Derbyshire Militia


The Derbyshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in the county of Derbyshire in the North Midlands of England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572 until their final service as the Special Reserve, the Militia regiments of the county carried out internal security and home defence duties in most 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. The regiments later became battalions of the Sherwood Foresters and finally trained thousands of reinforcements during World War I. After a shadowy postwar existence they were formally disbanded in 1953.

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, and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285. Under this statute '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 centenars or ductores, and subdivided into platoons of 20 led by vintenars.
By the end of the 13th Century the men of Sherwood Forest and the Peak District were renowned for their skill in archery and Derby and Nottingham were the only counties not on the Welsh border that sent foot soldiers to all of King Edward I's Welsh Wars. He alsoemployed well-organised men from Derbyshire in his later Scottish campaigns. Similarly, King Edward III levied troops from Derbyshire for service against the Scots in 1327, in 1332, and again in 1333 for his campaign that led to the Siege of Berwick and the Battle of Halidon Hill. For the 1335 campaign the county provided 2 ductores, 15 vintenars, 110 mounted archers and 218 foot archers.
For the Great Muster of the shire forces held by King Henry VIII on 12 April 1539, the commissioners for Derbyshire reported the following:
  • High Peak Hundred: archers with horse and 'harness' 64, archers without 148; billmen with horse and harness 300, billmen without 612
  • Derby Town: archers with etc: 10, without 56; billmen with etc: 30, without 126
  • Scarsdale Hundred: archers with etc: 64, without 74; billmen with etc: 321, without 684
  • Wirksworth Wapentake and Hartington Soke: archers with etc: 38, without 96; billmen with etc: 129, without 361
  • Appletree Hundred: archers with etc: 26, without108; billmen with etc: 98, without 255
  • Morleston & Litchurch Hundred: archers with etc: 79, without 197; billmen with etc: 61, without 482
  • Repton & Gresley Hundred: archers with etc: 28, without 47; billmen with etc: 53, without 154

    Derbyshire Trained Bands

The legal basis of the militia was updated by two Acts of 1557 covering musters and the maintenance of horses and armour. The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant appointed by the monarch, 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. Although the militia obligation was universal, the disorderly force assembled against the Rising of the North confirmed that it was impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands,. They were trained by professional captains and muster-masters for up to 10 days each year. Full musters were held about every three years when the arms and armour were inspected.

Spanish War

The threat of invasion during the Spanish War led to an increase in training. At first the government emphasised the 17 'maritime' counties most vulnerable to attack, and it was not until 1586 that inland counties were placed under lords-lieutenant, ordered to appoint captains and muster-masters and to intensify training. The TBs were placed on alert in April 1588 and brought to an hour's notice in June. When warning of the invasion Armada arrived the TBs were mobilised on 23 July. Derbyshire mustered 600 out of its 1600 able men, of whom 400 were trained and 200 untrained, in addition to 100 men who had been sent to Ireland. There were also 18 lancers, 50 light horse and 12 'petronels'.
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 Derbyshire supplied 773 levies for service in Ireland and 75 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 burden on the counties.
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. When they were mustered and inspected in 1638 the Derbyshire Trained Bands consisted of 400 foot. They also mustered 33 cuirassiers and 41 dragoons.

Civil Wars

In 1639 and 1640 Charles attempted to employ the TBs for the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. However, many of those sent on this unpopular service in 1639 were untrained replacements and conscripts – Derbyshire sent 200 conscripts, mainly labourers – and many officers were corrupt or inefficient. For the Second Bishops' War of 1640 Derbyshire was ordered to have 400 men at the general rendezvous on 25 May to march to Grimsby on 5 June, from where they would go by ship on 10 June to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Once again, it seems that many of the trained bandsmen nationwide escaped service and raw substitutes were sent in their place. Across the country the ill-disciplined troops caused disorders: West Country conscripts marching through Derbyshire were incited to tear down unpopular enclosure fences and break prisoners out of Derby Gaol. The Scottish campaign ended in failure.
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 in 1642 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. In August 1642 the king ordered the seizure of the Derbyshire TBs' weapons for his new field army. It is possible that Derbyshire TB foot served in Sir John Meldrum's Parliamentarian army that was defeated at the Relief of Newark in March 1644.
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. In March 1650 Major Nathaniel Barton, an experienced officer of the New Model Army, was commissioned as colonel of the Derbyshire Militia horse and foot. However, the Derbyshire Militia do not appear to have been called out during the Scots invasion of 1651 and Col Barton served as a major again in a regular regiment of horse during campaign. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.

Restoration Militia

After the Restoration the English Militia was re-established by the Militia Act 1661 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. Their early duties included seizing arms from dissidents, suppressing non-conformist religious assemblies and mounting standing guards whereby one-twentieth of the men at a time did 14 days' continuous duty. However, Derbyshire as a small county was given permission in January 1665 to cease maintaining guards. The militia were called out when invasion threatened during the Anglo–Dutch wars, but later musters became less and less frequent.
King James II came to the throne in 1685 and the militia were embodied during the Monmouth Rebellion later that year, though unlike the West Country militia who confronted the rebels, most regiments merely kept order and arrested suspects in their own county. However, after Monmouth's defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor James downgraded the militia in favour of building up his standing army. The militia played almost no part when Prince William of Orange landed in the West Country in November 1688. The Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Huntingdon, was absent from the county, commanding his Regular Army regiment at Plymouth, where he was arrested when the Governor declared for William. Although the Derbyshire Militia was embodied from October to March 1689 it seems to have done no more than keep the peace and it acquiesced in the Glorious Revolution that overthrew James in favour of William and Mary. The Earl of Huntingdon was replaced by the Earl, later 1st Duke of Devonshire, a leader of the revolution.
The militia continued in William's reign. In 1697 when all the counties were ordered to provide returns of the strength and efficiency of their militia, Derbyshire reported 2 Troops of horse totalling 140 men and 4 companies of foot, 524 men, all under the Duke of Devonshire as Lord Lieutenant. However, the report went on to say that no survey of the ratepayers had been made for 30 years and many estates had changed hands, leading to confusion over whether a particular landowner was to support a footsoldier or a horseman, with consequent disorganisation of the troops and companies.