The Herefordshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in the English Midlands county of Herefordshire. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572, the Militia of Herefordshire provided internal security and home defence during times of international tension and all of Britain's major wars, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. It later formed a battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. It was disbanded in 1908.
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. 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. Now 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 constables or ductores, and subdivided into sections of 20 led by vintenars. The able-bodied men were equipped by their parishes. Edward I regularly summoned the men of the Welsh Marches to fight in his Welsh Wars. (John E. Morris, the historian of Edward's Welsh Wars writing in 1901, likened this process to calling out the Militia Battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry).Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 5, 12, 16.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–2.Maitland, pp. 162, 276.Morris, pp 72–3, 92–7. In July 1287 Herefordshire provided the largest infantry contingent, 1280 men, to the Earl of Cornwall's army against the Welsh rebellion. The Herefordshire men suffered heavy casualties in the siege of Dryslwyn Castle, many in the collapse of a mine they were digging under the wall. Edward also used these organised and experienced contingents in his Scottish campaigns. In 1296 Herefordshire and Cheshire together sent a well-trained 'battalion' to the Dunbar campaign and in February 1298 Wales and the border counties contributed a large part of the force concentrated at Newcastle upon Tyne for the Falkirk campaign.Morris, pp. 96, 208, 213, 273. This procedure was continued for border campaigns under later kings. By now the infantry were mainly equipped with the English longbow. For example, Herefordshire supplied 2 ductores, 9 vintenars and 171 foot archers (effectively two companies) for Edward III's summer campaign of 1335 in Scotland.Nicholson, Appendix VI, p. 252.Fissel, pp. 178–82, 218.
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. The detailed list for Herefordshire showed all the archers and billmen in the county and the 'harness' (armour) and weapons held by the wealthier men. The numbers were:Hay, pp. 381–2.Hay, pp. 17, 66. Hundred of Radlow – 610 Hundred of Grymer – 405 City of Hereford – 346 Hundred of Huntington – 316 Hundred of Stretford – 443 Hundreds of Wigmore, Wolphy and Leominster – 916 (plus 46 sets of harness) Hundred of Webtree – 413 Hundred of Ewyas Lacy – 213
A footnote pointed out that the Hundred of Wigmore had only just been transferred from Wales to Herefordshire and could not provide much armament
Herefordshire Trained Bands
The legal basis of the militia was updated in Queen Mary I's reign with 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 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.Cruickshank, pp. 17–20.Fissell, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.Maitland, pp. 234–5, 278.
Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly 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. When war broke out with Spain training and equipping the militia became a priority. Herefordshire aimed to train half its armed men, but warned that once trained they might become unruly and do little work for their masters. From 1584 counties were organised into groups for training purposes, with emphasis on the invasion-threatened 'maritime' counties. However, distant Wales and the 'Marcher' counties like Herefordshire were given low priority and were not placed under lords-lieutenant and professional training captains until 1586. The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the mustering of the TBs in April. They were put on one hour's notice in June and called out on 23 July as the Armada approached, though they were never engaged.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, 96.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5, 130–4.
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. Between 1589 and 1601 Herefordshire supplied 1,100 levies for service in Ireland and 300 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. 25–7, 61–2, 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.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 190–5.Hay, pp. 97–8. In 1638 the Hereford Trained Band and Trained Band Horse consisted of 480 foot (280 muskets, 200 corslets (body armour, signifying pikemen)) and 90 horse.Hereford Trained Bands at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
Civil wars For the Second Bishops' War in 1640, Herefordshire was ordered to muster 300 trained bandsmen and march them to Newcastle upon Tyne. Once again many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements and conscripts.Fissel, pp. 207–8, 223–7, 241.
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.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Maitland, pp. 325–6.
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 the Herefordshires were part of a concentration ordered to defend Gloucester.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. Care was taken that they were politically reliable: in 1666 the Hereford Town Militia was purged of men who had refused to pay the hearth tax, and the remainder of the company resisted the disarming of these men.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Hay, pp. 104–6.Western, pp. 3–16, 72.
They militia were frequently called out during the reign of King Charles II; for example, the Herefordshire Militia were embodied in 1666 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War when invasion seemed to threaten, and were put on notice to be embodied again the following year.Western, pp. 41–2. The Herefordshires were called out during the Monmouth Rebellion and were ordered to march with the Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire regiments to secure Bristol, a likely objective for the West Country rebels. However, they did not see any action.Chandler, p. 22.
By 1691 the counties were beginning to clothe their militiamen in uniforms, and the Earl of Macclesfield as Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire wrote to his deputies to tell them so, and hoping that they were doing the same.Western, p. 23. There was a national militia muster in 1697 when the Regular Army was being run down after the Peace of Ryswick; however, the return for Herefordshire does not appear to have survived.Hay, p. 114.
The Militia passed into virtual abeyance during the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1712, although some were called out during the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745.Fortescue, Vol II, p. 133.Western, p. 73.
1757 reforms
Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War the Militia Act 1757 (30 Geo. 2. c. 25) 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.
Herefordshire's quota was set at 480 men. The Midlands counties were not directly threatened with invasion and were generally unenthusiastic about forming their militia regiments; Herefordshire's was not formed until 7 September 1762, and its arms were listed as being ready in November. However, peace negotiations were under way by then, and the regiment was not embodied for service. After 1762 the militia carried out their 28 days' annual training.Frederick, p. 142.Hay, p. 139.Western, pp. 125, 407, Appendices A & B.
American War of Independence The militia was called out on 31 March 1778 when Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain.Western, p. 209. This meant that the Herefordshire regiment was embodied for permanent service for the first time. The routine militia duties included manning coastal garrisons, escorting and guarding prisoners of war, riot control, anti-smuggling patrols and attending summer training camps.Western pp. 429–34. In the summer of 1780 the Herefordshire regiment was stationed at Plymouth. On 12 August there was a serious riot brought on by a quarrel at a 'disorderly house' in the Dock area between some of the Brecknockshire Militia and two black musicians of the 1st Somerset Militia band. A large mob formed and the Somersets armed with bayonets and assisted by the Herefordshires attempted to storm the Brecknocks' lines, despite the efforts of the officers. The mob surged towards Stoke Church, where the picquet guard of the 97th Foot was ordered to fire, killing two and wounding nine. This and the persuasion of the officers quelled the trouble.Kerr, p. 26, quoting the Western Flying Post for 21 August 1780.Western, p. 426.