General Harry Pulteney was an English soldier and Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

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He was the younger son of Colonel William Pulteney, of Misterton in Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, and Mary Floyd. His elder brother, William

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, PC was an English politician, a Whig, created the first Earl of Bath in 1742 by King George II; he is sometimes stated to have been Prime Minister, for the shortest term ever , though most modern sources reckon that he cannot be considered to have held the...

 was one of the leading English statesmen of the 18th century and was eventually created Earl of Bath

Earl of Bath

Earl of Bath was a title that was created five times in British history, three times in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once Peerage of the United Kingdom...

; he had inherited the family fortune including considerable estates in what is now central London, and also the parliamentary borough

Parliamentary borough

Parliamentary boroughs are a type of administrative division, usually covering urban areas, that are entitled to representation in a Parliament...

 of Hedon

Hedon (UK Parliament constituency)

Hedon, sometimes spelt Heydon, was a parliamentary borough in the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons briefly in the 13th century and again from 1547 to 1832.-History:...

 in Yorkshire.

Harry entered Parliament in as member for Hedon in 1722. His brother William had already been its MP for 17 years, and had offered the second seat to his cousin, Daniel Pulteney

Daniel Pulteney

Daniel Pulteney was an English government official and Member of Parliament.Pulteney was the son of John Pulteney , MP for Hastings and Commissioner of Customs, and Lucy Colville. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating in 1699.He was one of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations...

; but as Daniel was also elected for the (more prestigious) constituency of Preston

Preston (UK Parliament constituency)

Preston is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

, this left a vacancy which Harry was able to fill (William continuing to hold the other seat). He was MP for Hedon until 1734, and again from 1739 to 1741, and also represented Hull

Kingston upon Hull (UK Parliament constituency)

Kingston upon Hull, often simply referred to as Hull, was a parliamentary constituency in Yorkshire, electing two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from 1305 until 1885...

 for three years from 1744, and was also for a period Governor of Hull.

In 1739 Pulteney became Colonel of the 13th Regiment of Foot, which as was the custom of the time was consequently referred to as Pulteney's Regiment. Under his command the regiment served at Dettingen

Battle of Dettingen

The Battle of Dettingen took place on 27 June 1743 at Dettingen in Bavaria during the War of the Austrian Succession. It was the last time that a British monarch personally led his troops into battle...

, Fontenoy

Battle of Fontenoy

The Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought between the forces of the Pragmatic Allies – comprising mainly Dutch, British, and Hanoverian troops under the nominal command of the Duke of Cumberland – and a French army under Maurice de...

 and during the Jacobite Rebellion at Falkirk

Battle of Falkirk (1746)

During the Second Jacobite Rising, the Battle of Falkirk Muir was the last noteworthy Jacobite success.-Background:...

 and Culloden

Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

. Later they took part in the road-building programme in the Scottish Highlands, and the regiment's officers were among those unsuccessfully investigating the famous Appin Murder

Appin Murder

The Appin Murder occurred on May 14, 1752 near Appin in the north-west of Scotland, and it resulted in what is often held to be a notorious miscarriage of justice...

 of 1752. Pulteney was promoted to Major-General in 1743, Lieutenant-General in 1747 and to General in 1765.

Pulteney was his brother's heir and inherited his fortune on his death in 1764, but he himself
died on 26 October 1767 at the age of 81. He was buried in Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

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