Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/153

 his seat of New Hall in Essex. In 1687 he subscribed largely to a plan started by one Captain Phipps for fishing on a Spanish wreck off Hispaniola. The adventure was successful, and he received 40,000l. as his share of the profits. On 26 Nov. 1687 Monck was made governor-general of Jamaica, an honour he did not long enjoy, as he died there early in the autumn of the next year. He left no issue.

Sir Hans Sloane, who accompanied him to Jamaica as his physician,, gives a detailed account of his last illness, which commenced before he left England, and appears to have been aggravated, if not caused, by his intemperate habits. Sloane describes the duke as 'of a sanguine complexion, his face reddish and eyes yellow, as also his skin, and accustomed by being at court to sitting up late and often being merry' (Collection of Sir Hans Sloane's loose papers). He married, at the age of sixteen, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Henry Cavendish, second duke of Newcastle, and after his death she married Ralph Montagu, first duke of Montagu [q. v.], but left no family by either husband.  MONCK or MONK, GEORGE, first (1608–1670), born 6 Dec. 1608 at Potheridge, near Torrington in Devonshire, was the second son of Sir Thomas Monck, knt., by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Smith of Maydford in the same county (, Life of Monck, 8vo, 1671, p. 1; Visitation of Devonshire, 1620, ed. Colby, pp. 188-91). In 1625 the under-sheriff of Devonshire perfidiously arrested Sir Thomas Monck as he went to pay his respects to the king, and George Monck avenged his father's wrongs by thrashing the under-sheriff. To avoid legal proceedings he took service as a volunteer in the expedition to Cadiz, under his kinsman, Sir Richard Grenville, who was then major to the regiment of Sir John Borough. In 1627 he distinguished himself by bringing a letter from the king to the Duke of Buckingham in the Isle of Ré, 'passing the army, which lay before Rochelle, with great hazard of his life.' It was probably as a reward for this service that he now obtained an ensign's commission in Borough's regiment (, p. 4; Works of George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, ed. 1736, iii. 253). About 1629 Monck entered the Dutch service, serving in the regiment of the Earl of Oxford, which after Oxford's death became the regiment of George Goring. At the siege of Breda, in 1637, Monck led the forlorn hope in the assault on one of the outworks of the town. He distinguished himself also as a strict disciplinarian, and earned a reputation as a good officer. A quarrel with the magistrates of Dort on the question of their jurisdiction over the soldiers under Monck's command finally led to his quitting the Dutch service. A scheme was at this time on foot in England for the colonisation of Madagascar by a joint-stock company, and Monck thought of becoming one of the adventurers in that enterprise. But the outbreak of the Scottish troubles provided him employment in England (, pp. 5-ll;, Brief Relation of the Siege of Breda, 4to, 1637, p. 27). In the list of the army under the command of the Earl of Northumberland, in 1640, Monck appears as lieutenant-colonel of the foot regiment of the Earl of Newport (, Army Lists, 2nd edit. p. 75). Gumble attributes to Monck's good conduct the saving of the English guns in the rout at Newburn (p. 10; cf., Life of Monck. 1724, p. 18).

At the outbreak of the Irish rebellion the Earl of Leicester a relative of Monck's was lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and at once offered Monck the command of his own regiment of foot. .The regiment, consisting of twelve hundred men, landed at Dublin on 21 Feb. 1642 (, p. 15;, Historical Collections, ii. 919). Monck gained much honour at the battle of Kilrush, and by defeating the Irish in a number of skirmishes and forays (, Irish Rebellion, ed. 1743, p. 100). In June 1642 he 'took Castleknock, and killed eighty rebels, besides some that he hanged; and a while after he took the castles of Rathroffy and Clongoweswood in the county of Kildare, and did good execution upon the enemy' (, Hibernia Anglicana, ii. 107). In December 1642 he relieved Ballinakill, besieged by General Preston, and defeated at Tymachoe an attempt of the Irish to intercept his return to Dublin (, Ormonde, ed. 1851, ii. 386;, Hist. of the Irish Catholic Confederation, i. 91, ii. 177). In the summer of 1643 he conducted an expedition for the relief of Castle-Jordan in King's County, captured various places in Wicklow, and took part in an unsuccessful campaign against Owen O'Neill (ib. i. 161, ii. 271, 363;, ii. 500). On 7 June 1643 the Earl of Leicester commissioned Monck as governor of Dublin, with a salary of 40s. a day, but the king, at 