The Devon Trained Bands were a part-time militia force recruited from Devonshire in South West England, first organised in 1558. They were periodically embodied for home defence and internal security, including the Spanish Armada campaign in 1588, and saw active service during the First English Civil War. They were reformed into the Devon Militia in 1662.
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 as the Shire levy or Posse comitatus under the Norman kings, and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285.Fissel, pp. 178–80. Hay, pp. 11–17, 60–1.Scott, pp. 55–8.Walrond, pp. 1–4.
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 placed under the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace. The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England.Cruickshank, pp. 17–25.Fissel, pp. 184–87.Fortescue, p. 12.Hay, pp. 25, 88.Scott, pp. 61–2.
The Earl of Bedford was appointed lieutenant for the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Exeter, and issued detailed orders for the organisation of the militia on 18 April 1558. He organised the men from the Hundreds of Devonshire into four groups for the defence of the harbours on the north and south coasts of the county:Walrond, pp. 6–9. Under Sir Thomas Denys, with 12 assistants and 9 'petty captains': the City of Exeter and the Hundreds of Wonford, Crediton, West Budleigh, Cliston, Ottery St Mary, Exminster, Teignbridge and Haytor – for the defence of Teignmouth, Tor Bay and Dartmouth, and all the creeks and landing-places in the hundreds Under Sir John St Leger, with 9 assistants and 8 petty captains: the Hundreds of Axminster, Halberton, Hemyock, Hayridge, Bampton, Sollington, Tiverton, Witheridge and East Budleigh – for the defence of Axmouth Haven, Exmouth, and the creeks between there and Lyme Under Sir John Chichester, with 10 assistants and 8 petty captains: the Hundreds of Braunton, Shirwell, Fremington, Shebbear, Hartland, Black Torrington, South Molton, North Tawton and Winkleigh – for the defence of Hartland, Clovelly, Welcombe Sands, Ilfracombe, Combe Martin and all the creeks in the hundreds Under Sir Richard Edgcumbe, with 8 assistants and 7 petty captains: the Hundreds of Roborough, Ermington, Plympton, Tavistock, Lifton and Stanborough – for the defence of Plymouth Haven and the creeks from there to Kingsbridge
Most of these men would have been armed with longbows or bills, because the 1560 survey of arms and armour in Devonshire reported only two arquebuses. However, nine years later there were 595 arquebuses in the county, besides 112 in Exeter.Walrond, p. 9. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so the militia commissioners in some counties including Devon separated their able men aged 16 to 60 into three categories. 'Pryncipall' men were best suited for soldiering; those of the 'seconde' rank had some promise, while the remainder were classed as 'unable'. After 1572 it became the universal practice to select a proportion of the available men for the Trained Bands (TBs), who were mustered for regular training. In that year Devonshire mustered 9224 'able men', including tin-miners and mariners, under 53 Captains, but the musters were unsatisfactory, with many propertied people shirking their obligation to provide arms and armour. This earned the Earl of Bedford a rebuke from Queen Elizabeth I.Fissel, pp. 187–8.Fortescue, pp. 16, 125.Hay, pp. 26.Walrond, pp. 10–4.
By 1577 the Devon Trained Bands were divided into three divisions, each with two colonels and six captains:Walrond, pp. 14–5. East Division, Cols Sir William Courtenay and Sir Robert Denys North Division, Cols Hugh Fortescue and Hugh Pollard South Division, Cols Sir John Gilbert and Hugh Cary of Cockington By now the weapons consisted of 647 calivers (firearms), 651 longbows, 830 pikes and 1160 'black bills' and halberds, with 841 corslets (pikemen's armour) and 637 Morion helmets.
Spanish War The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to emphasis being placed on the 17 'maritime' counties most vulnerable to attack, and in 1584 the Devon TBs fielded more men than any other county: assessed at 1200 'shot' (men with firearms), 800 bowmen, and 1000 'corslets', the county actually provided more than was required in each category, a total of 3178 men.Boynton, Appendix I. In the Armada year of 1588 the three Devonshire Divisions (each of three large companies, totalling 3661 men) were instructed to join the army forming to defend the South Coast of England, while 1650 able-bodied untrained men remained to defend the county. Devon also supplied 150 light horsemen and 50 'petronels' (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm); it had no 'lances' (heavily armoured horsemen) but instead supplied 200 additional musketeers.Hay, pp. 91, 270.Walrond, pp. 15–7.
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 Devon supplied over 1490 levies for service in Ireland, 750 for France and 150 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, 291.
Stuart reform 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.Scott, pp. 62–3. In 1633 the Devon TBs under the 4th Earl of Bedford as Lord Lieutenant were organised as:Walrond, pp. 19–21.Devon Trained Bands 1633 at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. South Division: Col Sir Edward Seymour's Regiment: 585 muskets and 315 pikes in 6 companies Col Henry Champernowne's Regiment: 256 muskets and 125 pikes in 4 companies (from the South Hams area) South Hams TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Col John Bampfylde Junior's Regiment: 617 muskets and 353 pikes in 6 companies (from North East Devon)North East Devon TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Plymouth Town Regiment: 218 muskets and 92 pikes in 4 companies Dartmouth Trained Band: 64 muskets and 32 pukes in 1 company Eastern Division: Col Francis Courtenay's Regiment: 600 muskets and 400 pikes in 6 companies Col Sir John Drake's Regiment: 594 muskets and 408 pikes in 6 companies North Division: Col Hugh Pollard's Regiment: 649 muskets and 370 pikes in 6 companies (probably commanded by his father Sir Lewis Pollard, 1st Baronet in 1630Pollard's Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.) Col John Acland's Regiment: 624 muskets and 360 pikes in 6 companies Col Sir Ferdinando Gorges' Horse: three 'cornets' (Troops) Barnstaple Trained Band: 52 muskets and 40 pikes in 1 company In addition there were also the Exeter Trained Band and four independent companies of 'tinners' from the Stannary towns of Chagford, Ashburton, Tavistock and Plympton.
By 1638 the Devon TBs totalled 4253 muskets and 2509 corslets.Devon TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
Bishops' Wars Although every English county was ordered in late 1638 to muster its TBs and keep them in readiness, the men of the West Country were kept in reserve and were not involved in the First Bishops' War of 1639. However, Charles planned a larger invasion force for the Second Bishops' War in 1640, and every county was given a quota of troops to provide from its TBs: Devon was ordered to March 2000 men to Newcastle upon Tyne.Fissel, pp. 190, 207–8; Map 1.
However, substitution was rife and many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements and 'pressed men' (conscripts). Officers from the Pollard family extracted such large bribes from Degory Doole of North Petherwin and Thomas Jeffrey of Monkokehampton to avoid service that they were prosecuted for extortion in the Star Chamber. Not only were the conscripted men untrained, they were also undisciplined. On the march north a company of the Dorset TBs had murdered their Lieutenant, whose harshness was resented and who was rumoured to be a 'Papist', while the Dorset men were largely Puritans. Apart from a few named men (most of whom were not caught) the Dorset TBs were treated with surprising lenience, and trouble continued. Three weeks later, at Wellington, Somerset, a group of North Devon conscripts dragged Lieutenant Compton Evers from his lodgings and beat and stabbed him to death for being a Papist. They then deserted. This time the government acted vigorously: although the Somerset authorities were supine (the people of Wellington were fined for not doing anything to prevent the murder), the deputy lieutenants of Devon succeeded in capturing 140 of the 160 deserters when they reached home. However the disorders continued when the army's infantry assembled under Sir Jacob Astley at Selby in July. Astley reported that Lt-Col Culpepper hd been 'beastly slain by the Devonshire men'. The campaign was a fiasco, and ended in defeat at the Battle of Newburn in August.Fissel, pp. 116–7, 208, 242–3, 259, 278–84; Map 2.Walrond, pp. 21–2.
Civil War Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War, yet when open war broke out neither side made much use of the TBs beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Some trained bands were used as garrison troops, only a few as field regiments.Trained Bands at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. An attempt by the Royalists to call out the posse comitatus of Devonshire in 1642 was a failure (compared with their success in raising the Trained Bands in neighbouring Cornwall) and it was quickly dispersed by Parliamentarian forces.Burne & Young, p. 38.Fortescue, pp. 198–9.Scott, p. 64.
The Devon TB colonels and their regiments supported Parliament. The South Hams and North East Devon regiments were still commanded by Col Henry Champernowne of Modbury and Sir John Bampfylde. The East Devon regiment (probably Drake's) was commanded by Sir Henry Rosewell of Forde Abbey, John Drake's brother-in-law,East Devon TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. and Sir John Northcote, who had been a militia captain since 1627, also commanded one of the regiments.Northcott's Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. By the summer of 1642 Pollard's former North Devon regiment was under the command of Sir Samuel Rolle. In August Arthur Bassett was commissioned to take command of the regiment and attempted to disband and disarm it to provide for the Royalist army. He was ignored, and Rolle's Regiment supported the Parliamentarians. John Bampfylde and John Northcote had both been created baronets by Charles the previous year, but when war came they supported Parliament.