Historical Record of the Fifty-sixth, or the West Essex Regiment of Foot / Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1755, and of its subsequent services to 1844.

by Richard Cannon

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Afterwards General Sir David Dundas, K.B., author of a valuable work on the principles of military movements, which became the basis of regulations for the field exercises of the British army.

[2] Strength of the garrison of Gibraltar, at the commencement of the blockade, 21st June, 1779.

	Officers	Staff.	Serjeants.	Drummers.	Rank & File.
British.
Royal Artillery	25	0	17	15	428
Royal Engineers	8	0	6	2	106
12th Regiment	26	3	29	22	519
39th ”	25	4	29	22	506
56th ”	23	4	30	22	506
58th ”	25	3	29	22	526
72nd, or, Royal Manchester Volunteers (disbanded 1783)	29	4	47	22	944
Hanoverians.
Hardenberg’s Regiment	16	13	42	14	367
Reden’s ”	15	12	42	14	361
De la Motte’s ”	17	16	42	14	367
Total	209	59	313	169	4,632

Governor, General George A. Eliott, afterwards Lord Heathfield.

Lieut.-Governor, Lieut.-General R. Boyd.

Commanding the Hanoverian Brigade, Major-General De la Motte.

[3] The Duke of York’s despatch.

[4] These orders are printed in the Record of the Second or [Queen’s Royal Regiment of Foot], page 81.

[5] Lieut.-Colonel Keating’s despatch.

[6] Serjeant Hasty was afterwards discharged and appointed to a situation in the service of the governor. He proved a man of talent, and was selected to take charge of, and educate in the English language, two of the princes of Ova, in Madagascar, where Radam was king. He was afterwards nominated British Resident at Madagascar; and on a visit to the Mauritius, he was received by a guard of honour of his old corps, commanded by his former captain. He died at Madagascar.

[7] Colonel Fletcher Barclay was appointed Ensign in the Fifty-sixth on the 30th of June, 1791, and served in the West Indies, in Holland, and in the East Indies. In 1804, he was promoted to the rank of Major, and in 1811, to Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1831, he retired, after a diligent and faithful service of forty years, having passed through the several grades, and attained the rank of Colonel in the Army.

[8] While detachments of the regiment were in the disputed territory, several desertions occurred, and in the beginning of March, 1841, Lieutenant T. Johnes Smith evinced signal energy and discretion in the apprehension of a deserter from the party under his orders, who had taken refuge in the American Block Houses at Fish River, for which he received the thanks of Major-General Sir James Macdonell, commanding at Quebec.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

The roman page numbering at the front of the book goes from iii to viii, then from v to viii again; this has not been changed.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

[Pg v]: ‘1700 Returns to’ replaced by ‘1760 Returns to’.
[Pg v]: ‘Guadaloupe’ replaced by ‘Guadeloupe’.
[Pg 24]: ‘Guadaloupe’ replaced by ‘Guadeloupe’.
[Pg 35]: ‘tend to recal’ replaced by ‘tend to recall’.
[Pg 57]: ‘a d in 1766’ replaced by ‘and in 1766’.