Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet

General Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet, (6 April 1762 – 23 July 1823) was a career soldier in the British Army. Asgill enjoyed a long military career, eventually rising to the rank of general. He is best remembered as the principal of the so-called Asgill Affair of 1782, in which his retaliatory execution while a prisoner of war was commuted by the American forces who held him, due to the direct intervention of the government of France. Later in his career, he was involved in the Flanders campaign, the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and was Commander of the Eastern Division of Ireland during the Irish rebellion of 1803.

Early life and education

Charles Asgill was born in London on 6 April 1762, the only son of one-time Lord Mayor of London Sir Charles Asgill and Sarah Theresa Pratviel, whose home was Richmond Place, now known as Asgill House, in Surrey. He was educated at Westminster School and the University of Göttingen.

He entered the army on 27 February 1778, just before his 16th birthday, as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, a regiment today known as the Grenadier Guards. According to Ambrose Vanderpoel: "Asgill insisted upon entering the army contrary to the wishes of his parents. His father offered to give him a house and £3000 per year n 2021 worth £501,801 p.a.if he would adopt some other profession."
So, aged sixteen, Asgill’s first home, after leaving university, was at 29 Old Burlington Street, London, which had been built in 1723 for General George Wade. Asgill occupied the premises between 1778-1785. At a later date the house was occupied by Lord Cornwallis, until his death in October 1805. His son, the 2nd Marquess Cornwallis, died there, in 1823. The building subsequently became the Burlington Hotel, which included adjoining properties.

Asgill became lieutenant in the First Foot Guards, with the rank of captain, in February 1781.

Soon afterwards, Asgill was ordered to North America to fight in the American Revolutionary War. He shipped out for America at the beginning of 1781. As historian Katherine Mayo writes, after Asgill joined Cornwallis's army: "So came the campaign in the Southern States, of Asgill's share in which little is known save his brother officer's later testimony that, as might be expected of his mother's son, "he was lively, brave, handsome, and a special favourite with his comrades"; while in another soldier's journal of the day one glimpse appears that seems to show him reflecting his father."

It came at a moment when, because of the illness of senior officers, Asgill must lead the First Foot Guards in nattack upon an American post. The Guards having taken their objective, its commander, a white haired colonel hurt in the fight, limped forward to offer his sword to the victor. But the boy, undone at the sight, could think of nothing but youth's due to age, misfortune, and suffering. Here to him was no conquered enemy, but one to whom his sympathy and respect rushed out. With his own arm he supported the wounded man, with his own hands served his needs.

Captain Asgill became an American prisoner of war following the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis following the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781.

The Asgill Affair

Preceding events

After the Capitulation at Yorktown, by April 1782 tit-for-tat murders between the Patriots and Loyalists had become frequent. One of the Loyalists fighting in the American Revolution, by the name of Philip White, was shot to death in the hands of the Patriots. Accounts of the exact circumstances of his death differ; however, both his brother Aaron who had been captured with him, and a document addressed to George Washington, say that he was murdered in cold blood.

Loyalists retaliate

The Loyalists took revenge almost immediately. A captain of the Monmouth Militia and privateer named Joshua Huddy was overwhelmed and captured by Loyalist forces at the blockhouse (small fort) he commanded at the village of Toms River, New Jersey on the Staff in Ireland. He was granted the rank of major-general on 1 January 1798,John Philippart, ''The Royal Military Calendar'' (1815) vol. I
pp. 115–116
and was promoted Third Major of the 1st Foot Guards in November that year. In his service records, he states he "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." General Sir Charles Asgill marched from Kilkenny and attacked and dispersed the rebels. Kathleen Toomey writes: "If the men of the Glengarry Fencibles had suffered from the ennui of inaction on Guernsey, the transfer to Ireland brought it to an abrupt end … Within the next few months, the regiment was kept on the march. In July 798they were in Kilkenny and Hacketstown; in August, they were part of Sir Charles Asgill's force in the Shlievenamon mountains prior to the attack on Callan."

Liam Chambers states that "the fundamental purpose of the United Irish rebellion of 1798 was the overthrow of the Irish administration based in Dublin; hence their primary military objective was the capture of the capital." He goes on to say that "In Queen's County the pacification was better organized by General Sir Charles Asgill". However, "Rebel failure was the result of the partial nature of the rising, isolated not only by the still-born Dublin effort but by the general inactivity outside the Kildare/south east Meath area". Asgill once more served under Lord Cornwallis, who was Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.

In an extract of a letter received from Major-General Sir Charles Asgill, Bart., by Lord Viscount Castlereagh, (who assumed many of the onerous duties of the often-absent Irish Secretary during the Rebellion of 1798) Asgill himself writes: "Kilkenny, 26 June 1798 My Lord, - Fearing the consequences that might result from allowing the Rebels who fled from Wexford to remain for any length of time in this country, I preferred attacking them with the troops I already had to waiting till a reinforcement arrived. My force amounted to eleven hundred men. The Rebels consisted of about five thousand. I attacked them this morning at six o'clock in their position on Kilconnell Hill, near Gore's Bridge, and soon defeated them. Their chief, called Murphy, a priest, and upwards of one thousand men were killed. Ten pieces of cannon, two swivels, their colours, and quantities of ammunition, arms, cattle, etc., were taken, and I have the pleasure to add that four soldiers who were made prisoners the day before, and doomed to suffer death, were fortunately released by our troops. Our loss consisted of only seven men killed and wounded. The remainder of the Rebels were pursued into the County of Wexford, where they dispersed in different directions. I feel particularly obliged to Major Mathews, of the Downshire Militia, who, at short notice and with great alacrity, marched with four hundred men of his regiment, and Captain Poole's, and the yeomanry corps of Maryborough, under the command of Captain Gore, to co-operate with me. Lord Loftus and Lieutenant-Colonel Rem, of the Wexford Militia, Lieutenant-Colonel Howard and Lieutenant-Colonel Redcliffe, of the Wicklow, Major Donaldson, of the 9th Dragoons, who commanded the cavalry, as well as all the officers and privates, are entitled to my thanks for their spirited exertions. Nor can I withhold the praise which is so justly due to all the yeomanry corps employed on the occasion; and I also beg leave to mention my aide-de-camp, Captain Ogle is wife's younger brother, Thomas, 1776-1801 Lieutenant Higgins, of the 9th Dragoons, who has acted as my brigade major.- I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient servant, C. ASGILL, Major-General" The Irish song '' Sliabh na mBan'' remembers this.

In William Farrell's autobiography, the author explains how Lady Asgill was instrumental in saving his life. She had persuaded her husband, General Sir Charles Asgill, that since a Lady (Queen Marie Antoinette of France) had saved his life, that he must, therefore, save the life of William Farrell who faced the gallows on account of his part in the Irish Uprising of 1798. Farrell was thus spared the gallows, but was deported for fourteen years.

"Ah, General Asgill, you must not be too inexorable, particularly in the case of a boy, a young lad, quite a young lad, and you may recollect very well, when you were a young lad yourself, you were just in the very same predicament in America, and that it was a lady there saved your life, and upon my honour I'll save his life and you must do it."

"...the singular and eccentric, but not unamiable wife of General Asgill..." had considerable influence over her husband, which didn't stop with Farrell, since she was able to persuade Asgill to save two other Irishmen from the death penalty, namely William and James Maher. Their sister, Mary, had managed to see Lady Asgill in Kilkenny, but Asgill "would never have conceded mercy to a croppy". Nonetheless, he did provide Mary with the authority required to save them from death. Mary reached her brothers too late, and they both died from a fever contracted whilst held prisoners. The city of Kilkenny presented Asgill with a snuff box for his "energy and exertion" which was praised by the Loyalists.

Lady Melbourne wrote: "What L^y Asgill says is ye real test of a Womans cleverness – that is managing her Husband – she says it is what every Woman ought to Study for her own happiness & her Husbands too – & she never can think any one can have any pretentions to cleverness who does not do so, by some means or other – "

On 9 May 1800 Asgill was transferred from the Foot Guards to be colonel commandant of the 2nd Battalion, 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot. He went onto half-pay when the 2nd Battalion was disbanded in 1802. Later that year he was again appointed to the Staff in Ireland, commanding the garrison in Dublin and the instruction camps at the Curragh.

Asgill was presented with a silver hot-water urn by the people of Clonmel in appreciation of his part in the uprising in their town in 1801. The inscription on the urn reads: "PRESENTED by the Inhabitants of the Town and Neighbourhood of CLONMEL to MAJr. GENl. SIR CHAs ASGILL BARt. in token of their great regard for His unremitting exertions as General Commanding in the district in defeating the Schemes of the Seditious and Protecting the loyal Inhabitants. CLONMEL MDCCCI".

Service in Dublin

In 1801, before being appointed to the garrison in Dublin, Asgill found himself defending the right of Henry Ellis (in the neighbourhood of Kilkenny) to be properly remunerated for the invaluable intelligence he had provided during the rebellion. His information had made a significant contribution to the suppression of the rebels, but he paid a severe price for his loyalty after the fighting was over. His neighbours persecuted him; tried to kill him; and ruined his business as a miller. The British were very slow to pay his annuity of £30 per annum for life, and he became a ruined man. Sir Charles Asgill and Lord Castlereagh took up his cause (with a Mr A. Marsden) to see that he was properly compensated. Nevertheless, Ellis suffered greatly because of "his situation, and losses, on account of his loyalty to his king and government". When he died he was buried in "an inverted burial in the unconsecrated ground of his own farmland, … The lack of any memorial stone or grave marker is mysterious. Perhaps one was destroyed generations ago by inhabitants of the locality or never erected in anticipation of such an act."

In his service records Asgill states: "On the 18th March 1803 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."

Asgill was promoted to lieutenant general in January 1805. At a court martial held at the Barracks, Dublin, on 30 December 1805, charges were laid against Lieutenant Colonel Charles Belson of the 2nd Battalion of the 28th Regiment of Foot regarding a punitive punishment he ordered against Private Patrick Reardon of that regiment: "causing to be carried into immediate execution a corporal punishment of two hundred lashes, and, after his recovery from the effects of his punishment, by keeping him two or three hours a day at the dumb-bells". Reardon had been transferred from the first battalion, "in which he had served several years, to the second, in consequence of infirmity and inability to undergo the duties and fatigues of general active service". Belson's orders had been carried out while Reardon's case was still under consideration by Lieutenant General Sir Charles Asgill. The Court, therefore, sentenced Belson to be "reprimanded in such manner as His Majesty may think proper to direct"... "In his defence they cannot adjudge him Guilty of any criminal disobedience of orders", and was acquitted of that charge. Although "in some of the matters of the preceding charges, there has been a degree of irregularity and want of due discretion on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Belson". The Court also found Belson not guilty of gross disrespect to Asgill.

Asgill was appointed Colonel of the Regiment of the 5th West India Regiment (February 1806); of the 85th Regiment of Foot (October 1806); and of the 11th (North Devonshire) Regiment (25 February 1807), for which he raised a second battalion in the space of six months. R.E.R. Robinson writes: "He sgillwas, therefore, a down-to-earth, non-political soldier: eminently qualified to safeguard the interests of a solid fighting regiment of the line. Under his aegis the 11th, in company with the rest of the British Army, would lift itself out of what Sir Arthur Bryant calls 'the fifty years' pit of defeat and neglect into which it (''the Army'') had fallen …' " Asgill mentions the men of the 11th in his will, in a Codicil written on 15 July 1823, eight days before his death. "The sum of eight hundred pounds bout £100,008 in 2021which are at my agent's hands, Messrs. Greenwood & Co., Grays Court, agents, or will be deposited this month at my off reckoning, for the of the 11th Foot, due to me."

Alongside a date of 30 October 1806, Asgill writes in his service records: "My Leaves of Absence have been very short, and not frequent. I am acquainted with the French Language, and was also with the German, but from want of practice have nearly forgotten the latter."

Asgill, having established a second battalion of the 11th Regiment of Foot, had to pay to equip his men out of his own pocket – he then experienced difficulty receiving a refund from the Treasury. Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, wrote from Dublin Castle to his brother Henry, Joint Secretary to the Treasury, on 3 January 1809: "I enclose some papers which I have received from Sir Charles Asgill relative to the issue of 8 months off reckonings for the Second 11th Regiment o copies present He is entitled to this issue, but the ground on which he desires to have the money at an early period is that he raised the regiment in this country and purchased for them the accoutrements and other articles the expense of which this advance is intended to defray and that whenever articles of this description are purchased in Ireland they must be paid for in ready money, as the tradesmen are unable to give credit as they do in England. An officer, therefore, who incurs the expenses here ought to receive the money from the Treasury to defray them as soon as possible, otherwise he must orrowthe amount which is his due and pay interest for it. I shall be obliged to you if you will endeavour to manage this matter in such a manner as *will* that Sir Charles Asgill may receive his 8 months off reckonings immediately."

Retirement

Asgill was much shocked to receive a letter from the Duke of York, on 3 January 1812, telling him that on account of Lieutenant General Sir John Hope's appointment to the Command of the Forces in Ireland, that "you will unavoidably be discontinued on the staff of the Army." The Duke goes on to say:

At the same time that I was honoured with the Prince Regent's Commands, upon this subject, I received His Royal Highness' Express Directions, to signify to you, His entire approbation of your zeal and ability, in the Discharge of the Duty which has been entrusted to you, and it is with great satisfaction, that I embrace this opportunity of assuring you, of my best thanks, for the able assistance I have invariably experienced from you, and of my regret that the Military Arrangements do not admit, for your employment upon the Staff of the Army, in Great Britain, at present.

Asgill was almost 50 years old at the time, and explains, in his reply to Colonel John McMahon, Private Secretary to the Prince Regent: "I shall for the first time in my life return to England with a reduced income, and without any employment, which is not very pleasant to my feelings after an uninterrupted service of thirty four years, fifteen of which have been spent on the Staff of Ireland." He continues: "As it is probable, the Prince Regent's Establishment will be soon arranged, I beg leave to mention to you that I should consider myself highly honoured if His Royal Highness would be pleased to appoint me to any Situation he might deem me competent to fill … I should esteem it a very great favour if you will have the goodness to take an opportunity of making my wishes known." It is not known whether his request was even acknowledged.

Asgill continued to serve on the Staff until 1812, and on 4 June 1814 he was promoted to general. In 1820 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order.

Death and legacy

Court cases

On Christmas day 1788, just three months after his father had died, Asgill's younger sister Harriot Maria (1767-1790) wrote her will, with no witnesses and no legal representation. By April 1790 she had died, aged 22, leaving a substantial fortune to her family; her will also stating "if there is money left unemployed I desire it may be given in charity"; and going on to say: "I hope there will be no objections made …". Whether it had been her intention, or not, the fact is that £2,000 was left "unemployed" which amounts to the equivalent of £316,692 in 2021. Following their mother's death, then, on 27 February 1818, Charles Asgill's youngest sister, Caroline, and her husband Richard Legge, took the matter to court (and appeal), with the final judgement declaring that the money "left unemployed" must go to charity, stating "There never has been a case in which the executors have been permitted to take the residue for their own use …" The family squabbles about money ran deep and Asgill makes it clear in his will that if these continue all the individual bequests to his family will be revoked. With regard to his sister Caroline Legge he states: "And if my said sister and her present or any future husband shall, if living, refuse to comply with the condition hereby required of them, then I revoke the bequests hereby made to or in favour of the children of my said sister, living at my decease, and I give in such case all sum or sums of money and legacies hereby bequeathed to or in favour of such children to the present children of the said Sir Charles Ogle is brother-in-lawequally to be divided between them". The same terms apply to them all.

The following year, on 7 December 1791, Asgill was once more involved in a court case, this time at the Old Bailey. His servant, Sarah Paris, had stolen some items from him. She had passed some of these items on to William Turnbull, a servant of Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who had fought in the American Revolution with Asgill. Asgill stated that she was pregnant and has another child with the supposed father absent. Turnbull was likely the father of the unborn child and stated in court that he was not her husband, but that he had cohabited with her.

Asgill pleaded for clemency under her circumstances: "I am induced to think it was extreme poverty which drove her to it, for she is with child, and has another, and the supposed father was absent; I had the best character with her." He went on to say: "My lord, I beg leave to observe, that I was induced to be lenient to this man, in hopes that he will take care of the children." At the conclusion of the hearing he also said: "My lord, I beg leave to recommend her strongly to mercy." The judgement was read as: "Court. Sarah Paris, you have been indicted and convicted of a felony, in stealing a quantity of linen, and other things, the property of Sir Charles Asgill, your master, who has very humanely recommended you to mercy, as also the Jury have recommended you with equal humanity; your situation influences me to pass on you the mildest punishment that I can pass upon you; and as I have a power, by the late act of parliament, to commute burning in the hand for a pecuniary punishment, my sentence is, that you be fined 1 s. and discharged." In terms of income, her fine amounted to approximately £70 in 2021.

Family life

Lady Melbourne wrote that "Asgill was a member of the duchess of Devonshire's circle and a friend of Madame de Coigny at Harrington House." Speaking of Sophia Asgill, Lady Bessborough wrote: "she puts me quite out of patience with her coquetry and affectation." They were reported in each other's company in ''The Times'' from time to time. One such occasion was on 16 September 1802: " Lord Say and Sele gave a dinner at Broadstairs, and in the evening a Concert of vocal and instrumental music. The Duchess of Devonshire, the Duchess of Manchester...Sir Charles and Lady Asgill...were of the party". They enjoyed the theatre too and through one of Sophia's Ogle cousins, who was Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second wife, were frequently in his company. "Sheridan was over forty-three and his bride not yet turned twenty, when, on 27 April 1795, he wedded Esther Jane Ogle, the youngest daughter of Newton Ogle, Dean of Winchester"..."while she, at first reported to have exclaimed, 'Keep away, you terrible creature,' ended by declaring, so testifies Thomas Grenville, that Sheridan was the 'handsomest and honestest man in England'". The Asgills were prominent at Sheridan's funeral after his death on 7 July 1816, where he is buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey: "personal friends like Erskine and Lynedoch, the Dukes of York, Sussex and Argyll followed the coffin. Burgess, Bouverie ophia's sister, Arabella's husband and Asgill followed".

From 1791 to 1821 Asgill lived at No. 6 York Street (subsequently renamed 7 Duke of York Street), off St James's Square. Lady Asgill died at York Street on 30 May 1819. Sophia's death was a bitter blow for Lord Lynedoch too and on 12 May 1819 he wrote:

For the last five or six days I have not stirred out of Sir Charles Asgill's house, and we have all been in the greatest alarm about Lady Asgill, whose health for some months has been very indifferent, but a sudden and violent attack of spasm has put her life in imminent danger and has left her in so low and reduced a state as to render the result very precarious.

"These fears were sadly justified. Within three weeks Lady Asgill was dead, and on June 5th she was laid to rest in Sir Christopher Wren's beautiful church, St James's Piccadilly, within a few yards of her husband's house in York Street." Like Charles Asgill, Lynedoch had also been at her bedside when she died.

The final two years of Asgill's life were spent at the home of his mistress, Mary Ann Goodchild, otherwise Mansel—who was also mistress to General Robert Manners—at 15 Park Place South, near The Man in the Moon, Chelsea. Two codicils to his will were written and signed there shortly before his death. Asgill died on 23 July 1823, and was buried with his wife in the vault at St James's Church, Piccadilly on 1 August. Upon his death, the Asgill baronetcy became extinct. Most biographies claim he died without issue, but the 1825 edition of ''A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters'' states Sophia bore him children.

Because St. James's Church was damaged in the Blitz of London on 14 October 1940, it is not known whether the coffins of Sir Charles and Lady Asgill survived the damage to the church. After the war ended, specialist contractors, Rattee and Kett, of Cambridge, under the supervision of Messrs. W. F. Heslop and F. Brigmore, undertook restoration work, which was completed in 1954.

The Lady Olivia character in the 1806 novel '' Leonora'' by Maria Edgeworth was rumoured to have been based on Lady Asgill, portraying her as a "coquette". Lady Asgill herself maintained a two-decades long secret correspondence with Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch. The two had agreed to destroy each other's correspondence, but one letter written by Sophia survived as Lynedoch did not destroy them all. She kept his letters, which were discovered amongst her possessions after her death. A graphite drawing of Lady Asgill's setter dog was created at the Lynedoch Estate in Scotland by Charles Loraine Smith.

During the months leading up to Asgill's death in 1823, he was the victim of fraud. "The Swindler Asgill" was touring southern England persuading his victims to send the bill for his luxury purchases to his "uncle", Sir Charles Asgill. He was never caught, but the ''Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier'' of Saturday 13 September 1823 states: "There is good reason to believe that the real name of 'Mr Asgill' has been discovered, and that it is not altogether unknown to fame in the annals of police: but for obvious reasons, we omit it for the present". The Swindler perpetuated his lies, through his children, so that the present-day generation believed themselves to be descendants of Asgill's "disinherited son", William Charles Asgill. Even his obituary, in the ''Blackburn Standard'' of Wednesday 22 February 1854, declared that he was the "second son of the late Charles Asgill" – stating the latter was "of Regents Park". General Sir Charles Asgill had no legitimate children and never had an address in Regents Park.

Images

Depictions of Asgill include:

*The Thomas Phillips RA portrait of Charles Asgill, painted in 1822 and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts London that year, is listed in the National Portrait Gallery, London catalogue for the 1822 exhibition, and is recorded as: ''107 Portrait of Gen. Sir Charles Asgill, Bart. G.C.G.O. T Phillips. R.A.''

:By 1821 Asgill had sold his London home, so he wrote, from his Pall Mall club, to his tailor (name and location omitted). He said that he was "writing in haste" to confirm an appointment to attend the tailor's premises "next Wednesday at Eleven". While all that he gives by way of a date is that the letter was written on Saturday 9 February, with no year included, the 9th fell on a Saturday in 1822, the year he had his portrait painted by Thomas Phillips. He wrote: "Pall Mall, Saturday 9 Feb, Dear Sir - I beg leave to enclose a Draft for the advance you requested --- I will be much obliged to you if you will have the goodness to return to me my Uniform as soon as you possibly can, as it has become very much tarnished, & will be spoilt unless it is carefully wrapped up, & excluded from the Air ---".

:Asgill bequeathed the Thomas Phillips portrait to his brother-in-law Sir Charles Ogle, 2nd Baronet for his family, in perpetuity. "And I give to the said Sir Charles Ogle, for his, my portrait painted by Phillips, and at his decease I give and bequeath the same portrait to his son Chaloner Ogle, requesting it may be preserved and retained in his family." After Asgill's death Ogle wrote to the artist to ask if he could take possession and whether he was still due payment.

Sir Charles Ogle requests Mr Philips will have the goodness to deliver the picture of the late Sir Charles Asgill to the bearer Mr Goslett - If Mr Philips has any demand on Sir Charles Asgill, he is requested to send it to Mr Domville, tNo. 6 Lincolns Inn.

42 Berkeley Sq, Oct 23 1823.

:At the time of his death Ogle had disinherited his eldest son, Chaloner, 1803–1859 (who died less than a year after his father)

*Charles Asgill as a Captain in the First Foot Guards, held at the Library of Congress
*General Sir Charles Asgill. Mezzotint by Charles Turner, 1822 (c), after Thomas Phillips, held at the National Army Museum, London
*Sadler’s cartoon image of Uniform of the British Army in 1820. Four military officers in different regimental uniforms. Inscribed in ink above their heads are their names or rank: Col. Perry 16th Lancers; A Regimental Doctor 70th Reg. The 70th called the "Black Dogs"; An officer of the Green Horse, 5th Dragoon; Sir Charles Asgill – Col. of the 11th.

See also

* Robert Taylor
* 2nd Canadian Regiment
* Ogle Baronets

Footnotes

References

Further reading

*
* Belonzi, Joan, (1970) ''The Asgill Affair.'' Seton Hall University.
* Billardon de Sauvigny, Louis-Edme, (1785) Dramatization of the Asgill Affair, thinly reset as
Abdir
' Study of critical biography. Paris.
* D'Aubigny, ''Washington or the Orphan of Pennsylvania'', melodrama in three acts by one of the authors of ''The Thieving Magpie'', with music and ballet, shown for the first time, at Paris, in the Ambigu-Comique theatre, 13 July 1815.
* De Comberousse, Benoit Michel (1795) ''Asgill, or the English Prisoner'', a drama in five acts and verse. Comberousse, a member of the College of Arts, wrote this play in 1795. The drama, in which Washington's son plays a ridiculous role, was not performed in any theatre.
* De Lacoste, Henri (1813) ''Washington, Or The Reprisal'' A Factual Drama, a play in three acts, in prose, staged for the first time in Paris at the Théâtre de l'Impératrice, on 5 January 1813. (In this play Asgill falls in love with Betty Penn, the daughter of a Pennsylvanian Quaker, who supports him through his ordeal awaiting death).
* De Vivetieres, Marsollier (1793) music by Dalayrac, :nl:Nicolas-Marie Dalayrac ''Asgill or The Prisoner of war'' – one act melodrama and prose, performed at the Opera-Comique for the first time on Thursday, 2 May 1793.
* Duke, Claire A., History 586,
"To Save the Innocent, I Demand the Guilty": The Huddy-Asgill Affair
', 12 May 2017, Kansas State University
* Graham, James J., (1862) Memoir of General Graham with notices of the campaigns in which he was engaged from 1779 to 1801, Edinburgh: R&R Clark, pp. 91–92.
* Haffner, Gerald O., (1957) "Captain Charles Asgill, An Incident of 1782," ''History Today,'' vol. 7, no. 5.
* Humphreys, David, (1859) ''The Conduct of General Washington Respecting The Confinement of Capt. Asgill Placed in Its True Point of Light.'' New York: Printed for the Holland Club.
* Jones, T. Cole

2019 ,
* Lambe, John Lawrence, (1911
''Experiments in Play Writing, in Verse and Prose.''
London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, p. 252. (Section entitled ''An English Gentleman'', the story of The Asgill Affair retold, in which Asgill declares his love for Virginia Huddy, Captain Joshua Huddy's daughter).
* Leveson-Gower, Granville. (1916)
Private Correspondence 1781-1821
' edited by his Daughter-in-Law Castalia Countess Granville in two volumes
* Melbourne, Lady Elizabeth Milbanke Lamb (1998) ''Byron's "Corbeau Blanc" The Life and Letters of Lady Melbourne'' Edited by Jonathan David Gross. p. 412,
* McHugh, Rodger, (1998) ''Voice of Rebellion: Carlow in 1798 – The Autobiography of William Farrell.'' Introduction by Patrick Bergin. Dublin: Wolfhound Press.—First published in 1949 as ''Carlow in '98.''
* Pakenham, Thomas, (1969) ''The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798.'' London: Hodder and Stoughton.
* Pierce, Arthur D., (1960) ''Smugglers' Woods: Jaunts and Journeys in Colonial and Revolutionary New Jersey.'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
* Shelley, Frances, (1969) ''The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley 1787–1817''. Hodder and Stoughton.
* Smith, Jayne E, (2007) ''Vicarious atonement: revolutionary justice and the Asgill case.'' New Mexico State University.
* Tombs, Robert and Tombs, Isabelle, (2006) ''That Sweet Enemy: The British and the French from the Sun King to the Present.'' London: William Heinemann.

External links

Derbyshire Records Office hold twenty-three Asgill related records

Georgian Newspaper Project listing all mention of the Asgill family in the ''Bath Chronicle''.

"Documents of the American Revolution: Joshua Huddy Era,"
Monmouth County Archives, Monmouth County, New Jersey. www.co.monmouth.nj.us/ —Catalog of an exhibition at Monmouth Country Library Headquarters, October 2004
The Asgill Affair - The Random Execution That Almost Reignited the Revolutionary War
by Jason Mandresh, on 25 May 2020
Peter Henriques and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb
talk about Henriques's book, ''First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington'' ''vis-a-vis'' his chapter on the Asgill Affair, on 18 November 2020
Talk on the Asgill Affair by Peter Henriques
Prince William Public Libraries, on 8 December 2020
''A Portrait of Washington's Greatness—and His Limitations''
In the ''National Review'' by Michael Knox Beran, 7 January 2021

''Charles Asgill - setting the record straight''
in Family Tree, on 7 March 2022.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asgill, Charles, 2nd Baronet
1762 births
1823 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
People educated at Westminster School, London
British Army generals
British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War
British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars
Devonshire Regiment officers
People of the Irish Rebellion of 1798
Grenadier Guards officers
American Revolutionary War prisoners of war held by the United States
Equerries
University of Göttingen alumni
British prisoners sentenced to death
Prisoners sentenced to death by the United States military
Military personnel from London
Burials at St James's Church, Piccadilly