Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/346

  32nd light dragoons. He was afterwards for some years one of the inspecting field-officers of yeomanry and volunteer corps. He died at his mother's residence in Oxford Street, London, on 11 Aug. 1817. Shortly before his death Burgoyne was the object of a curious and vexatious prosecution, in which the vicar of his parish sued him for penalties under an old law for not having attended divine service during a period exceeding twelve months. The proceedings fell through.

[Burke's Baronetage; De Fonblanque's Life of Right Hon. John Burgoyne, p. 6; Annual Army Lists; War Office Military Entry Books and Marching Orders (Regulars); Gent. Mag. (lxxxvii.) i. 189, ii. 368.]  BURGOYNE, JOHN (1722–1792), dramatist and general, was the only son of, Captain John Burgoyne, a man of fashion, who died in the rules of the king's bench, and grandson of Sir John Burgoyne, bart., of Sutton Park, Bedfordshire. He was educated at Westminster School, where he made friends with Lord Strange, eldest son of the Earl of Derby, who at every important crisis in his life was his faithful friend. Burgoyne became a cornet in the 13th light dragoons in 1740, and purchased a lieutenancy in 1741, when the regiment was stationed at Preston. From Preston he frequently went over to Knowsley to see his old schoolfellow, and his intimacy there culminated in his elopement; with Lady Charlotte Stanley, the sister of Lord Strange, in 1743. The lady's brother was quite content with the match, but her father was so angry that he only gave her a small sum of money, and declared he would never see her again. With this money Burgoyne bought a captaincy in the 13th dragoons, and for three years Captain and Lady Charlotte Burgoyne spent a very pleasant life in London. At the end of that period, however, they were so overwhelmed with debt that he sold his commission, and they retired to live quietly in France on the proceeds of the sale. They settled down in a little cottage near Chanteloup, the seat of Choiseul, and during seven years of exile Captain Burgoyne made himself a master of the French language and literature, and obtained a good insight into contemporary politics and the condition of continental armies. He was meanwhile reconciled to his father-in-law, the eleventh earl of Derby, who subsequently left Lady Charlotte Burgoyne 25,000l. and an annuity of 400l. He returned to England, and by Lord Derby's interest obtained in 1756, on the outbreak of the seven years' war, a captaincy in the llth dragoons, which he exchanged in May 1758 for a captaincy and lieutenant-colonelcy in the Coldstream guards. He now first saw service in the expeditions to Cherbourg and St. Malo in 1758 and 1759, and in the latter year he proposed to the Horse Guards to raise a regiment of light horse. Light cavalry were really unknown in England at this time. Burgoyne had heard much on the continent of the famous Pandours and Cossacks and of the Prussian hussars, and he propounded a scheme for raising two regiments of light horse. They were raised in August 1759 by Lieutenant-colonel Eliott, afterwards Lord Heathfield, and Burgoyne, were approved, and were named the King's Light Dragoons and the Queen's Light Dragoons respectively. After this success he was elected M. P. for Midhurst in 1761, and in 1762 was sent to Portugal as brigadier-general under Count la Lippe Buckeburg, to assist the Portuguese against Spain. The transports anchored in the Tagus on 6 May 1762, and Burgoyne received the command of the outposts. He stormed the town of Valencia d'Alcantara in July, taking three standards and a general, and on 5 Oct. stormed the entrenched camp of Villa Velha, which closed the campaign.

In 1768 he was elected M. P. for Preston, through the Derby influence, with free leave to say what he liked, and began as a candid friend of the ministry. His chief subjects were foreign policy and the war office, and his most successful speeches were against the government on the Falkland Isles in 1771, and on the government of India in 1772. This India motion is the most striking proof of his ability as a statesman, and in his motion for a select committee, on 13 April 1772, he proposed the principle, afterwards incorporated into the India bills of Pitt and Fox, that some government control should be instituted over the proceedings of the East India Company. When the report of the committee was brought up, on 3 May 1773, he made a violent attack on Lord Clive, and brought about his condemnation by the House of Commons, though Wedderburn managed to keep off an impeachment. Burgoyne was a member of all the fashionable clubs, a friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, an amateur actor, and a reckless gambler. In 1774 he wrote a play, the 'Maid of the Oaks,' which was acted at his seat, the Oaks, near Epsom, on the occasion of the marriage of his wife's nephew, then Lord Stanley, to Lady Betty Hamilton. In 1775 Garrick brought it out at Drury Lane, with Mrs. Abington in the chief role. Like Burgoyne's other efforts, the play is rather tedious to read. His political career, though it brought down the anger of