George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth

George Legge was born in 1647, eldest son of Colonel William Legge (1608-1670) and his wife Elizabeth Washington (c.1616–1688). A close friend of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, his father served in the Royalist army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. His younger brother William (circa 1650-1697), MP for Portsmouth in 1685, was "a wild, profane creature", who allegedly killed a man while still in his teens.[1] His sister Mary (1647-1715) married diplomat and politician Sir Henry Goodricke (1642-1705).[2]

In November 1667, he married Barbara Archbold (1649/50–1718), daughter of Sir Henry Archbold of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire; they had a son, William (1672-1750), and seven girls.[3] His daughter Mary (died 1753) married Sir Philip Musgrave (1661-1689).[4]

Legge's naval career began in the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667, where he served under his cousin Admiral Sir Edward Spragge; at the end of the war Legge was captain of HMS Pembroke, a 28-gun fifth-rate.[3]

In March 1672, now in command of HMS Fairfax, he took part in the attack, on the Dutch Smyrna fleet lying off the Isle of Wight, that was the immediate cause of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In June he fought in the Battle of Sole Bay.[3] The following year he commanded HMS Royal Katherine under Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the Battle of Schooneveld.[3]

By 1683 Legge had risen to be Admiral and he was sent out to Tangier with Samuel Pepys to oversee the evacuation and destruction of the ill-fated English colony there. His last naval appointment was to the command of a fleet in the channel which unsuccessfully attempted to intercept the invasion force led by William III of Orange that landed in 1688 at the beginning of the Glorious Revolution. The same year he was appointed the first Admiral of the Fleet.[5]

Following the abdication of James II, Dartmouth was dismissed by the triumphant William III, and imprisoned in the Tower of London in July 1691. He died in the Tower a few months later, on 25 October,[3] without having been brought to trial, and was buried, as his father had been, in the church of the Holy Trinity, Minories, in London.[3] He was succeeded as Baron Dartmouth by his only son, William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth (1672–1750).[6]

• Davies, J.D. (2004). "Legge, George, first Baron Dartmouth (c.1647–1691)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16352. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Roy, Ian (2004). "Legge, William (1607/8–1670)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16348. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Naylor, Leonard (1983). MUSGRAVE, Philip (1661-89), of Westminster in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690. CUP. ISBN 978-1107002258.
• Watson, Paula (2004). "Goodricke, Sir Henry, second baronet (1642-1705)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10981. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Watson, Paula (1983). LEGGE, William II (c.1650-c.1697) in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690. CUP. ISBN 978-1107002258.

• Staffordshire at Sea Website