called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1823. In 1828 he published the 'Proceedings of the House of Lords in the Gardner Peerage Claim,' in which case he had appeared for the petitioner. Upon the recommendation of his college friend, William Brougham, Lord Brougham, on becoming lord chancellor in 1830, appointed him his principal secretary. During the debates on the Reform Bill he attended nightly in the House of Commons and greatly distinguished himself by the reports which he prepared for the use of ministers (Greville Memoir, 1st ser. iii. 22). He was appointed clerk of the crown in chancery in 1834, and in that year edited a highly successful pamphlet, 'The Reform Ministry and the Reform Parliament,' to which his intimate friend Lord Althorp, and also Lord Stanley, Lord Palmerston, and Graham were contributors. It ran through nine editions. From 1838 to 1841 he was secretary to the board of trade, and during the last few months was also joint secretary to the treasury. Lord Melbourne created him a baronet in August 1841, before leaving office, he entered the House of Commons as M.P. for Worcester, 8 July 1846, but retired in the following year. In the Russell administration of 1847 he became under-secretary for the home department, and in 1848 returned to the (secretaryship of the board of trade. In 1850 he was appointed chief clerk to the House of Commons, which office he held until he retired with the thanks of the House of Commons in 1871 (see Hansard, Parl. Debates, cciv. 232). He died 30 Oct. 1874 at Belgrave Road, London. On 9 Jan. 1835 he had married Sarah Elisa, fourth daughter of Charles Smith of Sutton, Sussex. by whom he had two sons and two daughters. He published privately in 1841 a memoir of his father; edited in 1846 Walpole's 'Memoir of the Reign of George III,' with notes; and, at the request of Frederick, earl Spencer, he wrote the 'Memoirs of John, Viscount Althorp,' which, being left incomplete at his death, was completed and published in 1876 by his son, Sir Henry Denis Le Marchant.
[Times, 4 Nov. 1874; Illustrated London News, 22 Feb. 1861; Annual Register, 1874.]
LE MARCHANT, JOHN GASPARD (1766–1812), major-general, born in 1766, and descended from an ancient Guernsey family, was eldest son of John Le Marchant (a retired officer of the 7th dragoons) and his wife, Maria Hirzel, daughter of Count Hirzel de Gratian, maréchal de camp of the Swiss guards in the service of France. Thomas Le Marchant, of Le Marchant Manor, Guernsey, lieutenant-bailiff of the island, was his grandfather. He was placed at school at Bath, where the future admiral, Sir Sidney Smith, was one of his schoolfellows, and the master, Dr. Morgan, pronounced Le Marchant the greatest dunce he ever met. Brought home, he turned studious, and with the help of the family butler, an American loyalist and a man of some education, made up for past neglect, and acquired habits of application that lasted through life. He appears to have possessed a turbulent temper, which in later years he strove successfully to curb. His youth was full of escapades. On 25 Sept. 1781 he was appointed ensign in the Wiltshire militia (not a Yorkshire regiment, as his son states), and signalled his joining by calling out the colonel for insulting him. The colonel had the wisdom to smooth matters over, and another duel Le Marchant had in view with a Yorkshire gentleman (the regiment was quartered at York) was stopped by the peace officers. His son believes these were the only affairs of the kind in which he was ever concerned, and in after-life he had a great horror of duelling. He was appointed ensign in the 1st royal foot on 18 Feb. 1783, and on the eve of embarking with his regiment for Gibraltar was enticed to a gaming-house in Dublin by a superior officer, who won 250l. from him. The loss practically meant the sacrifice of his commission, but the regimental paymaster came to his rescue on Le Marchant giving a promise, which he religiously kept, never to touch cards again. He spent some years in garrison at Gibraltar, occupying his spare moments in sketching scenery in Spain and Barbary. When at home on sick leave, after an attack of yellow fever, he married, a step regarded by his family as most imprudent, both parties being under age. Le Marchant was sent back in haste to his regiment, but was presently transferred to the 6th Inniskilling dragoons at home; and thence, after obtaining his lieutenancy, to the 2nd dragoon guards, or queen's bays, where he attracted the notice of George III, with whom he became a great favourite. He served with his regiment in the campaigns in Flanders in 1793–4, obtaining his troop in the former year. In 1795 he was promoted to a majority in the 16th light dragoons (now lancers), then in attendance on the court at Weymouth and elsewhere. About this time Le Marchant devised a system of cavalry sword-exercise, which was approved by the Duke of York, and visited the principal sword-cutlers in England with a view to the introduction of a better sword. His son states that a pattern suggested by him was adopted (experi-
