Charles Wills

General Sir Charles Wills (October 166625 December 1741) was an English officer in the British Army and a politician. He served as Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance and sat as a member of parliament for Totnes from 1718 to 1741.

He began his military career in 1689, serving successively in the Williamite War in Ireland, the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Jacobite rising of 1715, he commanded government troops at the Battle of Preston, which ended the rising in England.

Wills was rewarded with promotion to lieutenant-general and returned for Totnes, a seat controlled by the Duke of Bolton, a prominent Whig. Despite making little impact on Parliament, he was a reliable supporter of the government and appointed Privy Councillor in 1719.

George I made him one of the first members of the newly revived Order of the Bath in 1725, but Wills failed to gain a peerage as expected. He died in London on 25 December 1741 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Provided by Wikipedia