126 
A MASTER-GUNNER OP ENGLAND. 
of history. Wemyss was taken prisoner, with many of the Scots 
officers, after the battle of Worcester and the next time we hear of him 
he is a prisoner in Windsor Castle. In his case— 
“ Stone walls did not a prison make, 
Nor iron bars a cage,” 
for he employed his time in planning new inventions and perfecting 
old ones. On 25 Jane, 1652, the Council of State permitted Colonel 
Wemyss, “ prisoner at Windsor Castle, to go to London for a month 
on giving security in £2,000 to render himself prisoner at the month’s 
end, either at Windsor or such other prison as Council shall direct.” 1 2 
Five months later the Council, on petition of Colonel Wemyss, ordered 
him “ to be examined, and bailed if it was thought advisable.” 3 For 
five and a half years we have no information whatever as to James 
Wemyss and his affairs. It is not until 27 May, 1658, that he again 
appears upon the scene and this time it is as a petitioner craving favour 
at the hands of Oliver Cromwell:— 
“ Petition of James Wemyss, late General of the Artillery of 
Scotland, to the Protector. Has composed and put in practice certain 
inventions of light ordnance and engines of war, the heads whereof 
are in the propositions annexed, the fruits of his study and labour for 
80 years. Has been careful to keep them secret, and begs that he 
may draw them up into an Act to be passed next Session, and to that 
end, that the Protector would take off all incapacities, which will 
enable him to provide a place forthwith to erect his works, and to 
make other necessary preparations. Annexing— 
“ Note of the said inventions, of which he will give proof at his 
own charge, the carriage excepted, and only asks an extension to 
England and Ireland of the benefit of the Act of Parliament granted 
him for Scotland :— 
(X.) “ Of small pieces of the weight of muskets, shooting |lb. 
bullet of lead, with rests or carriages, saving soldiers 
from the recoil and forming a good barricade against 
cavalry; 60 horses will draw as many as shall serve 1000 
of their pieces with ammunition for 4000 shot. 
(2.) “ Pieces carrying 11b. of iron and doing the execution of 
3 lbs. 12 mounted on a carriage serving as an am¬ 
munition waggon for 300 shot, with a platform on which 
the pieces remain always mounted, ready to be fired 
right or left without taking the horses out; three men 
to manage the 12 pieces and three horses to draw the 
carriages with ammunition. Men can be taught to use 
them sooner than to use the musket, etc. 
(3.) “A chariot or waggon to carry 6 or 8 of them so mounted 
that the gunner in it, at passes and narrow ways, shall 
give fire continually in front without hurting the horses. 
1 S.P. Pom. 
2 Ibid. 
