The Oxfordshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in the English county of Oxfordshire. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572, the Militia of Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire Militia was active in suppressing Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685 and served overseas at various times in Ireland and the Ionian Islands. It became a battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry 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. 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.Maitland, pp. 162, 276. When invasion threatened in 1539 King Henry VIII held a Great Muster of all the counties, recording the number of armed men available in each Hundred, but although the muster for Oxfordshire was certified on 25 April the details have not survived.Hay, pp. 62, 70.
Oxfordshire 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 (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. Oxfordshire 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, 96.Cruickshank, pp. 17, 24–5, 130–4.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125.Hay, p. 88.Maitland, pp. 234–5, 278.
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 such as Oxfordshire were placed under lords-lieutenant and ordered to train. During the Spanish Armada crisis in 1588, the county supplied its 1144 trained men, organised into bands under captains, together with 23 lancers, 103 light horsemen, and 32 'petronels' (a petronel was an early cavalry firearm).Boynton, p. 96.Hay, p. 91.Hay, pp. 362–3.
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 Oxfordshire supplied 544 levies for service in Ireland, 440 for France and 650 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'. However, Oxfordshire was reprimanded in 1586 for levying vagabonds to rid the county of 'idle people', rather than helping the Queen's service. Men from Oxford were allowed 'conduct money' for eight days for the journey to Chester, the embarkation port for Ireland. Replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy burden on the counties: for one levy for Ireland Oxfordshire had to commandeer arms from citizens and pay them compensation.Cruickshank, pp. 25–9, 62, 113, 126, Appendix 3.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century. Later, King 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 Oxfordshire TBs consisted of 500 musketeers and 350 corslets (body armour, signifying pikeman); in addition the TB Horse comprised 40 lancers and 40 light horse.Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire was ordered to march 600 men to Newcastle upon Tyne. Once again, it seems that many of the trained bandsmen nationwide escaped service and raw substitutes were sent in their place. The Scottish campaign ended in failure.Fissel, pp. 207–8, 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 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, or using the TBs as auxiliary units for garrisons.Beckett, pp. 42–3.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Maitland, pp. 325–6. On 1 September the Oxford TBs prevented Royalist supporters and students from destroying Osney Bridge, but soon afterwards the city became the Royalist headquarters. In November 1643 the regiment was paraded on Bullingdon Green, but the men chose to be disarmed rather than turn out for the Royalists. Subsequently, the Royalists raised three auxiliary regiments for the defence of the city: Sir Nicholas Selwyn's Regiment of Foot, later Colonel William Legge's Regiment, known as the 'Oxford City Regiment', was raised from townsmen as a part-time garrison regiment in December 1643. Selwyn was a member of the Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners; Legge was Governor of the city from January 1645. The regiment served at the storm of Thame in September 1645.Selwyn's Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. The Earl of Dover's Oxford Auxiliary Regiment of Foot, known as the 'Regiment of Oxford Scholars' was raised in the city in April–May 1644 from 'scholars and strangers' at the University. Henry Carey, 1st Earl of Dover, had fought as a volunteer in the King's Lifeguard of Horse at the Battle of Edgehill.Dover's Oxford Auxiliaries at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Lord Keeper Littleton's Oxford Auxiliary Regiment of Foot (later the Duke of York's) commissioned in April 1644, raised in May from members of the Inns of Court (lawyers) and their servants. Edward, 1st Lord Littleton, was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal until his death in August 1645, when the Duke of York became the regiment's nominal colonel. It served in the relief of Greenland House in July 1645.Littleton's Oxford Auxiliaries at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
All three regiments served through the Sieges of Oxford in May–June 1645 and May–June 1646, and were presumably disbanded after its surrender and evacuation by the regular Royalist army in June 1646.
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 (the Worcester campaign) and in August the Oxfordshires were ordered to rendezvous with other Midland militia regiments at Northampton. The regiment did not fight at Worcester, but was probably with the 5000 militia held in reserve at Coventry.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
Restoration Militia
After the Restoration the English Militia was re-established by the Militia Act 1661 (13 Cha. 2 St. 1. c. 6) 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 duties included suppressing non-conformist religious assemblies: the Oxfordshires began breaking up meetings of Quakers in the county as soon as the order was given in 1660–61. The militia were also called out during the Anglo–Dutch wars.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Western, pp. 3–16, 33–4, 72.
Monmouth's Rebellion There was a general muster of the militia in 1685 after the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis on 11 June, launching the Monmouth Rebellion against King James II. The Earl of Abingdon as Lord-Lieutenant summoned the Oxfordshire Militia (a regiment of foot and a Troop of horse) who mustered at Oxford on 19 June. The horse, commanded by Abingdon's younger brother, Capt Henry Bertie, Member of Parliament for Oxford, rode out on 21 June towards the rebellion in the West Country. On 25 June the university resolved to raise volunteers to defend the city. A regiment of foot and a troop of horse were proposed, and on 28 June four waggon loads of muskets and pikes arrived from Windsor for the scholars to train with. Abingdon commanded and trained the horse himself. His eldest son, Lord Norreys, commanded the foot company raised at Christ Church College. Four other companies were raised by various colleges.Clark, pp. 144–52.Macaulay, Vol I, p. 290.
As the Royal army under the Earl of Feversham advanced into the West Country to meet the rebels, the Oxfordshire Militia first supported the Berkshire Militia at Reading in securing his lines of communication. The regiment then moved westwards, and when Monmouth summoned Bath on 26 June, it was held by a 500-strong garrison drawn from the Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Somerset militia regiments, which defied him. Next day, during the Battle of Norton St Philip, the Oxfordshires were drawn up together with the Somerset, Dorset and Hampshire Militia while the Regulars attempted to take the village. Although the rebels repulsed this attack, they did not dare to attack Feversham's position, and continued their retreat. The Oxfordshires were not present at the final Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July.Scott, pp. 98, 257, 264, 286–7; Table 2.1.1.Western, pp. 54–7. The Oxfordshire Militia returned to their homes on 14 July and the university volunteers were stood down on the same day.
The most detailed account of the militia in this campaign contends that James II deliberately belittled their performance to play down Monmouth's skill and to bolster his own plans for a large army under his own control.Scott, pp. 77–83. After the suppression of the rebellion he suspended militia musters and planned to use the counties' weapons and militia taxes to equip and pay his expanding Regular Army, which he felt he could rely upon, unlike the locally commanded militia. He removed lords-lieutenant whom he did not trust, including the Earl of Abingdon from Oxfordshire. When William of Orange landed in the West Country in 1688 and marched against James, the militia did not stir against him, and the Earl of Abingdon was the first peer to join him. Abingdon was soon restored to the lord-lieutenancy.Beckett, p. 55.Macaulay, Vol I, pp. 488, 573.