Sir Nigel Gresley 6th Bart, was an English landowner, mine owner and the builder of the Sir Nigel Gresley Canal. The young Gresley was aboard H.M.S. Eltham and H.M.S. Bridgewater as a volunteer able seaman and midshipman in 1746, when they held Flora Macdonald as a captive. His kind treatment of her led to her making him a gift of her portrait by Wilson P17 Portrait of Flora MacDonald, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
