Charles Wills

Sir
Charles Wills
Sir Charles Wills
Member of Parliament
for Totnes
In office
December 1718 – December 1741
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance
In office
April 1718 – December 1741  
Governor of Portsmouth
In office
1718–1719
Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed
In office
1715–1718
Personal details
Born
Charles Wills

1666
St Goran, Cornwall
Died25 December 1741(1741-12-25) (aged 75)
London
Resting placeWestminster Abbey
NationalityEnglish
Political partyWhig
OccupationSoldier and politician
AwardsPrivy Councillor 1719
Order of the Bath 1725
Military service
Allegiance England 1689–1707
 Great Britain 1707–1741
Years of service1689–1741
RankGeneral
UnitColonel, 30th Foot 1705–1716; Buffs, 1716–1725; Grenadier Guards 1726–1741
Battles/warsWilliamite War in Ireland
The Boyne; Aughrim
Nine Years' War
Landen Namur 1695
War of the Spanish Succession
Cádiz; Guadeloupe; Barcelona; Cagliari; Almenar; Saragossa; Brihuega
Jacobite rising of 1715
Preston

General Sir Charles Wills KB PC (October 1666 – 25 December 1741) was a British Army officer and politician who served as Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance from 1718 to 1741. He also sat in the British House of Commons from 1718 to 1741, representing the constituency of Totnes.

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.