WARDLAW, JAMES [SSNE 3740]
Text source
James Wardlaw was a Scottish officer in Swedish service. He is possibly the same as James Wardlaw listed in as clerk of muster roll in Colonel Jacob Ramsay's [SSNE 3315] regiment in 1631. He was a major in Alexander Leslie's [SSNE 2916] regiment which went to Russia during the Smolensk campaign in 1632. NB This is Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul, not Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven [SSNE 1].
Wardlaw probably left Muscovy after as in 1636 a Scottish lieutenant colonel James Wardlaw appeared in Moscow but was not employed. He returned to Scotland in April 1640 to join the Army of the Covenant, but the ship he was in was driven into Newcastle where he remained a month before being imprisoned in York Castle. He applied for compensation from the Scottish Parliament on 17 August 1641.
Those taken from this ship included Colonel James Wardlaw, Ruitmaster John Brown of Fordell, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Sinclair, Lieutenant John Adinston, Ensign David Guthrie and Sergeant Robert Finlayson [Recorded in Records of the Parliament of Scotland, A1641/8/138]. Losses of the Scots officers detained at Newcastle, 17 August and 15 November 1641. Colonel Wardlaw served on the right wing of the Parliament of England's army at Edgehill in October 1642. In 1645-6 a colonel of that name successfully applied for a post in the Tsar's army.
Sources:
Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll, 1629/12,13,15,17; 1630/37,38. He was a major in the Uppland regiment in 1629; D. Fedosov, The Caledonian Connection (Aberdeen, 1996); T. Fischer, The Scots in Sweden (Edinburgh, 1907), p.220; Steve Murdoch and Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (London, 2014), p.122.
Bishops Wars; English Civil War
Service record
- SWEDEN, MACKAY'S REGIMENT
- Arrived 1629-01-01, as MAJOR
- Departed 1630-12-31, as REFOMED MAJOR
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- SWEDEN, JAMES RAMSAY
- Arrived 1631-01-01, as CLERK OF MUSTER
- Departed 1631-12-31, as CLERK OF MUSTER
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- RUSSIA, ALEXANDER LESLIE
- Arrived 1632-01-01, as MAJOR
- Departed 1636-12-31, as LT. COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- SCOTLAND, PRISONER NEWCASTLE, YORK CASTLE
- Arrived 1640-04-01, as COLONEL
- Capacity PRISONER, purpose MILITARY
- STUART KINGDOMS, EDGEHILL
- Arrived 1642-10-23, as COLONEL
- Departed 1645-12-31
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- RUSSIA, RUSSIAN ARMY
- Arrived 1645-01-01, as COLONEL
- Departed 1646-12-31, as COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY