The Hampshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in Southern England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572 until their final service as the Special Reserve, the Militia regiments of the county served in home defence in all of Britain's major wars. They also saw active service during the Monmouth Rebellion, and supplied thousands of recruits to the fighting battalions during World War I. After 1921 the militia had only a shadowy existence until its final abolition 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 Sheriff. The universal obligation to serve continued under the Norman and Plantagenet kings and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by the Statute of Winchester of 1285. The able-bodied men were equipped by their parishes and arrayed by the Hundreds into which each county was divided. Those of the County of Southampton and the Isle of Wight were assembled on several occasions to repel French incursions. In 1545 a French fleet entered the Solent and invaded the Isle of Wight, being opposed by the Isle of Wight and Hampshire militia at the Battle of Bonchurch and at Bembridge.Atkinson, Vol I, pp. 368–74.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 5, 12, 16.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Hay, pp. 60–1.Hay, pp. 345–8.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Lloyd-Verney, pp. 245–9.'The Last Invasion of the Isle of Wight', Isle of Wight Beacon (archived at the Wayback machine).
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, and from 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained bands (TBs) who were mustered for regular training.Cruickshank, pp. 17, 24–5, 112, 130–4.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125.Hay, pp. 11–17, 88.
When war broke out with Spain, training and equipping the militia became a priority. From 1583 counties were organised into groups for training purposes, with emphasis on the invasion-threatened 'maritime' counties including Hampshire. Different districts were made responsible for guarding certain parts of the coastline, while other villages in the west and north-west of the county were to send reinforcements to the Isle of Wight, recognised as the most likely place for an invasion.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5.Ferguson & Brayshay.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 187–8. These plans were put into operation in July 1588 when the Spanish Armada was spotted off the coast and the signal beacons were lit, calling out the TBs along the south coast and across the country. The Armada was engaged by the Royal Navy in a running fight up the English Channel, and at one point it appeared that the Spanish would try to land on the Isle of Wight, but facing continued attacks and contrary winds the Armada continued up the Channel. It was finally driven away into the North Sea by fireships and bad weather and the TBs along the coast could be stood down.Cruickshank, pp. 14, 71–2Lloyd-Verney, pp. 248–9.
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. However, when armies were assembled in 1639 and 1640 for service in Scotland in the Bishops' Wars, few of the men sent by the counties were actually trained bandsmen, and there was widespread disorder among the unwilling levies.Fissel, pp. 151, 198–201, 208, 230. Control of the militia was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War. At the outbreak of hostilities a detachment of the Hampshire TBs served alongside Sir William Waller's Parliamentarian Southern Association Army at the Siege of Portsmouth in August 1642.Southampton Trained Bands at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. However, as the war developed neither side made much further use of the TBs except as a source of recruits and weapons for their own full-time regiments. Once Parliament had established full control it passed new Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. At the same time the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.Hay, pp. 99–104.Western, p. 8.
Restoration Militia
After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the English 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, and almost the whole burden of home defence and internal security was entrusted to the militia under politically reliable local landowners.Holmes, pp. 94–101.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Scott, pp. 68–73.Western, pp. 3–29. The deputy lieutenants of Hampshire had detained so many gentlemen on political or religious grounds that there was a shortage of suitable officers, leading the deputies to request that some of their number should double as Colonels of militia regiments, although this was not the government's intention.Western, pp. 33–4, 64. One of those deemed politically reliable was Thomas Jervoise who had been a Parliamentary Captain of Horse in 1643–6, and a commissioner and captain of militia for Hampshire in 1660; he was still commanding a Troop of horse militia in 1685.Thomas Jervoise (1616–1689) at History of Parliament Online.
The Hampshire Militia had been formed into six regiments by the time of the Second Dutch War in 1666 when they were called out to face the threatened French and Dutch invasion. Again, in the Third Dutch War a Hampshire regiment was sent to guard Portsmouth in 1673.Frederick, p. 250.Western, pp. 42, 53. The militiamen were provided with uniforms and equipment by the county: one of the regiments in 1666 was known as the White Regiment because its coats were of undyed wool.Scott, pp. 208–12. At the time of the Rye House Plot in 1683 the government demanded that dissenters' houses should be searched, and the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, the Earl of Gainsborough, promptly sent word to the magistrates and militia officers in the major towns to carry this out. They searched all suspects, restricted movement overseas, and arrested a Nonconformist minister. Weapons were seized, and those held by individuals for militia use were taken and stored centrally by the local authorities or at the Great Magazine in Portsmouth.Scott, pp. 165, 237–8.
Monmouth's rebellion In 1685 there was a rebellion against King James II. Its leader, the exiled Duke of Monmouth, landed with his supporters at Lyme Regis in Dorset on 11 June 1685. Two days before, Gainsborough had been ordered to arrest Thomas Dore, the mayor of Lymington, a known Monmouth supporter, but his men missed him. As Monmouth's rebels gathered, the government of James II responded by declaring him a traitor and calling out the militia on 13 June, while the regulars of the Royal army were assembled. Gainsborough claimed that his Hampshire Militia was ready by 14 June, but marching orders were not issued until 17 June, when it marched to secure Southampton, Portsmouth and the south coast. It also forestalled Christopher Battiscombe and Sir Francis Rolle's attempts to raise Hampshire for MonmouthScott, pp. 165–6, 169–70, 261; Table 4.3.2.
In 1685 the Hampshire Militia mustered 2500 men in five regiments of foot and 120 troopers in one regiment of horse:Scott, pp. 92, 121–2; 131; Tables 3.1.2, 3.1.11, 3.2.2; Appendix 2. The Yellow Regiment of Andover – possibly Col Webb The Green Regiment of the New Forest – Col Fleming The Blue Regiment – possibly Col John Dean The Grey Regiment – possibly Col Norton The White Regiment Regiment of Horse Capt Thomas Brocas's Troop Capt Thomas Jervoise's Troop (The Earl of Gainsborough, as Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire and Governor of Portsmouth, had also been colonel of a regiment of the county militia since 1678.Doyle: 'Gainsborough'.) The mustering towns for Hampshire were Andover & Fawley, Alton, Basingstoke, New Forest, Portsdown and Winchester.
As Monmouth advanced into Somerset, the Hampshire Militia marched into Wiltshire, while the Sussex Militia arrived to secure East Dorset and Hampshire. After a false alarm on 24 June the Red Regiment of Wiltshire Militia made a hasty retreat from Bradford-on-Avon to Trowbridge, where Col John Dean's Hampshire Regiment marched to join them.Scott, pp. 171, 194. By 28 June the Hampshire Yellow Regiment was camped outside Trowbridge with the Red and Blue Wiltshire Regiments.Drummer Adam Wheeler, Iter Bellicosum, in Chandler, pp. 130–7. When a mistake by the Royal commander, the Earl of Feversham, gave Monmouth a fleeting chance of evading the Royal forces and marching on London, the Wiltshire and Hampshire Militia promptly occupied Westbury, thereby denying him access to the London road. They following day they rendezvoused with Feversham's army at Westbury. Feversham sent away two of the Hampshire regiments, allegedly for indiscipline (possibly also a cost-saving measure), but kept the Blue Regiment to boost his numbers. Of the other two, one was probably left to secure the Wiltshire border. On 27 June the Green Regiment of Hampshire Militia was at the Battle of Norton St Philip, and during the decisive Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July, the regiment secured the bridge over the River Parrett at Burrowbridge.Chandler, pp. 38–9.Scott, pp. 170, 252–4, 257, 263–4, 304–4.Western, p. 54.
James distrusted the militia under its county landed gentry, and after Sedgemoor he neglected it in favour of a greatly increased Regular Army. However, when William of Orange landed in the West Country in 1688 he was virtually unopposed by the army or the militia, and deposed James II in the Glorious Revolution. The militia organisation continued unchanged under William.Chandler, pp. 185–6.Scott, pp. 29, 77–86, 99.
In 1697 the counties were required to submit detailed lists of their militia. The Militia of the County of Southampton under the Lord-Lieutenant, Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, comprised:British Library, Egerton MSS 1626, summarised in Hay, p. 129, and Scott, Tables 3.1.3 & 3.2.1. Duke of Bolton's Regiment of Foot – 6 companies, 366 men Marquess of Winchester's Regiment of Foot – 6 companies, 435 men Col Henry Compton's Regiment of Foot – 6 companies, 399 men 'Late Col Norton's' Regiment of Foot – 5 companies, 376 men Col George Rodney Brydges' Regiment of Foot – 6 companies, 448 men Col Henry Dawley's Regiment of Foot – 5 companies, 440 men Winchester Independent Company of Foot – Capt Lord William Powlett, 150 men Southampton Independent Company of Foot – Capt John Smith 200 men Duke of Bolton's Troop of Horse – 50 men Capt Thomas Jervoise'sThomas Jervoise (1667–1743) at History of Parliament Online. Troop of Horse – 70 men
The Isle of Wight Militia under the Governor, Lord Cutts, comprised: East Medina Regiment – Col Lord Cutts, 8 companies, 802 men West Medina Regiment – Col David Urry, 8 companies, 854 men Independent Company at Cowes – Lieutenant Joseph Burton, 96 men