16th Light Dragoons

[km1971]

If you go to Kew you could look at the muster books. There are three covering his period - 1800, 1798-99 and 1776 to 1797. The last will be on 2 ft square parchment and will only tell you where the Paymaster was when he signed the return. The later ones should tell where each man was for the monthly muster. But there are no guarantees what information was recorded.

As an aside if your book only records one location this will be where the CO was. Cavalry regiments could be split into detachments of say 1-3 troops, spread over a wide area.

Ken

[Regorian]

A very useful post Ken. At least part of the 16th Light Dragoons were in America (and 17th Light Dragoons) 1776 to 1778. At least parts of these two regiments were part of the infamous British Legion commanded by Lieut. Colonel Banastre Tarleton (local rank)(aka the butcher)(see 'The Patriot' on youtube). That was an all arms formation, infantry, cavalry and artillery mainly composed of American loyalists. Tarleton had been a junior officer in the Kings Dragoon Guards and went out to America with Lord Cornwallis. As the war went on, more and more regiments were withdrawn to UK as France, Spain and Holland came out against us.

Contrary to the fate of Tarleton in 'The Patriot', he was MP for Liverpool in the 1790's, promoted full general in 1813 and died in 1833. He was under consideration as commander in the Peninsular vs the future Duke of Wellington.

He is credited with the design of the 'Tarleton' helmet and worn by Light Dragoons from c1790 to 1811. Their red coats were replaced by blue shell jackets and this uniform was a particular favourite of King George III.

 

[ian_m_wilson]

Hi Rob - you mentioned a book you found online that documents the location of the 16th Light Dragoons, year by year.  What was the name of this please?  I've just found one of my wifes relatives was in from 1793 to 1806'ish and would be interested to see where they fought.  The sad thing was his wife believed him to have died abt 1800 and had re-married when he returned

Thanks

Ian

[km1971]

Hi Ian

The book will not help you as in 1793 the regiment were serving in multiply locations. About four troops were in Flanders and two troops were in the West Indies. The remaining 2-3 troops would have formed a Depot somewhere within the UK. In order to discover where an individual soldier was based you need to look at the muster books in the National Archives.

They were back in England in 1796 and went to Ireland in 1803, until returning to England (Guildford) in December 1805. Even when they were at home it was normal to have 1-2 troop detachments over a wide area, to supplement the small police force that then existed. So muster lookups are essential if you are looking for an individual soldier.

Ken

[CircuitW1zard]

Hi Ian,

Just incase you do want the link it is at the below:-

https://archive.org/details/cihm_48350

Regards,

Rob