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Arthur Dillon
Arthur Dillon
	Painting by Jean-Hilaire Belloc, 1834
Born	3 September 1750; Braywick, Berkshire, England
Died	13 April 1794 (aged 43); Paris, France
Allegiance	Kingdom of France; Kingdom of France; French Republic
Rank	General
Battles / wars	American Revolutionary War; French Revolutionary Wars

Arthur Dillon (3 September 1750 – 13 April 1794) was a French Army officer and politician who served during the American Revolutionary War and the War of the First Coalition. After serving in several political officers during the early years of the French Revolution, he was executed in Paris as a royalist during the Reign of Terror in 1794.

Birth and origins

Arthur was born on 3 September 1750 at Bray Wick in Berkshire, England.^[1] He was the second son of Henry Dillon and his wife Charlotte Lee. His father was the 11th Viscount Dillon.

Arthur's mother was a daughter of George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield. He had six siblings, who are listed in his father's article.

Family tree

Arthur Dillon with his two wives, his parents, and other selected relatives.^[a]

Theobald
7th
Viscount
d. 1691
Jacobite

Mary
Talbot
d. 1691

Henry
8th
Viscount
d. 1714

Arthur
1670–1733
French
General

Christina
Sheldon
1684–1757

Richard
9th
Viscount
1688–1737

Charles
10th
Viscount
1701–1741

Henry
11th
Viscount
1705–1787

Charlotte
Lee
d. 1794

Charles
12th
Viscount
1745–1813

Therese
Lucy de
Rothe
1751–1782

Arthur
Dillon
1750–1794

Laure de
Girardin
de
Montgérald

Henry
Augustus
13th
Viscount
1777–1832

Henriette
-Lucy
de la
Tour du Pin
1770–1853

Legend

XXX

Subject of
the article

XXX

Viscounts
Dillon

Colonel

On 25 August 1767, at the age of 16, he became colonel of Dillon's Regiment taking over from his father who had been absentee colonel for twenty years from 1747 to 1767 after the death of his uncle Edward at Lauffeld in 1747.

First marriage and children

At eighteen, Colonel Dillon married a first cousin once removed, Therese-Lucy de Rothe (1751–1782).

Arthur and Thérèse-Lucie had two children:

George (who died at the age of two)
Henriette-Lucy, or Lucie (by marriage, Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet), a memoiriste of the Revolutionary period and the Napoleonic era.

He was to become the grandfather of Arthur Dillon, also a military officer.

American Revolutionary War

In 1778 France entered the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) on the American side. Colonel Dillon sailed with his regiment to the Caribbean to campaign against Britain under the command of D'Estaing. In 1779 he and his regiment fought at the Capture of Grenada^[3] against British forces under George Macartney. They landed on 2 July, and stormed the Hospital Hill which the British had chosen as the centre of their resistance. Arthur personally led one of the storm parties, his brother Henry led another. Macartney surrendered on 5 July. On 6 July 1779 a British fleet under Admiral John Byron appeared off the coast of the island and the naval engagement of the Battle of Grenada was fought. In September and October 1779 Dillon fought at the Siege of Savannah where he was promoted brigadier. Dillon and his regiment participated in the Invasion of Tobago, the Capture of Sint Eustatius, and the Siege of Brimstone Hill. With the victory at Brimstone Hill, Arthur Dillon was made Military Governor of Saint Kitts. After the Treaty of Paris, he became governor of Tobago.

Second marriage

His first wife having died, he married a wealthy French Creole widow from Martinique, Laure de Girardin de Montgérald, the Comtesse de la Touche, by whom he had six children, including Élisabeth Françoise 'Fanny' Dillon, later wife of Henri Gatien Bertrand. The Dillon Estate in Martinique produced sugar and later produced Dillon Rum.

Later life, death, and timeline

He returned to Paris to represent Martinique in the Estates General of 1789 as a democratic, reformist royalist.^{[citation needed]}

Dillon assumed military duties at a very difficult time for noble officers of the old army. On 29 April 1792 his cousin Théobald Dillon was lynched by his own troops after a minor skirmish.^[4] After the Battle of Valmy, when Charles Dumouriez returned to the Belgian frontier with the greater part of the army, he detached Dillon with 16,000 troops to form the rump of the Army of the Ardennes around 1 October 1792.^[5] Two weeks later Dillon was called to Paris for questioning and was ultimately arrested on 1 July 1793 despite being stoutly defended by his aide-de-camp François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers. He was condemned for alleged participation in a prison conspiracy and executed by guillotine on 13 April 1794. In his final moments he mounted the scaffold shouting, "Vive le roi!" (Long live the king).^[6]

Timeline
Age	Date	Event
0	1750, 3 Sep	Born at Bray Wick in Berkshire, England.^[1]
16	1767, 25 Aug	Became colonel and owner of Dillon's regiment.
37	1787, 3 Nov	His father died.
43	1794, 13 April	Died under the guillotine.

Works

Compte-rendu au ministre de la guerre (Paris, 1792) ;
Exposition des principaux événements qui ont eu le plus d'influence sur la révolution française (Paris, 1792).

Notes and references

Notes

^ This family tree is partly derived from the Dillon family tree pictured in La Tour du Pin.^[2] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Citations

^ ^a ^b O'Callaghan 1854, p. 50, footnote. "... the latter [Arthur] at Braywick in Berkshire, in September, 1750."
^ La Tour du Pin 1913, pp. 14–15. "Note généalogique sur la Maison des Lords Dillon"
^ Jullien de Courcelles 1822, p. 291. "... contribua puissament à la capture de la Grenade ..."
^ Phipps 1926, p. 78, line 9. "... on the 29th April, his men broke and fled for Lille, which they re-entered in wild confusion, crying out 'Treason', wounding Dupont, and not only killing their general, Théobald Dillon, but venting their fury on his corpse ..."
^ Phipps 1926, p. 135. "This troop was now reinforced to 16000, a strength later increased from garrisons ..."
^ Phipps 1926, p. 137, line 27. "Arrested on the 1st July 1793, he was included amongst the victims of the alleged 'conspiration des prisons' and was guillotined on the 13 April 1794, shouting vigorously 'vive le roi', as he mounted the scaffold."