Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Montgomerie, Archibald (1726-1796)
MONTGOMERIE, ARCHIBALD, eleventh Earl of Eglinton in the peerage of Scotland (1726–1796), born 18 May 1726, was third son (by his third wife, Susannah, daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy, bart., of Culzean, Ayrshire) of Alexander, ninth earl [q. v.] When Pitt decided to form regiments of highlanders at the beginning of the seven years' war, Montgomerie was a young major in the 36th foot, a high-spirited young fellow, with a strong dash of romantic enthusiasm about him, and very popular in the highlands, where he had two sisters married to influential lairds. He accordingly raised in a short time a very fine regiment of highlanders of thirteen companies of 105 rank and file each. It at first appeared in the 'Army List' as the 2nd highland regiment, but immediately afterwards was numbered as the 77th foot, being the first of the three regiments that have successively borne that number.
Montgomerie was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant 4 Jan. 1757. He took the regiment out to America, where it formed the advance in the second expedition to Fort Duquesne, under Brigadier-general Forbes, in 1758, and afterwards went through much adventurous service in the remote wilds of the neighbouring country. Montgomerie was sent with twelve hundred men against the Cherokees; he destroyed Estatoe and other Indian villages, and defeated the Indians in a pitched battle at Etchocy in 1760, and again at War-Woman's Creek in 1761. He was put on half-pay when his regiment was disbanded in 1764. In 1769 he was appointed colonel 51st foot, and succeeded his elder brother, Alexander, tenth earl [q. v.], in the earldom the same year. He became a major-general in 1772, lieutenant-general in 1777, and governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1782. He died a full general and colonel of the Scots greys 30 Oct. 1796. Eglinton married, first, in 1772, Lady Jean Lindsay, eldest daughter of George, eighteenth earl of Crawford, who died childless; secondly, in 1783, Frances, only daughter of Sir William Twysden, bart., of Roydon Hall, Kent, by whom he had two daughters. The elder, Mary, married Archibald, lord Montgomerie, eldest son of Hugh, twelfth earl [q. v.], a kinsman who succeeded to the title, while most of the family estates passed to Lady Mary. The eleventh earl's widow remarried Francis, brother of General Sir John Moore [q. v.]
[Foster's Peerage, under 'Eglinton' and 'Winton;' Army Lists; Stewart's Scottish Highlanders, ii. 59 et seq.; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, ii. 158, and Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. ii.]