The Royal Sherwood Foresters, originally the Nottinghamshire Militia, was an auxiliary regiment of the British Army from the English Midland county of Nottinghamshire. From its formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 until its final service in the Special Reserve, the Militia regiment of the county carried out internal security and home defence duties in all of Britain's major wars. It became a battalion of the Sherwood Foresters regiment in 1881 and fought in the Second Boer War, where the whole battalion was captured at the Rhenoster River bridge. It then trained thousands of reservists and recruits during World War I. It maintained a shadowy existence until final disbandment in 1953.

Early history The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriffs. It continued under the Norman kings, and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Hay, pp. 60–1, 83.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Lowe, pp. 1–4.

Nottinghamshire levies are first mentioned when they served under William de Peverel at the Battle of the Standard against the Scots in the 1138. By the end of the 13th Century the Nottinghamshire men of Sherwood Forest were renowned for their skill in archery and Nottingham and Derby were the only counties not on the Welsh Border that sent foot soldiers to all of King Edward I's Welsh Wars. They were often called out in the later Anglo-Scottish Wars, such as the Siege of Caerlaverock in 1300, the Weardale campaign of 1327, the Battle of Halidon Hill and Siege of Berwick in 1333, and the campaign of 1335. Nottingham levies were present at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, and paid soldiers from the county were at the Battle of Agincourt (1415). The levies of Nottinghamshire under Sir John Markham fought against Lambert Simnel's rebels at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, and when the Pilgrimage of Grace revolt broke out in 1536, the Earl of Shrewsbury called them out to confront the rebels without waiting for the king's orders.Fissel, p. 180.Hay, pp. 368–71.Morris, pp. 33, 298–302.Nicholson, pp. 117–38, 214, 239; Appendix VI.

With invasion threatened in 1539 King Henry VIII held a Great Muster of all the counties, recording the number of armed men available in each hundred or wapentake. Nottinghamshire reported 284 men, of whom 21 bowmen and 10 billmen equipped with horses and 'harness' (armour) were ready to serve the king at all times. In addition the 'North Clyde' part of Bassetlaw Wapentake had 107 harness, 270 bowmen and 480 billmen, Broxtowe Wapentake had 154 harness, 300 billmen and 200 bowmen, and Rushcliffe Wapentake had 342 men.Hay, p. 69.

Nottinghamshire Trained Bands The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3) and the maintenance of horses and armour (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2). The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the deputy lieutenants and justices of the peace (JPs). The entry into force of these acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was 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 (TBs), who were mustered for regular training.Boynton, pp. 91–5.Cruickshank, pp. 17, 24–5, 130–4.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125.Hay, pp. 11–17, 88.

The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to an increase in training. The government initially emphasised the 17 'maritime' counties most vulnerable to attack, then a first group of 'inland' counties (including Nottinghamshire) whose TBs were organised from May 1585 onwards.Boynton, pp. 95–7. In April 1588, as the threat from the Spanish Armada grew, Nottinghamshire reported 2800 able-bodied men available, and during the crisis that summer actually furnished 1,000 footmen, of whom 400 were trained, together with 100 pioneers, 20 lancers, 60 light horse and 20 'petronels' (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm).Hay, pp. 93–96

In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions, and between 1585 and 1601 Nottinghamshire supplied 737 levies for service in Ireland and 150 for France. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen – in 1585 the Privy Council had ordered the impressment of able-bodied unemployed men, and the Queen ordered 'none of her trayned-bands to be pressed'. Replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–9, 126, Appendix 3. In 1596 and 1615 the corporation of Nottingham maintained its own militia of 16 trained men, and a further 24 bowmen and halberdiers were maintained at the expense of private individuals in the town.

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. Before the First Bishops' War of 1639, Sir Jacob Astley was charged with organising and reviewing the TBs of a number of North Midland counties, including Nottinghamshire, ahead of a planned invasion of Scotland. He listed 407 men from the county out of an assessment of 1,050, the Privy Council 'sparing' the remainder for a 'Second Army' to be held in reserve. Of the 407, 282 were musketeers, and 125 'Corslets' (signifying pikemen); there were also 50 Cuirassiers and 10 Dragoons. The TBs were mustered in late November and December 1638, and the Midland contingents were used in an abortive amphibious attack on Eastern Scotland the following summer. For the Second Bishops' War of 1640 Nottinghamshire was ordered to raise 300 men and march them to Grimsby for shipment to Scotland. However, many of those sent on this unpopular service were untrained replacements and conscripts, and many officers were corrupt or inefficient.Fissel, pp. 3–5, 13–23, 198–99, 207–8, 247–50, 260–3.Nottingham TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.

Civil Wars

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. The king appointed Henry Pierrepont, Viscount Newark, as Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, and on 13 July 1642 at Newark-on-Trent he made an appeal to the trained bandsmen of the county to take up arms for the king, though few did so. In August Lord Newark and the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Sir John Digby of Mansfield Woodhouse Manor, with a Troop of horse, tried to seize the TB armoury at Nottingham Castle, but were prevented by John Hutchinson until the rest of the king's army gathered. The King raised his standard at Nottingham on 22 August 1642, officially declaring war. From then on, both sides paid little attention to the part-time TBs, treating them as a source of arms and potential recruits for their permanent forces, or as town guards to supplement permanent garrisons. The Nottingham TB not having supported him, King Charles disbanded it in September and confiscated its weapons for his regulars.Ralph Lloyd-Jones, 'Sir John Digby, A Nottinghamshire Cavalier', at Our Nottinghamshire (archived at the Wayback Machine).Hutchinson at BCW Project.Pierrepont's Nottingham TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.

After the Royalist army had left, Nottingham was secured by the Parliamentarians. Hutchinson was commissioned to raise the Nottingham TBs for Parliament and was later made governor of the town. Parliament nominated three local men to command the regiments as Colonels: Sir Francis Molyneux of Teversal, 2nd Baronet (who refused the commission), Sir Francis Thornhagh of Fenton, and Viscount Newark's younger brother Francis Pierrepont, who supported Parliament. Thornhagh appointed his son Francis Thornhagh as his Lieutenant-Colonel to command the TB foot regiment while he busied himself with raising a regiment of horse; Pierrepont appointed Hutchinson as his lt-col and eventual successor.Lowe, pp. 5–9.

Meanwhile, Newark declared for the king, the local TBs being raised for him by Sir John Digby, Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, Robert Sutton of Averham, and a troop of horse under Sir John Byron of Newstead Abbey. (Digby's regiment was taken over by Col Anthony Gilby by the beginning of 1645.)Newark TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. The townspeople and TBs, with a few regular troops, fortified the town and withstood a succession of sieges from May 1643 under the command of Sir Robert Byron and later John, Lord Belasyse.

In September 1643 and January 1644 detachments from Newark almost succeeded in seizing Nottingham town and castle from its Parliamentarian garrison, and there was constant skirmishing between the two towns. After the first raid a detachment of the Royalist TBs retained a fort near the Trent Bridge. Colonel Hutchinson complained of Thornhagh's regiment that the men tended to slip away to their homes in Nottingham when they should have been on night guard and that on one occasion this allowed the 'Newarkers' to 'beat up their quarters' and capture 'almost two whole troops of the regiment'. He instituted a night watch of women to patrol the town in companies of 50 and give alarm of attack. Newark was one of the last Royalist garrisons to surrender after the end of the First Civil War in May 1646.

As Parliament tightened its grip on the country after winning the First Civil War it passed new Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners. Militia commissioners for Nottinghamshire and the town of Nottingham were appointed on 2 December 1648. The establishment of The Protectorate saw Oliver Cromwell take control of the militia as a paid force under politically selected officers to support his Rule by Major-Generals. From now on the term 'Trained Band' began to be replaced by 'Militia'.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Hay, pp. 99–104.Lowe, p. 9.

Nottinghamshire Militia

After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the English Militia was re-established by the Militia Act of 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, and almost the whole burden of home defence and internal security was entrusted to the militia under politically reliable local landowners.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Lowe, p. 10.Western, pp. 3–29.

In 1697 the counties were required to submit detailed lists of their militia. Nottinghamshire had one foot regiment of 400 men in six companies under the command of the Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle as colonel, and two troops of horse each of 60 men.British Library, Egerton MSS 1626, summarised in Hay, pp. 368–71.; Illustrated Naval & Military Magazine, Vol VI, January–June 1887, pp. 317–8; and Camden Miscellany, 1953, Vol 20, pp. 8–10.

The Militia passed into virtual abeyance during the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and few units were called out during the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745.Fortescue, Vol II, p. 133.Western, p. 73. However, the Duke of Kingston did raise a unit of volunteer cavalry in Nottinghamshire in 1745, the Duke of Kingston's Regiment of Light Horse or 'Royal Foresters', which saw action against the rebels.Lowe, pp. 43–4.

1757 reforms