Quick Facts
Biography
Lieutenant General Charles Churchill (1679 – 14 May 1745) was a British Army General and a Member of Parliament.
Career
Born the natural (illegitimate) son of Elizabeth Dodd and General Charles Churchill (1656–1714) and so the nephew of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, Churchill spent his early career in the British Army during the War of the Spanish Succession and was then Member of Parliament for Castle Rising from 1715 to 1745.
He was despatched to Vienna in 1721 on a mission to secure the release of a "Mr Knight" who was being held in the Citadel of Antwerp. In 1727 he was promoted to Brigadier and appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber and in 1728 King George II and Queen Caroline inspected his Regiment of Dragoons.
He was also Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea from 1720 until 1722. and Governor of Plymouth.
Family
Churchill had a relationship with Anne Oldfield, an English actress, by whom he had an illegitimate son, Charles Churchill (of Chalfont). Charles (d 1745) also had an illegitimate daughter, Harriet, whose mother is unknown. Harriet married Sir Everard Fawkener and, later, Thomas Pownall.