General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

John Leslie, 10th Earl of Rothes KT (169810 December 1767) was a senior

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the

Royal Irish Army Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

between 1758 and 1767.

Military career

Born the eldest son of

John Hamilton-Leslie, 9th Earl of Rothes John Hamilton-Leslie, 9th Earl of Rothes (1679–1722) was a Scottish nobleman who fought on the side of George I during the Jacobite rising of 1715. Biography John Hamilton-Leslie, born in 1679, was the eldest son of Charles Hamilton, 5 ...

and Lady Jean Hay, daughter of

John Hay, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale John Hay, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale PC (1645 – 20 April 1713) was a Scottish nobleman. Early life Hay was the eldest son of John Hay, 1st Marquess of Tweeddale and his wife, Lady Jean Scott, daughter of Walter Scott, 1st Earl of Buccleuch. H ...

, Leslie was commissioned into the 9th Regiment of Dragoons in 1715.John Leslie, 10th Earl of Rothes
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography In 1717 he transferred to the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. He became

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

of the 21st Regiment of Foot in 1721 and inherited his father's title the following year. He became a

Scottish representative peer This is a list of representative peers elected from the Peerage of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords after the Acts of Union 1707 abolished the Parliament of Scotland, where, as a unicameral legislature, all Scottish P ...

in 1723. In 1732 he took over command of the

25th Regiment of Foot Fifth is the Ordinal number (linguistics), ordinal form of the number 5, five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth ...

. He fought at the

Battle of Dettingen The Battle of Dettingen (german: Schlacht bei Dettingen) took place on 27 June 1743 during the War of the Austrian Succession at Dettingen in the Electorate of Mainz, Holy Roman Empire (now Karlstein am Main in Bavaria). It was fought between a ...

in 1743 and, having transferred to the

Horse Grenadier Guards The Horse Grenadier Guards, usually referred to ''Horse Grenadiers'' were a series of cavalry troops in the British Household Cavalry between 1687 and 1788, who used grenades and other explosives in battle. Originally attached to the Horse Guar ...

, at the Battle of Rocoux in 1744. In 1751 he transferred to the military staff in Ireland and in 1758 he became Commander-in-Chief, Ireland. His home, Leslie House in the village of Leslie, was seriously damaged by fire in 1763. He died at his home in 1767. In 1747, under the

Heritable Jurisdictions Act The Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. II c. 43) was an Act of Parliament passed in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 abolishing judicial rights (Scotland), judicial rights held by Scots heritors. These were a signific ...

, he sold the office of

Sheriff of Fife The Sheriff of Fife was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Fife, Scotland and bringing criminals to justice. Prior to 1748 most sheriffdoms were held on a hereditary basis. From that date, following the Jacobite ...

, which had been a hereditary right of the earldom since 1540.

Family

In 1741 he married Hannah Howard, daughter of Matthew Cole of Thorpe,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and his wife Brittania Cole; they went on to have two sons and two daughters, including John Leslie, 11th Earl of Rothes and Jane Elizabeth Leslie, 12th Countess of Rothes, who succeeded to her brother's title, defeating the rival claim of her uncle Andrew. Mary, the youngest daughter, married William Colyear, 3rd Earl of Portmore. In 1763, following the death of his first wife, he married Mary Lloyd, daughter of Gresham Lloyd and Mary Holt, who after Lloyd's death remarried Thomas Hamilton, 7th Earl of Haddington, a close relative of Rothes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothes, John Leslie, 10th Earl Of 1698 births 1767 deaths 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons officers King's Own Scottish Borderers officers Knights of the Thistle British Army generals British Life Guards officers Royal Scots Greys officers Scottish representative peers Commanders-in-Chief, Ireland Members of the Privy Council of Ireland 10