Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dormer, James
DORMER, JAMES (1679–1741), lieutenant-general, colonel 1st troop of horse-grenadier guards, son of Robert Dormer of Dorton, Buckinghamshire, who died 1693, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Charles Cotterell [q. v.], master of the ceremonies to Charles I, Charles II, and James II, and ambassador at Brussels in 1663, was born 16 March 1679. He was appointed lieutenant and captain 1st foot guards 13 June 1700, in which rank he was wounded at Blenheim, where a brother-officer of the same name and regiment, Lieutenant-colonel Philip Dormer, was killed (Treas. Papers, xciii. 79). In command of a newly raised corps of Irish foot he went to Spain, and distinguished himself at Saragossa in 1709, and was taken prisoner with General Stanhope at Brihuega in Castile in December 1710. He appears to have been awarded 200l. for his losses by pillage at Brihuega and at Bilbao on his way home on parole (ib. cxxxvii. 8). On the death of Lord Mohun in the notorious duel with the Duke of Hamilton in 1712, Dormer, who had been exchanged, was appointed colonel of Mohun's regiment, which was disbanded the year after. In 1715 he was commissioned to raise a regiment of dragoons in the south of England, which is now the 14th hussars. He commanded a brigade during the Jacobite rising in Lancashire, and was engaged with the rebels at Preston. Transferred to the colonelcy of the 6th foot in 1720, was envoy extraordinary to Lisbon about 1727-8, where he had a dispute with Thomas Burnett, the British consul (Eg. MS. 921); was appointed a lieutenant-general and colonel 1st troop of horse-grenadier guards in 1737, and governor of Hull in 1740. He died at Crendon, Buckinghamshire, 24 Dec. 1741. He was a member of the Kit-Cat Club, collected a fine library (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ii. 658), and appears to have been an acquaintance of Swift (Works, xvii. 338). His christian name is wrongly given by many writers, and Granger in ‘Biog. Hist. Eng.’ (ed. 1806, App. vol. iii.) seems disposed to confuse him with Colonel Charles Dormer, who fell at the head of Lord Essex's dragoons (now the 4th hussars) at the battle of Almanza in 1707. He was unmarried, and bequeathed the Cheasley estate to his cousin Sir Clement Cotterell, knt. (afterwards Cotterell-Dormer), master of the ceremonies to George II.
[Lipscomb's Hist. Buckinghamshire, i. 119 (pedigree); Hamilton's Hist. Grenadier Guards, vol. iii.; Cannon's Hist. Recs. 4th and 14th Light Dragoons (succession of colonels); Cal. Treas. Papers, 1704–9, under ‘James Dormer;’ War Office (Home Office) Mil. Entry Books in Public Record Office, London.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.101
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 245 | i | 5 f.e. | Dormer, James: for was envoy read was in June 1725 sent as envoy |
| 4 f.e. | omit about 1727-8 |