Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitzroy, Charles (1764-1829)

1150586Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 19 — Fitzroy, Charles (1764-1829)1889James McMullen Rigg

FITZROY, Lord CHARLES (1764–1829), general, the second son of Augustus Henry, third duke of Grafton [q. v.], by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Henry Liddell, baron Ravensworth, was born on 17 July 1764. He took the degree of M.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1784. Having entered the army as an ensign in 1782 he was appointed captain of the 3rd foot guards in 1787, and in 1788 equerry to the Duke of York, under whom he served in the campaign in Flanders in 1793–4, being present at the siege of Valenciennes. In 1795 he became aide-de-camp to the king with the rank of colonel, was advanced to major-general in 1798, served on the Irish staff from February 1798 to April 1799, and then on the English staff until 1809, with the exception of the ‘year of peace,’ 1802. He also commanded the garrison of Ipswich. He was colonel-commandant of a battalion of 60th foot 1804–5 and colonel of 48th foot 1805 until death. He was gazetted lieutenant-general in January 1805, and on 4 Jan. 1814 general. From 1787 to 1796 and 1802 to 1818 he was M.P. for Bury St. Edmunds. He never spoke in the house. During the last twenty years of his life he resided principally at his seat at Wicken, near Stony Stratford, where he endeared himself to the poor by many acts of charity. He died at his house in Berkeley Square on 20 Dec. 1829, and was buried on the 30th at Wicken. Fitzroy married, first, on 20 June 1795, Frances, daughter of Edward Miller Mundy, sometime M.P. for Derbyshire, by whom he had one son, Charles Augustus [q. v.]; and secondly, on 10 March 1799, Lady Frances Anne Stewart, eldest daughter of Robert, first marquis of Londonderry, by whom he had two sons, George and Robert [q. v.], and one daughter.

[Collins's Peerage (Brydges), i. 219; Grad. Cant.; Gent. Mag. 1788 pt. i. 278, 1795 pt. i. 243, 1798 pt. i. 90, 1805 pt. i. 577, 1818 pt. ii. 499, 1830 pt. i. 78; List of Members of Parl. (Official Return of); Cornwallis Corresp. (Ross), ii. 422.]

J. M. R.