We had a great Scottish Indexes conference yesterday, hosted by Emma and Graham Maxwell at www.scottishindexes.com, with news that the next conference date has already been established for January 30th 2021!
Amongst the topics discussed yesterday in the Q&A session was that of the Scottish Fencible regiments from the Napoleonic period. The following article is from Discover my Past Scotland magazine in 2009, with a case study appended from my own ancestry - enjoy!
The Fencibles
Chris Paton takes a look at a forgotten Scottish army
There have been many famous regiments raised for military service in Scotland over the centuries, but a particular chapter in the country’s history is often overlooked. In 1759 and 1778, units known as ‘fencible’ regiments were raised in parts of Scotland as a form of home guard to allow the regular army to march off and fight overseas. After a short and uneventful existence, they were disbanded in 1783, following the American Revolutionary War.
In the ensuing peace, Britain had reduced its military compliment, and so had found itself unprepared when the French declared war in February 1793. The order was given for the recreation of the Fencible units to defend against the threat of invasion, particularly important in Scotland as there were few militia forces to speak of compared to her southern neighbours. Less than a month later, regiments had been established by some of the country’s wealthiest and most influential clan chiefs and landowners, including the Sinclairs and MacKays in Caithness, the Campbells in Breadalbane and Argyll and the Grants of Strathspey. Initially they comprised of eight companies each, led by a colonel, a lieutenant colonel, a major, and five captains, but by 1794 had grown to ten companies, with some regiments forming separate battalions. There were two types of regiment, the infantry and the cavalry. As infantry they were given regimental numbers, as with the regular army, but were later renamed in favour of the landowners who had raised them, whilst the cavalry brigades were renamed as Light Dragoons.
Sergeants sent out to raise men for their units were under strict instructions not to take on apprentices, deserters from other regiments, or weavers with unfinished webs, unless they agreed to pay a fine for non-completion of the work out of their bounty. Upon passing a medical examination from a local surgeon, enlisted recruits were then paid a bounty of three guineas, out of which they had to buy their own uniforms. This would typically include a scarlet jacket with white cuffs, collar and buttons, a twilled white Flannel waistcoat, a pair of flannelled drawers, a bonnet and feather, three shirts with frills, two pair of hose, two pair of shoes, a comb, a black leather stock and buckle, a leather rose, and a haversack. Some, such as the Rothesay and Caithness Fencibles, wore tartan pantaloons, whilst others, such as the Gordon Fencibles and the Invernessshire Fencibles, wore full Highland garb instead.
As a home defence force, a great deal of the soldiers’ time was spent in barracks, on various manoeuvres across the country and in performing escort duties, with some sent to perform similar duties in Ireland. In 1798, the United Irishmen rebellion led to many Scottish regiments engaged in fierce fighting in the country, including the Reay Fencibles, the Caithness Legion of Fencible Men, the Fraser Regiment of Fencible Men, the Inverness Fencibles, and others. The Reay Fencibles fought in a major battle against the rebels near Tara Hill, with twenty six of their number killed or wounded in the fighting, though the rebels lost well over four hundred. The Fife and Argyll Fencibles fought at the Battle of Ballynahinch, the turning point of the uprising, whilst the Inverness men also saw serious combat operations, and were renamed as Duke of York’s Royal Inverness Highland Men in gratitude.
An interesting point concerning the regiments which travelled to Ireland is that upon their return they established the Orange Order within Scotland, having served alongside the recently formed Orange Yeomanry within the country. The first warrants granted to establish Scottish lodges went to the Breadalbane’s and Argyll Fencibles between March and May 1798, followed soon after by the Ayr, Tay, Dumfries, North Lowland and Caithness Fencibles. It was not until the early 1800s that civilian lodges were established within the country.
Many soldiers were, however, unhappy about the posting to Ireland. When Breadalbane’s Fencibles were asked to send over volunteers, about half of the compliment refused to go, infuriating those who had sponsored the regiment. George Penny, in his 1832 book ‘Traditions of Perth’, recorded that “Lady Breadalbane, who had taken great interest in these proceedings, was so incensed at their obstinancy, that she is reported to have declared, that she would raise a regiment that would march to the devil if she desired it”. A third regiment was duly drawn up, which did travel to Ireland, with the Earl of Breadalbane granting a medal to each volunteer in gratitude. When these soldiers were subsequently asked to go to Europe to continue their service, they also drew the line at that point and refused. They returned to Scotland, and along with those who had stayed behind were recorded in a final muster on April 18th 1799, after which they were duly disbanded.
A major problem at the time was that many soldiers within the Fencible regiments were beginning to embrace ideas from political pamphleteers such as Thomas Paine, whose “Rights of Man” publication in 1791 sewed the idea in their minds that they were no longer chattels, and had some degree of free will. This led in many cases to disciplinary problems, such as that which occurred in Glasgow in December 1794, again with the Breadalbane Fencibles. Following the arrest and detention in Glasgow of a soldier from the 1st Battalion for an offence for which he had been found guilty, a party of his colleagues armed themselves with muskets and fixed bayonets, and marched to the guard house, where they successfully secured his release. So outraged was Lord Adam Gordon, the commander in chief for Scotland, that an order was given to round up every spare soldier in the city to confront the soldiers to demand the return of the prisoner and the leaders of the mutiny. Before the issue was forced however, the ringleaders voluntarily gave themselves up to Lord Breadalbane without condition. They were escorted to Edinburgh Castle, where the ringleaders were tried and sentenced to death. Three had their sentences commuted, but the fourth, Alexander Morton, was shot on Musselburgh Sands.
In an almost identical situation, a similar mutiny broke out amongst the Strathspey Fencibles later in 1795, when several men were imprisoned following a joke made at an officer’s expense, and then similarly liberated by their comrades. Following a trial of the ringleaders, four privates were sentenced to death. Escorted to Gullane Links at East Lothian, they were informed that they could draw lots to spare two of their number. Charles Mackintosh and Alexander Fraser, who lost the ballot, were then executed in front of their regiments.
Following the rebellion in 1798 the majority of the service performed by the Fencibles continued in Ireland, which in 1801 became a part of the United Kingdom. Other units did see service elsewhere in the UK, with the MacDonald Fencibles sent to the English port of Whitehaven, for example, to prevent the ships of seamen trying to force an increase in their wages from leaving the port. So terrified were the sailors of the Highlanders that they backed own.
When the Treaty of Amiens was signed in 1802, the Fencibles were disbanded, and new regiments then raised to specifically serve overseas. This followed an order given in 1799 which decreed that all units which had been designed to purely serve within the British Isles were to be discontinued.
If your ancestor was in the Scottish Fencibles, you may have to search far and wide to locate their records. Some are held at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, some are held in local archives across the country, whilst others have not survived. A useful guide to help locate those that do exist is “Militia Lists and Musters 1756-1787” (4th edition) by Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott, available from www.ffhs.org.uk.
Case Study: William Paton, Breadalbane's Fencibles
William Paton was born during the reign of the British king George III at Sconieburn, Perth, on Thursday, March 11th 1779 (OPR:387/7):
Sconieburn March Seventh One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Nine was born William Paton, Lawfully procreated betwixt John Paton weaver and Ann Watson his spouse and baptized March Eleventh by the Revd Mr Ian Moody Minr at Perth.
As a young child, William grew up in Sconieburn watching his father John working as a weaver on a handloom, and ended up taking up the profession himself, which he worked at until the age of 19.
But in 1797, everything changed. William joined up to become a soldier in Breadalbane's Fencibles, a Perthshire regiment raised in 1793 by the Earl of Breadalbane, to replace the troops in Britain who had gone off to fight the French.
William was recruited by Sergeant Robert Mckay of the Second Battalion on Saturday, March 25th 1797, a fortnight after his nineteenth birthday. From the battalion's recruitment book (NRS: GD112/52/544), we get a detailed physical description of William. It tells us that he was aged 19 and born in the city of Perth in the County of Perth. He was five feet, eight and a half inches tall, had black hair, brown eyes, a fair complexion, and was a weaver by trade.
The fact that William was a weaver caused Sergeant McKay some real problems. William signed up with four other gentlemen on the same day - George McKay, John Garvie, John Herres and James McLagon - and it appears that most of these gentlemen were weavers too. They were recruited on the 25th, but they told Sergeant McKay that they were not going anywhere until they had finished the webs they were currently working on. The rules of recruitment which McKay was working to included the following note (NRS: GD112/52/538/10):
III: You must take care not to inlist any indented Apprentices, without previously getting up their Indentures discharged. Nor are you to inlist Deserters from other Corps, nor any Weavers engaged with an unfinished web, unless he agrees to purchase it out of his bounty, previous to his being attested.
The lads were obviously not going to buy their own webs! Sergeant McKay was under some pressure to get them to the battalion's headquarters in Edinburgh. He received two letters from Captain J. Roy in Edinburgh Castle, instructing him to hurry up in getting the problem sorted. McKay wrote the following letter to Roy explaining the problem:
Perth, 24th March 1797
Sir,
I had the honour to receive your two letters and in answer to the first letter, I wrote the commanding officer mentioning that the most of my party were weavers by trade and some of them were committed to stay until they should find security to finish and work the webs they had in the looms at the time they were inlisted; and indeed the greatest part of them had webs incurring fines at that period, which they were obliged to finish therefore I could not get them away until all these points were settled; but now I think it will be in my power to march 8 recruits from here on the 28th March to head quarters, and I expect they will arrive there in due time.
I have the honour to be
Sir, your humble servant
Robert McKay,
Sergeant 2nd Battalion, 4th Fencibles
The problem was obviously sorted quickly, and on the following day, the 25th, William became a private. Before he could join, he had to have a physical examination by a local qualified surgeon, and was then given a bounty of money by Sergeant McKay as part of his enlistment.
On Monday, March 27th, 1797, Sergeant McKay was able to report in his weekly recruiting return that he had sent William and the other four weavers to Edinburgh, in the charge of a Corporal Stewart (NRS: GD112/52/499). Curiously, all five of the weavers were listed in the return, but only William has his age, height and birthplace listed again, the details for the other four remained blank.
On arriving in Edinburgh at the battalion headquarters, the new recruits had to be kitted out in uniform, which they had to pay for themselves out of their recruitment bounty. Again, the recruiting orders describe the uniform necessary:
XIII: Each Recruit must purchase out of his Bounty, Necessaries according to the List annexed; the Recruiting Officer reserving the sum of 3 Guineas out of the Bounty Money, for which the recruit will be supplied with Slop Cloathing, immediately on his joining at head quarters.
List of Slop Cloathing and Necessaries to be furnished for each recruit out of his bounty:
Slop clothing: scarlet jacket with white cuffs, collar and buttons; a twilled white Flannel waistcoat; a pair of flannelled drawers; a bonnet and feather
Necessaries: three shirts with frills; two pair of hose; two pair of shoes; a comb; a pair of brushes and black-ball; a black leather stock and buckle; a leather rose; a haversack
William was stationed in Edinburgh Castle for several weeks, where he was taken as a private into Captain William Maine's Company, a company within which he was to serve until his eventual discharge. He is recorded as being present in the castle in the monthly return on May 27th 1797 (NRS: GD112/52/338). On June 17th, he is again found listed there, in the "Return of the Country age, size and time of service of Captain Maine's in Edinburgh Castle" (NRS: GD112/52/339). In this, he is described as aged 18 (not 19), 5ft 8inches tall, and born in Scotland, with the column for duration of service left blank. On the monthly return dated June 28th 1797, William is again listed in the castle at Edinburgh (NRS: GD112/52/340).
At some point in the next three months, William and his comrades were ordered on a march to Fife. In the regulations on marches, we get an idea of how this would have occurred (NRS: GD/112/52/538).
The evening previous to a March, the men are to parade in marching order, with every article of necessaries in their Knapsacks, which must be packed with uniformity according to the order fixed for the battalion.
After this initial review, and a night's sleep, the men would be ready to march off on the following morning, with the baggage train ahead of them and the officer in charge at the front. The way the men marched was equally disciplined:
The March in open column is invariably to be adhered to, the division to contain as many files as the breadth of the road will conveniently admit.
William is next recorded in the monthly company returns to headquarters for October 1797, in which we learn that he has now been billetted in St. Andrews, Fife, as part of Captain Maine's Company. Then, in the battalion muster at Kirkcaldy in April 6th 1798, we learn that William had been sent to St Andrew's, where he was detached as a private, from between June 24th until December 25th 1797. William's battallion had some 149 privates in it, and was under the command of a Captain David Williamson. From the adjutant's rolls at the National Archives in Kew, near London (TNA: WO13/3811), we learn that from 25th December 1797 to 24th May 1798 William was again quartered at St Andrew's, receiving an average monthly pay of one pound and eleven shillings.
During this period, William must have had a brief leave to return to Perth, although no such leave is listed in the battallion furlough book (NRS: GD112/52/560). But on Wednesday, 7th February 1798, he married Christian Hay in the Gaelic Chapel (St.Stephen's) in Perth. From their OPR record:
FEBRUARY 1798
Perth the Third of February One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety eight contracted William Paton, Soldier in the second battalion of Breadalbanes Fencibles and Christian Hay, Daughter to the Deceased Lauchlan Hay, Resident in Perth, Parties both in this Parish Elder Thomas Robertson
The Persons before named were regularly proclaimed and married the seventh day of February said year by Mr Duncan MacFarlan Minister of the Gaelic Chapel in Perth.
The Kirk Session records for Perth also give a note of how much they had to pay to the church for the privilege, by way of pledge money, which would have been returned to the couple upon the marriage being completed, minus a small donation for the poor (NRS: CH2/521/26/485):
7 March 1798 Contract Money
From William Paton and Christian Hay Three shillings and fourpence
The wedding took place in St.Stephen's Gaelic Chapel in Perth. This particular church was built in 1788, after a fund raising drive by the town's other parishioners. The population of the town at that time was mushrooming due to economic prosperity, and one of the results of this was an increase in the number of Gaelic speaking Highlanders being attracted to the town from the surrounding countryside.
Two and a half weeks after his wedding, the Times newspaper of February 21st records that the Second Battalion of the Breadalbane Fencibles had given a voluntary donation of 500L to the fund for national defence, in response to an appeal that had recently been made by the Prime Minister William Pitt. The General Order Book of the battalion in February outlines how each soldier, including William, had donated one day's pay each month towards the fund, and that the money raised from his battalion had been the highest within the various Perthshire corps.
Although quartered in St Andrew's in Fife, on 6th April 1798, the battalions of the regiment were mustered at Kirkcaldy in Fife, and from the muster roll we learn that there were 149 privates in total in the Second Battalion; 35 were absent on leave, or sick, leaving 114 present for the inspection. William is listed as "William Paton, private, detached".
From Friday, 25th May 1798 to Sunday, 24th June 1798, we learn that William was not on duty, and presumably returned to Perth for a brief period of R&R. But in June, upon his return to duty, his regiment left Fife and marched to Glasgow, marching through Queensferry, Bathgate and Airdrie, and by Sunday, August 19th had reached Ayr, where his company was reviewed by General Drummond. The reason for the move was in case British troops in Ireland needed back up in countering the United Irishmen rebellion. But by June the rebellion had been crushed.
On Wednesday, 22nd August, the regiment heard news that a French force had landed at Killala, Ireland. Volunteers from the regiment were asked to go on an expedition to Ireland to help counter this, but only half of them took up the cause, receiving a commemorative medal from Lord Breadalbane himself, who had been inspired by their zeal. They set sail for Ireland on Wednesday, September 12th 1798, arriving at Carrickfergus, and from there, marching on to Donegal. But it has now become clear from the surviving battalion muster rolls at the Public Records Office in London and the Scottish Records Office in Edinburgh that William did not volunteer to go, and instead stayed behind in Scotland.
What had happened was a major political realisation on the part of William and the others who refused to go that they were not simply chattels, and that they did have the right to do as they believed was correct. These were the days when France and the United States had already rebelled against their rulers and had created republics for themselves after violent revolutions, and the same political thought was running riot throughout Britain. The rebellion in Ireland was a part of this political awakening. But William and his colleagues knew that their regiment had not been drawn up to put down the Irish - it had been created as a form of home guard to defend Scotland in the advent of invasion. They weren't going anywhere.
The following description in George Penny's "Traditions of Perth", recorded in 1836, outlines the reaction to both William's and his colleagues' refusal to go to Ireland (p.76):
These troops having been only raised as Scotch Fencibles, when disturbances broke out in Ireland, no argument could induce them to serve in that country. Lady Breadalbane, who had taken great interest in these proceedings, was so incensed at their obstinancy, that she is reported to have declared, that she would raise a regiment that would march to the devil if she desired it. A third regiment was accordingly embodied to serve in Ireland. By this time the new doctrines of the Rights of Man had been extensively spread through the country, and produced an important change in the public mind. The officers who had formerly been in the service, now found it a different business to deal with the men. They had acquired a knowledge of what was their due, and courage to demand it. One of the battalions of Breadalbane Fencibles, had not received their arrears of pay and bounty: on the morning on which they were to march, the regiment was drawn up in front of the George Inn; when ordered to shoulder arms, each man stood immovable! The order was repeated, but still not a man stirred. Upon enquiring into the cause of this extraordinary conduct, the officer in command was informed, that not having received their arrears, the men were determined not to leave the place till these were settled. This was a dilemma as great as it was unexpected. The paymaster had no funds at his disposal, and the Earl of Breadalbane was not at hand. After much argument and entreaty, they were prevailed upon to march to Kinross; the officer pledging himself that every thing would be settled there on the return of an express from the Earl. A mutiny broke out some time afterwards in the first battalion; in consequence of which two of the men were shot, by order of a general court martial.
In the muster roll for Saturday, August 25th to Monday, September 24th 1798, William is listed as quartered for eleven days only - possibly he was either redeployed to another location or perhaps sent on leave again? The next five adjutant's book's entries list him as "in Scotland" only, until Sunday, February 24th 1799. From Monday, February 25th to Saturday, March 24th, William was "detached in Beith".
From the book
A Military History of Perthshire, we learn that the volunteers to Ireland from the regiment returned to Scotland at the beginning of March 1799, and rejoined "the detachment from Ayr" towards the end of the month (p.162). They had returned somewhat disillusioned that they were about to be asked to journey to the continent to campaign. This went against their ethos, they were created to be a sort of "Dad's Army", whose duty was to protect Scotland in the advent of invasion. Their trip to Ireland went above and beyond this call, and having basically worked as policemen, which was not what they had expected to do, they had decided that enough was enough, and the order was given to return to Scotland for disbandment.
On their return to Scotland, on April 2nd 1799, the battalion marched to Paisley from Ayr, and on the following day, the battalion's final muster in the town recorded that there were 552 soldiers of all ranks in the regiment, some 34 below establishment. Two weeks later, on April 18th 1799, the two battalions of Breadalbane's Fencibles were disbanded. The disbandment order obviously came as a sudden surprise to the regiment, as noted in the General Order Book, and Lord Breadalbane himself seems to have had not much prior warning of such an event happening. The medals he had promised to the volunteers to Ireland were not ready by the time the disbandment order was given, and details of the volunteers forwarding addresses had to be taken so that the medals could be sent on when they were ready. The final adjutant's book, dated 24th April 1799, records that Private William Paton was "discharged, the battalion being disbanded".
Chris Paton
Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
