1739
1740
1742
War between Great Britain and Spain was resumed in 1739; and the claims of the Elector of Bavaria on the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, which were attempted to be enforced after the death of the Emperor, Charles VI., in 1740, involved Great Britain in hostilities with France and Bavaria. King George II. resolved to support the House of Austria; the garrison of Gibraltar was reinforced, and the Fourteenth Regiment, having been relieved from duty at that fortress, arrived at Portsmouth in September, 1742. After reposing a few days in barracks at Portsmouth, the regiment marched into quarters in Yorkshire, the head-quarters being at York.
1743
In the summer of this year, His Majesty sent an army to Flanders to support the House of Austria, and on the 16th of June, 1743, the colonel of the Fourteenth Foot, Lieutenant-General Jasper Clayton, who was employed on the staff of the British army in Flanders, was killed at the battle of Dettingen; he was an officer of distinguished merit; his fall was regretted by the King and the whole army, and his remains were interred, with great solemnity, in the Chapel of Prince George of Hesse. The King conferred the command of the regiment on Colonel Joseph Price, from the Fifty-seventh, now Forty-sixth Foot, by commission dated the 22nd of June, 1743.
1744
From Yorkshire the regiment marched into Northumberland, and was stationed at Berwick; in 1744, it marched to Dunstable and afterwards to Colchester.
1745
Immediately on the receipt of the news of the loss of the battle of Fontenoy, on the 30th of April, 1745, the regiment received orders to proceed to Flanders, to join the allied army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland; it embarked at Tilbury, on the 15th of May, landed in West Flanders, and joined the camp on the plain of Lessines, before the end of the month. The regiment took part in several operations; it was encamped at Grammont, and afterwards on the Brussels' canal, in order to cover Dutch Brabant; but the French had so great a superiority of numbers, that it was found impossible to prevent their capturing several fortified towns.
In the mean time, Charles Edward, eldest son of the Pretender, had arrived in Scotland, and being guided by desperate and designing men, and joined by a number of the clans, he resolved on the romantic enterprise of attempting to dethrone a beloved monarch, to overturn the constitution of a brave and free people, and to establish the authority of a dynasty which had been removed for arbitrary attacks on the established religion and laws. The Fourteenth was one of the regiments ordered home on this occasion; it arrived in the north of England, and formed part of the army assembled by Field-Marshal Wade, at Newcastle, to prevent the rebels penetrating into South Britain; and, in the second week of November, it was detached to Berwick, where it arrived in time to prevent the rebels capturing that town. The regiment afterwards marched to Scotland, and when the clans made a precipitate retreat from Derby, back to Scotland, it took up its quarters in the city of Edinburgh.
1746