The Northamptonshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in the county of Northamptonshire in the English Midlands. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572, the Militia units of Northamptonshire provided internal security and home defence during times of international tension and major wars, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. The Northamptonshire Militia also served overseas at various times in Ireland and Gibraltar. In 1860 it amalgamated with the neighbouring Rutland Militia to form a new regiment.
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 as the posse comitatus, 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.D'Arcy, pp. 1–14.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Gurney, pp. 246–53.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1.J.E. Morris, 'Introduction', pp. xxix–xxxvi, in Wake (ed).
Under this statute 'Commissioners of Array' would levy the required number of men from each shire. The usual shire contingent was 1000 infantry commanded by a millenar, divided into companies of 100 commanded by centenars or constables, and subdivided into platoons of 20 led by vintenars. (John E. Morris, the historian of Edward's Welsh Wars writing in 1901, likened this process to calling out the militia battalion of the county regiment.)Morris, Welsh Wars, pp. 92–7. King Edward I made use of this mechanism in his Welsh and Scottish campaigns. As an inland county Northamptonshire avoided most of these demands, but King Edward II called the first national levy in July 1322 for his Scottish campaign. The Northampton county contingent was 440 strong at the rendezvous at Newcastle upon Tyne, dwindling to 247 when it reached Leith a few weeks later; Northampton town had been assessed to supply 40 of these men. Thereafter Northamptonshire provided soldiers for all six national levies between 1322 and 1338 for service in Scotland or Flanders. Soldiers raised for the overseas campaigns of the Hundred Years War were not county conscripts but volunteers paid under contract, while the forces raised during civil conflicts such as the Wars of the Roses were mainly retainers of the great magnates.Fissel, p. 218.J.E. Morris, 'Introduction', pp. xxxvii–xlvii, in Wake (ed).Traquair, pp. 227–9.
Threatened with invasion in 1539 King Henry VIII called a great muster of all able-bodied men by county and hundred, and on 31 April Northamptonshire reported as follows:Hay, pp. 372–4.Hay, p. 68. Fawsley Hundred: 325 men Nobottle Hundred: 170 men Norton Warden and King's Sutton Hundreds: 200 archers, 300 billmen, 100 'harnesses' (armour) Corby Hundred: 754 men Willybrook Hundred: 253 men Spelhoe Hundred: 27 archers, 64 billmen, 23 harnesses Wymersley Hundred: 59 archers, 77 billmen, 44 harnesses Guilsborough Hundred: 269 archers, 93 billmen, 176 harnesses Rothwell Hundred: 107 archers, 26 billmen, 81 harnesses Higham Ferrers Hundreds: 94 men Hawfordes How Hundred: 78 men Huxloe Hundred: 161 men Orlingbury Hundred: 68 men Polebrook and Navisford Hundred: 158 men Nassaburgh Hundred (the Soke of Peterborough): 244 men
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 in 1569 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).Beckett, p. 20.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, Appendix I.Cruickshank, p. 25.D'Arcy, pp. 14–6.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.J.E. Morris, 'Introduction', pp. xlvi, xlix–li, lxxx–lxxxi, in Wake (ed).
The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to an increase in training and in 1586 the inland counties were placed under lords-lieutenant (Sir Christopher Hatton for Northamptonshire), ordered to appoint captains and muster-masters.Boynton, p. 96.J.E. Morris, 'Introduction', pp. lii–lxv, in Wake (ed). The TBs were placed on alert in April 1588, when Northamptonshire reported that it had 600 trained and 640 untrained foot, 20 lancers and 80 light horsemen, and 80 pioneers. The TBs were mobilised on 23 July when warning of the invasion Armada arrived. The Northamptonshire contingent of 4 companies of foot and 2 troops of horse joined the Queen's armies mustering at Islington and Tilbury, where they remained until the Armada had been defeated.Beckett, pp. 24–5.D'Arcy, pp. 16–9.Hay, pp. 93, 96.J.E. Morris, 'Introduction', pp. lxvi–lxvii, lxxxvi, xcii–xciii, in Wake (ed).Wake, Appendix IV.
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 Northamptonshire supplied 1059 levies for service in Ireland, 450 for France and 600 for the Netherlands. 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. Later, Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia', answering to the king rather than local control.Beckett, pp. 33–9.Fissel, pp. 174–8. In 1639 and 1640, Charles tried 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.Fissel, pp. 207–8, 211–2, 232–8, 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, 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, or using the TBs as auxiliary units for garrisons.Beckett, pp. 42–3.D'Arcy pp. 16–27.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.
As Parliament tightened its grip on the country after the Second English Civil War, it passed new Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. From now on, 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.Holmes, pp. 94–100. Many militia regiments were called out in 1651 during the Scottish invasion in which the Northamptonshires were part of a militia rendezvous at Northampton and then joined Cromwell's army at the Battle of Worcester.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
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 lieutenants, 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. Their early duties included seizing arms from dissidents, suppressing non-conformist religious assemblies and mounting standing guards in towns.D'Arcy, pp. 28–9.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Western, pp. 3–16, 27–36.
As before, communities and wealthier individuals were assessed to pay for the arms and training of varying numbers of militiamen. In Northamptonshire the deputy lieutenants complained at the slowness of the settlement and there were objections to the inequitable nature of some assessments. In this county the foot were mainly supplied by the townships, their contributions being generally small. In Nobottle Hundred in 1663, 13 towns contributed 24 musketeers and 10 pikemen, five clergymen supplied four musketeers, and three individuals were charged with two musketeers.D'Arcy, pp. 30–8.Hatley, pp. ix–xvWestern, pp. 21, 24, 28.
The restored monarchy was anxious to cut off any means for the disaffected to revolt in future, and in 1662 ordered the destruction of fortifications where there was no permanent garrison. This included the town walls of Northampton. The joint lords lieutenant of Northamptonshire, the Earls of Westmorland and Exeter, were ordered to enter the town with the trained bands and see that the work was carried out. The deputy lieutenants gathered as many militiamen as they could while the harvest was in progress and occupied the town on 9 July. They found 200 muskets stored in the town hall and more in the vestry of the great church, and they put these under guard. The two earls entered the town next day and summoned the mayor and other dignitaries to receive the government's orders. Demolition cost almost £136 (the government had only allowed £50), but was carried out without any trouble.Western, pp. 32–3.
When the Royal Navy lost the Four Days' Battle in June 1666 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the militia were mobilised to face a possible invasion. The Northamptonshires were called out, and Northampton was nominated as one of the towns where the militia horse of the inland counties were collected as a strategic reserve. However, the navy regained supremacy with the St. James's Day Battle on 25 July, and the militia were dispersed on 6 August. Western, p. 41.
Under James II the militia of South West England served during the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, but thereafter the king diverted militia money to his growing Regular Army. The militia resumed their role during his successor, William III, and the Northamptonshires were embodied during an invasion scare in 1690.D'Arcy, pp. 38–9. The militia were mustered for annual training until the Treaty of Utrecht and the accession of King George I. After that they passed into virtual abeyance, though the Northamptonshires were called out in October 1715 during the Jacobite rising. The Lord Lieutenant, John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, commanded the Foot regiment himself, with Sir John Humble as major. The county's militia were also raised during the Jacobite rising of 1745 (which invaded England as far as Derbyshire).Fortescue, Vol II, p. 133.Markham, pp. 2–3.Western, p. 73.
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. 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.