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Dalyell

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Dalziell or [[Dalzell), Thomas]] (d. 1685), British soldier, was the son of Thomas Dalyell of Binns, Linlithgowshire, a cadet of the family of the earls of Carnwath, and of Janet, daughter of the 1st Lord Bruce of Kinloss, master of the rolls in England. He appears to have accompanied the Rochelle expedition in 1628, and afterwards, becoming colonel, served under Robert Munro, the general in Ireland. He was taken prisoner at the capitulation of Carrickfergus in August 1650, but was given a free pass, and having been banished from Scotland remained in Ireland. He was present at the battle of Worcester (3rd of September 1651), where his men surrendered, and he himself was captured and ithprisoned in the Tower. In May he escaped abroad, and in 1654 took part in the Highland rebellion and was excepted from Cromwell's act of grace, a reward of £200 being offered for his capture, dead or alive. The king's cause being now for the time hopeless, Dalyell entered the service of the tsar of Russia, and distinguished himself as general in the wars against the Turks and Tatars. He returned to Charles in 1665, and on the 19th of July 1666 he was appointed commander-in-chief in Scotland to subdue the Covenanters. He defeated them at Rullion Green and exercised his powers with great cruelty, his name becoming a terror to the peasants. He obtained several of the forfeited estates. On the 3rd of January 1667 he was made a privy councillor, and from 1678 till his death represented Linlithgow in the Scottish parliament. He was incensed by the choice of the duke of Monmouth as commanderin-chief in June 1679, and was confirmed in his original appointment by Charles, but in consequence did not appear at Bothwell Bridge till after the close of the engagement. On the 25th of November 1681, a commission was issued authorizing him to enrol the regiment afterwards known as the Scots Greys. He was continued in his appointment by James II., but died soon after the latter's accession in August 1685. He married Agnes, daughter of John Ker of Cavers, by whom he had a son, Thomas, created a baronet in 1685, whose only son and heir, Thomas, died unmarried. The baronetage apparently became extinct, but it was assumed about 1726 by James Menteith, a son of the sister of the last baronet, who took the name of Dalyell; his last male descendant, Sir Robert Dalyell, died unmarried in 1886.