The Royal Wiltshire Militia was an auxiliary regiment of the British Army from the English county of Wiltshire. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 until their final service in the Special Reserve, the Militia regiments of the county carried out internal security and garrison duties at home and overseas in all of Britain's major wars. The Wiltshire Militia was active in suppressing Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685 and was present at the Battle of Sedgemoor. It became a battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment in 1881 and trained thousands of reservists and recruits during World War I. It maintained a shadowy existence until final disbandment 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 Sheriffs. Wiltshire levies served in Alfred the Great's army of Wessex that defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington at Westbury in 878. The shire levies continued under the Norman kings, and were reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Hay, pp. 11–17, 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Kenrick, Appendix V.
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.) King Edward I made use of this mechanism in this Welsh and Scottish campaigns. As an inland county Wiltshire avoided most of these demands, but King Edward II called the first national levy in July 1322 for his failed Scottish campaign. Thereafter Wiltshire provided soldiers for all six national levies between 1322 and 1338 for service in the Scottish Wars and Flanders campaign.Morris, pp. 92–7.Fissel, pp. 181, 218.Traquair, pp. 227–9.
When invasion threatened in 1539, Henry VIII held a Great Muster of all the counties, recording the number of armed men available in each hundred and tithing. The detailed list for Wiltshire, including the city of Salisbury, has some 5,900 men.Hay, pp. 17, 73–4.
Wiltshire 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 (DLs) 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. Wiltshire was one of the southern counties called upon to send troops to suppress the Rising of the North in 1569. Although the militia obligation was universal, this assembly confirmed that it was impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man. After 1572, the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands (TBs), who were mustered for regular training.Beckett, pp. 20, 23–4.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2.Cruickshank, pp. 17, 24–5, 130–4.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125.Hay, p. 88.
The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to an increase in training. From 1584 the government emphasised the 17 'maritime' counties most vulnerable to attack, which included Wiltshire. These were given a smaller quota of men to fill, but were expected to train them better, for which they were supplied with experienced captains. Wiltshire was to supply 1,200 trained men, divided into 700 'shot' (equipped with firearms), 200 bowmen and 300 'corslets' (armoured men, signifying pikemen).Boynton, pp. 95–7, Appendix I. During the Spanish Armada crisis in 1588, the county supplied its 1,200 trained men, formed into companies of 100, together with 25 lancers and 100 light horsemen, and a further 1,200 untrained men who would have acted as pioneers.Hay, pp. 92, 96.Hay, pp. 394–5.
In the 16th century, little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. Between 1585 and 1601 Wiltshire supplied 795 levies for service in Ireland, 350 for France, and 560 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 cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–9, 126, 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 1638 the Wiltshire TBs (including the Salisbury Trained Band) consisted of 1,285 musketeers and 1,115 corslets; in addition the TB Horse comprised 30 lancers and 126 light horse.Wiltshire TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
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, Wiltshire was ordered to march 1,300 men to Newcastle upon Tyne. Some Wiltshire trained bandsmen protested at having to pay the tax for the levy (coat-and-conduct money), arguing that their service gave them exemption. When these protesters were imprisoned at Marlborough their comrades broke them out. A Wiltshire company mustered at Warminster refused to serve under Captain Drury, a suspected Roman Catholic, because he would not take communion with them. When the army marched north, Colonel Sir John Beaumont's regiment of West Countrymen from Wiltshire, Somerset and Bristol marauded through Derbyshire, being encouraged by the local inhabitants to break down the hated enclosures, destroying a mill belonging to the unpopular former Secretary of State, Sir John Coke and threatening to burn down his house. Beaumont and his officers were unable to control them. The Scottish campaign ended in failure.Fissel, pp. 151, 207–8, 247–50, 260–3, 272–3, 285–6.
Civil War 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.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9. Wiltshire generally supported Parliament, which appointed Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, to organise the Wiltshire TBs. However, the Royalists quickly overran the county, capturing Marlborough in 1642 and raising the siege of Devizes in 1643 by winning the Battle of Roundway Down. The New Model Army did not capture Devizes until 1645.
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 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 (the Worcester campaign) and the Wiltshires were part of a concentration ordered at Gloucester.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
Restoration Militia
During the turmoil over the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1661, the Wiltshire Militia were deployed to seize arms and secure suspected persons, with two companies of foot at Malmesbury and a troop of horse at Devizes.Scott, p. 91. The English Militia was re-established in 1662 under the Militia Act of 1661. It was once again 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. In 1661 the deputy lieutenants of Wiltshire were urged to organise their militia quickly and asked for additional DLs to be appointed, because so many of them were officeholders in London and frequently absent from the county. The Wiltshire Militia was soon active in hunting down 'fanaticks' from the previous regime.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Scott, p. 75.Western, pp. 3–29. When the Dutch carried out a Raid on the Medway in June 1667, Wiltshire was ordered to send three foot companies and a troop of horse to bolster the defences of the Isle of Wight.Western, p. 42.
The hundreds of Wiltshire were traditionally organised into four 'divisions' centred on Salisbury (or 'Sarum'), Marlborough, Devizes and Warminster, and after the Restoration each division provided a regiment of foot and a troop of horse. By 1685 these were as follows:Scott, pp. 95, 97–8, 115–21; Tables 2.2.4, 3.1.2, 3.1.5, 3.1.10, 3.2.5; Map 3.1.2; Appendix 1.
Salisbury Regiment (The Red Regiment) – 5 companies, 540 men, under Colonel John Wyndham of Norrington, Member of Parliament (MP) for SalisburyScott, p. 73.Wyndham at History of Parliament Online. Lieutenant-Colonel John Young of Little DurnfordYoung at History of Parliament Online. Major William Hearst Captain Gabriel Ashby Captain John Davenant of Landford Marlborough Regiment (The Blue Regiment) – Col Ducket? Devizes Regiment (The Green Regiment) – Col Henry ChiversChivers at History of Parliament Online. Warminster Regiment (The Yellow Regiment) – Col Edward Baynton, JP New Sarum Company (The Mayor's Men) – 1 company, 110 men Wiltshire Horse, 4 troops, 230 men – Col Thomas Penruddocke, DL, former MP for WiltonPenruddocke at History of Parliament Online. Maj Sharington Talbot of Lacock Abbey, MP for ChippenhamSharington Talbot at History of Parliament Online. Capt Willoughby Capt Maskelyn
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. As his rebels mustered, 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. The Wiltshire Militia mustered at Salisbury on 17 June under the command of Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire. The whole Wiltshire contingent probably totalled some 2000 foot and 200 horse.Scott, pp. 122–3; Tables 2.1.2, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 3.2.2.