Sir Joseph Wagstaffe

Joseph Wagstaffe was baptized in the village of Harbury in Warwickshire on August 13th. 1611. In June 1642 Joseph was serving in an Irish Regiment of the French Army with the rank of major. State Papers record him returning to England to take up the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, commissioned on July 6th "For raising an army" destined for the recovery of Ireland, the army never left for Ireland. Relations between King and Parliament deteriorated so badly that on August 22nd at Nottingham the King raised his Standard heralding the beginning of the English Civil War.

Politician John Hampden formed two regiments for Parliamentarian Army, offering Joseph Wagstaffe the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and to be second in command to John Hampden. Unfortunately Joseph proved to be unpopular with his men "Being blasphemous to their Puritan ears".

In 1643 Joseph was captured by the Royalist. He was pardoned and given the rank of Colonel and commissioned to raise a regiment for the King. Over the next few years Joseph excelled in battle; on 28th July 1644 at Crediton in the West Country Joseph was knighted by the King as Sergeant Major General to Prince Maurice. In the West Country Sergeant-Major General Sir Joseph Wagstaffe was always in the thick of battle. On August 28th 1648 Sir Joseph was in charge of 200 horse in Warwickshire against Parliament. He was captured and imprisoned at Peterhouse a prison in London. But no walls had been built to hold Joseph, for on 6th. September he made good his escape from the prison.

Sir Joseph reappears on 12th March 1655 to lead his cavalry into Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he released all the prisoners who were being held there. The Parliamentarians lead by Captain Upton Crook caught up with Joseph while he was waiting for reinforcements at South Molton on 14th. March, after two hours of house to house fighting within South Molton the fight was lost for Sir Joseph after having sixty of his men taken prisoner. But this time Joseph evaded capture, and tradition says he escaped by leaping his horse over the north wall of the churchyard. A gate has since been erected in this wall to improve access into the churchyard from the north of the town. Now it commemorates Josephs escape by being called “The Wagstaffe Gate”. From South Molton Joseph made his safe escape to the continent.

By July 1655 Joseph was in Antwerp on his way to Cologne to give C.S. presumably Charles Stewart an account.

This seems to be the last recorded exploits of Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, although there were a number of unconfirmed reports that he did return to England.