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James Hunt 7th Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

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VALLMO9
Posts: 757
Joined: 13 Jun 2020, 21:28

Re: James Hunt 7th Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Post by VALLMO9 »

Thepastisyourself wrote: 22 Oct 2020, 13:11 Is there any particular significance of being stationed in Cork, Nass and Dublin?
The 7th had a depot in Ireland, and were stationed there on general peace-keeping duties.

Sounds like your chap served in one of the depot companies (see below). Text copied from "Historical Record of the 7th Foot" published in 1847. Compiled by Richard Cannon, Esq.

"In the summer of 1825 the regiment was divided into six service and four depot companies; the service companies embarked at Gosport on the 14th and 15th of June for the Ionian Islands, where they were stationed until September 1828, when they were removed to Malta.

In December, 1833, the depot companies embarked at Portsmouth for Ireland, where they arrived in January, 1834; they returned to England in October, 1835, and landed at Portsmouth.

The service companies remained at Malta until the early part of 1836, when they returned to England, and landing at Portsmouth, were stationed at that fortress until June, when they removed to Winchester.

In July 1836 the regiment marched to Windsor, and had the honour of performing the King's duty during the residence of His Majesty King William IV at Windsor Castle.

Leaving Windsor in August, the regiment proceeded into Lancashire, and the head-quarters were stationed at Bolton until the autumn of 1837, when the regiment proceeded to Ireland.

During 1838 the Royal Fusiliers were stationed at Dublin; in May, 1839, they were removed to Kilkenny, and in August following to Cork.
In the autumn six companies embarked for Gibraltar, and arrived at that fortress in November, leaving four depot companies in Ireland.

The service companies remained at Gibraltar until the 19th December, 1844, when they embarked for the West Indies, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Farquharson, on board of Her Majesty's Troop Ship "Resistance," and arrived at Barbados on the 18th January, 1845.

The depot companies remained in Ireland from the embarkation of the service companies for Gibraltar until November, 1841, when they proceeded from Cork to Dover, and remained in England until June, 1845, when they returned to Ireland, where they have remained to the present year, 1846.

The service companies at the end of 1846, when this Record concludes, were in the West Indies, the head-quarters at St. Vincent".
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AdrianBruce
Posts: 358
Joined: 14 Jun 2020, 18:57
Location: South Cheshire

Re: James Hunt 7th Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Post by AdrianBruce »

Well done Mo - your detail comes from one of the links I had found below but I hadn't found the actual pages!

Wikipedia seems to skate over the regiment btw the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the start of the Crimean in 1854 - other than saying it was a single battalion regiment during that period ( URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Fusiliers )

As per Mo's reference, according to https://www.maltaramc.com/regmltgar/2nd7th.html the regiment was in Malta from 1828 up to 1836 - the page includes a number of extracts from the chaplain's baptism, marriage & burial registers, which might be gold dust for anyone with an interest in that regiment.

The reference appears to be found on
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001589103 "Historical records of the 7th or Royal regiment of fusiliers now known as the Royal fusiliers (the City of London regiment) 1685-1903" - there is an Item Link for "Full View" - you probably can't download the full book as a PDF but that might be too much detail anyway. (Whether there is a Google version, I've no idea - there often is).

There is a caveat to all this, as suggested above, a soldier in the regiment might not be stationed with the main force but might be with a regimental depot in the UK (including Ireland, of course, at this time). Normally the way to resolve that (should you feel that pedantic) is to go to The National Archives at Kew and consult the Muster Books for the regiment to find the entries for your chap, which will give where he was really stationed.
Adrian Bruce
Thunder
Posts: 436
Joined: 14 Jun 2020, 01:43

Re: James Hunt 7th Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Post by Thunder »

Thepastisyourself wrote: 23 Oct 2020, 13:44 Thank you both for your helpful answers. It is interesting to see how the Regiment moved about. I have just been reading about the general history of Ireland in the period. Though the Potato famine didn't really impact upon Jame's Army career there were many causes of unrest, especially the enforcement of Church of England Tithes upon Roman Catholics, and poverty / starvation caused by the Corn Laws 1815 - 1846 which inflated prices of bread causing workers to spend most of their money on food, which in turn effected their ability to pay for other goods driving down wages across the board. Stationing Regiments across Ireland was undoubtedly the English establishments method of providing 'control'. I looked at 'Naas' which seems to be a place of unimportance except to the Aristocratic local landowner.
Although sometime earlier there was the Battle of Naas in 1798 involving 1,000 people, so the British Government is likely to have it on the radar as a possible area for discontent.
Hardwork
Posts: 86
Joined: 14 Jun 2020, 14:15

Re: James Hunt 7th Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Post by Hardwork »

Stationing Regiments across Ireland was undoubtedly the English establishments method of providing 'control'.
It wasn't peculiar to Ireland. Regiments were stationed across the whole of Britain and Ireland by the British government, as there was civil unrest during the Napoleonic Wars onwards, with Luddism, Swing Riots, Chartism etc. Non-Conformists also objected to tithes too, so again, not a gripe peculiar to Catholics. The army were the only means of controlling serious disturbances so it shouldn't be thought of as anything but the norm throughout the British Empire, however we may view it today.
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