Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet


Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet, was a career soldier in the British Army. Asgill enjoyed a long military career, eventually rising to the rank of general. He is best remembered as the principal of the so-called "Asgill Affair" of 1782, in which his retaliatory execution while a prisoner of war was commuted by the American forces who held him, due to the direct intervention of the government of France.

Early life and education

Charles Asgill was born in London on 6 April 1762, the only son of one-time Lord Mayor of London Sir Charles Asgill and Sarah Theresa Pratviel, whose home was Richmond Place, now known as Asgill House, in Surrey. He was educated at Westminster School and the University of Göttingen.
He entered the army on 27 February 1778, just before his 16th birthday, as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, a regiment today known as the Grenadier Guards. Asgill became lieutenant in the same regiment with the rank of captain in February 1781.
Soon afterwards, Asgill was ordered to North America to fight in the American Revolutionary War. He shipped out for America in March 1781. After Asgill joined Cornwallis's army, his company commander fell ill. The young lieutenant and captain Asgill took charge of the unit and led it in a successful attack on a post held by local militia under an elderly colonel named Gregory. Colonel Gregory was wounded and captured, and Asgill won the admiration of his enemies for his kindness toward a fallen foe. Roger Lamb, writing in 1809, quoted an extract from a Hibernian Magazine article of 1782, which he wrote "may serve to shew what was the prevailing opinion of the day relative to that officer":
Captain Asgill became an American prisoner of war following the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis following the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781.

The "Asgill Affair"

In April 1782, a captain of the Monmouth Militia and privateer named Joshua Huddy was overwhelmed and captured by Loyalist forces at the blockhouse he commanded at the village of Toms River, New Jersey. Huddy was accused of complicity in the death of a Loyalist farmer named Philip White who had died in Patriot custody. Huddy was conveyed to New York City, then under British control, where he was summarily sentenced to be executed by William Franklin, the Loyalist son of Benjamin Franklin.
Huddy was held in leg irons aboard a prison ship until 12 April 1782, when he was taken ashore and hanged, after first being allowed to dictate his last will. Loyalists pinned a note to his chest reading "Up Goes Huddy for Philip White" and his body was left hanging overnight. Following his burial at Old Tennent Church by Patriotic supporters, a petition was collected demanding retribution for Huddy's death and presented to American commander General George Washington.
Washington responded to this pressure by declaring that a British captain would be executed in retaliation for the killing of Huddy. On 27 May 1782, lots were drawn at the Black Bear Inn, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with Asgill drawing the paper which put him under threat of execution. Asgill's fellow officer, Major James Gordon, protested in the strongest terms to both General Washington and Benjamin Lincoln, the Secretary of War, that this use of a lottery was illegal. His mother, the doughty Sarah Asgill, wrote to the French court, pleading for her son's life to be spared. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette ordered the comte de Vergennes, the Foreign Minister, to convey to General Washington their desire that a young life be spared.
Since Asgill was protected by the 14th Article of Capitulation in the document of Cornwallis's surrender, safeguarding prisoners of war, such an unjustified execution would have reflected badly on the newly emerging independent nation of America. Congress agreed, and young Asgill was released on parole to return to England in December 1782. A year later, together with his mother and his two eldest sisters, he went to France to thank the King and Queen for saving his life. The visit commenced on 3 November 1783. Asgill writes about this experience in his Service Records, in which he states, "The unfortunate Lot fell on me and I was in consequence conveyed to the Jerseys where I remained in Prison enduring peculiar Hardships for Six Months until released by an Act of Congress at the intercession of the Court of France."
On page 44 of Summit New Jersey, From Poverty Hill to the Hill City by Edmund B. Raftis there appears a map of Chatham in 1781. Clearly marked is the home of Colonel Elias Dayton and also Timothy Day’s Tavern, the first and second locations of Asgill’s imprisonment. The map also shows that the population of Chatham at that time was approximately 50 homesteads, most of these homes having been notated with the names of the occupants. A 21st century map shows that the present day location of Timothy Day’s Tavern would be in the vicinity of 19 Iris Road and Dayton’s house was on what is now Canoe Brooke Golf Course.
After lots were drawn, on 27 May 1782, Hazen wrote that same day to Washington to inform him that Major James Gordon had identified unconditional prisoners, but it was too late, and Asgill was on his way to imprisonment for the next six months, where he awaited the gallows on a daily basis. He also told Washington that his orders had been painful for him to carry out. "...as I judge no Inconveniency can possibly arise to us by sending on Capt. Asgill, to Philadelphia, which will naturally tend to keep up the Hue and Cry, and of course foment the present Dissentions amongst our Enemies, I have sent him under guard as directed. Those Officers above-mentioned are not only of the Description which your Excellency wishes, and at first ordered, but in another Point of View are proper Subjects for Example, been Traitors to America, and having taken refuge with the Enemy, and by us in Arms. It have fallen to my Lot to superintend this melancholy disagreeable Duty, I must confess I have been most sensible affected with it, and most sincerely wish that the Information here given may operate in favour of Youth, Innocence, and Honour".
Following Asgill's return to England, lurid accounts of his experiences whilst a prisoner began to emerge in the coffee houses and press, and French plays were written about the affair. Washington was angered that the young man did not deny these rumours, nor did he write to thank Washington for his release on parole. Speculation mounted as to his reasons; Washington ordered that his correspondence on the Asgill Affair be made public. His letters on the matter were printed in the New-Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine on 16 November 1786, with the exception of his letter written to General Moses Hazen on 18 May 1782, ordering him to include conditional prisoners in the selection of lots, thereby violating the 14th Article of Capitulation.
It was five weeks before Charles Asgill was able to obtain a copy and sit down to read the account of his experiences, as recorded by George Washington. He wrote an impassioned response by return of post. His letter was also sent to the editor of the New-Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine.
Asgill's 18-page letter of 20 December 1786, including claims that he was treated like a circus animal, with drunken revellers paying good money to enter his cell and taunt or beat him, was not published. Supposedly left for dead after one such attack, he was subsequently permitted to keep a Newfoundland dog to protect himself.
I leave for the public to decide how far the treatment I have related deserved acknowledgements...my judgement told me I could not with sincerity return thanks my feelings would not allow me to give vent to reproaches.

These claims were recorded in The Reading Mercury on 30 December 1782, pointing out that Asgill was at the levée for the first time since his arrival in town. This newspaper recorded, also, that Asgill's legs were still damaged from the use of leg irons.
Asgill's unpublished letter was offered for sale by an antiquarian bookseller in the United States in 2007, priced at $16,500. It was purchased by an anonymous private collector. It has since been published, in the Winter 2019 issue of the Journal of Lancaster County’s Historical Society.
On 12 April 1982, a bicentennial commemorative cover for the Huddy-Asgill affair was produced.
Historian Louis Masur argues that the Huddy-Asgill affair, in particular, "injected the issue of the death penalty into public discourse" and increased American discomfort with it.

Subsequent career

Asgill was appointed equerry to Frederick, Duke of York in 1788; he would hold this post until his death. On 15 September 1788 he inherited the Asgill baronetcy upon the death of his father, and on 3 March 1790 he was promoted to command a company in the 1st Foot Guards, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On 28 August 1790 he married Jemima Sophia, sixth daughter of Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle, 1st Baronet. He joined the Army on the Continent in late 1793, and served in the Flanders campaign under the Duke of York. He was present during the retreat through Holland in the winter of 1794, then returned to England. On 26 February 1795 he was granted the rank of colonel, and later that year commanded a battalion of the Guards at Warley Camp, intended for foreign service.
In June 1797, Asgill was appointed brigadier-general on the Staff in Ireland. He was granted the rank of major-general on 1 January 1798, and was promoted Third Major of the 1st Foot Guards in November that year. In his Service Records, he states he "was very actively employed against the Rebels during the Rebellion in 1798 and received the repeated thanks of the Commander of the Forces and the Government for my Conduct and Service." General Sir Charles Asgill marched from Kilkenny and attacked and dispersed the rebels. The Irish song Sliabh na mBan remembers this.
Asgill was presented with a silver hot-water urn by the people of Clonmel in appreciation of his part in the uprising. The inscription on the urn reads: "PRESENTED by the Inhabitants of the Town and Neighbourhood of CLONMEL to MAJr. GENl. SIR CHAs ASGILL BARt. in token of their great regard for His unremitting exertions as General Commanding in the district in defeating the Schemes of the Seditious and Protecting the loyal Inhabitants. CLONMEL MDCCCI". The city of Kilkenny presented Asgill with a snuff box for his "energy and exertion" which was praised by the Loyalists.
On 9 May 1800 Asgill was transferred from the Foot Guards to be colonel commandant of the 2nd Battalion, 46th Regiment of Foot. He went onto half-pay when the 2nd Battalion was disbanded in 1802. Later that year he was again appointed to the Staff in Ireland, commanding the garrison in Dublin and the instruction camps at the Curragh. Promoted to lieutenant general in January 1805, he was appointed Colonel of the Regiment of the 5th West India Regiment ; of the 85th Regiment of Foot ; and, of the 11th Regiment, for which he raised a second battalion in the space of six months. He continued to serve on the Staff until 1812, and on 4 June 1814 he was promoted to general. In 1820 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order.

Death and legacy

From 1791 to 1821 No. 6 York Street was occupied by General Sir Charles Asgill, who was succeeded, from 1822 to 1824, by General Sir Ulysses Burgh. The final two years of his life were spent at the home of his mistress, Mary Ann Goodchild at 15 Park Place South near The Man in the Moon, Chelsea. Two codicils to his will were written and signed there shortly before his death. Asgill died on 23 July 1823, and was buried in the vault at St James's Church, Piccadilly on 1 August. His wife, Sophia Asgill, had predeceased him in 1819 and she too was buried in the vault at St. James's. Upon his death, the Asgill baronetcy became extinct. Most biographies claim he died without issue.
St. James's Church was damaged in the Blitz of London on 14 October 1940. After the war ended, specialist contractors, Rattee and Kett, of Cambridge, under the supervision of Messrs. W. F. Heslop and F. Brigmore, undertook restoration work, which was completed in 1954.
In his book, "Voice of rebellion : Carlow 1798 : the autobiography of William Farrell", the author gives a detailed account of how Lady Asgill was instrumental in saving his life. She had persuaded her husband, General Sir Charles Asgill, in Command of the Dublin Garrison at the time, that since a Lady had saved his life, that he must, therefore, save the life of William Farrell who faced the gallows on account of his part in the Irish Uprising of 1798. Farrell was thus spared the gallows, but was deported for seven years. Asgill's story seems to have gone full circle as a consequence.
The Lady Olivia character in the 1806 novel Leonora by Maria Edgeworth was rumoured to have been based on Lady Asgill, portraying her as a "coquette". Lady Asgill herself maintained a two-decades long secret correspondence with Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch. The two had agreed to destroy each other's correspondence, but some letters survived as Lynedoch did not destroy them all. A graphite drawing of Lady Asgill's setter dog was created at the Lynedoch Estate in Scotland by Charles Loraine Smith.
During the months leading up to Asgill's death in 1823, he was the victim of fraud. "The Swindler Asgill" was touring southern England persuading his victims to send the bill for his luxury purchases to his "uncle", Sir Charles Asgill. He was never caught, but the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier of Saturday 13 September 1823 states: "There is good reason to believe that the real name of 'Mr Asgill' has been discovered, and that it is not altogether unknown to fame in the annals of police: but for obvious reasons, we omit it for the present". The Swindler perpetuated his lies, through his children, so that the present-day generation believed themselves to be descendants of Asgill's "disinherited son", William Charles Asgill. Even his obituary, in the Blackburn Standard of Wednesday 22 February 1854, declared that he was the "second son of the late Charles Asgill" – stating the latter was "of Regents Park". General Sir Charles Asgill never had an address in "Regents Park".

Images

Depictions of Asgill include:
Sir Charles Ogle requests Mr Philips will have the goodness to deliver the picture of the late Sir Charles Asgill to the bearer Mr Goslett - If Mr Philips has any demand on Sir Charles Asgill, he is requested to send it to Mr Domville, No. 6 Lincolns Inn.
42 Berkeley Sq, Oct 23 1823.