John Stanley (British Army officer)
John Stanley | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1776 | |
| Born | 18 January 1750 England |
| Died | 18 June 1783 (aged 33) Malvern Wells, Worcestershire |
| Buried | Ormskirk, Lancashire |
| Allegiance | Great Britain |
Service years | 1775–1783 |
Rank | Captain |
| Unit | 20th Regiment of Foot |
Conflicts | |
Captain John Stanley (18 January 1750 – 18 June 1783) was a British Army officer who served in the American War of Independence.[1][2][3]
Biography
[edit]Born on 18 January 1750, son of Revd Dr Thomas Stanley, whose cousin was the 11th Earl of Derby, and his wife Betty (d. 1780), daughter and coheir of John Shaw of York. His eldest brother was Colonel Thomas Stanley, who later became a long-serving Member of Parliament for Lancashire. Stanley was educated at Manchester Grammar School.[1][2][4][5][3]He belonged to the Stanleys of Cross Hall, a branch of the family descended from Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby; his grandfather Thomas Stanley of Cross Hall was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1718.[6]
As historian Norman S. Poser argues, political and military power in eighteenth-century Britain was largely controlled by an oligarchy of about two hundred immensely wealthy landowning families. Advancement to senior positions in politics or the army typically required belonging to—or marrying into—one of these families.[7] Stanley's connection to the prominent Stanley family (the Earls of Derby) significantly shaped his career. As a cousin of Lady Charlotte (Stanley) Burgoyne—wife of Lieutenant-general John Burgoyne—this family tie was the primary reason for his appointment as Burgoyne's aide-de-camp. This relationship underpinned his service throughout the American War of Independence and remained a constant in his career, continuing when Burgoyne was later appointed Commander-in-Chief in Ireland in 1782.
Military career
[edit]Stanley's military service began in 1775, when he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 20th Regiment of Foot. His rise was rapid: on 9 March 1776, he was promoted to captain. That same May, he was sent to Quebec to serve as aide-de-camp to Burgoyne, a position secured through family ties—Burgoyne had married Stanley's cousin.[1][2][7]
In 1777, during the Saratoga campaign, Stanley was severely wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Freeman's Farm. Following the battle, he appeared in the hospital returns at Albany, where injured British prisoners were treated by Continental Army medical staff, and was subsequently exchanged as a prisoner of war. He probably returned home with his regiment around 1781.[1][2][3][8]
The following year, 1782, he continued in his role as aide-de-camp after Burgoyne's appointment as Commander-in-Chief in Ireland.[1][2][3]
Stanley’s service ended tragically on 18 June 1783, when he died at Malvern Wells "of a decline" at the age of 33; he was buried in Ormskirk, Lancashire-the traditional burial place for the Stanley family (Earls of Derby).[1][2][3][7]
Battles of Saratoga
[edit]As aide-de-camp to Burgoyne, Stanley played an important role in the Battles of Saratoga, which historian Edmund Morgan has described as "a great turning point" for the American War of Independence.[9] R. W. Apple Jr. called them "the most important battle ever fought in the world within the last 1,000 years."[10][11]
The first Battle of Saratoga was on September 19, 1777: the Battle of Freeman's Farm. This was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war especially for Stanley's battalion, the 20th Regiment of Foot.[1][2][12][3][8][13]
Positioned on the left flank of Brigadier General Hamilton’s central column with the 20th Regiment of Foot, the regiment faced heavy pressure from American riflemen. When the British center under the 62nd Regiment began to waver, elements of the 20th, personally led forward by General Phillips, delivered a timely reinforcement that stabilized the line and prevented a breakthrough.[14][13]Burgoyne later reported that “the stress lay upon the 20th, 21st, and 62nd regiments, most parts of which were engaged near four hours without intermission.”[15]
In the memoir of Roger Lamb, a British soldier present at the battle, he wrote:
'In this battle an unusual number of officers fell, as our army abounded with young men of respectability at this time, who after several years of general peace anterior to the American revolution, were attracted to the profession of arms. Three subalterns of the 20th regiment on this occasion, the oldest of whom did not exceed the age of seventeen years, were buried together'[16]
General Burgoyne had gained the field of battle but suffered nearly 600 casualties. The most by the 20th Regiment of Foot including Stanley who was severely wounded and taken prisoner. Total casualties for the battalion were 116, all incurred in the first battle. According to the Admissions Register of Manchester School, at the Battles of Saratoga "the 20th Regiment is said to have distinguished itself by great gallantry".[1][2][12][3][8][13][17][18]
Prior to the formal surrender of Burgoyne’s army on 17 October 1777, the colours of the 20th Regiment of Foot were burnt to prevent their falling into American hands.[19][20]
More than fifty years after the battle, G. R. Gleig's historical novel The Chelsea Pensioners (1829) recalled the regiment's conduct at Freeman's Farm, describing the 20th as having "covered themselves with glory" and as having behaved "with a degree of gallantry almost unprecedented."[21]
Gainsborough portrait
[edit]A portrait of Stanley by Thomas Gainsborough was painted several months prior to Stanley's departure for Quebec.[1][2][22]
The portrait is feigned oval. Stanley is shown in the post-1768 uniform of the Regiment of the 20th Foot (the coat with yellow facing and coat buttons moulded with 'XX' decoration, and a single epaulette on the right shoulder) is shown in three-quarter pose looking to the left. He wears a powdered bagwig, his right hand is tucked into his waistcoat, and he holds his hat beneath his left arm.[22][1][2]
Ellis Waterhouse, who may have known the painting only from a photograph in the Witt Library and was unaware of the sitter’s identity, described it as “probably Bath period”.[22]Hugh Belsey, however, considers it likely—both stylistically and in light of Stanley’s biographical details—that the portrait was commissioned to mark the sitter’s army commission in 1776, and was therefore painted shortly after Gainsborough’s move from Bath to London.[2]
One year after painting Stanley, Gainsborough returned to exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1777, his first appearance there in five years. Contemporary commentary in the London Chronicle described him as "one of the first portrait-painters in the Kingdom", adding that "he is inferior to none in the most essential requisites of his art, but perhaps he is superior to all others in the ease and richness of his drapery".[23]
Before its acquisition by Knoedler, the portrait belonged to a Revd Patterson, who had retired to Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. It was purchased at an ironmonger's in the town by art dealer Robert Partridge (1861-1932) for £5 (information from the Frank Simpson Papers). Knoedler purchased it on 30 November 1923.[2] Portrait of Captain John Stanley (1776) and Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of John Burgoyne (1766) were both sold by Knoedler. The Frick bought the Burgoyne portrait from Knoedler in 1943; it had previously been in the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan Sr.[24] Knoedler sold the Stanley portrait in 1924 to John Levy, New York from where it entered the collection of Mary, Viscountess Eccles.[1][2][24][25]In 1929, five years after selling the Stanley portrait, Knoedler purchased another military portrait by Gainsborough—the full-length Portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Craggs-Nugent (1764)—at auction in London for $74,095, a record price at the time for any Gainsborough portrait of a man.[26]
Stanley is absent from John Trumbull's Surrender of General Burgoyne painting (c. 1821–1822), as Trumbull often omitted figures he had not personally sketched or for whom he lacked reliable likenesses during his preparatory work in the 1790s (Stanley having died in 1783).[27]
The painting is notable as the only major British portrait by either Gainsborough or Reynolds depicting an officer directly involved in the American War of Independence—in full military uniform and painted in 1776, just before the Battles of Saratoga—that remains in private hands.[28][29]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Important British and Irish Art, Christie's, 9 June 2004, page 8 to 19, OCLC, 55543973.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Catalogue raisonné of Thomas Gainsborough, The Portraits, Fancy Picture, and Copies after Old Masters, Hugh Belsey, 2019, page 84, catalogue no. 845 OCLC 1031341988.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Obituary of John Stanley, Esq, captain in the 20th regiment of foot, under 'Obituary of Considerable Persons; with Biographies', Gentleman's Magazine, LIII, June 1783, pp. 542-43
- ↑ Family Search on Elizabeth "Betty" Shaw (about 1720-1780)
- ↑ J. Burke, A general and heraldic dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom, London 1826-, 2003, I, p.1102
- ↑ Seacombe, John (with 1840 additions). History of the House of Stanley. Published in the 1840 edition.
- 1 2 3 From the Battlefield to the Stage, The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne, Norman S. Poser, McGill-Queens University Press 2022, Page 4, ISBN 978-0228014539
- 1 2 3 Baumgardt, Kenneth. The Royal Army in America During the Revolutionary War: The American Prisoner Records, 2008, p. 109-117
- ↑ Morgan, Edmund (1956). The Birth of the Republic: 1763–1789. [Chicago] University of Chicago Press. pp. 82–83
- ↑ Apple, Raymond Walter (1999-04-18). "Best Battle: Benedict Arnold, Hero". Millennium issues. The New York Times Magazine. New York City. Archived from the original on 2023-09-09. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
- ↑ Schnitzer, Eric (2021-03-25) [2019-11-26]. "Battle of Saratoga: When Goliath Blinked". American Battlefield Trust. Washington, DC. Archived from the original on 2026-02-07. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
- 1 2 Saratoga National Historical Park, 'How many casualties were there in the Battles of Saratoga?' Official Facebook Page Post dated 30 September 2021
- 1 2 3 The British Invasion from the North: The Campaigns of Generals Carleton and Burgoyne from Canada, 1776-1777, with the Journal of Lieut. William Digby (edited by James Phinney Baxter, 1887)p 332-335
- ↑ Staff Ride Handbook for the Saratoga Campaign, p. 166 (or relevant section on Freeman's Farm). "Sensing the danger of the 62nd's condition, General Phillips sent the 20th Foot to bolster that regiment's left flank."
- ↑ John Burgoyne, letter to Lord George Germain, Albany, 20 October 1777, printed in A State of the Expedition from Canada, as Laid Before the House of Commons, by Lieutenant-General Burgoyne (London: J. Almon, 1780), pp. 12–13 (or the corresponding pages in the documentary appendix containing the full dispatch).
- ↑ Hagist, Don N., ed. (2022). A British Soldier's Story: Roger Lamb's narrative of the American Revolution. p. 48. ISBN 978-1594163975.
- ↑ Smith, Jeremiah Finch, ed. (1866). The Admission Register of the Manchester School (PDF). Vol. I. Manchester: Chetham Society. pp. 90–91, 233. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
- ↑ Thomas, Campbell (1807). "XII" (PDF). Annals of Great Britain from the Ascention of George III, to the Peace of Amiens (PDF). Vol. I. Edinburgh: Mundell, Doig & Stevenson. pp. 381–429. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
- ↑ Major B. Smyth, A History of the Lancashire Fusiliers (formerly XX Regiment), Vol. I (Dublin: Sackville Press, 1903), p. 168, explicitly states: “Previous to the surrender the colours of the XX were burnt.”
- ↑ Stanley C. Johnson, The Flags of Our Fighting Army (A. & C. Black, 1918) says of the Lancashire Fusiliers (the later designation of the 20th): “They were burnt in order that they should not fall into the hands of the enemy when forced to surrender at Saratoga.”
- ↑ Gleig, G. R. (1829). The Chelsea Pensioners. Vol. 2. London: Henry Colburn. pp. 204, 207.
- 1 2 3 E. Waterhouse, Thomas Gainsborough, London, 1958, no. 773, as 'Officer of the 20th Foot'. OCLC 4900302
- ↑ London Chronicle, 24-26 April 1777, p. 396
- 1 2 Frick Collection object page (provenance: J. Pierpont Morgan → Knoedler → Frick, 1943)
- ↑ Frick history on post-1919 acquisitions (explicitly lists the 1943 purchases including the Reynolds Burgoyne)
- ↑ $74,095 for Portrait; London Price Is Record for Gainsborough Painting of Man. The New York Times. 3 May 1929. Archived from the original
- ↑ Jaffe, Irma B. (1975). John Trumbull: Patriot-Artist of the American Revolution. New York Graphic Society. pp. 85-92. ISBN 978-0821204597 (or 0821204599)
- ↑ Belsey 2019 (Gainsborough cat. raisonné), OCLC 1031341988: Lists no other Gainsborough portraits of Revolutionary War officers in private hands.
- ↑ David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Yale University Press, 2000, OCLC 45328809: Lists no other Reynolds portraits of Revolutionary War officers in private hands.