Samuel Auchmuty ( British Army officer ) Lieutenant General Sir Samuel Auchmuty , GCB ( 1756 – 1822 ) was a British general . Origins . Sir Samuel ' s grandfather , Robert Auchmuty ( d . 1750 ) , was descended from a family settled in Fife , Scotland , in the 14th century . Robert Auchmuty ' s father ( Sir Samuel ' s great grandfather ) had moved to Ireland in 1699 , and Robert emigrated to America and settled in Boston , where he practised law with success . Robert Auchmuty was appointed to the court of admiralty in 1703 , which office he resigned shortly afterward ; but he was reappointed in 1733 . He was in England in 1741 as agent for the colony , and in that year published in London a pamphlet entitled " The Importance of Cape Breton to the British Nation , and a Plan for Taking the Place " . Sir Samuel ' s father , also named Samuel ( January 16 , 1722 Boston - March 6 , 1777 New York City ) , was a clergyman . He graduated from Harvard in 1742 , studied theology in England , and was appointed assistant minister of Trinity Church in New York . In 1764 he became rector , and had charge of all the churches in the city . He continued to read prayers for the king during the American Revolutionary War , until Lord Stirling , in command at New York , compelled him to desist ; whereupon he locked the churches and withdrew to New Jersey , ordering that no services should be held until the prayers could be read without abridgment . When the British captured New York he passed the American lines amid great hardships . He found his church and parsonage burned and the church records destroyed . The exposure that he underwent in order to evade the American sentries caused his death . Military career . Sir Samuel was born at New York City in 1756 , and educated at King ' s College , the progenitor of today ' s Columbia University , where he graduated in 1775 . A loyalist , during the American War of Independence he was given an ensign cy in the loyal army in 1777 , and in 1778 a lieutenancy in the 45th Foot , without purchase . When his regiment returned to England after the war , having neither private means nor influence , he exchanged into the 52nd ( Oxfordshire ) Regiment of Foot , in order to proceed to India . He took part in the last war against Hyder Ali ; he was given a staff appointment by Lord Cornwallis in 1790 , served in the operations against Tippoo Sahib , and continued in various staff appointments up to 1797 , when he returned to England a brevet lieutenant colonel . In 1800 he was made lieutenant - colonel and brevet colonel ; and in the following year , as adjutant - general to Sir David Baird in Egypt , took a distinguished share in the march across the desert and the Capture of Alexandria . On his return to England in 1803 he was knighted , and three years later he went out to the Río de la Plata as a brigadier - general . Auchmuty was one of the few officers who came out of the disastrous Buenos Aires expedition of 1806 - 7 with enhanced reputation . While General John Whitelocke , the commander , was cashiered , Auchmuty was at once re - employed and promoted major - general . In 1810 he was appointed to command the Madras Army . In the following year he commanded the expedition organized for the conquest of Java , which the governor - general , Lord Minto , himself accompanied . The storming of the strongly fortified position of Meester Cornelis ( 28 August 1811 ) , stubbornly defended by a Dutch garrison under General Janssens , practically achieved conquest of the island , and after the action of Samarang ( 8 September 1811 ) Janssens surrendered . Auchmuty received the thanks of Parliament and was appointed KCB and , on his return home , was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general . In 1822 he became Commander - in - Chief , Ireland , and a member of the Irish privy council . He died suddenly in August 1822 . Family . His uncle , son of Sir Samuel ' s grandfather and also named Robert ( b . Boston ; d . December 1788 Marylebone , England ) , was an eloquent and successful advocate in Boston . He was one of the counsel for the soldiers engaged in the Boston Massacre , and became a judge of admiralty in 1769 ; but in 1776 , being a zealous Loyalist , he withdrew to England . His and Thomas Hutchinson ' s letters from Boston to England , which were sent back to the colonies by Benjamin Franklin in 1773 , caused great excitement .