Robert Dawson is certainly a person of note. Is this recent or may he not still be around?
I’ve been trawling through the Regimental Records of the Bedfordshire Militia and came across one or two interesting things.
I wondered why the recruits from this locality were recruited and paid off after a short time. It seems that there had been a lot of trouble within the Regiment through disobedience.. wearing their best uniforms when told not to ( it was winter and cold and the 2nd best were worn out). Soldiers and officers were court martialled and dismissed so recruits were rounded up urgently.
THE BEDFORDSHIRE MILITIA.
51
In searching for information respecting my own Regiment during these times, I came across an account of the execution of two deserters, which I think is worthy of record.
"On the 20th June 1800, two of the York Hussars (Yeomanry) were shot on Bincombe Down, near Weymouth, pursuant to sentence of Court-Martial, for desertion and cutting a boat out of Weymouth Harbour, with the intention of deserting to France; they however, landed by mistake in Guernsey, where they were arrested and secured.
"The regiments in camp were drawn up (viz. the Greys, Rifle Corps, Stafford, Berkshire, and North Devon Militia.
"They came on the ground in a mourning coach, accompanied by two Priests. After going along the front, they went to the centre, where they were allowed twenty minutes for prayer; they were then shot at by a guard of twenty-four men, they dropped instantly, and expired without a groan.
"The men wheeled in sections, and marched past the bodies in slow time."
In May 1800 we find the Regiment, after having been recruited in the County during the winter, once more upon the march, having received orders to proceed to the west of England; and early in that month it marched by Higham Ferrers, Kettering, Harborough, Atherstone, Lichfield, to Stafford, where it appears to have only halted for a week, when it marched, via Wolverhampton, Kidderminster, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Newport, Bristol, Wells, and Bridgewater to Taunton, where it was
1800.
The Regiment remained at Bedford until May 1800, and had a detachment at Dunstable.
I may here state for the information of many who are not aware of the magnitude of the force employed at the time we write of, that the number of troops in Ireland at the end of 1800 was :—
Regulars
Militia
Yeomanry.
・
45,839.
27,104.
・
53,557.
The total military establishment of the United Kingdom (exclusive of the marine establishment 100,000 men, and the Volunteers) was 317,952 men.
stationed until September. It left Taunton at the end of September, and proceeded by Honiton and Exeter to Ashburton and Newton Bushell, where it was quartered forabout a month, when it was ordered to Plymouth, where it arrived in the middle of October. It did garrison duty in this Town during the winter of 1800, and the Civil Authorities publicly complimented the Regiment upon its discipline and good conduct upon the occasion of its being called out to preserve order during a large fire.”
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It’s also been a puzzle why Charles McLean named his son b. 1800 ( the infant ) Charles Maclean Grey .
It’s probable that he named him after the commander in chief Sir Charles Grey … I’ve another soldier who named his son Shirley after another General at Waterloo.
" Regimental Orders. - The general order of this day is a pretty strong proof that the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Charles Grey, is determined that every manner of Hub ordination shall be kept up in the Southern District, id the Colonel ia equally determined to execute his ist and power by making an example of the first person at may disgrace his regiment.
"He cannot avoid adding that he has reason to caution every good man in the regiment from being led astray by the persuasion or example of bad men ; and as they love their own reputation, honour, and happiness, they will avoid associating with every man of this description ; but to avoid him as they would a pestilence, for otherwise it will be sure to bring down upon them the most sure and exemplary punishment.
