Duchess of Rutland first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1789.

[2] She appears to have carried passengers between England and Ireland, with her owners being a group of Holyhead packet captains.

Dutchess of Rugland apparently had been sold to owners in Liverpool, who had her lengthened.

[1] However, this represented stale data as Duchess of Rutland had been captured several years earlier.

Duchess of Rutland, Keen, master, was sailing from Liverpool to Barbados when in late 1797 she encountered the French privateer Vengeance, a cutter of 20 guns and 200 men.