John Sherlock (general)

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[Brigadier-General]] '''John Sherlock''' ({{circa|1705}} – 25 July 1794) was a [[Spanish Army]] officer. He [[Siege of Melilla (1774)|successfully defended]] [[Melilla]] during a 100-day siege by Moroccan troops.<ref>{{cite book |last=Muñoz Lorente |first=Gerardo |title=El Rosario del Mahoma |year=2004 |isbn=978-84-932820-8-0}}</ref> ==Biography== John was born in [[Ireland]]. He was the son of Peter Sherlock, who had been made a baronet and knight by titular king, [[James Francis Edward Stuart|James III]], the Old Pretender, in 1716. However, during the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]], the Sherlock family lost its extensive land holdings in County Waterford. Like many Catholic Irish people, John emigrated to Spain with hopes of returning to Ireland once a Catholic was king of England again. And like his father and grandfather he served in the Ultonia Regiment (i.e. Ulster Regiment), part of the Irish Brigade of the Spanish Army.<ref>{{cite book |last=Collins |first=Arian |title=The Sherlocks of Ireland and Wales |year=2008}}</ref> John Sherlock fought in the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1727)|Anglo-Spanish War]] of 1727–1729, a failed Spanish attempt to retake Gibraltar. He was made commander in chief of Melilla by [[Charles III of Spain]]. From 9 December 1774 to 19 March 1775, John Sherlock [[Siege of Melilla (1774)|defended Melilla]] against troops of the sultan of Morocco, [[Mohammed ben Abdallah]]. When a Spanish fleet arrived with reinforcements, Sherlock broke the siege and routed the Moroccans. The entrance to the old town at Melilla includes a monument to "Juan Sherlocke." He was later made governor of [[Sanlúcar de Barrameda]], where he died on 25 July 1794, at the age of 89.<ref>{{cite book |last=Warden |first=David Bailie |title=L'art de vérifier les dates |date=1826}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherlock, John}} [[Category:Year of birth uncertain]] [[Category:1794 deaths]] [[Category:18th-century Irish people]] [[Category:Irish emigrants to Spain]] [[Category:Irish Jacobites]] [[Category:Irish mercenaries]] [[Category:Irish soldiers in the Spanish Army]] [[Category:Spanish generals]] [[Category:Spanish people of Irish descent]]