Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Melville, Andrew (1624-1706)
MELVILLE, ANDREW (1624–1706), soldier of fortune, was born in Scotland in May 1624. His father, John Melville, sprang from a younger branch of the Melville family; his mother was Jane Kelley (Kellie?), her brother being chamberlain to Charles I. Sent to Königsberg university at thirteen to study the languages of northern Europe, Melville escaped to Poland, intending to enter the army, but, seeing no prospect of active employment, he returned to Scotland. There he learned that his parents, ruined by his uncle's debts, had died, and that creditors had seized the entire property. Lord Grey of Werke, who had already taken his brother into his service, promised Andrew a cornetcy, pending which, at the head of other young men also waiting for appointments, he lived by plunder, till captured by peasants and imprisoned for some months. On his release he joined in 1647 the presbyterian troops; but on Charles I being given up he went to France, served with the French army in Flanders, and after a variety of adventures waited on Charles II at Breda, and agreed to join him in Scotland. At the battle of Worcester he was shot in the arm, stripped, and left for dead, but was sheltered for three months by villagers until he recovered from his wounds. He then repaired in disguise to London, and was assisted by a roundhead kinsman (probably George, afterwards earl of Melville) in escaping to Holland. After further privations and perils he joined the Scottish bodyguard of Cardinal de Retz, and next served in the French army. Eventually he linked his fortunes with those of Count Josias Waldeck, with whom he fought for the elector of Brandenburg, the king of Sweden, the elector of Cologne, and the Duke of Celle (Brunswick-Luneburg). The duke sent him to London in 1660 to compliment Charles II on his restoration, and Melville paid a second visit on his own account; but the king, while very affable, professed inability to do anything for him. In 1680 Melville accompanied the Prince of Hanover (afterwards George I) to England, and received the degree of M.D. at Oxford, whither he went with the prince (WOOD, Fasti Oxon. ii. 379). In 1677, retiring from active service, Melville had been appointed drost (governor or commandant) of Gifhorn. Melville died at Gifhorn in 1706. The church, in which he was probably buried, was burnt down in 1744. He had married in Germany, and had a son who predeceased him, also a daughter, Charlotte Sophia Anna (1670–1724), who in 1690 became the wife of Alexander von Schulenburg-Blumberg, a Hanoverian general.
He was author of an autobiography published as ‘Mémoires de M. le Chevalier de Melvill,’ Amsterdam, 1704, with a preface eulogising his valour and protestantism.
[Melville's Mémoires; Hermann Schulze's Geschichtliches aus dem Lüneburgischen, Gifhorn, 1877; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Leipzig, 1885; Oettinger's Dict. des Dates, Leipzig, 1869.]