In February, 1794, the Earl of Lincoln succeeded, on the death of his father, to the dignity of Duke of Newcastle.
In the mean time the success of the French republicans, who had seized the reins of government and beheaded their sovereign, had been followed by the adoption of republican principles by many evil-disposed persons in Ireland, who attempted to organize a rebellion in that part of the United Kingdom; and the Seventeenth were employed, under Major-General Eustace, in suppressing the proceedings of a body of rebels called Defenders, in the counties of Dublin, Louth, and Meath. The regiment was employed many months, night and day, in this service. It was afterwards sent to the north of Ireland, and quartered at Lisburn, Carrickfergus, &c., in consequence of some opposition to authority made by the Belfast volunteers. Major-General White took the command of the troops at Belfast, and ordered the volunteers to give up their cannon; they refused, and barricaded the streets in one part of the town; but the Seventeenth Light Dragoons being sent for, entered Belfast in so dashing a manner that the volunteers were dismayed, and their commanding officer waited on General White, and represented that they did not understand the reason of the regiment entering the town in so rapid and hostile a manner, and that the volunteers would give up the cannon on condition of being sent back to their quarters, to which they proceeded on the same day.
1795
Major-General His Grace the Duke of Newcastle died on the 17th of May, 1795, and King George III. conferred the vacant colonelcy on Major-General Oliver de Lancey, from the lieut.-colonelcy of the regiment.
The principles of republicanism which had involved France in anarchy and bloodshed, had also extended their devastating influence to the French West India islands, and the planters of St. Domingo had sought the protection of Great Britain against the fury of the mulattoes and negroes who, inflamed with republican zeal, carried massacre and devastation through the island. A large body of troops was assembled, under Major-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, to complete the deliverance of the French West India Islands from the power of the republicans, and to reduce to obedience the insurgents in the island of St. Vincent and Grenada, which formerly belonged to France, but had been ceded to Great Britain by treaty. Four troops of the Seventeenth embarked at Cork for England in August, 1795, leaving the head-quarters in Ireland; they landed at Portsmouth, and joined the cavalry camp at Nestley, under Lord Cathcart, and on the 21st of September embarked for St. Domingo. The departure of the fleet of several hundred vessels, escorted by a splendid division of the royal navy, under Admiral Christian, was a scene calculated to impress the mind with an idea of British power; but a storm ensued which scattered the fleet, when many vessels were lost, and others returned to Spithead. The Seventeenth arrived at the West Indies in safety, and two troops were, for a short time, employed as marines on board the Hermione frigate, commanded by Captain Pigot, who was afterwards murdered by his crew. The two troops were eventually landed at Martinico.
One squadron of the regiment proceeded to Jamaica, and was employed, towards the end of 1795 and in the beginning of 1796, against the native Maroons, who had been joined by a number of runaway slaves, and were engaged in open hostility against the British authority. The Maroon warriors were expert bush-fighters, and the service against them proved destructive and severe; they boldly engaging the troops on more than twenty different occasions.
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Thirty men of the Seventeenth, with ten of another regiment, were stationed, under the command of a subaltern officer, to intercept a body of Maroons and negroes; but the latter had so perfect a knowledge of the country that they came upon the military by surprise. The officer being wounded, retired to a safe post, where he delivered the charge of the party over to Serjeant Stephenson of the Seventeenth. The Serjeant then addressed his men in the most animating language, and leading them to the charge in a most spirited manner, at a moment when the Maroon warriors did not expect an attack, he routed the rebels and killed and wounded several of them[6].