The history of the Honourable Artillery Company of the City of London, from its earliest annals to the Peace of 1802

Front matter

P¥/y 2yp'^/P/:i,y,^>J,^y/^ CpRINCE of WALES, ' Pf// /(//// ( ////<//// ('/ P/f i P/r /< (.', ir'Pi//r>'e// sP>rr?Asr/rirtP. THE HISTORY OF THE HONOURABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY, OF THE CITY OF LONDON, FROM ITS EARLIEST ANNALS TO THE PEACE OF 1802. BY ANTHONY HIGHMORE, Solicitor MEMBER OF THE SOUTH-EAST DIVISION OF THE COMPANY. Magna sit aemulatto comitum quibus primus apud principem suum, focus ; et principum cui plurimi et acerrimi comites. Tacitus de mor. Germ. ARMA PACIS FULCRA. LONDON : PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY R. WILKS, CHANCERY-LANE, AND SOLD BY S. WHITE, FLEET-STREET, AND MESSRS. RICHARDSON, CORNHILL, 1804. TO THE MOST HIGH, MOST MIGHTY, AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE GEORGE-AUGUSTUS-FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES, ELECTORAL PRINCE OF BRUNSWIC-LUNENBURG, DUKE OF CORNWALL AND ROTHSAY, EARL OF CHESTER AND CARRICK, BARON OF RENFREW, LORD OF THE ISLES, GREAT STEWARD OF SCOTLAND, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE HONOURABLE ARTILLERY .

COMPANY, SsC. S;c. Se-C. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, JL our Royal Highness's accustomed con descension has encouraged me to entreat that }-ou would deign to receive, from a private in Your .Battalion of the Honourable a 3 Artil- ( vi ) Artillery Company, the history of its trans-. j actions from the earliest annals to the late peace. The obligation of this permission will never be erased from my grateful recol lection. Your Royal Highness will not only perceive how nearly connected with, and how important the influence of this Com pany has always been esteemed to the general affairs of the country and of the state, but also how zealously attached it has ever proved itself to the accession and government of the illustrious House of Hanover ; and at no period more truly so than during that of Your Royal Highncss's super intendence as the Captain-General.

Its prosperity has increased under Your Royal Highnesses patronage, and its permanence and utilitv gather advancing strength by the ) the ties which connect the vigour of its principle with the fealty of its association. I trust it will not be deemed pre sumptuous ambition in me, if the favourable protection which Your Royal Highness has been pleased at all times to extend to the Company in general, is felt by every individual in its battalion. . - I have the honour to be, "With the utmost deference, Yrour Royal Highnesses Very obedient humble Servant, ANTHONY HIGHMORE. Haydon-square, March 1804. A 4 TO TO Sir WM. CURTIS, Bart. Alderman, M.P President of the Hon. Artillery Company; WILLIAM LUSHINGTON, Esq. Vice- President ; Sir J. W. ANDERSON, Bart. Aid. M. P. Treasurer PAUL LE MESURIER, Esq. Alderman, Colonel ; WILLIAM DAWSON, Esq. Lieutenant- Colonel; RICHARD HOOPER, Esq. Major; JOHN EURBOR, Esq. Adjutant; And to the Members of the Honorary and Elected Court of Assistants.

Chapter I

Of the Use of Arms in England. At a crisis like the present, eventful to all European nations, but peculiarly momentous to the united Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and their dependencies, when, not only the blessings for which we have toiled with unwearied assiduity, the property which we have acquired by laborious exertion, the more valuable and incalculable riches which our brave and venerable ancestors have transmitted to our trust, the birthright of our country, the constitutional privileges of our free because equipoised government, the mild and tolerant spirit of our Protestant church, the protection of our colonial dominion, the extension of our commerce, and the maintenance of our naval honour and power, — our own personal safety, and the rampart which nature forms in the human breast as the ever blessed vanguard of our wives and chil dren ; — when these are threatened with more than a - u conquest.

H. A. C conquest, with annihilation itself, by an implacable and desperate enemy, whose successful usurpation of the monarchy of France was neither sanctioned by birth, by title, nor by conquest ; it becomes essentially interesting to the well regulated mind of every virtuous citizen of this empire to suspend for awhile the peaceful habits of his life, and while all these en dearing ties of public patriotism and generous affection cling round his heart, to stand forward in the strong phalanx of united brotherhood, and to prepare his most active energy to meet the sharpest fury of the attack, and to repel the meditated blow. Hence it cannot but form an interesting source of reflection, encouraging to and coequal with the un exampled alacrity and ardent spirit, never sufficiently to be admired and revered, which at this period per vades not only this expanded metropolis, but every town and almost every village in the kingdom, to re view the history of a military association of citizens, whose principle is as loyal and voluntary as it is in dependent, whose public services have been sanctioned and recognized by the early annals of our history, and whose steady firmness in the maintenance of national independence and civil order, and the just and mutual rights of the social and established union of the state, has ever placed it, in the times of public danger, foremost in the post of honour.

The records of the society to which the reader's attention is solicited, offer the names of many of our monarchs, the heirs apparent to their crown, the first of our nobility, and those who have ennobled themselves by probity and CH. I. Of the Use of Arms in England. 3 and valour ; these have sought to enrol themselves in all periods of our history, and to contribute their exertions in conjunction with its numerous other members, " practising the grace and utility of the military art," and serving in the upright cause of public peace. When I survey this long and venerable roll, which hands down to the present period a vast unmeasured line of ancestry, by whose active vigour and generous ardour I am now in the possession of the primary blessings of society, my soul dilates with unrestrained gratitude to their memory ; and while I cast a con scious glance upon the later page whereon my feeble signature is retained, the fervent prayer that even I too may deserve some favour, however small, in my country's cause, swells in my heart, and rises up to Heaven with irresistible devotion.

In the ancient establishment of Frankpiædge, which King Alfred copied from the wise council of Jethro to David, and which practice was recognized by the laws of Edward the Confessor, the mode of national defence, by free popular societies of armed citizens in every district and vicinage, is ca.\led,/umma et maxima securit as — the chief and greatest security by which all men are sustained in the firmest state ; by every one establishing himself under the security of a covenant, or suretyship, which the old Englisti writers have called Freeborges or Freepledges * : thus all the honest inhabitants of every vicinage being answerable, in their own private fortunes and property, for all * Gr. Sharp on Congr. Courts, 7- B2 the H. A. C. 4 the damages and depredations of robbers, &c. within their respective districts, would of course be stimulated, by the urgent spur of private interest, to devote a small portion of their leisure to the necessary exercise of arms and training for their mutual defence against every act of violence and injustice *.

Man being by nature a lbcial creature, it is his first propensity thus to associate, and hence may be derived the right of association ; but he is moreover bound to do it by a branch of the common law, which cannot legally be changed ; for it is fixed upon all men, in their respective districts and counties, as an indispensable duty, " by the law of nature and nations, that we may be assisting both to our parents and our country, and repel force and iniury ; and hence it comes that whatsoever we do for the defence of our own bodies is adjudged legal f." Not only the laws of nature but of found policy require every active citizen to be exercised, and expert in arms ofdefence and peace for mutual protection. The ancient power of the country is established upon this security ; the ancient statute of Winton, the laws of King Edward j, the statute of 33 Henry VIII. c. 9. which alludes to " the law of ancient times used," require every person to have bows and to be exercised in the use of them ; which was then esteemed one of the most effectual military disciplines for the defence of the kingdom : .53 Hen.

VIII. c. 6. these ancient principles of our ear liest ancestors, their descendants proudly recognize and * Gr. Sharp on Corigr. Courts, 10. Lambard. |" Cowel, tit. 2. Bracton, lib. i. c. 5. Num. 7. J Judge Atkins' Tracts, C'53. Bacon on Govern, p. 1 . 64. confirm ; Of the Use of Arms in England. CH. I. 5 confirm ; and let it ever be remembered, that though the weapons may be changed, the doctrine is still preserved and maintained. To facilitate the means of this defence, it was by the fame act allowed and directed that every inhabi tant of towns and districts should keep fire arms in their houses, and " to shoot at any butt or bank of earth only in place convenient for the fame, whereby they, by the exercise thereof, might the better aid and assist to the defence of this realm when need should require *."

Several ancient writers have corroborated and en larged this doctrine, for they have required not only the exercise of, but expertness in, the use of arms t ; and in later times, the Bill of Rights, 1 W. and M. scat. ii. c. 2, which limited the use of arms to pro testants, allows them to have arms for their defence according to their condition, and as allowed by law. The character of a citizen bearing arms-, whose in tentions have the stamp of legal sanction, is congenial with the strictest ideas of the constitution oi .his country, and clearly calculated to obviate evils and produce many good effects ; thence is derived a me dium of power, neither altogether civil nor military, by which Englishmen may be defended without apprehension for their civil rights, and dangerous violators of the laws be the more easily subdued, as feeling themselves in some measure judged and con demned by their country. * Eirenarcha, 4 b. 478. t Fortes, de Laud. c.44. 106.

J. Aland's Remarks thereon, c. 2. 5 Minor, c. 1. s. 3. St. Westm. 1. b 3 Public H. A. C. Public credit, in which every one is directly or remotely interested, cannot fail of being more firmly maintained, by confidence in the means of security of rights, and of property of all descriptions ; and every enterprise of commerce, and in the arts and sciences, will ever be conducted with acumen and energy, and attended with beneficial consequences, pro portioned to the prospect of protection and permanency in the resulting honour or advantage *. In free states, fays Sir William Blackstone, no man should take up arms, but with a view to defend his country and its laws : he puts not off the citizen when he enters the camp ; but it is because he is a citizen, and would wish to continue so, that he makes himself for a while a soldiers.

Besides, though the civil govern ment is justly made to rely upon the more lenient exertion of magisterial power, yet there will arise serious and awful moments in the progress of society, when the arm of that power must bestrengthened, when civil authority must assume a sterner brow, and when unhappily the mild administration of reason and restraint must give place to vigorous coercion and unrelaxing severity ! At such periods of general alarm, to be gentle or supine is to be vicious : security and confidence are the heraldsof public ruin ! Those on whom the weight of strong severity may fall, must by their fatal example impress the seal of con trition, and those whom their sufferings have pro tected, must at the returning moment of tranquilsity, while they lament the loss of a fellow citizen, convert •Address 1794.

See A pp. t 4 Bl. Com. 408. their ch. I. Of the Use of Arms in England. 7 their tears into smiles of gladness, and their emotions into transports of gratitude. Such is the faint and distant sliade of a picture which dissolves the human eye to inspect, and clouds the mind to contemplate ! To aid the functions of civil government, by the commanding awe of military evolution, is to be resorted to only in the last ex, tremity of popular fury, when the most dire necessity sanctions the call, and the more general danger justi fies the consequence. But in all cases of rebellion or invasion, the executive government vested in the crown has the acknowledged claim of allegiance, in the power of demanding the personal service of every individual capable of defending his country and the public peace. In the earliest ages of this nation, the monarchs commanded the personal presence of all knights and others, which was invariably practised till the military part of the feudal system was abolished ; when personal service was dispensed with for a pecuniary compensation.

By the laws of King William the First fas published in Lambard's Archionomia, 1 edit. 4to, 1568, sol, 125), after establishing the regular watch and ward, it is added, " We ordain and strictly command that all earls, &c. and all the freemen of our whole kingdom, shall have and hold themselves always well in arms and horses, as it is fit and right, and that they may be always ready and prepared to fulfil their entire service to us, and effectually to act whenever there shall be occasion, according to the duty which they ought to do of right to us, for their lands and B 4 tenements, H. A. C. tenements, and according as we command them by the common council of the whole kingdom." And this service was rendered still more suitable to the dignity of a free people by the entire election, from among themselves, of all their officers civil and military *.

It may be observed that this service was not entirely feudal, though it had respect to the lands and tenements which they might hold under the crown, for the command was to be sanctioned and organized by the legislature, which rendered it a national and not merely a feudal or vassal service. It was held by the ancient law, to be a contempt against the king's prerogative for any private subject to refuse to serve him in person, if he were able, or to find a substitute, if otherwise, in the defence of the realm against rebels and foreign invaders ; — or, as some fay, to refuse to serve the king for pay in his wars abroad. The curious inquirer will perhaps in vestigate the doctrine, by referring to the statutes and works in the margin f. The ancient military order was, when the king was to be served with soldiers for his war, a knight or esquire of the country, that had revenues, farmers and tenants, would covenant with the king, by an indenture enrolled in the Exchequer, to serve the king for such a term, with so many men, specially named in a list, in his war \.

And there are many regulations * Gr. Sharp, Congr. Courts, 196, t 2 Roll's Abr. 165. — Brown's Tenures, 44. 73 1 Ed. 3. c. 5. — 18 Ed. 3. c. 7.— 25 Ed. 3. c. 8.-4 Hen. 4. c. 13. — 1 1 Hen. 7. c. 1. c. 18.— Cro. Car. 11. 1*3. 237. — Crom. Jur. 83. 84.-3 Inst. 144.— « Hob. 235.— 12 Co. 94. 1 1 Inst. 71. by Of the Use of Arms in England. CH. I. 9 by divers statutes concerning the fame subject in the reigns of Henry VI. Henry VII. Henry VIII. Edw. VI. and Philip and Mary : but all these have become obsolete, and have been superseded by the annual arrangements made by the legislature, for establishing and maintaining the army and the militia ; and one only remnant of the feudal tenure is yet observable, in the limitation of time for their service. The alteration from personal service to pecuniary compensation was introduced so early as in the reign of Henry II. which gradually increased till after the Restoration, and then knights service and their military tenures were abolished together by the legislature *.

In the mean time the kingdom was not left wholly without defence ; for, besides those who by their mili tary tenures were bound to perform forty days service jn the field, first, the assize of arms, 27 Hen. II. A. D. 1 181, ordained, and afterwards the statute of Winton, sS Edw. I. c. 6, obliged every man, according to his station, to provide a determinate quantity of such arms as were then in use, in order to maintain the peace ; and constables were appointed in all hundreds by the latter statute to see that such arms were provided : these weapons were changed by statute 4 and 5 Ph. and Mary, c. 2, for others of more modern service ; but both this and the former provisions were repealed by 1 James I. c. 25, and 21 James I. c. 28 :— while these statutes were in force, it was usual for our princes from time to time to issue commissions of array, and to send into every county officers in whom they could confide, f' to muster and array, or set ♦ 12 Cir. 2. c. 24. in H. A. C, in military order, the inhabitants of every district ;'* and the form of these commissions was settled in parliament, so as to prevent the insertion of any new penal clauses *.

The warrants and letters patent addressed by several of our kings to the Artillery Company, authorizing their array and appointing a captain-general, seem to be a continuation of this ancient practice, and to have arisen from similar motives. The commissions of lieutenancy, which afterwards superseded those of array, were introduced by Hen ry VIII. and were generally issued till the Long Par liament disputed and denied this power of the crown, and seized it into their own hands ; but, after the Restoration, this right was recognized, and the military authority and subsistence now stands by law upon the new foundation raised by the legislature at that period; for the statute 13 and 14 Car. II., an. 1661, recognized the ancient common law right of array and muster, and extended it to the trained bands and auxiliaries of London ; and the commission -in consequence directed the assembling of volunteers and others in, the city and suburbs, and " them to try, array, and put in readiness, and cause them to be armed and weaponed, and to muster themf," he.

This pro vision was also renewed upon the accession of the house of Hanover to the British crown, 1 Geo. I. c. 14. And later statutes have converted the trained bands into a regular militia, 36 Geo. III. c. 92. This ancient and undoubted prerogative of the crown, in requiring the military service of every liege • 4 Bl. Com. 409. 411. t Gr. Sharp on Militia, 80. 3 subject ch. I. Of the Use os Arms in England. 11 subject in case of invasion is again recognized by par liament, in the statute lately passed for the general defence, 43 Geo. III. c. 96. Actuated by the principles before stated, and anticipating the call of the monarch or the municipal magistrate, the Artillery Company has been resorted to by the citizens of London, who have thereby associated, as auxiliary to the other mifitary force of the metropolis, and in aid of the civil power : its efficient cooperation has been required, and its exertions respected and acknowledged, from the early period of its establishment to the present day ; and its exercise has been enlarged, suspended, and renewed, by the voluntary resolution of its members, as the existing circumstances of the time have required or relaxed their exertions.

Thus, by long tried valour and steady attachment to its country's cause, this Company has often proved the bulwark of domestic protection, and verified the superscription of its ensign, that " arms are the maintenance of peace" — " Ar ma pacis fulcra." True patriotism happily " connects our private with our public virtues ; it leads us to protect immediately our governors and our fellow citizens, and eventually our neighbours, our friends, our venerable parents, and our beloved children. All, as members of the fame community, are linked together by the ties of a common interest ; all, as men, are related to us by the participation of a common nature : all are objects of our moral agency by the authority of a common reli gion ; and by our common exertions, all are to be de fended *." * Dr. Parr's Fast Sermon, 6. CHAPTER H. A. C. 12

Chapter II

Of Artillery, Archery, Infantry, Ordnance, Fire Arms, and defensive Armour. ARTILLERY. The modern acceptation of the word Artillery, as most generally applied to Ordnance, has led many to misunderstand the plan and operations of this Com pany ; it becomes therefore necessary to detain the reader's attention by a few explanatory observations. Most Lexicographers have agreed in ascribing to it a French origin ; the word artillerie, from its verb artil ler, armis instruere : or from the Italian, attiglare, which took its derivation from the Latin, aptulare, or apto, to put in order ; or 0,1.100, to join, or fit *. Another writer has given its origin to the Spanish or Portuguese languages, ar tiller ia, a terrible art ; and from art tirerie, French, tirer per art ; or ejaculare per artem ; jaculare, to shoot f : and Voffius conceives the word arcualia arcus, a bow, to have been cor* rupted from artillerie. * Skinner's Etymol. 1671. t Mkshew'sEtymol. 1617.

Now Artillery. CH. II. 13 Now there is nothing in either of these derivations which applies to the modern use of the word Artillery, as descriptive of .Ordnance ; but on the other hand, they all seem more aptly to suggest what it really signified, the weapons of archery ; and in this latter fense it was universally adopted as long as archery continued to furnish arms for the military art. It is applied in this sense in the charter of Henry VIIL to this company, which relates to " long bowes, cross bowes, and hand gonnes ;" and must have so con tinued until fire arms and bayonets became universal : and it is remarkable, in confirmation of this construction, that the bowyer to the kings of France was styled Artillier du Roi ; besides that it is from that nation that England learnt and adopted the practice of archery, at least with the cross bow ; and the term Butt, or Mound of Earth on which the marks were fixed, is French also *.

It is under the fame impression that we. must read the word artillery, in the Old Testament, where it is only once used in our English version, 1 Sam. xx. 40. The original Hebrew ybl f signifies merely instruments ; but as it appears that Jonathan shot arrows, and as archery was in practice in the reign of James I. when the translators furnished the common translation, and which v/as then understood by the name artillery, * 7 Archael. p. 46. t This word is pronounced by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. " Kai/laur," translated in Spanish, his "Arms." The root of the word is pronounced " Kil." *P7D is a term which imports his 1 instruments, • arms, armoury, or vessels, according to the context. Ol H. A. C. or any missile weapon, the use of it in the Bible, and in that sense, may be readily accounted for ; more especially as we find that this was the customary term for archery long before the practice of fire arms was adopted.

The disinterested friendship which subsisted between Jonathan and David has ever been the theme of universal admiration, and this instance of it, which the word artillery introduces to our peculiar notice, may serve to animate every comrade in our battasion with the fame amiable and active generosity. The life of David had been devoted to death, by the intemperate hatred os Saul ; he fled from the court of his sovereign, where the invitations of external honours and splendour but half concealed the unerring shafts of royal power, and hid himself in a field, where, according to a preconcerted agreement with his friend Jonathan, who had first pleaded his cause, the latter shot three arrows in a certain direction, so as for David to hear the orders given by him to his servant to seek for them, and to gather them up ; and when he carried them to his master, " Jonathan gave his artillery to his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city."

And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times, and they kissed one another, and wept one with the ether, until David exceeded. They then pledged inviolable regard to each other, and separated. In Howe's Cont. of Stowe, 1084, c. 43, we are favoured with a derivation suited to our particular purpose. " Artcllerie, or artelery j id est, ars telorum mittendorum Artillery. CH. II. 15 mittendorum (if our later etymologists deceived us not), is the art of shooting in long bowes, croffe bowes, slur bowes, stone bowes, scorpions, rams, catapults; as also (and especially in this age) in canons, baselifks, cul verings, sakers, faulcons, minions, fowlers, chambers, muskets, harquebusses, calivers, petronils, pistols, dags, &c. For this is the artillery which is now in most use and estimation, and they are divided into great ordnance, and into shot or guns.

These bee warlike arts, and of great importance, either for in vasions or for defence. The art of shooting in great ordnance is taught in a field, inclosed with a brick wall, without Bifhopsgate, called the Artillery Garden ; (and as it is to be well noted) all the men which come thither to learne this art, are solemnly sworne not to teach any forainer or alien this art, nor to serve any foraine prince therewith, without the leave or commandment of the king of England, their sovereign lord." Lexicographers of a more modem date than those already cited, have been led to explain the original words, by their modern acceptations. Hence we find, in G. Graglia's Italian Dictionary, the following interpretation; Artiglieria, artillery, ordnance; Artig liere, a gunner ; and very similar to this is the in terpretation given by F. Bottarelli, Arfigliere, s. m. a mattross, Artilleur.

But enough of derivations. In pursuing the early history of mankinds or of any nation or society, the recorder of their annals is driven into many devious roads and defiles, to gather the fragments of far distant ages, to trace the obscure vestiges A. C. 16 vestiges of pristine simplicity, and to preserve from the wasting rust of time the remnants of ancient valour ; mountains or morasses obstruct his progress, but they serve to stimulate his perseverance ; he marches on, his own pioneer ; and having at length ascended the vantage ground, he bears down upon the citadel, and presents it, as the fruit of his victory, to the calm possession of his reader ; happy, thrice happy, if patient candour shall accord to him one verdant wreath. The search into antiquities of nations or of arts, produces an attractive fondness, like that of seeking for the birth and early history of a parent ; our minds insensibly become absorbed in an affection mingled with "respectful veneration at every step that we dis cover ; and we cherish, every facility in our progress with 'proportionable tenderness, as we regard with horror every obstacle that impedes it.

The first arms or weapons used by mankind were undoubtedly those with which nature had furnished them ; that is, their hands, nails, and teeth, assisted by stones, branches, or roots of trees, and the bones of dead animals *. As society advanced, and the human mind was expanded by invention and dis covery, the science, or rather the art of arms, en larged also, and furnished the means of defence against noxious animals, the services of the chase, and man's early and unceasing contest with man. Weapons of brass, and. afterwards of iron, were coeval with the discovery and fasliioning of metals *. But it is re- * Grose on Armour, Si. markable Cff. il.

Artillery. 17 markable, that the subsequent alterations or improve ments in the science of arms furnish a prominent. evidence, that as mankind has advanced from the earliest age, the race has degenerated from its pristine strength ; the massy club, the lengthened lance, the pon derous shield, the iron cap, the mail and the cuirass, which protected without incumbering the active sinews of the warriors of Juda, and like a moving mountain compacted the close phalanx of Macedon, or digni fied the nations who crimsoned the tide of Scamander, were rejected by the legions of Rome, and lost in the Christian æra : the shining but less cumbrous armour, and the nodding helm, which, with the aid of family devises on their shields *, distinguistted Godfrey, and fired his valliant followers in the sacred cause of the redemption of Palestine, handed down to their posterity the titles of valour, and the name of martial honour; and from that period to the 17th century, gradually declined into the disuse of defensive arms, and merged at length into the subtlety of the firelock and ordnance, which the weakest arm may learn to explode, if it possess an appropriate soul to direct it with steadiness and courage.