Family and Education

4th s.1 of William Churchill, bookseller, of Dorchester; bro. of Awnsham Churchill, M.P., and William Churchill. unm.

Offices Held

Ensign Earl of Monmouth’s Ft. 1689, capt. 3 Ft. 1694; lt.-col. Col. William Evans’s Ft. 1703, col. of marines 1706-11; commr. of victualling 1720-d.

Biography

A professional soldier, Churchill served in Flanders during King William’s wars, taking part in the Cadiz-Vigo expedition of 1702. Of the latter he wrote a long account to one of his brothers, dated 15 Oct. 1702 in the Northumberland, off Vigo, saying that ‘the seamen who carried me ashore had the good fortune to drop me into the sea and I have lain on the ground ever since without changing my clothes’.2 He also commanded a detachment of 1,200 marines on the expedition to Lisbon under Earl Rivers in 1706.3 Declared elected for Corfe Castle by the House of Commons in January 1719 after a double return, he voted for the peerage bill that year. On appointment to office he was re-elected without opposition in June 1720. He died 27 Jan. 1721.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

• 1. Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 384; iii. 491.
• 2. Knight, The Buffs, 1572-1704, pp. 422-4.
• 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. xxi. 155.