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David Leslie, Lord Newark

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Lord (1601-1682), Scottish general, was born in 1601, the fifth son of Sir Patrick Leslie of Pitcairly, Fifeshire, commendator of Lindores, and Lady Jean Stuart, daughter of the 1st earl of Orkney. In his early life he served in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, where he rose to the rank of colonel of cavalry. In 1640 he returned to his native country to take part in the impending war for the Covenant. In 1643, when a Scottish army was formed to intervene in the English Civil War (see Great Rebellion) and placed under the command of Alexander Leslie, earl of Leven, the foremost living Scottish soldier, Leslie was selected as Leven's major-general. This army engaged the Royalists under Prince Rupert at Marston Moor, and Leslie bore a particularly distinguished part in the battle. He was then sent into the north-western counties, and besieged and took Carlisle. When, after the battle of Kilsyth, Scotland was at the mercy of Montrose and his army, Leslie was recalled from England in 1645, and made lieutenant-general of horse. In September he surprised and routed Montrose at Philiphaugh near Selkirk, and was rewarded by the committee of estates with a present of -50,000 merks and a gold chain; but his victory was marred by the butchery of the captured Irish - men, women and children - to whom quarter had been given. He was then declared lieutenant-general of the forces, and, in addition to his pay as colonel, had a pension settled on him. Leslie returned to England and was present at the siege of Newark. On his return to Scotland he reduced several of the Highland clans that supported the cause of the king. In 1648 he refused to take part in the English expedition of the "engagers," the enterprise not having the sanction of the Kirk. In 1649 he purchased the lands of Abercrombie and St Monance, Fifeshire. In 1650 he was sent against Montrose, who was defeated and captured by Major Strachan, Leslie's advanced guard commander; and later in the year, all parties having for the moment combined to support Charles II., Leslie was appointed to the -chief command of the new army levied for the purpose on behalf of Charles II. The result, though disastrous, abundantly demonstrated Leslie's capacity as a soldier, and it might be claimed for him that Cromwell and the English regulars proved no match for him until his movements were interfered with and his army reduced to indiscipline by the representatives of the Kirk party that accompanied his headquarters. After Dunbar Leslie fought a stubborn defensive campaign up to the crossing of the Forth by Cromwell, and then accompanied Charles to Worcester, where he was lieutenant-general under the king, who commanded in person. On the defeat of the royal army Leslie, intercepted in his retreat through Yorkshire, was committed to the Tower, where he remained till the Restoration in 1660. He was fined L4000 by Cromwell's "Act of Grace" in 1654. In 1661 he was created Lord Newark, and received a pension of £50o per annum. He died in 1682. The title became extinct in 1790.