17th Lancers and gap in Census years

[km1971]

...Muster Rolls are unclear as to his whereabouts....,

If you mean the entries were blank this shows he was at the muster with the main force. They only recorded exceptions. So he was at the town/fort stated on the label on either the front or back cover.

Ken

[usartillery]

The Musters in question have only ditto marks in each of the three months of the Muster, but what is written above is illegible. I have concluded, because they are shown on the other entries above and below, that they are space markers and indicate his presence with the Service Troops. This is corroborated by later indications where he is sent "to Scutari" . . . what is missing is any indication that he left Varna to rejoin the service troops, but errors and omissions abound depending on the diligence of the person making the entries.

[Moonstar36]

I am sorry not to have replied sooner ...but I am thrilled to find that you have given me this additional info about Ebenezer...and thrilled to know where he was serving! Not that it was a wonderful place etc...have since been reading about it and it was as horrific as WW1 trenches.

Can you tell me what sort of age would soldiers such as this retire at? He seems to have come out before 1871....do you know if he may have been in Ireland at some point?

Would there be any records about his daughters...one in particular is Mary Ann Brown who married John Marshall who apparently later became known as Happy Jack a Councillor for the area in or around Halifax..

what exactly is a Farrier Major or Sargeant farrier.... sorry but I don't know about the military and find it fascinating that both my GG Grandfathers were military men.


Many thanks for the work you have gone to and info given..it is so appreciated!!

kind regards
LInda

[usartillery]

Dear Linda:

Retirement was much an individual matter; initial enlistments for the cavalry were for 12 years, and many of the men re-enlisted at the end of that time. Conditions of army life (housing, workload, diet) wore men out before their time, so that some relatively young men (late 30s to early 40's or even younger) were 'discharged as useless' based on their inability to fulfill the necessary duties. Men were also allowed to purchase a discharge if they wanted out of the army before the end of their service commitment.

As the movements of the Lancers are not a particular specialty of mine, I had to cheat and look it up, but they do not appear to have spent much time in Ireland around the time of the war. If you want to check out more specifics, go to "Google Book Search", do an "advanced book search", use "17th Lancers" as your search term and do your search for a "full view only." Two of the most authoritative books on the history of the 17th Lancers are available there to download in their entirety as PDF files: Fortescue's "A History of the 17th Lancers" and Parry's "The Death or Glory Boys."
Farrier-Major or Farrier-Sergeant was the NCO in charge of the farriers that tended to the horses to include blacksmith duties.

[km1971]

Hi Linda

The 17th Lancers were in Ireland:

= April 1828 to June 1832
= June 1838 to May 1840
= June 1846 to May 1851
= May 1856 to Oct 1857, when they left for India for seven and a half years.
= Apr 1870 to June 1876

This was the main force of the regiment. In addition about 10% of the total strength would have comprised a depot for recruitment and training. This always stayed in the UK – which included Ireland of course – but may have been separate from the rest of the regiment even when they were was ‘home’.

He is not listed as receiving the Indian Mutiny medal, so he may have stayed at home. At the end of 1859 the depot was in Canterbury. Have you found him in 1861?

He would have enlisted ‘for life’, ie until he was physically unable to continue. But this usually meant he was reviewed after 21 years. His pension would have been based on his final rank, and years of service. As a senior NCO, when he was discharged to pension 3 or 4 men would be promoted, so they would not have held on to him if he wished to take his discharge.

Ken