Richard Cannon - Historical Record of the Third or Prince of Wales' Regiment of Dragoon Guards - From Its Formation in 1685 to 1838

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,

14, CHARING CROSS.

1838.

In the month of June, 1685, when the Duke of Monmouth raised the standard of rebellion in the west of England, many of the nobility and gentry displayed their loyalty by raising forces for the service of their Sovereign; and during the alarm and consternation which prevailed throughout the country, Thomas Earl of Plymouth, – a nobleman highly distinguished for loyalty and attachment to the crown, 7 7 See a brief memoir of this nobleman in the succession of Colonels at page 113 . – a veteran who had fought the battles of his King against the forces of Cromwell, – raised a troop of horse in Worcestershire; another troop was raised by Claudius Earl of Abercorn in Oxfordshire; a third by Henry Lord Eyland at St. Alban's and its vicinity; a fourth by Henry Lord Grey at Dunstable and other towns in Bedfordshire; a fifth by Lionel Walden, Esq., at Huntingdon and its vicinity; and a sixth by Mr. Ambrose Brown in the neighbourhood of Dorking; 8 8 'JAMES, R. 'These are to authorize you to raise volunteers with able horses for one troop of Horse, which you are commissioned to raise and command for Our Service, consisting of threescore soldiers, three corporals, and two trumpeters, besides Commissioned Officers. And as you shall raise the said Volunteers and Non-commissioned Officers of Our said troop, you are to give notice thereof to our Commissary General when and where you shall have twenty soldiers ready, with their horses, together, besides officers; that he, or his deputy, may muster them accordingly, and from such muster those soldiers, with all the officers of the said troop, are to commence and be in our pay; and from thenceforth as you shall, from time to time, entertain any more soldiers with their horses fit for Our Service, and shall produce them to muster, they shall be respectively mustered thereupon, until you shall have threescore soldiers, besides officers; and when that number shall be fully, or nearly, completed, they are to be sent under the command of a Commissioned Officer to Worcester and Droytwich, (appointed for the quarters of Our said troop,) where they are also to be mustered, and soe remain until further orders. You are likewise to send a trusty person to Our Tower of London to receive arms for Our said troop. 'Wherein, all Magistrates, Justices of the Peace, and Constables, whom it may concern, are required to be assisting; and the Officers are to be careful that the soldiers behave themselves civilly, and duly pay their landlords. 'Given at Our Court at Whitehall, this 23rd day of June, 1685, in the first year of Our Reign. 'By His Majesty's Command, 'WILLIAM BLATHWAYTE.' 'To Our right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin and Councillor, Thomas Earl of Plymouth, &c. ' A similar warrant was issued for raising each of the other five troops. — War-Office Records. and, when the decisive battle of Sedgemoor, with the capture and execution of the Duke of Monmouth, had destroyed the hopes of the disaffected, the six troops raised by the above distinguished noblemen and gentlemen were incorporated into a regiment, which ranked as Fourth Horse; and the corps thus formed having been continued in the service of the crown until the present time, it is now distinguished by the title of the Third, or Prince of Wales' Regiment of Dragoon Guards, and the various operations in which it has been engaged, with the part it has taken in battles, sieges, and other occurrences, through many eventful periods of history, form the subject of this brief memoir.

The Colonelcy was conferred on the Earl of Plymouth, by commission dated the 15th of July, 1685, and the Lieut. – Colonelcy on Hugh Sunderland, an officer of experience, who had been Major of the Royal Dragoons since 1683. The Fourth Horse were armed and equipped as Cuirassiers. 9 9 The cuirass was not peculiar to this regiment, there being, in the autumn of 1685, ten regiments of Cuirassiers in the English army, besides the Life Guards, who were also Cuirassiers. The men wore hats with broad brims, bound with silver lace, turned up on one side and ornamented with green ribands; scarlet coats lined with green shalloon, and high boots made of jacked leather; they had also scarlet cloaks lined with green, and green horse-furniture embroidered with white, and ornamented with the King's cypher and crown. Their cuirasses were pistol-proof, and they had also iron headpieces called potts. Their weapons were a sword, a pair of pistols, and a short carbine; and, thus equipped, these loyal yeomen had a formidable and warlike appearance. In a few weeks after the regiment was formed, it marched into quarters in Buckinghamshire (viz., to Amersham, Aylesbury, and Marlow), and, having been instructed in the plain and simple exercises practised at that period, it was reviewed on the 20th of August by the King on Hounslow Heath, and again on the 22nd of that month.

After these reviews the Fourth Horse marched into winter quarters at several towns in Gloucestershire; and it is a curious particular in the annals of the regiment, that the first service it was called upon to perform was enforcing obedience to an Act of Parliament which prohibited the cultivation of tobacco. The increased consumption and high price of this article had induced several landholders to cultivate it on their farms, in violation of the law, particularly at Winchcomb and the villages in that neighbourhood. One troop was stationed for a short time at Winchcomb expressly for the purpose of preventing the cultivation of this herb; and when the men left that town the following paragraph appeared in the order for their march: 'Our further will and pleasure is, that you cause parties to be sent, once at least in every week, to our town of Winchcomb and places adjacent, who are hereby ordered to destroy all plants, seeds, and leaves of tobacco which they shall, upon the strictest search, find planted or growing contrary to the Act of Parliament.' 10 10 War-Office Records.

During its stay in Gloucestershire, the first inspection of the regiment was made by Brigadier-General Sir John Lanier, one of the inspecting-generals of cavalry; and the establishment of the regiment, with the rates of pay of each rank, was fixed by a warrant under the sign manual, bearing date the 1st of January, 1686, from which the following is an extract: —

Immediately after the establishment was finally arranged, the Fourth Horse were ordered to march into quarters in the metropolis, where they arrived in February, 1686, to assist the Life Guards in the duties of the court; at the same time a detachment of one officer and six men proceeded to Liverpool to convey the specie collected by the officers of the revenue at that port from thence to London; which was probably a very necessary service, as the King, by doubling the strength of his regular army, had made a great increase in his expenditure.

During the summer of this year the regiment was encamped on Hounslow Heath, where it was several times reviewed by the King, and afterwards went into quarters at Cambridge, Huntingdon, and St. Ives.

At this period the following Officers were holding commissions in the regiment: —

In the summer of 1687 the regiment was again quartered for a short time in London, and it was subsequently encamped on Hounslow Heath, where a series of reviews and mock-battles were performed by the troops in presence of the court. The King spent much of his time on the Heath witnessing the exercise of the several corps, and endeavouring to ingratiate himself in the affections of his army, in order to render it subservient in the execution of his designs against the established religion and laws of the country.