(1684 - 1754), Jacobite mercenary; 2nd s. of William Wogan of Rathcoffy; attainted 1716 and escaped to France; served in Dillon's French rgt. - 1718; cr. Bt.[J] 1719; brig.-gen. 1722; served in Spain from 1720; m. 1725 Miss O'Driscoll; gov. La Mancha by 1730, Barcelona 1750.
1717 Pesaro ( - Jun. 1717), Rome (12 Jun. - Nov. 1717), Urbino (by 30 Mar. - Apr. 1718 - ) [Innsbruck] Rome (30 Apr. 1719 - Jun. - ), Montefiascone (Sep.), Leghorn (Nov.), Genoa
A spirited Irish Jacobite, Wogan had escaped from Newgate gaol to France with his younger brother Nicholas in 1716. He came from Pesaro to Rome with Dominic Sheldon in the summer of 17171 and lodged with Lord Nithsdale.2 In November 1717 he was dispatched with the Duke of Ormonde 'wife hunting' for the Pretender; he was back with the Pretender at Urbino by 30 March 1718, having discovered the Polish Princess Clementina Sobieska at Ohlau.3 Wogan's great exploit was to bring her to Italy in 1719; she had been interned at Innsbruck by the Emperor at the demand of the British government, but Wogan, accompanied by Richard Gaydon, John Misset and Luke O'Toole, contrived her escape and brought her to Italy on 30 April.4 For this deed Wogan was made a Senator of Rome by the Pope on 13 June 1719, and a Baronet by the Pretender. On 1 September 1719 at Montefiascone he was a witness to the Pretender's full (as opposed to proxy) marriage.5 In November he was with his younger brother at Leghorn, about to go to Genoa with Forbes of Pitsligo,6 and then taking ship for Spain. By 3 June 1720 he was serving in Spain, where he spent the remainder of his life.
1. HMC Stuart, 4:319. 2. Skinner, Scots in Italy, 37. 3. HMC Stuart, 6:233, 242. 4. Tayler 1938, 7 - 9. 5. Ibid., 176n. 6. Ibid., 94.