Lieutenant General Piercy Kirke (the Younger) 1710 - 1741

If military histories are always to be believed (which they aren’t) Piercy Kirke (the younger) must have had rapid promotion. According to Volume VI of The Queen’s Royal Regiment History he was born in 1684 and Gazetted as an Ensign in Trelawny’s Regiment two years later in 1686. (Youthful enthusiasm, no doubt!). The latter date would seem to be the correct one as he was promoted to Lieutenant on 18th April 1689 and to Captain on 26th September of the same year.

He was appointed to the 2nd Queen’s as Lieutenant Colonel on 23rd July 1707, vice the Earl of Portmore, and further to Colonel by purchase on 19th September 1710. Still progressing, he was appointed Brigadier General in 1727, Major General in 1735 and Lieutenant General in 1739.

His military service included participation in the War of the Spanish Succession where he was taken prisoner at Almanza on 25th April 1707.

He died on 1st January 1741 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

(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.

Pierce Kirke the Younger bought the colonelcy of the Queen's from the Earl of Portmore for £6,000 in 1710 (Wentworth Papers 1705-9, ed J. L. Cartwright, p. 141). (Dalton has 19 September 1710 for the commission). The younger Kirke died on 1 January 1741 and was buried in the Abbey on 9 January (Chester, p. 357). His will was proved in P.C.C. on 19 January (P.R.O. P.R.O.B. 11/707).
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