The Rutlandshire Militia, later the Rutland Light Infantry, was an auxiliary military unit from the small English Midland county of Rutland. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 the Militia of Rutland served during times of international tension and major wars. They provided internal security and home defence, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties, and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. The regiment was amalgamated with that of neighbouring Northamptonshire in 1860.
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. It continued under the Norman kings, notably at the Battle of the Standard (1138). The force was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285. The main threats were from Scotland, Wales or France: as an inland county in the Midlands, Rutland avoided most of the demands.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1.
Rutlandshire Trained Bands The legal basis of the militia was updated by two Acts of 1557 covering musters and the maintenance of horses and armour. 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, the disorderly force assembled against the Rising of the North confirmed that 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). They were trained by professional captains and muster-masters for up to 10 days each year. Full musters were held about every three years when the arms and armour were inspected.Beckett, Amateur Tradition, p. 20.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, Appendix I.Cruickshank, p. 25.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.
The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to an increase in training. At first the government emphasised the 17 'maritime' counties most vulnerable to attack, and it was not until 1586 that the inland counties were placed under lords-lieutenant, ordered to appoint captains and muster-master corporals and to intensify training.Boynton, p. 96. The TBs were placed on alert in April 1588 and brought to an hour's notice in June. When warning of the invasion Armada arrived the TBs were mobilised on 23 July. The number of men mustered by Rutland does not appear to be separately listed.Beckett, Amateur Tradition, pp. 24–5.Hay, pp. 89–96.
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 Rutlandshire supplied 220 levies for service in Ireland and 50 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 burden on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–9, 62, 113, 182, Appendix 3.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century. Training for the TBs dropped to two days a year from 1601. From 1623 TB training was stepped up, and this was pursued enthusiastically by King Charles I who attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the crown rather than local control. The 1624 levy conscripted 5 farm workers, 15 labourers, 1 gentleman, 2 yeomen and 23 craftsmen from Rutland.Beckett, Amateur Tradition, pp. 33–9.Fissel, pp. 174–8., 231 When Sir Jacob Astley inspected the Rutlandshire TBs in 1638 they consisted of 60 musketeers and 40 corslets (body armour, signifying pikemen); in addition the TB Horse comprised 30 light horse.Fissel, pp. 197–9.Rutland TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
Civil Wars In 1639 and 1640 Charles attempted to employ the TBs for the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. However, many of those sent on this unpopular service were untrained replacements and conscripts, and many officers were corrupt or inefficient. For the Second Bishops' War of 1640 Rutlandshire was ordered to march 60 men to Newcastle upon Tyne for service in Scotland, but there was considerable opposition across the county. It seems that many of the trained bandsmen nationwide escaped service and raw substitutes were sent in their place. With the harvest approaching, Rutland sent no yeomen or farmworkers out of the county. The Scottish campaign ended in failure.Fissel, pp. 207–8, 231, 247–50, 260–3.
Control of the TBs was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War. When open warfare broke out in 1642 neither side made much use of the TBs beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops who would serve anywhere in the country, many of whom were former trained bandsmen.Beckett, Amateur Tradition pp. 42–3.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.
Once Parliament had re-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. During the Scottish invasion of 1651 the Rutland Militia was ordered to a rendezvous with other regiments at Northampton in August, but unlike some of the revived county militias it did not serve in the Worcester Campaign. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.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 of 1661 under the control of the king's lords-lieutenant, the men to be selected by parishes or paid substitutes. Companies would be trained for two days four times a year, and brought together for four days' annual regimental training. 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 now entrusted to the militia. In the early years of King Charles II's reign the militia's duties included suppressing non-conformist religious assemblies under the Conventicle Act 1664, and providing a system of 'standing guards', with each half troop or half company in turn doing seven days' continuous service. The militia were called out for national defence during the Anglo-Dutch wars.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, pp. 3–16, 33–7.
The situation changed when King James II came to the throne in 1685. The militia were embodied during the Monmouth Rebellion that year, and those in the West Country did see action against the rebels. However, after Monmouth's defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor James downgraded the militia in favour of building up his standing army. The militia played almost no part when Prince William of Orange landed in the West Country in November 1688, and James's regime collapsed in the 'Glorious Revolution'.Western, pp. 73–4.
The Militia continued to be mustered periodically under William's reign. In 1697 the counties were required to submit detailed lists of their militia, when the Rutlands under the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Sherard, consisted of one company of foot, 93 strong, under Capt Millesburne Sill, and a troop of 53 horse under the Lord-Lieutenant's son, Capt Bennet Sherard, Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland.Hay, p. 125
The militia mustered for annual training until the Treaty of Utrecht and the accession of King George I. It was of little use against the Jacobite rising of 1715, and fell into virtual abeyance across the whole country in the following years.Fortescue, Vol II, p. 133.
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.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302.Hay, pp. 136–44.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Rutland was assessed to raise a corps of 120 men. As a small county, the property qualification for militia officers in Rutland was lowered in order to find enough of them. The corps was raised at Oakham by the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, the Earl of Exeter, who later appointed George Bridges Brudenell, MP for Rutland, to the command. The order to issue it with arms was given on 27 November 1759. The Rutlandshire Militia was first embodied for permanent service on 15 December following.Frederick, p. 227.Gurney, pp. 248–53.Markham, pp. 165, 206.Parkyn (1936).Western, Appendices A & B.Rutland Militia at Regiments.org (archived at the Wayback Machine).
In January 1760 the two companies of the corps were quartered at Oakham and Uppingham, then in May they were ordered to Bristol, with a detachment at Portishead. The duties included guarding French prisoners of war. After five months the corps was ordered back to Rutland, and stayed there until late in 1761, during which it was employed escorting prisoners of war through northern England. In June 1762 it was moved to Hull and Barton-upon-Humber. However, the war was coming to an end, and the corps was marched back to its home county in July, where it was disembodied early in December. Thereafter it carried out its month's training in 1765, 1766, 1769, 1772 and 1773. In May 1776, it was training at Oakham when the men were sent to help fight a fire that threatened to destroy the nearby village of Belton.Markham, pp. 166–8.
The militia was disembodied in 1762 as the war was coming to an end, and continued with their annual training thereafter.
American War of Independence The militia was embodied on 31 March 1778 during the War of American Independence when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. On embodiment the two companies of the Rutlands were commanded by captains the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham and William Burton. In addition to their balloted men, regiments were permitted to augment their strength by a company recruited from volunteers. It became common to assemble the militia in summer training camps alongside Regular forces. In June the Rutlands were ordered to Warley Camp in Essex, where the corps spent five months, before marching back to Oakham for winter quarters. The route was roundabout, the War Office apparently being unaware where Oakham was.Markham, pp. 168–70.Steppler, pp. 10–12.Western, p. 209. In 1778 the Rutlands were at Warley Camp.Carman.