Burgoyne

Burgoyne, JOHN, British general and dramatist, was born in 1723, and entered the army in 1740. He eloped three years later with a daughter of the Earl of Derby, resided nine years in France (1747-56), and then resuming active service, distinguished himself in Portugal by the capture of Alcantara (1762). Several years followed of fashionable life, during which he sat in parliament as a Tory, till in 1774 he was sent out to America, and in the summer of 1777 led an expedition from Canada into the rebellious districts. On 6th July he took Ticonderoga; but on 17th October, after two engagements, his retreat cut off, and his ammunition exhausted, he found himself forced to surrender to General Gates at Saratoga (q.v.). The British and American armies at the time of the capitulation are estimated by American writers at 5804 and 10,817; by English, at 3500 and 20,000. On his return to England he lost all his appointments, and went over to the Whigs, who, when in 1782 they came into power, made him commander-in-chief in Ireland. This office he held eighteen months, and subsequently devoted himself to light literature. He was the author of some pamphlets in defence of his conduct, of The Maid of the Oaks (1775), and of The Heiress (1786), a most successful comedy. In 1787 he was one of the managers for conducting the impeachment of Warren Hastings; and he died on 3d June 1792. See his Life by E. B. de Fonblanque (1876).