The next place in the history of volunteers was the extension of the area of their service. Up to this date the condition of service was confined to the county of Devon, and in the case of the early Exeter corps to the defence of the city only. The military authorities saw the impossibility of mobilising the volunteers, even to a small extent, who had enlisted under these conditions. The County Committee were, therefore, instructed to accept no offers except for service throughout the military district. It was, however, ultimately arranged for all volunteers to accept the new conditions, but cities or large towns should be allowed to maintain a local corps composed of respectable householders only, to aid the civil power to protect property. Most of the corps appear to have been willing to extend their services to the military district. In January, 1799, it was resolved that no further offers should be accepted. Each parish was required to appoint a man and horse to act as guide. The battle of the Nile and the extinction of the Irish rebellion seem to have quieted men’s minds for a time. But in April Devonshire was again astir, for the Committee of Secrecy of the House of Commons reported that undoubted intelligence had been received that plans of an invasion and insurrection in Ireland were being made in France. That the utmost diligence was being observed in the ports of France in preparing another expedition to co-operate with the rebels in Ireland, that it was intended at the same time to land a French force at different parts of the coast. That the instructions to Tate, who was taken prisoner in Wales in 1797, and those of General Humbert, who landed in Ireland, and who had been destined to command an expedition against Cornwall, had fallen into the hands of the Government, and were as follows:—The legion was to land in Cornwall and to cross the Tamar as quickly as possible, and to establish itself in the district between it and the Exe, or, as we should say, in the South Hams. The “passes and mountains” (Dartmoor) would afford an easy and safe retreat from the pursuit of the enemy. Thus Dartmoor was selected both by the French Directory and by the English officers for a place of refuge. There, indeed, in the Dartmoor prisons, many French soldiers and sailors were destined to find a safe retreat.
But as time went on, and no invasion took place, things became quieter; the Defence Committee seldom met; the volunteers, however, continued to drill and to hold reviews.
In 1801, the separate corps were consolidated into battalions and regiments. The two 1st Devon troops of cavalry, with those at Bicton, Tiverton, and Cullompton, united in the “Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry Cavalry,” under Lord Rolle as Colonel, Sir Stafford Northcote as Lieutenant-Colonel. The North Devon Corps of Infantry became the 3rd North Devon Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Fortescue. The Loyal Exminster Hundred Regiment of Volunteers, under Lord Courtenay, was similarly formed. In 1802 came the “Peace of Amiens,” or, as it is frequently called, the “Cloamen Peace.” It was a fragile, patched up affair, by which Bonaparte gained breathing time. “It was a peace everyone was glad of and nobody proud of.” Volunteer affairs became quiet, many corps were disbanded, among them the Ashburton Sergebacks. Old soldiers were discharged from the line regiments, and militiamen sent to their homes.
In May, 1803, Bonaparte suddenly declared war, and then, as Emperor, prepared in earnest to invade England. A camp of 100,000 men was formed on the cliffs at Boulogne, and a host of flat-bottomed boats gathered for their conveyance across the Channel. At last the Emperor Napoleon appeared in camp; all was ready. “Let us be masters of the Channel for six hours,” he is reported to have said, “and we are masters of the world.” But he never was able to be master of the Channel for six hours. The army waited and drilled, the old Bayeaux tapestry, which illustrates the conquest of England by William of Normandy, was searched out to create enthusiasm, and show what had once been done; all kinds of schemes were resorted to to obtain the naval assistance of other nations, and with success, for the Spanish fleet joined him. Still, the English fleet, under Lord Nelson, held the Channel, but any accident might give the six hours’ mastery, and so England had to be prepared. The County Defence Committee again assumed the direction of affairs. The arrangements made in 1798 were once more put in force. It was in 1803 that the Haytor Regiment was formed, and commanded by Lord Seymour; it was 1,000 strong, with 250 artillery attached, and appears to have been made up of all the volunteers in the Haytor Hundred with those of several towns and parishes adjoining. Newton Abbot was the headquarters, where Captain Babb, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Babb, was captain. In the former arming of 1798 Ashburton had formed the 9th Devon Corps, under Captain Walter Palk; they had clothed themselves with local-made serge, and so gained the name of Sergebacks; they were disbanded at the Peace of Amiens, but now again formed and became a company in the Haytor Regiment, under Captain Tozer. Bridgetown, being in Berry Pomeroy parish, also was in the Haytor district. Mr. Milford Windeatt, a relative of the present Captain Windeatt, held a commission in the Haytor Corps. Totnes, however, formed a separate corps, being in the Stanborough Hundred, as did also Highweek, Kingsteignton, Chudleigh, and Bovey Tracey, which were in Teignbridge. The Stanborough Regiment, in which Kingsbridge formed a part, was connected with Plymouth. Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham supplied artillery men under Colonel Cary, of Tor Abbey. For the protection of Tor Bay the authorities garrisoned Berry Head, which, being in the Haytor Hundred, was committed to a detachment of the regiment under Colonel Cary. Many stories remain of this period of service. I cannot say how long the volunteers were out; probably they relieved each other. One story frequently told was of the French fire-ships, for which they were on the lookout, to be sent among the fleet in the bay, and which caused much stir. One night, as the full moon rose red and fiery out of the sea, the sentry at the headland, who had come from an inland parish, mistook it for a fire ship, discharged his musket, and aroused the garrison. The uniform was similar to the line regiments of the period, viz., scarlet swallow-tailed coats, turned out with yellow, blue-black breeches, white cross belts, with a brass plate having Haytor Regiment thereon; the pouches were black, the buttons had H.V.R. (Haytor Volunteer Regiment); officers wore cocked hats, others tall shakoes. The regiment assembled for field days and drill at various points in the district. Lord Clifford has a plan of a sham fight on Bovey-heathfield, but the movements appear to have been very simple. Lieutenant-Colonel Babb, whose tablet is in Wolborough Church, Newton Abbot, commanded the regiment at one time. On 21st October, 1805, Lord Nelson caught the combined French and Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar. His last and famous signal, “England expects every man to do his duty,” was observed and obeyed, and although he fell in the hour of victory, twenty battleships had struck their flags ere the day was done. Pitt explained, in his last public words, “England has saved herself by her courage; she will save England by her example.” The crisis had again passed, England could breathe freely once more, still the volunteers were kept enrolled for a time. The Haytors were disbanded about 1809, and the old colours laid up in Wolborough Church until time had consumed them. The time of peace continued for about forty years, until the Crimean War, in 1853, left the country almost without troops to garrison her arsenals. Then several Volunteer corps were raised, among them the “Exeter and South Devon,” under Colonel Sir Edmund Prideaux. At the peace in 1856 it was not disbanded, but remained embodied until the memorable circular of 12th May, 1859, in which the Secretary of State for War suggested the formation of Volunteer corps throughout the country as a means of preventing the frequent war scares caused by the uncertain actions of the French under Napoleon III. The Exeter corps then became the first in the kingdom, and through them Devonshire stands at the top in the precedence of the counties. On 24th May, 1859, the Plymouth corps was formed, but the date of its acceptance was later on. The movement had life because it was in accordance with the feelings of the people, which was shown by almost every town in Devon holding meetings for the purpose of forming corps, and persons of every social position offered their services, and in a large proportion undertook their own outfits. These offers were mostly accepted by Her Majesty; each corps became an independent body, and was numbered in the order in which they were accepted, but joined into administrative battalions for drill purposes. In 1880, the administrative battalions were consolidated into corps, which in 1885 were incorporated as volunteer battalions of the county regiment, of which they have since formed a part, and in the South African war sent two companies, fully officered and equipped, to the front. This brings us to the eve of the proposed changes in the constitution of our army and military system, and possibly the close of the volunteer system as we have known it.
“The brave old men of Devonshire!
’Tis worth the world to stand,
As Devon’s sons, on Devon’s soil,
Though juniors of the band;
And tell Old England to her ace,
If she is great in fame,