At the battle of Talavera on the night of 27 July Way took part with his regiment, under Major-general Hill, in the gallant repulse at the point of the bayonet of the French attack of the heights on the left of the British position. He was present at the battle of Busaco on 27 Sept. 1810, and at the battle of Albuera on 16 May 1811, when, on the fall of his lieutenant-colonel, he succeeded to the command of the 29th foot during the action, for which he received the medal. He was himself, in charging with his regiment, shot through the body and his left arm fractured at the shoulder-joint by a musket-shot. He was promoted to be brevet lieutenant-colonel on 30 May 1811, and on 4 July of the same year was gazetted to the command of the 29th foot.
On his return to England in 1812 with the skeleton of the 29th regiment (about a hundred effective men), Way by considerable exertion reformed the corps, and embarked a second time for the Peninsula in 1813. In 1814, however, the effect of climate and wounds compelled him to return to England, when he was placed on the half-pay list of the 22nd foot. For his services he was knighted the same year, was awarded an annuity of 200l. for his wounds, and received permission to accept and wear the insignia of a knight commander of the Portuguese order of the Tower and Sword. On relinquishing the command of the 29th foot he was presented by his brother officers with a valuable piece of plate as a memento of their esteem.
In 1815 Way was made a companion of the order of the Bath, military division, and was appointed to the staff as deputy adjutant-general in North Britain. He was promoted to be colonel in the army on 19 July 1821. On the abolition of his staff appointment in Scotland he was nominated, on 7 Nov. 1822, colonel of the 3rd royal veteran battalion, which was disbanded in 1826, when Way was placed on half-pay. He was promoted to be major-general on 22 July 1830, and lieutenant-general on 23 Nov. 1841, and was given the colonelcy of the 1st West Indian regiment on 21 Nov. 1843. He died at Brighton on 19 Feb. 1844, and was buried in the family vault at Denham church, Buckinghamshire. Way married, on 19 May 1815, Marianne, daughter of John Weyland, of Woodeaton, Oxfordshire, and Woodrising, Norfolk. He left no issue.
[War Office Records; Despatches; Royal Military Calendar, 1820; Works on the Peninsular War; United Service Journal, 1844; Burke's Landed Gentry; Gent. Mag. 1844, i. 537.]
WAY or WEY, WILLIAM (1407?-1476), traveller. [See Wey.]
WAYLETT, Mrs. HARRIET (1798–1851), actress, the daughter of a Bath tradesman named Cooke, was born in Bath on 7 Feb. 1798. She came of a theatrical family, her uncle being a member of the Drury Lane company, while Mrs. West [q. v.] was her cousin. After receiving some instruction in music from one of the Loders of Bath [see Loder, John David], she appeared on the Bath stage on 16 March 1816 as Elvina in W. R. Hewetson's ‘Blind Boy.’ In the following season she appeared as Leonora in the ‘Padlock’ and Madge in ‘Love in a Village,’ and played in Bristol and, it is said, Brighton. Soon after this time she accompanied to London a Captain Dobyn, against whom her father brought an action for loss of service, which was tried at Taunton and compromised. She then acted at Coventry, where she met and married in 1819 Waylett, an actor in the company. In 1820 she was at the Adelphi, where she was the original Amy Robsart in Planché's adaptation of ‘Kenilworth,’ and the first Sue to her husband's Primefit in Moncrieff's ‘Tom and Jerry.’ She played as Mrs. Waylett late Miss Cooke of Bath. In 1823 she was acting in Birmingham under Alfred Bunn [q. v.], playing in ‘Sally’ Booth's part of Rose Briarly in ‘Husbands and Wives.’ Her singing of ‘Rest thee, Babe,’ in ‘Guy Mannering’ established her in favour. Cicely in the ‘Heir-at-Law’ and Thérèse in the piece so-named followed. She played five parts in ‘Chops and Changes, or the Servant of All Work,’ and was seen as Jenny Gammon in ‘Wild Oats,’ Ellen in ‘Intrigue,’ Aladdin, Lucy in the ‘Rivals,’ Cherry in ‘Cherry and Fair Star,’ Patch in the ‘Busy Body,’ Tattle in ‘All in the Wrong,’ Susanna in the ‘Marriage of Figaro,’ Priscilla Tomboy in the ‘Romp,’ Diana Vernon, Mary in the ‘Innkeeper's Daughter,’ Chambermaid in the ‘Clandestine Marriage,’ Jessica, Marianne in the ‘Dramatist,’ Clari in ‘Clari, or the Maid of Milan,’ in which she sang ‘Home, sweet Home,’ Lucetta in the ‘Suspicious Husband,’ Clementina All-spice in the ‘Way to get Married,’ Bizarre in the ‘Inconstant,’ Zelinda in the ‘Slave,’ and in many other characters.
It was accordingly with a fair amount of experience, with a large repertory, and with a reputation as a chambermaid and a singer, that Mrs. Waylett accompanied her manager to Drury Lane, whereat she appeared as Madge in ‘Love in a Village’ on 4 Dec. 1824. The sustained and excessive eulogies which had been bestowed on her in the
