Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) was born at Flower Hill in the town of Navan, Co. Meath. His father Daniel Augustus Beaufort was rector of Navan, and his mother was Mary Beaufort (née Waller). 

Francis attended David Bates's Military and Naval Academy in Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin, before joining the British East India Company in 1789, at the age of only 14. He later transferred to become a midshipman in the Royal Navy and saw action during the Napoleonic Wars. He surveyed the coasts of South America and Turkey, and at home in 1803-04 he also helped establish a telegraph line from Dublin to Galway for his inventor brother-in-law, Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

Francis was the creator of the now-famous Beaufort Scale in 1806 for indicating wind force. In 1829 he became a hydrographer in the Royal Navy and in addition to his professional duties, he was also involved in academic research and learned societies, on diverse meteorological and scientific topics. He retired as a rear-admiral in 1846, and died on 17 December 1857 in London.