William Hiseland (6 August 1620 (claimed) – 7 February 1732), sometimes spelt William HaslandorHaseland, was an English soldier and reputed supercentenarian. In 1709, at the purported age of eighty-nine, he fought at the Battle of Malplaquet and was believed to be the oldest soldier on the field. He claimed to become the last survivor of the English Civil Wars, which he said he had served in from 1642 to 1651.
Hiseland attained the rank of sergeant. In extreme old age he became a Chelsea pensioner, although he had to give up his place as an in-pensioner when he married at the claimed age of 103. He is buried at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
A native of Wiltshire, Hiseland first became a soldier at the age of thirteen and served through the English Civil Wars.[1] The baptism of a William Hasland is recorded at Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, on 15 April 1628, with no details of his birth. This may or may not be the same man, but it confirms the presence of the surname in the county.[2]
Amid the War of the Spanish Succession, Hiseland was one of the seasoned campaigners the Duke of Marlborough took into Flanders in June 1709. At the Battle of Malplaquet on 11 September 1709 Hiseland served with the Royal Scots, and the regiment claimed the distinction of having both the oldest and the youngest men on the field, as a Private McBain[5] carried his three-week-old son throughout the battle in a knapsack.[6]
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, rewarded Hiseland's long service with a pension of one crown a week, and this was matched by Sir Robert Walpole,[1] until in recognition of his claimed eighty years of service to the Crown Hiseland was given a place as an in-pensioner of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.[7] He reputedly attained the age of 100 while in the Royal Hospital, but three years later had to leave and become an out-pensioner following his marriage.[6] After his wife died, he returned as an in-pensioner and died at the claimed age of 111.[3][8]
On 1 August 1730 Hiseland sat for a portrait in oils by George Alsop.[9] This survives in the museum of the Royal Hospital.[3]
Here Lies WILLIAM HISELAND A Vetran if ever Soldier was Who merited well a Pension If Long Service be a Merit Having served upwards of the Days of Man Antient but not Superannuated Engaged in a series of Wars Civil as well as Foreign Yet not maimed or worn out by either His Complexion was fresh & florid His Health hale & hearty His Memory exact & ready In Stature He exceeded the Military size In Strength He surpassed the prime of Youth and What rendered his Age Still more Patriarchal When above one Hundred Years Old He took unto him a Wife Read Fellow Soldiers and Reflect That there is a Spiritual Warfare As well as a Warfare Temporal Born vj of August 1620 Died vij of Feb. 1732 Aged 112[7][10]
In this instance, "1732" refers to what is now called 1733, as at that time the calendar year began on Lady Day, 25 March, and not on 1 January.[11]
^ abThe Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine, vol. 28 (Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, 1896), p. 169: "This was William Hiseland (Hazeland P), born in the year 1620. during James the First's reign, and dying in 1732, in the reign of George II. He commenced his military career at the early age of 13, probably in the Earl of Pembroke's militia; he fought his way all through the Civil Wars, and was with William of Orange's army in Ireland, and closed his foreign services in the Flanders campaign under the renowned Duke of Marlborough. Either in active duty or as an invalid he bore arms for the extraordinary period of eighty years."
^"William Hasland"inWiltshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 28 August 2021 (subscription required)
^ abThe final days of the old Scottish Regiments from The Scotsman dated 26 May 2006 at electricscotland.com, Retrieved 19 February 2012: "Also serving in the regiment as a soldier that day was William Hiseland, born in 1620, who, at 89, was almost certainly the oldest man on the field. Having survived the battle he lived until the age of 112, dying in 1732, as an in-pensioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, having got married at the age of 103."
^'Appendix: The burial ground of the Royal Hospital', in Survey of London, volume 11: Chelsea, part IV: The Royal Hospital (1927), pp. 70–89 at british-history.ac.uk, Retrieved 11 February 2012
