Everything about Sir Charles Asgill 2nd Baronet totally explained
General
Sir Charles Asgill 2nd Baronet GCH (
6 April 1762 –
23 July 1823) was a career soldier, educated at
Westminster School,
London and
Göttingen University,
Germany.
Biography
Born in London, the only son of one-time Lord Mayor of London
Sir Charles Asgill, 1st Baronet (for an image of 1st Baronet see
(External Link
)and scroll down to Staircase) and Sarah Theresa Pratviel, Charles Asgill entered the army on
27 February 1778 (just before his 16th birthday), as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, now called
The Grenadier Guards. He became Lieutenant in the same regiment with the rank of Captain on
3 February 1781 (just before his 19th birthday). In that year he was ordered to America, joining the army under
Lord Cornwallis, and on the capitulation of
Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781, he was taken prisoner.
"The Asgill Affair"
He was the subject of a diplomatic incident in May 1782 (referred to then and now as “The Asgill Affair”), when he was selected by lot to be executed in retaliation for the murder (of
Joshua Huddy) carried out by the Loyalists. His mother, the doughty Sarah Asgill (of French Huguenot origin), wrote to the French Court pleading for her son’s life to be spared. She was the instigator of the misleading information that her son was only 19 years of age. The fact is that Asgill had already celebrated his 20th birthday before the drawing of lots on 26 May 1782. The King,
Louis XVI, and Queen of France,
Marie Antoinette, ordered the
Comte de Vergennes, the Foreign Minister, to convey to General
George Washington their desire that a young life be spared. Since Asgill was protected by the 14th Article of Capitulation, safeguarding prisoners of war, such an unjustified execution would have reflected badly on the newly emerging independent nation of America. Congress agreed and young Asgill returned to England a free man in December 1782. A year later, together with his mother (who had been too ill to travel sooner), and sisters, he went to France to give thanks to the King and Queen for saving his life. The visit commenced on 3rd November 1783. Asgill writes about this experience in his Service Records, where he states "the unfortunate Lot fell on me and I was in consequence conveyed to the Jerseys where I remained in Prison enduring peculiar Hardships for Six Months until released by an Act of Congress at the intercession of the Court of France. Returned to England on Parole in December 1782...had leave of Absence for a few months for the purpose of going to Paris to return thanks to the Court of France for having saved my Life".
Subsequent career
Asgill was appointed Equerry to
Frederick, Duke of York in 1788. In that same year he inherited the
Asgill Baronetcy upon the death of his father. In August 1790 he married Jemima Sophia Ogle, daughter of
Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle, at
Martyr Worthy,
Hampshire. Asgill went to the Continent and joined the Army under the command of The Duke of York in 1794-1795, served the Campaign and was present at the whole of the Retreat through Holland. In June 1797 he was promoted
Brigadier General in the 1st Foot Guards and was appointed to the Staff of Ireland. In his Service Records he states: “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”. He remained on the Irish Staff until February 1802 when in consequence of the Peace he was removed and returned to England.
On
18th March 1803, and by now a
Major General, Asgill writes: “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. In August 1805 I'd the command of a very large Camp which was formed at the
Curragh of Kildare; and since that period have continued in the same Command in the Eastern District:- Whenever any Armament or Expedition was preparing I always offered my Services to the Commander in Chief and should have been highly gratified had they been accepted. From the nature of my Command in Dublin (where there's always a considerable Garrison) I've been much in the Habit of strict Exercise of Weapons, and in respect to my competency it's for the General Officers to decide, under whose command I've had the honor of Serving”.
Asgill was appointed Colonel of the 2nd Battalion 46th Regiment of Foot (South Devonshire Regiment) on 9th May 1800. In 1802 the 2nd Battalion 46th Regiment of Foot was disbanded and Sir Charles went onto half-pay as the Colonel of a disbanded battalion. Promoted to
Lieutenant General in January 1805, he was appointed
Colonel of the 5th
West India Regiment on
10th February 1806; Colonel of the
85th Regiment of Foot on
30 October 1806 and Colonel of the
11th Regiment of Foot on
25 February 1807. He was promoted to full General on 4 June 1814.
Charles Asgill died in London. He was buried in the vault at
St James's Church, Piccadilly on
1 August 1823. His wife, Sophia Asgill, predeceased him in 1819 and she too was buried in the vault at St. James’s. St. James's Church Piccadilly
(External Link) was damaged in the Blitz of London in 1940. After WWII ended, specialist contractors, Rattee and Kett Ltd, of Cambridge
(External Link), under the supervision of Messrs. W.F. Heslop and F. Brigmore, undertook restoration work which was completed in 1954. Two former employees, who were involved with the restoration work, remembered temporarily removing coffins from the vault prior to installing under-floor-heating. They stated, in 2003, that the Church has a vault, although the present-day Church staff were unaware of this and have no record of either Asgill being buried there. Curiously, also, when monumental inscriptions were drawn up in the mid-19th Century, and again in the early 20th Century (prior to the bomb damage to the church) no monumental inscriptions have been recorded for either Charles or Sophia Asgill. It would seem, therefore, that the General didn't place a memorial to his wife, and nor did the Asgill family place one for him after his death. This is strange since Charles Asgill was one of the notable men of his age. He loved his wife, referring to her as "my beloved wife" in his will, in spite of the fact that history has recorded her as a woman of great beauty, a flirt, and enjoying the company of other men, notably
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (see
The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley 1787-1817).
The character, "Lady Olivia" in
Leonora (Maria Edgeworth) was rumoured to be based on Lady Asgill, thereby portraying her as a "coquette"! Rumours circulated thus: “Lady Olivia in ‘ Leonora ‘ is now supposed by all Dublin to be a portrait of Lady Asgill”. Also, the following letter sheds light on Sophia: Maria Edgeworth’s letter to her aunt Mrs. C. Sneyd at Byrkley Lodge, Lichfield, dated 3rd December 1809. To my dear Aunt Charlotte, ...She [MissWhyte] told us a great many good anecdotes of Lady Asgill - of whom she's seen a great deal, and it was for some time difficult for us to determine whether she was her friend or her enemy but at last this point was determined by her account of a battle royal between these two belles at Miss Whyte’s own table lately in Dublin. Lady Asgill began the attack thus “ Miss Whyte do you know the good people of Dublin are beginning to abuse you quite as much as they abuse me”. “Oh no, I hope not quite so bad as that” – quoth Miss W. “Why though they abuse me, I’m certainly very popular” reasoned Lady A – “for if I invite 60 people to my dinners or my concerts not one of the 60 send an excuse. They all come to my parties”. “Oh that's no proof of popularity” replied Miss W “for your ladyship knows that if one came down from the gibbet and gave good dinners and good music they might be sure of having everybody at their parties.” The conversation went on from popularity to notoriety - then the word famous was brought in by some of the company and a Mrs Parkhurst (the English lady who brought in the message about comedy from Sheridan) brought in the word infamous. I don’t exactly know how but Lady Asgill, who has, it's said, infinite command of temper, coolly in her high keyed voice " Does Mrs Parkhurst mean to say that Miss Whyte and I are infamous?".
Upon his death the
Asgill Baronetcy became extinct. Most biographies claim he died without issue (excepting
A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary (sic) Public Characters, Second Edition, Vol I, Part I, printed for Geo. B. Whittacker, Ave-Maria Lane, 1825 which states Sophia bore him children). This book of 1825 would probably have been collated and prepared for printing during Asgill’s lifetime as his entry is written in the present tense.
John Asgill, 1659-1738, (known as "Translated" Asgill) was a relative, both being descendants of Joshua Asgyll MA, DD, born 1585.
Images
Images of General Sir Charles Asgill may be found at the following locations.
1786 engraving
The
New York Public Library holds a copy of the image on the right
(External Link)
An engraving which was published on
April 1,
1786, as an illustration in John Andrews’ book,
History of the War with America, France, Spain, and Holland: Commencing in 1775 and Ending in 1783, 4 vols. (London: J. Fielding, 1785-86). The engraving was apparently based on a portrait miniature, the present location of which is unknown. Asgill wears a scarlet frock coat with dark blue facings. The collar and lapels are edged with gold lace, but the buttonholes on the facings are plain. His buttons are gilt. The collar buttons down over the top lapel button. Curiously, Asgill sports a gold epaulette on his left shoulder. A battalion company officer in the Foot Guards would have worn a single epaulette on his right shoulder. It isn't known if Asgill was assigned to the 1st Foot Guards grenadier company after his return to England. If he was, it seems odd that he's shown wearing a cocked hat rather than a bearskin cap. The temporary light infantry company that served with Brigade of Guards in the American War was dissolved after the cessation of hostilities. Thus either the artist took some liberties in depicting Asgill’s uniform, or the latter was a grenadier when he posed for his portrait. It is a possibility that the lost miniature was painted before Asgill left to join Lord Cornwallis’s army in America. Perhaps his family wanted a likeness of their only son before he left England, knowing he was going to war and might not return.
Asgill also wears a white ruffled shirt, a black neckstock, and a white waistcoat. His black cocked hat is plain, except for a gilt button and gold lace loop securing the cockade on the left front. Asgill wears his hair en queue with side curls. The hair also looks like it could have been powdered.
The above information has been provided by Gregory J.W. Urwin, Professor of History,
Temple University, Doylestown, PA 18901.
1822 mezzotint
The
National Army Museum, London,
(External Link) holds a copy of the following image (1981-03-61 image number 79658) which can be viewed at the top of the page.
It is a mezzotint by Charles Turner after the original oil painted by Sir
Thomas Phillips RA, which was exhibited at the
Royal Academy London, in 1822, the year before Asgill died. In his will, General Asgill left this portrait to his brother-in-law,
Admiral Sir Charles Ogle. Asgill states in his will: “And I give to the said Sir Charles Ogle, 2nd Baronet, 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.” It thus seems clear that Asgill wanted the Ogle family to treasure his portrait and preserve it in perpetuity; however, the present location of this portrait is unknown.
Admiral Sir Charles Ogle disinherited his son, Chaloner Ogle, 3rd Baronet, so it's unclear what then happened to the portrait. It possibly went instead to his daughter, Sophia Ogle, who married her cousin the Rev. Edward Chaloner Ogle who succeeded to
Kirkley Hall in 1853.
After Asgill died, Admiral Ogle wrote to the artist saying: 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's requested to send it to Mr Domville. Fm C ....? ....? (illegible) 42 Berkeley Sq, Oct 23 1823.
Clearly the Admiral thought there was a possibility that the General hadn't paid Phillips for the portrait at the time of his death, and it would also seem likely that Asgill hadn't actually taken delivery of same.
Other images
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History has a further image of Captain Charles Asgill. A copy of this is held at The British Library.
The
National Library of Ireland holds a caricature attributed to William Sadler showing General Sir Charles Asgill in the uniform of the
11th Regiment of Foot, of which he was Colonel. It shows four military officers in different regimental uniforms. Inscribed in ink above their heads are their names or rank: Colonel 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, Colonel of the 11th. Reproduction rights owned by National Library of Ireland.
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