121 
COLONEL JAMES WEMYSS, MASTER-GUNNER 
OE ENGLAND, 1638-1666, AND GENERAL OE 
THE ARTILLERY IN SCOTLAND, 1649-1667. 
BY 
CHARLES DALTON, ESQ., 
Editor of English Army Lists and Commission Registers , 1661-1714. 
In the winter of 1629-30 a small family party arrived in London, 
from Scotland, and applied for a grant of denization to enable them to 
enjoy the privileges of citizens. The party consisted of Colonel Robert 
Scott, Anne his wife, Charles and Anne his children, George Scott his 
brother and James Wemyss his nephew. 1 2 At the time we write of 
Scotchmen were by no means popular in London. In 1603 James I. 
had brought a goodly company of his compatriots to London when he 
came to take possession of the promised land—and many more travelled 
the same road in succeeding years. The English in general, and the 
Londoners in particular, looked with the same disfavour on these 
Scotch fortune-seekers that was shown by the population of the 
Southern States of America to the “Northerners” who swooped 
down like vultures to take possession of the posts and offices rendered 
vacant by the rebellion of their vanquished brethren. But wffiether 
welcome or not the Scotch came to London and prospered. On 20 
February, 1630, a grant of denization was given to Colonel Robert 
Scott and his little party. 3 Who this Colonel Scott was does not 
appear, but we find him awarded a pension of £600 per annum out of 
the Court of Wards a few months later. It is, however, his nephew 
James Wemyss with whom we have now to deal. This remarkable 
man was a direct descendant of Sir David Wemyss of Wemyss, County 
Fife, whose father fell at Flodden, and an ancestor of the present Earl 
of Wemyss. From an early age James Wemyss had devoted himself 
to military studies and had shown a marked genius for the science of 
war. Gunnery, and all that appertained thereto, had a special charm 
for him and he turned his inventive and mathematical brain to the im¬ 
provement of artillery which had, hitherto, made but little advance in 
England. On the 25 February, 1634, we find the King granting a 
Royal Warrant to Sir John Heydon, Lieut.-General of the Ordnance, 
“for making such a butt and platform at Foxhall [Vauxhall] as is at 
1 S.P. 2D om.—20 February, 1630. 
2 Ibid. 
3. YOL. XXIV. 
