The Origins of a Regiment of Dragoons

The Restoration and the Birth of the British Army

General Sir Thomas Fairfax was arguably the most important general of the British Civil Wars. As Commander-in-Chief of the New Model Army, he played a key role in defeating the Royalists.

Yet, after the death of Oliver Cromwell, he was also instrumental in the Restoration of King Charles II.

In 1660, the monarchy was restored when Parliament invited King Charles II to take the throne. Although the military played a crucial role in his return, the King soon established a new force – the British Army.

Protectorate

For much of the 1650s, the British Isles were ruled by Oliver Cromwell in his role as Lord Protector. He sidelined a series of weakened parliaments and governed largely through the New Model Army, a formidable military force that had won the Civil Wars (1642-51) for the Parliamentary cause.

When Oliver died in September 1658, he was succeeded by his son Richard. Having never served in the army, Richard proved unable to control its senior officers. He also struggled to manage the various political factions in his final Protectorate Parliament, summoned in January 1659.

In May of that year, Richard was forced to resign. The army then restored the Rump Parliament (dissolved by Oliver Cromwell in 1653), ending the Protectorate in a bid to revive the Commonwealth.

Monck intervenes

In February 1660, General George Monck marched south from Coldstream in Scotland to lend his support to Parliament. After entering London with his troops, he secured the readmission to the Rump Parliament of those members who had been excluded during Pride’s Purge in 1648. The army, under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride, had expelled these MPs to clear the way for the trial of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth.

Convention

The members Monck restored were largely conservative, moderate and sympathetic to the restoration of the monarchy. On 16 March 1660, they dissolved the freshly revived Long Parliament and called for elections for a new assembly that would decide the nation’s future.

Restoration

Assurances given by Charles II in the Declaration of Breda (April 1660) convinced the Convention to invite him on 1 May 1660 to take the throne, resolving that ‘government ought to be by King, Lords and Commons’ together.

Monck and the army

Monck’s role in the restoration had been crucial, but he was something of an enigma. He had fought for King Charles I in Ireland and England before his capture by the Parliamentarians at Nantwich in 1644. He then became one of Cromwell’s best generals and his deputy in Scotland.

Though courted by King Charles II in exile, he remained loyal to Cromwell and continued to proclaim his support for his son Richard on his accession as Lord Protector in 1658.

Opposition and support

Other Civil War veterans, some of whom had opposed the military rule, also played important roles in the restoration. One of the founders of the New Model Amy, Sir Thomas Fairfax, raised troops in Yorkshire to support Monck. By neutralising Parliamentarian forces in the north, he gave Monck the chance to march his soldiers south.

Other senior army officers opposed Monck’s actions. General John Lambert was sent by the Committee of Safety with a large force to intercept Monck and either negotiate with him or force him to come to terms.

A new army

The advantages of a standing army were clear to the new king, not least to the survival of his regime. In 1660-61, Charles raised a force of 5,000 men known as the ‘King’s Guards and Garrisons’. On 26 January 1661, he issued the warrant creating the English Army.

Financed by a new Parliament, it included Royalist units from his exile – like the King’s Troop of Horse Guards (later The Life Guards) – and old regiments from the New Model Army which were disbanded and then quickly re-mustered – such as Monck’s Regiment (later The Coldstream Guards).

Indeed, the Declaration of Breda had stated that New Model Army soldiers would be recommissioned into service under the crown, along with the promise that their pay arrears would be remunerated. This incentive had won the acquiescence of many veteran soldiers to the restoration.

Although Charles did not employ every former New Model Army soldier, he found it politically expedient to take many on. Thousands more were paid off through new taxes and coin from the royal coffers.

Ireland and Scotland

Charles was also the king of Ireland and Scotland, so their parliaments paid for units as well. By the mid-1660s, the Irish Army numbered around 5,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry. Its Scottish counterpart had about 3,000 men.

Initially, these remained separate military establishments from Charles’ English troops. But as time went on, they were unofficially merged.

The first British Army

Charles was the first British monarch to maintain a standing army in peacetime. When he died in 1685, its permanent establishment was as follows:

• England – 3 Troops of Life Guards, 1 Regiment of Horse, 1 Regiment of Dragoons, 2 Regiments of Foot Guards and 5 Regiments of Foot.
• Scotland – 2 Troops of Life Guards, 5 Regiments of Horse, 1 Regiment of Dragoons, 1 Regiment of Foot Guards and 1 Regiment of Foot.
• Ireland – 1 Troop of Life Guards, 3 Regiments of Horse, 1 Regiment of Foot Guards and 6 Regiments of Foot.

Public unease

But not everyone was fully reconciled to the need for a standing army. The New Model Army’s political interventions and the Rule of the Major-Generals were still fresh in the memory. People also questioned the cost of maintaining a standing army when the country was not at war.

Some feared that an army under royal command would allow future monarchs to ignore the wishes of Parliament. And their concerns proved well-founded when this issue came to a head during the reign of Charles’s successor, King James II.

The Formation of a Regiment of Dragoons

The following is a general overview of what constituted the formation of a dragoon regiment circa 1693-7.

Due to the availability of appropriate records, it will follow the path of Conyngham’s Dragoons.

The Regiment is Born

The second siege of Limerick terminated the Civil War in Ireland. The plans of Louis XIV had been foiled, and in this defeat, the men of Derry and Enniskillen had taken no mean part. In 1689 Sir Albert Conyngham had raised at Enniskillen the regiment that is now the 6th Dragoons and was then Conyngham’s Horse.

After the signing of the Treaty of Limerick, William determined to raise another regiment of Dragoons composed of the Ulstermen who had served him so faithfully. The command of this corps was given to Colonel Henry Conyngham, the only surviving son of Sir Albert.

Of Colonel Conyngham’s previous career it is sufficient to state that he served as a captain in Lord Mountjoy’s Regiment of Foot, taking part with his father’s regiment at the Battles of the Boyne and Aughrim. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonelcy on the 31st of December, 1691.

That he was regarded as a trustworthy and distinguished officer is clear from the following order of the 28th of January, 1693:

A supplementary warrant was issued on the 31st of January, 1693:-

The uniform was scarlet, lined and turned up with yellow; with yellow waistcoats and breeches; round hats with broad brims, turned up on both sides and behind; boots reaching above the knee; and yellow horse furniture. The men were armed with swords and pistols, also with long muskets and bayonets, in order that they might act either as cavalry or infantry, according to the demands of the service required. Their colonel, Henry Conyngham, was anxious that they should be in all respects properly equipped, and accordingly, on the 22nd of April, 1693, he wrote from Dublin to the Lords of the Treasury, pointing out:

From the camp on Dighem William Blathwayt wrote on the 25th of May, 1693, that “My Lord Galway having presented the enclosed Memorial to the King, His Majesty is pleased to order that the necessary Directions be given accordingly.”

The memorial related to the 250 horses for which Conyngham was still agitating, and it is pleasing to remember that Lord Galway was the Ruvigny of the Irish Wars, a man who had often come into contact with the men of Derry and Enniskillen.

In order to ensure the loyalty of the regiment Roman Catholics were excluded from it, and on the 26th of June, 1693, the following oath was taken by officers and soldiers alike:

The Soul of The Regiment – The Beginnings of Regimental Tradition

With the spirit of the men of Derry and Enniskillen to constitute the beginnings of regimental tradition and with the due equipment of arms and of horses, Henry Conyngham had a comparatively easy task lying before him. For his officers and men had gained their experience in the best of all schools, the actual battlefield. With the freehand given to the Commanding Officers of his day, Conyngham served his regiment faithfully. In small matters, as in large, he occupied himself with all that concerned his command. On the 9th of June, 1697, he granted long leave to Lieutenant Thomas Knox, that is “a Lycense . . . to be absent for two months from this date,” so the formal seventeenth century put it.

In 1697 the Nine Years’ War with France came to an end, and the regiment was reduced to a peace establishment. Five men out of each troop were disbanded

In 1698 an abstract was issued to Colonel Conyngham, and in it, he was informed of the numbers of officers and soldiers allowed in a regiment of horse to one troop. The numbers are:

With the settlement of the numbers to be in a troop, there came up another question on the pay of the soldier. In this question, the matter of stoppages loomed large.

Troop Reductions

The Treaty of Ryswick, 1697, brought about a reduction in the size of a troop, and on the 11th of March, 1698, elaborate instructions on the consequent disbandment were issued to Major General Levison. It was particularly required under the second head that the soldiers be:

Naturally, these instructions are only intelligible upon the assumption of the seventeenth century that the soldier equipped himself. This is also quite evident when we come to the manner of disposal of the horses. Here disbandment was to be carried out in the following fashion:

Disposal of Surplus Horses

No Dutchmen

Men were far more cosmopolitan in the Middle Ages than they are today. We do well, however, to remember that the spirit of nationalism, save in the British Isles, is largely a creation of the nineteenth century. The cosmopolitanism of the forces present on the winning side at the Battle of the Boyne would have occasioned but little surprise in any country in Europe except our own.

It occasioned some feeling with us shortly after 1691, and men noted with regret the leaning of the King to his Dutch troops. The feeling passed from regret to anger, as men, continued to witness the favour shown to men who, after all, were the countrymen of the sovereign. Did the Dutch not hold the most lucrative posts in the royal household? Did Dutchmen not occupy the finest manors of the Crown? Did Dutchmen not command the army?

In 1698 the common cry was: No standing army; no grants of Crown property; and no Dutchmen.

The influence of the agitation passed to Ireland in 1698, and accordingly, we have the following document with its short and sweet marginal note:

“Major Genl. Leveson, Brigd. Langston, Coll. Rosse, Coll. Echlin, and Coll. Conyngham, to discharge out of their Regt. all forrainers.”

The terms of the actual document are:

The Dutch Guards were driven by popular clamour out of England, and the foreigners in the army out of Ireland. Past services are proverbially soon forgotten.

The Threat from France

The dangers due to the designs of Louis XIV on the throne of Spain threatened to give defeat to William III in the lifelong duel between the two monarchs. The authorities regretted the disbandment of the four troops in 1700, and two troops were at once to be raised in 1701. In this year there was certainly one troop stationed at Kinsale. On the 13th of August order for money was granted for the regiment to be remounted:

There were six troops in an English regiment, but there were to be eight in the Eighth. The old dread of the Roman Catholic had by no means disappeared. None was to be allowed to serve in any regiment in Ireland, so runs an order of December 1701. Rewards were offered for their discovery, and threats of breaking and suspension were held over the heads of the Captain of the troop and the Colonel of the regiment if they knowingly allowed them to serve. Such soldiers were to be discharged with infamy and subsequently were to be prosecuted by law.

Orders and Instructions

As we now take a look at the orders and instructions for the period from 1693 to 1704 we come to understand how the actions of a regiment were then controlled. No doubt some of these orders and instructions are apt to seem to the casual reader merely tiresome material-perhaps to be skipped. Yet it is only by their perusal we can come to possess a grasp of what manner of men Conyngham’s Dragoons really were.

They had achieved great deeds at Derry and Enniskillen, at the Boyne and Aughrim, and at Limerick, before their actual formation in 1693. These deeds lay in the background of all their work from 1693 to 1704, and we can feel equally confident that the work from 1693 to 1704 enabled them to take their share in the War of the Spanish Succession.

The Purchase of a Commission

Commissions were purchased as a matter of course. In 1695 Colonel Hastings of the Thirteenth Foot had taken evidently more than the usual amount of money for commissions in his regiment.

In the Mutiny Act of this year a clause was inserted compelling officers to take the following oath before their commissions could be registered in the Commissary-General’s Office:

The oath was regularly taken by the newly-joined subaltern, and just as regularly violated. Generally speaking, the commission of a Lieutenant-Colonel cost about £3440, that of a Captain ranged from £1720 to about £6000, that of a Lieutenant ranged from £600 to £1075, that of a Cornet about £2100, and that of a Quarter-Master about £1000.

Of course, these are simply examples of the prices current towards the end of the seventeenth century, and they inevitably fluctuated with the state of the market.

In case you are wondering, by using the currency converter at The National Archives you will find that a hundred pounds then bought as much as £11,983.39 in 2017.

The exchange of an officer from one corps to another was freely permitted, but such exchange required royal sanction, even for exchange from one company or troop to another of the same regiment.

Rates of Subsistence

The daily rates of subsistence in Ireland in 1697 were:

Rank/Appointment	Rate (s/d)	Approx. worth in £ in 2017*
Colonel	5s 0d	£30.00
Lt Colonel	3s 0d	£18.00
Major	6s 8d	£40.00
Captain	5s 0d	£30.00
Lieutenant	3s 0d	£18.00
Cornet	2s 6d	£15.00
Adjutant	2s 6d	£15.00
Surgeon	3s 0d	£18.00
Quartermaster	2s 0d	£12.00
Chaplain	3s 4d	£20.00
Sergeant	1s 6d	£9.00
Corporal	1s 3d	£7.50
Drummer	1s 6d	£9.00
Private	9½d	£4.75

*The result of the calculation is intended to be a general guide to historical values, rather than a categorical statement of fact. For more information visit the currency converter at The National Archives.

In 1701 the daily rates of subsistence in the Eighth were:

Rank/Appointment	Rate (s/d)	Approx. worth in £ in 2017*
Colonel	12s 0d	£71.90
Lt Colonel	7s 0d	£42.00
Major	5s 0d	£30.00
Captain	10s 0d	£60.00
Lieutenant	5s 0d	£30.00
Cornet	4s 0d	£24.00
Adjutant	4s 0d	£24.00
Surgeon	4s 0d	£24.00
Quartermaster	3s 0d	£18.00
Chaplain	6s 8d	£40.00
Gunsmith	2s 8d	£16.00
Sergeant	2s 6d	£15.00
Corporal	2s 0d	£12.00
Drummer	1s 6d	£9.00
Private	1s 2d	£7.00

*The result of the calculation is intended to be a general guide to historical values, rather than a categorical statement of fact. For more information visit the currency converter at The National Archives.

Manpower

In 1701 the Eighth’s establishment was as follows:

The total strength of the Regiment: 575 personnel.

Pay

Nowadays, the colonelcy of a regiment is now honorary, given usually to a distinguished general.

In 1701 the colonel was the real commanding officer of what was called his regiment, but what was in a large measure his private property. He was always present with it, whether at home or in the field. He had his troop in the regiment, for which he drew pay as captain as well as his pay as colonel. The Paymaster-General sent the money due to the regiment to the colonel, and with the latter, its distribution entirely rested.

Once the money was issued, it is amazing to discover that there was no audit of the regimental accounts. The muster of the regiment is the assembling of the soldiers in order to ascertain if all nominally on its roll are really present. Such a muster was supposed to avoid fraud through the colonel claiming pay for men who simply existed on paper, and it afforded an opportunity for the regular inspection of men, horses, arms, and accoutrements by the Commissary.

For a time musters were taken monthly, but by an order of 1697, it was laid down that they were to be held at least four times a year.

The frauds at musters had become so grave, that in 1690 orders were issued that certificates of absence from sickness were to be signed in the commissary’s presence by the major or adjutant, by the surgeon, and by the two senior captains not belonging to the company to which the soldiers in question were attached.

For soldiers on furlough, there were to be similar stringent certificates. The rolls were to be finally closed on the spot, and the parchment copy was to be transmitted by the very next post to the Commissary-General, who passed it on to the Paymaster-General.

In order to distribute the pay and keep the accounts, the colonel employed a civilian clerk, who received no salary, but paid the colonel for his appointment. In time this clerk became the agent, who practically occupied the position of a modern regimental paymaster. Some of these agents looked after two, three or even seven regiments.

The Commissary exercised some check over the appearance of fictitious names in the musters: the agent exercised none, and as a matter of fact, often he created such names. Indeed there were loopholes of which even the conscientious colonel need not hesitate to take advantage. Was not his servant a soldier? Could he not claim pay for him? Inevitably the number of servants increased, and in 1698 there were six or seven of them in each troop!

The question of servants was not the only ambiguous one. If a man died or was discharged after a muster, was not the captain entitled to the money thus due? If the captain did this, why should not the colonel do the like in his company? If the captain kept vacancies in the ranks unfilled and also kept the pay for such vacancies, why should not the colonel keep vacancies in the officers unfilled and also keep the pay for such vacancies?

With a view to stamping out the creation of fictitious names, the muster roll indicated precisely the age, place of birth, date of enlistment, and even the complexion of each soldier. Yet if the colonel was allowed six servants-this was his legitimate allowance; the lieutenant colonel, major, or captain, three; and the subaltern two, it certainly, in spite of the muster roll, left room for loopholes.

The pay of the soldier was divided into three parts:

First of all, there was his subsistence money at the regulated rate of one and two pence out of one and sixpence for a Dragoon.

There were, secondly, the gross off-reckonings, which was the difference between the total pay and subsistence.

Lastly, there were the net off-reckonings, which were the balance of the gross reckonings after all lawful deductions. The net off-reckonings formed the clothing fund of the regiment, and the colonel exercised sole control over it.

Leave of Absence

The Sovereign granted the licence or leave of absence except to General Officers or Members of Parliament who might absent themselves at discretion. In the absence of the Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Justices granted leave to officers. No matter how much the question of precedence vexed the soul of Brigadier Conyngham, the question of leave did not. Was he not an M.P., entitled to as much leave as he pleased?

Not more than one-third of the number of officers could be given a licence of leave. The limit of leave was supposed to be two months in the year, but this was as much a supposition as to the accuracy of the muster roll. For it is not unusual to meet with leave for six months. Leave for a year was not unknown, though in this case the officer usually went abroad in order to pursue the improvement of his education.

Two officers were always to remain with each troop.

Running the Regiment – Regimental Staff

The lieutenant colonel was simply the deputy or lieutenant of the all-important colonel. He was then the senior captain of the regiment, retaining a troop and taking rank above the captains.

The title of major is simply a contraction of sergeant-major, and in his duties he combined the functions of the major and the sergeant-major of our day, adding to them much of the work now assigned to the adjutant.

In fact, he was pretty well a maid of all work. He formed the medium of communication between the colonel and the regiment; he received and distributed into their proper channel all orders, detailed parties and guards, and visited or inspected the latter; he drilled and exercised the regiment, corrected errors or disorder on parade or on the march, and saw that the men had their quarters or their tents in due order.

At first the major had no troop, but on the 27th of June, 1698, a warrant allowed the majors that have troops three shillings a day for subsistence, in addition to their subsistence as captain.

The colonel, the lieutenant-colonel, and the major constituted the regimental “Field-Officers,” who did not take a place in the ranks, but ranged over the whole space of operations, as they were officers of the field. These three Field Officers, with the adjutant, the quarter-master, and the surgeon, formed the regimental staff.

All the other officers, the captain, the lieutenant, and the cornet, were troop officers.

Running the Regiment – Appointments

The senior lieutenant acted as captain of the colonel’s troop, being designated the captain-lieutenant. As such, he took precedence as the youngest captain. The two next senior lieutenants acted in a similar capacity for the companies of the lieutenant colonel and the major respectively. The cornet carried the colours of the troop. The guidon was simply the standard colour rounded and slit at the end, and the designation of the standards of dragoons as guidons persisted to the nineteenth century.

The colonel appointed the chaplain, the surgeon, and the quarter-master, as well as the agent. The quarter-master ranked between the commissioned and the non-commissioned grades. His rank then, however, was higher than it is today, for we often meet with officers on half-pay or even full-pay seeking it. A regiment of horse or dragoons had a quarter-master to every troop. It was the duty of the quarter-master to arrange for the distribution of quarters and billets, the receipt and the distribution of regimental supplies and stores of all kinds.

Recruits

The age of the recruit was from seventeen to forty.

The power of the colonel is apparent in the regulation that no captain could enlist soldiers till they were first examined by the colonel, “nor,” adds the proclamation of the 26th of July, 1697, “shall any soldier be disbanded but by consent or order of the Colonel or Officer Chief commanding” the regiment.

Men had to obtain permission to marry, and married men were not in favour.

At the great reduction of 1697, on the termination of the Nine Years’ War, the married men were discharged whether they desired it or not, while the unmarried ones were forced to remain. In 1698 the Eighth. was composed of single men. It was generally considered desirable to recruit the regiments from the counties where they were originally raised or to which their colonels belonged.

Accommodation

In billets, the soldier was to pay fair prices, which must not exceed his subsistence money. He paid for his provisions and forage, and the billet found quarters, light and fuel. Nor was the landlord compelled to furnish soldiers with more than “lodging and candle, and to let them have the necessary use of one fire with those of the family”: he was not even forced to supply salt, pepper or vinegar.

Billeting led to such trouble with the civilian population that we are surprised to find the army forty-two years in existence before there were permanent barracks. In 1697 the erection of such barracks in Ireland was first sanctioned, and then, as its many advantages presented themselves, it was continued. Inns were the only quarters sanctioned by the Mutiny Act. As there were very few of them in Ireland, there was an urgent necessity for the construction of barracks. The very next year several eight-day camps were formed at different places in Ireland.

Clothing and Equipment

As the net off-reckonings from the soldiers’ pay provided his clothing, the proclamation of the 26th of July, 1697, states that every year he was supposed to receive one pair of breeches, one hat; every two years one coat of better cloth than usually, and one cap; and every three years one cloak., one housing, one saddlery and harness, with a sword, bayonet, belt, cartouch-boxes and slings.

After 1697 a deduction for medicines at the rate of twenty pounds a year was made. In spite of the fact that the subsistence money of the soldier was supposed to be untouchable, yet we find by the orders, issued at Dublin on the 10th of July, 1699, and the 20th of October, 1699, that the deduction for’ medicines came “out of the monthly subsistence of the regiments to which the same was delivered.”

In 1698 the contractor for bread was not bound to supply more than a pound to each man daily. It is scarcely credible that throughout the wars in Ireland and Flanders the full value of provisions issued to the regiments was charged. It is even more incredible that troops paid not merely for the arms they carried but also for the powder and ball they shot against the enemy.

Dragoons wore a sort of cap as well as a hat and were the only troops, save the Horse Grenadiers, to whom both were issued. As a rule, the face was clean-shaven, with the exception of the grenadiers, who were sometimes allowed to grow hair on the face. In 1695 it had become common to club the wig or the hair behind in order to keep it out of the way, thus giving rise to the pigtail.

The cravats of the officers were rich and voluminous, those of the men plain and less voluminous. The coat, which used to be collarless, grew gradually longer and fuller in the skirts.

About 1696 it was looped back onto a button placed on the sides in such a way that the two corners of each skirt met on the button. As a rule, dragoons wore waistcoats. Coats were lined and faced on the cuff’s with the regimental colour, whence the term “facings.”

The coats of drummers were of the colour of the regimental facings with red facings. The cavalry, whether Horse or Dragoons, always had loose cloaks with small capes to them,’ and these were of scarlet or red cloth often faced with the regimental colour. These cloaks were carried en croupe, rolled up and attached to the saddle by straps.

Dragoons wore cloth breeches. The Horse wore jacked-boots and Foot shoes, while the Dragoons wore a sort of short boot, termed by the French “bottines.” All officers, from the General to the Sergeant, whether of Horse, Dragoons, or Foot, wore the sash. With commissioned officers, its fringes were of gold or silver.

Weapons of War

The arms of a trooper were at first a sword, a pair of pistols fourteen inches long in the barrel, a cuirass, or rather a back and breast, and a pott or iron skull cap. Carbines were added before 1696. Sword belts, carbine belts, and cartridge boxes completed the accoutrements of troopers.

In 1695 dragoons still carried “leather bags” or grenade pouches, bayonets, and cartouch-boxes. When they ceased to have pistols we do not know. In 1697, however, we note that the Eighth was refused leave to provide themselves with them.

Swords, of course, formed part of the armament of dragoons, and the sword of the Eighth in 1697 was styled “a good broad sword.”

The term crossbelts are applied to the sword and carbine belts crossing each other on the chest.

In the days to come, the Eighth were to make a name for themselves in action, at Almenara, and accordingly, it was given the privilege of wearing cross belts as a mark of honour.