REGIMENT OF FOOT.
1685
After the Restoration in 1660, when King Charles II. had disbanded the army of the commonwealth, a number of non-regimented companies of foot were embodied for garrisoning the fortified towns, and one company was constantly stationed at Windsor, to furnish a guard at the castle. This company sent a detachment to Virginia in 1676. It was commanded by Henry Duke of Norfolk, Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle, and was united to several companies raised in the summer of 1685, and constituted a regiment, of which the Duke of Norfolk was appointed Colonel, by commission dated the 20th of June, 1685. This regiment having been retained in the service to the present time, now bears the title of the Twelfth, or the East Suffolk, regiment of foot.
The formation of this regiment was occasioned by the rebellion of James Duke of Monmouth, who assembled an army in the west of England to support his pretensions to the throne; and King James II. found it necessary to make a considerable augmentation to the regular army. The companies, of which the regiment was composed, were raised in Norfolk, Suffolk, and the adjoining counties, by Henry Duke of Norfolk, Captains Henry Wharton, Charles Macartney, Dominick Trant, Jasper Patson, Charles Howard, Francis Blathwayt, Sir Alphonso de Mottetts, and George Trapp: the general rendezvous of the regiment was at Norwich, and as the several companies were formed, they were quartered at Norwich, Yarmouth, and Lynn.
1686
The formation of the regiment was not completed when the rebel army was defeated at Sedgemoor, and the Duke of Monmouth was captured soon afterwards, and beheaded; but King James resolved to retain the newly raised corps in his service, and the Duke of Norfolk's regiment was ordered to march to London. It was quartered a few days, in the beginning of August, in the Tower Hamlets, and afterwards encamped on Hounslow-heath, where it was reviewed by the King. In the beginning of September the regiment marched into garrison at Portsmouth.
On the 1st January, 1686, the establishment was fixed at the numbers and rates of pay as shown in the next page.
Leaving Portsmouth in May, 1686, the regiment proceeded to Hounslow, and pitched its tents on the heath, where a numerous army was assembled; and while at this camp the colonelcy was conferred on Edward Earl of Lichfield, by commission dated the 14th of June, 1686.
At the camp on Hounslow-heath, the Earl of Lichfield's regiment was stationed in the centre of the line of infantry; it was distinguished by its white colours bearing the red cross of St. George; the soldiers wore broad-brimmed hats, with the brim turned up on one side, and ornamented with white ribands; scarlet coats lined with white; blue breeches, blue stockings, and high shoes with square toes; and the pikemen, of whom there were twelve in each company, wore white sashes round their waists.