Description:

George III of England King


George III Promotes Irish Artillery Officer Recently Wounded in Napoleonic Wars

 

1p ADS signed by King George III (1738-1820) as "George R." at top left. Partly printed, partly inscribed in a secretarial hand. Written at the Court of St. James's, London, England on May 20, 1795. Bearing two crisply embossed paper seals along the left margin, and signed by three unidentified individuals along the bottom. Handsomely presented behind beveled olive green matting and glass, to the left of a portrait of George III wearing Order of the Garter regalia. Vellum with expected folds, else near fine. Docket section verso revealed through cutaway. Not examined out of frame. Sight size of document is 15.375" x 11.25"; the frame size overall is 25.875" x 17.25" x .75". Catalog description from Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery, Inc. (New York, NY and Beverly Hills, CA) found verso.

 

In part:

 

"George the Third, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith &c. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Richard Legge, Esqr.

 

Greeting: We reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Courage and Good Conduct, do by these Presents Constitute and Appoint you to be Second Lieutenant Colonel of a Battalion of Our Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery commanded by Our Right Trusty and Entirely Beloved Cousin and Councilor General Charles Marquis of Drogheda H:S:P:…

 

Given at Our Court at St. James's the Twentieth Day of May 1795 in the Thirty fifth Year of Our Reign.

 

By His Majesty's Command…"

 

Richard Legge (ca. 1776-1834) was an artillery officer of the Royal Irish Regiment who had been promoted to Captain in September 1794. During the first phase of the Napoleonic Wars, Legge was part of an Anglo-Irish contingent dispatched to the Netherlands to repel invading French forces. According to the Royal Military Calendar, Or Army Service and Commission Book Vol. IV published in 1820, Legge was severely injured on January 10, 1795. Legge "was closely engaged firing case shot from two light 6 pounders, and severely wounded by a musket ball passing through the jaw and neck, breaking the lower jaw asunder." Fighting took place during an especially brutal winter, where rivers froze and soldiers endured blizzards and historically frigid temperatures. Legge's May 20, 1795 promotion was almost certainly in recognition of his recent war injury.

 

During the Flanders Campaign (1792-1795), First Coalition forces, comprised of Austrian, British, Dutch, Spanish, Prussian, and Sardinian troops, ultimately failed to stop the French Revolutionary Army from invading and occupying the Netherlands. There the French established the short-lived Batavian Republic (1795-1806), a sympathetic "sister-republic" that buffered the French from their mainland European enemies.

 

"General Charles Marquis of Drogheda" referred to Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda (1730-1822). Moore's 50-year-long military career began as a teenaged color bearer at the Battle of Culloden; he was eventually promoted to Field Marshal in 1821. Moore also served in both the British and Irish parliament.

 


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