Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/334

 In 1758 Montresor was sent to Annapolis, Nova Scotia, to report on the defences, but when the campaign opened he rejoined the army for service in the lake country. In 1759 he accompanied the army of General Amherst, and as chief engineer distinguished himself by his fertility of resource and by the work he accomplished with insufficient means and materials collected in the emergency. In June he went to Lake George, put the fieldfort there in repair, and in concert with the general selected a site for a permanent fort. He traced out the defence works, and remained on the spot to superintend its erection. The work was well advanced in 1760, with accommodation for six hundred men, and called Fort George. While constructing the fort Montresor was in command of the troops and outposts of the line of communications between Albany and Lake George, a command he held till his return to England in the spring of 1760.

The fatigues of the campaigns had told upon his health, and although appointed on 1 Oct. 1760 chief engineer of the expedition against Belle Isle, he was too ill to go. He was on the sick list for the next two years, travelling about in search of health. On 3 Feb. 1762 he resigned his commission in the 14th foot. From 1763 to 1765 he was employed in designing and superintending the erection of the new powder magazines at Purfleet in place of those at Greenwich, which, by an act of parliament of 1761, were ordered to be destroyed. In 1769 he was chief engineer at Chatham. On 25 May 1772 he was promoted colonel. He died on 6 Jan. 1776 at New Gardens, Teynham, Kent. He was buried at Teynham, and there is a tablet on the north wall of the chancel of the church to his memory and to that of his third wife and her first husband. The epitaph gives Montresor's age at his death as sixty-six; it should be seventy-three.

Montresor married, first, at Gibraltar, on 11 June 1735, Mary, daughter of Robert Haswell, esq. (she died 5 March 1761); secondly, on 25 Aug. 1766, Henrietta, daughter of Henry Fielding, esq.; and thirdly, Frances, daughter of H. Nicholls, esq., and relict of William Kemp, esq., of New Gardens, Teynham. By his first marriage he had several sons: John [q. v.], who became chief engineer in America; James, a lieutenant in the navy, lost in the frigate Aurora; and Henry, who died of wounds received at the siege of Trichinopoly.

The following plans drawn by Montresor are in the British Museum: (1) A drawn plan of the city and peninsula of Gibraltar with the Spanish lines, in five sheets, 1742; (2) A drawn plan of the isthmus, city, and fortifications of Gibraltar, with elevation and sections of the principal public buildings, profiles through the two extremities of the rock and fort built by the Spaniards, with several additional designs for better defending and securing the place, eight sheets, 1753. The following plans, lately in the war office, are now in the archives of the Dominion of Canada : (1) Plan of part of river of St. Lawrence from Montreal to Isle of Quesny; (2) Part of Lake Champlain, showing Forts Edward, William, &c., 1756.

The following plans are in the war office: (1) Description and map of Gibraltar, coast of Spain and Barbary, 1748; (2) Particular survey of the city of Gibraltar, showing government property, 1753. Also twenty-six plans of various parts of the works of defence, with sections of the fortress of Gibraltar, and of the barracks and also of the Spanish lines and forts, dating from 1747 to 1752.  MONTRESOR, JOHN (1736–1788?), major, royal engineers, eldest son of Colonel James Gabriel Montresor [q. v.], was born at Gibraltar on 6 April 1736. When in 1754 his father was appointed chief engineer of the expedition to North America, he accompanied him and joined the 48th foot. He obtained a commission as lieutenant in that regiment on 4 July 1755. He served with the regiment in Braddock's expedition, to which his father was chief engineer. He was wounded at the disastrous battle of Du Quesne on 14 July 1755. On 19 May 1758 he obtained a commission in the engineers as practitioner engineer, and on 17 March 1759 he was promoted sub-engineer. He was at the siege of Quebec in 1759, and at great personal risk carried despatches from the governor to General Amherst. He took an active part in the reduction of Canada. In 1764 he constructed a chain of redoubts near Niagara, and built a fort on the shore of Lake Erie. He was promoted engineer extraordinary and captain lieutenant on 20 Dec. 1765. He continued to serve in America for many years, but there is no special record until 1775, when he was at Bunker's Hill. He made a survey of the position and plans of the works. He was appointed chief engineer in America on 18 Dec. 1775, and was promoted captain and engineer in ordinary on 10 Jan. 1776. He was present at the attack and capture of Long Island on 27 Aug. 1776 and the action 