In 1642 he gained a commission as Captain of foot in the Earl
of Essex' army. On December 5th 1642 he took over command of
John Warburton's 43 man-strong Company of Lord Robartes Regiment.
Therefore the company as it stood at the Battle of Edgehill on
29th Oct.1642 was John Warburtons, but Wansey was undoubtedly
present at that battle.
Henry Wansey's Company saw action the following year with Robartes
Regt. at the siege of Reading and the siege and relief of Gloucester.
On their march back from Gloucester they took part in the First
Battle of Newbury. At Newbury the Company along with all Robartes
Companies was brigaded with Constable's and Martin's Regiments.
In June 1644 Essex' Army marched through Wiltshire on its way
to Lyme Regis in Dorset. Henry Wansey was promoted by the Earl
of Essex and was left in Wiltshire to rally the scattered Parliamentarian
forces that had been defeated with the fall of Wardour Castle
in March 1644.
This was the last time Wansey served in Essex' Army, but right
up until its disbandment due to the formation of the New Model
Army, Wansey's Company of foot in Lord Robartes Regiment still
bore his name.
From this moment on Henry Wansey's Company's history goes hand
in hand with that of Lord Robartes Regt. as a whole, but Wansey
himself had many interesting exploits to come.
Within a short time Wansey had pieced together 5 companies of
foot and 2 troops of horse in his home county, But soon found
himself in trouble.
He was blockaded with only 100 of his volunteers in the old
manor of Woodhouse near the Longleat estate by superior enemy
forces under the command of Sir Francis Doddington. A relief
party set out under the command of Col. Edmund Ludlow, but was
defeated on Warminster Heath and chased to Southampton. Wansey
bravely hung on but heavy guns were brought up and soon breached
the walls, thus forcing Wansey's surrender on July 17th 1644.
The Royalist commander Doddington, hanged at least 12 of the
defenders until orders came directly from Lord Hopton to stop.
Wansey himself was taken prisoner to Bristol, where he remained
until an exchange was arranged at the beginning of September.
Wansey returned immediately to Wiltshire and quickly got together
a force of horse and dragoons, which he put under the command
of Col. Ludlow, while he himself served as Captain.
With Ludlow he took part in the Second Battle Of Newbury and
the follow up operations. In early December 1644 Wansey, Col.
Richard Norton and part of Ludlow's Regiment surprised a Royalist
force under Sir Francis Cook in the cathedral close at Salisbury.
A few weeks later the tables were turned when a large force of
Royalist cavalry under Sir Marmaduke Langdale descended upon
the snow covered close and routed Ludlow's Regt, destroying it.
Wansey himself does not seem to have been present, Ludlow states
most of his officers were on leave, but his troop were scattered.
Henry Wansey's name appears on the records next on February
5th 1645, when he received a commission as captain of a troop
of harquebusiers in Sir William Waller's own Regt of horse. Wansey
raised and equipped the troop at his own expense and with it
served under the Major General until Wailer laid aside his army
by virtue of the Self Denying Ordinance. During this period Wailers
Regt did good service in the West Country, in particular, the
destruction of Sir James Long's Horse near Potterne in Wiltshire.
When Wailer left the area with the majority of his forces, Wansey
found himself left with only a small number of troops on the
Wiltshire border and on April 12th Lord Goring made a sudden
push into the county with superior numbers and skirmished with
Wansey's men somewhere near Fontnill. During this action Wansey
lost his colours, which according to the Royalist propaganda
newspaper "Mercurius Aulicus" bore the motto "For Lawfull Law
and Liberties".
Following this defeat Wansey joined forces with Major General
Massey's western brigade of horse as part of Col. Cooke's Regt.
According to Wanseys own account he only served until July 16th
1645, after which date we lose track of him until after the war.
It is quite possible he was wounded and forced to retire from
action. It is certain that Cooke's Regt. was involved in the
successful action of July 9th against Lord Goring's horse during
which Cooke himself was badly wounded in the face.
We next hear of Wansey in 1649 in Wiltshire. On August 2nd he
received a commission as Major in Col. John Dove's Wiltshire
Militia Regt. He still held this position in 1655 when Penruddock's
Royalist rising erupted at Salisbury on the night of March 11th.
Wansey was quartered in the city during the assizes but was unable
to prevent the Sheriff and two Lords Chief Justice from being
seized by Penruddock's followers. He did however manage to make
his billet into a strong point and with just a handful of men
kept the Royalists at bay. Next morning Penruddock's Royalist
troops numbering approx 300-400 Cavalry pulled out of Salisbury
to head South West, taking with them all available horses. This
prevented Wansey from following them, but within a few days Col.
John Penruddock's rising was crushed by a single troop of horse
under Captain Unton Crook at South Molton in Devon.
Penruddock's rising was the last military action that Henry
Wansey ever saw. At the restoration of Charles II he was immediately
arrested and sent to London. He was incarcerated in the Gatehouse
prison without trial and in the Coronation year of 1661 he disappears
from the records. An ignominious end for a brave soldier who
suffered for his loyalty to the cause of Parliament.
