Early Life
Samuel Vetch was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on December 9, 1668, and was baptized in the Church of Scotland the next day. His father, William Veitch, was a politically active Presbyterian minister. He and his wife Marion Fairley had a number of children, of whom Samuel was the second. Veitch was arrested in the hysteria surrounding the Popish Plot in the late 1670s, but was released. The family harboured the Duke of Argyll, who was sought for his refusal to take oaths prescribed by the Test Act, and Veitch became involved in the Scottish conspiracy contributing to the Monmouth Rebellion. When that failed, Veitch went into hiding, and eventually fled to the Dutch Republic, where he was joined in 1683 by his two oldest sons, William Jr. and Samuel. The boys studied for the ministry at Utrecht, but neither was interested in pursuing that career. Both became supporters of William of Orange, and Samuel was probably in a regiment of Scottish supporters in the 1688 Glorious Revolution that brought William and Mary to power in England.
He was then commissioned a cornet in the Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons, "though very young", at the age of 20. The regiment was sent back to the Netherlands, where it fought in the Nine Years' War. Vetch was wounded at Steinkirk and was also in battle at Landen. By the end of the war he had been promoted to captain.
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