When the nucleus of a regular army was formed by Charles II in 1661, Panton, who appears to have attended the King abroad and already enjoyed a titular colonelcy, obtained a commission in His Majesty's Life Guards, and also held a captaincy in the Foot Guards.
He drew his pay from both regiments until 1667, when, having become a Roman Catholic, he resigned his commissions into the King's hands during a review in St James's Park.
[1] He won the favour of several of the ladies about the court, and relieved them of considerable sums at the card-table.
… His chief game was hazard, and in one night at this play he won as many thousand pounds as purchased him an estate of above £1,500 a year.
[1] Thomas and Dorothy Panton's eldest son, Thomas Panton, carried intelligence of the Battle of Blenheim to the States General of the Netherlands, was severely wounded at the Battle of Malplaquet on 11 September 1709, took the news of the capture of Douai to the Court of St James's in 1710, and returned to the camp at Bouchain in September 1711, bearing the Queen's inquiries as to the Duke of Marlborough's health.