Henry Withers
Henry Withers (c. 1651 – 1729) was a British army officer and politician, who began his career in 1674 during the Franco-Dutch War and reached the rank of Lieutenant General in 1707. A close associate of the Duke of Marlborough during the War of the Spanish Succession, he served in a number of actions, including the 1704 battles of Schellenberg, Blenheim, and Malplaquet in 1709. Personal details His background and origins are unknown, although his funeral monument states he was descended from a military family and gives his age as 78, which means he was born in 1651. He never married; his will divided his estate between his sister Elizabeth and his close friend, Colonel Henry Disney, with whom he shared a house in Greenwich and who arranged his burial in Westminster Abbey. His memorial contains lines reportedly written by the poet Alexander Pope, who was a friend of both men. Career He appears to have started his career as part of the British Brigade raised for French service during the 1672 to 1678 Franco-Dutch War, whose senior officers included Percy Kirke and John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough. Although England left the war in February 1674, the Brigade fought at Entzheim in October 1674, where it suffered heavy casualties and was disbanded in early 1675. In 1678, England re-entered the war in alliance with the Dutch Republic, and Withers was commissioned as a Lieutenant in one of the new regiments. The war ended in September 1678 before any of these saw service, and as military posts were scarce, he accepted a demotion to ensign and transferred to the Tangier Garrison in a regiment commanded by Percy Kirke. When Tangier was abandoned in 1684, they became part of the expanded army raised by James II, and fought at Sedgemoor in June 1685; ironically named Kirke's Lambs, the regiment became notorious for the brutality with which it treated captured rebels. Churchill and Kirke were among the first to defect to William III following the November 1688 Glorious Revolution and were both part of the army sent to Ireland in June 1689. Still serving under Kirke, Withers fought at The Boyne, as well as participating in the Capture of Waterford and the unsuccessful First Siege of Limerick. In April 1691, their unit was transferred to Flanders to serve in the Nine Years War. Kirke died in October 1691 and Withers found a new patron in the Earl of Romney, who also served in Ireland and was colonel of the First Foot Guards; in February 1695, Romney gave him a commission in his regiment as major, in which role he took part in the capture of Namur later that year. When the Peace of Ryswick ended the war in 1697, Withers was Lieutenant-Colonel and effective commander of the regiment, since Romney was absent in Ireland and England from 1692 onwards. With the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, the army expanded once again and Withers was appointed Brigadier-General in