George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on 12 October 1814, he was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors, he was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, never visited Hanover. His life and with it his reign, which were longer than those of any of his predecessors, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence.
Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the part of his life, George III had recurrent, permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established. George III's eldest son, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father's death, when he succeeded as George IV. Historical analysis of George III's life has gone through a "kaleidoscope of changing views" that have depended on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them; until it was reassessed in the second half of the 20th century, his reputation in the United States was one of a tyrant. George was born in London at Norfolk House in St James's Square, he was the grandson of King George II, the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.
As he was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, both Rector of St James's and Bishop of Oxford. One month he was publicly baptised at Norfolk House, again by Secker, his godparents were the King of Sweden, his uncle the Duke of Saxe-Gotha and his great-aunt the Queen of Prussia. Prince George grew into a healthy but shy child; the family moved to Leicester Square, where George and his younger brother Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, were educated together by private tutors. Family letters show that he could read and write in both English and German, as well as comment on political events of the time, by the age of eight, he was the first British monarch to study science systematically. Apart from chemistry and physics, his lessons included astronomy, French, history, geography, commerce and constitutional law, along with sporting and social accomplishments such as dancing and riding, his religious education was wholly Anglican.
At age 10, George took part in a family production of Joseph Addison's play Cato and said in the new prologue: "What, tho' a boy! It may with truth be said, A boy in England born, in England bred." Historian Romney Sedgwick argued that these lines appear "to be the source of the only historical phrase with which he is associated". George's grandfather, King George II, disliked the Prince of Wales, took little interest in his grandchildren. However, in 1751 the Prince of Wales died unexpectedly from a lung injury at the age of 44, George became heir apparent to the throne, he inherited his father's title of Duke of Edinburgh. Now more interested in his grandson, three weeks the King created George Prince of Wales. In the spring of 1756, as George approached his eighteenth birthday, the King offered him a grand establishment at St James's Palace, but George refused the offer, guided by his mother and her confidant, Lord Bute, who would serve as Prime Minister. George's mother, now the Dowager Princess of Wales, preferred to keep George at home where she could imbue him with her strict moral values.
In 1759, George was smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, sister of the Duke of Richmond, but Lord Bute advised against the match and George abandoned his thoughts of marriage. "I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation," he wrote, "and must act contrary to my passions." Attempts by the King to marry George to Princess Sophie Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel were resisted by him and his mother. The following year, at the age of 22, George succeeded to the throne when his grandfather, George II, died on 25 October 1760, two weeks before his 77th birthday; the search for a suitable wife intensified. On 8 September 1761 in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day. A fortnight on 22 September both were crowned at Westminster Abbey. George remarkably never took a mistress, the couple enjoyed a genuinely happy marriage until his mental illness struck, they had 15 children -- six daughters. In 1762, George purchased Buckingham House for use as a family retreat.
His other residences were Windsor Castle. St James's Palace was retained for
William Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford
William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford, KG, PC was a British courtier and statesman of Anglo-Dutch descent. He occupied senior ambassadorial posts at Madrid and Paris, served as Secretary of State in both the Northern and Southern Departments, he is credited with the earliest-known introduction of the Lombardy poplar to England in 1754. He was a personal friend of such major cultural figures as the actor David Garrick, the novelist Laurence Sterne, the French playwright Beaumarchais. George III valued Rochford as his expert advisor on foreign affairs in the early 1770s, as a loyal and hard-working cabinet minister. Rochford was the only British secretary of state between 1760 and 1778, a career diplomat. Rochford played key roles in the Manila Ransom negotiation with Spain, the French acquisition of Corsica, the Falkland Islands crisis of 1770–1, the crisis following the Swedish Revolution of 1772, the aftermath of the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. In addition to his work as foreign secretary, he carried a heavy burden of domestic responsibilities in the early 1770s Irish affairs.
He was a key member of the North administration in the early phase of the American War of Independence. Illness and a political scandal forced him from office in November 1775. William Henry Nassau van Zuylestein was born in 1717, the elder son of Frederick Nassau van Zuylestein, 3rd Earl of Rochford, his wife Elizabeth Savage, daughter of the 4th Earl Rivers, his ancestry was Anglo-Dutch, descended in an illegitimate line from William the Silent's son Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Rochford's grandfather and great-grandfather both had English wives, ladies-in-waiting at the courts of William II and William III of Orange, his grandfather was a close companion of William III, accompanying him to England in the Glorious Revolution of 1688–9, rewarded with the earldom of Rochford. Educated at Eton College as Viscount Tunbridge, Rochford's school friends included three future secretaries of state, Conway and Sandwich. However, he made a lifelong enemy at Eton of the Prime minister's son, the influential writer Horace Walpole.
Instead of going to university, Rochford was sent to the Academy at Geneva, where he lodged with the family of Professor Antoine Maurice. From Geneva he emerged as fluent in French as he was in Dutch and English, succeeded his father as 4th Earl of Rochford in 1738 at the age of twenty-one. Rochford was appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to George II in 1739 and served in this role until 1749, he inherited strong Whig principles and was a loyal supporter of the Hanoverian Protestant succession, but admired Sir Robert Walpole's peaceful foreign policy. At the time of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion he offered to raise a regiment, he was active in Essex politics in the government's interest, but he was no orator and made no impression in the House of Lords. He was appointed Vice-Admiral of Essex in 1748. Though ambitious for high political office, he avoided the factions and cultivated the King's son, the Duke of Cumberland, as his patron. Cumberland lobbied for Rochford to be given a diplomatic post at the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, he was named Envoy to Turin in January 1749.
Rochford arrived at Turin on 9 September 1749. This was still the most important of the Italian courts for British foreign policy at this time, he started as Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, the highest rank in the British diplomatic service short of ambassador. However, he had agreed to accept an ordinary Envoy's salary for a probationary period, this gave him a strong incentive to show zeal and become a professional diplomat, his first negotiations, on behalf of a company of English miners and the Protestant Vaudois communities of the Piedmont Alps, were successful, he obtained his full salary. He ingratiated himself with the king, Carlo-Emmanuele III, by accompanying him on early morning hunting rides. Rochford made useful friends at court, was regarded by the diplomatic corps at Turin, he played a useful role in the complex negotiations for the Treaty of Aranjuez. He made a tour of Italy in 1753 and used a spy to gain intelligence of the Young Pretender's court at Rome, he made full use of British consuls in the region to obtain information about trade matters and French involvement in Corsica, rewarding them with the removal of the duty on British shipping at Villafranca.
Recalled from Turin for the duration of the Seven Years' War, Rochford resumed his career as a courtier, appointed by George II as First Lord of the Bedchamber and Groom of the Stole prestigious posts. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1755; as Lord Lieutenant of Essex from May 1756, Rochford was involved in forming the Essex regiment of militia, becoming its Colonel in November 1759. At the death of George II in 1760 Rochford lost his lucrative court posts, but was compensated with a generous pension, he spent the early 1760s involved in local Essex politics and ‘improved’ the Park at his St Osyth estate, adding a formal Dutch garden and a maze. However, his landed income was small for an earl, a return to diplomacy became a financial necessity, he was named Ambassador to Spain on 18 June 1763. Rochford's secret instructions for his Madrid embassy were concerned with countering French influence over the king, Carlos III, reporting on Spain's naval reconstruction after her late and disastrous entry into the Seven Years' War.
His first major negotiation resulted from Spain's expulsion of British logwood cutters from the Yucatá
Henry Ince
Henry Ince was a sergeant-major in the British Army who achieved fame as the author of a plan to tunnel through the North Face of the Rock of Gibraltar in 1782, during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. As a result of his work, by the end of the 18th century Gibraltar had 4,000 feet of tunnels in which dozens of cannons were mounted overlooking the isthmus linking the peninsula to Spain, he was one of the first members of the Soldier Artificer Company, a predecessor to today's Royal Engineers, rose to be the Company's senior non-commissioned officer. He was a founder of Methodism in Gibraltar through his activities as a Methodist lay preacher. Ince spent most of his life in the Army and served for 36 years in Gibraltar before retiring to Devon four years before he died at the age of 72. Born in Penzance in Cornwall in 1736, Ince first worked as a nailor before turning his hand to mining, he served in Galway, Ireland. The Regiment remained in Ireland until June 1765, it was subsequently sent to Gibraltar in March 1768, where Ince was able to put his mining skills to use.
He was a active Methodist lay preacher, may have met John Wesley during the latter's preaching in Ireland between 1756–65. Although no record of such a meeting has survived, Wesley's journal records that he preached to soldiers in Irish towns where Ince's regiment happened to be stationed at the time. On 3 April 1769 Ince wrote to Wesley from Gibraltar in terms which suggest that the two men did know each other: At our first coming to this place, I found a people of such abominable practices, as I never before had seen. However, I and two or three more took a room to meet in, we were soon joined by some of the Royal Scotch: but this continued only a short time. Upon this I was obliged to declare, that while I could get any of your writings to make use of, I would use them, and as God gave me a word to speak, I cared not so He might be glorified. On this many were offended, separated from us. Yet, in about two months, we were thirty-seven in number, till a little persecution came we were reduced to about eighteen.
But, blessed be God! he is reviving his work again. We are now thirty-two, fifteen of whom can rejoice in the pardoning love of God, most of the others are pressing hard after it. Several Officers come to hear, God gives favour in the sight of all men. There is one Gentleman of the town who has joined us and is a great help to us; as to myself, God is gracious to me, who am less than the least of his children. I am astonished that he should work by me! O, that I may be found faithful unto death! and that he may carry on his work in this barren place! So prays your unworthy Friend, Henry Ince. Ince's comments indicate that the Methodists of Gibraltar were ill-treated by members of other denominations; this seems to have been the case, as only a couple of months after Ince wrote his letter the Governor of Gibraltar, Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis, issued an order that "no person whatever presume to molest them nor go into their meeting to behave indecently there."According to Gibraltarian Methodist tradition, the colony's first regular Methodist meeting place was Ince's old home on Prince Edward's Road – a claim, made on a plaque, mounted in the Methodist Church on Prince Edward's Road and is now in the modern Gibraltar Methodist Church on Main Street.
However, there is no evidence to support this. He is recorded as owning property elsewhere on the east side of Main Street. On 26 June 1772, Ince joined the Army's first unit of military artificers and labourers, the Soldier Artificer Company, was promoted to sergeant on the same day; the Company was established by Lieutenant Colonel William Green to assist his programme of improvements to the fortifications of Gibraltar. He was posted to the fortress in 1761 as its Senior Engineer and in 1769 he put forward improvement plans which were approved; the works were carried out by civilians recruited from England and elsewhere in Europe, but this proved slow and unsatisfactory. To resolve these problems, Green was authorised to raise a 68-man company consisting of one sergeant-adjutant, three sergeants, three corporals, one drummer and 60 privates working variously as stonecutters, miners, lime-burners, smiths and wheel-makers. Ince was one of the first two sergeants mustered into the Company on 30 June 1772.
Seven years the Great Siege began as a French and Spanish army laid siege to Gibraltar in what was to become the longest siege endured by a British garrison. The members of the Company carried out extensive work on the fortifications to repair damage caused by enemy bombardments and strengthen Gibraltar's defences, they participated in a successful sortie against the Spanish lines on 27 November 1781, though it is not known whether Ince himself participated. This led to them being praised in dispatches by General George Eliott. Despite British counter-fire, the Spanish were able to advance along the isthmus linking Gibraltar with Spain by extending their trenches towards the British lines; the closer they came, the more difficult it wa
Koehler Depressing Carriage
The Koehler Depressing Carriage was a novel type of gun carriage invented in 1782 by Lt George Frederick Koehler of the Royal Artillery. It was devised to enable cannons to be fired at a steeply downward-facing angle and was made necessary by the peculiar circumstances that the British Army faced during the Great Siege of Gibraltar between 1779–83; the carriage saw active service during the siege, when it was used to support the British counter-bombardment of Spanish and French artillery batteries during the successful defence of Gibraltar. Its success made Koehler famous and has been commemorated in a number of different forms over the last 230 years. During the Great Siege, the British garrison of Gibraltar faced a French and Spanish army entrenched on the low ground of the isthmus that links Gibraltar with Spain; the British controlled the high ground of the Rock of Gibraltar, which reaches a height of 411.5 metres at its north end. Although this was a major advantage for the British gunners, as it gave them an increased range and a clear view of the enemy, it posed significant problems.
Enemies close to their positions could not be targeted as existing gun carriages would not allow the amount of vertical depression required to hit such a close target. Gunners tried to deal with this by propping up the rear of the carriages, but this was a clumsy solution that fixed the guns in position, it exposed them to severe danger as they had to load the guns in full view of enemy counter-fire, rather than out of sight in an embrasure or battery. Depressing carriages had been invented before – in the 15th century, a German engineer had devised a platform for a culverin that had four wheels and could be moved in two arcs for adjusting the elevation – but Koehler found a simple and effective solution that solved both the problems of elevation and recoil, it was based on an existing garrison carriage, a type of heavy gun carriage mounted on small wheels known as trucks. Koehler split the carriage in two horizontally, joining the two parts with a hinge created with a spindle at the front.
This allowed the gun to be depressed to an angle of between 70 degrees. The cannonball and powder were held in place using wadding to secure them in the bore. Koehler's design had the further advantage of absorbing the recoil caused by firing the gun. Ordinary carriages had no mechanism to absorb this recoil; the entire gun and mount would jump violently, causing the gun crew to have to reposition it before they could fire the next shot. Koehler's carriage mounted the gun on a sliding bed attached to the main body of the carriage via a vertical spindle. Firing the cannon forced the bed to slide upwards, rather than making the entire carriage recoil; as an eyewitness, John Drinkwater, noted, "the carriage, when the gun was depressed moved. This system was a forerunner of the recoil systems that are standard features of modern artillery pieces; the gun could be reversed on the carriage and fired upwards at angles of up to 45°, though according to Drinkwater "in that state did not excel." The design enabled gunners to reload the cannon without exposing themselves to enemy fire, by rotating the sliding bed sideways.
The carriage was first put into operational use in the afternoon of 15 April 1782, when Koehler demonstrated it to the Governor of Gibraltar, General George Augustus Eliott, other officers of the garrison. The target chosen was San Carlos Battery, a Spanish position some 1,400 yards distant in the Lines of Contravallation. Drinkwater recorded. Koehler's carriage became a key advantage for the defenders of Gibraltar, contributing to the accuracy and speed of the British artillery, became one of the most famous and successful examples of a special gun carriage. However, it had a significant flaw in that the angle of depression could only be adjusted in a number of large'steps', making it difficult to aim at certain angles; this was resolved by an 1870s update to the design which saw the addition of a large wheel at the back, connected to a screw mechanism, which enabled fine tuning of the angle. Koehler's invention has been commemorated in numerous works of art, sculptures and badges; the depressing gun carriage can be seen in the bottom-left corner of a famous 1787 portrait of General Eliott by Joshua Reynolds.
It is still displayed on the badge of 22 Battery Royal Artillery, the £10 note, £1 coin and 10p coin of the Gibraltar pound have all depicted the gun carriage. A replica of a Koehler gun carriage can be seen at Grand Casemates Square in Gibraltar's city centre, while in the Great Siege Tunnels dug out during the siege itself, a reconstruction can be seen of how the depressing carriage would have been used
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,061 inhabitants make it the thirteenth-largest city of Germany, as well as the third-largest city of Northern Germany after Hamburg and Bremen; the city lies at the confluence of the River Leine and its tributary Ihme, in the south of the North German Plain, is the largest city of the Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region. It is the fifth-largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg, Dortmund and Bremen. Before it became the capital of Lower Saxony in 1946, Hanover was the capital of the Principality of Calenberg, the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the Kingdom of Hanover, the Province of Hanover of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Province of Hanover of the Free State of Prussia, of the State of Hanover. From 1714 to 1837, Hanover was by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, under their title of the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
The city is a major crossing point of railway lines and highways, connecting European main lines in both the east-west and north-south directions. Hannover Airport lies north of the city, in Langenhagen, is Germany's ninth-busiest airport; the city's most notable institutions of higher education are the Hannover Medical School with its university hospital, the University of Hanover. The Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair and up to 2018 the CeBIT; the IAA Commercial Vehicles show takes place every two years. It is the world's leading trade show for transport and mobility; every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the world's largest marksmen's festival, the Oktoberfest Hannover. "Hanover" is the traditional English spelling. The German spelling is becoming more popular in English; the English pronunciation, with stress on the first syllable, is applied to both the German and English spellings, different from German pronunciation, with stress on the second syllable and a long second vowel.
The traditional English spelling is still used in historical contexts when referring to the British House of Hanover. Hanover was founded in medieval times on the east bank of the River Leine, its original name Honovere may mean "high bank". Hanover was a small village of ferrymen and fishermen that became a comparatively large town in the 13th century, receiving town privileges in 1241, due to its position at a natural crossroads; as overland travel was difficult, its position on the upper navigable reaches of the river helped it to grow by increasing trade. It was connected to the Hanseatic League city of Bremen by the Leine, was situated near the southern edge of the wide North German Plain and north-west of the Harz mountains, so that east-west traffic such as mule trains passed through it. Hanover was thus a gateway to the Rhine and Saar river valleys, their industrial areas which grew up to the southwest and the plains regions to the east and north, for overland traffic skirting the Harz between the Low Countries and Saxony or Thuringia.
In the 14th century the main churches of Hanover were built, as well as a city wall with three city gates. The beginning of industrialization in Germany led to trade in iron and silver from the northern Harz Mountains, which increased the city's importance. In 1636 George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruler of the Brunswick-Lüneburg principality of Calenberg, moved his residence to Hanover; the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg was elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor to the rank of Prince-Elector in 1692, this elevation was confirmed by the Imperial Diet in 1708. Thus the principality was upgraded to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, colloquially known as the Electorate of Hanover after Calenberg's capital, its Electors become monarchs of Great Britain. The first of these was George I Louis, who acceded to the British throne in 1714; the last British monarch who reigned in Hanover was William IV. Semi-Salic law, which required succession by the male line if possible, forbade the accession of Queen Victoria in Hanover.
As a male-line descendant of George I, Queen Victoria was herself a member of the House of Hanover. Her descendants, bore her husband's titular name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Three kings of Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, were concurrently Electoral Princes of Hanover. During the time of the personal union of the crowns of the United Kingdom and Hanover, the monarchs visited the city. In fact, during the reigns of the final three joint rulers, there was only one short visit, by George IV in 1821. From 1816 to 1837 Viceroy Adolphus represented the monarch in Hanover. During the Seven Years' War, the Battle of Hastenbeck was fought near the city on 26 July 1757; the French army defeated the Hanoverian Army of Observation, leading to the city's occupation as part of the Invasion of Hanover. It was recaptured by Anglo-German forces led by Ferdinand of Brunswick the following year. After Napoleon imposed the Conv
Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
The Old Burying Ground is a historic cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located at Spring Garden Road in Downtown Halifax; the Old Burying Ground was founded in 1749, the same year as the settlement, as the town's first burial ground. It was non-denominational and for several decades was the only burial place for all Haligonians.. In 1793 it was turned over to the Anglican St. Paul's Church; the cemetery was closed in the Camp Hill Cemetery established for subsequent burials. The site declined until the 1980s when it was restored and refurbished by the Old Burying Ground Foundation, which now maintains the site and employ tour guides to interpret the site in the summer. Ongoing restoration of the rare 18th century grave markers continues. Over the decades some 12,000 people were interred in the Old Burial Ground. Today there are about 1,200 headstones, some having been lost and many others being buried with no headstone. Many notable residents are buried in the cemetery, including British Major General Robert Ross, who led the successful Washington Raid of 1814 and burned the White House before being killed in battle at Baltimore a few days later.
Commanders of three of the ships that served Governor Edward Cornwallis buried crew in unmarked graves: HMS Sphynx, HMS Baltimore and HMS Albany. HMS Sphynx was Cornwallis' own ship and the crew member was buried on the day his ship arrived in Halifax on 21 June 1749. HMS Albany was a 14-gun sloop commanded by John Rous. There are four recorded Mi'kmaq buried in the burial ground, including a Mi'kmaw Chief Francis. There was a "protestant indian" named John Tray from John Gorham's rangers. There are 167 recorded Blacks buried in the graveyard, all with unmarked graves. Blacks arrived with New England Planters. During the arrival of the Planters, there were 54 Blacks in Halifax. 7 Blacks were buried in the cemetery from 1763–1775. Black Nova Scotians arrived in Halifax with Boston Loyalists after the evacuation of Boston in 1776. During this period, 18 Blacks were buried in the cemetery. Seventy-three free Black Nova Scotians arrived in Halifax with the New York Loyalists after evacuation from New York in 1783.
Of the 73 Blacks who arrived from New York, there were 4 burials that happened during this time period. Rev. John Breynton reported that in 1783 he buried many because of disease. Between the years 1792–1817 there are no recorded burials of Black Nova Scotians; the largest number of burials happen in the 1820s the graves of the 155 Black Refugees who arrived in Halifax during the War of 1812. The last erected and most prominent burial marker is the Welsford-Parker Monument, a Triumphal arch standing at the entrance to the cemetery commemorating British victory in the Crimean War; this is the first public monument built in Nova Scotia and is the fourth oldest war monument in Canada. It is the only monument to the Crimean War in North America; the arch was built in 1860, 16 years after the cemetery had closed. The arch was built by George Lang and is named after two Haligonians, Major Augustus Frederick Welsford and Captain William Buck Carthew Augustus Parker. Both Nova Scotians died in the Battle of the Great Redan during the Siege of Sevastopol.
This monument was the last grave marker in the cemetery. In 1938, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts presented and dedicated a granite monument to Erasmus James Philipps, the earliest known settler of Nova Scotia, buried in the cemetery, he was the founder of Freemasonry in present-day Canada. The Old Burying Ground was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1991, it had earlier been designated a Provincially Registered Property in 1988 under Nova Scotia's Heritage Property Act. Mary Morris, wife of Charles Morris James Brenton Honourable William Nesbitt John Fillis Priscilla Ball, d.10 May 1791, Black servant, unmarked grave Mi'kmaw Chief Francis, d.16 Feb. 1781, unmarked grave Captain William Kensey, sloop Vulture, d. 30 April 1755, unmarked grave – he engaged in two naval battles to stop supplies going to the French, Mi'kmaw and Acadians. The following participated in the Siege: Joseph Fairbanks, d.1790 Peter Etter, d. 1794, a loyalist, friend of future President John Adams. While most Loyalist came to the region from New York, most of the Loyalists buried with grave markers are from Boston.
Reflective of the fate of man
King's Bastion
King's Bastion is a coastal bastion on the western front of the fortifications of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, protruding from the Line Wall Curtain. It overlooks the Bay of Gibraltar, it played a crucial role in defending The Rock during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. In more recent history the bastion was converted into a generating station which powered Gibraltar's electricity needs. Today it continues to serve the community as Gibraltar's leisure centre. King's Bastion is located at the junction of Queensway and Reclamation Road on the western side of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar; the bastion is believed to have started as a Moorish city gate but was developed by the Spanish in 1575 to become the Spanish: Plataforma de San Lorenzo. Construction began in 1773, when Lieutenant-general Sir Robert Boyd Governor of Gibraltar, laid the first stone and declared: "This is the first stone of a work which I name the King's Bastion: may it be as gallantly defended, as I know it will be ably executed."
The bastion was designed by Lieutenant colonel Sir William Green, Chief Engineer of the Soldier Artificer Company which became the Corps. Of Royal Engineers. At the time it was built, the King's Bastion was the most important of Gibraltar's defences on the west, its arrowhead shape extended from the curtain wall fortification, known as the Line Wall, along Gibraltar's western coast into the Bay of Gibraltar. It was consistent with traditional notions of a bastion, it included casemates, which fulfilled the need for barracks, housed 800 men. Less than a decade in 1782, King's Bastion served ably as the command post in the defence against the attacks of the French and Spanish during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, it was from the bastion. The floating batteries had been adapted to withstand heavy shelling and were anchored only 500 metres or so off the Rock. Designed by French engineer Jean Claude le Michaud d'Arcon they were equipped with specially reinforced hulls, irrigation pumps to quench any fires and pitched roofs to protect against plunging fire from shot.
These modifications were thought to have made the ships unsinkable. The garrison realised that red hot shots known as "hot potatoes", were effective against the floating batteries and they were all destroyed by fire, it was from King's Bastion that the first "hot potatoes" were fired at the Spanish floating batteries. Twenty-five guns had been installed in the bastion by 1859, they included seventeen 32-pounders, six 8-inch smoothbore weapons, two 10-inch howitzers. In 1874, the embrasures at the front of the bastion were eliminated to permit installation of five muzzle-loading rifles. All five RMLs had been mounted by 1878, where they remained until 1902. By the late 19th century, the bastion no longer served as a principal military defence; the turn of the century was remarkable for the reclamation of land in front of King's Bastion, as part of the new dockyard. The bastion was repurposed, the casemates, no longer needed as barracks, housed coal stores. In addition, the area's first electricity-generating station was built there, with construction starting in 1896.
A plaque installed on the northern façade of King's Bastion acknowledges the role of General George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, the Governor of Gibraltar, in his command during the Great Siege. In addition, Major General Sir Robert Boyd was at his request interred inside a vault at the bastion's base, which he had included at the time of construction. However, there is no record of the exact location of the grave. A memorial stone was placed within the King's Chapel but the marble stone in the King's Bastion read: "Within the walls of this bastion are deposited the mortal remains of the late General Sir Robert Boyd, K. B. governor of this fortress, who died on 13 May 1794, aged 84 years. By him the first stone of the bastion was laid in 1773, under his supervision it was completed, when, on that occasion, in his address to the troops, he expressed a wish to see it resist the combined efforts of France and Spain, which wish was accomplished on 13 Sept. 1782, when, by the fire of this bastion, the flotilla expressly designed for the capture of this fortress were utterly destroyed."
The bastion underwent further modifications in the 20th century. Concrete bunkers were constructed and the structure became a lookout post. In addition, a 6 pounder anti-tank gun was mounted. After the 20th century wars, the bastion became a saluting battery, employing four 25 pounders; the bastion's years as a military structure came to an end in 1961, when the King's Bastion Power Station, designed by local architect Natalio Langdon was built adjacent to the bastion's northern façade and opened in October of that year. While the previous electricity-generating station was under military authority, the King's Bastion Power Station was under the civil authority of the Government of Gibraltar. Oil storage and administration offices, among other facilities required for the day-to-day running of the station were housed within the vaults of the bastion itself. However, the generating station became obsolete during the late 1980s and closed down during the early 1990s; the King's Bastion Power Station was demolished in October 2005, during which the original façade of the bastion was revealed.
King's Bastion is listed with the Gibraltar Heritage Trust. Alexis Almeida, Chairman of the Trust indicated that the bastion was "the last major battery built in this style and so is important. We would love to restore King's Bastion to its former glory, it is magnificent and deserves to be seen." After extensive refurbishment, the
