Historical Record of the Sixth, or Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons / Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1689, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1846

by Richard Cannon

Charles Cadogan entered the army in 1706, and served in Flanders under the celebrated John Duke of Marlborough. He was a member of parliament for the borough of Reading, also for Newport, in Hampshire. In 1715 he was appointed captain and lieutenant-colonel in the second foot-guards; and in 1719 he purchased the colonelcy of the King's own regiment of foot. He succeeded, on the decease of his brother, the celebrated William Earl Cadogan, in 1726, to the dignity of Lord Cadogan, Baron of Oakley; and in 1734 he was removed to the Inniskilling dragoons. In 1739 he was promoted to the rank of major-general; in 1742 he was appointed colonel of the second troop of life guards, which gave him the privilege of taking the court duty of Gold Stick; and in 1745 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. The government of Sheerness was conferred upon his lordship in 1749, that of Gravesend and Tilbury in 1752, and in 1761 he was promoted to the rank of general. His lordship was a fellow of the Royal Society, and one of the trustees of the British Museum. He died in 1776.

John Earl of Stair, K.T.

Re-appointed 25th April, 1743.—Removed to the Scots Greys in 1745.

John Earl of Rothes.

Appointed 29th May, 1745.

Lord John Leslie was appointed to the captaincy of a troop of dragoons in 1715, and in 1717 he obtained the command of a company in the foot guards. Two years afterwards he was appointed to the lieut.-colonelcy of the Royal North British Fusiliers. On the decease of his father, in 1722, he succeeded to the title of Earl of Rothes, and was appointed governor of Stirling castle. He obtained the colonelcy of the twenty-fifth regiment in May, 1732, and the rank of brigadier-general in 1739. In 1742 he proceeded with the forces under the Earl of Stair to Flanders; was appointed major-general on the 1st of January, 1743, and served in that capacity at the head of the second line of infantry at the battle of Dettingen. In April, 1745, he was removed to the colonelcy of the Scots horse grenadier guards, and in the following month to the Inniskilling dragoons. His lordship distinguished himself at the head of a brigade of cavalry at the battle of Roucoux in 1746; was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1747; and, in 1750, obtained the colonelcy of the Scots Greys. In the succeeding year he was appointed governor of Duncannon fort, and lieutenant-general on the staff of Ireland; and in April, 1752, he was removed to the colonelcy of the third, or Scots, foot guards. He was constituted a Knight of the Thistle in 1753; and obtained the rank of general in 1765. He died on the 10th of December, 1767.

The Honourable James Cholmondeley.

Appointed 16th January, 1750.

The Honourable James Cholmondeley, third son of George, second Earl of Cholmondeley, was appointed guidon and major in the first troop (now first regiment) of life guards on the 12th of May, 1725; in 1731 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and lieutenant-colonel in the third troop of life guards; and in January, 1741, King George II. conferred upon him the colonelcy of a newly-raised regiment, then numbered the fifty-ninth, and now the forty-eighth foot; from which he was removed in December, 1742, to the colonelcy of the thirty-fourth regiment. In 1744 he proceeded with his regiment to Flanders, and served the campaign of that year with the allied army under Field-Marshal Wade. He was at the battle of Fontenoy on the 11th of May, 1745, and on the 8th of the following month he was appointed brigadier-general, in which capacity he served the remainder of that campaign. On the breaking out of the rebellion in Scotland, in the winter of the same year, he was ordered to England, with a brigade of infantry, and after his arrival he was sent to Chester to take command of two battalions which had recently arrived from Ireland, with which he joined the army commanded by Field-Marshal Wade, in Yorkshire. After the flight of the rebels from Derby, he was detached to Scotland, where he served under Lieutenant-General Hawley, and signalized himself in a most conspicuous manner at the battle of Falkirk, on the 17th of January, 1746; but the excessive fatigue he underwent, with continued exposure to severe weather, deprived him of the use of his limbs for some time. On the 23rd of September, 1747, he was promoted to the rank of major-general; on the 24th of July, 1749, he was removed to the twelfth dragoons; and in November of the same year to the third Irish horse, now sixth dragoon guards. He was again removed on the 16th of January, 1750, to the Sixth dragoons; and on the 2nd of May, 1754, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. He was many years lieutenant-governor of Chester; and died on the 13th of October, 1775.

Edward Harvey.