Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/525

 same year Westwood reprinted, with a good introduction, 'The Secrets of Angling' (1613) of John Dennys. Westwood died in Belgium on 13 March 1888.

 WIGHTMAN, JOSEPH (d. 1722), major-general, was appointed ensign to Lieutenant-colonel Robert Smith on 28 Dec. 1690, and lieutenant to Lieutenant-colonel Thomas Hopson on 7 Aug. 1693, with the additional rank of captain. On 8 Dec. 1696 he was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel in the first foot guards. He subsequently became an officer of Sir Matthew Bridges's regiment of foot (now the Leicestershire regiment), with which he served in the Netherlands under William III. In 1701 he accompanied the regiment to Holland and served in Marlborough's campaigns in 1702 and 1703. He was promoted to the regimental rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1702, and on 26 Aug. 1703 received the brevet rank of colonel. Marlborough commended him as 'a very careful, diligent officer' (Letters and Despatches of Marlborough, ed. Murray, 1845, i. 192). In 1704 the regiment was transferred to the Spanish peninsula, where it saw much service under the Earl of Galway, and suffered severely at Almanza on 25 April 1707. On 1 Jan. 1707 Wightman became brigadier-general, and on 20 Aug. he was appointed to the command of the regiment on the death of Colonel [q. v.] On 1 Jan. 1710 he was promoted to the rank of major-general.

On 13 July 1712 Wightman was appointed Commander-in-chief in Scotland during the absence of, second duke of Argyll [q. v.] This command he obtained through General [q. v.], somewhat against the inclination of Argyll, who desired to nominate Brigadier-general William Breton (Addit. MS. 33273, f. 198). Wightman's position was difficult. He did not get on well with Argyll, who, he complained, never answered his letters, and he found the Scottish people generally Jacobite in feeling, and hostile to the English soldiery. To avoid offending the presbyterians he ordered his chaplain to discontinue the use of the book of common prayer in the regimental services (Addit. MS. 6116, f. 31). On the outbreak of the rebellion of 1715 under the Earl of Mar [see or ] Argyll was absent from Scotland, and Wightman, drawing together his forces, numbering about eighteen hundred men, took post under where Argyll, hastening from London, him about the middle of September. At the battle of Sheriffmuir on 13 Nov. Wightman commanded the centre of the royal forces, composed of about three regiments of infantry, and ably supported Argyll, who, with the cavalry on the right wing, completely routed the enemy's left. He wrote an account of the battle on the following day, which was printed in 1717 in 'A History of the late Rebellion' by [q. v.] It was reprinted and severely criticised in 1745 by Robert Campbell in his 'Life of John, duke of Argyle and Greenwich.'

In 1718, at the time of the landing of the Jacobites at Loch Alsh under, marquis of Tullibardine [q. v.], Wightman was stationed at Inverness, and on 10 June he commanded the royal troops at the battle of Glenshill, where he forced the highlanders to disperse, and the Spanish troops to surrender prisoners of war. His services were rewarded with the government of Kinsale. He died suddenly of apoplexy at Bath on 25 Sept. 1722.

 WILDE, JAMES PLAISTED, (1816–1899), judge, second son of Edward Archer Wilde, solicitor, of London, by Marianne, daughter of William Norris, M.D., was born on 12 July 1816 [cf. ]. was educated at Winchester School and the university of Cambridge, where he graduated (from Trinity College) B.A. in 1638, and proceeded M.A. in 1842. On 15 April 1836 he was admitted student at the Inner Temple, and was there called to the bar on 22 Nov. 1839, and elected bencher on 15 Jan. 1856. A pupil of Barnes (afterwards Sir Barnes Peacock), and 'devil' to his uncle Sir Thomas Wilde, he was rapidly launched into practice. In 1840 he was made counsel to the commissioners of customs, and thereafter both on the northern circuit and Westminster his career was one of rapid