Keppel, William, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (1702 -1754)

William Anne Keppel was the only son of Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albermarle, and, Geertruid Johanna Quirina, daughter of Adam van der Duyn. Queen Anne was his godmother, hence his unusual second name. Educated in Holland, on his return to England as Viscount Bury, he was appointed, 25 August 1717, Captain and Lieutenant Colonel of the Grenadier company of the Coldstream Guards. In 1718 he succeeded to the Earldom. He married, 21 February 1723, Ann Lennox, second daughter of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond. In 1725 he was made a Knight of the Bath, in 1727 aide de camp to the King, and 22 November 1731 was appointed Colonel of the 29th Regiment of Foot, then at Gibraltar a post which he held until 7 May 1733, when he was appointed Colonel of the third troop of Horse Guards. His other appointments include Governor of Virginia 1737, Brigadier-General July 1739, and Major-General February 1732. He accompanied with Lord Stair to Flanders in 1742, was General on the staff at Dettingen, and had his horse shot from under him, and was wounded at Fontenay. He was made Colonel of the Coldstream Guards in October 1744, and commanded the front line under Cumberland at Culloden in 1746. At the peace of 1748 he was sent to Paris as Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1749. In 1754 he was sent back to Paris as Ambassador and died there suddenly on 22 December of that year.