Trades in the 22nd Regiment

Many installments in this blog have mentioned soldier's trades, the lines of work that men practiced before joining the army. The idea that men acquired skills in a profession before joining the army may be challenging from a modern perspective, but when taken in the context of the era it makes complete sense. During peace time the army strove to recruit men between the ages of 17 and 25 to become career soldiers; regimental recruiting officers could make their own decisions, but the information we have on individual soldiers bears out that these age guidelines were generally followed and most soldiers began their careers in their late teens or early twenties.

In an age when schooling was not guaranteed and even well educated men were likely to attend school only into their mid-teens, boys and men needed to do something gainful with their lives before they were old enough to even consider joining the army. This meant pursuing a specific trade either in a formal capacity as an apprentice or informally by simply working for someone in the trade, or by doing whatever work one could find.

The few soldiers who have left accounts of their pre-military employment make it clear that work could begin early in life. Thomas Watson started working in coal mines at the age of 7; although he occasionally found other work, mining remained his typical employment until he enlisted in the 23rd Regiment of Foot in 1772 at about 19 years of age. Thomas Cranfield, son of a baker, attended school until age 14 and then was apprenticed to a tailor; although he ran away from several employers, tailoring remained his primary profession until he enlisted in the 39th Regiment of Foot in 1777 at the age of 19 and went on to serve in Gibraltar.

From various sources, we have information on the trade of 322 soldiers in the 22nd Regiment of Foot who served in the American Revolution. Of these, over half the men had skilled trades, while the remainder were listed as "laborers", period parlance for men who had no specific skill. Laborers may have worked as farm hands, unskilled construction workers, dock workers, or in various other capacities where no specialized training was required. The identified trades, in order of predominance, are:

• 143 Laborers
• 41 Weavers
• 22 Shoemakers
• 16 Tailors
• 9 Carpenters
• 6 each: Wagon Driver, Wool comber
• 5 Breeches makers
• 4 each: Cutler, Cooper, Gardiner, Miner
• 3 each: Baker, Blacksmith, Bricklayer, Cordwainer, Flax dresser, Mason, Ribbon Weaver
• 2 each: Barber, Cabinet Maker, Linen Weaver, Nailor, Silversmith, Tanner
• 1 each: Brazier, Butcher, Cloth Dresser, Currier, Farmer, File smith, Glass cutter, Glazier, Gunmaker, Harness Maker, Hatter, Hosier, Miller, Musician, Needle Maker, Painter, Sadler, Sawyer, Spectacle Maker, Stocking Maker, Stone Sawyer, Thatcher, Tobacconist, Victualler, Wheelwright, Wire drawer

This gives a total of 179 men with trades and 143 without, or about 56% with skilled trades.

It is difficult to say whether this sample of 322 men is representative of the 1005 men who served in the 22nd Regiment in America at some point during the American War. For example, the bulk of the data is from records associated with pensions, and it is possible that men with trades were more likely to get pensions that those without. Even if this data is does not accurately show the proportion of tradesmen in the army, it at least shows the variety of trades.

The preponderance of textile workers, particularly weavers, is a simple reflection of Britain's economy that was strongly based on the textile trade. The significant number of shoemakers, tailors and other clothiers, and artificers such as smiths, coopers, carpenters and leather workers, shows that the regiment had within its ranks the skills necessary to be self-sufficient when on campaign or in far-flung garrisons. It also makes clear that many soldiers had opportunities to work and earn money over and above the base pay they received from the army.

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Criminals: Edward Allen, Edward Kitson, William Davis, 46th Regiment

Much is made of the notion that the ranks of British regiments were filled with convicts. This was discussed in some detail in a previous post that did not deal with men who served in America. The fact is that few criminals were in fact recruited, and only a few of that number were sent to serve in the American colonies.

But a few were. This opens the obvious question of how such men fared as soldiers. If we could trace a portion of the career of such a man, we'd have a better impression of their value to the military. Fortunately, we can trace three.

In the summer of 1776 recruiting was was occurring at a furious pace throughout Great Britain. Many regiments had been sent to America, and the size of all of those deployed to America had been increased. The sudden increase in demand taxed the recruiting mechanisms which led to the evaluation of all sources including fit men sentenced to prison for minor crimes. All evidence indicates that only a few dozen or perhaps a few hundred men were drawn from this source; the physical demands of the military limited the number of potential recruits to begin with, and prison conditions rapidly destroyed the health of convicts leaving very few to for the army to choose from.

A recruiting officer from the 46th Regiment of Foot nonetheless located and enlisted "six very fine Lads now confined in Shrewsbury Goal for petty Offences" and wrote to the Secretary at War for and order to have them discharged from jail. Only three of them served with the regiment in America. We can only speculate on what happened to the other three. The recruiting officer's request to allow them to enlist may have been denied for reasons unknown; they could have failed the physical examination required for all recruits; they may have failed attestation before a magistrate either due to their own change of heart or the magistrate's insights; they may have been drafted from the 46th's recruiting parties into some other regiment, a practice that became more common later on in the war but which is not known to have been common in 1776 and early 1777; they may have deserted; they may have had disciplinary issues that caused them to be transferred to corps bound for undesirable locations, the military equivalent of transporting criminals; they may have been discharged due to health issues, which occurred sometimes in Great Britain and sometimes in America after a rigorous sea voyage; they could have died before joining the regiment in America. Regardless of the reason, they provide further proof that although criminals were offered the opportunity to enlist they did not always end up on service in America.

The three who did serve joined the 46th Regiment in the first half of 1777. One of them, Edward Allen, served normally for the next year and a half, at which time the 46th was sent to the West Indies. There is a one-year gap in the muster rolls, after which Allen no longer appears; we know nothing of what happened to him, but he was probably discharged under normal circumstances.

The other two, Edward Kitson (or Kidson) and William Davis, are more interesting. Kitson was appointed corporal in January 1778, a bit less than a year after he arrived in America. He served in this capacity in the West Indies, and then became a serjeant in August 1782. When the regiment returned to England that year, he went on furlough. We don't have access to the subsequent muster rolls, but it is obvious from this career that Kitson was a capable and trusted soldier. William Davis, the third petty criminal to join the 46th, was appointed corporal in November 1782 and was still serving at the end of that year.

Although we haven't found any indication that any of these men received pensions, it is clear enough that they were capable soldiers and that two of them, at least, had long and distinguished careers. The government and the military benefited well by choosing to give them an opportunity instead of simply leaving them in prison.

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James Lipside, 26th Regiment, and John Chatham, 10th Regiment

I was chatting with a friend about my interest in researching British soldiers, explaining that the allure is in discovering personal attributes and experiences that humanize the otherwise-lifeless names on muster rolls. As an attention-getter, I mentioned a couple of cases of men who had wildly deviant behaviors. My friend asked, were there any saints? This is an excellent question. It is a great irony that the majority of soldiers were well-behaved and dutiful, good qualities which caused very little about them to be recorded. The experiences of the relatively small number of malefactors, on the other hand, survive in court records, journals and other sources because they caught the attention of administrators and onlookers.

We do, however, know of a few saints, or at least of men whose lives were characterized by benevolent actions rather than criminal ones. Roger Lamb and Thomas Watson, both soldiers in the 23rd Regiment of Foot, turned to religion after their military service; the former became a school teacher and the later a minister. Probably others did the same, still awaiting our rediscovery of their lives' accomplishments.

There are other soldiers who committed singular acts of selfless heroism that deserve to be remembered. Two such instances received brief mentions in newspapers. The first concerns a soldier of the 26th Regiment of Foot, James Lipside (as his name appears on the muster rolls). We have very little background on him beyond that he actually served in the regiment. In the summer of 1772 the 26th Regiment was on service in America and was moving from New York city to Albany by sailing up the Hudson river. An Albany newspaper recorded an event that apparently occurred during disembarkation at that city:

On Sunday the 24th [May] James Lapseed, a Grenadier of the 26th Regiment (the third division of which was then on their passage from New York to this City) standing on the Gunwale of the Sloop Beggar’s Benison, dangling a Child in his Arms, unfortunately fell overboard. The Sloop being then underway, the people could give him no Assistance. He kept the Child above Water, and swam a great Way; but his strength failing, he let the Child go, and immediately sunk. The Child was soon taken up by a Canoe; and, having Blood let, perfectly recovered.

This underscores the hazards of military operations even in peace time. Transporting soldiers and their families by water was attended with a variety of dangers, from storms during ocean crossings to mishaps like this one that led to the demise of a soldier. Fortunately the child, presumably of the regiment and perhaps Lipside's own, was saved. Were it not for this article, Lipside's fate would be completely unknown because no muster roll survives recording his death.

A few years later, still before the outbreak of hostilities, a strikingly similar incident occurred in Boston:

Last Wednesday Afternoon a Soldier belonging to the 10th Regiment was accidentally drowned as he was attempting to take up a seafaring Lad that had fell from a Wharf in this Town; the Lad was saved.

The date corresponds to 28 December 1774, a dangerous time to enter the frigid waters of Boston harbor. The muster rolls of the 10th Regiment show no man dying on that day, but John Chatham is listed as having died on 31 Dec 1774; no other man of the regiment died within that week, so we conclude that Chatham was the one who drowned. Had we only the muster rolls to rely on, we would assume that he died of illness and would know nothing of his heroic act.

While not the stuff of sainthood, the selfless actions of James Lipside and John Chatham show us that British soldiers were as likely as anyone else to shun personal safety in order to rescue another in danger.

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Prisoners of war: James Buchanan and William Brooks, 9th Regiment

We recently wrote about John Buchanan, a corporal in the 9th Regiment of Foot who experienced some misadventures while a prisoner of war. We incorrectly gave his name a James, an error that has since been corrected. There was a James Buchanan in the 9th Regiment, a serjeant, who also ran into trouble while a prisoner of war in Massachusetts after the surrender of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga in 1777.

James Buchanan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1742. We don't know when he joined the army, but by 1775 he was a corporal and was appointed serjeant some time in 1776. (As might be expected, the name 'Buchanan' is spelled various ways in the muster rolls and other documents.) Like many British soldiers he was married and his wife and child accompanied him to America. As far as can be discerned from the muster rolls, he saw all of the 9th Regiment's service in America from its arrival in Quebec in 1776, the rapid campaign to Lake Champlain that immediately ensued, the winter at posts in Canada. When the 1777 campaign began, Buchanan marched with the regiment while his family remained behind in Montreal; although some wives accompanied their husbands on campaigns, it was common for some to remain behind in anticipation of joining the regiment again when the campaigning ended. She would never see her husband again.

The fateful 1777 campaign culminated in the Convention of Saratoga, which saw six British infantry regiments (as well as companies from several others, several German regiments, and a contingent of artillery) surrendered. The Convention directed that these men be returned to Europe, and they were marched to Boston in anticipation of board ships. Instead, they were put into hastily-build barracks outside of town while politicians and military officials dickered about whether one side or the other had violated the terms of the Convention. Campaigning had been difficult, but was the sort of hardship that soldiers expected to endure. Captivity, on the other hand, brought unfamiliar challenges for career soldiers - boredom, lack of purpose, and myriad temptations.

Around the time that Corporal Buchanan was getting into his own troubles, Serjeant Buchanan was entrusted with money from his company officer to purchase shoes for his fellow prisoners. This was a typical task for a serjeant, but Buchanan succumbed to unmilitary influences and squandered the money in a way that has not been recorded. Fearing the punishment that was surely due to him, he determined to at least earn back the money. He deserted the barracks and made his way to the area of Worcester, Massachusetts. Whether he worked there, or for how long, is not clear, but at some point he met up with another fugitive from the 9th Regiment, private William Brooks.

Brooks was from Wednesbury, Staffordshire, was 27 years old, and had also been in the regiment since before 1775. A bizarre event involving Brooks had occurred during the regiment's voyage to America in 1776, as recorded by Roger Lamb:

April 20th. Our ship sailing at the rate of five miles an hour, a soldier whose name was Brooks, leaped off the forecastle into the ocean; the vessel in a moment made her way over him, and he arose at the stern. He immediately with all his might, swam from the ship. The men who were upon the deck alarmed the captain and officers, who had just sat down to dinner; the ship was ordered to be put about, and the boat hoisted out, and manned, the unfortunate man was soon overtaken, and it was with difficulty that the sailors could force him into the boat. When he was brought back he was ordered between decks, and a centinel placed over him; the next morning he was in a high fever, and continued very bad the remainder of the voyage. The fear of punishment was the cause of this desperate action, as the day before he had stolen a shirt from one of his messmates knapsacks.

Buchanan and Brooks set out further into the country towards Worcester in February, looking for work. In the town of Brookfield they passed by the well-appointed house of one Joshua Spooner where they were invited in. There they met the lady of the house, Bathsheba Spooner. She was the daughter of Timothy Ruggles, a prominent Massachusetts loyalist. She was young, beautiful, seductive and in an unhappy marriage.

The ensuing events need not be detailed here because an entire book has been written on the subject. Murdered by his Wife by Deborah Navas (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999) examines in detail how these two British soldiers were ensnared in a murder plot that resulted in their executions in Worcester on 2 July. Not only did the two of them acknowledge the justice of their demise, but it induced them to a dramatic spiritual transformation. Buchanan was particularly penitent. He wrote letters to his officers "full of religious contrition" and impressed upon Brooks the importance of such a viewpoint. As a soldier Brooks had been "notoriously prophane, and almost illiterate." During his confinement of only a few months, he learned to read the scripture and discuss it with his fellows facing execution - Buchanan, Bathsheba Spooner, and a young American soldier named Ezra Ross.

Roger Lamb was allowed by his officers and the American authorities to visit the doomed prisoners and witnessed their execution:

The malefactors had to pass two miles to the gallows, and, although the former part of the day was serene and fine, of a sudden, as they approached the place, the sky was covered with clouds, and a storm of thunder followed with copious rain, attached additional terrors to their ignominious catastrophe.

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Pensioner: Samuel Newby, 10th Regiment of Foot

When British soldiers were discharged, they received a document certifying that they had been legally released from their military obligation. This one-page document was usually a printed form with standardized language, having the specifics for the individual soldier written in. Most regiments used generic forms sold by printers, while a few regiments had forms printed specially for them; sometimes the entire document was handwritten.

The information on the form included the soldier's name, age, place of birth, and overall duration of military service. His trade was usually included, and sometimes a breakdown of the regiments in which he had served. Some forms included physical attributes such as height, hair and eye color, visage (the general shape of the man's face - round, square or long), and complexion (light or dark). These descriptive details made it possible to confirm that the man carrying the document was the true owner.

Men were granted pensions if the army pension board determined that they were unable to earn their own living due to infirmities incurred during army service. The discharge form included space to describe this infirmity, and the short descriptions give many fascinating insights into the hazards of military life. In addition to overt wounds or injuries, legions of pensioners suffered from straightforward ailments such as being "rheumatic", "asthmatic", "dropsical", and the widely used catchall "worn out in the service."

Occasionally the description reveals an entire dimension of the soldier's career. Such is the case with Samuel Newby of the 10th Regiment of Foot. From muster rolls we know that he spent 30 years in the 10th Regiment of Foot, from 1758 tho 1788, including the years that regiment was in America. He spent the early part of this time as a private soldier, then in February 1776 in Boston was appointed drummer, a role he retained for the rest of his career.

His discharge not only tells us that he was born in Limerick city, Ireland in 1737 (based on his age of 51 when he was discharged in 1788), but also that his 'trade' was 'Musician.' This explains, to some extent, his service as both a private soldier and a drummer. Many regiments had bands of music but there was no provision on the regimental establishment for musicians, only drummers and fifers. Regiments that had musicians for their band had to carry them on the rolls as private soldiers during times when the establishment allowed for only one drummer per company, because drummers were necessary for military duties. In 1775, the establishment for regiments in America was augmented to allow for two drummers in each company. In those rare cases where we can explicitly identify musicians we find that they were often appointed as drummers. Such was the case with Samuel Newby.

Remarkable is the reason that Newby was allowed a pension. His discharge says that he was infirm due to "being worn out on account of his long service and Constant Practice on Musical Wind Instruments." Rather than remain on the pension rolls, however, Newby enlisted in the 54th Regiment of Foot and served for another five years, taking his final discharge in 1793 at the age of 56, having served 35 years in the army.

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Deserter: Samuel James, 52nd Regiment of Foot

Most of the entries in this series tell the story of a soldier, pieced together from primary sources. This entry illustrates something different: that many stories, in fact the majority of them, go untold for want of sufficient information. We have enough to know that something interesting happened, but not enough to know what it was. This serves as a reminder that every single soldier had a career that included interesting moments and events, but details of only a scant few survive.

Samuel James joined the army at the age of 22 in 1757. After 18 years in that regiment, he was drafted into the 52nd Regiment at the end of 1775. The 59th had been on service in North America for several years when war broke out. Being under strength and due to return to Great Britain, the regiment's able-bodied men were drafted - transferred into other regiments serving in America - while unfit men were discharged and and the officers, non-commissioned officers and a cadre of long-serving soldiers returned to the British Isles to recruit anew.

That Samuel James was drafted at the age of 40 after 18 years of service is proof that career soldiers remained fit for service well into middle age. James began service in the 52nd Regiment of Foot, moving with it from Boston to Halifax and then to the New York area. During the successful British campaign to take New York City in late 1776, Samuel James was reported as a deserter in a memorandum circulated in general orders:

Memdm

9th Octr 76 Suposed to have Deserted from his Majesties 52d Regt on the 7th Inst (Samuel James) About 5 feet 9 I High brown Complection markd with the small pox 41 years of Age born at Fenningham Glocestershire by trade a Labourer have been 18 years in the 59th Rgt had on when he whent away the Regtl Cloathing of the 52 Regt.

This memorandum, recorded in a regimental orderly book kept in the 37th Regiment of Foot, provides all of the information that we have on James besides his service record, and saves us the trouble of tracing his service in the muster rolls of the 59th Regiment.

The rolls of the 52nd Regiment duly record the date that he joined that regiment, 25 December 1775, but also introduce an element of mystery to his story. There is no record of Samuel James' desertion. He is carried on the rolls of the 52nd steadily until the 52nd was drafted in late 1778. By this time, with 20 years of service, James was discharged. There is no evidence that he received a pension or continued to serve in a garrison battalion.

The only thing that is clear is that he returned from desertion, or was caught, within the muster period extending from June through December 1776; because he was present at the beginning and end of this period, there is no indication of his absence on the muster roll. There is also no evidence that he was tried by a general court martial for desertion. Either his absence did not result in desertion charges, or he was tried by a regimental court for a lesser crime; records of regimental courts have not survived. The semi-annual roll prepared in June 1778 indicates that he was on furlough at that time, a vague suggestion that regardless of whatever happened in October 1776 he was trusted enough to spend time away from the regiment. He had returned by the time the next rolls were prepared in September, shortly before he was discharged.

But that is all we know. Somehow, he got separated from the regiment in October 1776 for a long enough time to warrant a search. Clearly he returned somehow, for some reason, but we have no details. And this unrecorded vignette is but one incident in a 20 year career in two regiments that saw extensive foreign service and several major engagements in America. It is unfortunately that we know so little about him.

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John Gilbert, Musician, 22nd Regiment of Foot

Did soldiers own things? That's a simple question that is very difficult to answer. We have few documents that give us any answers, largely because there are no categories of 'official' documents to record such information. Army documents record what belonged to the army and, in the case of uniform clothing, what the soldier purchased from the army, but there was no reason to record those things that were the soldier's personal property - if, in fact, he had any. Journals, letters or other writings by the soldiers themselves are extremely rare, too few to answer the question (but, in the future, we will revisit those sources).

Conventional wisdom would suggest that the soldier's meager pay would afford him little opportunity to purchase much, and his itinerant life would make it difficult to retain any but small possessions. we would expect that something like a watch, even portable, would be too expensive for the common soldier to own. Conventional wisdom, though, is often wrong; we know of two soldiers in the 22nd Regiment of Foot who owned watches. This is not many of the 1005 men who served in the regiment during the war, but they happen to be the only two personal possessions that we know about in this regiment. Given the difficult of finding any information, the fact that these two watches are known is either remarkable, or an indication that watches were more accessible than we would have guessed. Perhaps watches then were like automobiles today - even though new ones were expensive, there were enough used ones on the market to make them accessible even to people of modest means.

A previous installment concerned Richard Hallum; we know he owned a watch because a fellow soldier tried to steal it from him. We also know that Hallum was a wagon driver, which perhaps allowed him to earn more money than other soldiers; that's only a guess, though. Another watch-owning soldier in the 22nd Regiment was John Gilbert, one of two men in the regiment with this name.

John Gilbert joined the regiment in May 1766, and is carried on the rolls as a private soldier for much of his career. For reasons that we do not know, he transferred to the 64th Regiment of Foot in November 1776 where he was also carried as a private, then returned to the 22nd Regiment in December 1779. It is possible, but not certain, that he was the servant to an officer who transferred to the 64th, Charles Laton. It was common for private soldiers to transfer to other regiments, but quite rare for a man to transfer back again. It is particularly interesting that Gilbert left the 22nd at the time the regiment was embarking in New York for Rhode Island, and returned immediately after the regiment returned to the New York garrison.

Shortly after returning to the 22nd Regiment he was appointed as a drummer. In 1784 he was reduced again to private soldier. This is consistent with several men known to have served in the regiment's band of music - they were usually carried on the rolls as privates, but for the last few years of the war were carried as drummers instead (but this is not true for all bandsmen, only some of them).

John Gilbert prepared a will on 4 April 1786 when the regiment was in Plymouth, England. He was probably quite ill at the time; he died 17 days later. The will refers to him as a 'Musician in the 22nd Regt.', confirming his role at least at that time; perhaps his musical talent was the reason for his temporary service in the 64th Regiment.

The will refers to his father in Surrey, also named John. Gilbert directed that all of his 'goods, money owed, prize money, etc.' go to Thomas Gilbert, apparently his brother, who would share it equally with another brother, William, and a married sister in Surrey, Elizabeth Alstous. The money was substantial; Gilbert's father had lodged 100 pounds sterling in his name, and Gilbert surely had accumulated some savings in his 20 years of service that probably included extra income from work as a musician.

John Gilbert also owned a 'Silver Watch & furniture' which he left to his sister. While we could assume that this was a sign of some wealth, the will reveals another possible explanation for this private soldier owning a watch: his brother William was a watchmaker.

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