Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage (10 March 1718/19 – 2 April 1787) was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American Revolution.

Born to an aristocratic family in England, he entered military service, seeing action in the French and Indian War, where he served alongside his future opponent George Washington in the 1755 Battle of the Monongahela. After the fall of Montreal in 1760, he was named its military governor. During this time he did not distinguish himself militarily, but proved himself to be a competent administrator.

From 1763 to 1775 he served as commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, overseeing the British response to the 1763 Pontiac's Rebellion. In 1774 he was also appointed the military governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with instructions to implement the Intolerable Acts, punishing Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. His attempts to seize military stores of Patriot militias in April 1775 sparked the Battles of Lexington and Concord, beginning the American War of Independence. After the Pyrrhic victory in the June Battle of Bunker Hill he was replaced by General William Howe in October 1775, and returned to Britain.

Thomas Gage (clergyman)

Thomas Gage (c. 1597 – 1656) was an English clergyman.

He was the son of the English Catholic gentleman John Gage, from 1622 a baronet, and his wife Margaret. The family were strong Catholics and were intermarried with other Catholic families, including that of Sir Thomas More, the former Lord Chancellor.

Catholic beginnings

The family's Catholicism was practiced behind closed doors. His three older brothers followed in the Catholic tradition. One was the Royalist soldier Colonel Sir Henry Gage (1597–1645), who fought on the Continent for Catholic Spain and eventually in England for Charles I; George was a diplomat and priest; and William was a Jesuit. In fact, there were no fewer than five priests in the family since their half-brothers John and Francis, born of their father's second marriage, were also priests.

John Gage wanted his son Thomas to become a Jesuit, and to this end sent him for a schooling with the Jesuits of the College of St. Omer in the Low Countries and seems to have been an unremarkable pupil. From St Omer he was sent for further education with a view to becoming a Jesuit priest to the English College at Valladolid in Spain. Valladolid was the scene of a good deal of rivalry and bad feeling between the different religious orders, a situation worsened by the temperamental and political tensions between the Spanish and the English. Gage developed a contempt for the Jesuits and like numerous other students of the English College at that period took refuge with a rival establishment, choosing the Dominicans. Gage himself claims that it was this that led to his being disowned by his father.

Sir Thomas Gage, 7th Baronet

Sir Thomas Gage, 7th Baronet (1781 – 27 December 1820, Rome) was an English botanist, from a junior branch of the Gage family of Firle, Sussex. The woodland flower Gagea is named in his honour.

He married, Mary-Anne Browne, the daughter of Valentine Browne, 1st Earl of Kenmare

References

Thomas Gage (disambiguation)

Thomas Gage (1719–1787) was a British general and commander in chief of the North American forces during the early days of the American Revolution.

Thomas Gage may also refer to: