After the flight of King James to France, Lord Hunsdon refused to take the required oath to the Prince of Orange, and His Highness conferred the colonelcy of the regiment on HENRY WHARTON, a gallant officer and a zealous protestant, who raised one of the companies of the regiment at its formation, and possessed the confidence and affection of the officers and soldiers: at the same time Captain Richard Brewer, from the fourteenth regiment of foot, was promoted to the lieut-colonelcy. [Sidenote: 1689] In the beginning of 1689 the regiment was stationed in Oxfordshire: it afterwards proceeded to Hull, where it was inspected, on the 28th of May, by the commissioners for remodelling the army. The elevation of the Prince and Princess of Orange to the throne, under the title of King William and Queen Mary, was resisted in Ireland; and King James arrived in that country, with a body of troops, from France. King William sent an army thither, under Marshal Duke Schomberg, to rescue that part of his dominions from the power of the Roman Catholics, and the TWELFTH regiment, commanded by Colonel HENRY WHARTON, was selected to take part in this service. Embarking from England in the early part of August, the regiment arrived in Ireland in the middle of that month; it landed near Bangor, in the county of Down, without opposition, and encamped on the beach. The fortress of Carrickfergus was garrisoned by King James's troops, who were summoned, but refused to surrender; and the first service performed by the regiment, in the field, was the siege of that place. A practicable breach having been made in the works, the regiment was under arms at six o'clock on the morning of the 27th of August, to take part in storming the town. The soldiers had arrived at the trenches, and Colonel Wharton stood with a pike in his hand ready to give the signal for the attack, when the Irish displayed a white flag on the walls, and agreed to surrender. Story states, in his History of the Wars in Ireland, 'Colonel Wharton lay before the breach with his regiment, and was ready to enter, when the Duke sent to command his men to forbear, which, with some difficulty, they were induced to do, for they had a great mind to enter by force.'