The Derbyshire Militia, later the 1st Derbyshire Militia was an auxiliary regiment from the county of Derbyshire in the North Midlands of England. Reformed from earlier precursors in 1773, it carried out internal security and home defence duties in most of Britain's major wars, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties, and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. It later became a battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, but was disbanded and merged into another battalion in 1891.
Background
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and its legal basis was updated by two acts of 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. cc. 2 and 3). They were placed under the command of county Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. From 1572 the practice was only to call out and train a certain number of selected men, the 'Trained Bands'. These were an important element in the country's defence at the time of the Spanish Armada. Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. The English Militia was re-established under local control in 1662 after the Restoration of the monarchy. However, between periods of national emergency the militia was regularly allowed to decline.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 125, 133–40, 194–7, 294–5.Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6.Holmes, pp. 91–4.
During the Jacobite Rising of 1745 an ad hoc militia regiment, the 'Derbyshire Blues' was raised at Derby by public subscription, but it was forced to evacuate the town when Prince Charles Edward Stuart's much larger army arrived and made the town its headquarters. The Derbyshire Blues disappeared as soon as the danger had passed.Fortescue, Vol II, p. 133.Western, pp. 112–3.'The Derbyshire Militia – facing Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745' at HistoryJar.
1757 Reforms Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 reorganised the county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. In peacetime they assembled for 28 days' annual training, but could be embodied for permanent service in wartime. 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.Homes, pp. 94–100.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302.Hay, pp. 136–44.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Derbyshire was given a quota of 560 men to raise in one regiment, but conscription by ballot was deeply unpopular in the Midland country districts and the necessity did not seem so urgent for inland counties like Derbyshire, far from any potential invasion. The county gentry were generally apathetic, many preferring to pay a large fine instead of raising their regiments. So few qualified gentlemen came forward in Derbyshire that the Lord Lieutenant was reduced to placing newspaper advertisements, without effect. Even at the end of the war Derbyshire had still not complied, and was one of six defaulter counties, remaining so for many years. The Lord Lieutenant, Lord George Cavendish, was titular colonel of a regiment that did not exist. More progress was made after the Militia Act 1769 was passed, but it was not until 4 September 1773 that the authorisation to issue arms to the regiment was finally given and it began its first annual training on 10 May 1775, still short of its complement of junior officers. When the original recruits completed their three years' service, the regiment had to appeal to them to sign on again, or for paid substitutes to offer themselves.Hay, pp. 366–8.Western, Appendices A & B.Western, pp. 125, 158, 161, 196, 199.'Derbyshire Militia 1773–c1820' at School of Mars.
American Revolutionary War
The militia was called out on 31 March 1778 during the War of American Independence when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain.Frederick, pp. 319–22. However, the Derbyshire regiment was late assembling. Lord George Cavendish appointed his nephew, the 5th Duke of Devonshire as colonel in April, and in May the new commanding officer had to deal with a mutiny by the assembled men over pay for their annual training. Seven ringleaders who had demanded money from their officers at bayonet point were court-martialled in July after the regiment arrived at Coxheath Camp near Maidstone in Kent.Haarmann (1977). Coxheath was the army's largest training camp, where the completely raw Militia were exercised as part of a division alongside Regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England.Herbert.
In 1778 Parliament sanctioned the augmentation of the militia by voluntary enlistment, regiments being permitted to add a company to their balloted men.Western, p. 209. A caricature of the time entitled 'Lady Gorget raising Recruits for Cox-Heath' depicts the celebrity Duchess of Devonshire, who was prominent among the fashionable army wives at the camp, wearing a version of the Derbyshire Militia uniform (including an officer's Gorget), interviewing bashful yokels as potential recruits for her husband's regiment, with the tents of the camp visible through the window.'The Military Duchess and the Derbyshire Militia' at School of Mars.
Over the following years it became common to assemble the militia in summer training camps alongside Regular forces.Western, p. 209. In the summer of 1779 the Derbyshires were at Warley in Essex, and in summer 1781 the regiment, 540 strong, formed part of the 3rd Brigade of the Plymouth garrison, accommodated in the town's barracks.Haarmann (1974).
The Peace of Paris having been negotiated, the militia were sent to their home counties for disembodiment in March 1783. Having recently taken over as Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire the Duke of Devonshire resigned the command in October and appointed his younger brother Lord George Henry Cavendish as colonel in his place.War Office, 1805 List.
From 1784 to 1792 the militia was kept up to strength by the ballot and was supposed to assemble for 28 days' training annually, even though to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually called out each year.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.Western, p. 333.
French Revolutionary War The militia had already been embodied in December 1792 before Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. The French Revolutionary 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, manned garrisons, guarded prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duties, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the Volunteers and mounted Yeomanry.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411.
Militia regiments were regularly moved around the country, often encamped in the summer and in barracks or billets for winter quarters. In August 1793 the Derbyshire Militia, with 9 companies, was at Warley Camp.Sargeaunt, p. 85. In 1795 the regiment again added a volunteer company to its strength. In December 1796, along with the Bedfordshire and West Essex Militia it was one of the first regiments moved into the newly completed barracks at Horsham.Burgoyne, p. 23. On 17 February 1797 the militia were directed to be formed into brigades for their summer training. The Derbyshires, together with the Bedfordshires, Hampshires, East Suffolks and Yorkshire West Ridings, formed Gen Sir Charles Grey's 4th Brigade of the division under Gen Sir William Howe.Webb, p. 429.
In 1796 the Government created the Supplementary Militia, a compulsory levy of men to be trained in their spare time, and to be incorporated in the Militia in emergency. The lieutenancies were required to carry out 20 days' initial training as soon as possible, and the existing militia regiments sent training detachments back to their home counties to carry this out. When the Supplementaries were mobilised in 1798 the Derbyshire lieutenancy chose to organise theirs into a separate regiment, rather than expanding the existing regiment.<ref name = MarsMilitiaHay, pp. 148–52.Western, pp. 220–5, 409.
On 8 July 1798 a general order was issued to form temporary battalions from the flank companies (Grenadier and Light companies) of militia regiments in the Southern District. The Grenadier Company of the Derbys joined those of the Bedfordshire, Denbighshire, Glamorgan, Middlesex and Northamptonshire Militia in the 3rd Grenadier Battalion at Shoreham-by-Sea, commanded by Lt-Col Payne of the Bedfordshires.Burgoyne, p. 47. That summer the Irish Rebellion became serious, with the French sending help to the rebels. The Derbyshire was one of the militia regiments that volunteered to serve in Ireland but its offer was not accepted.Burgoyne, pp. 40–3.
Napoleonic Wars The Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802 and the militia were disembodied. However, the Peace of Amiens proved short-lived, and the militia was embodied once more when hostilities broke out in 1803. The Derbyshire regiment was briefly numbered as 1st Derbyshire when the supplementaries were re-embodied as the 2nd Derbyshire from 1803 to 1806,
During the summer of 1805, when Napoleon was massing his 'Army of England' at Boulogne for a projected invasion, the 1st Derbyshire Militia, under Lt-Col the Hon John Simpson, consisted of 978 men, distributed along the Sussex Coast, with 4 companies at Eastbourne Camp, 2 at Langney Barracks, 2 at Culvercross Camp, and 2 at Wallsend Camp . It formed part of Brigadier-General Moore Disney's brigade headquartered at Eastbourne.Brown.
In 1811 an Interchange Act allowed English Militia units to volunteer to interchange with Irish Militia regiments for two years. It appears that the government was happy to send Midlands militia regiments to Ireland in case they developed sympathies with the Luddites, who had begun their machine-breaking in Nottingham.Knight, p. 411.Hay, p. 152. The Derbyshire Militia volunteered and served in Ireland in 1813–14. They were stationed at Cork in 1814.Sargeaunt, p. 131.Sleigh, p. 100.
3rd Provisional Battalion In November 1813 the militia were invited to volunteer for limited overseas service, primarily for garrison duties in Europe. A 125-strong detachment of the Derbyshire militia volunteered and were assigned to the 3rd Provisional Battalion alongside the Royal Denbigh Rifles, the Herefordshires, the Westmorlands, and the 2nd West Yorkshires, commanded by Col Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet, of the Denbighshires.Owen, pp. 32–5.
The battalion assembled at Chester and marched to Portsmouth where the Militia Brigade commanded by Maj-Gen Sir Henry Bayley was concentrating. The brigade embarked on 10–11 March 1814 and three days later arrived at Bordeaux, which had just been occupied by the Earl of Dalhousie's 7th Division. It did not take part in the Battle of Toulouse on 10 April, but carried out garrison and occupation duties as the war was ending. The 3rd Provisional Battalion was quartered in a villages along the River Gironde. The brigade did not form part of the Army of Occupation after the abdication of Napoleon and returned to Plymouth in June.Hay, p. 153.
Dartmoor