ANSON, George, a gentleman whose merit and good fortune as a naval commander exalted him to the rank of nobility. He was the son of William Anson, Esq. of Huckborough, in Staffordshire; and, showing an early inclination for the sea, received a suitable education. The first command he enjoyed was that of the Weasel sloop in 1722; but the most memorable action of his life, and the foundation of his future good fortune, took place on his receiving the command of five ships, a sloop, and two victuallers, equipped to annoy the Spaniards in the South Seas, and to co-operate with Admiral Vernon across the Isthmus of Darien; an expedition the principal object of which failed by the unaccountable delay in fitting him out. He sailed, however, in September 1740; doubled Cape Horn in a dangerous season; lost most of his men by the scurvy; and with only one remaining ship, the Centurion, crossed the great Pacific Ocean. If no considerable national advantage resulted from this voyage, Commodore Anson made his own fortune, and enriched his surviving companions, by the capture of a rich galleon on her passage from Acapulco to Manilla, with which he returned home round the Cape of Good Hope. If he was lucky in meeting this galleon, he was no less fortunate in escaping a French fleet then cruising in the Channel, by sailing through it during a fog. He arrived at Spithead in June 1744. In a short time after his return he was appointed rear-admiral of the blue, and one of the lords of the admiralty. In April 1745 he was made rear-admiral of the white, and the following year vice-admiral of the blue, at which time he was chosen to represent the borough of Heydon in parliament. In 1747, being on board the Prince George of 90 guns, in company with Admiral Warren and 12 other ships, he intercepted, off Cape Finisterre, a powerful fleet, bound from France to the East and West Indies; when, by his valour and conduct, he again enriched himself and his officers, and at the same time strengthened the British navy, by taking six men of war and four East Indiamen, not one of them escaping. The French admiral, Μ. Jon quiere, on presenting his sword to the conqueror, said, Monsieur, vous avez vaincu l’ Invincible, et la Gloire vous suit —“Sir, you have conquered the Invincible, and Glory follows you ;” pointing to the ships named the Invincible and the Glory, which he had taken. For his signal services he was created baron of Soberton in Hants. The same year he was appointed vice-admiral of the red; and, on the death of Sir John Norris, was made vice-admiral of England. In 1748 he was made admiral of the blue: he was afterwards appointed first lord of the admiralty, and was at length made admiral and commander-in-chief of his majesty’s fleet, in which rank he continued, with a very short interval, until his death; and the last service he performed was to convey Queen Charlotte to England. He died in June 1762. No performance ever met with a more favourable reception than the account of Anson’s voyage round the world. Though it is printed under the name of his chaplain, it was composed under his lordship’s own inspection, and from the materials he himself furnished, by Mr Benjamin Robins.