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Waddell, Archibald |
Archibald Waddell
In spring 1645 – and probably from its creation in late 1642 – major of the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded successively by Colonels James Holborne and William Davies. Unlike Davies himself and a few of his other officers, he did not transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 149.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Waddon, Richard |
Richard Waddon
Lieutenant of horse in Apr. 1648 when Dorset local forces were being disbanded. On 18 Mar. 1651 listed as lieutenant in the new companies stationed at Weymouth, where his forename is recorded.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377; Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Dorset
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Wade, John |
John Wade
Captain in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s/James Holborne’s regiment of foot by the time of Waller’s Oxford campaign in summer 1644. He remained a captain in the regiment when it became a New Model regiment under Sir Hardress Waller. In 1659 he was evidently still serving in the regiment, when he was named as a captain after the reorganization of officers of the regiment in Ireland by the Rump.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 69; Temple, ‘New Model Army’, 56; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 2.447.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army
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Wade, William |
William Wade
By Mar. 1644, and still serving by the time the regiment was disbanded in Apr. 1645, captain in the regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army commanded firstly by Sir John Palgrave and from late 1644 by Sir Thomas Hoogan.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.79.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wade, William |
William Wade
Captain. Captain in Sir Horatio Carey’s regiment of foot, raised in spring 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 623-4.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Wadham, Nicholas |
Nicholas Wadham
Captain in Colonel Francis Buller’s regiment. In 1643 his lands on manor of Trematon were sequestered for rebellion. Cornish county committeeman, Mar. 1646.
References: Peachey and Turton, 1.3, 304; Coate, Cornwall, 107, 224.
Armies: Cornwall
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Wadler, - |
- Wadler
Captain in the Kent Trained Bands.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 59.
Armies: Kent
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Wagstaffe, Joseph |
Joseph Wagstaffe
Major of an Irish regiment in French service at the beginning of 1642.
Lieutenant-Colonel in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for service in Ireland in 1642. Later in the summer, by 31 Aug., he instead became lieutenant-colonel of John Hampden’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
On 5 Jan. 1643 he was taken prisoner by a royalist party and carried to Oxford. There he claimed that he had returned from France to serve in Ireland, ‘but unawares, not being sensible of the niceties of the distinction betwixt King and Parliament, he was ingaged in action against His Majestie; that being now more perfectly informed of his owne misdoeings, he was desirous to make tender of his service to His Sacred Majestie’ (Davies, ‘Essex’s army’, 49). To his old comrades, he became ‘Runagate’ Wagstaffe.
In 1643 Wagstaffe was wounded at Prince Rupert’s retaking of Lichfield Close. By May he was a royalist colonel, and by summer 1644 was Prince Rupert’s major-general in the West. He was knighted on 27/28 July 1644
In 1648 Wagstaffe was imprisoned in the Peterhouse, London, upon suspicion of plotting a rising, but escaped almost as soon as he was placed there.
In 1655 he was a leader of Penruddock’s Rising.
References: TNA, SP28/2a/213, SP28/2b/516; Newman, Royalist officers, 394; Davies, ‘Essex’s army’, 49.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Waid, Thomas |
Thomas Waid
Of Bilton-with-Harrogate, Knaresborough, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 112 [citing TNA, SP23/172/203].
Armies: Yorkshire
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Waite, - |
- Waite
Captain in (presumably his kinsman) Thomas Waite’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. Possibly the same Waite also served for a time as a captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army and the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.103, 108.
Armies: Earl of Essex?; Eastern Association
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Waite, Thomas |
Thomas Waite
Governor of Burleigh House, he was commissioned to raise and command a regiment of horse in Nov. 1643, at least part of which served under him at Burleigh for the remainder of the war. His regiment remained in existence until spring 1646, surviving the end of the Eastern Association but apparently not then joining the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.103.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wakefield, - |
- Wakefield
In Mar. 1645, lieutenant in Captain Sawyer’s company in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95.
Armies: Bedfordshire
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Wakefield, - |
- Wakefield
An officer in Staffordshire. He may well be Mr Wakefield the scoutmaster, ordered by the county committee on 19 Jan. 1644 to appear before it the next day to answer for his misbehaviour towards two committeemen, Captain Stone and Mr Pudsey. Three days later he was ordered to bring in two men to pay proposition money and the following month he was ordered to restore a horse to its owner.
Wakefield first appears with the rank of captain-lieutenant when he was ordered to perform a distraint on 1 June 1644. Thereafter the committee book records him as a captain. On 25 June he was given 12 swords and belts for his troop.
On 13 Dec. 1644 the county committee transferred his troop to the command of Captain Wagstaffe, ‘Captayne Wakefeild being committed for divers grosse abuses proved against him’, until Wakefield ‘have answeared the sayd misdemeanors and have undergon the censure of the Councell of war for the same’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 224). However, on 21 Dec., his offences having been confessed and proved, Wakefield was discharged from his service in the Stafford garrison and he was ordered to leave by Tuesday next. He was left with two of the horses in his possession and warned that if he refused to obey the committee’s order he would be sent to London for court martial.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 122, 126, 134, 171, 212, 219, 220, 224, 227, 230-1, 243.
Armies: Staffordshire
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Walden, - |
– Walden
Captain, Sir Edward Hungerford’s regiment of dragoons.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.547.
Armies: Wiltshire: Sir Edward Hungerford’s Regt. of dragoons
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Walden, William |
William Walden
Captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army by 28 Aug. 1643 (so from the regiment’s formation), and still there in Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.62, 2.63.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Walford, Richard |
Richard Walford
In spring 1644, ensign in the colonel’s own company in Godfrey Bosvile’s regiment of foot; by spring 1645 he had become the company’s captain-lieutenant. After Bosvile left the regiment he was promoted to captain.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 30.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller
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Walker, John |
John Walker
Captain and scoutmaster in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire Army, and in Apr. 1645 commanding a garrison at Ridley in south Cheshire.
Walker’s depredations Captain Luke Lloyd were complained of to Sir William Brereton in Apr. 1645: ‘There is one Captain Walker that keeps garrison at Ridley [Cheshire] whose horse doth much hurt in these parts. They pretend to be cavaliers when they go abroad to take men’s horses out of the plough and harrow, and reviled them so that they terrify the country exceedingly. They have plundered many in Dirtwich [Foulwich, on the Cheshire/Shropshire border] and Whitchurch [Shropshire]’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 300).
Walker was seriously wounded and captured by the royalists in May 1645, evidently during the parliamentarian withdrawal upon the approach of Rupert’s army (Malbon, 169-170) during the siege of Beeston Castle. On 19 May 1645 the governor of Beeston Castle assured Major Croxton, governor of Nantwich, that, ‘I perceive you conceive him mortally wounded, but there is no such danger’; Walker had a high opinion of his chirurgeon and would employ no other. ‘I conceive his removal might prejudice his health’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 463).
A warrant dated 30 Oct. 1645 was to pay Captain John Walker (described as ‘scoutmaster’ on the endorsement) £20, of which he engaged to pay £7 13s to the marshal at Beeston Castle and the rest to be towards his arrears of pay to satisfy his chirurgeon.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 300, 328, 414, 463, 2.512; TNA, SP28/224, f. 37; Cheshire tracts, 169-70.
Armies: Cheshire
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Walker, John |
John Walker
Ensign in Captain William Fitton’s company in Henry Bradshaw’s regiment of foot in the Cheshire militia when it fought at the battle of Worcester, 3 Sept. 1651.
References: Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2.64-8.
Armies: Cheshire
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Walker, John |
John Walker
In 1642, probably at and from its formation, captain in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Walker, Samuel |
Samuel Walker
In spring 1644 ensign in Captain Luke Bradley’s company in the Southwark White auxiliaries (Colonel James Houblon).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 125.
Armies: Southwark
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Walker, Thomas |
Thomas Walker
Lieutenant in Captain Drury’s company in Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army in Apr. 1645. Like his captain, he became an officer in Thomas Rainsborough’s regiment of foot, and although not listed as a captain by Sprigge early in 1647, by Aug. of that year the military writer Richard Elton, commenting on the distinctiveness of the regiment’s drill and formation, referred to, ‘my ever honour’d friend, and most exquisite knowing souldier Thomas Walker, one of the captains of the same regiment, and a true lover of the military art’ (Firth & Davies, Regimental history, 2.421).
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.8; Firth & Davies, Regimental history, 2.421; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 68, 79, 88, 101.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
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Walker, Zachery |
Zachery Walker
Captain of a troop in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army in Mar. 1644, when he was arrested and cashiered as a malignant, leading to his imprisonment and the disbanding of his former troop.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.24.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Waller, William |
William Waller
Signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’, May 1648.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50.
Armies: Lancashire
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Waller, William |
William Waller
Commissioned captain in Richard Standish’s militia regiment of foot in Lancashire, 28 Sept. 1650.
References: CSPD, 1650, 511.
Armies: Lancashire
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Waller, Sir William |
Sir William Waller (1598-1668)
Born Knowle House, Kent, son of Sir Thomas Waller (died 1613), into a well-connected upper gentry family. He was educated at Oxford and Paris and spent much of his early adulthood on the continent, travelling and fighting in the Thirty Years War. Returning to England, he and his first wife lived in London, but he acquired property and interests in Hampshire and Devon. He stood for the Long Parliament, but only after protracted disputes was he accepted and able to take his seat as MP for Andover in spring 1642. He quickly emerged as a prominent critic of the king’s government and supporter of the looming war.
In Aug. 1642 he was commissioned colonel of a horse regiment which he undertook to raise. He showed his military skills in leading the operation which successfully recaptured Portsmouth in Aug. and early Sept. 1642, though he and his new regiment performed poorly at the battle of Edgehill. Given command of a horse brigade, during winter and spring 1642-3 he captured or recaptured Farnham, Winchester, Arundel and Chichester and then, as newly appointed Major-General of the West, he captured Malmesbury and sparred with royalists in the lower Severn Valley, taking Monmouth, Chepstow and Hereford, though he was unable to hold them for long. Attempting then to halt the royalist advance from the South West, he engaged royalist armies twice during July 1643, but while Lansdown was effectively a draw, he suffered a shattering defeat at Roundway Down.
Nonetheless in autumn 1643 he was given command of the associated counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Although during autumn and winter 1643-4 his half-hearted siege of Basing House was a failure, his storming of Alton, recapture of Arundel and halting of an attempted mid-winter royalist invasion of Sussex were far more successful.
Sparring with southern royalists in Hampshire during spring 1644, at the end of Mar. he brought them to battle at Cheriton and achieved a clear victory. In summer 1644 he co-operated with the earl of Essex for a time in encircling and threatening Oxford, but the uneasy relations between the two collapsed when they went their separate ways, Essex on his doomed march into the South West, Waller pursuing the king to the Severn Valley and then back towards Oxford, only to be badly mauled by him at Cropredy Bridge at the end of June. In the wake of this defeat, Waller’s Army was undermined by large-scale desertion and, even had he been inclined to do so, he was unable to offer Essex much help or relief.
After rebuilding his forces, Waller performed solidly at the rather lacklustre second battle of Newbury in Oct. 1644. During winter and spring 1644-5 he dispatched parts of his army westwards, into Dorset and Somerset, including to the relief of Taunton, and then himself led men westwards to Wiltshire and beyond. His command and army career ended in spring 1645 in line with the Self-Denying Ordinance.
From 1643 onwards Waller had commanded regional or ‘association’ armies. He also possessed regiments of his own. His regiment of horse was raised during the opening weeks of the civil war and generally campaigned with and directly under his command; it was disbanded in spring 1645. His regiment of dragoons had been formed from dragoons in Essex’s Army of 1642 and was initially commanded by Colonel Mills; Waller had taken it over by spring 1643 and although in summer 1644 Waller technically gave command of it to James Holborne, in practice it generally stayed with Waller and under his oversight until it, too, was disbanded in spring 1645. In Aug. 1643, after the debacle at Cropredy Bridge, Waller pulled together some of his surviving infantry and recruited more to form a new regiment of foot; again, thereafter it generally campaigned with and directly under Waller’s command until it was disbanded in spring 1645.
Waller’s post-civil war career seems in hindsight an anti-climax and tinged with sadness. He remained active in parliament for a time, but he was increasingly hostile to the New Model Army and was increasingly identified as one of its political Presbyterian enemies. Having sided with parliament in summer 1647, he fled to the continent when the army emerged triumphant and although he returned to England and retook his seat in 1648, he was excluded and arrested at Pride’s Purge and held prisoner at Windsor and then in Denbigh Castle. He was released in 1652, but remained out of office, under suspicion and occasionally under arrest during the rest of the 1650s. He retook his seat in the Long Parliament in 1660 and welcomed the Restoration, though he did not benefit from it. He remained wealthy and held property both in his own right and brought to him by his three wives, all of whom predeceased him.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wallinger, James |
James Wallinger
Wallinger served first as a lieutenant in John Berrow’s regiment of foot from the Forest of Dean, and then in late 1644 as captain in Colonel Edward Harley’s regiment of foot at Gloucester. In Oct. he was raising men about Gloucester; by 3 Dec. he had lost all but 25 of his men. By early Feb. 1645 he was in a small out-garrison in the Forest of Dean, with some commanded men and less than a dozen of his own company, when he was taken prisoner.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West,6.615; Spring, Waller’s army, 52; HMC, Portland Mss, 3.128-31, 135.
Armies: Gloucestershire; Waller
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Wallington, Joseph |
Joseph Wallington
Captain in Batholomew Vermuyden’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army; he transferred with the regiment into the New Model Army in spring 1645 and became a captain in the regiment.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.102; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 62, 73, 83, 94, 107.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
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Wallis, Edward |
Edward Wallis
Ensign in the Red regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Atkins) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
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Wallye, Elias |
Elias Wallye
Cornet in Sir Faithful Fortescue’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army by 24 Aug. 1642. He had previously been enlisted for the Irish service (presumably in Wharton’s Army).
References: TNA, SP28/1a/218, 236.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Walmisley, Edward |
Edward Walmisley
Cornet in a troop of horse under the command of Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth in Lancashire. He was owed arrears of £743 10s 4d in Sept. 1650.
References: TNA, E121/4/8.
Armies: Lancashire
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Walmsley, Nathaniel |
Nathaniel Walmsley
Ensign in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Walset, Ralph |
Ralph Walset
In summer 1642 he became an ensign in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow-officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Walter, George |
George Walter
Lieutenant in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Walters, Jacob |
Jacob Walters
A captain of horse, probably in Francis Wren’s regiment of horse in the Northern Association Army. He was present at the siege of Helmsley (Nov. 1644) and still in the Northern Association Army in 1645.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 406.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
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Walters, Robert |
Robert Walters (c. 1620-1671)
Of Cundall, Yorks (North Riding). A lieutenant-colonel and MP for Knaresborough, 1659.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 93; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Yorkshire
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Walters, William |
William Walters
Ensign in the company of Captain Martin Husband in a regiment of foot which served under Oliver Cromwell and later under Colonel Francis Russell in their capacity as governors of the Isle of Ely and later under Colonel Valentine Walton senior, which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia. Walters served in the company during the period that Cromwell was colonel. He may be the William Walters who by the late 1640s was a lieutenant, then a captain, in the northern-based regiment of foot of John Maulverer on the New Model Army payroll.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.29; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 162.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army?
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Walton, - |
- Walton
Walton raised a company of foot in Leyland Hundred, Lancashire, under Alexander Rigby, senior, in 1643.
References: Warr in Lancashire, 43.
Armies: Lancashire
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Walton [Wauton], Valentine, junior |
Valentine Walton [Wauton], junior
Son of Valentine Walton senior. Possibly began the civil war as a captain of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army, before serving as a captain in Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. Fatally wounded on Marston Moor on 2 July 1644, either in the main battle or in a preliminary skirmish, died as a result of the attempted amputation of his leg which had been shattered by royalist cannon. Cromwell’s letter to his father, written three days later, breaking the news of his son’s (and, as Walton senior was Cromwell’s brother-in-law, his own nephew’s) death, is one of the most famous letters of the civil war.
References: Oxford DNB [under his father]
Armies: Earl of Essex?; Eastern Association
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Walton [Wauton], Valentine, senior |
Valentine Walton [Wauton], senior (1593/94-c.1661)
Born the son of Nicholas Walton, who died when he was a child, into a landed Huntingdonshire family, and he inherited Great Staunton manor, though he had to fight off rival claims to that inheritance. For a time a ward of the Cromwells, in 1617 he married a sister of Oliver Cromwell.
An opponent of some royal policies during the 1630s, he was elected for Huntingdonshire to the Long Parliament and became a critic of the king’s government in parliament. In summer 1642 he raised and commanded a troop of horse which joined the earl of Essex’s Army and fought at Edgehill, where he was captured.
Exchanged and released in 1643, in Sept., shortly after the regiment’s formation, he became captain of a troop in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. However, later in autumn 1643 he was appointed governor of King’s Lynn and commissioned to raise a regiment of foot, at least part of which served with and under him at King’s Lynn. The regiment continued after the Eastern Association had been ended, commanded from spring 1645 by James Hobart, but does not seem formally to have transferred to the New Model Army.
Walton’s military career ended with the passage of the Self-Denying Ordinance and he did not join the New Model Army. He was an active regicide and Rumper, but did not sit in the Protectorate parliaments or play much of a public role at that time. He sat again in the Rump in 1659 and in autumn occupied Portsmouth in opposition to Fleetwood and his faction. However, in 1660 Monck deprived him of his military command, he was exempted from pardon at the Restoration and he fled to Germany, and he probably died there or in the Low Countries soon after.
References: Oxford DNB; HoP: The Commons.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association
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Walwin, William |
William Walwin
Quartermaster in the regiment of foot of Oliver Lord St John/Thomas Essex, named in the published list of officers in the earl of Essex’s army, 1642. He later served in the regiment of foot of Nicholas Devereux (Sept. 1643-June 1644); Devereux had also been an officer in Thomas Essex’s regiment. This is not the future Leveller leader (for whom see Oxford DNB).
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.628, 650; Peacock, Army Lists, 33.
Armies: Bristol
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Wanderford, Miles |
Miles Wanderford
In 1642 listed as cornet in Thomas Hammond’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 51.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wansey, Henry |
Henry Wansey
By spring 1645, at the time of its disbandment, captain in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 149.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wansey, John |
John Wansey
Captain in Sir John Northcote’s regiment of foot (Dec. 1642 to May 1643); captain in Colonel William Gould’s regiment of horse, 31 Aug. to 3 Dec. 1643. Captain of foot under Major Henry Wansey, 24 June to 10 Sept. 1644, commanding a company at Woodhouse, near Longleat, which was captured by Sir Francis Donnington on 19 July 1644. Captain in Colonel Edmund Ludlow’s regiment of dragoons, 10 Sept. 1644 to 15 Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 83.
Armies: Devon, Wiltshire, Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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Warburton, John |
John Warburton
In autumn 1642, probably at and from soon after its formation, captain in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Ward, Andrew |
Andrew Ward
Ensign in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 26.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Ward, Hamon |
Hamon Ward
Ensign in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
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Ward, John |
John Ward (died 1657)
Of Tanshelf, Yorkshire (West Riding), eldest son of Thomas Ward (died 1635) of Tanshelf. His brothers included the Pontefract Independent and alderman Leonard and the radical Whig lord mayor Sir Patience Ward (1629-1696), for whom see Oxford DNB. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Vincent of Barnborough Grange.
Captain, he was in Charles Fairfax’s regiment of horse from early 1644; he went to County Durham with his colonel in May 1644 and was at Marston Moor.
Transferred to Robert Brandling’s regiment of horse (which was commissioned on 16 July 1644).
In 1649 he was one of those ordered to sell off materials from Pontefract Castle when it was demolished and was appointed to a West Riding committee for the first time.
Commissioned captain in regiment of foot in the Yorkshire militia on 10 Apr. 1650.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 406; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 117; CSPD, 1650, 506.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Ward, Leonard |
Leonard Ward
An alderman of Pontefract, Yorkshire (West Riding) and a parliamentarian captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 117 [citing TNA, E121/4/1, no. 30].
Armies: Yorkshire
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Ward, Samuel |
Samuel Ward
By summer 1642 and still there in summer 1645, captain in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Ward, Thomas |
Thomas Ward
Captain in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. In Mar. 1645 the Commons resolved that he should be retained in the New Model Army and recruit (make up the strength of) his company, although from surviving lists, he probably did not serve in the New Model.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 25; JHC, 4.76; TNA, SP28/5/100.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Warder, - |
- Warder
Lieutenant in John Bodley’s company Anthony Stapley’s Sussex regiment of foot by 2 Feb. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 122.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wardlaw, James |
James Wardlaw
A colonel, appointed commander-in-chief of the Plymouth forces in Sept. 1643, arriving with reinforcements to meet the threat of Prince Maurice’s army. He commanded throughout the ensuing siege (Sept. -Christmas Day 1643), but was replaced in late Jan. 1644 by Colonel William Gould. He later claimed when petitioning the Commons that he had stepped down because of ill health arising from his service; at the time he complained of his suspension without notice, and the dispute over the governorship of the town came before the Lords on 1 Feb. 1644. On 30 May 1644 the Commons heard a further dispute from Plymouth, involving Wardlaw and Sir Shilston Calmady, Colonel John Trefusis, Robert Savery, John Carter and Philip Francis.
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 101, 108, 110, 111; JHL, 6.404-7; JHC, 3.510-1; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.360.
Armies: Devon
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Wardlawe, James |
James Wardlawe
Colonel of a regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army from or by 1 Oct. 1642, until the regiment was broken up in 1644. He was also a member of Essex’s council of war in 1642.
References: TNA, SP28/2b/318; Peacock, Army lists, 47, 57.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wardley, Thomas |
Thomas Wardley
Lieutenant in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642. |
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Ware, Peter |
Peter Ware
In 1642 listed as cornet in Lord Wharton’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 49.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Warhope, John |
John Warhope
In spring 1645 cornet in the major’s troop in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of horse, commanded by Colonel Stapleton. Unlike several other officers of that regiment, he did not transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 150.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Warne [Warner], Richard |
Richard Warne [Warner] (died 1644)
Lieutenant in the company of Major William Hamilton in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he was killed on 30 Oct. 1644.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.13.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Warner, - |
- Warner
Ensign in Captain John Wade’s company in James Holborne’s regiment of foot on 19 Nov. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 59.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Warner, Henry |
Henry Warner (died 1644)
Son of Thomas Warner, rector of Balsham, Cambridgeshire and his wife Anne. He matriculated pensioner from Trinity College, Cambridge, Michaelmas 1629, grad. BA in 1633. He was admitted to Gray’s Inn, as son and heir of Thomas, on 8 May 1635. His wife evidently died before him; he was survived by a daughter, Dorothy.
Warner was appointed lieutenant-colonel in Lawrence Crawford’s newly-formed regiment of foot early in 1644. In religion, Warner came from a village with a tradition of religious heterodoxy. He was an Independent: in his will he would leave £10 to ‘Mr Burton Minister in London’ – the Independent Henry Burton – to be distributed amongst ‘some poore faythfull Christians as he thinkes most fitting’ (TNA, PROB11/193, f. 321r.). To his Presbyterian colonel, Warner was an Anabaptist, and Crawford appealed to the earl of Manchester for his removal. On 10 Mar. Cromwell wrote to Crawford in Warner’s support: ‘Surely you are not well advised thus to turn off one so faithful to the Cause, and so able to serve you as this man is ... Ay, but the man is an Anabaptist. Are you sure of that? Admit he be, shall that render him incapable to serve the public. He is indiscreet. It may be so, in some things, we have all human infirmities. I tell you, if you had none but such indiscreet men about you, and would be pleased to use them kindly, you would find as good a fence to you as any you have yet chosen’ (Abbott, 1. 277-8).
Either Manchester over-ruled Crawford’s protests, or the latter backed down. Warner remained his lieutenant-colonel: he was paid for his company from 15 Mar., and put his hand to a warrant for payment for quartering soldiers at a Cambridge tavern (which was passed posthumously on 22 Feb. 1645). Otherwise the last dating of him on a pay warrant is 10 Oct. 1644.
Warner counted one captain in the regiment, John Done, as ‘my very loveing frend’, leaving him £30 in his will (TNA, PROB11/193, f. 321r.); another, Simon Eaton, whom he made an executor, was probably his brother-in-law.
Warner died at Reading on 30 June 1645, probably of wounds received at the second battle of Newbury three days earlier. He left 52s. to the poor of Balsham: six of them were to receive one penny a week per person, twelve a halfpenny a week.
References: TNA, SP28/25/381, 487, SP28/23/321, SP28/19/278; TNA, PROB11/193, ff. 321r. & v.; Abbott, Cromwell, 1.277-8; Davies, ‘Eastern Association’, 94; JHC, 3.428; Gray’s Inn Admissions, 209.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Warner, John |
John Warner (died 1648)
Second son of John Warner of Bucknall, Oxfordshire and his wife Ann Holt, and elder brother of Samuel Warner.
Member of the Grocers’ Company, and by trade with his brother a druggist and a trader with the Americas, especially in Virginia tobacco linked through marriage to his youngest brother with Maurice Thomson. Sheriff of London and Middlesex, 1639-40; alderman of Queenhithe Ward, 1640-8; lord mayor, 1647-8 (at his election New Model Army soldiers were there to guarantee that somebody they approved of was appointed).
A treasurer of the original Irish Adventurers, and ‘a leading parliamentary financier’ (Brenner, Merchants, 402). A member of the City’s committee of safety (later militia committee), 1641-7, excluded from the militia committee in Apr. 1647 in the Presbyterian purge of political Independents but was reinstated later that year. In 1641 one of those parishioners of St Benet Gracechurch who presented a petition to the Commons against their ‘scandalous minister’, and presided over the destruction of stained glass in St Stephen Walbrook.
Colonel, the Green regiment, London Trained Bands, Apr. 1642 and still its colonel in Sept. 1643 (by Oct. 1646 its colonel was Owen Rowe).
References: Vis. London 1633-5, 2.325, 267-8; Beaven, Aldermen, 2.65; Lindley, Popular Politics, 46, 166, 176, 199, 201, 308, 386-7, 388, 390;Brenner, Merchants, 134, 186, 399, 402, 430, 515; BL, Harl. 986, p. 33.
Armies: London
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Warnford, - |
- Warnford
Captain. A parliamentarian officer captured at the storming of Cirencester, 2 Feb. 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 617.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Warple, - |
- Warple
Cornet in Major Lydcott’s troop in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
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Warren, George |
George Warren
‘A Taylor in Sheerlane came into his office 26 of Sep. 1643’ (BL, Harl. 986, p. 33).
Second captain in the Westminster Liberty regiment (Colonel Sir James Harrington); his company consisted of Sheerlane, Bell Yard; from Holborn Bars to Ludgate and all Purpoole [?] Lane.
References: BL, Harl. 986, p. 33. |
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Warren, John |
John Warren (died 1645)
Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel’s company in Richard Onslow’s Surrey regiment of foot. He led the forlorn hope at the unsuccessful storming of Basing House in Nov. 1643 and came there again in June 1644. He was buried in St Mary’s church, Guildford on 7 Nov. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 112; Godwin, Hants., 113, 122, 212.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
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Warren, John |
John Warren
Ensign in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 34.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Warren, John |
John Warren
Lieutenant in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s North Wales Army. A surviving pay warrant of 8 Apr. 1644 orders him payment of £21 7s in full discharge of his pay until 7 Dec. 1643. His signature on the acquittance shows that this is not the same man as Captain John Warren, whose handwriting and spelling of his surname is different, although the date may fit with surrender of Myddelton’s regiment at Hawarden.
References: TNA, SP28/346, no.120.
Armies: North Wales
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Warren [Wareing], John |
John Warren [Wareing]
in 1644, lieutenant in Otway’s troop in William Purefoy’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 122.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Warren [Warin], John |
John Warren [Warin]
[The latter is consistently his own spelling of his name in the acquittances of various pay warrants].
Along with Captain Alexander Ellott, a captain who commanded 120 men of Myddelton’s regiment besieged in Hawarden Castle, Nov.-Dec. 1643. (Myddelton was absent and the major of the regiment was captured by surprise in the town when the royalists arrived). The terms of the truce were in part broken (according to the royalist Captain Byrch) by some of Lord Cholmondeley’s men and on 22 May 1644 Myddelton ordered payment of £5 to Hester Phillips, the poor widow of Warren’s sergeant John Phillips, ‘barbarously slaine at Hawerden by the Irish’ (TNA, SP28/346, no. 170). By Mar. 1644 Warren had joined Myddelton in London (confirmed by pay warrants dated 21 Mar., 29 Mar. and 1 Apr. 1644, the latter for £20 to pay his soldiers who are to march this day, another to pay him £146 15s as his full arrears due to 12 Apr.). A further warrant of spring 1644 directed payment of £30 as part of his arrears to Elizabeth Warrin wife of Captain John Warrin.
References: Phillips, Wales 2.106; [Peter Ince], An Addition to the Relation of some Passages…Wherein are set down the Occurrences at Hawarden Castle (1644), 2; TNA, SP28/346, nos. 8, 53, 62, 70, 199.
Armies: North Wales
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Warren, Nicholas |
Nicholas Warren
Captain in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 34.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Warren, Ralph |
Ralph Warren
Officer in Christopher Potley’s/David Leighton’s regiment of foot, serving as lieutenant, Aug. 1643 to Feb. 1644, as Captain, Feb. 1644 to Apr. 1644 and as major from Apr. to Aug. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 113.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Warren, Richard |
Richard Warren
At least during autumn 1644 and perhaps for a longer period captain in the Westminster Auxiliaries Trained Bands regiment of foot (Colonel James Prince).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 163.
Armies: Westminster
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Wase [Ware], Robert |
Robert Wase [Ware]
By Mar. 1644, down to his death in Aug. 1644, captain in John Pickering’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.87.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Washborne, Heriot |
Heriot Washborne
Son of Robert Washborne of Wichenford, Worcestershire and by 1633 of London, merchant, and his wife Mary, daughter of William Heriot of Yorkshire. He married (by 1633) Agnes, daughter of Thomas Tickeridge of London. Merchant.
Of St Helen’s Bishopsgate (1638).
Captain in the Red regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Atkin) by 29 Sept. 1642 (but not in earlier listings).
He served as the first colonel of the Westminster auxiliary regiment, which was commissioned on 12 Apr. 1643, but had been succeeded by James Prince by 13 May 1644.
Washborne was captain in Edmund Harvey’s regiment of London horse, from at least 1 Dec. 1643; in June the Committee of Both Kingdoms ordered his troop to join Waller’s Army, but Harvey retained him in London. In Oct. Washbourne’s troop was ordered, twice, to join the City brigade on campaign. By Dec. 1644 his troop was part of Major-General Richard Browne’s brigade.
In 1643 he was one of the militant officers providing military muscle for distraining the goods of Londoners not paying their assessments; the account of his seizures of horses, arms and goods between Nov. 1642 and Aug. 1643 included eight or nine horses seized from Lord Conway on the order of the House of Lords. A member of the Salters’ Hall sub-committee for raising volunteers in 1643-44, a more militant body than the militia committee.
References: Sept. 1642; Vis. London, 1633-5, 2.328; Dale, 1638, 69; Lindley, Popular politics, 313, 314, 325; TNA, SP28/9/238; Spring, Waller's Army; CSPD, 1644, 155, 169, 214, 1644-5, 11, 14, 39, 195, 253, 264, 281, 282, 290.
Armies: London
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Washington, Adam |
Adam Washington (1604-1666)
Born the son of Adam Washington, a prosperous London mercer with an estate at Brent Pelham, Hertfordshire.
Adam junior was active in Hertfordshire during the civil war, both sitting on county committees and as colonel given command of one of the county’s militia-based regiments of foot.
References: A. Thompson, The Impact of the First Civil War on Hertfordshire, 1642-47 (2007), passim but especially 230-1.
Armies: Hertfordshire
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Wasmough [Watmough], Joshua |
Joshua Wasmough [Watmough]
Wasmough, alternatively Watmough, was lieutenant in the White regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Isaac Penington) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
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Wastell, John |
John Wastell (1592/3-1659)
Of Scorton, Catterick parish, Yorkshire (North Riding), eldest son of Leonard Wastell of Scorton (died c. 1629) and his wife Anne Danby. He married Anne, daughter of John Robinson of Hackforth or Bolton on Swale, Yorkshire. He was admitted to Gray’s Inn in 1613 and he eventually became a Master in Chancery. He was elected recorder of Ripon in 1626 (and by 1631 was recorder of Richmond); he was also a JP in the North Riding. He was elected MP for Northallerton in the Long Parliament, where he sat until 1653.
In late 1644 Wastell was commissioned colonel of a regiment of foot, and besieged Bolton Castle in winter 1644-5; he was then ordered to the siege of Pontefract. He retained his commission despite the Self-Denying Ordinance. In June 1645 he was sent to recapture Raby Castle; the following month he was present at the surrender of Pontefract. He fought in the second civil war.
A member of all North Riding committees, he temporarily abstained from attendance in the wake of Pride’s Purge and took his dissent in Mar. 1649. His regiment was disbanded May 1649.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 406; Yorks. visitation, 3, 254-5; Keeler, Long Parliament,380-1; Greaves and Zaller, British radicals, 3.293-4; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 93.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); Northern Army (Poyntz); Northern Army (Lambert)
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Waterworth, Thurstan |
Thurstan Waterworth
Successively trooper, cornet and lieutenant in Major Edward Robinson’s troop in the regiments of Colonels Alexander Rigby and Nicholas Shuttleworth. By 7 Sept. 1655 (when in Thomas Pride’s regiment of foot) he was owed arrears for this service of £501 6s 9d.
References: TNA, E121/5/7.
Armies: Lancashire; New Model Army
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Watkins, John |
John Watkins
Ensign in William Roberts’s company in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for Ireland in 1642. Later that summer he instead went with the regiment, probably in the same company, into the earl of Essex’s Army, as ensign in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 70, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Watkins, Robert |
Robert Watkins (died 1644)
Ensign in Captain Eaton’s company in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. He was killed at the second battle of Newbury (27 Oct. 1644).
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.16.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Watkinson, George |
George Watkinson
Of Eshton, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian lieutenant in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 108 [citing TNA, E121/5/5, E121/4/8].
Armies: Yorkshire
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Watson, - |
- Watson
Ensign in the Surrey regiment of foot of Samuel Jones/John Fielder.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 66.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
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Watson, Daniel |
Daniel Watson (c. 1617-1683)
Of Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. Second son of Henry Watson (died 1653) of Burton-upon-Trent, tanner and his wife Anne Wardle. He married, c. 1650, Rebecca, daughter of Edward Villiers of Hanbury, Staffordshire.
MP for Lichfield, 1659 and Apr.-June 1660.
A Gray’s Inn-trained barrister, and in the 1650s a JP and committeeman. Captain of dragoons.
Watson probably became an officer in the garrison regiment raised by Colonel Robert Haughton at Burton-upon-Trent before the town fell to the royalists in July 1643. On 30 May 1643 the Commons named him to the Staffordshire county committee. He then became attached, as did several other Staffordshire men, to the Derbyshire horse under Sir John Gell. As captain of dragoons, he was sent to Sir William Brereton in Cheshire in late 1644, and, like the other ‘godly men’ amongst Gell’s cavalry officers, would have preferred to continue to serve with Brereton but were constrained in Apr. 1645 to return to Derby by their own men because Gell was starving the horse of funds.
Either he or the other Captain Watson served later in the year at the siege of Chester.
On 28 Apr. 1646 he was stationed at Pipe Ridware, Staffordshire.
Presented by the constable of Burton upon Trent as a former active parliamentarian in 1662. Although unseated as MP for Lichfield by the committee of privileges in June 1660, he survived the Corporation Act and until his death was recorder of Newcastle-under-Lyme (from 1660), Steward at Lichfield (from at least 1663) and deputy-steward at Stafford (from 1677).
References: HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 3.678; ‘Active Parliamentarians, 1662’, 46; Dore, Brereton Letter Books, 1. 96, 205, 524-7, 2. 382; JHC (1643-4), 3. 109-10; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Staffordshire; Derbyshire
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Watson, John |
John Watson
By Jan. 1644 ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel Clifton’s company in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, becoming lieutenant of that company sometime before its disbandment in spring 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.61.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Watson, John |
John Watson
Reportedly ‘a cutter of turves’ on the Moorlands of North Staffordshire, though this sounds rather too much like a royalist social sneer to be entirely convincing. A county committee order of 13 Jan. 1644 noted Watson as holding land from Mr Leonard Hatfeild, a tenant of the royalist Sir William Savile, and this appears to be land he held from before the war (in contrast with Alton Park, of which Hatfeild was keeper, and which later in the war was assigned for the support of Watson and his men).
Watson served in Staffordshire from the beginning of the war and he was a captain by 9 Dec. 1642, when the county committee ordered him to return a bay mare which he had taken belonging to Francis Heathcotes of Buxtstons. He was acting alongside Captain Philip Jackson in the Staffordshire Moorlands, and on 13 Dec. he was desired to forbear meddling with the estate of Richard Buxtons of Prestwood until he had further order, ‘for that it is conceived if he should be stird it would occasion divers honest men of his neighbours to be plunderd’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 15). On 25 Jan. 1643 he captured a royalist messenger at Ashbourne.
By 2 Apr. 1643 Watson had been promoted major and by 30 May 1643 he was serving as lieutenant-colonel to Colonel John Bowyer, governor of Leek. In Jan. 1644, still at Leek, he was given liberty to fetch in ‘any Malignant persons being Countrymen’ to be exchanged for ‘such honest men that are taken prisoners out of his neighbourhood’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 239).
In May 1645 the county committee sent him to join Sir William Brereton’s forces.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, xxxii, 9, 14, 15, 28, 43, 87, 121-2, 158-60, 208, 221-2, 226, 237-9, 242, 244, 260-1, 264, 273-4, 294-5, 298-9, 308; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 366.
Armies: Staffordshire
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Watson, Thomas |
Thomas Watson
An officer in the Derbyshire regiment of horse serving with Brereton in Mar.-Apr. 1645, one of those hostile to their colonel, Sir John Gell. Possibly a Staffordshire man and kinsman to Captain Daniel Watson. Either he or the other Captain Watson served later in the year at the siege of Chester. He may be the Major Watson mentioned by Lucy Hutchinson as one of those drawn into the intrigues of White and others against her husband in 1644.
References: Dore, Brereton Letter Books, 1. 96, 205, 526-7, 2. 382; Hutchinson, Life, 204.
Armies: Derbyshire
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Watson, William |
William Watson
Captain-Lieutenant of the colonel’s company in Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association by 30 Aug. 1644; by its reduction in Apr. 1645 he had been replaced by Robert Preston.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.7; TNA, SP28/17/407.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Watson, William |
William Watson
Earwaker suggests that he came from Macclesfield, Cheshire, from a yeoman family. Almost certainly William Watson, a sequestrator in Macclesfield Hundred, and probably mayor of Macclesfield in 1643-4. Captain in Robert Duckenfeild’s regiment of foot in Apr. 1650.
Commissioned captain in Henry Bradshaw’s regiment of foot in the Cheshire militia, 22 Aug. 1650. He fought with the regiment at the battle of Worcester, 3 Sept. 1651.
References: CSPD, 1650, 510; Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2.68; TNA, SP28/128, Part 9, no. 5; Dore, Brereton letter books, I. 182, 331.
Armies: Cheshire
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Watt, Henry |
Henry Watt
Lieutenant. An officer in the Gloucester city regiment commanded by the governor, in turn Edward Massey and Thomas Morgan. He served as ensign in the company of Major Isaac Dobson, 1 Apr. 1644-4 Dec. 1645, and as lieutenant in the same company, 4 Dec. 1645-21 Jan. 1648.
References: TNA, SP28/129, Part 6, fol. 2.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Watt, Paul |
Paul Watt
He may be the Captain Paul Watt of Lord Kerry’s regiment of foot raised for the expedition for Ireland in 1642. Captain in the Portsmouth garrison regiment of foot of Sir William Lewis/William Jephson/Richard Norton by 10 Jan. 1643 and still there on 25 Aug. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 61; Peacock, Army lists, 69.
Armies: Hampshire
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Watts, Edward |
Edward Watts
Captain in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642 from or by 1 Sept.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36; TNA, SP28/2a/128.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Watts, Grevill |
Grevill Watts
Cornet in the colonel’s troop in Colonel John Fiennes’s regiment of horse which was raised in Oxfordshire in summer 1644. He can be traced in Fiennes’s accounts from Aug. 1644 to Aug. 1645.
References: TNA, SP28/139, Part 19, ff. 206r.-209r.
Armies: Oxfordshire
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Waylet, Agricola |
Agricola Waylet
Captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army by 10 May 1644 and until its disbandment the following year.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.62.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wayne, Gabriel |
Gabriel Wayne
A captain in Derbyshire. In July 1648 he was ordered to raise a troop of horse for the defence of the county.
References: Turbutt, Derbyshire, 3.1086.
Armies: Derbyshire
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Webb, - |
- Webb
Ensign in John Edwards’s troop in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.99.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Webb, Adam |
Adam Webb
In 1645 captain of what was probably the largest company in Hunphrey Mackworth’s Shrewsbury-based regiment of foot, allocated pay of £25 per week for his officers and men. In 1647 he became captain of a company in the Shrewsbury militia.
References: TNA, SP28/174; Shropshire Archives, 3365/2571/3; National Library of Wales, Aston Hall estate records, D1 Ms. 2469.
Armies: Shropshire
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Webb, James |
James Webb
Lieutenant in Major Thomas Ogle’s company in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for Ireland in 1642. Later that summer he instead went with the regiment into the earl of Essex’s Army as lieutenant in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 69-70, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Webb, William |
William Webb
Captain in the Green (Cripplegate) regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel Christopher Whichcott) by Nov. 1643, when Waller commended his actions at Basing House and recommended him for promotion. lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment by 16 Aug. 1644 and succeeded as colonel when Whichcott became governor of Windsor Castle in 1645, and still holding that command in Oct. 1646.
References: Spring, Waller's Army; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: London
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Webb, William |
William Webb
Ensign in Captain George Hathaway’s company in Robert Wood’s Surrey regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 68.
Armies: Surrey
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Weech [Meech?], - |
- Weech [Meech?]
Lieutenant. Possibly Meech. In Dorset county committee order dated 19 Oct. 1648, associated with Captain Richard Channing.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377, 445.
Armies: Dorset
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Weedon, - |
- Weedon
By spring 1644 and still there in spring 1645, on the eve of the regiment’s transfer to the New Model Army (though Weedon himself does not seem to have entered the New Model), captain in Edward Montagu’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.70.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Weekings, Luke |
Luke Weekings
Lieutenant in Viscount Saye and Sele’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 30.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Weekley, - |
- Weekley
Captain in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Weeks, Richard |
Richard Weeks
In 1642 he is listed as cornet in Chichester’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 54.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Weldon [Welden], Ralph |
Ralph Weldon [Welden] (1606-1676)
Born Swanscombe, Kent, eldest son of Sir Anthony Weldon, parliament’s county boss in Kent during the civil war.
Ralph was a captain by autumn 1643 and is probably the lieutenant-colonel who served with the Sutton at Hone Lathe regiment of Kentish Trained Band volunteers at the siege of Arundel Castle in late 1643.
He may also be the Weldon who between autumn 1643 and Mar. 1644 served briefly as an officer in Sir Michael Livesay’s regiment of horse, before falling out with him and leaving that regiment. The Oxford DNB identified him as such, serving as captain under Livesay, but Spring identifies Livesay’s officer as his major and as a separate and quite different man called Anthony Weldon, who had served in Ireland earlier in the 1640s and who by the mid-1640s was fighting in the Spanish army.
Either way, early in 1644 Ralph was promoted to colonel and given command of his own regiment of foot, raised largely in and around Kent, which joined Waller and fought under him at the battle of Cheriton, in the Oxford campaign and at the battle of Cropredy Bridge. At least part of the regiment then headed into the West, reinforcing the garrison at Lyme. In the opening months of 1645 part of the regiment was based at Weymouth and under Weldon’s command it entered the New Model Army and supported the relief of Taunton in May 1645. Weldon commanded it at the sieges of Bristol, Tiverton and Exeter later in the year and at the end of 1645 he became governor of Portsmouth. He served in that capacity until 1647, when he effectively retired from the army. He was MP for Kent in the first and second Protectorate parliaments.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Waller’s army, 88; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 47, 58.
Armies: Kent; Waller; New Model Army
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Weldon, John |
John Weldon
Origins unknown. An officer in Sir William Fairfax’s/Matthew Alured’s regiment of horse (signing peititons, Dec. 1643 and Jan. 1645). Transferred to Hugh Bethell’s regiment of horse, by which time he was a captain.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 406.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Welham, - |
- Welham
Lieutenant in William Pell’s company in the regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army commanded first by Sir John Palgrave and then by Sir Thomas Hoogan.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.80.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wellin, William |
William Wellin
Lieutenant in Cholmley’s probably short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wells, Richard |
Richard Wells
Ensign in Robert Shanke’s company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he did not go on to serve in the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.43.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wells, Thomas |
Thomas Wells
Captain in Purefoy’s regiment of horse based in Warwickshire. He was in place by the beginning of 1644 and still there in summer 1645, not long before the regiment was broken up. He and his troop assisted Waller in the latter’s Oxfordshire campaign of summer 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 121.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Welsh, George |
George Welsh
Captain in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army by 13 Sept. 1642, and until its disbandment in May or June 1643.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32; TNA, SP28/2b/267.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wemyss, David |
David Wemyss (died 1645)
Captain in James Wemyss’s regiment of foot, the regiment guarding Waller’s ordnance, and was comptroller of Waller’s ordnance, from 29 Aug. 1643 until he was killed on 2 Feb. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 154.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Wemyss, James |
James Wemyss (c.1610-1667)
Born around 1610, son of James Wemyss, laird of Caskieberren, Fife. Nephew of Robert Scott, who was prominent in the development and use of leather-covered artillery and from whom James may have acquired his interest and skills in artillery. He was living in London by the end of the 1620s and during the 1630s Charles I supported his experiments in ordnance; by the end of the decade he was the king’s master-gunner. Wemyss accompanied and served in the armies which the king sent north against his compatriots in 1639-40.
At the outbreak of the civil war Wemyss supported parliament. He became Waller’s master of the ordnance and in Aug. 1643 was commissioned colonel of a regiment of foot to be raised to guard Waller’s artillery. While the regiment served with Waller throughout most of his campaigns in southern England, in June 1644 both Wemyss and many of his light-weight leather guns were captured at the battle of Cropredy Bridge. Refusing the king’s repeated offer to rejoin his cause as master-gunner, Wemyss was eventually released in June 1645, though he played little further part in the English land war. Instead, he joined the Scottish army. In the mid-1640s he did help improve English naval ordnance, but he returned to Scotland in 1648 and became general of artillery in the Scottish army, present at but managing to escape from the battle of Dunbar, but captured at Worcester a year later and imprisoned for a time at Windsor. Both Oliver Cromwell’s Protectoral government and after the Restoration Charles II supported and funded his continuing work, the latter restoring him to his offices and granting him various patents.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Wenceslas, Reginald [Reynold] |
Reginald [Reynold] Wenceslas
In spring 1645, shortly before it was taken into the New Model, lieutenant in the troop of Edward Fiennes in the regiment of horse commanded by John Meldrum 1643-4 and later by James Sheffield. Unlike several officers in that regiment, he did not then transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 102; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 150-1.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Wenlock, William |
William Wenlock
Captain in Sir William Waller’s regiment of foot, from 26 June 1644 until its disbandment on 30 Apr. 1645. In May 1645 he enlisted as a trooper in Colonel Sanderson’s regiment of reformadoes. In May 1650 he was commissioned captain in William Daniel’s regiment of foot, raised for service in Ireland.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,155.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); reformado; Ireland
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Wentworth, - |
- Wentworth
In May 1643, captain serving in one of the three regiments of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.33.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Were [Wear, Weare], John |
John Were [Wear, Weare] (died 1658)
Of Halberton, Devon.
In his The Apologie of Colonel John Were, in vindication of his proceedings since the beginning of this present Parliament(1644, BL, E21.34), Were recorded that his name had been put into the king’s commission of array,
‘but upon Assembly of the Gentry that were that way affected, hearing some discourse that tended both to the dishonour of God, and the overthrow of the common liberty, I totally disavowed the executing of that Commission, and fully resolved with my utmost to promote the purity of Religion, and the publique peace, I applied my selfe to Sir Peter Prediux [Prideaux] a Deputy Lieftenant, and from him received a Commission in the Militia, being the first, and I suppose the last Gentleman in Devonshire, that raised and continued a Regement in that County, and since have raised severall Regements at my owne charge, at severall times all actually imployed in the Parliaments service’ (Were, Apologie, 1).
Peachey and Turton take Were’s military record as exemplifying the problems of reconstructing military units in Devon. He raised seven units in Devon in 1642-44.
(1) Late Aug.-late Sept. 1642: Were persuaded three Trained Band companies to follow him to the siege of Sherborne, later claiming that: ‘by reason of my respects and vicinity with them, I got readily their consent, though they had stood mute to others before, and marched with three companies of them; this was my first employment’ (Bayley, Dorset, 47).
(2) Dec. 1642-Mid-Jan. 1643: When Hopton’s Cornish army approached Exeter, Were raised ‘a good supply of men’ and maintained it until relieved by Stamford. The force, probably volunteers from Were’s neighbourhood, was then disbanded.
(3) Late Jan.-Feb. 1643: Following Ruthen’s defeat in Cornwall, Were was ordered to raise what force he could and join the forces at Exeter, and took the force (made up again of friends and neighbours) to the battle of Modbury (21 Feb. 1643). It was disbanded a few days later with the signing of the local armistice.
(4) Late Apr.-mid-May 1643: With the ending of the armistice, Were took another regiment to Crediton and then to the defeat at Stratton (16 May 1643).
(5) Late May-Sept. 1643: he returned to his home at Halberton, near Tiverton, where he was ordered to bring what forces he could to defend Exeter. From Exeter he was sent back to Tiverton, and lacking arms, ammunition and men went to Taunton. Raising what men he could and marched through enemy lines back to Exeter, where he continued throughout the siege. Following its surrender, ‘I went to my own house, where I could not stay without I would take up Armes for the King, which rather I would doe, I chose to leave my wife, children and estate to the mercy of the Enemy, though the Parliament was then in its lowest ebbe’ (Were, Apologie, 2).
Were went to London, from where Parliament sent him down to Lyme Regis with 200 men. His forays—for instance against royalist quarters at Bridport and Colyton (‘done before Leiftenant Colonell Blakes coming downe’, Were, Apologie, 4) brought Prince Maurice to besiege Lyme. He was a senior officer throughout the siege, in Apr. and May 1644 (‘though not governor, yet commander in cheife of most of the forces in the towne’, Were, Apologie, 4), and was shot in the belly.
When the earl of Essex marched into Devon, he found recruiting hindered by lack of arms and by the non-arrival of local gentry from London: ‘As yet but few of the gentlemen of power except Colonel Weare are heare, who is much beloved in the county’. (CSPD1644, 304). Were himself later claimed ‘I was received into my Country with as much honour as they could give, or I expect for the good service I had don, witnes the great appearance I had at the first summons, when his Excellency came down … for within a short time I raised two Regements, one of horse, the other of foote without money; when his Excellency marcht into Cornewall, I went with him never being off my Regement, untill our Armes … were laid downe’ (Were, Apologie, 4).
Were’s actions in the Cornish campaign became a matter of controversy and recrimination; in the search for scapegoats, he was accused of treachery. Days after the infantry’s surrender at Lostwithiel, on 11 Sept. Essex bitterly wrote that ‘Colonel Were who was at Lyme, the Devon Colonel, hath played the Judas and is revolted’, and a month later called him ‘the runagado’ (CSPD 1644, 494, 1644-45, 45). When Were shortly after turned up at Portsmouth, Essex had him arrested and he was sent up for examination by the Committee of Both Kingdoms, under Commons orders of 12 and 26 Oct. 1644.
To the diarist Thomas Juxon, ‘There was one Colonel Weare, a Cornish [sic] gentleman, who pretended to raise a regiment for the Parliament and having done betrayed it to the king’ (Juxon, Diary, 59). A string of allegations of deliberate negligence formed part of the rumours about him. The key grounds for allegations of treachery, as later summarized in Rushworth’s account, were that Were’s ‘Regt. was the first that quitted their Post, the day before the Capitulation, and lost their Cannon, which was alledged to be a main Cause of the Army's being reduced to that sudden Extremity. And tho the colonel pretended to be taken Prisoner, 'twas suggested that he suffer'd himself so to be, and went willingly to the King's Forces’ (Rushworth, Historical Collections, 5.708).
For the first, Skippon, left in command of the infantry deserted by Essex, testified that the day before the surrender Were had come to him saying that he could not hold his position, and despite no man having been killed nor the enemy having pressed upon the position, it had been abandoned by the morning, allowing the enemy to place themselves between the army and Fowey. (However, Skippon was more explicitly critical of the other senior officer holding that ground, Essex’s lieutenant-colonel, John Botteler). A royalist account claimed that the whole of Were’s regiment had run away upon the approach of just eight royalist troopers. Were himself claimed that he had made the best of things when Botteler’s regiment fell back.
To the second allegation, Were admitted that after the capitulation of the army, subject to atrocities and plunder, with forewarning of more plunder and himself ‘in a wett and sicke condition’ (Were, Apologie, 4), he accepted the offer of a former officer of his who had defected, Major Belfore, to spend the night in Royalist quarters, who promised him safe passage back to his lines the next morning. But Belfore broke his word and Sir Richard Grenville prevented Were’s return and forced him to promise to serve the king. Were later claimed that he had no intention of keeping the promise, and eventually escaped back to Taunton. He got a testimonial from Robert Blake, governor of Taunton, and spoke with Sir William Waller and Sir Arthur Hesilrige to explain himself (and they indeed wrote to the Committee of Both Kingdoms on his behalf).
Were was committed to the Compter on 7 Nov. He demanded to be heard by Parliament, and to be brought face to face with his chief accuser, the earl of Cleveland (the royalist cavalry commander who had been taken prisoner since the Cornish campaign). He also countered by emphasizing Essex’s own dilatoriness and appealing to the tension between the earl and his political and military enemies. The earl failed to take his advice and pursue Maurice with 1,500 horse – ostensibly because Essex’s horses were exhausted, but as he later found out because of the falling out between the earl and Sir William Waller – the former would rather lay down his commission than be braved by the latter. He was still a prisoner in the Compter in Aug. 1645, and was released on exchange on 30 Sept. 1644. In his Apologie (dated by Thomason as 20 Dec. 1644) Were conceded that, ‘I have spoken that in some passion which might have beene well left unsaide’ to the accusation that he had ‘spoken words that do not tend to the honour of the Lord Generall’ (Were, Apologie, 7). On 1 Mar. 1645 Essex complained to the House, ‘That Two of the Militia of London came to him, to acquaint him that Colonel Ware came to the Militia of London, and made an Information to them against the Lord General [i.e. himself] which tends much to his Dishonour’ (JHL, 7.258).
On 19 Aug. 1645 Were was still a prisoner in the Southwark Compter. On 4 Nov. he was bailed on the security of the Committee of the West, who were to employ him as they thought fit.
When Essex had come to Lyme Regis, he found Were’s regiment only 200 strong. This was before Were raised his two regiments in Devon. By 15 Oct., after the Cornish disaster, Essex reported that there were only 40 men left of Were’s regiment, and pay warrants in Oct. describe the regiment in the past tense. It is (just) possible to distinguish between some officers of his infantry and cavalry regiments.: his chaplain presumably served both. The regiment of foot must have made good some of its numbers.
In Apr. 1646 Were’s was one of three country regiments. reduced into one to form the garrison for the recaptured city of Exeter.
References: J. Were, The Apologie of Colonell John Were, in vindication of his proceedings since the beginning of this present Parliament(1644, BL, E21.34); Bayley, Dorset, 47, 74, 129-33, 137, 145-6, 167, 201, 206, 222-6; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.428-30; Rushworth, Historical Collections. 5.681, 708-11; CSPD 1644, 304, 351, 494, 514, 1644-45, 35, 45, 104, 105, 1645-47, 416, Addenda: 1625-49, 667-8; JHL, 7.258; JHC, 3.667, 678, 689, 4.248, 334; TNA, SP28/19/12; Roberts, Devon, 36.
Armies: Devon; Dorset; Earl of Essex
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West, Edmund |
Edmund West
In 1642 he is listed as captain of a troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 55.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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West, Francis |
Francis West (died 1652)
‘A Silke man living in Bread Street’ (Symonds, BL, Harl. 986, p. 26).
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands, which he commanded at the first battle of Newbury.
He is probably the Francis West who was born in London, the son of George West and who lived and traded as a silkman in Bread Street and the officer of the same name who served as lieutenant of the Tower 1645-7 and again from 1648 until his death in Aug. 1652.
References: Oxford DNB; BL, Harl. 986, p. 26.
Armies: London
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West, George |
George West
Lieutenant in Captain William Balfour’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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West, Nathaniel |
Nathaniel West
Cornet in Robert Burghill’s troop of horse in Essex’s Army in 1642. He served as captain the regiment of horse of Robert Burghill/Jonas Vandruske in Waller’s Army from at least 26 May 1643, but seems to have left by 26 Mar. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,139; Peacock, Army lists, 50.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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West, Nicholas |
Nicholas West
Captain of a company in a regiment of foot which served under Oliver Cromwell and later under Colonel Francis Russell in their capacity as governors of the Isle of Ely and later under Colonel Valentine Walton senior, which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia. He was serving in this regiment by Aug. 1644 and was present at the siege of Crowland House in Oct. 1644.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.29.
Armies: Eastern Association
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West, Simon |
Simon West
By early 1645, captain in Valentine Walton’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he continued to serve in that capacity after John Hobart had taken command of the regiment in spring 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.105.
Armies: Eastern Association
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West, William |
William West
Ensign in Cholmley’s probably short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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West, William |
William West
Probably a signatory (as W. West) to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’, May 1648. Commissoned major in Richard Standish’s Lancashire militia regiment of foot, 16 Aug. 1650.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50; CSPD, 1650, 509.
Armies: Lancashire
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Westbrook, John |
John Westbrook
Captain in Sir Richard Onslow’s regiment of foot (Surrey Auxiliaries) by 3 June 1644, when he led his company to the siege of Basing House, and still in the same regiment on 1 Feb. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 106.
Armies: Surrey
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Westby, George |
George Westby
Of Whiston, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 120.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Westby, Henry |
Henry Westby (died 1657)
Of Car House, Rotherham parish, Yorkshire (West Riding), gentleman, second son of George Westby of Elmeton, Nottinghamshire and Whalley, Derbyshire. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Boroughs of Gilthwaite and widow of Mr Taylor. Their sole daughter and heiress Elizabeth (died 1677) married Edward Gill in 1638.
Active in Rotherham, late 1642, and captain (probably of foot), by early 1643. When Rotherham fell in early May 1643, he was excepted from the pardon (contrary to the terms of surrender) and was heavily fined.
He fled to the clothing districts, and became muster master of the Northern Association, serving in that post and as captain of horse for several years. In June 1645 he was put on the Northern Association committee for the West Riding and in 1654 he was made an ejector.
In the late 1640s a Henry Westby appears as a captain in John Lambert’s northern regiment of horse on the New Model payroll, but this may or may not be the same man.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, Yorks. Vis., 1.252; 117; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 163.
Armies: Yorkshire; New Model Army?
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Westmor, Thomas |
Thomas Westmor
Signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’, May 1648.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50.
Armies: Lancashire
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Weston, Francis |
Francis Weston
By Jan. 1645 Captain, later becoming major, of Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 16; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 46-7.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Westrow, Thomas |
Thomas Westrow
Captain of the Kentish Trained Band troop in the Shepway Lathe regiment of horse. He led his troop to the siege of Arundel Castle (Dec. 1643) and was still serving in 1648.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 77.
Armies: Kent
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Wett, Edward |
Edward Wett
Ensign in Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 43.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Whaiham [Whiham], - |
- Whaiham [Whiham]
Ensign in the company of Colonel Edward Rous in the latter’s Worcestershire regiment of foot (17 Feb.-23 Mar. 1646). Presumably a kinsman of Captain Wheyham in the Worcestershire forces.
References: TNA, SP28/138, Part 17, f. 49r.
Armies: Worcestershire
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Whalley, Edward |
Edward Whalley (died 1674/5)
Born a younger son of Richard Whalley of Kirkton and Screveton, Nottinghamshire, and his second wife Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdonshire. Thus he was a cousin of Oliver Cromwell.
After graduating from Cambridge, he was apprenticed into the Merchant Taylors’ Company and became free in 1627. His younger brother Henry became in the 1650s advocate-general of the English army in Scotland, and by that time Edward had become the father-in-law of his fellow New Model officer William Goffe.
He was possibly the Whalley who served as cornet in Captain John Fiennes’s troop of horse in the Earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. From Feb. 1643 he served in Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army, first as captain, promoted to major in May 1643 and in due course becoming lieutenant-colonel. In spring 1645, he became colonel of his own horse regiment in the New Model Army, which fought at Naseby and in the South West in 1645-6; in 1646 he commanded at the successful siege of Banbury and for a time at Worcester.
Whalley broadly supported the political and religious radicalism of his regiment in 1646-7. He had command of the guard over Charles I at Hampton Court in autumn 1647. In 1648 he fought under Fairfax in Kent and at the siege of Colchester.
He was an active regicide. In 1650 he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland and was wounded at Dunbar. He then held Carlisle. He rejoined Cromwell in pursuing the Scottish-royalist army south in 1651 and fought at the battle of Worcester.
He supported Cromwell’s ejection of the Rump and the creation of the Protectorate. He sat in both of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate parliaments representing Nottinghamshire, where he had acquired much property, and in 1655-7 was major-general of much of the central and north-eastern Midlands; he was very active in that capacity seeking to enforce moral reform. In 1657 he became a member of the new Other House. He supported Richard Cromwell’s Protectorate and was removed from his military command when the Rump returned. He fled with Goffe to New England at the Restoration; the two of them lived together for many years, moving around and eluding arrest. By 1674 Whalley was reported by his son-in-law to be very ill and weak and he died soon after.
References: Oxford DNB; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 53, 63, 74, 84, 95, 108.
Armies: Earl of Essex?; Eastern Association; New Model Army
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Whalley, Thomas |
Thomas Whalley
Of Shipbrooke, and of yeoman stock, according to Dore. He was indicted by the Cheshire grand jury in 1644 for his parliamentarian activities.
Probably the Captain Whalley of John Leigh’s regiment of foot in Brereton’s Army, 30 Apr. 1645.
Commissioned captain of foot of Thomas Croxton’s Cheshire militia regiment of foot, 22 Aug. 1650.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 324-32; CSPD, 1650, 510.
Armies: Cheshire
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Whapley [Warples, Whapled], Nathaniel |
Nathaniel Whapley [Warples, Whapled]
Quartermaster (by 29 Sept. 1643) and cornet (by 6 Oct. 1643) in the troop of Captain Walter Parry, a troop in 1644 in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of horse. He was possibly killed at Cropredy Bridge in June 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,56; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 7.717.
Armies: Gloucestershire; Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wharton, Gabriell |
Gabriell Wharton
A captain, probably of foot, in the Fairfaxes’ Northern Army, who claimed £240 11s 10d in arrears in 1648.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 406.
Armies: Northern Army (Fairfax)
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Wharton, Philip, 4th Baron Wharton |
Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton (1613-1696)
Born the son of Sir Thomas Wharton (died 1622) of Easby, Yorkshire. In the late 1620s, by when he had succeeded his grandfather to the barony, he served in the Dutch army. He paid a fine rather than attend the king in the North during the First Scots War. In both the Short and Long Parliament he sided with those critical of aspects of royal government. In 1642 he was appointed by parliament to command an army being raised in England and Wales to be sent to Ireland in order to restore order there, though the plan was overtaken by the outbreak of civil war at home and he and it never went to Ireland. Instead, in summer 1642 he became captain of a troop of horse and colonel of a regiment of foot raised partly in northern England, both of which served in the earl of Essex’s Army. His contribution at Edgehill, where his regiment largely fled and where he, too, was rumoured to have run away and hidden, proved to be his only direct military action in the field. His regiment of foot had been disbanded by the end of Jan. 1643.
His main contribution to the parliamentarian war effort was political and administrative, as one of the negotiators of the Scottish alliance in 1643, though he came to see it as unfortunate, not least, perhaps, because of Scottish plundering of his northern estates. He may have worked for a settlement with the king in 1648 and he certainly held aloof from the regicide and the republican regimes which followed. He supported the Restoration and was largely pardoned and returned to favour. However, he drifted away from Charles II, went abroad on James II’s accession and warmly welcomed the Glorious Revolution.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wheatly, Richard |
Richard Wheatly
Ensign to Captain John Lloyd in Myddelton’s North Wales army, as shown by a surviving pay warrant for £4, dated 15 Apr. 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/346, no.122.
Armies: North Wales
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Wheeler, Christopher |
Christopher Wheeler
Cornet and from the end of 1644 lieutenant in John Bridges’s troop of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 32.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Wheeler, Henry |
Henry Wheeler
In Sept. 1644 Wheeler was captain of a troop of dragoons serving with Colonel John Fiennes at the siege of Banbury. Later he appears as a reformado serving in John Fiennes’s regiment of horse in Oxfordshire (Wheeler is recorded in accounts by 17 Aug. 1644; the regiment existed from June 1644 to Aug. 1645).
References: TNA, SP28/139, Part 19, ff. 205r., 207r., 209r.
Armies: Oxfordshire
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Wheeler, John |
John Wheeler
Ensign in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Whestone[Whitestone, Weston], Francis |
Francis Whestone [Whitestone, Weston]
Captain in Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army by Jan. 1645, when he was promoted major upon the death of Francis Bradbury. He was nominated a captain in Thomas Rainsborough’s New Model Army regiment of foot, but either declined to serve or very soon afterwards left the regiment.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.9; TNA, SP28/22/386, SP28/25/377B; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 46-7.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
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Whetham, Nathaniel |
Nathaniel Whetham
Baptised Burstock, 25 Nov. 1604, son of Thomas Whetham and his wife Dorothy Hooper. Made free of the Bakers’ Company, London, in 1630.
Lieutenant in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in summer 1642, probably in the company of Richard Browne, senior captain.
He went with Richard Browne into the regiment of dragoons raised in London commissioned by the earl of Warwick, and by Jan. 1643 was a Major in Browne’s regiment of dragoons stationed near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, under the immediate command of Colonel Arthur Goodwin.
He became governor of Northampton later in 1643, a post he retained for the remainder of the civil war.
References: Thrale 1642; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 58
Armies: London; Earl of Essex
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Whetstone, Roger |
Roger Whetstone
Lieutenant in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Whichcott [Whitchcote], Christopher |
Christopher Whichcott [Whitchcote]
Merchant, of St Helen’s Bishopsgate (1638).
Captain in the White regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Isaac Penington) from Apr. 1642; fourth captain in summer 1642, second captain in Sept. 1643. By Sept. 1643 also colonel of the Green regiment of London Auxiliaries, ‘about Cripplegate’ (BL, Harl. 986, p. 13).
In 1644 major-general of a London brigade serving in Essex’s march to the West, consisting of the Green (Cripplegate), Yellow and Orange London auxiliary regiments
By Nov. 1645 governor of Windsor Castle, in succession to John Venn.
References: Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; BL, Harl. 986, pp. 13, 77; Spring, Waller's Army; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 314; CSPD, 1644, 513-5; Dale, 1638, 70.
Armies: London
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Whippey, Richard |
Richard Whippey
Captain in Popham’s regiment of dragoons.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.562.
Armies: Somerset: Popham’s Regt.of Dragoons; Col. William Strode’s Regt. of Foot
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Whistler, Ralph |
Ralph Whistler
In 1642 listed as lieutenant in Lord Wharton’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 49.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Whitbee [Whitby], John |
John Whitbee [Whitby]
Captain in Thomas Waite’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.103.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Whitbread, William |
William Whitbread
In Jan. 1645, ensign in Captain Smith’s company in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95.
Armies: Bedfordshire
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White, - |
- White
Ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsey’s company in Sir William Waller’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 148.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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White, Charles |
Charles White
Major of dragoons and horse in the Nottingham-based force of Sir John Hutchinson. Lucy Hutchinson paints him in the grimmest colours: ‘a man who was of mean birth and low fortunes, yet had kept company with the underling gentry of the neighbourhood. This man had the most factious, ambitious, vainglorious, envious and malicious nature that is imaginable; but he was the greatest dissembler, flatterer, traitor and hypocrite that ever was, and herein had a kind of wicked policy; knowing himself to be inferior to all gentleman, he put on a vizard of godliness and humility and courted the common people with all the plausibility and flattery that could be practised. All this while he was addicted to many lusts, especially that of women…By a thousand arts this fellow became popular and so insinuated himself into all the gentlemen that owned the parliament’s party that till he was discovered some years after, they believed him a most true-hearted, faithful, vigilant, active man for the godly interest’. White is one of the chief villains of Lucy Hutchinson’s account, portrayed as repeatedly undermining and going behind the back of her husband during his governorship of Nottingham, both within Nottinghamshire and during his frequent visits to London.
References: Hutchinson, Life, 103-4, 111, 116, 122, 129, 144, 147, 154, 161, 164, 169, 172-3, 174, 187, 189, 192, 193, 199, 200, 201, 203, 209, 210, 211, 216, 217, 232, 236, 253.
Armies: Nottinghamshire
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White, Christopher |
Christopher White
Of Claughton, Lancashire. The Whites of Claughton were classified by Blackwood as one of ten plebeian families who ‘seem to have attained their gentility’ in the 1640s and 1650s ‘without buying land, perhaps by enriching themselves as officials, merchants, farmers or landlords’ (Blackwood, Lancashire gentry, 99).
A captain, White raised a company in Garstang parish for Alexander Rigby’s regiment of foot from Amounderness and Leyland Hundreds. Captain in Richard Standish’s militia regiment of foot in Lancashire, 16 Aug. 1650.
References: Warr in Lancashire, 42; CSPD, 1650, 509; Blackwood, Lancashire gentry, 99, 109 n. 259; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 294.
Armies: Lancashire
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White, Francis |
Francis White (died 1657)
Of obscure origins and nothing is known of his birth, family or early life. He was a private and then a corporal in Philip Skippon’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. He progressed to sergeant and then ensign in Major Gabriel Holmes’s company in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. White went on to serve as captain in Sir Thomas Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the New Model Army, promoted to major in 1647. In the Army politics of 1647-8 he became a prominent and radical agitator, adopting Leveller ideas. He served in the campaign and battle of Preston in summer 1648 and with distinction in Cromwell’s Scottish campaign of 1650-1. He is probably the Francis White who was an MP in 1656 and he took part in the Flanders campaign the following year, appointed governor of Mardyke Fort. He drowned on a return journey to England at the end of 1657.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 1.62; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 55, 65, 76, 85, 97.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association; New Model Army
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White, James |
James White
Lieutenant in Roger Nore’s company in Anthony Stapley’s regiment of foot by 5 Aug. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 122.
Armies: Sussex
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White, John |
John White
Ensign in Captain Joseph Paty’s company of volunteer foot, by order 11 Jan. 1643 (later John Whiteway’s company). Presumably a kinsman of the minister, John White of Dorchester.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.521.
Armies: Dorset
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White, John |
John White
Ensign (probably to Captain Robert Wilshire) in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in Essex’s Army in 1642. He went north with Fairfax and a number of Fairfax’s officers in Dec. 1642. He was commissioned captain in Fairfax’s regiment of foot raised in Yorkshire. He was captured at Bradford, 2/3 July 1643.
Possibly the Captain White who testified against the Hothams in 1644, in which case he may well have been an East Riding man.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44; Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Northern Army (Fairfax); Yorkshire
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White, Nathaniel |
Nathaniel White
By autumn 1643, and still there in spring 1643, captain in Major Thomlinson’s troop in Vermuyden’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.101.
Armies: Eastern Association
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White, Peter |
Peter White
Provost Marshal. County committee order of Jan. 1647, recorded having borrowed £20 from White 2 years earlier for relief of poor during plague outbreak.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 151; Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 386-7; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.538.
Armies: Dorset
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White, Thomas |
Thomas White
Ensign in Captain Joseph Knapp’s company in the Southwark auxiliaries regiment on 16 Apr. 1646. Probably Captain White of the same regiment on 22 Oct. 1646.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, ff. 569r.-570r.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 12.
Armies: Southwark
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White, Walter |
Walter White
Lieutenant in the Green regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Warner) in summer 1642.
On 20 June 1643 White was reported to the Commons as one of those who had been committed by the committee of examinations for refusing to pay his assessment (of £320) but was still apparently at liberty; on 29 June he was one of those royalists whose goods had been seized by the committee for sequestrations and, as he had not come to clear himself, they were to be sold by the candle.
References: Thrale 1642; Lindley, Popular politics, 208; JHC, 3.136-7, 149.
Armies: London
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White, William |
William White (1606-1662)
Of Bashall, Mitton parish, Yorkshire (West Riding), esquire, son of William White of Duffield, Derbyshire and his second wife Sarah, daughter of Matthew Cradock of Staffordshire.
White began his career as clerk in the Court of Wards. He married about 1629 Margery, daughter and coheir of Thomas Talbot (died 1619) of Bashall, Yorkshire (West Riding). He bought the Bashall estate from his sister-in-law; it was worth £500 per annum by 1649. He was a JP before the war.
He became Lord Fairfax’s agent in London and stood unsuccessfully for Clitheroe in 1640 (his grandfather had been its MP in 1588).
In spring 1644 White was made colonel of a regiment of foot in the Northern Army, and was at the siege of York and possibly at Marston Moor. Because of his London duties, he often left the effective command of the regiment to his lieutenant-colonel, Christopher Langton. The regiment was disbanded in July 1645.
He was on all West Riding committees from Feb. 1643, and was put on the Northern Association committee for the West Riding in 1645. In 1645 he was elected as Recruiter MP for Pontefract.
He was an intermediary in negotiations between parliament and the army in 1647. He abstained during Pride’s Purge and was absent, claiming illness, during the trial and execution of the king. He took his dissent in May 1649 but did little thereafter.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407; Greaves and Zaller, British radicals, 3.313; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 115; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
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White, William |
William White
In Sept. 1642 lieutenant to Captain Saville in the regiment of foot which formed part of the earl of Essex’s Army under the earl of Stamford and which then formed the core of Edward Massey’s garrison and army at Gloucester.
References: Peachey and Turton, War in the West,6.643-6.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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White, William |
William White
Major. A lieutenant in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in 1642. By Apr. 1643 he had been promoted captain, and was active in the campaigning around the siege of Gloucester. On 21 Aug. he was second-in-command in a sally by boat against the enemy positions. By May 1644 White had been promoted major, when he led one of the successful attacks at the storming of Malmesbury. He was present at the taking of Berkeley Castle in Sept. 1645, and profited from its plunder. Indeed, Captain Robert Stevenson claimed that he had left the castle and Lord Berkeley’s household rooms safe and undefaced when he handed over command to White.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 29; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.643-6; Bibliotheca, 208, 218-9, 333; HMC, Fifth Report, 356-7.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Whitebread, Edward |
Edward Whitebread
Major in Samuel Luke’s Bedfordshire regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army (pay warrant: 10 May 1643).
References: TNA, SP28/7/313, 320.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Whitehead, Henry |
Henry Whitehead
Captain in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot; also muster-master of the garrison. As such, he frequently features in Luke’s letter books and serveral letters to and by him survive there.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95; Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 359, 577, 1102, 1117, 1156, 1269, 1563.
Armies: Bedfordshire
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Whitehead, Richard |
Richard Whitehead (c.1599-1664)
Son of Henry Whitehead of Norman’s Court, West Tytherley, Hampshire, born into a wealthy and established gentry family with property in Hampshire and Wiltshire. He may have gained some military experience on the continent and was captain in the Hampshire Trained Bands, becoming colonel of the Andover regiment. A JP and commissioner in Hampshire and sheriff in 1636, when he had difficulties with ship money. MP for Lymington in 1628-9 and for Hampshire in both the Short and Long parliaments, where he was an active critic of royal government.
He was related to several other leading opponents of the king in Hampshire, including the Jephsons and the Jervoises [Jarvises] and, like them, he also took up arms and played a direct military role, albeit a rather limited one. In 1643-4 he was commissioned to raise and command a regiment of foot in Hampshire, which later in 1644 fortified Bishops Waltham and assisted in the unsuccessful siege of Basing. The regiment was broken up during the opening months of 1645, with some companies sent to support and reinforce the garrisons in Portsmouth, Southampton and Lyme, though much of it seems to have been disbanded in or by spring 1645.
Whitehead was secluded at Pride’s Purge but lived on to retake his seat early in 1660. He probably died in 1664.
References: Keeler, Long Parliament, 391-2.
Armies: Hampshire; Waller (Southern Association)
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Whitehouse, - |
- Whitehouse
An ensign, presented by the constable of Tipton, Staffordshire as a former active parliamentarian in 1662.
References: ‘Active Parliamentarians, 1662’, 59.
Armies: Staffordshire
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Whiteley, Joseph |
Joseph Whiteley
Of Shelf, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian lieutenant in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 111.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Whiteway, John |
John Whiteway (1614-c.1677)
Capital burgess of Dorchester, 1641; bailiff 1642, 1650, 1651, 1660. Mayor of Dorchester, 1645-6, 1658-9. Assessment commissioner, 1643-52, 1657, Jan. 1660-1. MP for Dorchester, 1654, 1656, 1660. Brother of the diarist William Whiteway. A substantial woollen merchant with interests in the Newfoundland trade. His first wife, Mary White, was the niece of the puritan ‘Patriarch of Dorchester’, John White.
A very active county committeeman. 7 Jan. 1647, a committee order notes that ‘he served the Parlyament as Captaine in the towne of Dorchester at the beginninge of these warres by deputacon of the Maior of the sayd towne, by vertue of an order of the House of Commons, for the space of six moneths’: 5 Feb.-4 Aug. 1643 [i.e. until the fall of the town], receiving neither pay nor free quarter.
References: Whiteway Diary, 183; HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 3.707-8; Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 132.
Armies: Dorset
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Whiteway, William |
William Whiteway
Ensign in Captain Churchill’s foot company. Possibly the son (1622-56?) of the diarist William Whiteway.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.505; Whiteway, Diary, 184.
Armies: Dorset
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Whithead, Richard |
Richard Whithead
Of Garstang, Lancashire ensign in Captain Thomas Rippon’s company in Colonel George Dodding’s regiment of foot; lieutenant in Captain Christopher White’s company in Alexander Rigby’s regiment of foot; captain in Colonel Alexander Rigby’s regiment of foot; Clerk of the ammunition and stores in the Lancaster garrison. In June 1654 he was owed arrears of £596 18s 3d.
Whithead’s commission as captain can be placed in the summer (or at least the second half) of 1643 when he raised a company in Garstang parish for Alexander Rigby, senior’s, regiment of foot from Amounderness and Leyland Hundreds. Commissioned captain in Richard Standish’s militia regiment of foot in Lancashire, 16 Aug. 1650.
References: TNA, E121/3/1; Warr in Lancashire, 42; CSPD, 1650, 509; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 287, 295.
Armies: Lancashire
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Whiting, Timothy |
Timothy Whiting
Captain in Colonel Richard Turner’s regiment of horse, Aug./Sept. 1643 until its reduction in Mar. 1644. Bill for quartering Whiting’s soldiers for Feb. and Mar. 1644 submitted and passed.
References: TNA, SP28/132, f. 1v.; SP28/10/295; Spring, Waller’s army, 136.
Armies: London; Waller (Southern Association)
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Whitley, Thomas |
Thomas Whitley
Lieutenant in the Green regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Warner) in summer 1642. Possibly the churchwarden of St Michael Poultry, who in May 1644 opposed the opening up of the select vestry, and who, other evidence suggests, was an Anglican.
References: Thrale 1642; Lindley, Popular politics, 269-70.
Armies: London
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Whitney, Hugh |
Hugh Whitney
From Coole Pilate in Nantwich Hundred, Cheshire. He fought in the night attack on Drayton, Shropshire, May 1643, taking the apparel, letters and money of the fled Sir Vincent Corbett. In May 1644 he and Captain Church, holding the garrison at Doddington with about 40 men, were able to pick off some of Rupert’s plundering troops, A member of the anti-Brereton faction. Probably in late Feb. 1645, ‘Mr. Goldsmith’ reported a conversation with him upon the Royal Exchange. Whitney complained about the great want of pay for the troops in Cheshire. When his interlocutor answered that he believed Sir William Brereton was a godly honest gentleman, Whitney replied ‘as any was in hell’, and told how he and Colonels George and John Booth, Henry Mainwaring and William Massey were come to complain of Brereton and had got a warrant to examine Brereton’s accounts. The Apr. 1645 muster rolls show Whitney as a captain in George Booth’s regiment. On 7 Nov. 1645 Whitney was one of three officers (the others were Major John Marbury and Captain George Massey), whom the sheriff was instructed by the Commons committee for examinations to arrest as ‘it appears that they are dangerous and do much disturb the peace of the country’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 225).
Commisioned captain in Thomas Croxton’s Cheshire militia regiment of foot, 22 Aug. 1650.
References: Cheshire tracts 53-4, 130; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 54-5, 324-32, 2. 225; CSPD, 1650, 509.
Armies: Cheshire
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Whitney, Thomas |
Thomas Whitney
Lieutenant in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. Reported as fleeing to London after Sir William Fairfax’s regiment fled at Edgehill, where he spread rumours of parliamentarian defeat.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44; Young, Edgehill, 114, 116, 126.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Whittingham, Thomas |
Thomas Whittingham (born 1595/6, alive on 19 Sept. 1664)
Of Whittingham, Lancashire. He married (1) Mary, daughter and coheir of Ewan Edmondson of Eccleston and (2) Susan, daughter of Mr. Litherland. Captain.
Whittingham was made captain of a troop of horse in the forces raised by Alexander Rigby, senior, in Amounderness and Leyland Hundreds, ‘even raising them when Prince Rupert entered the County’ (Warr in Lancashire, 42).
References: Warr in Lancashire, 42; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 333; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 295.
Armies: Lancashire
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Whittle, - |
- Whittle
Lieutenant in Thomas Crosse’s troop in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.97.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Whitworth, John |
John Whitworth
Dore identifies him as a captain of pioneers in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire Army, and as such omitted from the army list of 30 Apr. 1645. In Sept. 1643 he was one of the captains who took over command at Cholmondeley. He also appears to have had some staff position during the siege of Chester, vetting muster rolls when companies were paid, and his role in military finance is implied in such entries as payment to Robert Venables by him in 1643. Whitworth was prominent in Cheshire affairs in the 1650s.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 327; BL, Harl. Ms. 2128, f. 61r.; TNA, SP28/225; BL, Harl. Ms. 1999, f. 63r.
Armies: Cheshire
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Whitworth, Richard |
Richard Whitworth
Of Newton, Manchester. A captain and ‘a rising yeoman’, whose rank is given in evidence arising from his disputes with Humphrey Chetham.
References: S.J. Guscott, Humphrey Chetham, 1580-1653: fortune, politics and mercantile culture in seventeenth-century England, Chetham Soc., ser. 3, vol. 45 (2003), 97 (for qn.), 103, 106, 240-3.
Armies: Lancashire
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Wickens [Wiggens], Samuel |
Samuel Wickens [Wiggens]
Cornet, to Captain Samuel Kem and later to Captain Luke Lloyde, in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s North Wales Army. He signed an acquittance as the former and appeared on an acquittance of Lloyd’s, undated, but containing entries of 18 July 1644 to 22 Jan. 1645.
References: TNA, SP28/346, nos. 101, 279.
Armies: North Wales
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Widmerpoole, Nicholas |
Nicholas Widmerpoole
Captain appointed to the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Laurence Bromfield) by the Presbyterian militia committee in 1647, but did not survive the purge of later that year.
In Mar. 1642 a signatory to the citizens’ petition to the common council, exhorting support for parliament’s Militia Ordinance. In 1645-6, a signatory of Presbyterian petitions.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 318; Lindley, Popular politics, 207.
Armies: London
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Wigfall [Wingfield], Benjamin |
Benjamin Wigfall [Wingfield]
In spring 1645 – and probably from the regiment’s founding in late 1642 – captain in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded successively by Colonels Holborne and Davies. Like Davies and some of his fellow-officers, Read transferred to the New Model Army, as captain in the New Model regiment of foot commanded successively by Aldridge and Lloyd, but was killed during the siege of Berkeley Castle in Sept. 1645.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 48, 59, 66, 70, 80, 149.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wilbey, - |
-Wilbey
A major; probably an officer in the earl of Denbigh’s Army. He appears in vouchers for that army in the account of Thomas Harway, charging 10s 6d for gunners’ equipment, ‘bespeake by Maior Wilbey’.
References: TNA, SP28/147, part 3, f. 466r.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh
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Wild, Thomas |
Thomas Wild
By spring 1644 and still there a year later, though he did not then transfer with the regiment to the New Model Army, Major in Vermuyden’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.101.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wilding [Welding], Robert |
Robert Wilding [Welding]
Son of John Wilding of Chester, gentleman, and his wife Margaret Parker of Lyme, Cheshire. He married (1) Martha, daughter of Thomas Graves of Hadley, Hertfordshire, and (2) Katherine, daughter of John Robinson of Gravesend, Kent.
Parliament ordered the earl of Holland to commission Wilding as captain of the Hackney company in the newly-formed Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment on 27 Jan. 1643. There is no further evidence of him in Tower Hamlets, either among surviving musters from Apr. 1644 or the list of captains in Oct. 1646.
However, he may well be the lieutenant-colonel of the Yellow regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel John Owen) listed in Oct. 1646.
Possibly Robert Wilding, member of the Haberdashers’ Company and colonial merchant: an agent of Maurice Thomson on St Kitts in the 1620s, in the 1630s a major tobacco trader and a partner in the Montserrat sugar and tobacco trade by 1647; also an Irish Adventurer. In the politics of the late 1640s he was a Presbyterian.
In 1660 Wilding was colonel of the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment.
References: Vis. Mdx., 1663, 61; JHC, 2.96; JHL, 5.574; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; Lindley, Popular politics, 377-8; Brenner, Merchants, 128, 163, 183-4, 192, 195, 402, 425.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
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Wilding, Richard |
Richard Wilding
Of Kirkham, Lancashire. A captain in Lancashire who raised a company in Kirkham in summer 1643 for Alexander Rigby senior’s regiment of foot from Amounderness and Leyland Hundreds.
References: Warr in Lancashire, 42; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 295.
Armies: Lancashire
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Wildmerpool, Joseph |
Joseph Wildmerpool
‘A man of good extraction, but reduced to a small fortune’, thought Lucy Hutchinson. Major in the Nottingham-based regiment of foot raised and commanded by John Hutchinson in autumn 1643.
References: Hutchinson, Life, 109-10, 111, 154, 169, 196, 216.
Armies: Nottinghamshire
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Wilford, Francis |
Francis Wilford
Captain of foot in Yorkshire, of long service. In 1648 he commanded the garrison at Walton, and later that year claimed £304 5s in arrears.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wilkes [Weekes], William |
William Wilkes [Weekes]
By spring 1645, when it was disbanded, captain in the regiment of foot by then commanded by Edward Aldridge in the earl of Essex’s Army. He transferred at that rank and in that regiment, initially under Aldridge, into the New Model Army.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 48-9, 149.
Armies: Earl of Essex; New Model Army
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Wilkes, Timothy |
Timothy Wilkes
Captain in the London militia in early 1647, probably in the Red, Blue or Orange regiments, London Trained Bands. Purged by the Presbyterian militia committee in 1647. According to his own account, his own fidelity had been proved, ‘hee having twice adventured his life in the field, but because hee was an Independent, Alderman Bunch [Bunce] sayd itt was a Jesuetticall plott to keepe him in, therefore hee was voted out of his place by the Committee’ (Clarke Papers, 1.155).
In Aug. 1647, after Fairfax had entered the City, he was made major of the newly-formed Tower regiment (Colonel Robert Tichborne). He became lieutenant-colonel of the regiment at the siege of Colchester, where first its colonel, Simon Needham, and then his successor, his lieutenant-colonel, William Shambrooke, were killed in June/July 1648. In summer 1651 Wilkes became lieutenant-colonel of George Fenwick’s regiment of foot, serving in Scotland. He had responsibility for the garrison and construction of a fortress at Leith. He succeeded as colonel of the regiment on 30 Aug. 1656. He was loyal to Oliver Cromwell and George Monck. However, in Nov. 1659 Monck appointed him one of three commissioners sent to negotiate with the English army, and blamed him for misinterpreting his instructions when they concluded the Wallingford House agreement: allegedly he had revealed his secret instructions insisting on the authority of parliament; he certainly signed an agreement which placed the determination of a new constitution in the hands of armed forces. Monck refused to ratify the agreement and dismissed Wilkes, who was replaced as colonel on 15 Dec. 1659. Wilkes was reputed to be a member of Christopher Feake’s Fifth Monarchist congregation.
In Feb. 1662, Wilkes was a prisoner in the Gatehouse prison, Westminster, where he had been for sixteen weeks; his wife Sarah petitioned the Privy Council for him.
References: Clarke Papers, 1.155; Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 1.389-97, 2.572; Milton Prose Works, 7.136.
Armies: London
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Wilkes, William |
William Wilkes
By spring 1644, down to his death at the siege of Basing House in autumn 1645, captain in Edward Montagu’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. He transferred as captain when the regiment entered the New Model Army, but was killed at Basing in Oct. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.71; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 48, 58.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
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Wilkinson, - |
- Wilkinson
Captain in the regiment of dragoons of George Mills/Sir William Waller.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 147.
Armies: Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wilkinson, Francis |
Francis Wilkinson
Of Barton, Yorkshire (North Riding). Lieutenant in his brother Henry Wilkinson’s troop in Hugh Bethell’s regiment of horse. He proved his brother’s will in Feb. 1652.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 92.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wilkinson, Henry |
Henry Wilkinson (died 1649)
Of Forcett, Yorkshire (North Riding), gentleman captain in Hugh Bethell’s regiment of horse, with his brother Francis Wilkinson of Barton (and later Monkend) as his lieutenant. He died 13 Mar. 1649; in his will, dated the day before, he bequeathed to Mrs Grace Smithson ‘all my debenture moneys if it could be gotten, which he meant was due to him from the State of England, which he considered would amount to £1,300’. The will was proved by his brother Francis on 24 Feb. 1652.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wilkinson, Smith |
Smith Wilkinson
Captain in Cholmley’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in autumn 1642. By 24 Dec. he had become a captain in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. He probably died on 5 May 1643. In Nov. his widow Elizabeth claimed arrears of pay; she was eventually paid £32 7s in Apr. 1645.
References: TNA, SP28/5/2, SP28/3b/438.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wilkinson, Thomas |
Thomas Wilkinson
In spring 1644 lieutenant in Captain Cutlett’s company in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 138.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
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Willeson, Thomas |
Thomas Willeson
Lieutenant in Captain Thomas Cutlett’s company in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment on 18 Apr. 1644; by 22 Oct. 1646 captain in the same regiment (by then under Colonel Francis Zachary).
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, f. 580 r. & v.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 12
Armies: Tower Hamlets
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Willet, Edward |
Edward Willet
Ensign in John Hampden’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 46.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Willett, Edward |
Edward Willett
Ensign in John Hampden’s regiment of foot (Essex’s Army) in 1642. From 1 Nov. 1642 to 30 Mar. 1643 he was a captain in Sir John Burrow’s regiment of foot. From 13 Sept. 1643 to 10 Mar. 1645 he was captain in Sir William Waller’s regiment of foot (later of dragoons).
References: Peacock, Army lists, 46; Spring, Waller’s army, 149.
Armies: Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
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Willett, Peter |
Peter Willett (died 1643)
A radical in 1642 who subscribed to the citizens’ petition supporting the Militia Ordinance. Captain in a London regiment, probably Colonel Edmund Harvey’s regiment of London horse.
Mortally wounded in the fight at Aldbourne Chase, 18 Sept. 1643.
References: Certain Informations, 25 Sept.-2 Oct. 1643, 290; H. Foster, A True and Exact Relation of the Marchings (1643), sig. B2r.; Lindley, Popular politics, 207.
Armies: London; Earl of Essex
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Willey, Theophilus |
Theophilus Willey
Ensign in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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William, Wright |
William Wright
An officer in Cheshire. Commissioned captain, 11 Apr. 1644, and within four days was in actual service, being sent by his colonel, Leigh, to quarter in Aston and maintain a ‘ford’ [sic? fort?], to prevent enemy incursions. He took over his command from Captain Littler, under whom he had been serving until the latter’s death. His commission was called in by Brereton on 30 Sept. 1644. A set of accounts delivered up on 12 Aug. 1647 covers his service as captain in Colonel Leigh’s regiment of foot from 11 Apr. to 30 Sept. 1644, while a second and more detailed set of accounts show how Wright collected money and conscripts in Edisbury Hundred in Cheshire.
References: BL, Harl. Ms. 2128, ff. 162r.-165v., 166r.
Armies: Cheshire
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Williams, - |
- Williams
Cornet in Sir Walter Erle’s troop of horse, muster roll, 26 June 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.529-30.
Armies: Dorset
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Williams, - |
- Williams
A captain who was killed at the battle of Oswestry, 3 July 1644, when a force composed of Myddelton’s Army and three regiments of Cheshire foot drove off the forces besieging the town.
References: Phillips, Wales,179-81.
Armies: North Wales
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Williams, - |
- Williams
Captain in the Southwark auxiliaries regiment in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: Southwark
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Williams, Bruen [Brian] |
Bruen [Brian] Williams
He appears in surviving pay warrants as lieutenant to Captain Samuel Kem in Myddelton’s North Wales Army in Apr. 1644. However, this troop seems to have been taken over by Captain Luke Lloyd, and Williams appears as his lieutenant on an acquittance of Lloyd’s, undated, but containing entries 18 July 1644 to 22 Jan. 1645.
References: TNA, SP28/346, nos. 83, 86, 279.
Armies: North Wales
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Williams, George |
George Williams
On 1 July 1645 commissioned captain of ‘100 foot to be raised as volunteers’ in Thomas Hunt’s Shropshire regiment.
References: Shropshire Archives, Hunt Collection, 366/1.
Armies: Shropshire
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Williams, Osmond |
Osmond Williams
Captain in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642, by or from 5 Sept.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36; TNA, SP28/2a/129.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Williams, Ralph |
Ralph Williams
Lieutenant in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Williams, Richard |
Richard Williams
Lieutenant in Major John Leigh’s company in the Westminster auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Prince) at muster of 13 May 1644, when the regiment was serving with Sir William Waller.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, f. 538r.
Armies: London; Waller (Southern Association)
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Williams, Robert |
Robert Williams
Gentleman. Served in Dorset forces. From 1 Dec. 1643-1 Sept. 1645, lieutenant in troop of horse of Captain George Starr in regiment of Colonel William Sydenham.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 62.
Armies: Dorset
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Williams, Thomas |
Thomas Williams
Lieutenant of pioneers in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 25.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Williams, William |
William Williams
Ensign in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Williamson, William |
William Williamson
Captain in John Moore’s Lancashire regiment of foot.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 292.
Armies: Lancashire
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Willington, Waldive |
Waldive Willington (1600-1676)
Of Hurley, Warwickshire. Eldest son of Thomas Willington (born 1565) and his wife Alice (born 1575), daughter of John Willington and sister of Thomas Willington of Merevale, Warwickshire. He married Joan, daughter of Henry Parker of Edgbaston, Warwickshire. A man of some intellectual interests; although a minor gentleman of modest wealth, his will in 1676 left to his sons an extensive library including books on ‘Physick and Chirurgery’, history and divinity books in both English and Latin.
Lord Brooke appointed Willington a captain of foot in Sept. 1642. He was governor of Tamworth, 1643-6.
In spring 1644 he accepted the earl of Denbigh’s commission, but as he ejected the earl’s troops from Tamworth a few months later this seems to have been a matter of prudence and precaution rather than commitment or preference to the authority of the earl over that of the county committee. Certainly, Willington was appointed to the Warwickshire county committee in the summer of 1645 and in Oct. 1645 his men were accused of having forced electors to back the county committee’s candidates.
Willington was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of foot in the Warwickshire militia under William Purefoy, on 27 June 1650. He claimed at the Restoration that he had only taken the post ‘upon the importunity and persuasions of…[William] Purefoy (who then pretended much friendship to this defendant)’ (Hughes, Warwickshire, 340).
Willington was an active magistrate (added to the bench in 1645) and assessment commissioner in Warwickshire in the 1650s.
References: Vis. Warwicks., 1619, 375; Vis. Warwicks., 1682-3, 60-1; Hughes, Warwickshire, 45-6, 153, 178, 197, 229, 248, 253n., 279-80, 288, 295, 297, 298, 300, 333, 334n., 340, 356-7, 361-3; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 202; CSPD, 1650, 507.
Armies: Lord Brooke; Warwickshire; Staffordshire; Earl of Denbigh
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Willis, - |
- Willis
4 Dec. 1646: warrant for him to receive a month’s pay upon his reducement.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 96.
Armies: Dorset
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Willis, - |
- Willis
Quartermaster, ?previously lieutenant.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 96, 377.
Armies: Dorset
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Willis, Nathaniel |
Nathaniel Willis
Major in the Plymouth garrison during Prince Maurice’s siege of the town, Sept.-Dec. 1643.
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 110.
Armies: Devon
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Willis, Rowley |
Rowley Willis
In summer 1642 he became an ensign in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow-officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Willis, William |
William Willis
Ensign.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Dorset
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Willmer, Thomas |
Thomas Willmer
At its muster in Nov. 1643, and still in the regiment in summer 1644, captain in Sir Thomas Barrington’s regiment of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.32.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Willoughby, - |
- Willoughby
Captain in the Sutton at Hone Trained Band regiment of foot, who secured Woolwich Dockyard for parliament in 1642.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Kent
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Willoughby, Francis, fifth baron Willoughby of Parham |
Francis Willoughby, fifth baron Willoughby of Parham (1614-1666)
Born the second son of William Willoughby, third baron Willoughby (died 1617), of Knaith, Lincolnshire. Following the deaths in quick succession of his father and his elder brother, who was briefly the fourth baron, he inherited the title and became fifth baron Willoughby.
He became mildly critical of the king during the 1630s and a lukewarm parliamentarian during the early stages of the civil war. Probably having served briefly in Ireland in 1641-2, he returned to England and was commissioned to raise and command a troop and regiment of horse in late summer 1642. He served briefly as part of the earl of Essex’s Army and during much of 1643 he was in effect commander-in-chief in Lincolnshire, and he and his regiment saw action at Gainsborough, Winceby and Bolingbroke Castle. His often lacklustre performances culminated in his perceived failings during the failed operation against Newark in spring 1644 and he lost his command. His regiment of horse appears to have been broken up shortly afterwards.
Sometime between 1642 and spring 1644, Willoughby also commanded a probably short-lived regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army.
Willoughby also commanded a regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, which formed part of his garrison at Gainsborough in summer 1643 and took part in the failed operation against Newark in spring 1644, also probably resulting in the breaking up of this regiment shortly afterwards.
Although he remained active in the House of Lords, by winter 1647-8 he was under suspicion of royalist sympathies and became one of the New Model Army’s main targets. Early in 1648 he fled to the continent and came out as a royalist. An earlier interest in colonial development was then revived and he became for a time the pro-royalist governor of Barbados, but a mixture of parliamentarian naval action and the outlook of the English settlers there forced Willoughby out early in 1652. He returned to England and spent several years living in retirement, under suspicion and occasionally under arrest. His fortunes revived at the Restoration, his colonial and commercial interests in Barbados and also Surinam were confirmed and he returned to Barbados for a second term as governor, 1663-6. Having attempted to establish an English base on St Lucia, in 1666 he was drowned while leading an amphibious expedition against the French on St Kitts.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 2.106-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association
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Willoughby, George |
George Willoughby
By autumn 1644 captain in the colonel’s own troop in Hans Behre’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 24; TNA, SP28/19/75.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
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Willoughby, George |
George Willoughby
His wife, alive in 1643, was named Frances.
Captain in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642, by or from early Oct., until the regiment’s disbandment in May or June 1643.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32; TNA, 28/2b/267; SP28/9/139, 141.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Willoughby, Robert |
Robert Willoughby
In summer 1642 he became an ensign in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow-officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Willoughby, Thomas |
Thomas Willoughby (c. 1602-1692)
Elder son of Sir Thomas Willoughby of Newton-on-Trent, Lincolnshire and his wife Mary, daughter of John Thornhaugh of Fenton, Nottinghamshire; on his father’s side second cousin to Francis Willoughby, fifth baron Willoughby of Parham, the parliamentarian commander-in-chief in Lincolnshire; through his mother he was also first cousin to Colonel Francis Thornhaugh (died 1648), parliamentarian horse commander in Nottinghamshire. He had married by 1640 Ellen, daughter and heir of Hugh Whittle of Horwich, near Bolton, Lancashire, yeoman, and his wife Mary.
Willoughby signed the Protestation in 1642. He was an officer in Lancashire, captain and then major in the regiment of foot of Ralph Assheton, senior (he had previously been in Alexander Rigby’s regiment of foot). He fought at the parliamentarian defeats at Middlewich (Dec. 1643) and Bolton (May 1644). In Dec. 1645 he was at the siege of Chester, by when he had been promoted major.
Willoughby was politically suspect in the 1660s; in 1672 his home was licensed as a nonconformist meeting house. He successfully claimed the title of Lord Willoughby of Parham, becoming the eleventh baron, in 1680 (although he did not receive their estates) and was still sitting in the Lords at the time of the Glorious Revolution.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 282, 385; TNA, E121/5/7 (Duckenfeild, 6/5/1651); Oxford DNB [Hugh Willoughby, twelfth baron Willoughby of Parham].
Armies: Lancashire
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Willoughby, Thomas |
Thomas Willoughby
Colonel and commander of the Coventry-based regiment of foot hithero raised and commanded by John Barker, when the latter resigned in June 1645 under the terms of the Self-Denying Ordinance. He continued to command the regiment until its disbandment in Mar. 1647.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 21.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Willoughby, William |
William Willoughby
Merchant and business partner of the colonial merchant Maurice Thomson; in his time a sea captain, ship-owner and privateer with business links with New England.
Parliament ordered the earl of Holland to commission Willoughby captain of the Ratcliff company in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment on 27 Jan. 1643. Probably by Apr. 1644 colonel of the Tower Hamlets auxiliaries regiment, his company again based on Ratcliff Precinct, and still colonel on 22 Oct. 1646. In Oct. 1646 he was colonel of the Tower Hamlets auxiliary regiment.
In Sept. 1647, after the failure of the Presbyterian coup and Presbyterian control of the militia in the London area was broken up, Willoughby was appointed to the Tower Hamlets militia committee. During the second civil war, Willoughby and Maurice Thomson were asked to produce thirty men to take over the defence of Tilbury Fort, and, as a further guard against the spread of rebellion from Kent, to take over all the ferry-boats on the Thames and in Kent and Essex. In 1649 appointed a navy commissioner.
References: JHC, 2.926; JHL, 5.574;TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, ff. 541r.-544r.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; Brenner, Merchants, 134-5, 183, 186, 404, 407, 514, 529, 553-4.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
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Willy, - |
- Willy
Captain in the Aylesford volunteer regiment, Kent, commanded by Colonel George Newman.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 74.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wilshire, Robert |
Robert Wilshire
Lieutenant in Viscount Grandison’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army in 1640.
Reformado lieutenant of foot on 2 Aug. 1642; shortly after captain in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in late summer 1642. He came north with Fairfax in late 1642 as major in the regiment of foot the latter raised in the Bradford area.
Wilshire was captured at Bradford, 2/3 July 1643. He was eventually released and later became lieutenant-colonel, possibly in the same regiment.
On 20 Aug. 1646 he presented a petition for arrears.
References: TNA, SP28/1d/481; Peacock, Army lists, 77, 44;Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
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Wilson, - |
- Wilson
Ensign in James Burrill’s, later William Puckle’s, company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he did not go on to serve in the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.42.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wilson, - |
- Wilson
Possibly from the family of Nether Tonge, Almondbury, Yorkshire (West Riding).
A captain, he was sent to hold Wakefield with Captain Birkhead on 23 Jan. 1643 with a force including clubmen from Almondbury.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wilson, Francis |
Francis Wilson
Captain-Lieutenant of the colonel’s company in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in 1642 by or from 2 Sept. Possibly became a captain later in the autumn, before the regiment was disbanded.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36; TNA, SP28/2a/85, SP28/2b/362.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wilson, John |
John Wilson
Ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel William Hamilton’s company in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, recorded there at its disbandment on 17 Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.12.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wilson, Ralph |
Ralph Wilson
Lieutenant in Sir William Waller’s/James Holborne’s regiment of dragoons at its disbandment on 25 Apr. 1645. He became lieutenant in Captain Daniel Thomas’s company in Sir Hardress Waller’s regiment of foot in the New Model Army. By the late 1650s he was lieutenant-colonel in Waller’s regiment in Ireland, but was demoted to major and was an active figure in the attempted coup against parliament in late 1659. He seized Limerick and helped secure Cork, and was knighted after the Restoration.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 145; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 2.447-8.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army; Ireland
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Wilson, Richard |
Richard Wilson
Ensign in the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Adams) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
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Wilson, Rowland |
Rowland Wilson (1613-1650)
Born 1613 in London, son of a wealthy London wine merchant; he in turn married the daughter of a prosperous London grocer. He rose through the Vintners’ Company and was active in the European and colonial wine trade. He was described by Symonds as ‘A Merchant neare Merchant Taylors Hall. His father a Vintner by yield’ (BL. Harl. 986, p. 41).
Admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 1634.
Captain in the London Trained Bands in 1639.
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in 1642 and still such in Sept. 1643. Probably took part in the relief of Gloucester and fought at the first battle of Newbury in late summer 1643 and present at the capture of Newport Pagnell later in 1643.
Elected recruiter MP for Calne on 5 June 1646; held aloof from the trial of the king, but took his seat in the Rump.
A member of the London militia committee during the 1640s, alderman from 1648 and sheriff in 1649. He died in 1650.
References: Oxford DNB; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660;Barriffe, Mars, sig. ¶r.; Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; BL. Harl. 986, p. 41.
Armies: London
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Wilson, William |
William Wilson
Lieutenant in Major Edmund Syler’s troop in Edward King’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army; possibly remained Syler’s lieutenant when Syler served as major in Edward Rossiter’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.46, 2.91.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wing, - |
- Wing
Captain in the regiment of dragoons of George Mills/Sir William Waller.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 147.
Armies: Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wingate, Edward |
Edward Wingate
Of Kellington, Yorkshire (West Riding). He married Mary, daughter of Sir William Fairfax of Steeton (the grandfather of Colonel William Fairfax); the marriage also linked him to the Anlaby and Copley families.
In winter 1645 Wingate joined the Hull garrison under Sir John Mauleverer, and was immediately sent with his company to the siege of Scarborough where he stayed until its surrender. In June 1645 he was appointed to the Northern Association for the East Riding.
Probably the Edward Wingate who in the late 1640s appears as a captain in Mauleverer’s northern-based regiment of foot on the New Model Army payroll.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 407-8; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 112; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 162.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); New Model Army
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Wingate, Edward |
Edward Wingate (1606-1685)
Of Lockleys, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, son of Edward Wingate.
A captain in the Hertfordshire militia during the 1630s and MP for St Albans in the Long Parliament. He raised a troop of horse at the outbreak of the civil war, which formed part of the earl of Essex’s Army during the early stages of Edgehill campaign, but he was captured at or soon after the skirmish at Powick Bridge. He was a prisoner held in royalist Oxford by Nov. 1642, threatened with being tried for treason. He was eventually exchanged and released.
References: A. Thompson, The Impact of the First Civil War on Hertfordshire, 1642-47 (2007), xxvi, 231; Peacock, Army Lists, 54; Keeler, Long Parliament, 396-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Hertfordshire
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Winge, - |
- Winge
A Captain, appointed governor of Wakefield in Jan. 1643, when Sir Thomas Fairfax praised him for not allowing pillaging.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 408.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wingfield, George |
George Wingfield
Ensign in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642, serving in the company of (presumably his kinsman) Sir Robert Wingfield.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wingfield, Sir Robert |
Sir Robert Wingfield
Lieutenant-Colonel in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wingreen, Robert |
Robert Wingreen
A captain in John Booth’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 285.
Armies: Lancashire
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Winstanley, - |
- Winstanley
Lieutenant in the Lancashire forces at the siege of Chester, present in records for Dec. 1645 and Jan. 1646.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 382, 510.
Armies: Lancashire
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Winstanley, James |
James Winstanley
Chosen captain of the Yellow regiment by the Presbyterian militia committee: from damaged source, unclear if the regiment was Trained Bands or Auxiliaries.
References: TNA, SP28/46, Part 1, f. 40r.
Armies: London
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Winter, - |
- Winter
Captain in the Yellow regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel John Owen) in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: London
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Winter, - |
- Winter
Lieutenant-Colonel. lieutenant-colonel of John Berrow’s regiment of foot, 1642-Feb. 1643. Winter was killed in the fighting when the Welsh attacked the regiment garrisoned at Coleford in mid-Feb.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Winter, Edward |
Edward Winter
In 1644, though gone by the end of the year, lieutenant-colonel of Edward Harley’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 62.
Armies: Waller; Gloucestershire
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Wise, Dennis |
Dennis Wise
Of Gloucester. Captain. Mercer and Alderman of Gloucester from 1640 until his purging in 1662. Perhaps captain of the Gloucester Trained Bands, 1643. Commissioned captain of foot in Gloucester in the Gloucestershire militia.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 614; VCH Glos., 4.377; CSPD, 1651, 513.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Wish, John |
John Wish
Captain in Edward Harley’s regiment of foot in Gloucs. by Nov. 1644.
References: HMC, Portland Mss., 3.130;Spring, Waller’s army, 53.
Armies: Gloucestershire
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Witcherly, James |
James Witcherly
In 1642, probably at and from its formation, captain in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wither, George |
George Wither (1588-1667)
Eldest son, of ten children, of George Wither (1563-1629) of Bentworth, Hampshire, and his wife, Mary Hunt (died 1643), of Theddon, or Fidding, Grange, Hampshire. The poet.
On 8 Sept. 1642 he was commissioned captain of a Surrey troop of horse, and on 14 Oct. was appointed governor of Farnham Castle. Short of men and supplies, he was ordered to abandon the castle, and his estate at Wanborough was plundered. In Nov. he was present at Turnham Green and was ordered into Kent, to requisition royalist horses, where he remained until Mar. 1643. In Aug. and Sept. he served under Colonel John Middleton at the relief of Gloucester. In Oct. 1643 his Mercurius Rusticus advocated an offensive role for the anticipated South-Eastern Association.
Wither was long at odds with Surrey’s moderate local boss, Sir Richard Onslow, whom he believed had tried to block his appointment as captain in 1642 and who he blamed for the fall of Farnham. He became embroiled in the conflicts between Onslow and the more militant Sir John Maynard and the governor of the recaptured Farnham, Samuel Jones.
References: Oxford DNB; Gurney, ‘Wither’.
Armies: Surrey; Earl of Essex
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Withers, John |
John Withers
Ensign in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. He may be the same John Withers who in spring 1645 – and probably earlier – was a captain in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded successively by Colonels James Holborne and William Davies. Unlike Davies himself and a few of his other officers, he did not transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 45; Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 149.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Witter [Whittle], Robert |
Robert Witter [Whittle]
Robert Whittle and Lieutenant Witter in the Cheshire records are possibly but not certainly the same man. One Witter was evidently an officer under Lieutenant-Colonel Brooke, for a surviving warrant of 17 Sept. 1645 notes that Lieutenant-Colonel Brooke’s officers and soldiers were likely to leave the garrison of Halton Castle if money was not speedily sent to them, with directions to borrow £30 and pay it to Lieutenant Witter towards a colonel’s pay for his officers and soldiers. Perhaps the same man, identified as Robert Whittle, was in June 1645 sent to Capatin Pigott at Northwich to collect £30 for Tarvin garrison.
References: TNA, SP28/224, f. 24.
Armies: Cheshire
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Wittrough [Wittewronge], Sir John |
Sir John Wittrough [Wittewronge] (1618-1693)
Son of a prosperous London brewer of Dutch descent.
At the start of the civil war he was a captain in the Hertfordshire militia. Commissioned in spring 1643 to raise and command a regiment of foot, recruited in Hertfordshire. It may have assisted in the siege of Reading and was based at Aylesbury later in spring 1643. However, its subsequent history was not glorious. It was reduced in size later in 1643, at some point command of the regiment passed to Thomas Sadler and in early 1645 what was left of the regiment was broken up and its remaining soldiers transferred to other Eastern Association regiments, especially that of Thomas Ayloffe.
He remained active in Hertfordshire county administration and represented the county in the Protectorate parliaments. He supported the Restoration and was created a baronet. A gardener during his closing years and his weather diary of the 1680s survives.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.111; A. Thompson, The Impact of the First Civil War on Hertfordshire, 1642-47 (2007), passim but especially 232.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wittye [Wittie], John |
John Wittye [Wittie]
Of Beverley, Yorkshire (East Riding), Wittye became a captain in Sir Thomas Norcliffe’s regiment of horse (which existed May 1644-May 1645).
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 98; TNA, E121/4/8, no. 5.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wivell, - |
- Wivell
Lieutenant in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 34.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wogan, Compton |
Compton Wogan
In spring 1645 cornet in the troop of (presumably his kinsman) Thomas Wogan, formerly in John Meldrum’s short-lived regiment of horse but by then in James Sheffield’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army. Unlike several officers of that regiment, he did not then transfer to the New Model.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 102; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 150-1.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Earl of Essex
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Wogan, Lewis |
Lewis Wogan
In spring 1645 lieutenant in the troop of (presumably his kinsman) Thomas Wogan, formerly in John Meldrum’s short-lived regiment of horse but by then in James Sheffield’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army. Unlike several officers of that regiment, he did not then transfer to the New Model.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 102; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 150-1.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Earl of Essex
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Wogan, Thomas |
Thomas Wogan
Captain in John Meldrum’s short-lived regiment of horse, 1643-4, there by autumn 1643; he stayed with the regiment when much of it was absorbed into James Sheffield’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army and was still there in spring 1645. Unlike several officers of that regiment, he did not then transfer to the New Model.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 102; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 150-1.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Earl of Essex
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Wolfe, Edward |
Edward Wolfe (died 1649[?])
Apparently of Bugthorpe, Yorkshire (East Riding), gentleman.
Captain in Sir William Constable’s regiment of foot, 17 Sept. 1643-31 Mar. 1645. On 31 Mar. 1645 in Yorkshire he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel when the regiment passed to the command of Colonel Simon Needham. He resigned his commission when the regiment was merged with John Bright’s regiment of foot.
Wolfe served as major to Colonel Robert Hammond, governor of Exeter, Apr. to Sept. 1646.
Wolfe may have been the captain in Adrian Scrope’s New Model Army regiment of horse in the later 1640s who then became lieutenant-colonel in Henry Ireton’s regiment of foot, upon his death in Ireland mourned by Cromwell as ‘eminently faithful, godly and true’ in a letter of 19 Dec. 1649 (Firth and Davies place that Edward Wolfe in the Eastern Association, but Wanklyn does think that the New Model officer was this Wolfe).
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 408; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 2.408; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 84, 96, 108.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); Devon; New Model Army
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Wolfe, Edward |
Edward Wolfe
In Aug. 1643, probably a captain serving in one of the three regiments of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the Army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.33.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wolfe, Thomas |
Thomas Wolfe
Lieutenant to Captain Manestey in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, going with him into Sir Thomas Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the New Model Army and, at his death in autumn 1645, succeeding him as captain. He left the regiment in summer 1647.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.63; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 55, 65, 76, 85.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
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Wolkey, - |
- Wolkey
Major Wolkey was probably not a Warwickshire officer, but in Aug. 1643 he was paid £5 by Colonel John Barker of Coventry.
References: TNA, SP28/136, Part 19, f. 22v.
Armies: Warwickshire?
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Wollaston, Sir John |
Sir John Wollaston (1585/6-1658)
Born c.1585 at Tettenhall, Staffordshire, in 1616 he married the daughter of a London goldsmith, his former master – he had been apprenticed to the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1604. He was a gold refiner and worked very profitably for the royal mint.
During the 1630s he rose to prominence in City financial and commercial affairs; sheriff in 1638-9, alderman from 1639, and lord mayor in 1643-4. Knighted by the king in 1641, despite by then clear evidence of supporting parliament.
Colonel in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands, Apr. 1642 and Sept. 1643 (by 22 Oct. 1646 Ralph Harrison).
However, his major contribution was in helping to finance the parliamentarian war effort. He remained in favour with the parliamentarian and republican regimes and active until his death in 1658.
References: BL, Harl. 986, p. 17; Oxford DNB.
Armies: London
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Wollaston, Richard |
Richard Wollaston
Linen draper dwelling near the Exchange (Symonds).
Second captain of the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in Sept. 1643, commanding the Fleet Street company.
References: BL, Harl. 986, p. 44.
Armies: London
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Wombwell, Thomas |
Thomas Wombwell (died 1644)
By Dec 1643 captain and in Jan 1644 promoted to major in Ralph Weldon’s regiment of foot. Later in the year he went with part of the regiment to reinforce the garrison at Lyme, but he died there in Dec. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 157.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Wood, - |
- Wood
An officer who fought when the royalists stormed Bristol on 27 July 1643, probably then captain in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot, which existed from Aug. 1643 to May 1644..
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.610; Spring, Waller’s army, 29.
Armies: Bristol; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wood, - |
- Wood
Lieutenant in Major Archibald Strachan’s company in Sir William Waller’s regiment of dragoons, later becoming its captain.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 145.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Wood, - |
- Wood
A captain serving in Sir William Waller’s Army by 29 Sept. 1643. Possibly the same Captain Wood who was in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, app. 2, p. 3.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
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Wood, - |
- Wood
Captain in George Mills’s/Sir William Waller’s regiment of dragoons. Possibly the same man as the captain later in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot and/or the Captain Wood identifiably in Waller’s Army by 29 Sept. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 147.
Armies: Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wood, Alexander |
Alexander Wood
Ensign in the colonel’s company in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, recorded there at its disbandment on 17 Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.11.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Wood, John |
John Wood
Ensign in Captain Thomas Salmon’s company in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment (Colonel William Willoughby).
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, f. 559r.
Armies: London
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Wood, John |
John Wood
Lieutenant in Peter Burgoyne’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 22.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Wood, John |
John Wood
Lieutenant in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded by Lord Oliver St John and then Thomas Essex in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wood, Sir Robert |
Sir Robert Wood
At the end of 1644 he succeeded Edmund Jordan as colonel and commander of a Surrey raised and Surrey-based troop of horse and regiment of dragoons, the latter based for a time at Kingston upon Thames, but later at Guildford and Farnham. Wood probably retained his command until these forces were disbanded in 1646-7.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 76.
Armies: Surrey
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Wood, William |
William Wood
A London merchant, apparently a younger brother of Robert Wood of Monk Bretton, Yorkshire (West Riding). If so, a brother had served under Gustavus Adolphus and been killed at Leipzig.
Captain in Christopher Copley’s regiment of horse, and also muster master general and joint commissary to the Northern Army. Possibly also the Captain Wood who plundered John Wolstenholme’s property in Dec. 1644.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 408.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Woodcock, Ralph |
Ralph Woodcock
Ensign in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
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Woodgate, Edward |
Edward Woodgate
A Trained Band captain in Kent, his company garrisoning Tonbridge. He was probably in the Aylesford Lathe regiment. Musters survive for his company in Apr. and Sept. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 73.
Armies: Kent
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Woodroffe, Abraham |
Abraham Woodroffe
A brewer, involved in the administration of raising finance for the war effort.
Parliament directed the earl of Holland to commission him captain of the Wapping company in the newly-formed Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment on 27 Jan. 1643, and he was still captain at a muster of 18 Apr. 1644. Major of the same regiment by 22 Oct. 1646.
References: JHC, 2.926; JHL, 5.574; TNA, SP28/121A, Part 3, f. 412 r. & v.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 12; Lindley, Popular politics, 232.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
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Woods, - |
- Woods
Lieutenant-Colonel of a company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, by Jan. 1644 and still there in summer 1644, though he seems to have left the regiment around that time.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.40.
Armies: Eastern Association
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Woodward, - |
Captain Woodward
Possibly the Captain Woodward whose actions at the taking of Abbotsbury House in Nov. 1644 were noted by Anthony Ashley Cooper.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 228.
Armies: Dorset
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Worley, - |
- Worley
Ensign in Major Joseph Young’s company in Herbert Morley’s regiment of foot by 24 July 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 100.
Armies: Sussex
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Worshipp, - |
- Worshipp
Lieutenant in Captain Lewis’s company in Nathaniel Fiennes’s regiment of foot in 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.608-9.
Armies: Bristol
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Worth, Henry |
Henry Worth
Lieutenant in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Worth, Nicholas |
Nicholas Worth
Commissary in Devon.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.451.
Armies: Devon
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Worth, Simon |
Simon Worth (born 1607)
Second son of Henry Worth (1580/1-1630) and his first wife Elizabeth (died 1626), daughter of Nicholas Fry of Yarty.
Worth was captain of a volunteer company stationed at Dartmouth in Dec. 1642. Most references, between 6 Dec. 1642 and 2 Aug. 1643, call him captain, but references for 14 Jan., 28 Feb. and 1 May 1643 call him major, and one (retrospective) reference. ‘His rank of Major indicates that he became part of a structured west Devon volunteer regiment rather than commanding an independent company.’ Although the evidence is not entirely consistent (one entry still refers to him as Major on 1 May 1643), Peachey and Turton suggest that his original volunteer unit was possibly disbanded at the armistice and he was then appointed captain of a company in one of the three new volunteer regiments raised.
References: Vis.Devon, 806; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.320, 355, 4.405, 406.
Armies: Devon
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Worthington, Thomas |
Thomas Worthington
A captain in Alexander Rigby’s Lancashire regiment of foot.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 295.
Armies: Lancashire
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Worthington, Thomas |
Thomas Worthington
Ensign in Captain Needham’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
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Worthyvale, - |
– Worthyvale
Payments to Captain Worthyvale at Plymouth, 24 and 29 Apr. 1643.
By 31 July 1643 Worthyvale was serving in St Thomas’s parish, Exeter; he, his men and Ensign Richard Worthyvale described as ‘Strangers to Exeter’. Major in Plymouth garrison, 1645-6; he was paid 15s. 10d. for work done at Stonehouse Fort. Possibly John Worthyale of Cottleigh, aged 22 in 1622, eldest son of William Worthyale of Womburnford and his wife Sarah Turpin, but possibly Christopher Worthevale, Cornish county committeeman in 1646.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.435; Worth, History of Plymouth, 134; Worth, ‘Plymouth siege accounts’, 236; Vis. Devon, 810; Coate, Cornwall, 224.
Armies: Devon
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Wray, Sir Christopher |
Sir Christopher Wray (1601-1646)
Born a younger son of Sir William Wray, first baronet (died 1617) of Glentworth, Lincs, by this second wife, and thus a half-brother to Sir John Wray. On his father’s death Christopher inherited property near Grimsby. He was knighted by James I.
MP for Grimsby in 1621, 1624, 1625, 1628-9 and in the Short and Long parliaments, where he supported reform. He helped to secure Lincolnshire for parliament in summer 1642 and was commissioned captain of a troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army, though in Oct. 1642 he led it north, where he and his men were very active in 1642-3 bolstering the defences of Hull and supporting the Fairfaxes. But in the course of 1643 he had to defend both his close links with the turncoat Hothams and his failure to prevent royalist advances through eastern Yorkshire and large parts of Lincolnshire. From then onwards he was much more politician than soldier and he became associated with the moderate political Presbyterian grouping in the House, down to his death early in 1646.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Northern Association
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Wray, Henry |
Henry Wray
Lieutenant in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wray, John |
John Wray
Captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army and the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.108.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association
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Wray, Sir John, second baronet |
Sir John Wray, second baronet (1586-1655)
Born the eldest son and heir of Sir William Wray, first baronet (died 1617) of Glentworth, Lincs, by his first wife, and thus a half-brother to Sir Christopher Wray. He was also more distantly related to the Montagu(e) family.
MP in 1614, in two of the early parliaments of Charles I and in the Short and Long parliaments. A critic of some aspects of royal government during the Personal Rule, he supported reform, especially in religion, in the Long Parliament in 1641-2.
In summer 1642 he was very active, working with Lord Willoughby and others, to secure Lincolnshire for parliament and to get control of the county’s Trained Bands. He helped fund the raising of troops for the earl of Essex’s Army and was active in the war-time administration of Lincolnshire, but it is not clear whether he ever held military office and rank and led men in the field.
While he supported parliament throughout the main civil war, he became far less active locally and nationally after 1646 and had effectively withdrawn from public life well before his death in the mid-1650s.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Lincolnshire?
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Wren, Francis |
Francis Wren (c. 1598-1684)
Of Henknoll, County Durham, eldest son of Francis Wren (died 1630) of the same. He never married
Wren became a captain on 18 Nov. 1642, and major on 12 Jan. 1643, in Lord Fairfax’s own regiment of foot. He fought at Tadcaster (7 Dec. 1642) and Adwalton Moor (30 June 1643), and distinguished himself in the defence of Hull on 11 Oct. 1643. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in Lord Fairfax’s Regiment on 17 Oct., and in Apr. 1644 marched to Selby.
By May 1644 Wren was colonel of a regiment of horse intended to consist of Durham men. He was at the siege of York and fought at Marston Moor, and (as part of the York garrison) took part at various sieges. On 15 Oct. 1645 he was defeated at Sherburn before being rescued. His regiment was disbanded on 24 Jan. 1646.
He was appointed to all Durham county committees (except in Feb. 1645) and to the Durham Northern Association committee. ‘Noted for honourable behaviour during the war, afterwards he was known for his moderate treatment of Royalists’ (Jones, ‘War in the North’, 408).
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 408.
Armies: Yorkshire; County Durham; Northern Army (Fairfax); Northern Army (Poyntz)
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Wright, - |
- Wright (died 1645)
Captain in George Booth’s regiment of foot in Brereton’s Cheshire Army by 30 Apr. 1645. Probably Matthew Wright of Crewe, buried 22 Nov. 1645.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 325, 331; Cheshire tracts, 260.
Armies: Cheshire
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Wright, Gerrard |
Gerrard Wright
Lieutenant of pioneers in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 25.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wright, John |
John Wright
Of Nottingham, a captain in Francis Thornhaugh’s regiment of horse at Nottingham in early 1646.
References: Wood, Nottinghamshire, 135, 224.
Armies: Nottinghamshire; Northern Army (Poyntz)
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Wright, Richard |
Richard Wright
Probably ensign, and by 16 Jan. 1645 lieutenant, in the company commanded first by Daniel Staninough and then by Benjamin Streeter in Herbert Morley’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 101.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
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Wright, Robert |
Robert Wright
Captain in the standing regiment of foot raised in Cheshire in Aug. 1648.
References: TNA, SP28/224, nos. 313, 314.
Armies: Cheshire
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Wright, Thomas |
Thomas Wright
A captain in John Hutchinson’s Nottingham-based regiment of foot.
References: Hutchinson, Life, 154, 218.
Armies: Nottinghamshire
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Wright, Uriah |
Uriah Wright
Commissioned captain in a regiment of foot in the Yorkshire militia.
References: CSPD, 1650, 506.
Armies: Yorkshire
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Wych, William |
William Wych
Lieutenanant in Major William Fallowes’s company in Henry Bradshaw’s regiment of foot in the Cheshire militia at the battle of Worcester (3 Sept. 1651).
References: Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2.64-8.
Armies: Cheshire
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Wynne [Wyn], Robert |
Robert Wynne [Wyn]
Wynne commanded Colonel Henry Brooke’s troop of horse in Sir William Brereton’s Army. Captain in early 1645 and at least as late as 23 Oct. 1646. Dore suggests that he may have been a professional soldier, who was appointed a common councilman and sheriff in 1646.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 327; SP28/124, f. 168; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 68-9, 302.
Armies: Cheshire
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Wynne, William |
William Wynne (died 1698)
Of Ruabon, Denbighshire. A prisoner in Denbigh Castle during the first civil war, by the late 1640s a county committeeman and later commissioner for the propagation of gospel and member of Morgan Llwyd’s congregation. He built Wynne Hall, Ruabon, and succeeded Twisleton as governor of Denbigh; sworn burgess of Denbigh (1648) and Ruthin (1659) and commissioned to raise a company of foot against the Booth Rising in the latter year.
References: Tucker, Denbighshire Officers, 161.
Armies: North Wales
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Wythe, Thomas |
Thomas Wythe
Lieutenant in Major Nicholas Halford’s company of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army, as revealed by a pay warrant of 3 June 1643.
References: TNA, SP28/7/341.
Armies: Earl of Essex
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Wyvill, Thomas |
Thomas Wyvill
Lieutenant in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in Essex’s Army in 1642. On 11 Dec. 1643 he was appointed captain in Ralph Weldon’s Kentish regiment of foot. and was still there on 5 Oct. 1644, but was no longer there by the time the regiment had become part of the New Model Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 35; Spring, Waller’s army, 152.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association); Kent
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