Family and Education

b. c.1661, perhaps s. of Walter Sabine and gd.-s. of Avery Sabine (d.1648), alderman and mayor of Canterbury.1 m. (1) Hester, da. of Henry Whitfield of Bishop’s Stortford, Herts., s.p.; (2) Margaretta, da. of Charles Newsham, sis. of John Newsham of Chadshunt, Warws., 2s. 3da.

Offices Held

Capt.-lt. Sir Henry Ingoldsby’s Ft. Mar. 1689; capt. of a grenadier co. bef. Oct. 1689, maj. 23 Ft. 1691, lt.-col. 1695, col. 1705-d.; brevet-col. 1703; brig-gen. 1707; maj.-gen. 1710; lt.-gen. 1727; gen. 1730.

Gov. Berwick-upon-Tweed and Holy Is. 1719-30; gov. Gibraltar 1730-d.

Biography

Sabine belonged to a branch of the Sabines of Patrixbourne in Kent. Entering the army at the Revolution, he served in Ireland under William III, who probably granted him the estates he held in co. Kildare.2 Under Marlborough he was wounded at the battle of Schellenberg in 1704, and won great distinction at Oudenarde.3 On the advent of the Tories to power, he paid his court to Strafford and Ormonde, through whom he obtained a promise that some provision would be made for him at the conclusion of the peace.4

During the rebellion of 1715 Sabine came over from Ireland with his regiment to Scotland, where he was left the chief command by General Cadogan in May 1716. In July following, the Duke of Atholl complained of ‘the conduct of General Sabine and other King’s officers, in regard to rebel prisoners and ... of the plundering and other impositions made by the troops’ in Perthshire.5 Having purchased Tewin in 1715, he spent £40,000 on rebuilding and furnishing it with such magnificence that George I, ‘under the pretext of hunting, visited it twice’.6 Returned in 1727 on the government interest for Berwick,7 of which he was governor, he voted with the Administration till 1730, when he went as governor to Gibraltar, where he died 24 Oct. 1739, aged 78. He was buried at Tewin.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Dalton, Geo. I’s Army, i. 347 n. 1.
• 2. PCC 52 Browne.
• 3. J. W. Fortescue, Hist. Br. Army, i. 498-500; Luttrell, vi. 325.
• 4. Sabine to Ld. Strafford, 22 July 1714, Add. 22211, ff. 174-5.
• 5. HMC 12th Rep. VIII, 71.
• 6. César de Saussure, A Foreign View of England in the reigns of Geo. I and Geo. II, 307-8.
• 7. E. Hughes, N. Country Life in the 18th Cent. 271 n. 2.