Personal data
Henry Letch

Military officer. Son of a Physician in London of the same name.

According to a 19th century volume of correspondence between Mrs. Grant of Laggan and her friends, Leitch "was sent very early into the army, full of romantic prejudices, which led him into boundless profusion and endless errors. With great purity of heart, and uprightness of intention, he very early dissipated his patrimonty, and soon after was so much in debt as to be obliged to sell his commission, about the period when this letter was written [1775, ed.]."1

Boswell and Dr Johnson had breakfast with Lt. Letch, Deputy Governor Trapaud and a few officers, including Lewis Ourry, on August 31, 1773, at Fort Augustus while on their tour of Scotland.

  • 1In Letter from the Mountains; Being the correspondence with her friends between the years 1773 and 1803, of Mrs. Grant of Laggan (1845), in a footnote to a letter from Mrs. Grant to Nancy Ourry, dated August 10, 1775.
Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.