The Earl was a founding member of The Yacht Club.
Major-General William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1770-1825) was the eldest son of William Craven, 6th Baron Craven, and Lady Elizabeth Berkeley, second daughter of Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley. His parents' turbulent marriage ended when he was 13, and his mother moved with her youngest child to Naples, returning to England later as the Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth.
William succeeded his father as 7th Baron Craven in 1791. In 1793 he joined the Army, serving in Flanders and the West Indies. He was appointed ADC to the King and promoted Colonel in 1798, then Major General (1805), Lieutenant General(1811) and General (1825).
He was Recorder of Coventry 1811-25 and Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire 1819-25.
In 1801 he was created Viscount Uffington, in the County of Berkshire, and Earl of Craven, in the County of York, a revival of the title held by his 17th-century ancestor William Craven,(1608-97), who generously funded King Charles I in the Civil War and had his land confiscated by Cromwell as a result.
Craven was related by marriage to Jane Austen, who may have used him as the model for John Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility.
His yacht Louisa, a 325-ton ship, was named after his wife, the actress Louisa Brunton.