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."