I didn’t know about Weeley Barracks (or Weeley Camp as it’s also known) until I looked in the parish register for an ancestor who was born in Weeley in 1808. The register was full of soldiers’ children and some research revealed that the Barracks were built there to defend the coast of north-east Essex. Several Highland regiments were based at Weeley, hence the large number of Scottish names which appear in the baptism register. It also caused a great deal of tension with the locals, which tragically lead to the murder of a Scottish soldier at the hands of local men at a nearby fair. And it also seems to have led to a number of illegitimate children with Scottish names. The marriage register shows some marriages between the soldiers and the local women – it’s impossible not to think of Lydia Bennett’s cry of glee when she discovered the militia were to be billeted at a nearby village….
Weeley being a fairly small place, its register is fairly quiet until the arrival of the soldiers and their wives – living at the camp was better than being separated while their husbands were overseas, or indeed, going abroad with their husband as a camp follower. The number of births occurring at the camp was so great that a maternity ward (of sorts – one imagines it wasn’t much more than a large hut) was built. Mary Ann Grant’s Sketches of Life & Manners includes some very eye-opening details about camp life, from her arrival there in 1803 – that the wooden huts the soldiers and families lived in weren’t finished by the time they arrived, and that by November, it was so muddy that Mary Ann couldn’t walk, but had to be carried!
Regiment details appear in the register from 1803-1812 for baptisms, and from 1807-1812 for burials. Very few regiments appear in the marriage register 1754-1812: two witnesses in Feb 1803 (Hector McKay, Sergt. 42nd. Regt., Donald McPherson, Sergt. 49th. Regt.); and then in 1805: Joseph Ragg (groom) of the 7th. Regt. Light Dragoons; Hart, sergt major of the 91st. regiment, a witness; and John Brooker (groom) of the West Kent Militia. Corporal William Rushmore of the 5th Dragoons married in Dedham in 1809, while quartered at Weeley. There are three regiments mentioned in the 1813-1991 baptisms register from 1813-5. The baptism entries give the abode as Weeley Barracks, hence why they are included in the list but the marriages are not.
The following list consists of the regiments I’ve found in the baptism and burial register, with the month and year of the first and last baptisms or burials for them. If only one instance was found, then the exact date is left. It does not include any names – please see the transcriptions covering 1787-1812 (available both alphabetically and chronologically). This list is purely suggestive – the regiment may have arrived well before the first baptism or burial date, and it equally may have left Weeley some time after the last date. It may be that only one soldier from that regiment was in Weeley, or only one battallion. Please also note that the register is quite cramped (given the amount of information and number of baptisms, this is not a surprise!) so some information may be incorrectly transcribed (but I’ve done my best), for example, where numbers are hard to decipher, and also bear in mind, it might not have been entered correctly in the register to begin with.
I am not an expert on regimental names – for instance, I’m not sure if the 11th Regiment and 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons are the same entity or not, so I have included both in the following list. The list is first in numerical order, and then in alphabetical order (1st Dragoons is at the top and the West Kent Militia is at the end).
I have compiled this both as an aid to researchers and also as a tribute to military families.
| Dates | Regiment |
|---|---|
| Dec 1804-Apr 1805 | 1st. Dragoons |
| Aug-Oct 1808 | 1st. Regiment of the Royal |
| Feb-March 1811 | 1st. Royal Surrey Militia |
| 16 Jul 1809 | 1st. Surrey Militia |
| 21st. Jan 1811 | 2nd. Royal Surrey Militia |
| 25th. March 1807 | 4th. Regt. Dragoons |
| May 1809-May 1811 | 5th. Dragoon Guards* |
| March-Sep 1809 | 5th. Light Dragoon Guards |
| July 1803-Jan 1804 | 7th. Light Dragoon Guards |
| Feb 1807-May 1808 | 7th. Regiment |
| March-June 1808 | 7th. Regiment Royal Fusiliers |
| May 1804 | 9th. Dragoons |
| May 1808-Jan 1809 | 10th. Regiment |
| Aug-Oct 1809 | 11th. Regiment |
| May 1806-July 1807 | 11th. Dragoons |
| Nov 1807-Aug 1808 | 15th. Light Dragoons |
| Aug-Sep 1808 | 16th. Light Dragoons |
| 12th Aug 1804 | 20th. Light Dragoons |
| Oct 1809-Feb 1810 | 20th. Regiment |
| 21st April 1805 | 21st. Dragoons |
| 1st. Nov 1808 | 23rd. Regiment |
| 11th. Sept. 1814 | 30th. Regiment |
| Jan-May 1808 | 32nd. Regiment |
| 27th. Feb 1808 | 33rd. Regiment |
| July 1803-Sep 1805 | 42nd. Regiment |
| Dec 1809-Feb 1810 | 43rd. Regiment |
| 2nd. April 1809 | 51st. Regiment |
| April 1808-Jan 1810 | 59th. Regiment |
| Jan-Sep 1808 | 61st. Regiment |
| Jan-Feb 1809 | 63rd. Regiment |
| 11th. Feb 1809 | 77th. Regiment |
| June 1806-May 1811, Mar 1815 | 79th. Regiment |
| 1st. May 1808 | 82nd. Regiment |
| Oct 1808-Jan 1809 | 87th. Regiment |
| Dec 1804-Oct 1805 | 91st. Regiment |
| 11 Dec 1803, Jan 1807-Sep 1809 | 92nd. Regiment |
| May 1804-April 1805 | 95th. Regiment |
| 8th. Jan 1804 | 95th. Rifle Regiment |
| Aug 1806 | 111th. Regt Dragoons |
| 16th. Oct 1803 | Artillery, The |
| Dec 1805-Feb 1806 | Ayrshire Militia |
| 3rd. Sep 1809 | Berwick Militia |
| 12th. Dec 1811 | Cumberland Militia |
| Feb-April 1806 | Durham Militia |
| Mar-Nov 1810, 17th. Oct 1811 | East Essex Militia |
| 8th. Jan 1804 | East York Militia |
| Aug 1813, Apr 1814 | Kilkenny Militia |
| Jan-Jun 1806 | Oxford Militia |
| Aug-Oct 1804 | RLM |
| Aug-Oct 1808 | Royal, The |
| Oct 1804-May 1805 | Royal Artillery |
| April-Nov 1811 | Royal Berks Militia |
| 26th. Jan 1806 | Royal Bucks Militia |
| 24th. April 1811 | Royal Engineers |
| Nov 1807, April 1808 | Royal Wagon Train |
| 25th. Oct 1812 | South Mayo Militia |
| Aug 1809-Jan 1811 | Surrey Militia |
| Dec 1805-June 1806 | West Kent Militia |
* On 23rd November 1809, William Rushmore “a corporal in His Majesty’s 5th Regt of Dragoon Guards quartered at Weeley” married Mary Manting in Dedham, about 12 miles north-west from Weeley.
Helen Barrell, 6th. May 2014