Hickman - 14th Dragoons 19th century

[ericthepenguin1]

Hi

I placed this in the Scotland forum but have had no luck.

I have seen posts for a George Hickman Born 12/2/1804 Inveresk & Musselburgh, Midlothian.

From what I read its highly likely that George's Parents were married 6/4/1799 Canongate, Edinburgh.

1799 Banns/Marriage in Canongate has Richard Hickman as a Sergeant in the Shropshire Militia and Maria as daughter of Robert Gibson, coachman in Musselburgh.

However I cannot get any further back than the marriage for Richard and Maria.

I guess one of the problems is that we do not know where Richard/Maria originated from. The marriage is in Scotland but Richard appears to be living in the Shropshire area and has signed up for the local militia.

I have found one record on FindMyPast that may relate to 'my' Richard Hickman, it is in the military records and states a Richard Hickman as a private who joined the 14th Dragoons on the 4/12/1804 (WO25 reference 896). Do we have a military records expert that could tell me if there would be additional information over and above the record details i have posted, (including the local Shropshire militia)

Many thanks for reading this

Best wishes

Eric

[km1971]

Care is needed when you speak of local and Militia. There were in fact two Militias - regular and local. The Local Militias were an additional force recruited for the wars against France, and they did not leave their home county. So he was in the Regular Militia. They always served away from their home county - usually on the coast. The march there was part of the training.

You should contact Shropshire Record Office as the Militia were selected by ballot. Some ROs have the list of eligible men and the men selected. Men could pay for a substitute to serve instead of themselves. Other than that they came from the named county.

Lots of men transferred from the Militia to the Regular army on payment of a bounty. For this they gave up the right to serve only at home.

If the dragoon and your sergeant are the same man then there must have been a break in service. Otherwise I would expect both regiments to be mentioned. Also the dragoon was born in Hampshire.

If you can get to the National Archives they have muster books for the Shropshire Militia. So going forwards and backwards from 1799 you should find when he served. And maybe where he was born and what happened to him.

Ken

[ericthepenguin1]

Many thanks Ken for your reply.

I knew there was militia that stayed in their area, (i have 2 of my relatives who were butchers that signed up for 'local' duty in the Leicestershire/Northamptonshire area). However I was unaware that there was militia's that moved around nationally.

Sounds like i will need to visit Kew.

Regards

Eric