NOBLE, GEORGE (fl. 1795–1806), line-engraver, was a son of Edward Noble, author of ‘Elements of Linear Perspective,’ and brother of Samuel Noble [q. v.] and William Bonneau Noble [q. v.] The dates of his birth and death are not recorded. He engraved for Boydell's edition of ‘Shakespeare,’ 1802, a scene, ‘Borachio, Conrade, and Watchman,’ after Francis Wheatley, R.A., from ‘Much Ado about Nothing;’ ‘Bassanio, Portia, and Attendants,’ after Richard Westall, R.A., from the ‘Merchant of Venice;’ ‘Orlando and Adam,’ after Robert Smirke, R.A., from ‘As you like it;’ ‘Desdemona in bed asleep,’ after Josiah Boydell, from ‘Othello;’ and ‘Cleopatra, Guards, &c.,’ after Henry Tresham, R.A., from ‘Antony and Cleopatra.’ He engraved also the following subjects for Bowyer's sumptuous edition of Hume's ‘History of England,’ 1806: ‘Canute reproving his Courtiers,’ ‘Henry VIII and Catharine Parr,’ ‘Charles I imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle,’ ‘Lord William Russell's last Interview with his Family,’ and ‘The Bishops before the Privy Council,’ after Robert Smirke, R.A.; ‘William I receiving the Crown of England,’ after Benjamin West, P.R.A.; and ‘The Landing of William III at Torbay,’ after Thomas Stothard, R.A. His works possess considerable merit, and include also eighteen oval portraits of Admiral Lord Duncan and other naval officers, from miniatures by John Smart, which form part of a large plate designed by Robert Smirke, R.A., and engraved by James Parker, in commemoration of the battle of Camperdown on 11 Oct. 1797; ‘Maternal Instruction,’ after Bochardt; portraits of Lady Jane Grey and Rosamond Clifford; and illustrations to Goldsmith's ‘Miscellaneous Works,’ from drawings by Richard Cook, R.A.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878; Dodd's Memorials of Engravers in Great Britain, Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 33394–407.]
NOBLE, JAMES (1774–1851), vice-admiral, was the grandson of Thomas Noble, who emigrated from Devonshire to North America, joined the Moravians, and placed his whole property, 4,000l., in the funds of the sect. Thomas's son Isaac quitted the Moravians, but could only recover 1,400l., with which he bought an estate of 1,400 acres in East Jersey. He married Rachel de Joncourt, the daughter of a French protestant, and had a large family. When the revolutionary war broke out, he took service in the royal army, and was killed in 1778. The estate was forfeited at the peace, and the widow came to England, where she was granted a pension of 100l. a year. Three only of the sons survived their childhood. Of these, the eldest, Richard, a midshipman of the Clyde frigate, was lost in La Dorade prize, in 1797; the youngest De Joncourt, also a midshipman, died of yellow fever in the West Indies. James, the second of the three, born in 1774, entered the navy in 1787, and, having served in several different ships on the home station, was in January 1793 appointed to the Bedford of 74 guns, in which he went to the Mediterranean; was landed at Toulon, with the small-arm men, and was present in the actions of 14 March and 13 July 1795. He was then moved into the Britannia, Hotham's flagship, and on 5 Oct. was appointed to the Agamemnon, as acting lieutenant with Commodore Nelson. The promotion was confirmed by the admiralty, to date from 9 March 1796.
The service of the Agamemnon at this time was particularly active and dangerous [see Nelson, Horatio, Viscount], and Noble's part in it was very distinguished. On 29 Nov. 1795 he was landed to carry despatches to De Vins, the Austrian general, then encamped above Savona. He was taken prisoner on the way and detained for some months, when he was exchanged. He rejoined the Agamemnon at Genoa about the middle of April 1796. A few days later, 25 April, he was in command of one of the boats sent in to cut out a number of the enemy's store-ships from under the batteries at Loano. While cutting the cable of one of these vessels Noble was struck in the throat by a musket-ball. ‘It is with the greatest grief,’ Nelson reported, ‘I have to mention that Lieutenant James Noble, a most worthy and gallant officer, is, I fear, mortally wounded.’ Noble's own account of it is: ‘I was completely paralysed, and my coxswain nearly finished me by clapping a “tarnaket,” in the shape of a black silk handkerchief, on my throat to stop the loss of blood. Luckily a mate stopped me from strangulation by cutting it with his knife, to the great dismay of the coxswain, who assured him I should bleed to death. The ball was afterwards extracted on the opposite side.’
In June Noble followed Nelson to the Captain, and in July was placed in temporary command of a prize brig fitted out as the Vernon gunboat. In October he rejoined
