Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 14 - Section II
II. Field-marshal the Earl Ligonier,
Knight of the Bath, and Privy Councillor.
Jean Louis de Ligonier was born at Castres[1] on the 7th November 1680; he came to England in the year 1697. On the declaration of war in 1702, he accompanied the British army to Flanders as a volunteer, and immediately, by prodigious bravery, attracted the attention of the Duke of Marlborough. On the 23rd October 1702, he and another volunteer, the Honourable Allan Wentworth, brother of Lord Raby, were the two first who mounted the breach at the storming of the citadel of Liege. Wentworth was killed at the side of John Ligonier.
In February 1703 he was permitted to purchase a company in Lord North’s regiment. Mr Jacob, however, is mistaken in saying that he was only sixteen years of age, he was in his twenty-third year, according to Haag, whose very specific date for his birthday we have given above; or if we are guided by his monument, he was twenty-five years of age in 1703. Permission to enter the regular service as a captain implies mature age. In July 13th he fought at Schellenberg, and on August 13th (n.s.) at Blenheim. The latter “glorious victory” cost Lord North an arm, and the lives of all the captains of his regiment, except Ligonier. At the siege of Menin, in August 1706, Ligonier served as a captain of the English Grenadiers, who made themselves masters of the counterscarp after hard fighting. He was raised to the rank of major, and appointed major of brigade. He took part in all Marlborough’s great battles. At Malplaquet he must have specially distinguished himself, the name “Taisniere” being inscribed on his monument after “Malplaquet.” The allusion may be gathered from the following incident narrated by Boyer:—
“11th Sept. 1709, in the morning. A little after eight o'clock (the signal for the attack being given by a discharge of fifty pieces of cannon, and the cannonading continuing very brisk on both sides), Prince Eugene advanced with the right into the wood of Sart. Thirty-six battalions of that wing, commanded by General Schuylenberg, the Duke of Argyle, and other generals, and twenty-two other battalions under the command of Count Lottum, attacked the enemy with such bravery that, notwithstanding the barricadoes of felled trees and other impediments they met in their way, they drove the French out of their intrenchments in the woods of Sart and Taisniere.”
During this battle, twenty-two shots went through our hero’s clothes, but he was not wounded.
After the Peace of Utrecht, we find him at the head of the British troops in Minorca. That island had been taken on 30th September 1708 by Admiral Sir John Leake and Major-General Stanhope — as Majorca had been by Sir John Leake in 1706 — for our protégé, whom we recognised as King Charles III. of Spain. Minorca was in our possession, having been ceded to England by the Utrecht Treaty on 17th April 1711. In 1715 Majorca was still occupied by the troops of the quondam Charles III., who had, on the 12th October 1711, become the Emperor Charles VI. of Germany. Charles had succeeded his brother as head of the Imperialists, but shrank from any step that implied an acknowledgment of Philip V. as King of Spain. He signed the Peace with France at Baden, 7th September 1714. But at that date he still garrisoned Majorca; and England virtually sanctioned his occupation until the Peace was universally established and concluded. King Philip being a son of Louis XIV., Spain and France were virtually under one government. In 1715 Charles was willing to evacuate Majorca, and appointed the Earl of Stair, who had just arrived in Paris as the British Ambassador, to negotiate the business. But Philip had resolved, as secretly advised by France, to take forcible possession of the Island. Colonel Ligonier wrote to Lord Stair that the Spanish fleet was in sight. It seems, however, that it sailed away. But soon his lordship received another letter, dated from Port Mahon, in Minorca, of which the following is an extract:—
“Port Mahon, June 20, 1715. — Some time ago I had the honour to inform your Excellency that the Spanish fleet was in sight of this island; a few days after they landed at Majorca, and have met since with all the good success they could desire. By the ill defence of the Governor of Alcudia, they are masters of all except the capital, Palma, where the Viceroy [Marquis de Ruby] is with 2500 regular troops; and as the town is strong, and they attack him but with 7000 men, I believe the siege will be long. The Marquis de Ruby has desired I would enclose this letter to your Excellency, in whose hands he is assured from Vienna the affair of Majorca is entirely left. The Spaniards had given out that they thought no more of this expedition which has been carried on with all the diligence imaginable, so that, though all their ships were dismissed, they were gathered together (at least most of ’em) and under sail in three or four days. . . . .
Lord Stair went to the Marquis de Torcy and charged the French Government with a breach of national honour, at which the Marquis was furiously enraged. The next intelligence was that Majorca was reduced to King Philip’s obedience. On the following 1st September Louis XIV. died. To detach the Regent and statesmen of France from the Jacobite Pretender, through Lord Stair’s diplomacy, was now the main object of the British Government; and nothing more was said about Majorca. As to Colonel Ligonier, his name does not appear for the next few years. In 1717, owing to the aggressive policy of Spain, D’Avenant said, “No time ought to be lost in putting Mahon in a posture of defence.” In 1718, when Admiral Sir George Byng sailed to encounter the Spaniards in the Mediterranean, “he took on board the garrison of Port-Mahon.”
When the Pretender was encouraged by Spain to make warlike preparations within its territory, Ligonier was Colonel and Adjutant-General under Lord Cobham at the taking of Vigo in 1719. Detached to attack the city of Ponto Vedro, he took it; and at the head of a hundred grenadiers, reduced Fort Marin, in which was a garrison with twenty pieces of cannon. He obtained the colonelcy of the 4th regiment of horse on the 18th July 1720; that regiment at a later period was named the 7th Dragoon Guards.
He was one of the six aide-de-camps (with £200 per annum) to King George the Second, with whom he was in high favour, and from whom he obtained, in March 1735. “a grant to Colonel John Ligonier, of the office or place of Chief Ranger or Master of the Game in Ireland.” In the same year (November 14) he became Brigadier-General, and he was promoted to the rank of Major-General on July 2d 1739. The king’s favourite son, William Duke of Cumberland, had lately completed his eighteenth year (having been born April 15, 1721) and Ligonier was appointed his military tutor.
A storm burst in 1740, in consequence of the death of Lord Galway’s ancient friend or enemy, the Emperor Charles VI. (the King Charles III. of the War of the Spanish Succession). His territorial dominions now belonged to his only child and heiress, Henrietta Maria. The nearest male relative was Charles, Elector of Bavaria, who had the prospect of being elected to the dignity of Emperor; but coveted also the succession to the vacant throne. But it was the invasion of Silesia by Frederick of Prussia that gave its shape to the war. It was fortunate for the honour of England that the Parliament, in the spring of 1741, sent to the royal lady a subsidy of £300,000; and that this sum, turned to account and augmented by the devoted loyalty of the Hungarians, was of great service to her. It atoned for the scrape into which our King George thrust himself by his inopportune visit to Hanover in the month of May, when the approach of the French compelled him to promise to be neutral for a year. This did not prevent preparations with a view to action on the expiry of the neutrality. Ligonier was now our greatest cavalry officer, and His Royal Highness Prince William was to make his debut at his side. However, in 1742, the British in Flanders, under the command of the Earl of Stair, were hampered by the apathy of the Dutch, and got no opportunity of acting. Ligonier became a Lieutenant-General on the 8th of February 1743. A European war had now set in; and on the 16th of June the battle of Dettingen was fought. Lieutenant-General Ligonier was, with General Honeyman, Lieutenant-General Campbell, &c., placed at the head of the first line of the cavalry; and after the retreat of the, French, was ordered with Campbell to pass the morass and march with the horse straight to Dettingen. This they effected, but found the village abandoned. They then marched to Wilsheim, which was also evacuated, though barricaded all round, and loopholes made through all the walls and tops of the houses. Ligonier’s regiment suffered much, and gained great reputation. After the victory, the king invested him with the insignia of a Knight of the Bath on the field, under the royal standard.[3]
The year 1744 is remarkable, so far as Britain is concerned, for the beginning of the last plot to win the British crown for a Stuart. France became so demonstrative, that it was compelled by common honesty to issue a formal declaration of war with our country, and to become a principal belligerent. No blow was struck on British soil, either in 1744 or the greater part of 1745. The scene of action was Flanders. On the 1st May 1745 was fought the Battle of Fontenoy (or Tournay). “The French army of 76,000 men under Marshal Saxe,” says the Student’s Hume, “occupied a strong position; the allied army numbered only about 50,000 men, of whom 28,000 were English and Hanoverians.” The latter would have carried the French lines if the Dutch had not stood aloof. Voltaire declares that if the Dutch had advanced while the British infantry were repeatedly driving back the enemy, there would have been no escape for the French king (Louis XV.), or for his army. The French accounts at the time speak of the intrepidity of the English infantry, and of their prodigious fire. And our Gazette stated, that “the honour gained by the infantry was in a great measure owing to the conduct and bravery of Lieutenant General Sir John Ligonier.” Mr. Jacob gives the particulars. The famous attack of the French intrenchments was commanded by Sir John Ligonier in person. Everything gave way to British intrepidity, the troops remaining masters of the field of battle for upwards of two hours. If the Duke of Cumberland could have persuaded the Dutch to imitate the example and bravery of British troops, victory would have been certain. Nor did Sir John, though in imminent danger, think of a retreat until he received a written order from the Duke. Before leaving the field, he sent a card to Marshal Saxe, laconically asking him to take a humane care of his dead and wounded, and promising to repay the obligation on the first opportunity by similar humanity to the French. The Marshal replied that he had laid Sir John’s message, before the king, his master, who had ordered him to comply with it in its utmost extent. The Duke of Cumberland received Sir John with most tender marks of affection and approbation. Three shots had gone through his clothes; “but, from that providential protection he had so often experienced, he escaped without a wound.”
The campaign having proved unpropitious to our arms, the Pretender considered that the time had come for his meditated dethronement of the Hanoverian potentate. The young Chevalier set his foot on Scotland in the month of July, gained the battle of Prestonpans in September, and would then have found England in a very defenceless state, if it had been in his power to hasten southward. He however allowed time for the English to arm, and for our regiments from Flanders to return to be the backbone of the forces.
Horace Walpole wrote to Mann from London, 15th November 1745, “Ligonier, with seven old regiments and six of the new, is ordered to Lancashire.” November 22nd, “Colonel Durand, Governor of Carlisle, sent two expresses, one to Wade and another to Ligonier at Preston but the latter was playing at whist with Lord Harrington at Petersham. . . . The Duke sets out next week with another brigade of guards, and Ligonier under him.”
At the head of the list of troops and commanders marching towards Lancaster, we find “Sir John Ligonier, Commander-in-chief under the Duke of Cumberland.” This successful march terminated in the recovery of Carlisle from the rebels on the 30th December; His Royal Highness then returned to London, and would have gone to Flanders, but the defeat at Falkirk showed that he himself must undertake the quelling of the Scottish Rebellion. Ligonier had therefore to part from his royal pupil, and to take the command in Flanders.
In the summer of 1746 the following appeared among the appointments:— “Sir John Ligonier, Knight of the Bath, to be general and commander-in-chief of all His Majesty’s British forces, and of those in His Majesty’s pay, in the Austrian Netherlands.” The British under his command consisted of three regiments of cavalry, and seven of infantry. He arrived in Flanders on the 8th of July (n.s.) A counsel of war was immediately held at Terhyde, when it was resolved to march towards the bishopric of Liege, to facilitate the junction with a great reinforcement from Germany under Count Palfi. They set out on the 17th, and the expected reinforcement met them on the 23d at Peer, and the army halted at Hasseldt on the 26th. After various marches and counter-marches an action happened between the right wing of the French and the left of the allied army at Roucoux, near Liege. Ligonier led the whole left wing, and when, after great loss and gallant conduct, some battalions gave way, he rallied them and brought them again to the charge. At the close of the action he made a retreat that did him great honour — a retreat much admired and praised by Marshal Saxe. The Earl of Sandwich being at Breda, received the following dispatch, dated
“My Lord, — For fear the relation which the French may publish of what passed yesterday should make too great an impression, I would not, though on a march, miss a post in communicating to your Excellency that Marshal Saxe yesterday attacked our army on the side of the left wing, where the Dutch, after long resistance, and after behaving extremely well, were obliged to yield to superior numbers. Three villages, occupied by eight battalions, English, Hanoverians, and Hessians, being attacked by fifty-four battalions of French, after repulsing them twice, were, in their turn, forced to give way; but the English cavalry had all along the advantage. I think that (properly speaking) the affair cannot be called a battle, for I doubt if the third part of our army was engaged. The cannonading was terrible lor about two hours. I look upon our loss to be between 4 and 5000, and that of the French double the number. The army retired in the best order that could be. As we suspected the town of Liege to be betrayed to the enemy, it was impossible for us to remain in our camp. My letter is written in great haste. — I have, &c.
Ligonier was at the above date only Lieutenant-General but the following Gazette notice was issued:— “Whitehall, Jan. 3, 1747. — The king has been pleased to appoint Sir John Ligonier, Knight of the Bath, to be General of the Horse.” This year witnessed his last battle, now known as the battle of Lauffeld (or Lawfield), then called the battle of Kesselt or of Val. It was fought on the 2nd July between the left wing of the allies and the French (the Dutch and Austrians looking on). Ligonier sent Lieutenant-Colonel Forbes to inform the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cumberland, that the enemy seemed by their motions to have formed with a design of attacking our left wing, and that he had ordered all the troops to arms. Ligonier advanced at the head of the British dragoons, and the whole wing of calvary followed. This charge was very successful, having the enemy in flank in spite of their superior numbers, but Sir John, by an order which was never cleared up, was stopped in his successful attempt. The second charge was with only ten or twelve squadrons, with which he attacked the whole right wing of the enemy’s cavalry, then in motion to fall upon our retiring infantry. Sir John’s sudden and unexpected charge immediately routed twenty or twenty-five French squadrons. The French, thoroughly disconcerted, left off the pursuit of our infantry, and had to defend themselves. Our cavalry was at last overcome by the power of numbers. Ligonier, espying a squadron of the Enniskillen Dragoons in order, endeavoured to effect a junction, but on his way he fell among a squadron of French Carabineers, and was taken prisoner.[5] The Pictorial History of England says:— “The gallant Ligonier, with the British cavalry, checked the advance of the French, and saved the allies from destruction.”
The commander of the French carabineers was the Chevalier de Lagé; he accepted Sir John Ligonier’s parole, and would not take either his sword or pistols. He sent his great prisoner to Prince Clermont, who brought him to Marshal Saxe. The Marshal introduced him to the French King, saying, “Sir, I present to your Majesty, a man who, by a glorious action, has disconcerted all my project.” The French monarch received him with great marks of distinction. He asked him if he had received any wound, to which he answered in the negative. His Majesty then complimented him on his generalship, having seen the whole affair from the hill of Herderen, about 300 paces from the place of action. Sir John had much conversation with Marshal Saxe who told him that the French had lost an immense number of officers and men, and that their disaster was worse than that of the allies.
The greatest compliment which Louis XV. paid to Ligonier on this memorable occasion was his consultation with him as to possible terms of peace. His Majesty pointedly, though delicately, indicated his opinion that the prolongation of war was the King of England’s doing. Lord Chesterfield, who had distinguished himself as our ambassador at the Hague, was at this date a Secretary of State; I therefore borrow from that Earl’s biography the following paragraph:—
“It is well known that in the evening of that day in which the gallant General Ligonier risked his life and lost his liberty to save both the army and his royal general, the French King, to whom he was presented, received him with all the regard due to his rank and merit. He asked him in a most condescending style and manner when he might hope to obtain peace from his sovereign, and ordered his generals to enter into conference with him upon the subject. The terms proposed were by no means dictated by an enemy flushed with success and the spirit of conquest; they were moderate and more favourable than those that were accepted at Aix-la-Chapelle. But the new Ministers in Holland and the Cabinet at St. James’s thought proper, notwithstanding Lord Chesterfield’s entreaties, to refer the articles to the Congress, for the same reason, says his apologist, that mysterious points of faith are referred to general councils, to be frittered away in squabbles without end. Note. — The King of France’s expression is said to have been, ‘He Bien! Monsieur de Ligonier, quand est-ce que le roi votre maitre notes donnera la Paix’?” — (Maty’s Memoirs of Chesterfield.)
Wolfe’s biographer states that the Duke of Cumberland was enabled by Ligonier’s chivalrous charge to collect his scattered forces, and to retire to Maestricht without molestation. Thus, although the French won the battle, the allies succeeded in reinforcing the city, which they continued masters of during the campaign. Sir John Ligonier was allowed complete liberty in France upon his parole. On an exchange of prisoners he returned to his duty with the allied army, which went into winter quarters in October. He arrived in London on the 13th November. He embarked on his last visit to foreign camps at Harwich, in the end of February 1748. Haag sums up his foreign service, by stating that he had taken part in nineteen pitched battles and twenty-three sieges, and had never been wounded. The general peace (signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, October 7-18, 1748), found him in his sixty-eighth year.
Field-Marshal George Wade died in the beginning of 1748. Marshal Wade was Member of Parliament for Bath; and, a writ for a new election being ordered on the 13th March, his place was supplied by General Sir John Ligonier. Sir John not only stepped into the Marshal’s vacant seat in the House of Commons, but also into his post of Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance. He was made a privy councillor on the 1st February 1749. He became Director of the French Hospital of London on the 13th April, and on the 5th of October its Governor. He also received a new grant of the office of Chief Ranger, &c, of all the king’s parks in Ireland. On the 24th July he was transferred to the colonelcy of the 2nd Dragoon Guards. This regiment was vacant by the death of John, Duke of Montague, Master-General of the Ordnance. Ligonier was the right man for the Master-generalship, but it was an office always filled by noblemen. Accordingly that office was left unsupplied, and for six years Sir John did the duties of the head of that department. On 10th April 1750 he was made Governor of Guernsey. In 1753 (January 27), he was advanced to the colonelcy of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards Blue. Next year, the Parliament having been dissolved, he again presented himself to the constituency of Bath, that is, to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, and being re-elected, he took his seat in May; he is now called Governor of Plymouth. In 1750 “An Ode on Martial Virtue” was addressed “to the Right Honourable Sir John Ligonier” (printed for M. Cooper, in Pater-noster-Row). Its value now arises only from its indication as to the English pronunciation of his name, which seems to have received exactly the same treatment as the French word, Grenadier; [Ligg-a-near; Grenn-a-dear].
Now turn, O Muse, the bold Pindaric song
To Ligonier; for he deserves it well.
Well has he served thy sister Pallas long,
And long he shall adorn the martial shell.
Mild is thy soldier as the breeze of May;
Put if the brazen tongue of war
Commands him to th’ embattled plain,
He mounts with joy the warlike car,
Or guides the impatient courser’s rein
Where victory or death must close the day.
******
Sweet the remembrance of heroic deeds,
And beauteous as the landskips of the spring!
Graceful the files of war, when Virtue leads
Against the powers of a tyrannic king!
The attention of Government in 1755 was occupied with preparations for war. Artillery was drafted off to the several regiments in country quarters. At the end of the year, Charles Spencer, Duke of Marlborough, was made Master-General of the Ordnance, under whom Ligonier remained as Lieutenant-General for two years.
The year 1757 was an eventful year to him. The Duke of Cumberland retired from the army, and Ligonier had the honour of succeeding to the martial prince’s appointments. He thus became Commander-in-chief of all His Majesty’s land forces in Great Britain, and was permitted to purchase the proud position of Colonel of the 1st Foot-Guards. On the 30th November he was promoted to the rank of Field-Marshal. And he was raised to the peerage on the 21st of December by the title of Viscount Ligonier of Enniskillen, in the kingdom of Ireland. An Irish peer may represent an English constituency in parliament, so he retained his seat in the House of Commons. Lord George Sackville succeeded him in the Ordnance Office.
In 1758 the equipments for the expedition to America under Wolfe occupied the chief attention of Viscount Ligonier. Wolfe always spoke of him as “the Marshal,” and thought he showed some of the jealousy of old age towards a younger aspirant. Probably there was no real grievance. Ligonier vindicated Wolfe’s claim to select the officers of his staff. Lord Ligonier (says history) presented the names of the staff selected by Major-General Wolfe, and His Majesty struck out the name of one officer, Colonel Guy Carleton, who had spoken slightingly of the Hanoverian Guards. Lord Ligonier waited upon His Majesty a second time to request that Carleton’s name should be restored, but the king was inexorable. It was only at a third audience, and in consequence of Lord Ligonier’s persistently arguing that the great responsibility thrown upon Wolfe required that his request should be granted, that the King signed Carleton’s commission.
Bubb Doddington notes under date, 6th July 1758, just after the return of our expedition from St Malo, the Earl of Granville made some strong animadversions at a meeting of the Cabinet. Lord Ligonier said — My Lord Granville, you must admit — Lord Granville interrupted him with — My Lord, I will admit nothing; your Lordship is apt to admit, but I will admit nothing. Ligonier perhaps meant to specify the demolition of Cherbourg harbour. Two new cannons were made out of the guns captured there, and became admired trophies in the Tower of London; on one of them Viscount Ligonier’s arms were carved “in a masterly manner.”
In 1759 the additional honours of a decade of years satisfied the nobility that he might be the chief of the Ordnance Office. On July 3rd the Gazette informs us that the King was pleased to appoint Field-Marshal the Right Honourable Viscount Ligonier to be “Master-General of the Ordnance, arms, armories, and habiliments of war,” in room of the Duke of Marlborough deceased. He found in the office a new Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, the “gallant and good-natured” Marquis of Granby. This General’s name is associated with the Battle of Minden — a battle which ruined Lord George Sackville’s reputation. It is reported that old Ligonier was disinclined to grant to the latter Lord a court-martial in England, and said with gruff wit — If you want a court-martial you may go and seek it in Germany; (so writes Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, 19th September 1759).
I have omitted several notices of ordnance experiments under Ligonier’s auspices. A somewhat eventful one took place nearly three weeks after the accession of George III. “At a proof at Woolwich of the new-invented smoke-balls, one of them burst, whereby Colonel Desaguliers had his arm broke, Lord Howe received a small contusion on his side, Sir George Saville had his ankle torn, Sir William Boothby a finger broke, and Lord Eglinton had his sword broke by his side.”
George II. died in Kensington Palace on the morning of 25th October 1760 in the seventy-seventh year of his age and the thirty-fourth of his reign. Viscount Ligonier sat during that day in the Privy Council at Carlton House, and his signature appears in the Proclamation of the Prince of Wales as King George III. By the young king’s command all the Privy Councillors of the late king were immediately sworn in as members of his own Privy Council. And on the 27th October H.R.H. Edward, Duke of York, and the Right Hon. John Earl of Bute were added to their number. Lord Bute received early notice of the king’s favour for Lord Ligonier, as we may infer from the following letter to the Earl from the veteran Viscount:[6]—
“My Dear Lord, — I am extremely obliged to your Lordship for your kind enquiry. My being confined has hindered me from waiting on you. I find myself much Better, and hope to be able to pay my duty to the King to-morrow, whose Great Goodness and Condescension I have not words to acknowledge. I am thoroughly sensible of your Lordship’s friendship, which I shall endeavour to cultivate and deserve by the heartiness with which I shall ever be, My dear Lord, your most humble and most obedient servant,
“Wednesday.
I may here remark that there were several portraits of Ligonier, both painted and engraved. Speaking of what artists call “effects,” Sir Joshua Reynolds said, “The picture of my own in which the effect pleased me most is Lord Ligonier on horseback, engraved by Fisher; the chiaro-scuro was suggested to me by a rude wood-cut on a half-penny ballad, which I bought from the wall of St. Anne’s Church, in Princes Street.”
Under George III. Lord Ligonier continued to be Commander-in-Chief, Master-General, and Privy Councillor. He had the gratification of obtaining substantial honour to the memory of the Woolwich Professor of Mathematics, the talented Thomas Simpson, F.R.S. “The King at the instances of Lord Ligonier, in consideration of Mr. Simpson’s great merits, was graciously pleased to grant a pension to his widow, together with handsome apartments adjoining to the academy, a favour never conferred on any before.” At the coronation of the King and Queen, 22nd September 1761, “Lord Ligonier, as commanding officer of the guard on duty, had a small tent fixed on the left side of the platform in Old Palace Yard.”
Parliament was allowed to run its septennial course, and a dissolution having taken place in March 1761, Lord Ligonier was, for the third time, returned for Bath; the houses met on the 3rd of November. The octogenarian lord, having no heir, was honoured with a new Irish patent of viscountry, containing a remainder in favour of his nephew. This patent, dated 2nd June 1762, gave him the title of Viscount Ligonier of Clonmell, with remainder “To our trusty and well-beloved Colonel Edward Ligonier, captain of a company in our first regiment of foot-guards.”
In 1763 the viscount retired from the ordnance, and from the House of Commons. On 19th April 1763, the King was pleased to grant to the Right Hon. John Viscount Ligonier of Ireland and his heirs-male, the dignity of a Baron of Great Britain, by the title of Lord Ligonier, Baron of Ripley, in the county of Surrey. His country seat was Cobham Park in Surrey, but the title, Lord Cobham, being pre occupied, he took his English title from an ancient village in his neighbourhood; the chapel of Ripley was founded about the end of the twelfth century. Lord Ligonier was also a Fellow of the Royal Society.
On the 13th August 1766 Viscount Ligonier ceased to be Commander-in-Chief, the claims of the Marquis of Granby to the office admitting, in the opinion of the government, of no longer postponement. Ligonier’s removal was generally regretted. Earl Temple wrote to Mr. Grenville, London, 25th August 1766:— “Lord Bute, who affects at least to be much dissatisfied with everything that is going forward, had a meeting with Lord Ligonier at Lord Townshend’s, where he declared that he had not been in the least instrumental in the disgrace which his Lordship had suffered by the promotion of Lord Granby, and added that upon his honour he had not seen the King even once during the last twelvemonth.” The Earl of Chesterfield said — “It was cruel to put such a boy as Granby over the head of old Ligonier; and if I had been the former I would have refused that command during the life of that honest and old general.” To gratify a wish generally felt, the Government gave Ligonier a pension of £1500 a year; and on the 10th September there was this announcement in the Gazette, “John, Lord Ligonier, to be Earl Ligonier in the Peerage of Great Britain.”
He lived to enter upon his fourth year as a British Earl, and died on the 28th April 1770. He was in his ninetieth year, according to Haag; his monument says his age was ninety-two.
The well-earned monument (designed and executed by J. F. Moore) is in Westminster Abbey (ambulatory, north side). The principal figure is History, with a pen in her right hand and a scroll in her left hand. She is leaning on a sepulchral urn, on which are the arms and ensigns of the Order of the Bath. She points with her pen to the scroll, inscribed with the names of battles : — Schellenberg, Blenheim, Rami Hies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Taniere, Dettingen, Fontenoy, Rocoux, Laffeldt, "at all which," says Neale, "the courage of Ligonier was conspicuous." The Earl’s portrait is in profile, "a well-executed medallion " on the stand of the urn. A Roman coat of mail, in which is the emblem of Fortitude, represents the soldier at rest. Behind the figure of History is a pyramid of Brujata marble, at the top of which is his lordship’s crest, with the motto A rege et victorià, and below is an alto-relievo of Britannia. Round the pyramid are medallions representing the four sovereigns whom the Earl served about seventy years. The following is the inscription : — In memory of John, Earl Ligonier, Baron of Ripley, in Surrey, Viscount of Inniskilling, and Viscount of Clonmell, Field-Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Forces, Master-General of the Ordnance, Colonel of the First Regiment of Foot Guards, one of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, and Knight of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath. Died 28th of April 1770, aged ninety-two years.
Field-Marshal the Earl Ligonier left a daughter, Penelope, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Graham, of the 1st Foot Guards. Their family consisted of two sons and four daughters — the elder son’s names were Ligonier Arthur, and the other was John Jeffery Edward. Lord Ligonier left £10,000 in trust for these grand-children; also £2000 to his niece, Frances Ligonier, and £500 to the French Hospital. He had settled £20,000 on his nephew, Edward Ligonier, on his marriage with Penelope Pitt, for any children that might be born to them. (There was no issue of that marriage.) The Will was dated 17th January 1769, and proved by Sir Jeffery Amherst, K.B., Arthur Graham, Esq., and Edward, Viscount Ligonier, on 2nd May 1770.
- ↑ An unhappy marriage, contracted by his nephew, occasioned the publication of a worthless brochure entitled, “The Generous Husband,” London, 1771. As there may be some truth in the following paragraph, I insert it in this note:— “The late Lord Lelius [John Ligonier] was born in France of a noble family, not less illustrious for their many domestic virtues and inflexible regard for public liberty, than for their noble extraction and extensive possessions. His father was born in the south of that kingdom, where, having taken up arms in defence of the civil and ecclesiastical liberties of his oppressed fellow-Protestanis, but being overborne by numbers and superior strength, he was made prisoner, brought to trial, and condemned. This was on account of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the other oppressive persecuting measures pursued by that tyrant, Louis XIV., against his unoffending Protestant subjects. To these operations of bigotry, superstition, and injustice, we owe the services of a Schomberg, a Galway, and Ligonier.”
- ↑ “Annals of the Earls of Stair,” by John Murray Graham, vol. i., p. 386.
- ↑ The Military Order of Knights of the Bath (which had been practically abolished in 1661) was revived by King George I. on 27th May 1725. The number of knights was limited to thirty eight, and each knight had a stall in Henry VII.’s Chapel (Westminster Abbey), over which his banner was hung; and supporters were added to his coat-of-arms. His stall became vacant and he ceased to be a K.B., if he was advanced to be a Knight of the Garter. The limited number was strictly adhered to until 1st January 1815, when the numbers were enlarged, and the three classes of G.C.B., K.C.B., and C.B. were established.
- ↑ Supplement (added in 1769) to a Complete English Peerage, by Rev. Alexander Jacob, 2 vols, folio, London, 1767. I have derived much assistance and some interesting details from the Ligonier article in that supplement, which contains a fine engraving of his coat-of-arms.
- ↑ It was stated at the time that it was a private of the French carabineers who took Ligonier prisoner. And this seems to be confirmed by the minutes of the National Assembly at Paris, 8th January 1792:— Guillaume Pierre, a veteran, aged seventy-four, claimed the honour of having taken General Ligonier at the battle of Lawfelt, “whose talents made him so important a prisoner,” and stated that he had refused the offer both of his purse and diamonds, with which he endeavoured to buy his release. The Assembly, on the recommendation of its committee, presented him with 7000 livres, and ordered his annual pension of 150 livres to be continued.
- ↑ The Musgrave Collection of Autographs, in the British Museum.