Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/56

4 individual of his professional celebrity thus dedicating his talents and a portion of his time to religious instruction. Such an example is above all praise."

, of Lochnaw, Bart., Lieutenant-General. The family of Agnew lays claim, and probably with justice, to a more illustrious antiquity than most of our Scottish noble houses. The founder is supposed to have been one of the followers of William the Conqueror. Be that as it may, we find the Agnew or Agneau of the day accompanying Sir John de Courcy in the invasion of Ireland, and settling at Larne, in Ulster, after that province was conquered by the Anglo-Normans. Besides this Irish branch of the Agnews, another, in the true spirit of Norman enterprise, entered Scotland in the reign of David II., where they acquired the lands of Lochnaw, and were invested with the offices of heritable constables and sheriffs of Wigtonshire.

Sir Andrew Agnew, the subject of the present memoir, and fifth baronet of Lochnaw, was born in 1687, and was the eldest son of a family of twenty-one children. This was a truly patriarchal number; but he lived almost to equal it, being himself ultimately the father of seventeen sons and daughters by one mother, the daughter of Agnew of Creoch. Sir Andrew embraced the military profession at an early period, as many of his family had done, and was an officer in the great Marlborough campaigns, as we find him a cornet in the second regiment of Dragoons or Scotch Greys, at the battle of Ramilies, when he had just reached his nineteenth year. It was in this capacity, and under such training, that besides being a skilful and successful officer, he became distinguished by those deeds of personal daring, as well as eccentric peculiarities of manner, that long made him a favourite in the fireside legends of the Scottish peasantry. Among these, we are told, that on one occasion having been appointed to superintend the interment of the slain after one of the continental engagements, his orderly came to him in great perplexity, saying, "Sir, there is a heap of fellows lying yonder, who say they are only wounded, and won't consent to be buried like the rest: what shall I do?" "Bury them at once," cried Sir Andrew, "for if you take their own word for it, they won't be dead for a hundred years to come." The man, who understood nothing beyond the word of command, made his military salaam, and went off with full purpose to execute the order to the letter, when lie was checked by a counter-order from his superior, who perhaps little thought that his joke would have been carried so far. On another occasion, when an engagement was about to commence, he pointed to the enemy, and thus briefly and pithily addressed his soldiers: "Weel, lads, ye see these loons on the hill there: if ye dinna kill them, they'll kill you."

When the battle of Dettingen took place, which occurred in 1743, where George II. commanded the British troops in person, Sir Andrew Agnew held the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was appointed to the keeping of a pass at the outskirts of the British army, through which an attack of the French was apprehended. On this post of danger, accordingly, the knight of Lochnaw stationed himself with his regiment of Scots Fusileers as coolly as if he had been upon the boundary of one of his own farms in Wigtonshire. One day, while at dinner, he was informed that there were symptoms of a coming attack—that the enemy's cavalry were mustering at no great distance. "The loons!" cried Sir Andrew indignantly; "surely they will never hae the impudence to attack the Scots Fusileers!" and forthwith ordered his men to finish their dinner quietly, assuring them that they would fight all the better for it. He continued eating and encouraging his officers to follow his example, until the enemy were so nigh, that