Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/361

 at London ‘Some Remarkable Passages relating to Archbishop Laud, particularly of his affection to the Church of Rome. Being the twenty-second chapter of Gage's Survey of the West Indies, as 'twas printed in the Folio Edition before the Restoration, but supprest in the Octavo since,’ 8vo.  ‘Rules for the better learning of the Indian tongue called Poconchi, or Pocoman, commonly used about Guatemala and some other parts of Honduras.’ Printed at the end of ‘The English-American.’  ‘A Duell between a Iesuite and a Dominican, begun at Paris, gallantly fought at Madrid, and victoriously ended at London, upon fryday, 16 May 1651.’ This tract relates to the evidence he gave against Peter Wright and Thomas Dade, a Dominican friar.



GAGE, THOMAS (1721–1787), general, second son of Thomas Gage, first viscount Gage, in the peerage of Ireland, by his first wife Benedicta (or Beata Maria Theresa), only daughter and heiress of Benedict Hall of High Meadow, Gloucestershire, was born in 1721. On 30 Jan. 1741 he received his first commission as a lieutenant in Colonel Cholmondeley's newly raised regiment (afterwards 48th foot, and now the 1st Northampton). His name occurs in the Irish lists (Quarters of the Army in Ireland) in 1745 as a captain in Battereau's foot, the old 62nd, an Irish corps of two battalions, which fought at Culloden and was disbanded in 1748, and in 1748 as major in what then was the 55th foot. He appears to have been aide-de-camp to Lord Albemarle in Flanders in 1747–8 (, Orders of William, Duke of Cumberland). At the reductions of 1748, the 55th foot, of which Sir Peter Halket was colonel, was renumbered as the 44th foot (now the 1st Essex). Gage became lieutenant-colonel of the regiment 2 March 1751, and went with it to America under General Braddock [see ] in 1754. He commanded the advanced column in the march from the Monagahela to Fort Duquesne on 9 July 1755, where he was distinguished by his gallantry and was wounded. Subsequently he was employed with the 44th at Oswego. In May 1758 he was appointed to raise a provincial regiment, which was brought into the line as the 80th or ‘light-armed’ foot. Later in the same year he commanded the light infantry in Abercromby's expedition against Ticonderoga. After the fall of Niagara in July 1759, Gage, as brigadier-general, was detached from Crown Point to supersede Sir William Johnson, a provincial officer by whom the command had been held after the death of Colonel Prideaux. He was directed to act against La Gallette, a French post on Lake Ontario, which he reported to be impracticable. He commanded the rear-guard of the force under Amherst [see ], which united with Murray's forces from Quebec, before Montreal on 6 Sept. 1760, and completed the conquest of Canada. Gage was appointed governor of Montreal, where his mild rule contrasted with the severity of Murray at Quebec. He became a major-general in 1761, and in 1763 was appointed to act as commander-in-chief in North America, with his head-quarters at New York, during the absence of Amherst, who returned home (Calendar Home Office Papers, 1760–5, par. 967). He was confirmed in the appointment the year after (ib.) and retained it until 1772, when he returned to England (ib. 1770–2, par. 1573). His conduct received the approval of the home government (ib. 1766–9, par. 619). After his regiment, the 80th foot, was disbanded, Gage held the colonelcy of the 60th royal Americans for two months, and when Amherst was reinstated therein was transferred to the colonelcy of the 22nd foot. He became a lieutenant-general in 1770, before leaving America.

In 1774 Gage was appointed governor-in-chief and captain-general of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in succession to Hutchinson, and in May that year, pursuant to orders from home, took up his quarters in Boston, where he was well received, despite the unpopularity of the enactment closing the port against trading vessels, which had been put in force before his arrival. He had been employed there in 1768. Gage, a brave, though not a brilliant soldier, had six regiments with him in Boston, but his efforts to bring the colonists into a more submissive attitude towards the ministry at home proved as unavailing as thankless. He proclaimed the solemn league and covenant as a traitorous assemblage, and bade the magistrates arrest all persons aiding and abetting it. He likewise issued a proclamation for ‘the encouragement of virtue and suppression of vice,’ in which, according to an American historian, he gave great offence to many by ranking hypocrisy among the immoralities. He chose