page_title: John Carnac
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: John Carnac / Family
caption_attribution_description: English: HMS Success undergoing repairs off Carnac Island Western Australia
context_page_description: Brigadier-General John Carnac was a British officer who served three times as Commander-in-Chief of India. The son of Capt. Peter Carnac, and Andrienne, née Lelonte, he was baptised in London.
context_section_description: In 1765 John Carnac married Elizabeth Woollaston. Then in 1769 he married Elizabeth Catherine Rivett (1751–80), daughter of Thomas Rivett (1713-1763), who had been an MP and Mayor of Derby. A 1775-76 portrait of Mrs. Carnac by Sir Joshua Reynolds hangs in the Wallace Collection in London; a 1778 mezzotint engraving by John Raphael Smith after Reynolds' painting is at the Art Museum of Estonia, with a proof impression at the British Museum.
  John Carnac's last will and testament made his brother-in-law James Rivett his heir, provided that he assumed the additional name of Carnac, which he did in 1801. Two of James's sons became famous: Sir James Rivett-Carnac, 1st Bt, became a Governor of Bombay Presidency, while Admiral John Rivett-Carnac became an early explorer of Australia, where Carnac Island was named in his honor by Captain James Stirling when Rivett-Carnac was first lieutenant on HMS Success on the Swan River expedition of 1827.
caption: Success undergoing repairs after running aground on Carnac Reef, 1829-30
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