Surnames beginning 'V'
Vabason, - - Vabason
Lieutenant in Captain Francis Sydenham's Dorset troop of dragoons. Reference 6 July 1643.
Vanderhurst, Cornelius Cornelius Vanderhurst
A Dutchman, he was lieutenant of foot under Sir Hugh Cholmley at Scarborough, but went to Beverley when the latter defected and was temporarily under the command of John Legard.
He went into Lincolnshire and from 27 May 1643 was captain of dragoons to Lord Willoughby of Parham until his discharge on 19 Aug. 1643.
Vanderhurst returned to Yorkshire and was a reformado captain under Lord Fairfax, from 1 Dec. 1643 to 20 May 1644, when he was commissioned captain in John Alured's regiment of horse. Early in 1645 he signed a petition to go south with Sir Thomas Fairfax, but he resigned his commission on 1 May 1645.
Armies: Yorkshire; Eastern Association; Lincolnshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
van der Voone [Boome], Cornelius Cornelius van der Voone [Boome]
By early 1645, captain in Sir Samuel Luke's Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot and also his chief engineer in the garrison. As such he is frequently mentioned in Luke's letter books and many letters by (and others) Luke to him survive there.
References: Spring, Waller's army, 95; Luke Letter Books, especialy nos. 7, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 36, 132, 151, 184, 195, 217, 218, 259, 285, 286, 339, 381, 457, 472, 504, 506, 580, 589, 665, 721, 725, 734, 745, 749, 1503, 1504, 1505, 1510, 1526, 1529, 1569, 1578.
Vandruske [Van Drust], Jonas Jonas Vandruske [Van Drust]
A Dutchman whose earliest contributions to the civil war were in Essex's Army. In summer 1642 he was listed as lieutenant in Horatio Carey's troop of horse in the earl of Essex's Army. By early 1643 he was major in the regiment of horse of Colonel Robert Burghill. Sometime in summer or autumn 1643 he succeeded Burghill as colonel of the regiment and, despite being wounded later in 1643 in a skirmish near Farnham, he and his regiment went on to play a role under Waller at Alton and Arundel during winter 1643-4, and at Cheriton, in the Oxford campaign and at the second battle of Newbury during 1644. Having played a supporting role in the relief of Taunton and the siege of Oxford, the regiment was disbanded in spring 1645. Similarly, its colonel, by that time also major general and commissary general of the horse under Waller, decided to leave the English army when the New Model was formed and Vandruske joined the Scottish army around that time; he was still with that army in the early 1650s.
References: Spring, Waller's army, 143 Luke Letter Books, no. 21.
Van Gerrish, John John Van Gerrish
A Dutchman. Corporal in Sir Faithful Fortescue's third troop in Lord Wharton's Army raised in 1642 for service in Ireland. Instead, the troop transferred into Sir William Waller's regiment of horse in the earl of Essex's Army and on 25 Aug. 1642 Van Gerrish was the troop's quartermaster. At the battle of Edgehill he was, according to one later royalist account, Fortescue's lieutenant; he carried to Prince Rupert Fortescue's intention and plan to defect during the battle.
Van Gerrish also defected at the same time. In 1644 he was colonel of a royalist regiment of horse near Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, whose plundering stirred over a thousand countrymen to rise. According to parliamentarian sources, they demanded that he should be expelled from the area and replaced by local commanders. A royalist complained that he was 'quartered to destroy and not advance the service' (Stoyle, Soldiers and strangers, 102).
Van Gerrish was killed in action at Lancaut, Gloucestershire, on 22 Feb. 1645.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 67; TNA,SP28/1a/236; Young, Edgehill, 110-1, 285; Stoyle, Soldiers and strangers, 93, 102-3, 117, 195, 220; Newman, Royalist officers, 385.
Van Strobella, Hans George Hans George Van Strobella
A Dutch or German officer in the Northern Army.
From 12 Dec. 1642 to 26 Sept. 1644 he was a lieutenant in Lord Fairfax's regiment of horse. From 26 Sept. 1644 to 24 June 1645 he was captain of Lord Fairfax's Lifeguard. On 6 Dec. 1644 he was appointed major of Lord Fairfax's regiment of horse (and henceforward left the running of the Lifeguard to Lieutenant Hoyle). In Feb. 1645 he went with the regiment to Chester. On 1 Dec. 1645 he resigned his commission, though in fact he continued to serve under Poyntz for a time.
Vassade, James James Vassade
Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel's company in Lawrence Crawford's regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, recorded there at its disbandment on 17 Apr. 1645.
Vaughan, Henry Henry Vaughan
Served in 1643 at an officer in Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes's horse regiment, including at Bristol before it fell to the royalists. Later in 1643 or in 1644 he became a captain in Cromwell's regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
Vaughan, Joseph Joseph Vaughan
By Sept. 1643 fourth captain in the White regiment of the London Trained Bands (Colonel Isaac Penington) and by the end of the civil war the regiment's major.
Vaughan, William William Vaughan
Lieutenant in Captain Arthur Saville's troop in Edward Cooke's regiment of horse in May 1645.
Vaughn, - - Vaughn
Ensign in Captain Arthur Saville's company of Strode's Trained Band regiment.
Armies: Somerset:
Col. William Strode's Trained Band Regt.
Vaughn, Henry Henry Vaughn
Captain. Captain in Nathaniel Fiennes's regiment of horse in the Bristol garrison in 1643. One of his soldiers, Thomas Carey, gentleman, was captured at Wells on 22 Apr. At the trial of Nathaniel Fiennes for surrendering Bristol, he testified how he had been present when Fiennes and Major Langrish had scorned a soldier who had pointed out the weak place in the defences which the royalists were to breach the next day.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West,6.611-2; State Trials, 4.221.
Veale, - - Veale
Veale, Thomas Thomas Veale
Captain. An officer in Gloucestershire, noted in Oct. 1642, Possibly a kinsman of the royalist Colonel Thomas Veel, for whom see Warmington, Glos., passim, and Vis. Glos., 1682-3, 191-2.
Venables, Robert Robert Venables (1612/13-1687)
The son of Robert Venables of Antrobus, Chesh, gentleman The Oxford DNB places him socially as the son of a cadet branch of an old Cheshire family on his father's side, whilst his mother's family 'were on the cusp of the gentry and yeomanry'. Almost nothing is known of his early life before the civil war.
In late 1642 Captain Venables raised a company for the Manchester garrison. On 16 Dec. 1642 he was captured in a skirmish on Westhoughton Common, Lancashire. He was soon released and served as captain and then lieutenant-colonel in Duckenfield's regiment and then as lieutenant-colonel in Brereton's regiment of foot.
Venables's own account (at BL, Harl. Ms. 1999, ff. 60r.-63r.) simply states that he served as captain under Brereton, 1 July 1643-1 Mar. 1647, and additionally as lieutenant-colonel by Lord Fairfax's commission, 14 Feb. 1644-1 Mar. 1647. In Aug./Sept. 1643, he was joint governor of Cholmondeley with Captain Thomas Croxton, from where they destroyed the salt works at Dirtwich (Foulwich). In Sept. Venables and Croxton were sent to join with Myddelton and Mytton to fortify Wem. Appointed governor of Tarvin, which became strategically important in the siege of Chester, on 6 Mar. 1645. A strong supporter of Brereton, he played an important role in the siege of Chester and was a commissioner for its surrender in Feb. 1646. He was then active in mopping up North Wales during the closing months of the main civil war and in helping to quell mutinies in Cheshire in 1646-7.
In Apr. 1649 was was commissioned a colonel and ordered to raise a regiment of foot (mainly in his native Cheshire) for service in Ireland. He and his regiment crossed to Dublin ahead of the main Cromwellian expedition and so joined Michael Jones in engaging and defeating Ormonde at Rathmines. He then joined the main Cromwellian force for the first part of the campaign, playing a prominent role in the attack on Drogheda, before being dispatched north to conquer in Ulster, in what turned out to be a largely successful but also lengthy and often brutal campaign. Returning to England in 1654, he was soon sent by Protector Cromwell as joint leader of the amphibious expedition to attack Spanish territory in the West Indies. Despite the eventual capture of Jamaica, the venture was beset by failures and mistakes and on his return to England in autumn 1655 he was arrested and briefly imprisoned, relieved of all his commands and spent the next few years in disgrace in Cheshire. Although he played no part in Booth's Rising, Monck trusted him sufficiently to make him governor of Chester, but the returning royal regime did not and he was swiftly removed. He spent the rest of his life in quiet retirement at Wincham, Cheshire.
References: Oxford DNB; BL, Harl Ms. 1999, ff. 60r.-63r.; BL, Harl. Ms. 2128, f.. 60r.; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 145; 324, 328 and passim.
Venn, John John Venn (1586-1650)
Born 1586, son of a Somerset yeoman. Apprenticed to the Merchant Taylors' Company in 1602 and a full member of that Company from 1621. In the 1630s he ran a silk shop in Bread Street and traded in wool and silk. Admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 1614, and by 1639 was a Trained Bands captain.
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston), in 1642. Colonel of a regiment of foot, he fought at Worcester (23 Sept. 1642) and was appointed governor of Windsor Castle on 28 Oct. 1642, defending the castle against attack by Prince Rupert and faced with a mutiny of his garrison regiment.
However, during the civil war and the 1640s he was more prominent in City politics, where he was a noted radical and Independent, and as one of London's MPs from 1641.
A member of the high court which tried Charles I, he signed the death warrant. He died in summer 1650.
References: Barriffe, Mars, sig. ¶r; Oxford DNB; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660; Nagel, 'London militia'; SP28/7/249.
Ventris, George George Ventris
Not apparently one of the original officers in the earl of Peterborough's regiment of foot in the earl of Essex's Army. He was ensign in Captain Prideaux's company by Dec. 1642. On 1 June 1643 his widow sought, and was granted on 16 June, nine weeks' (arrears) of his pay.
References: TNA, SP28/3b/399, SP28/7/333.
Vermuyden, - - Vermuyden
In early 1645, shortly before the regiment transferred to the New Model Army, captain in (presumably his kinsman) Batholomew Vermuyden's regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
Vermuyden, Bartel [Bartholomew] Bartel [Bartholomew] Vermuyden
A captain in Derbyshire in Sir John Gell's regiment of foot in 1642. He was a kinsman of the fen drainer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (for whom see Oxford DNB), who in 1631 had become a partner in the draining of the flooded lead mines of the Dovegang rake. Although Sir Cornelius's Vermuyden's sons Cornelius and John became more involved in this than their father, both are probably too young to be an army officer in 1642 (Cornelius junior was probably no more than 17 in 1642); probably therefore Bartel Vermuyden was Sir Cornelius's nephew. He had left the Derbyshire regiment by the end of 1643 and became a colonel in the Eastern Association Army. As such and as an officer operating around the fringes of the east Midlands, he appears from time to time in Sir Samuel Luke's letter books, and several letters to and from him survive there.
References: Brighton, 'Governor', 16; Turbutt, Derbyshire, 1061; Oxford DNB, Old DNB (both for Sir Cornelius); Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 202, 682, 812, 1302, 1342, 1536, 1545.
Armies: Derbyshire; Eastern Association
Vermuyden, Bartholomew Bartholomew Vermuyden
An Eastern Association colonel by Oct. 1643, he seems briefly to have had command of several different Eastern Association regts., but he is particularly associated with a regiment of horse raised in Norfolk in 1643, which took part in the campaigns and battles of Winceby in autumn 1643 and Marston Moor and the second battle of Newbury in 1644. This regiment transferred to the New Model Army in spring 1645 and Vermuyden briefly went with it as its colonel, but in summer 1645 he returned overseas and the regiment, which had a long and active history in the New Model, passed through a series of other commanders – Oliver Cromwell, John Desborough, Valentine Walton senior and Thomas Howard.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.101; Holmes, Eastern Association, 98, 240; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 52, 62, 73.
Vernon, - - Vernon (died 1644)
Lieutenant in Captain Robert Gibbon's troop in Sir Michael Livesay's Kentish regiment of horse, killed by an accident with a gun on 10 Feb. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller's army,80.
Vernon, George George Vernon
In spring and summer 1643 he served briefly as captain in Lord Willoughby's possibly short-lived regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army. Between Nov. 1643 and spring 1644, captain in the earl of Manchester's regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.58, 2.111.
Vickerman, Henry Henry Vickerman (died 1645)
Of Fraisthorpe township, Carnaby parish, Yorkshire (East Riding), apparently a gentleman. He was major to Francis Boynton's, later Matthew Boynton's, regiment of foot in the Northern Army, from Mar. 1643. In May 1644 he went to Manchester with Sir John Meldrum to defend it against Rupert, but was captured in early June.
It is not known when he was released, but he appeared at the siege of Scarborough as lieutenant-colonel to Matthew Boynton and was wounded at the end of Apr. 1645 and either died of his wounds or was killed in a separate incident on 10 May 1645.
References: Jones, 'War in the North', 98, 406.
Vickris, Robert Robert Vickris
Captain. Son of Robert Vickris of Bewdley, Worcestershire. Bristol councillor, 1650-62, sheriff, 1656-7, master of the Merchant Venturers, 1669-70; treasurer of the Merchant Venturers, 1656-7. Commissioned captain of foot in the Bristol militia, 3 Jan. 1651.
Appointed a captain of the Bristol Trained Bands, 1665.
References: Bristol Depositions, 209.
Villiers, - - Villiers
A captain in the Derbyshire regiment of horse, serving in Cheshire in early 1645. He did not sign the letters of complaint against their colonel, Sir John Gell, that other captains made to Brereton, and obeyed Gell's orders to return to Derby in Apr. 1645. Dore suggestes that he was a Staffordshire man, possibly of the family near Burton on the Staffordshire-Derbys. border.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 205, 216, 231, 291-2, 527.
Vivers, John John Vivers
Of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Vivers is either the son of Richard Vivers, baptised 18 June 1616 and brother of Robert Vivers, or just possibly the latter's more distant kinsman as the son of Andrew Vivers (baptised 22 Mar. 1608).
He was possibly the Captain Vivers present at Banbury in Aug. 1642 as a satirical royalist broadside describes the captain as 'young'.
John Vivers seems to have taken temporary command of his brother/kinsman Robert's troop in May 1643, presumably during the latter's imprisonment at Oxford. He had joined Essex's Lifeguard by summer 1643. In Dec. he signed for the receipt of a pay warrant for Robert's troop.
The name is rare and Sir William Brereton described the Captain Vivers in his service as the brother of a colonel, probably not strictly accurately but at least evidence of two brothers in his Army. So John is very probably the John Vivers who became a captain of horse in Sir William Brereton's Cheshire Army. His troop was formed in 1644, and in late May he was noted as commanding troopers of Sir William Brereton's regiment quartered for a few days at Hendon, Middlesex. On 30 Apr. 1645 he was captain of a troop of fifty men in the Cheshire horse before Chester. In Apr. 1645 Vivers's and Captain Culmes's troopers plundered Plas Teg in Flint.
References: TNA, SP28/7/257, SP28/21/267; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1 166, 324, 328, 178-80.
Armies: Oxfordshire;
Earl of Essex; Cheshire
Vivers, Robert Robert Vivers
Vlrink, George George Vlrink
From spring 1643 until the end of the year, major in John Dalbier's regiment of horse.