Appointed 4th February, 1785.
Lord Thomas Pelham Clinton, second son of Henry, ninth Earl of Lincoln, and first Duke of Newcastle, chusing the profession of arms, was appointed Captain and Lieut.-Colonel in the First Foot Guards on the 5th of April, 1775, and, on the decease of his brother, in 1778, he obtained the title of Earl of Lincoln. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1780, and in 1782 he obtained the Colonelcy of the Seventy-fifth, or the Prince of Wales's Regiment of Foot, which was disbanded at the termination of the American war, in 1783. In 1785 he obtained the Colonelcy of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons; in 1787 he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and he succeeded to the dignity of Duke of Newcastle on the decease of his father, in 1794. He died in 1795.
Oliver de Lancey,
Appointed 20th May, 1795.
Oliver de Lancey descended from a respectable family settled in North America. When a disposition to make themselves independent appeared in the Colonies, he wrote a pamphlet entitled, "Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes on the British Colonies," which was first printed in America, and afterwards went through the press several times in London. Proceeding to Great Britain, he procured the commission of Cornet in the Fourteenth Dragoons, in 1766, and in May, 1773, he was appointed Captain in the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, in which corps he remained forty-nine years. In 1774 he was sent with despatches for the Commander-in-Chief, and was directed to provide accommodation for his regiment, which was then under orders for America; also to provide remount horses for his corps and for the artillery and other departments of the army. On arriving at Boston he was sent to New York, to accomplish the objects of his mission; but, hostilities commencing, he returned to Boston, where his regiment arrived about the same time, and he remained at this place during the blockade and bombardment, until it was evacuated in 1776, when he proceeded to Halifax, and afterwards to Staten Island. He commanded a squadron of the Seventeenth on Long Island, distinguished himself in the driving back of the American piquets, and also at the battle of Brooklyn. Crossing the river to New York he had further opportunities of signalizing himself, and in the spring of 1777 he served in the Jerseys, where the squadron under his orders had several rencounters with detachments of the enemy. In the following winter he proceeded to Philadelphia, was actively employed in the spring of 1778 in various services in Pennsylvania, and was engaged in covering the march of the army from thence to New York. On the 3rd of June, 1778, he was promoted to the Majority of his regiment, which he commanded while it was stationed on Long Island, and afterwards in the lines in front of New York, where skirmishes occurred almost daily. He was subsequently appointed Deputy Quarter-Master-General to the expedition to South Carolina, where he served at the siege of Charlestown, and in several expeditions under Earl Cornwallis; and in 1781 he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and appointed Adjutant-General in America, in succession to Major John André, who was made prisoner by the Americans and executed as a spy. At the termination of the war he was appointed to arrange the military claims made by persons who had served in America; and he was placed at the head of a commission for settling the accounts of the army during the war. In 1790 he was appointed Deputy Adjutant-General, with the rank of Colonel in the army; in 1794 he obtained the Lieut.-Colonelcy of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, and was appointed Barrack-Master-General, which he held ten years; he was also promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 3rd of October, 1794. On the 20th of May, 1795, he was farther rewarded with the Colonelcy of his regiment. He was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General in 1801, and to that of General in 1812. He was many years a Member of Parliament. He died in September, 1822, after serving the crown fifty-six years.
Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset, K.C.B.,
Appointed 9th September, 1822.
Removed to the Royal Dragoons in 1829, and to the Fourth, or Queen's Own, Light Dragoons in 1836.
Sir John Elley, K.C.B., K.C.H.,
Appointed 23rd November, 1829.