The Montgomeryshire Militia, later the Royal Montgomeryshire Rifles, was an auxiliary regiment reorganised in the Welsh county of Montgomeryshire during the 18th Century from earlier precursor units. Primarily intended for home defence, it served in Great Britain and Ireland during Britain's major wars. It later became part of the South Wales Borderers until it was disbanded in 1908.

Montgomeryshire Trained Bands

The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and extended to Wales, and its legal basis was updated by two acts of 1557 (4 & 5 Ph. & M. cc. 2 and 3), which placed selected men, the 'trained bands', under the command of county Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised Militia of England and Wales.Cruickshank, p. 17.Fissel, pp. 178–88.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16–23, 125.Hay, pp. 11–17, 60–1, 88.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Owen, pp. 13–4.

During the Armada crisis of 1588, Montgomeryshire furnished 300 trained and 300 untrained foot, together with 50 horse (1 lance (heavy cavalry), 19 light horse and 30 'petronel's (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm)).Hay, pp. 94, 96.Hay, p. 313. In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than send the Trained Bandsmen. Between 1585 and 1602 Montgomeryshire supplied 621 men for service in Ireland, and a further 75 for France. The men were given three days' 'conduct money' to get to Chester, the main port of embarkation for Ireland. Conduct money was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–7, 61, 126; Appendix 2.

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.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 190–5.Hay, pp. 97–8. In 1638 the Montgomery Trained Band consisted of 150 musketeers and 150 pikemen, with 50 men in the Montgomery Trained Band Horse.Montgomery Trained Bands at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. In 1640 the county was ordered to send a detachment of 200 men to Newcastle upon Tyne to take part in the Second Bishops' War.Fissel, pp. 207–8.

Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Wedgwood, pp. 28, 38, 41, 65–8, 95. When open war broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Most of Wales was under Royalist control for much of the war, and was a recruiting ground for the King's armies until Parliament captured Montgomery Castle in September 1644.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 201.Rogers, pp. 17–8, 191–2; Plates 7, 30, 32.Wedgwood, pp. 119–20.Mid-Wales and the Battle of Montgomery at BCW Project.

Montgomeryshire Militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Militia was re-established by the Militia Act 1661 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.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–6.

In Montgomeryshire there was a reluctance to muster and some refusals to pay the high levy to replace worn-out weapons with new ones sourced from a great distance away from the remote county. The militia forces in the Welsh counties were small, and were grouped together under the command of the Lord President of the Council of Wales.Western, pp. 10, 19, 37. As Lord President, the Duke of Beaufort carried out a tour of inspection of the Welsh militia in 1684. On entering Montgomeryshire on 19 July he was met by a Troop of mounted militia, and then inspected the four companies of foot militia near Welshpool.

In 1697 the county had 364 men under the command of Colonel Sir John Pryce, 3rd BaronetCokayne: Pryce. and 56 horse under Captain Mathew Price.Hay, p. 133.

Generally the militia declined in the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.Western, pp. 73–4. Jacobites were numerous amongst the Welsh Militia, but they did not show their hands during the Risings of 1715 and 1745, and bloodshed was avoided.

1757 reforms

Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. 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.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.

Montgomeryshire was given a quota of 240 men to raise,Western, Appendices A & B. but failed to do so. Major-General the Earl of Cholmondeley was Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire and several other counties, but found that he was unable to raise militia in any of his Welsh counties other than Flintshire.Western, pp. 124–5. The problem was less with the other ranks raised by ballot than the shortage of men qualified to be officers, even after the requirements were lowered for Welsh counties. Cholmondeley was replaced as lord lieutenant by the 1st Earl of Powis in 1761 and the Montgomeryshire Militia was finally raised on 11 May 1763 (the date its weapons were issued from the Tower of London) at Welshpool under the command of Sir John Powell Pryce, 6th Baronet. It was organised into three companies, each 80 strong.Frederick, p. 293.Owen, pp. 16–9. By then the war had ended with the Treaty of Paris, so the new regiment was not actually embodied. The men mustered for a few days' training, then dispersed to their homes. Parliament did however provide the money to continue training the militia in peacetime (two periods of 14 days or one period of 28 days each year). The Montgomeryshire regiment periodically assembled, usually by companies at convenient locations, though the whole regiment was mustered for training in 1772, when it was commanded by Viscount Hereford.Parkyn.Sleigh, p. 96.Western, pp. 189–94.

War of American Independence

The militia were called out in 1778 after the outbreak of the War of American Independence, when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 173–4, 295. The Montgomeryshire Militia were 'embodied' for permanent duty for the first time on 31 March 1778 at Welshpool. Viscount Hereford resigned the command and the 2nd Earl of Powis was appointed colonel in June. He obtained permission to 'augment' the regiment by an additional 80 men and from four to five companies (one of which now or later was a light company), though still smaller than an average regiment. The county quota was not increased so these men must have been obtained by voluntary enlistment rather than by ballot.Owen, pp. 19–20.

The Montgomeryshire Militia marched out of Welshpool on 8 June bound for the invasion-threatened county of Kent. It was stationed at Coxheath Camp near Maidstone, which was the army's largest training camp. Here the completely raw militia were exercised as part of a division alongside regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England. As an understrength unit the Montgomery Militia was attached to the artillery park with two other small Welsh regiments. On 6 November the regiment left the tented camp and moved into winter quarters in Maidstone.Owen, pp. 20–1.Herbert.

On 1 June 1779 the regiment began marching out to that summer's camp on the coast at Fairlight Down on the Sussex coast. It spent the winter in quarters at Ashford and Wye in Kent, where in January and April 1780 it received parties of recruits sent from Mellington and Welshpool in Montgomeryshire. From 8 June to 28 October the regiment was in camp at Dartford. Eight officers and 10 other ranks claimed leave to go home to vote in the 1780 general electionWestern, p. 257. Then the whole regiment was ordered back to Montgomeryshire, arriving at Bishop's Castle on 2 November and taking up quarters at Montgomery, Welshpool and Newtown.

While the regiment was in its home county the Earl of Powis attempted to augment it by an additional company raised by voluntary enlistment. But the legislation to allow this was unclear, and in April 1781 the War Office refused Powis permission to raise the company.Western, pp. 212–5. The regiment marched back to Kent in June 1781, spending the summer at Lenham Heath Camp between Maidstone and Ashford. This year an inspecting general found that 220 of the muskets issued to the regiment in 1775 were unfit for service.Western, pp. 342–3. The Montgomeryshires spent the winter of 1781–2 quartered in Croydon, Surrey, and Bromley, Kent. They returned to Coxheath Camp for the summer of 1782, then wintered in Dartford, with the Light Company detached to Maidstone. The Peace of Paris ended the war in 1783, and in February the regiment was sent home to Montgomeryshire to be disembodied.

In its disembodied state the regimental headquarters (HQ) and armoury in Welshpool were manned by the permanent staff of sergeants, corporals and drummers under the adjutant and sergeant-major. All the arms other than those of the permanent staff were returned to the Tower of London.Owen, p. 22. From 1784 to 1792 the militia were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1. The whole of the Montgomeryshire Militia were mustered for annual training in the spring of 1787

French Revolutionary War Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793 and the Montgomeryshire Militia were embodied next day. However, under pressure of mobilisation the Tower of London could not supply any weapons, and apart from the permanent staff the regiment was unarmed when it was sent to Bridgnorth on 26 March. On 15 April it was ordered to stand by to go to Birmingham to act in aid of the civil power, but was clearly unable to carry out the duty. Finally, in late May it was marched to Cirencester where the weapons and stores were delivered. On 15 July it moved to Taunton, which remained its station until the following year, apart from a brief deployment to Exeter in October, and being billeted at Langport and Somerton in November to allow a unit of Yorkshire Militia to use the quarters while passing through Taunton.Owen, pp. 23–6.

The militia were augmented by Act of Parliament in 1794 and the Montgomeryshires were increased by two companies (145 men), the first on 8 April 1794 and the second on 13 February 1795. These were filled by voluntary enlistment rather than by the ballot, the bounty money for the volunteers being raised by patriotic subscriptions within the county.Hay, p. 146.