Peregrine Lascelles | |
---|---|
Born | Whitby, Yorkshire | 1 June 1685
Died | 26 March 1772 86) Whitby, Yorkshire | (aged
Buried | |
Allegiance | Great Britain |
Years of service | 1706–1754 |
Rank | Lieutenant-General 1758 |
Unit | Colonel, 47th Foot |
Battles/wars | |
Relations | Francis Lascelles (1612-1667) Thomas Lascelles (1670-1751) |
Lieutenant-General Peregrine Lascelles [lower-alpha 1] , 1 June 1685 to 26 March 1772, was a British military officer from Yorkshire.
Lascelles served in Spain during the 1701 to 1713 War of the Spanish Succession, then spent most of the next thirty years on garrison duty in Scotland and England. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, he fought at the Battle of Prestonpans in September 1745, when the government army was defeated in 15 minutes. Although court-martialled, he was exonerated, and promoted Lieutenant-General, serving in North America until 1759. He retired in 1768 and died on 26 March 1772.
The Lascelles family was spread across Northern England, with branches living in Northallerton, Durham, Whitby, York, Harewood House and Terrington. They were also connected to a wider network of Nonconformist mercantile interests in London, Ireland, New England and Barbados.
His grandfather, also Peregrine (1619-1658), was one of three brothers, the others being Francis (1612-1667) and Thomas (1624-1697); all of these supported Parliament during the 1639-1652 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, while Francis took part in the trial of Charles I. [2]
His father Peregrine (died 1699), inherited land in Lythe, outside Whitby, and married Mary Wigginer, who came from a prominent Whitby merchant's family. Peregrine Lascelles was born in 1685 in the Staithside district; he does not appear to have married. [3]
A number of his relatives served in the military, including the engineer Thomas Lascelles (1670-1751), who became Surveyor-General of the Ordnance in 1742. In April 1706, Peregrine was commissioned into Lovelace's Regiment, a new unit raised for the War of the Spanish Succession. [4] He transferred to Lepell's Regiment of Foot in 1708, when Lovelace was appointed Governor-general of New Jersey. [5]
Posted to Spain, he fought at Almanara, Zaragossa and Villaviciosa, where his unit suffered heavy casualties. [6] Lepell, by then senior British officer in Catalonia, reported his infantry regiment suffered over 107 casualties, and only two squadrons of dragoons were fit for action. [7] The regiment was disbanded in November 1712 in the run-up to the 1713 Peace of Utrecht. [8]
Lascelles was placed on half-pay until 1715, when he was appointed Captain in Grants Regiment, a unit formed in response to the Jacobite rising. It did not see action, being used to garrison Edinburgh Castle, then on policing duties after the rising failed. [9] In recognition of his service, Lascelles was made an honorary burgess of Glasgow, along with many others, including his relative Thomas. [10]
Grants was disbanded in 1718 and his movements immediately following this remain unclear; in 1723, he was a captain in Churchill's Dragoons, which performed garrison duty in different parts of Britain, primarily the West Country. [11] In 1733, he was made captain in the Guards, which under the practice known as double-ranking was the equivalent of Lieutenant-Colonel in line regiments. [12]
As a result, in the expansion that followed the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, in 1743 Lascelles was made as Colonel of the 47th Foot; raised in 1741, it was employed on the construction of a military road near Loch Lomond, part of a new route from Dumbarton to Inverary. [13] The road was completed in May 1745, two months before Charles Stuart launched the 1745 Rising. After detaching two companies to garrison Edinburgh Castle, Lascelles and the rest of his regiment joined the field army commanded by Sir John Cope. [14]
At the Battle of Prestonpans on 21 September, the Jacobites scattered Cope's army in less than 15 minutes; Lascelles fought his way out, but most of his regiment was captured. [15] He was tried by a court-martial in 1746, along with Cope and Thomas Fowke, a former colleague from Lepells Regiment; all three were exonerated, although Cope never held field command again. [16]
Lascelles and his regiment were posted to Nova Scotia in 1750; conflict between British and French settlers resulted in a series of clashes known as Father Le Loutre's War, the most significant being the June 1755 Battle of Fort Beauséjour. [17] He remained in North America for at least part of the Seven Years' War, the 47th forming part of the force commanded by James Wolfe that captured Louisbourg in 1758. [18] He was promoted Lieutenant-General shortly afterwards, and the 47th then fought at the capture of Quebec in 1759, where Wolfe was killed, and Sainte-Foy in 1760, before returning to Britain when the war ended in 1763. [19]
It is not clear when he ceased active service, since it was common to retain the position of Colonel, but delegate operational command; he formally resigned from the 47th Regiment in July 1768. [20] He died on 26 March 1772, and was buried in St Mary's Church, Whitby, where his memorial can still be seen. [lower-alpha 2] [21] His epitaph was supposedly composed by Doctor John Dealtry (1708-1773), a long-time friend from York, who named his eldest son Peregrine. [22]
The Battle of Prestonpans, also known as the Battle of Gladsmuir, was fought on 21 September 1745, near Prestonpans, in East Lothian, the first significant engagement of the Jacobite rising of 1745.
The 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in Scotland in 1741. It served in North America during the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War and also fought during the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 81st Regiment of Foot to form the Loyal Regiment in 1881.
Henry Hawley was a British army officer who served in the wars of the first half of the 18th century. He fought in a number of significant battles, including the Capture of Vigo in 1719, Dettingen, Fontenoy and Culloden.
The Battle of Falkirk Muir, or Battle of Falkirk, took place near Falkirk, Scotland, on 17 January 1746 during the Jacobite rising of 1745. A narrow Jacobite victory, it had little impact on the campaign.
Sir John Cope was a British soldier, and Whig Member of Parliament, representing three separate constituencies between 1722 and 1741. He is now chiefly remembered for his defeat at Prestonpans, the first significant battle of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and which was commemorated by the tune "Hey, Johnnie Cope, Are Ye Waking Yet?", which still features in modern Scottish folk music and bagpipe recitals.
Lieutenant-General William Blakeney, 1st Baron Blakeney, KB was a British Army officer and politician who served from 1695 until 1756. From 1725 to 1757, he also sat in the Parliament of Ireland as MP for Kilmallock, although he rarely attended.
Lord George Murray, sixth son of John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who took part in the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1719 and played a senior role in that of 1745.
The 13th Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First World War but then amalgamated with the 18th Royal Hussars, to form the 13th/18th Royal Hussars in 1922.
The 14th King's Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with the 20th Hussars to form the 14th/20th King's Hussars in 1922.
Lieutenant General Thomas Fowke, also spelt Foulks, circa 1690 to 29 March 1765, was a British military officer from South Staffordshire, who was Governor of Gibraltar from 1753 to 1756, and twice court-martialled during his service. The first followed defeat at Prestonpans in the 1745 Jacobite Rising, when he was acquitted. As Governor, he was tried again for his part in the 1756 Battle of Minorca, a defeat that led to the execution of Admiral Byng.
Lieutenant General John Huske was a British military officer whose active service began in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession and ended in 1748.
Lieutenant General Humphrey Bland was an Irish professional soldier, whose career in the British Army began in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession and ended in 1756.
The Manchester Regiment was a Jacobite unit raised during the 1745 Rebellion and the only significant number of English recruits willing to fight for Charles Edward Stuart in his attempt to regain the British throne for his father. Raised in late November 1745, the majority were captured in December at Carlisle; eleven officers and sixteen members of the rank and file were executed in 1746, over a quarter of all those executed for their role in the Rising.
Joshua Guest (1660–1747) was an English lieutenant-general.
Lieutenant General Roger Handasyd, also spelt Handaside, was an English military officer and Member of Parliament for different seats between 1722 and 1754.
Lord Mark Kerr was a Scottish-born professional soldier, who served in the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Quadruple Alliance. He reached the rank of General in the British Army, and held a number of important administration posts, including Governor of Edinburgh Castle.
Thomas Lascelles was a British military engineer and ordnance expert, who held a number of senior positions between 1713 and 1750.
Lieutenant-Colonel Caroline Frederick Scott was a Scottish soldier and military engineer who served in the British Army before transferring to the East India Company.
The Jacobite Army, sometimes referred to as the Highland Army, was the military force assembled by Charles Edward Stuart and his Jacobite supporters during the 1745 Rising that attempted to restore the House of Stuart to the British throne.
Richard Jack was a Scottish mathematician, astronomer, and engineer active in the mid-18th century. He provided the only testimony against Lt. Gen. John Cope at the court martial following the Battle of Prestonpans during the 1745 Jacobite uprising, but Having exaggerated his own accomplishments and lacking corroboration, Jack had his testimony discounted by the judges, who found Cope blameless. Jack was later involved in the development of achromatic lenses and his work on conic sections was a source for the mathematical sections of the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.