LADY PEEL
also as a midshipman, took part in the expedition. Thomas Floyd kept a journal of his adventures in the Arctic regions.[1] He told his brother that "it was always his opinion that in favourable years—and at the proper season—it was very possible to approach much nearer the Pole than they did." Thomas died in 1778.
Of the daughters, Elizabeth never married, and Caroline became the wife of John Christopher Rideout of Banghurst House, Hants.
In accordance with the custom in the eighteenth century, John Floyd received his commission as Cornet in Elliott's Light Horse in 1760, when he was only twelve years old. He had lost his father two years before. He saw active service that year, having his horse shot under him at the battle of Emsdorf, and was only saved from death at the hand of a French dragoon by the intervention of Captain (afterwards General) Ainslie. The boy then had two years' leave of absence and finished his education at Utrecht under Lord Pembroke's care, who saw to it that he should also become proficient in horsemanship. He was gazetted Lieutenant in 1763 and Captain-Lieutenant in 1770. He
- ↑ Printed in A. H. Markham's Northward Ho!, 1879.
45
