William Wemyss
British politician and general (1760-1822)
General William Wemyss of Wemyss (9 April 1760 – 4 February 1822) was a Scottish soldier in the British Army and Member of Parliament.
Early life
He was the son of the Hon. James Wemyss, third son of the 5th Earl of Wemyss, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Sutherland, only daughter of William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland.
Career
From 1784 to 1787 Wemyss was MP for Sutherland, succeeding his father, before sitting for Fife from 1787 to 1796 and again from 1807 to 1820.
Military career
Captain in the Army by brevet, 1 July 1783 DAG in Scotland and Major, 18 November 1786 DAG in Scotland and Lieutenant-Colonel, 1 October 1791 Colonel, 22 August 1795
He attained the rank of Major-General on 23 June 1798. Action near Ardee
Major-General William Wemyss raised the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders in 1799 for his cousin the 16-year-old Countess of Sutherland, Elizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower. Men were recruited to the Regiment through a highly original form of conscription. General Wemyss lined up the young men of each parish and invited them to drink from a large silver bound horn, having drunk his dram it was understood he consented to join the Regiment.
On 16 September 1800 he was Colonel of a new Regiment of Infantry, later the 93rd Regiment of Foot. On 30 October 1805 he was promoted to lieutenant-general.
The public source identifies “William Wemyss” as british politician and general (1760-1822). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Wemyss and British.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Wemyss” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.