Lieutenant General Piercy Kirke (the Elder) 1682 - 1691

The name of Kirke appears twice in the records of Colonelcy in The Queen’s Royal Regiment, they being father and son.

Piercy Kirke (the elder) was born in 1646 and was appointed an Ensign in Captain Bromley’s Company in the Lord Admiral’s Regiment on 10th July 1666. Brother-in-Law of Lord Oxford, he transferred as a Cornet to the latter’s Regiment of Horse, The Blues, on 9th September 1670.

Ten years later, on 13th July 1680, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel in the Earl of Plymouth’s 2nd Tangier Regiment, becoming the Acting Governor of Tangier in May 1681.

He was promoted Governor of Tangier and Colonel of the 1st Tangier or Governor’s Regiment (later the 2nd or Queen’s) on 19th April 1682.

Further promotions followed, Brigadier General 1685, Major General 1688 and Lieutenant General 1690.

In his earlier career he had been present with the Duke of Monmouth’s Regiment, in the pay of France, at the siege of Maestricht in 1673 and afterwards he served in two campaigns under Turenne. He embarked for Tangier in November 1680 and remained there until 1684 when he supervised the evacuation, which he achieved without loss, before returning to England with the Regiment in the same year.

He was subsequently to command the Regiment at Sedgemoor where, then nicknamed “Kirke’s Lambs” after their badge, they took part in the final suppression of Monmouth’s revolt. They further gained lasting infamy for their supposed part in rounding up rebels for the dreaded “bloody assize”. In fact the Queen’s had left the west for Kingston-upon-Thames before Judge Jeffries even began his circuit. The assize duty was the work of the Second Tangier Regiment, or Queen Consorts (later the 4th King’s Own).

Kirke next appears at the Siege of Londonderry, in April 1689. Under his direction the Pretender’s troops were forced to lift the siege. Kirke and the Queen’s were also in the forefront of the Battle of the Boyne. From then until January 1692 the Regiment remained in Ireland, although in September 1691, Kirke himself left for Holland to take a new command.

He died on the 20th October 1691 at Breda, and was succeeded as Colonel of the Queen’s by Colonel William Selwyn.

(Notes on the Kirkes, father and son extracted from the Army Historical Society)

The family are of Scottish origin and seem to have obtained their coat-of-arms c. 1600. These arms, were certainly confirmed to Piercy's father George (a groom of the bedchamber and Master of the Robes to Charles I) in 1633, with the addition of a crest and motto. (Described fully by Chester in his Harleian Society volume of the registers of Westminster Abbey, p. 295n. 1; a rough draft with drawing is in the British Library Stowe M.S. 677, f. 59). The arms can be seen on the monument to Piercy Kirke's son, Piercy Kirke the Younger, in Westminster Abbey.

In 1680 Piecy Kirke was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the of the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment (13 July) then raising for the reinforcement of Tangier. This was the Second Tangier Regiment (later King's/4th Foot) and Kirke sailed with them, arriving at the end of the year. Plymouth died at Tangier in 1680 and Kirke was made colonel in his place (27 November). When Kirke became governor of Tangier in 1682 he transferred to the colonelcy of the Governor's Regiment or Old Tangier Regiment (later Queen's/2nd Foot; the Lambs) and his commission is dated 19 April 1682. (all dates are as printed in Dalton).

Kirke died on 20 October 1691 according to a petition to the Commons by his widow, Lady Mary, on 2 March 1703/4; this concerns outstanding pay (Commons Journals, vol XIV, p. 365). The D.N.B. prints 31 October, which is presumably the new style date.
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