Light Dragoons.
Incorporated in 1759.
Fifteenth, in England, by Colonel George A. Eliott;—now the Fifteenth, or the King's Hussars.
Sixteenth, in England, by Lieut.-Colonel John Burgoyne;—now the Sixteenth, or the Queen's Lancers.
Seventeenth, in Scotland, by Captain Lord Aberdour;—disbanded in 1763.
Eighteenth, in England, by Lieut.-Colonel John Hale;—now the Seventeenth Lancers.
Nineteenth, in Ireland, by Lieut.-Colonel Lord Drogheda;—numbered the Eighteenth in 1763; constituted Hussars in 1807; and after performing much valuable service at home and abroad, it was disbanded at Newbridge, in Ireland, in 1821.
Incorporated in 1760.
Twentieth, in Ireland, by Captain Sir James Caldwell;—disbanded in 1763.
Twenty-first, or Royal Foresters, in England by Lieut.-General the Marquis of Granby, and Colonel Lord Robert Sutton;—disbanded in 1763.
After the peace of Fontainebleau, three of these corps were disbanded, and the other four continued in the service. The light troops attached to the heavy regiments were also disbanded, but a few men of each troop were afterwards equipped as Light Dragoons.
A more perfect knowledge of the efficiency and capabilities of Light Cavalry, acquired during the campaigns in Germany and Portugal, had advanced the estimation in which that arm was held; and, in 1768, the Twelfth Dragoons (one of the heavy regiments raised by King George I. in 1715), underwent a change of equipment and clothing, and was constituted a corps of Light Dragoons, by General Carpenter, in Ireland.
This alteration served as a precedent for subsequent changes; and further experience, during the American war, from 1775 to 1783, confirming the value of Light Cavalry, the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Regiments of Dragoons were changed from heavy to light. The Light Dragoons attached to the heavy regiments were incorporated into newly-raised corps, and the following regiments of