This Officer, born in 1764, was the son of the late James Duff, Esq. of Banff, a younger brother of the family of Hatton, in the County of Aberdeen, and nearly related to the Earl of Fife. His mother was a daughter of Mr. Skene, of Rubislaw, in the same county, an amiable woman, of delicate health, who died six weeks after she had brought this son into the world.

Few persons, whose instinctive genius point to a particular profession, have ever shown a more early predilection than the subject of this memoir did, for the Navy. When only a boy, he in hours of play was always found, either among the shipping in the harbour of Banff, about half a mile from the town, or in boats on the Doveran, which skirts its lower streets, and runs into the sea, near to which was his father's house. As a boy he was sprightly, active, and enterprising; and so bent towards the Navy, that seeing his father was averse from his going to sea, he endeavoured, when about nine years of age, to escape; by concealing himself on board a small merchant vessel, in which he actually sailed to a neighbouring port. The Master, upon finding him on board, sent him back to his father, who then became sensible that his son's inclination could not be counteracted, and wisely agreed to his going into the Royal Navy.