Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/348

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Burgoyne
342
Burgoyne

the king deprived him of the command of the 16th light dragoons and of his government of Fort William, and he was thus left with only his pay as a general officer. This conduct threw him more and more into the hands of the opposition. His support was warmly received. Fox and Sheridan insisted that he was an ill-used man, whose defeat was due to the incapacity of the ministry; and when the whigs returned to power under Lord Rockingham, Burgoyne, on 7 June 1782, was made commander-in-chief in Ireland, and a privy councillor there, and colonel of the 4th regiment. He went out of power with Fox on the fall of the coalition ministry in December 1783, and helped with his pen to turn Pitt's administration into ridicule. He contributed to the 'Rolliad' and the 'Probationary Odes,' and wrote nearly the whole of the witty but bitter and scurrilous 'Westminster Guide.' But the friends of Fox had commenced a long period of exclusion from office, and Burgoyne withdrew more and more from politics and confined himself to the literary and social life, in which he shone, and made practically his last political appearance as a manager of the impeachment of Warren Hastings in 1787.

His love for the stage and his success with the 'Maid of the Oaks' turned his mind especially to dramatic writing, and in 1780 was produced the comic opera, 'The Lord of the Manor,' for which he wrote the libretto, founded on Marmontel's 'Sylvain,' Jackson of Exeter writing the music. This was followed by his translation of Sédaine's libretto to Grétry's opera, 'Richard Cœur-de-Lion,' in 1785, and by his comedy, 'The Heiress,' in 1786. In this play, which was written at Knowsley and dedicated to Lord Derby, Miss Farren made her great success and charmed the heart of Lord Derby, who afterwards married her. Burgoyne himself had formed a connection with Susan Caulfield, a popular singer, by whom he had four children between 1782 and 1788, who were brought up by Lord Derby. 'The Heiress' had a marvellous success, went through ten editions in a year, was translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and is to be found in Villemain's 'Chefs d'œuvres du Théâtre Étranger.' Of it Horace Walpole says, 'Burgoyne's battles and speeches will be forgotten; but his delicious comedy of the "Heiress" still continues the delight of the stage, and one of the most pleasing domestic compositions.' The idea of the 'Heiress' was taken from Mrs. Lennox's novel 'Henrietta' (Fonblanque, pp. 401-6). Burgoyne did not long survive this last success; and after being present at the Haymarket Theatre in good health on 3 June 1792, he died suddenly next day at his house in Halford Street, Mayfair. and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 13 Aug.

[For life: Political and Military Episodes derived from the Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. John Burgoyne, General, Statesman, and Dramatist, by E. B. de Fonblanque, 1875. For works: The Dramatic and Poetical Works of the late Lieutenant-general John Burgoyne, 2 vols. 1808. For American campaigns: Ordinary histories of the United States; Creasy's Decisive Battles of the World; Max von Eelking's Das Leben des Generals Reidesel, Leipzig, 1856; the Orderly Book of Lieutenant-general John Burgoyne, edited by E. B. O'Callaghan, M. D., Albany, N.Y., 1860; Lieutenant-general John Burgoyne and the Convention of Saratoga, by Charles Deane, Worcester, N.Y., 1878; also the following contemporary tracts: The Substance of General Burgoyne's Speeches on Mr. Vyner's Motion, 26 May, and Mr. Hutt's, 28 May 1778, with an Appendix containing General Washington's Letter to General Burgoyne, 1778; A Letter from Lieutenant-general Burgoyne to his Constituents, upon his late Resignation, with Correspondence between him and the Secretaries of War relative to his Return to America, 1779; A State of the Expedition from Canada, as laid before the House of Commons and verified by Evidence, 1779; Remarks on General Burgoyne's State of the Expedition from Canada, 1780.]

H. M. S.

BURGOYNE, Sir JOHN FOX (1782–1871), engineer officer, was the eldest of the four illegitimate children of Lieutenant-general the Right Hon. John Burgoyne [q. v.], by Miss Susan Caulfield. He was born on 24 July 1782. On General Burgoyne's death in 1792, his nephew, Edward, twelfth earl of Derby, took charge of the children. In 1793 Burgoyne was sent to Eton, where he was the fag of Hallam, the historian, and on 19 Oct. 1796 he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. On 29 Aug. 1798 he was gazetted to the royal engineers.

In April 1800 he was ordered to join Sir Ralph Abercromby's army in the Mediterranean, but was left behind at Malta to assist in the reduction of Valetta. He was promoted first lieutenant in July 1800. From Malta he was ordered to Sicily, where General Fox made him his aide-de-camp, and he was promoted second captain in March 1805. He was sent as commanding engineer with General Mackenzie Fraser's force to Egypt in February 1807, and was present in that capacity at Rosetta. On his return to Sicily, Sir John Moore chose him to accompany his expedition to Portugal as commanding royal engineer. The expedition led to nothing;