Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/267

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home, having meanwhile attained lieutenant-general's rank on 25 Sept. 1803. On 26 May 1806 he was transferred from the 85th to the colonelcy of the 6th royal regiment of foot, and, by patent dated 28 Nov. the same year, was created a baronet of the United Kingdom in recognition of his services. He was member for Aylesbury in the parliament of 1806–7. He commanded successively the Western and the Kent military districts, resigning the latter in October 1809. He was commander-in-chief in India in 1811–13. He became a full general on 4 June 1813, and in 1815 was made G.C.B. In 1819 he was made an honorary D.C.L. of the university of Oxford, and the same year was returned once more for Buckingham, which he continued to represent until the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832. He was made a field-marshal on 9 Nov. 1846, and died at his seat, Waddesdon House, Little Marlow, Berkshire, on 11 March 1849, aged 92. He married at Belfast, on 16 Nov. 1797, Maria, seventh daughter of Cortlandt Skinner, attorney-general of New Jersey, North America, and by her had three sons and two daughters. She died in 1834.

[Foster's Baronetage; Philippart's Royal Mil. Cal. 1820; Official List of Members of Parliament.]

H. M. C.

NUGENT, JOHN, fifth Earl of Westmeath (1672–1754), born in 1672, was third son of Christopher Nugent, lord Delvin, grandson of Richard, second earl of Westmeath [q. v.], and younger brother of Thomas, fourth earl [q. v.] He was present as cadet in the horseguards of James II at the battle of the Boyne and at Limerick. In 1691 he withdrew, with the bulk of the Irish swordsmen, to France, and served as lieutenant to the ‘mestre-de-camp’ of the king's regiment of Irish horse on the coast and in Flanders till the peace of Ryswick in 1697. He was attached as reformed captain to Sheldon's regiment in February 1698, was present at the battle of Chiari in 1701, at the defence of Cremona and the battle of Luzzara in 1702. He served with the army of Flanders in 1704, and, having on 5 April 1705 obtained his captain's commission, fought under the French standard at Ramillies in 1706, at Oudenarde in 1708, and at Malplaquet in 1709. In 1712 he was present at the battle of Denain, and at the sieges of Douay and Quesnoy. He served with the army of Germany in 1713 and with that of the Lower Meuse in 1714, was promoted major of his regiment by brevet of 3 Jan. 1720, and on 15 Feb. 1721 was appointed ‘mestre-de-camp de cavalerie.’ He served at the siege of Kehl in 1733, at the attack of the lines of Etlingen and the siege of Philippsburg in 1734, and at the affair of Klausen in 1735. He became lieutenant-colonel of his regiment on 23 May 1736, and obtained rank as brigadier on 1 Jan. 1740. He served in Westphalia under Maréchal de Maillebois in 1741, and on the frontiers of Bohemia in 1742, and in Lower Alsace under Maréchal de Noailles in 1743. He was breveted maréchal-de-camp or major-general on 2 May 1744. He quitted the service in June 1748, and succeeded his brother Thomas as fifth Earl of Westmeath in 1752, but died in retirement at Nivelles in Brabant on 3 July 1754. He married Margaret, daughter of Count Molza of the duchy of Modena in Italy, and was succeeded by his son Thomas, sixth Earl of Westmeath, who conformed to the established religion, being the first protestant peer of his house.

[Pinard's Chronologie Historique-Militaire, vii. 208; O'Callaghan's Irish Brigades, Glasgow, 1870, p. 500; Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall, i. 248.]

R. D.

NUGENT, LAVALL, Count Nugent (1777–1862), prince of the Holy Roman Empire and Austrian field-marshal, was born at Ballinacor, co. Wicklow, 3 (30) Nov. 1777. Burke (Peerage, 1862—‘Foreign Titles’) states that he was elder son of John Nugent of Bracklin, co. Westmeath, and afterwards of Ballinacor (d. 1781), and his wife Jane (d. 1820), daughter of Bryan McDonough, and that he went to Austria in 1789, having been adopted by an uncle, Oliver, Count Nugent, colonel in the Austrian army, who died in 1824. Austrian biographers describe Lavall Nugent as son (probably meaning adopted son) of Count Michael Antony Nugent, master of the ordnance and governor of Prague, who died in 1812 (he is not mentioned by Burke, but see Neue Deutsche Biogr. under ‘Nugent’). All that appears certain about his early years is that on 1 Nov. 1793 Nugent was appointed a cadet in the Austrian engineer corps, with which he served as lieutenant and captain to the end of February 1799. He obtained his captaincy during the fighting round Mainz in April 1795. He repeatedly signalised himself by his coolness under fire, and served with distinction on the quartermaster-general's staff, to which he was transferred on 1 March 1799, and with which he was present at the siege of Turin on 11–20 June, the investment of the castles of Serradella and Savona in August, and other operations in the Italian campaign of 1799, and in the Marengo campaign of 1800. He won the Maria Theresa cross, and was