John Huske

John Huske (1692? – 18 January 1761) was a British Army general known for his leadership at the Battle of Falkirk and the Battle of Culloden during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. From 1749 he was governor of Jersey.

Life

He was appointed on 7 April 1708 ensign in Colonel Toby Caulfield's (afterwards David Creighton's) regiment of foot, then campaigning in Spain, and subsequently disbanded. He obtained his company in Lord Hertford's (15th foot) on 11 January 1715. On 22 July 1715 he was appointed captain and lieutenant-colonel of one of the four new companies then added to the Coldstream Guards. At that time and afterwards he was aide-de-camp to William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan. In 1715 he was sent by the authorities to arrest the Jacobite Tory leader Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (who happened to be Lord Hertford's brother-in-law) at his home at Orchard Wyndham, but was eluded when Wyndham escaped through his bedroom window onto a waiting horse.^[1] The story is related in detail by the contemporary commentator Boyer (1716).^[2] In two letters written by Cadogan, at the Hague, in a feigned name, promising high reward for disclosure of Jacobite plots, confidence is invited in the writer's aide-de-camp, Colonel John Huske, who, in the letter of 1 November 1716, is deputed to meet the recipient (E. Burke) privately at Cambray. The treasury records note a payment of £100 to Huske for a journey to Paris on particular service, and disbursements by him for the subsistence of three Dutch and two Swiss battalions in the pay of Holland, which were taken into the British service on the alarms of an invasion from Spain in April 1719. Huske concerted measures with Whitworth, British plenipotentiary at the Hague, for collecting these troops at Williamstadt and bringing them into the River Thames.

He was appointed lieutenant-governor of Hurst Castle 8 July 1721; became second major of the Coldstreamers, 30 October 1734; first major, 5 July 1739; and colonel 32nd foot, 25 December 1740. He was a brigadier at the battle of Dettingen, where he was severely wounded. He was promoted major-general, and appointed colonel 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers 28 July 1743, in recognition of his distinguished services.

On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1745, he was appointed to serve under General George Wade at Newcastle, and on 25 December of that year was given a command in Scotland. By his conduct at the battle of Falkirk, where he was second in command to Henry Hawley, he secured the retreat of the royal forces to Linlithgow. He distinguished himself at the battle of Culloden, where he commanded the second line of the Duke of Cumberland's army. He was given the orders that defeated the rebel charge on the left flank, and decided the battle.

He became a lieutenant-general in 1747, and again served in Flanders in 1747–8. As was then not uncommon with general officers otherwise unemployed, he joined his regiment in Minorca, and commanded it during the unsuccessful defence of that island in 1756. He became a full general 5 December 1756. He was appointed to the governorship of Sheerness in 1745, and transferred to that of Jersey in 1749. A brave, blunt veteran, whose solicitude for his soldiers earned him the nickname of 'Daddy Huske,' Huske died at Ealing, near London, 18 January 1761.

References

1. Emeny, Richard, A Description of Orchard Wyndham, 2000, p.3 (guide-booklet available at Orchard Wyndham)
2. Boyer, Abel, Political State of Great Britain, Volume X, London, 1716, pp.330-6

• Culloden Moor 1746, Osprey Books

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Huske, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.