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Commodore the Honourable William Kerr (active 1688–1708)

Image credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

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Notes

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The sitter is presumably a younger son of the Earl of Lothian. On 13th September 1688 he was appointed Second Lieutenant of the ‘Pendennis’, 70 guns, and in May 1680 to command the ‘Deptford’, 50 guns, in the rank of captain. In November 1691, in company with the ‘Chester’, he captured a large French privateer in the Channel, and in October and November 1692 two more. In 1693 he commanded the ‘Lennox’, and the ‘Burlington’ and while commanding the latter he took the decision not to attack some French ships and their prizes off Dunkirk to avoid taking his ships over some shoals, which his pilot refused to do. He was reported by his fellow officer Captain Stephens of the ‘Solebay’, but acquitted at his court martial. In 1702 he was a member of the Board for the court martial of John Munden. While commanding the ‘Revenge’ in 1703 he went to the Mediterranean with Sir Cloudesley Shovell, and on 26th November survived being blown over the Galloper Sand during the ‘Great Storm’.

National Maritime Museum

London

Title

Commodore the Honourable William Kerr (active 1688–1708)

Date

c.1706

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 125 x W 102 cm

Accession number

BHC4146

Work type

Painting

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National Maritime Museum

Romney Road, Greenwich, London, Greater London SE10 9NF England

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