Robert Echlin (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General Robert Echlin (c.1657 – c.1723) was an Irish officer of the British Army, who for many years commanded the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. He also sat in the Irish House of Commons and the House of Commons of Great Britain. In later life, embittered by chronic poverty, lack of  professional advancement  and a  failing military career,  he espoused the Jacobite cause, and died in exile in France. He was the first owner of the famous Echlin Sword.

Family
He was born at Ardquin, County Down,  youngest son of Robert Echlin, and great-grandson of Robert Echlin, Bishop of Down and Connor from 1612 to 1635. His mother was Mary Leslie, daughter of Henry Leslie, Bishop of Meath and his wife Jane Swinton. His father died shortly after Robert's birth, and seems to have left his family in poverty.

Robert's elder brother Sir Henry Echlin repaired the family fortunes: after a successful career as a barrister  and judge, ending with a term  as  second  Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland), he was created the first of the Echlin baronets in 1721,  and became a substantial landowner, with his principal  seat at Clonagh Castle in County Kildare.

Poverty
Robert for a time shared in his brother's prosperity, and acquired estates in County Monaghan, but  he soon fell into difficulty and suffered  years of financial embarrassment. By his own account, the fault for his financial problems lay entirely with the English  Crown  which regularly failed to pay his wages or offer him advancement: he claimed that for many years he paid his soldiers out of his own pocket, and  that he was ultimately forced to sell his estates as a result. In 1712 he sought permission to retire: by January 1713 he was pleading with the English Government for justice, as he faced "utter ruin". It is very likely  that his bitterness at what he saw as the Crown's gross ingratitude for his long years of loyal  service was one of the principal factors in his going over to the Jacobite cause in 1715. Whether his brother Sir Henry gave him any financial help is unclear.

Military Service
He first saw active service in 1689, in the first year of the Williamite War in Ireland, and took part in the defence of Inch, County Down. When his uncle, Sir Albert Conyngham, raised the Iniskilling Dragoons later that year Echlin was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. He and his men fought with distinction at the Siege of Derry and at the  Battle of the Boyne and were commended  for their services by King William III. It is frequently said that Echlin first used the Echlin Sword at the Boyne, but the better view is that it was made around 1708.

On his uncle's death in 1691 he petitioned to be given command of the Regiment, remarking that he knew all the men and was related to all the officers, and that "it is well known that it was my industry and pains that made it a regiment". His request was granted, and he was in time appointed to the rank of Lieutenant General, although he complained constantly that his pay was in arrears. In 1707 the new regime in Dublin Castle dismissed him from all his offices, but he was restored to  his command in 1709. The Regiment was sent to Scotland in 1708 (the Echlin Sword is thought to have been made about this time), and subsequently to the Low Countries. In 1712, apparently to rebuke Echlin for his "pretensions", the Regiment was returned to England, despite Echlin's request for it to be sent to Ireland, and reduced in size.

Soon after the death of Queen Anne, Echlin was summarily dismissed from command of  his Regiment:  by his own account no  charge was made against him other  than that  of  being a Tory. He complained that there was "not a farthing paid to him", despite his chronic poverty. By now utterly disillusioned with the Government, he followed his patron, the Duke of Ormonde, to France and offered his services to the Old Pretender.

Politics
He sat in the Irish House of Commons  as member for Monaghan Borough  1695-1703, and in the British House of Commons as member for Sudbury  1710-1713. In politics he was a faithful ally of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde: this led to his brief dismissal form his military command in 1707. It was, almost certainly, at the invitation of Ormonde, who had already gone over to the Jacobite cause, that Echlin joined him in France  in 1715. The Jacobite court noted with disappointment that only a handful of Ormonde's followers were prepared to make this sacrifice, and that those like Echlin who did so were mostly ruined men with nothing to lose and nothing to offer.

Jacobite
During the abortive Jacobite Rising of 1715 he was sent to Scotland: after "running great hazards",  he reached the Orkneys,  seized a vessel and returned to the Continent. He spent his last years in France, living on a small pension from the Old Pretender, and by his own account waiting for any chance to prove his zeal and loyalty in his cause. A projected invasion in 1718 was aborted  due to bad weather: Ormonde wrote to commiserate Echlin on the mischance but for which "we might have met in our own country". In 1719 the Pretender paid him the considerable sum of £300 "very privately".

Marriage
He married Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Blundell, 3rd Baronet and his second wife Anne Ingoldsby,  in 1696: they had no children. Anne died in 1724, having outlived her husband, whose precise date of death is not recorded.

Related articles

 * Jacobitism
 * 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons
 * Williamite War in Ireland