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Personal data
Name
John Irwin
Born 1728
in Dublin

Died May, 1788
in Parma, Italy
Alias
Colonel Irwin
Biography

British army officer. Married three times, firstly (1749) to Elizabeth Henry, secondly (1753) to Anne Barry and thirdly to Caroline, with whom he had two children.

A Colonel in 1762. Sometime head of the 57th Regiment1 . Member of Parliament for East Grinstead (1762-1783) Governor of Gibraltar (1765-1767), Commander-in-Chief in Ireland (1775-1782). Close friend of Lord George Germain and sometime American Secretary for the UK Government.

Life with Boswell

Boswell met a Colonel Irwin at the Sheridan's on December 31, 1762. Pottle (in Boswell's London Journal gives his first name as John. Boswell described him as "a genteel, well-bred, pretty man."