He entered the army at the age of fifteen as an ensign, in the 53rd Regiment of Foot. After attending Eton College, he studied at the University of Göttingen for two years, and subsequently purchased a captaincy in the 42nd Highland Regiment in 1771. In 1777, he was appointed a major of the 53rd, and he commanded the light infantry companies at the Battle of Saratoga (1777), and surrendered there with Burgoyne. He was released from captivity in 1779.
On 1 June1780, he married his first cousin, Elizabeth Dalrymple and they had four children:
Promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 42nd during his imprisonment, he was subsequently promoted to the rank of colonel and made lieutenant-colonel commandant of the second 71st Regiment of Foot, a battalion of the 71st uninvolved in the surrender at Yorktown (as was the rest of the regiment). He was chosen a representative peer for Scotland in 1784, and was re-elected through 1807, inclusive. On 27 August1789 he was appointed colonel of the 63rd Regiment of Foot, and was promoted major-general in 1793.
Governor of Jersey from 1793 to 1794, he was then appointed Governor of Jamaica. He was promoted lieutenant-general in 1798, and resigned the governorship in 1801. On September 25, 1803 he was promoted general.
After his return from the American Revolution, he was introduced to Benedict Arnold (who had led several gallant attacks on his position at Saratoga). Balcarres snubbed Arnold as a traitor, and a duel ensued, neither party being injured.
His son, Edwin Lindsay, an Indian army officer was declared insane and sent to Papa Stour in the Shetland islands, after refusing to fight in a duel. He spent 26 years as a prisoner before the Quaker preacher Catherine Watson arranged for his release in 1835.[1][2]
