Extract taken from 'Somerset 1800 - 1830: an inquiry into social and economic conditions' by Lawrence, J. F.
'An Inquiry into Social and Economic Conditions'.
The Militia.
When Lord Castlereagh sought to strengthen the defences of this island in the struggle with Napoleon, he reorganised the militia and required local authorities to comply with his policy and to carry out their obligations under his new legislation. The reader of military history in this period is puzzled to distinguish between the Regular army, the Old Militia, the 'Additional Military Force' (*1) and the 'Local Militia'. (*2). The requirements of the Act give a rough but interesting cross-section of society and throw light on the customs of the day.
Most people were liable to serve, but only a limited number were chosen each year. Presumably this was done by drawing lots – 'balloting' is the term used in the Act. Failure to appear in the time appointed was punishable by a fine of from £1 to £5. Immediate exemption was given on production of a medical certificate to prove ill-health.
Clergymen and medical men were exempt by virtue of their professions. Men who had served or were serving in the Additional Military Force established in 1803 were exempt as follows:
Four years from the expiration of their period of service if they had served in person;
Six years from the date of enrolment of a substitute;
Four years from the date of an exemption fine.
Exemption by substitute was not permissible in the Local Militia, but exemption by fine was procurable for two years at the following rates:
£30 for a man whose income was above £200 per annum;
£20 for a man whose income was between £100 and £200;
£10 for a man whose income was less than £100.
The penalty for a false declaration of income was £50.
*1 Phelps .I. 90-91 says that the strength of the Militia in 1803, not including the 'regular militia' was:
Class 1. 14,644
Class 2. 2,896
Class 3. 4,905
Class 4. 17,433
Yeomanry. 9,035
TOTAL 48,913
*2 ibid. The Local Militia was formed in 1809 and was a “more regular form of the previous volunteers”. There were seven regiments in Somerset with a local strength of 6,224 men.
Service in the Local Militia gave the same exemption as service in the 'Volunteers' – four years service gave two years exemption from the regular militia. The Act is careful to emphasis that “Articulated Clerks or Apprentices, Poor Men having less than three children, and persons 5 foot 2 inches high are liable to serve”. (*1)
It also states that there is a penalty of £50 for insuring. The object of this proposition is not clear. Since several Militia Insurance 'Clubs' advertised their existence quite openly, the restriction must have applied exclusively to the Local Militia and not the Regular Militia! It must have been perfectly easy for these Clubs to extend their scope to the Local Militia under the cloak of their business with men insuring against service in the Regular Militia.
If the reason was that the government frowned upon all activities of a gambling nature which might offered competition to state lotteries, then there was no reason why they should not include the Regular Militia. 'The Union Club of England and Wales' – Head Office: 405, Denmark Street, Bristol' accepted premiums of 2,1, or ½ a guinea and those called upon to serve in the Militia would receive a proportionate share in the Club's 'fund's.
A similar organisation, the 'Sherborne Militia Society' offered definite returns from the fixed premiums instead of a share in the funds: a man who had paid 17/- would receive £6 if chosen to serve; for a premium £1/7/- he would receive £10; for a £1/19/- he would receive £15; and for £2/10/- he would receive £20.
The 'Militia Society' of 10, Corn Street, Bristol, offered ½ and 1 guinea 'shares' on the 'share-put' principle.
Service in the Local Militia appears to have been 28 days in the year. The county was divided into areas which produced seven separate regiments. A general meeting of the Lieutenancy was held to decide on dates and places for training which were then announced in the press. In 1809 they were as followed:
*1. The terms of the Act together with the other information which follows, were taken from the 'Taunton Courier' for 1808, 1809 and 1810.
Occasionally we find announcements in advertising columns, calling upon “All Constables and his Majesty's Peace Officers” to apprehend say, “John Tapp of Goathurst – who has neglected to join the Militia”. Throughout the war these efforts were made to enforce military training.
One or two 'incidents' show that the material recruited was extremely 'raw'. Whether the so called 'ballot' was handled in such a way as to recruit only the rougher elements of the community, is a matter of conjecture. In a country which has never possessed an adequate police system, all laws were imperfectly enforced, and although the provisions of the Local Militia Act sound stringent, and although a most serious war was in progress, it is doubtful whether the principles of the system received more than a very partial application.
England has never taken kindly to the existence of standing armies let alone military conscription, and nothing short of an invasion scare would arouse any martial enthusiasm. Such panics did not take place every year, even in the days before 'Boney went to Scotland'.
Granted that there have been numerous occasions on which militiamen have been used with effect, as when Alfred used his 'fyrd' against the Danes, and during the Civil War when the 'train-bands' frightened Charles I away from London and then proceeded to march to the relief of Gloucester, and in the Spanish Civil War when the Madrid Militia held up Franco's advance on the capital, yet there can be little doubt that Castlereagh's Militia was inefficient and could not have offered serious resistance to Napoleon's regulars if left to themselves. On the other hand they might have been increased rapidly in time of actual necessity and might have been used to fill in the gaps left by deficiency in the numbers of regular troops.
On June 29 1809, when the West Regiment concluded a fortnight's training at Taunton, the men were marched up to Sand Hill Park, where colours were presented by Mrs. Lethbridge. “Several hogsheads of beer and 700 rations of bread and cheese were served out to the men”. They then marched back to Taunton. One man refused to march with his own company. Eventually he was escorted to the rear of the whole column and compelled to march with arms reversed. When the regiment arrived at Taunton, Lieut-Col. Holton ordered the arrest of this man, whereupon one of his friends attacked the officer with his bayonet. Major Elton gallantly came to the rescue and “made a thrust at the breast of the mutineer with his sword, which broke without inflicting a wound”. The incident was not closed until a troop of Dragoons had been called out and the whole regiment of Militia disarmed. The men of the Taunton Rifle Corps stood to arms all through the night in expectation of further trouble.
In May 1810 the Mendip Regiment at Bath was involved in a dispute over the 'marching guinea'. The men objected to deductions 'for trowsers'. Four of them refused to obey orders and were lodged in the City gaol. At about 8 p.m. the other privates assembled, “broke open the doors, liberated their comrades, and carried them off in triumph”. The four men were retaken but were set free after apologising to the Colonel. The ring-leaders of the attack of the gaol were then given a drum-head court-martial on Claverton Down. One of them was sentenced to receive 50 lashes, but Col. Rogers pardoned him, and the others, and said that he acted with leniency because the trouble had been started by some of the civilian population of Bath.
The state of affairs in the militia may be contrasted with the treatment meted out to regular troops at the same period. In December 1808 two troops of the 16th Light Dragoons under Capt. Murrey and Capt. Ashworth, arrived at Taunton. Ashworth dismissed his men after a few minutes inspection. Murrey refused to dismiss his men until one man who was missing, should arrive.
“The men having stood at ease in the wet and cold for half an hour” decided to dismiss themselves. There was a court-martial and two men received sentences of 622 lashes each, and a third 580. 'One bullying swaggering blade' dared the Editor of the 'Taunton Courier' to publish and account of this – which he did. In less than two years' time Cobbett was fined £1,000 and clapped into Newgate for two years for daring to comment on such military floggings.
On another occasion the same editor commented on the action of a court-martial in Devonshire which sentenced a man to 300 lashes (of which he actually received 100) for 'marrying without the consent of his commanding officer'. He tried to raise subscriptions for the purpose of buying this man out of the militia but the plan failed. The inference is that discipline in the regular militia was not as lax as it was in the 'volunteers' which became 'local militia'.
Somerset Genealogy has the 1812 list of Bridgwater Militiamen who marched as far as forty miles to train in Bridgwater. Follow this link to the index.
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