Keppel, William Anne, second Earl of Albemarle and titular governor of Virginia from the death of George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, 1737, to his own death in 1754, son of Arnold Joost Van Keppel, first earl, and his wife Geertruid Johanna Quirina vander Duyn, was born at Whitehall, June 5, 1702; was baptized at the Chapel Royal, Queen Anne being his godmother, (hence his name Anne); was educated in Holland and on his return to England (as Viscount Bury) was appointed August 25, 1717, captain and lieutenant of the grenadier company of the Coldstream Guards. In 1718 he succeeded to his father's title and estates, and in 1722, at his family seat in Guelderland, entertained the Bishop of Munster. In 1725 he was made Knight of the Bath; in 1727 aide-de-camp to the king; and November 22, 1731, was appointed to the colonecy of the 29th Foot, then at Gibraltar, which he held until May 7, 1733, when he was appointed colonel of the third troop of Horse Guards. he was made governor of Virginia in 1737, a brigadier-general July 1739, major-general February, 1742, and was transferred to the colonelcy of the Coldstream Guards in October, 1744. He went to Flanders with Lord Stair in 1742, and was a general on the staff at Dettingen, where he had a horse shot under him, and at Fontenoy, where he was wounded. He commanded the first line of Cumberland's army at Culloden, and was again on the staff in Flanders and present at the battle of Val. At the peace of 1748 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Paris, and was appointed commander-in-chief in North Britain, and in 1749 was made Knight of the Garter. The year after he was made groom of the stole and a privy councillor, and in 1752 was one of the lords justices during the king's absence in Hanover. In 1754 he was sent back to Paris to demand the liberation of some British subjects detained by the French in America, and died in Paris suddenly December 22, 1754. His remains were brought over and buried in the chapel in South Audley street, London. Albemarle married, in 1723, Lady Anne Lennox, daughter of Charles, first duke of Richmond, and by her had eight sons and seven daughters.
Albemarle Sound in North Carolina, Albemarle parish in Sussex county, Virginia, and Albemarle county in the same state, were named in his honor.
