Lord Charles FitzRoy (British Army officer)

General Lord Charles FitzRoy (17 July 1764 – 20 December 1829) was a British Army officer and politician.

Life

FitzRoy was the second son of Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton and his first wife, Anne, a daughter of Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth. After education at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge,^[1] he entered the army in 1782 as an ensign. In 1787, he was appointed a captain in the Scots Guards and an equerry in 1788, to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, under whom he served in Flanders from 1793-4.

In 1795, FitzRoy was appointed an aide-de-camp to King George III with the rank of colonel and promoted to major-general in 1798. From 1798-99, he served in Ireland then in England until 1809, commanding a battalion of the 60th Regiment of Foot from 1804-5. He was appointed colonel of the 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot and lieutenant-general in 1805 and general in 1814.

From 1787-96 and again from 1802–18, FitzRoy was member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds (though never actually spoke in the house). He supported Pitt and favoured abolitionism and Catholic Emancipation.

FitzRoy died at his house in Berkeley Square, London in 1829 and was buried at Wicken, Northamptonshire.

Family

On 20 June 1795, FitzRoy married Frances Mundy (d. 1797; the daughter of Edward Miller Mundy, MP) and they had one son, Sir Charles FitzRoy who was the governor of New South Wales, governor of Prince Edward Island and governor of Antigua. After his wife's death, he married Lady Frances Stewart (d. 1810; the eldest daughter of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry) and they had three children:

• George FitzRoy (c.1800-1882), British Army officer.
• Robert (1805–1865), hydrographer.
• Frances (d. 1878), married George Rice-Trevor, 4th Baron Dynevor.

References

• J. M. Rigg, ‘FitzRoy, Lord Charles (1764–1829)’, rev. S. Kinross, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2008, accessed 11 Jan 2009