The Flintshire Militia, later the Royal Flint Rifles was an auxiliary regiment reorganised in the Welsh county of Flintshire during the 18th century from earlier precursor units. Primarily intended for home defence, it served in all of Britain's major wars, and supplied many recruits to the Regular Army. After a short-lived merger with another Welsh militia regiment it became a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps but was disbanded in 1889.
Flint Trained Bands
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and extended to Wales. King Henry VIII called a 'Great Muster' in 1539, and returns showed 2372 men available for service from Flintshire. The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. cc. 2 and 3), which placed selected men, the 'trained bands', under the command of county Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised Militia of England and Wales.Cruickshank, p. 17.Fissel, pp. 178–88.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16–23, 125.Hay, pp. 11–17, 60–1.Hay, p. 88.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 11.
Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands, who were mustered for regular training.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5.Fissell, pp. 178–87. During the Armada crisis of 1588, Flintshire furnished 200 trained foot and 100 untrained 'pioneers', together with 30 horsemen (heavy lancers, light horse and 'petronel's (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm)).Hay, pp. 94, 96
In the 16th century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen. Between 1585 and 1602 Flintshire supplied 765 men for service in Ireland, and a further 75 for France. The men were given three days' 'conduct money' to get to Chester, the main port of embarkation for Ireland. Conduct money was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–7, 61, 126; Appendix 2.Fissell, pp. 188–89.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th century. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 190–5.Hay, pp. 97–8. In 1638 the Flint Trained Bands consisted of 200 men of whom 140 were armed with muskets and 60 were 'corslets' (body armour, signifying pikemen), with 30 men in the Flint Trained Band Horse.Flit TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. In 1640 the county was ordered to send a detachment of 80 men to Newcastle upon Tyne to take part in the Second Bishops' War.Fissel, pp. 207–8.
Civil War Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Wedgwood, pp. 28, 38, 41, 65–8, 95. When open was broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Most of Wales was under Royalist control for much of the war, and was a recruiting ground for the King's armies.Rogers, pp. 17–8, Plates 7, 30.Wedgwood, pp. 119–20. In August 1642 Colonel Sir Thomas Salusbury, 2nd Baronet of Lleweni, raised a Royalist foot regiment mainly from Denbighshire and Flintshire, which served throughout the war from the Battle of Edgehill until the final surrender in 1646.Salusbury's Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Young, pp. 227–30.
Colonel Roger Mostyn raised another regiment of 1500 men, apparently from the Flintshire Trained Bands, in just 12 hours, and marched his recruits to Chester in January 1643. The regiment was at the successful siege of Hawarden Castle in November–December 1643. Later it was in the Siege of Chester from January 1645 including the Battle of Rowton Heath in September 1645 and a skirmish at Ruthin in January 1646. The regiment was down to 300 men by April 1645 but Mostyn reinforced his regiment up to strength with 160 recruits shipped into Chester from Ireland in January 1646. Chester surrendered in February 1646 and the regiment was besieged in Flint Castle from May to August, and at the siege of Denbigh Castle until its finally surrender on 14 October.Mostyn's Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Rogers, pp. 259–6.Wedgwood, pp. 415–8, 464, 474, 495, 503.'Roger Mostyn and the Civil War 1642–1660' at Mostyn Estates.Cokayne, Vol III, 'Mostyn'.
In July 1643 Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Davies of Gwysaney was promoted to colonel in Denbighshire and Flintshire under Lord Capel and was commissioned to raise a further regiment of 500 foot and Dragoons, apparently from the Flintshire Trained Bands. It served alongside Mostyn's at Flint and Hawarden in 1643, garrisoned Denbigh Castle in 1645, possibly including the Battle of Denbigh Green, and was there at the final surrender.Davies's Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
Flintshire Militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Militia was re-established by the Militia Act 1661 under the control of the king's lords lieutenant, the men to be selected by ballot. This was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' to counterbalance a 'Standing Army' tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported Cromwell's military dictatorship.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–6.
The militia forces in the Welsh counties were small, and were grouped together under the command of the Lord President of the Council of Wales.Western, pp. 10, 19, 37. As Lord President, the Duke of Beaufort carried out a tour of inspection of the Welsh militia in 1684, when the Flintshire contingent consisted of one troop of horse and five foot companies commanded by Sir Roger Mostyn, who had been created 1st Baronet of Mostyn Hall at the Restoration. In 1697 it consisted of 250 foot under Col Sir Roger Puleston of Emral and 25 horse under Capt Owen Barton.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 12.Hay, p. 133.
Generally the militia declined in the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.Western, pp. 73–4. Jacobites were numerous amongst the Welsh Militia, but they did not show their hands during the Risings of 1715 and 1745, and bloodshed was avoided.
1757 reforms
Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant. An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Flintshire was given a quota of 120 men to raise, but recruitment throughout Wales was slow. Major-General the Earl of Cholmondeley was Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire and several other Welsh counties, but found that the only one able to fulfil its quota was tiny Flintshire. The problem was less with the other ranks raised by ballot than the shortage of men qualified to be officers, even after the requirements were lowered for Welsh counties.Owen, pp. 57–9.Western, pp. 124–5.Western, Appendices A & B. The Flintshire Militia was raised on 3 October 1759 at Mold under the command of Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet, Member of Parliament for Flintshire (who replaced Cholmondeley as lord lieutenant the following year). The arms, equipment and regimental colours arrived at Holywell on 3 December, and the regiment was embodied for fulltime service on 8 December 1759.Frederick, pp. 242–3.
The regiment completed its embodiment on 12 December and was ordered to Carmarthen, marching via Wrexham and Llandrindod (where it was snowbound) before reaching to town at the end of the month. After some weeks of duty at Carmarthen, the regiment was ordered into the Welsh borders. By July 1760 it was at Bridgnorth in Shropshire where it remained until March 1761 when it marched back to Holywell. In midsummer 1762 the regiment was on duty in Liverpool until 19 August when it marched back to Holywell. The Seven Years War ended on 20 December and the Flintshire Militia was disembodied shortly afterwards.
In peacetime the adjutant, sergeants and drummers of the disembodied regiment maintained the militia store and armoury in Holywell. Training was sporadic, but the numbers were maintained by periodic enforcement of the ballot. Major Robert Hughes of Halkyn Hall became commanding officer in 1775, though Sir Roger Mostyn remained lord lieutenant.Owen, pp. 56–7.
War of American Independence The militia were called out on 26 March 1778 during the War of American Independence, when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. The Flintshires assembled under Maj Hughes at Holywell, but after a few weeks were marched away from the county to remove the temptation for the men to stray home. On 2 May the regiment set out for Whitchurch, Shropshire, moving on to Chester on 10 June, but on 16 July Hughes was ordered to march the regiment back to Flintshire, where the men were billeted at Hiolwell, Mold and other places for the rest of the year.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, pp. 59–61.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 173–4, 295.Western, p. 260.
On 6 February 1779 the regiment was sent to Warrington in Cheshire, where a strike among sailcloth makers threatened civil disorder. By May the regiment formed part of the Chester garrison with a detachment at Nantwich. Then on 7 June it moved to Cumberland, where its companies took up duties in Cockermouth, Workington and Maryport. They remained there until 8 April 1780 when they concentrated at Whitehaven and then marched back to Wales, first at Oswestry, then into Pembrokeshire where it took up duties at Pembroke Dock and Haverfordwest. Here its duties included guarding the Royal Navy establishments and the prisoners of war, and manning the Milford Haven defences and the battery at Fishguard. They stayed here until the end of the war in January 1783. By March the regiment was back at Mold and Hawarden to be disembodied.
From 1784 to 1792 the militia were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. Orders to embody the Flintshire Militia were issued next day and it assembled at Holywell. On 13 March it was sent to join the garrison at Woolwich, but was quartered in Hertfordshire until July when it completed its march. On 12 September the regiment marched to Hampshire where it took up duties in the defences of the naval base at Portsmouth.Owen, pp. 61–3.
The French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners of war, and for internal security, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the Volunteers and mounted Yeomanry.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.