"Whereas we think it for our service to call home all our natural-born subjects who are now in the service of the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, being either mariners and seafaring men, or officers and soldiers serving at land, We do, therefore, by this Our royal proclamation, by and with the advice of Our privy council, streightly charge, require, and command all and singular masters of ships, pilots, mariners, seamen, shipwrights, and other seafaring men whatsoever, and wheresoever, and also all commanders, officers, and soldiers serving at land, being our natural-born subjects, who have betaken themselves unto, and now are in the pay or service of, the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or in the pay or service of any of their subjects,—That upon their known and bounden duty and allegiance, they, and every of them, do quit the said respective services by sea or land, and return home to their native countries, within the times hereby prescribed,—that is to say, that all officers and commanders at land, whatsoever, who are now in the service of the said States General, in any place or part of the Netherlands or Low Countries, do quit the said service and return home within the space of two calendar months from the date hereof, and all other persons hereinbefore mentioned, wherever they are or shall be hereafter, in as short a time, and with as much speed, as they shall be able, wherein We do and will expect all due obedience and conformity. And we do hereby further publish and declare, that all and every the offenders to the contrary shall not only incur our high displeasure, but be rigorously proceeded against for such their offence, by all ways and means, according to the utmost severities of the law.—And we do hereby also authorize and command all and every Our captains, masters, and other officers serving and employed in any of our ships or vessels at sea, or elsewhere, and all and every other Our subjects whom it may concern, to seize, take, and bring away all such officers, mariners, and soldiers, and other persons aforesaid, as shall be found to be employed, or continue in the service aforesaid, in contempt of, and contrary to, the true intent and meaning of this Our proclamation.
"Given at Our Court at Whitehall, 14th March,
"1687-8, in the fourth year of Our reign."
Notwithstanding this proclamation, the States continued stedfast in their determination not to send the six regiments home; but as some of the officers were members of the Roman Catholic church, and it being probable a rupture on the subject of religion would shortly take place, they gave permission for as many of the officers to return to England as chose. About forty availed themselves of this opportunity and quitted the Dutch service. The King sent a frigate to bring them home. A few soldiers also withdrew from Holland, and three regiments[19] were formed, of nearly all papists, and taken into the pay of the King of France, but they remained in England. The six British regiments in the Dutch service were thus purged of Roman Catholics, the vacancies were filled with men of staunch protestant principles, and this distinguished body of men was considered stedfastly devoted to the protestant interest.
The Prince of Orange having been induced to proceed to England with a powerful armament for the purpose of rescuing the kingdom from the power of papacy, the six regiments were selected to form part of the expedition, and they were considered the most formidable and efficient portion of his army. They mustered about four thousand officers and men, were commanded by Major-General Hugh Mackay, and sailed under a red flag. A declaration was published, setting forth the reasons which induced the Prince of Orange to engage in this undertaking; and Captain Langham of Babington's regiment[20] (now Sixth Foot), arriving privately in England, was seized and imprisoned, and a number of the declarations were found in his portmanteau, which were shown to the King. When the expressions importing that the Prince of Orange was "most earnestly invited to come to England by divers of the lords, both temporal and spiritual, and by many gentlemen and others," were read, the King expressed great indignation, and sent for such noblemen and bishops as were in London, but none of them would acknowledge that they had given such an invitation.
1689
The Dutch armament passed Dover and proceeded westward, while the English fleet, under the Earl of Dartmouth, lay wind-bound at the mouth of the Thames; but a tender, on board of which were four companies of the regiment which forms the subject of this memoir, commanded by Major Ventris Columbine, was separated from the remainder of the Dutch fleet by a gale of wind, and captured by Captain Aylmer in His Majesty's ship the Swallow. The four companies were landed in Devonshire; they were treated as prisoners, and measures were adopted to constrain them to enter King James's service. Meanwhile the other eight companies of the regiment continued their course, and landed on the 5th of November with the remainder of the Prince's army on the Devonshire coast, from whence they advanced to Exeter. The result may be told in a few words. The English army refused to fight against the best interests of the country. King James and his family fled to France, and the Prince and Princess of Orange were elevated to the throne. Thus the Sixth Regiment had the honour of taking a conspicuous part in the enterprise by which the established religion and laws of Great Britain were preserved.
After his accession to the throne King William detained this regiment in the south of England, and kept it upon the Dutch establishment: consequently, in the lists of the army given by Story and other historians of this period, it is designated a Dutch regiment. Major Columbine, and the other officers and men who were captured by the Swallow, were restored with honour.
In May, 1689, the regiment was quartered in London; in August it was encamped on Hounslow heath; it afterwards returned to London and was quartered in the Tower Hamlets.
Sir Henry Bellasis having been appointed to succeed the Duke of Norfolk in the colonelcy of a newly-raised regiment (now twenty-second foot), the colonelcy of the Sixth was conferred on the lieutenant-colonel, William Babington, by commission dated the 28th of September, 1689; and Major Columbine was appointed lieutenant-colonel.