Joseph Wightman was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer who is best noted for his role in the suppression of the 1715 and 1719 Jacobite rebellions. Wightman also participated in the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

and the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

Early life

Wightman began his military career in 1690 when he was commissioned as Ensign in the First Foot Guards to Lt-Colonel Fraser Wheeler. 'Ensign' was the lowest officer rank, equivalent to a modern Second-Lieutenant; however, commissions held in the Foot Guards were senior to those other regiments i.e. a Guards Lieutenant would rank as a Captain elsewhere. This mattered in a world where rank and structure were extremely important in both civilian and military life; it also suggests Wightman came from an influential family.

Nine Years' War

The Foot Guards were in Flanders during the

and in July 1693 fought in the

Battle of Landen The Battle of Landen, also known as Battle of Neerwinden took place on 29 July 1693, during the Nine Years' War near Landen, then in the Spanish Netherlands, now part of Belgium. A Kingdom of France, French army under François-Henri de Montmor ...

. This was an Allied defeat with heavy casualties for those involved and on 7 August Wightman was promoted to Lieutenant with additional rank of Capt. 7 Aug. 1693 to Lt-Colonel Hobson Capt. with rank of Lt.-Col. 8 Dec. 1696. Brevet-Col. 26 Aug. 1703. Appointed Col. of Col. Holcroft Blood's late Regt. of Foot (17 Foot) 20 Aug. 1707. Brigdr.-Genl. same year In May 1695 the regiment was in the operation in West Flanders and the covering army under the Prince of Vaudemont. On 11 August it then arrived to participate in the siege of the citadel of Namur. On 30 August it participated in a very bloody assault on Terra Nova in which Colonel Courthorpe was killed and Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Bridges was severely wounded. Sir Matthew Bridges then became colonel of the regiment and the regiment wintered in Brugge. In 1696 the Bridges regiment was again under the Prince de Vaudemont, but nothing particular happened. In 1697 it was part of the main force and after the peace it retired to England and later Ireland. Bridges regiment survived the demobilisation that followed the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 by being placed on the

Irish establishment Irish commonly refers to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the island and the sovereign state ***Erse (disambiguatio ...

and based in Ireland. On 15 June 1701 it embarked at Cork and sailed for Holland where it came in garrison at Gorkum. On 10 March 1702 the Bridges regiment marched to Roosendaal and later on to the Duchy of Cleves. In June it became mixed up in the Nijmegen affair. After that it participated in the siege of Venlo and in September it participated in the siege of Roermond. In 1703 the regiment was in the action of Loonaken and engaged in covering the sieges of Huy and Limbourg. Meanwhile, its Lieutenant-Colonel Holcroft Blood had succeeded as colonel on 26 August 1703. In October the regiment sailed from Holland to Portsmouth and on 15 March 1704 it landed in Portugal. Its Colonel Blood continued to serve as brigadier-general and

Jacobite risings

When the 1715 Jacobite rebellion broke out he commanded the first reinforcements sent to assist the

Duke of Argyll Duke of Argyll () is a title created in the peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The earls, marquesses, and dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful noble families in Scotlan ...

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

. He fought under Argyll at the

Battle of Sherrifmuir The Battle of Sheriffmuir (, ) was an engagement in 1715 at the height of the Jacobite rising in Scotland. The battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and protected by Historic Scotland under the Sc ...

in November 1715. The battle was inconclusive, but the Jacobite effort was severely hampered, and by the spring of 1716 the rebellion had been subdued. During the 1719 Rising he commanded the pro-Hanoverian forces that defeated the Jacobites at the

Battle of Glen Shiel The Battle of Glen Shiel took place on 10 June 1719 in the Scottish Highlands, during the Jacobite rising of 1719. A Jacobitism, Jacobite army composed of Highland levies and Spanish Marine Infantry, Spanish marines was defeated by British gover ...

in June that year.Jaques p.398

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Tony Jaques. ''Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O''. Greenwood Publishing, 2017. * Jonathan Oates. ''The Last Battle on English Soil, Preston 1715''. Routledge, 2016. * Stuart Reid. ''Sheriffmuir 1715''. Frontline Books, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wightman, Joseph People of the Jacobite rising of 1715 People of the Jacobite rising of 1719 1722 deaths British Army major generals Grenadier Guards officers British Army personnel of the War of the Spanish Succession English military personnel of the Nine Years' War Royal Leicestershire Regiment officers