Roger Elliott

Infobox Military Person
name=Roger Elliott


caption="with permission from" The Picture Collection Library of Virginia
born=cir 1665
died=death date and age|1714|05|16|1665|01|01
placeofbirth=Tangier Garrison, Morocco or
London, England
placeofdeath=Byfeld House, Barnes, Surrey, England
nickname=
allegiance=England, Great Britain
branch=Army
serviceyears=
rank=Major-General
unit=
commands=
battles=1692: Battle of Steinkeerke
1702: defence of Tongeren
1704: Battle of Schellenberg
awards=
relations=
laterwork=

Major General Roger Elliott (CIR 1665 - 16 May 1714 [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title =
newspaper = The Post Boy
pages =
year = 1714
date = May 18 to May 20
url =

"On Saturday night last dyed Major-General Elliott, late Governor to Gibraltar".] ) was one of the earliest British Governors of Gibraltar. His nephew George Augustus Eliott also became a noted Governor and defender of Gibraltar.

Roger Elliott was born, possibly in London but more probably in the Tangier Garrison in Morocco, to George Elliott (CIR 1636 - 1668, the Chirurgeon to the Garrison) and his wife Catherine (CIR 1638 - 1709). George Elliott was the illegitimate son of Richard Eliot, the wayward second son of Sir John Eliot (1592 - 1632).

Roger's father, George Elliott, died at the Tangier Garrison in 1668 and his widowed mother remarried there on 22 February 1670 to Robert Spotswood (17 September, 1637 - 1680, the assistant and replacement Chirurgeon at the Garrison), and thirdly to Rev Dr George Mercer (the Garrison schoolmaster). Roger was therefore an older half-brother to Alexander Spotswood (c. 1676 - 6 June 1740), who would become a noted Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia.

Military career

By 1680, Roger was an Ensign in the Tangier Regiment of Foot, and was wounded on 27 October fighting the local Moors. In 1681, he was suspended by Colonel Percy Kirke for duelling with Ensign Bartholomew Pitts, later being cashiered for this offence. He was sent back to England in 1682 with a letter begging for his readmission into His Majesty's Service, and he was reinstated as an Ensign in his old Company on 8 March, 1683. In 1684 he returned to England and probably fought against the Monmouth Rebellion.

By 1685, he had transferred to the Queen Dowager's Regiment of Foot, and, in 1687, he became a First Lieutenant in Earl of Bath's Regiment - created by Sir John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628 - 1701). He was promoted to Captain on 1 May, 1690. He fought and was wounded at the Battle of Steinkeerke on 3 August, 1692. On 21 December of that year, he was promoted to Major in the same Regiment, and, on 1 January, 1696, promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of Sir Bevil Granville's Regiment of Foot. In 1702, on campaign with the Duke of Marlborough, he was shot through the body at the defence of Tongeren in Belgium. He reputedly took on the entire French Army with only two regiments, before surrendering.

On 5 March, 1704, he raised his own regiment - Colonel Elliott's Regiment of Foot. Officers were commissioned on 10 April that year at St James'. On 2 July, 1704, again on campaign with the Duke of Marlborough, he fought and was wounded at the Battle of Schellenberg. It is possible that he fought at the Battle of Blenheim on 13 August 1704. However, he certainly did not lead the cavalry at this Battle, as has been maintained by other biographies - this was led by General Sir John 'Salamander' Cutts.

Gibraltar

In March 1705, Colonel Elliott's Regiment of Foot embarked for Spain and served at Gibraltar, which was declared a free port in 1706. On 1 January 1, 1707, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, and later that year to Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar [PRO PC 1/2/51 Admiralty memorial concerning the rival claims to a prize ship of the Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar (memorial dated 1707-02-05: the captured prize ship, Nostra Seigniora del Rosario, master: Francis Pujal, was disputed by Roger Elliott and the Captain and crew of HMS Carcass. The decision was to split the prize, with 1/8 going to Roger Elliott and 7/8 going to the crew)] . On 24 December, he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar. His time in office is remembered in the Gibraltar records as one of mercenary opportunity; whereas, in the London records, it appears that he proceeded with expensive but vital defensive fortification with only minimal prior financial approval. The arguments over the accounts for these defences would cause problems for the probate of his personal estate. On 1 January 1 1710, he was promoted to Major-General, and on 24 January, 1711, he handed over the Governorship to Brigadier-General Thomas Stanwix. He finally departed Gibraltar on 18 June, 1711.

Return to England

Having returned to England, he was married on 4 March 1712 to Charlotte Elliot, the daughter of a rich London merchant, William 'the laceman' Elliot of Brugh and Wells. Roger bought Byfeld House in Church Road, Barnes, Surrey on 24 June 1712 where the couple settled and raised a small family.

Roger Elliott never fully recovered from his various wounds and died at Byfeld House on 16 May 1714. He was buried 21 May in the cemetery of St Mary the Virgin's Church, Barnes.

His will was probated on 16 November 1714 but his estate took years to resolve because of the difficulties mentioned. The eventual resolution was mostly thanks to the involvement of his father-in-law, William 'the Laceman' Elliot, who sought to expedite his daughter's remarriage to Captain Thomas Burroughs [PROB 10/1515 CC 2646 - Probate of Will] [PRO C104/251 Chancery: Master Tinney's Exhibits] .

Family

Mary Elliott, who married Garrett Fitzmaurice (d. May 1738) in Ireland, claimed to be a daughter of Roger Elliott [Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland] [Burke's Irish Family Records] .

On 4 March 1712 at St Peter's Church, Cornhill, Roger married Charlotte Elliot (CIR 1692 - CIR 1753), the daughter of William 'the Laceman' Elliot, and they had two children:
*Granville Elliott (7 October 1713 - 10 October 1759, General, Graf von Eliot, Comte de Morhange)
*Catherine (Kitty) Elliott (18 September 1714 - 15 January 1757), who married firstly cir 1735 to Charles Boyle (of Araglin Bridge, co Cork, related to the Earls of Cork and Orrery), and secondly, in 1742, to Robert Bligh, the Dean of Elphin.

References

*Jessica and Laura Eliot's Archive

Persondata
NAME=Elliott, Roger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Major General, English Army
DATE OF BIRTH=circa 1665
PLACE OF BIRTH=Tangier Garrison, Morocco
DATE OF DEATH=1714-05-16
PLACE OF DEATH=Byfeld House, Barnes, Surrey