William Wolseley

Brigadier-general William Wolseley, PC ( – 1697) was an English army officer who fought in the Williamite War in Ireland. Life Early life William Wolseley was fifth son of Sir Robert Wolseley, 1st Baronet, of Wolseley, Staffordshire, and younger brother of Sir Charles Wolseley (–1714). Military career In June 1667 William was appointed captain-lieutenant to the Marquis of Worcester's newly-raised foot regiment. This corps was disbanded a few months later when the Treaty of Breda was signed. Lord Worcester raised a foot regiment (disbanded in 1674) in January 1673 to repel an unexpected Dutch invasion, and Wolseley was appointed his captain-lieutenant by commission dated 26 January 1673. On 1 April 1679 Wolseley was appointed captain-lieutenant to an independent foot company at Chepstow Castle, commanded by the Marquis of Worcester (afterwards Duke of Beaufort), and six years later he was appointed captain in Beaufort's foot regiment (11th foot) by commission dated 20 June 1685. On 12 August 1688, when quartered at Scarborough, Wolseley came into prominent notice by causing the mayor of Scarborough, one Aislaby, to be publicly tossed in a blanket by a file of musqueteers for indignities inflicted on a Protestant clergyman when performing divine service in church. The mayor laid his grievances before James II in person, and Wolseley was summoned to appear before the council in London. "The captain pleaded his majesty's gracious general pardon, which was in the press, so was dismissed". On 3 December 1688 Lord Montgomery, the colonel of Wolseley's regiment, and Lord Langdale of the same corps, both Roman Catholics, were seized in their beds at Hull by Captain Copley and the Protestant officers of the garrison and kept in confinement. Wolseley now determined to join the Prince of Orange, but his doing so was delayed by false rumours of massacres in various parts of the country.