General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

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

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between 1758 and 1767.

Military career

Born the eldest son of John Hamilton-Leslie, 9th Earl of Rothes and Lady Jean Hay, daughter of John Hay, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale, 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 The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the ...

. He became Commanding Officer of the

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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. 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, 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 held by Scots heritors. These were a significant source of power, espec ...

, he sold the office of Sheriff of Fife, which had been a hereditary right of the earldom since 1540.

Family

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

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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