pierre.[https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol05/tnm_5_2_19-34.pdf p. 32]Akins in his history of Halifax errors, indicating that George's son is the captain of Hussar.
The first press warrant granted in Nova Scotia was in April 1793, when Wentworth granted a warrant to Commander Rupert George of HMS Hussar. George sent press gangs from Hussar into Halifax. In one night they detained 50 to 60 men, including several Liverpool mariners, and brought them aboard Hussar.Keith Mercer, "Northern Exposure: Resistance to Naval Impressment in British North America, 1775–1815," Canadian Historical Review, June 2010, Vol. 91 Issue 2, p. 222.
He was promoted to Chairman of the Transport Board (1795). He served in the position for 22 years, through seven administrations (until 1817). During this time he was responsible for the "care and custody" of the French prisoners of war held in the Norman Cross Prison.[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076879830&view=1up&seq=359 p. 865]{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnf23u&view=1up&seq=370|title=A collection of state papers,relative to the war against France now carrying on by Great-Britain and the several other European powers|publisher=printed for J. Debrett }}{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t85h7f53f&view=1up&seq=61|title = The Naval chronicle :containing a general and biographical history of the royal navy of the United kingdom with a variety of original papers on nautical subjects /| publisher=J. Gold }}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalindext02beat/page/110/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22|title = A political index to the histories of Great Britain & Ireland; or, A complete register of the hereditary honours, public offices, and persons in office, from the earliest periods to the present time|year = 1806}}[https://archive.org/details/depotforprisoner00walkuoft/page/142/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22 The depot for prisoners of war at Norman Cross, Huntingdonshire 1796 to 1816 by Walker, Thomas James, p.142] He was knighted in 1803 and created a baronet in 1809.
Family
He was buried in a vault at the centre of the plot in front of the portico of St Mary's Church, Battersea, England. (Also buried in the vault are Nova Scotians John Inglis and George's wife Margaret Cochran, daughter of Thomas Cochran by his first marriage.[https://archive.org/details/collectionofepit00grah/page/108/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22 p. 108] Bishop Inglis also has a monument in the north gallery of the church.)[https://archive.org/details/gentlemansmagaz70unkngoog/page/n606/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22 Obit - Margaret]{{Cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55045/55045-h/55045-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of All About Battersea, by Henry S. Simmonds.|website=www.gutenberg.org}}
His oldest son Samuel Hood George was sent to Nova Scotia (where his mother's family still lived) with the new Governor Sir George Prevost to become the Provincial Secretary (1808-1812), after which he returned to England and died (1813).[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=aeu.ark:/13960/t3417cv0m&view=1up&seq=17 p. 9]
His second oldest son Rupert Dennis George then departed for Nova Scotia to take his older brother's position as Provincial Secretary (1813-1827). He also became the second and last Baronet (1813). He also was the Aide-de-camp during Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland's command of the Nova Scotia militia.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/militiaofnovasco0000edwa/page/22/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22|title = The militia of Nova Scotia, 1749-1867|year = 1911}} Joseph Howe was the next Provincial Secretary and complained about George's handling of the position.[https://archive.org/details/publicdinneratam00howe/page/3/mode/1up/search/%22Rupert+George%22?q=%22Rupert+George%22 Joseph Howe - Amherst]
See also
References
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{{s-ttl|title=Baronet
(of Park Place and St Stephen's Green) | years=1809–1823}}
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Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Category:Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War
Category:British naval commanders of the Napoleonic Wars
Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars