William Leslie (British Army officer)

The Honourable William Leslie (8 August 1751 – 3 January 1777) was a British nobleman and soldier. He was the second son of the Earl of Leven and Melville from Scotland and a captain in the 17th Foot of the British Army during the American War of Independence. He was mortally wounded during the Battle of Princeton and buried with military honours by American General George Washington at Pluckemin, New Jersey.

William Leslie
Miniature portrait, c. 1780
Born(1751-08-08)8 August 1751
Fife, Scotland
Died3 January 1777(1777-01-03) (aged 25)
Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Buried
St. Paul's Lutheran Church graveyard
Pluckemin, New Jersey, United States
Allegiance Great Britain
Service/branchBritish Army
RankCaptain
Battles/warsAmerican War of Independence

Early life

Leslie was born on 8 August 1751 to David Leslie, 6th Earl of Leven and Wilhelmina Nisbet.[1] He was the nephew of General Alexander Leslie.[2]

During the summer of 1767, he became a friend of Benjamin Rush, who was then studying medicine at University of Edinburgh and had visited the estate of the Earl of Leven.[2][3]

Military career

In 1771, he joined the 42nd Highlanders; then switched to the 17th Foot and was promoted to lieutenant in 1773, and to captain in 1776.[1] Sent to America in 1776, he served in the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Fort Washington.[1]

Leslie was one of many who died during the Battle of Princeton on 3 January 1777.[4] The British put his body in a wagon that was later taken by the Americans. The following day his friend Benjamin Rush learned of Leslie's death from British Captain John McPherson while treating the wounded at Princeton.[5] On Janunary 5th at Pluckemin, General George Washington ordered military honors for the burial when he learned Leslie was a friend of Rush.[5][6] The gravestone is in the graveyard of the former St. Paul's Lutheran Church (built 1757), where the Pluckemin Presbyterian Church is now located.[7]

Legacy

In The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, the painter John Trumbull displays several events of the battle. At the centre, General Hugh Mercer, with his dead horse beneath him, is mortally wounded. At the left, Captain Daniel Neil[8] is bayoneted against a cannon. At the right, Leslie is shown mortally wounded. In the background, Washington and Rush enter the scene.[9]

After the war, Dr. Benjamin Rush placed a gravestone in Leslie's memory at the Pluckemin graveyard. As the original had crumbled, a replacement with the same inscription was erected c. 1836 by Professor Ogilby of Rutgers University[10] at the request of David Leslie-Melville, 8th Earl of Leven.[1] His gravestone is honoured by both British and Scottish flags.

In Memory of the
Hon.ble Capt.n WILL.M LESLIE,
of the 17th British Regiment,
Son of the Earl of Leven,
in Scotland.
He fell Jan.y 3.d, 1777 Aged
26 years, at the battle of
Princeton
His friend, Benj. Rush, M.D., of
Philadelphia
hath caused this Stone
to be erected as a mark
of his esteem for his worth
and of his respect
for his noble family

References
  1. Fraser (1890), pp. 350–351.
  2. Fischer (2006), p. 311.
  3. Hawke (1971), p. 51.
  4. Fischer (2006), p. 331.
  5. Hawke (1971), p. 180.
  6. Rodney, Thomas (1776–1777). Diary of Captain Thomas Rodney. Historical Society of Delaware. pp. 39–40.
  7. Ashton, Charles H. (26 July 1982). "NRHP Nomination: Pluckemin Village Historic District". National Park Service. p. 17.
  8. Fischer (2006), p. 333.
  9. "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777 (Descriptive data)". Yale University Art Gallery.
  10. Honeyman, A. Van Doren, ed. (1919). "The Leslie Tombstone at Pluckemin". Somerset County Historical Quarterly. Vol. 8. pp. 230–1.

Bibliography


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