Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Hoghton, Daniel

1399911Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement, Volume 2 — Hoghton, Daniel1901Ernest Marsh Lloyd

HOGHTON, DANIEL (1770–1811), major-general, born 28 Aug. 1770, was second son of Sir Henry Hoghton, sixth baronet, of Hoghton Tower and Waltonhall, Lancashire, M.P. for Preston, by his second wife Fanny, eldest daughter of Daniel Booth, a director of the Bank of England. Without passing through the lower grades he obtained a majority in the 97th (Strathspey highlanders) on its formation, 8 Feb. 1794. After serving as a regiment of marines in the channel fleet, it was disbanded in 1795, and he was transferred to the 67th foot on 12 Aug. 1795. The 67th went to St. Domingo in 1796, and thence to Jamaica in 1798. On 31 Jan. 1799 Hoghton was transferred to the 88th (Connaught rangers), and joined it in India. The regiment formed Birt of the expedition sent to Egypt under aird in 1801, but Hoghton seems to have remained in India, and to have been sent home with despatches from Lord Wellesley in the spring of 1804.

He had become lieutenant-colonel in the army on 3 May 1796, and on 22 Nov. 1804 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the newly raised second battalion of the 8th foot. On 1 Jan. 1805 he was promoted colonel in the army. He remained at home with his battalion till April 1810, when he was appointed to the staff of the British force at Cadiz as brigadier. He was promoted major-general on 25 July, and in September he left Cadiz to join Wellington's army in Portugal. He was given the command of the third brigade of the second division under Stewart [see Stewart, Sir William], with whom he had served at Cadiz, and who had been his lieutenant-colonel in the 67th.

In the battle of Albuera (16 May 1811), when the Spaniards gave way on the right, Stewart's division was hurried up to take their place. Its leading brigade (Colborne's) was nearly destroyed by a flank attack of cavalry, and Hoghton's brigade was deployed and moved up to the crest of the hill, which had become the key of the position. There it maintained itself for some hours against the 5th French corps, eleven thousand strong, its three regiments (29th, 57th, and first battalion 48th) losing three-fourths of their men. Hoghton himself was killed as he led forward the 29th. Wellington wrote to Lord Wel- lesley: 'I understand that it was impossible for anybody to behave better than he did throughout the terrible scene, to him novel, in which he was an actor. He was not only cool and collected, as he ought to have been throughout the action, but animated and anxious to a degree beyond what could have been expected from his former habits, and the indifference with which he always appeared to perform the ordinary duties of his profession; and he actually fell waving his hat and cheering his brigade on to the charge' (Suppl. Desp. vii. 134). A public monument was voted to him by parliament, and was placed in the north transept of St. Paul's.

[Gent. Mag. 1811, i. 679; Betham's Baronetage, 1801, i. 39; Records of the 8th Regiment (2nd edition), p. 280; Wellington Despatches (supplementary), iv. 383, vi. 574; Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, iii. 87; Everard's History of the 29th Regiment.]

E. M. L.