John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier

The Earl Ligonier
John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier
Master-General of the Ordnance
In office
1759–1763
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces
In office
1757–1759
Military Governor of Plymouth
In office
1752–1759
Governor of Guernsey
In office
1750–1752
Member of Parliament
for Bath
In office
1748–1763
Personal details
Born
Jean Louis de Ligonnier[1]

(1680-11-07)7 November 1680
Castres, France
Died28 April 1770(1770-04-28) (aged 89)
North Audley St, London
Resting placeSt Andrews, Cobham, Surrey [2]
RelationsFrancis Ligonier (1693–1746)
AwardsKnight of the Bath
Military service
Allegiance England
 Great Britain
Years of service1702–1759
RankField marshal
UnitColonel, 7th Dragoon Guards 1720–1749
Grenadier Guards 1757–1770
Battles/wars

Field Marshal John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, KB, PC (born Jean Louis de Ligonnier; 7 November 1680 – 28 April 1770), styled Sir John Ligonier from 1743 to 1757, was a French-born British soldier and politician who fought for the English and British armies for more than half a century. In 1757, he was appointed Commander-in-chief and raised to the peerage as Viscount Ligonier in 1757, and in 1766 further elevated as Earl Ligonier.

Ligonier was a Huguenot refugee who fled his native Castres for England in 1697, following the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau, which stripped the rights of French Protestants to practice their religion. He joined the British Army in 1702 as a volunteer, and for the next six decades was dedicated to the British cause. He fought in the European wars of the Spanish Succession, of the Quadruple Alliance, and of the Austrian Succession. During the Seven Years' War, he also served as Master-General of the Ordnance, effectively acting as Minister of War for the Pitt–Newcastle ministry. He retired from active duty in 1763 and died at his home in London on 28 April 1770.

He sat in the House of Commons for Bath from 1748 to 1763 and served as Governor of Guernsey from 1750 to 1752.

  1. ^ Agnew, David C. A. (1866). Protestant Exiles from France in the Reign of Louis XIV: Or, The Huguenot Refugees and Their Descendants in Great Britain and Ireland. Private circulation. p. 254. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  2. ^ Heathcote 1999, p. 204.