Sir George Nugent , 1st Baronet Field Marshal Sir George Nugent , 1st Baronet , GCB ( 10 June 1757 – 11 March 1849 ) was a British soldier . He served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars , was a colonial governor , and went into politics . Military career . George Nugent was the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel the Hon . Edmund Nugent , only son of Robert Nugent , 1st Earl Nugent . He was educated at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich . On Edmund ' s death in 1771 , his marriage was found to have been illegal and he and his brother Charles were declared illegitimate , and therefore ineligible to succeed to his grandfather ' s titles . In 1773 George entered the British Army as an Ensign in the 39th Regiment of Foot , stationed at Gibraltar . In September 1777 he joined the 7th Regiment of Foot ( Royal Fusiliers ) at New York , and saw action in the American Revolutionary War . In April 1778 he became a captain in the 57th Regiment of Foot , and in May 1782 a major in the same regiment . In 1783 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 97th Regiment of Foot and returned to England , where he also served with the 13th ( 1st Somersetshire ) Regiment of Foot . From 1787 to 1790 he served as an aide - de - camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , his brother - in - law the Marquess of Buckingham . Through Lord Buckingham ' s influence he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th ( Royal Irish ) Dragoon Guards . He exchanged into the Coldstream Guards the following year , serving with the Duke of York in the Netherlands in 1793 . In January 1794 , the War Office recalled him to supervise the raising of a regiment at the instigation of the Marquess of Buckingham . Sir George was Colonel of the regiment , the Bucks Volunteers , later the 85th ( Bucks Volunteers ) Regiment of Foot , for about a year , until he was promoted to Brigadier General in 1795 . While he commanded the regiment it served under Sir Ralph Abercrombie in the actions of St . Andria and Thuyl on the river Waal , and participated in the disastrous retreat from the Rhine . In 1796 , he was promoted to major general , again at the instigation of Lord Buckingham . Also in 1796 , Sir George was elected Member of Parliament for Buckingham and represented the constituency until 1802 . He distinguished himself for his rôle in placating Belfast during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , and from July 1799 to March 1801 he was Adjutant - General in Ireland , also representing Charleville in the last Irish House of Commons before the Act of Union 1800 . In 1801 Sir George was appointed Governor of Jamaica , serving until February 1806 ; his old regiment the 85th were also stationed in Jamaica at this time . While there , he strengthened the fort that the Spanish slave agent in Jamaica , James Castillo , had built in 1709 in Harbour View . Named Fort Nugent , the fort guarded the eastern entrance of the city of Kingston Harbour , but all that remains is a Martello tower that was added after Sir George ' s departure . Returning to England , he was made Colonel of the 6th ( 1st Warwickshire ) Regiment of Foot on 26 May 1806 , elected Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Aylesbury on 3 November and created a baronet , of Waddesdon in the county of Buckinghamshire , on 28 November . In October 1808 he bought Westhorpe House in Buckinghamshire , and resided there with his family until his appointment as Commander - in - Chief , India on 14 January 1811 . On his return in 1813 he was promoted to full General . In 1815 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath , and in 1819 an honorary DCL of the University of Oxford . From 1819 to 1832 he was again MP for Buckingham . He was made a field marshal in 1846 , and died at Westhorpe in 1849 . His eldest son , George Edmund , succeeded him in the baronetcy . Family . General Nugent married Maria Skinner , Daughter of Cortlandt Skinner , the Attorney - General of New Jersey , in Belfast on 16 November 1797 . The couple had three sons and two daughters . Lady Nugent wrote a journal of her experiences in Jamaica first published in 1907 . The current edition is : " Wright , Philip ( 2002 ) . Lady Nugent ' s Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 . University of the West Indies Press . " The journal describes the day to day life of a governor ' s wife and the social and political requirements of their station on the island . Lady Nugent also kept a journal of her time in India , which was published privately by the Nugent family along with her Jamaica journal in 1839 , but which , unlike her Jamaica journal , has not yet ever been republished . A critical edition of " Lady Nugent ' s East India Journal " , edited by Ashley L . Cohen , is forthcoming from Oxford University Press .