Richard Vyse

General Richard Vyse or Vise FRSE (11 July 1746 – 30 May 1825) was a British general, and briefly a Member of Parliament for Beverley. Life The family's earlier history in Staffordshire is outlined by the editor of Erdeswicke. Vyse was born at Lichfield, Staffordshire the younger son of William Vyse (1710–1770), canon residentiary and treasurer of Lichfield and his wife Catherine Smalbroke, and younger brother of William Vyse (1741–1816), canon residentiary and chancellor of Lichfield. He married twice: first, in 1771, he married Anna Susannah Spearman, who died without issue a year later and was buried at St Chad's, Stowe. In 1780, he married Anne, the only surviving daughter and heiress of Field-marshal Sir George Howard and his wife Lucy Wentworth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Strafford, and became the father of Major-General Howard Vyse, anthropologist and Egyptologist, and his sister Georgiana Anne Vyse. Vyse was appointed cornet in the 5th Dragoons on 13 February 1763. He attained the brevet rank of colonel on 7 January 1781, received the command of the 1st Dragoon Guards on 28 May 1784, and during the revolutionary war served in Flanders in command of a brigade under the Duke of York. He distinguished himself on several occasions, particularly at the Battle of Beaumont on 26 April 1794, where at the head of two brigades of heavy cavalry, he materially contributed to the victory, and at the evacuation of Ostend, which he superintended on 1 July. Vyse was nominated major-general on 2 October 1794, and lieutenant-general on 1 January 1801. In 1799 he was appointed Commander of Forces in Scotland and based at Edinburgh Castle. During his time in Edinburgh, in 1804, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Ninian Imrie, John Clerk, and Thomas Charles Hope. In 1805 he left Scotland to become Commanding Officer of the Yorkshire district.