Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Warren, Richard Augustus
WARREN, RICHARD AUGUSTUS (1705?–1775), Jacobite, son of John Warren of Corduff or Courtduffe, co. Dublin, was born about 1705. One of three younger sons, two of whom, William and John, had joined Lally's Franco-Irish regiment in the French service, he started in business as a merchant at Marseilles; but on hearing of the Young Pretender's preparations in 1744 for an expedition to Scotland, he wound up his affairs, and joined his brother's regiment as a volunteer. On 10 Aug. 1745 he was transferred as a captain without pay to Rothes's Franco-Irish infantry. In the middle of October he embarked for Scotland, landed at Stonehaven, joined the prince at Edinburgh, became aide-de-camp to Lord George Murray (1700?–1760) [q. v.], was made a colonel at Brampton on 12 Nov., and took part in the siege of Carlisle. After the prince's retreat from Derby he was sent to raise levies in Athol, and he collected the fishing-boats for the expedition by which Lord Loudoun's force of fifteen hundred men, posted between the Moray and Dornoch firths, was surprised and dispersed. On 18 April 1746 he sailed from Findhorn with despatches from the Marquis d'Éguilles, the French envoy, urging reinforcements. He reached Versailles on the 30th, and received the grade of colonel. Commissioned to rescue the prince, he embarked on 31 Aug. at Cape Fréhel, on the frigate Heureux, and after three weeks' search took Charles Edward on board, on 30 Sept., at Lochnanuagh, Inverness-shire, and landed him on 10 Oct. at Roscoff, Brittany. Warren had stipulated for the French title of baron if he succeeded in his task, and James Edward on 9 Nov. made him a baronet, but with a prohibition publicly to assume that rank which was not removed till 1751. He was aide-de-camp to Marshal Saxe till 1748, received the grade of brigadier-general from James Edward in 1750, and the cross of St. Louis from the French government in 1755. He paid a visit to London in 1751. He had a French pension of twelve hundred livres, and in 1754 obtained a captaincy in Rothes's regiment. In 1762 he was made a maréchal-de-camp, was naturalised in 1764, and was appointed commandant of Belleisle, which post he held till his death on 21 June 1775. Unmarried, he left a will in favour of a young man named MacCarthy, but his debts exceeded the assets. His manuscripts are preserved in the Morbihan archives at Vannes.
[Bulletin Société Polymathique du Morbihan, 1892–5; Lallement's Baron de Warren, Vannes, 1893; Revue Rétrospective, 1885; Cottin's Protégé de Bachaumont, 1887; Inventaire des Archives du Morbihan; F. de Warren's Notice sur Famille Warren, Nancy, 1860; Journal de d'Argenson, iv. 320; O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees; Chambers's Hist. of Rebellion.]