Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet: Difference between revisions

General Sir Charles Asgill GCH, Second Baronet of London, a career soldier, was born 6 April 1762 in London, and educated at Westminster School, London and Göttingen University, Germany.

Biography

The only son of a one-time Lord Mayor of London (Sir Charles Asgill, 1st Baronet) and Sarah Teresa Pratviel, he entered the army on 27 February 1778 (just before his 16th birthday), as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards now called The Grenadier Guards. He became Lieutenant in the same regiment with the rank of Captain on 3 February 1781 (just before his 19th birthday). In that year he was ordered to America, joining the army under Lord Cornwallis, and on the capitulation of Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781, he was taken prisoner. He was the subject of a diplomatic incident in May 1782 (referred to then and now as “The Asgill Affair”), when he was selected by lot to be executed in retaliation for a murder carried out by the Loyalists. His mother, the doughty Sarah Asgill (of French Huguenot origin), wrote to the French Court pleading for her son’s life to be spared. She was the instigator of the misleading information that her son was only 19 years of age. The fact is that Asgill had already celebrated his 20th birthday before the drawing of lots in May 1782. The Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, ordered the Comte de Vergennes, the Foreign Minister, to convey to General George Washington her desire that a young life be spared. Since Asgill was protected by capitulation treaties, safeguarding prisoners of war, such an unjustified execution would have reflected badly on the newly emerging independent nation of America. Congress agreed and young Asgill returned to England a free man in November 1782. A year later, together with his mother (who had been too ill to travel sooner), and sisters, he went to France to give thanks to the Queen for saving his life.

He was appointed Equerry to Frederick, Duke of York in 1787. The following year he inherited the Asgill Baronetcy upon the death of his father. In August 1790 he married Jemima Sophia Ogle, daughter of Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle, at Martyr Worthy, Hampshire. Asgill went to the Continent and joined the Army under the command of The Duke of York in 1794-1795, served the Campaign and was present at the whole of the Retreat through Holland. In June 1797 he was promoted Brigadier General in the 1st Foot Guards and was appointed to the Staff of Ireland. In his Service Records he states: “was very actively employed against the Rebels during the Rebellion in 1798 and received the repeated thanks of the Commander of the Forces and the Government for my Conduct and Service”. He remained on the Irish Staff until February 1802 when in consequence of the Peace he was removed and returned to England.

On 18th March 1803, and by now a Major General with the 2nd Battalion of the 46th Regiment of Foot, he writes: “I was reappointed to the Staff of Ireland, and placed in the Command of the Eastern District, in which the Garrison of Dublin is included; I was in Command during the Rebellion which broke out in the City in July 1803. In August 1805 I had the command of a very large Camp which was formed at the Curragh of Kildare; and since that period have continued in the same Command in the Eastern District:- Whenever any Armament or Expedition was preparing I always offered my Services to the Commander in Chief and should have been highly gratified had they been accepted. From the nature of my Command in Dublin (where there is always a considerable Garrison) I have been much in the Habit of strict Exercise of Weapons, and in respect to my competency it is for the General Officers to decide, under whose command I have had the honor of Serving”.

Becoming a Lieutenant General in January 1805, Asgill was appointed Colonel of the 5th West Indian Regiment on 10 February 1806, Colonel of the 85th Regiment of Foot on 30 October 1806 and Colonel of the 11th Regiment of Foot on 25 February 1807. He was promoted to full General on 4 June 1814.

Charles Asgill died on 23 July 1823, London. He was buried in the vault at St. James’s, Piccadilly on 1 August 1823. His wife, Sophia Asgill, predeceased him in 1819 and she too is buried in the vault at St. James’s. Upon the death of General Sir Charles Asgill the Baronetcy became extinct (see Asgill Baronets). Most Biographies (excepting Whittaker’s Almanac of 1825 which states Sophia bore him children) claim he died without issue. Whittaker’s of 1825 would probably have been collated and prepared for printing during Asgill’s lifetime.

John Asgill, 1659-1738, (known as Translated Asgill) was a relative, both being descendants of Joshua Asgyll MA, DD, born 1585.

See also

• Asgill Baronets
• John Asgill
• Robert Taylor
• Joshua Huddy
• Nicholas Barbon
• 2nd Canadian Regiment
• List of Lord Mayors of London

Further Reading

• Major, Katherine. General Washington's Dilemma.
• Tombs, Robert and Tombs, Isabelle. That Sweet Enemy.