The King's Rake

Beauing, belling, dancing, drinking,

Breaking windows, cursing, sinking

Every raking, never thinking,

Live the Rakes of Mallow,

Spending faster than it comes,

Beating waiter's bailiffs, duns,

Bacchus' true begotten sons,

Live the Rakes of Mallow.

And so begin the lyrics of the mid-18th-century song that remains in today's culture as an international classic, The Rakes of Mallow... A song about the rakes from the farming town of Mallow, some 20 miles north of the city of Cork.  What is a rake? Although Mallow is a farming town, we are not dealing with the instrument used for gardening. The other rake is an archaic term for a carousing, gambling, drinking, and womanizing sort. The kind of person both celebrated and berated by Georgian England... Which brings us to the rake of this story - the complex and never uninteresting George Hanger...

The Rake at Dawn

George Hanger was born near Berkshire, England around 1751. His father was Gabriel, 3rd Baron Coleraine, an Irish peerage. As the third son of an upper class noble, it was all but preordained that he was bound for the military. Hanger was educated at Eton and then spent a year at the University of Goettingen in Hannover, Germany. A bright student, Hanger cut a "rakish" figure and favored the proverbial wine, women, and gambling - not necessarily in that order. He allegedly fought three duels by the time he was age 20 and was reputed a crack shot. While in Germany, Hanger observed the famed Prussian Army of Frederick the Great on maneuver and determined then and there to pursue a military career. In January 1771, he was appointed an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, a posh regiment of the household troops. Hanger served well but resigned after he was passed over for promotion just four years later. Already, inklings of his lifestyle began to swirl.

George Hanger

Soldier for Hire

Hanger's German contacts served him well, however, and he soon received a captain's commission in the Feldjager Korps of the forces of the Landgraf (Elector )of Hesse-Kassel, another elite unit. I think we know where this is going... It was as part of this band of young Teutonic aristocrats that Hanger sailed for America when the Landgraf "rented" his troops to King George III. Leaving Portsmouth in March 1776, young Hanger would arrive in time for some of the most "fun" episodes for crown forces during the entire eight-year struggle. He played a role in the juggernaut campaigns that swept the rebels from New York and the Jerseys in 1776. And in the less glamorous but no less savage escapades of 1777. His performance was such that he assumed command of an elite Hessian Jaeger (light infantry) company drawn from all the Hessian regiments of the army. By all accounts, Hanger distinguished himself in the months that followed. His unit did more than its share of screening, patrolling, and small scale fighting in the area around the Kingsbridge, Spuyten Duyvil, and Westchester. Around this time he learned that his estate in Britain had gone into foreclosure, and through a series of misfortunes, he was worse than broke. Our young hero had become a self-styled "soldier of fortune."

Hanger became a master of light infantry

An Unlikely Spy

When the British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island ended in 1779, Hanger was tapped by the British commander in chief General Henry Clinton to go on a daring reconnaissance mission to ascertain if the American occupiers had left its defenses ripe for reconquest. He sailed the 150 miles north from the mouth of New York harbor on a frigate and led a twelve-man longboat into dangerous waters on a daring night raid. He captured a prisoner and returned to New York with him. Hanger was later castigated in the American papers when the prisoner suddenly took ill and died.

An unlikely Hanger sails on a secret mission
 to Rhode Island: espionage

Moving South

Patrick Ferguson
 - a badass

Later, Hanger took command of a series of mixed rifle/musket units and was seconded to the famed "counter-guerrilla" Major Patrick Ferguson, one of the badass British officers of the war whose demise at King's Mountain would herald the beginning of the end in the south. But I digress. With Ferguson, Hanger sailed to the Carolinas under General Henry Clinton in the spring of 1780 - the opening of the "southern strategy." After a short stint as Clinton's aide de camp and then inspector of militia under Ferguson, the ever-mobile Hanger managed a transfer to Banastre Tarleton's British Legion. The two hard-drinking, rough, and tumble aristocrats hit it off and Tarleton made Hanger his deputy. Hanger had joined the green jacketed band of Loyalist regulars that would become notorious under Tarleton.

A likely duo: Infamous Banastre Tarleton
became Hanger's mentor and commander

The Legion

Lord Charles Cornwallis

The Legion led Major General Charles Cornwallis's invasion of North Carolina.   When Tarleton was felled by yellow fever,  Hanger took command. Although an accomplished infantry fighter and dependable deputy, Hanger would run into difficulty handling the cavalry, the important strike force of Tarleton's Legion. He allowed himself to be ambushed at Wahab Plantation on 21 September 1780, where a partisan force under American Colonel William Davie struck in the early evening. Surprised and overwhelmed, Hanger lost 12 killed 47 wounded, and almost 100 invaluable horses captured. Tasked with leading the British advance against Charlotte less than a week later, he mucked things up once more. This time, he let his horsemen get separated from their supporting infantry. Once more, Davie took the measure of him when Hanger's cavalry rode recklessly into the town unsupported. Hanger led several charges against Davie's American riflemen, defending behind a wall. Hanger's men began falling to the well-aimed fire. Cornwallis himself had to take charge to steady the situation. Hanger was badly wounded during the fray and then contracted yellow fever. Sick and wounded, he was sent to the Bahamas (of all places) to recover.

Hanger led the Legion's cavalry to savage fighting and defeat
at Charlotte

Dead Ender?

Guy Carleton

When he recovered sufficiently, Hanger returned to New York in the summer of 1781 and assumed garrison duties. As the key to Britain's control over North America, New York was the center of gravity and Hanger was back in the mix. He was also back in the city most replete with bars, brothels, and bedrooms for him to enjoy when not drilling troops or patrolling the outskirts of the city. One would think our young rake had the best of both worlds during this period. Ever the soldier, he sailed with General Clinton's relief force aimed at saving Cornwallis's trapped army at Yorktown. On learning of the surrender, he returned to the city with the rest of the fleet. As the peace negotiations settled on terms, Hanger played another role: resettling members of the Legion. In that effort he made a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to find land and quarters for the loyalists who did not opt for England. Mission accomplished, he returned to New York. One has to think of  George as a proverbial dead-ender. He remained with one of the last British units to evacuate the city, sailing with the last British commander and governor in North America, General Guy Carleton.

Hanger in a "Forrest Gump" like move, manages to
witness the American Revolution's climax

The Bad Boy of Georgian England

Once home, Hanger returned to the life of a flamboyant party-boy. He became a party-companion of that other rake, the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV. The prince was amused by Hanger's rakish ways. Hanger seems to have become famous for being famous, as they say - the subject of much satire and ridicule in the equivalent of today's tabloids. His fast-living landed him in debtor's prison where he spent two years (1798-1800). He turned to writing while in prison and there produced his memoirs.

Hanger and his buddy the Prince of Wales
attended many a party

When he got out he became a coal merchant (at which he was quite successful) but continued his addiction to gambling and carousing around London. Throughout, Hanger flaunted contemporary mores,  cavorting openly with women of all stripes, keeping a strange collection of dogs, cats, and monkeys, and generally thumbing it at the upper crust and middle class. One of his celebrated exploits was arranging a cross country race between a flock of turkeys and flock of geese!

Cartoon satire of Hanger

At the same, he learned to capitalize on some of his strong suits as a pamphleteer - who were sort of the bloggers of their day. Reinventing himself as a subject matter expert, he published pamphlets on military subjects, gambling, hunting, and shooting. Hanger engaged in public disputes over military policy during the Napoleonic wars. He wrote absurd advice columns on all sorts of things but most famously on the fairer sex. His escapades and opinions were followed closely by the media of his day. In 1814 he was offered the barony of Coleraine but he turned it down to continue his "celebrated" lifestyle in London.

Cartoon satire of Hanger

The Legacy

Cartoon satire of Hanger

Despite the hard-living, Hanger continued his lifestyle as rake about town, military "expert"  and celebrated eccentric until he died in London on 31 March 1824. He left a second wife, possibly his housekeeper, and their son, who was denied his father's peership. George Hanger was clearly one of the more complex men of his times and certainly one of the most interesting, if not amusing.

 Eventually, his notoriety caught up with him. The king parted ways. High society shunned him. And the press mocked him. Yet in many ways, he was emblematic of his class and times: a curious mix of breeding, talent, courage, rapacity, and culture. Pity he did not settle in America...

George Hanger, 4th Baron Coleraine?