Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 32 Foot 2 Battn

[TreeDigger]

In the ongoing search for the elusive births & mothers of my great-grandfather George Haycock (1862) and his father John Haycock (1816) I may tonight have found a piece of the puzzle.

The free access to Ancestry UK suddenly threw up a document too intriguing to ignore.

The date of the document supposedly is 12 March 1813, and the title is Record of the Non Commissioned Officers, Trumpeters or Drummers & Privates of His Majes.. and there the rest disappears (somewhat reminiscent of the Holy Hand Grenade of St. Antioch).

At the very bottom is listed one Jho Haycock, 26 years of age, born approximately 1787 in Lapley, Staffordshire. The only John that pops up in genealogical search engines matching both DoB and PoB is the (grand)father of George and John, i.o.w. my 3x great-grandfather John Haycock/Heacock, bapt 1781 Lapley.

I (dangerously) assume that back in those days the only record of identity and/or birth one could provide would be a baptism record, and even though my John was born in Wheaton Aston he was, in fact, baptized in Lapley. I know this may prove to be a dud, and the 6 year age gap is fairly significant, but I've come across stranger things. Finally, apparently this family does seem to also be present in criminal records (although no definitive proof alas) so I do not at all discount the possibility that 'minor fibbing' may have been involved.

Can anybody tell me more about this regiment's history so I can try and see whether it fits or not? I'd be ever so grateful.

Regards, TD

[MaxD]

12 March 1813 is when he joined the regiment at Winchester on a limited engagement. The document (which is the muster book for 1808-1816) has no further entries for him.

I am not sure what time frame you are after before chasing the history?


MaxD

[TreeDigger]

Winchester.. that's a good ways south. OK.

What I'm trying for here is finding out whether (if this is the correct person, which I'm assuming) John Sr's enlistment and subsequent movement might have caused him to end up in or near Oswestry around 1816, which is where John Jr claims to have been born on virtually every census he's on. Jr's estimated DoB is extracted both from the census takings as well as the age given at death in early 1876, which was 59.

The names of grandfather-father-son are basically 100% certain, as are their PoB.

As an aside: adding yet another military branch to the tree is just a huge bonus. I can't turn without stumbling over an enlisted father-grandfather-ancestor ;-)

[MaxD]

The 2nd battalion which he joined in 1813 disbanded in 1814 in Ireland.  That left just the 1st Battalion which became simply the 32nd Regiment of Foot..   Their muster book for 1815-1826 is here, download for free http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4397114.  You could trawl through looking for him to see if he was still there.

The regiment do not seem to have been anywhere near Oswestry
https://web.archive.org/web/20060310061514/http://www.regiments.org:80/deploy/uk/reg-inf/032-1.htm

A John Haycock born 1776 Halesowen Shropshire joined the 29th Dragoon Guards in 1793.  They became 25th Dragoon Guards in early 1800s - their muster book for the period you are looking at is not digitised but they were in India 1804 - 1819.

Did the Dragoon go back to Shropshire after service with 29th/25th  - all very tenuous!

A general point - the muster books have no personal information so unless you have the good fortune to come upon a discharge record it will always be speculation as to whether Fred Bloggs in a muster book is your Fred Bloggs.

MaxD

[TreeDigger]

The info is much appreciated!

Of course all this is a (very) long shot, but the Lapley mention does seem to infer this John at least may be part of 'my' Haycocks, whose lives all seem to have taken place in and above Wolverhampton. Which does make Winchester seem more likely for the Halesowen lad, although a 10 year age discrepancy (1776 -> 1786) is even more unlikely than a 6 year one.

I'm just really running out of options here, with no baptisms and mothers for both John Jr and son George. After 15+ years you start grasping at straws.

I'll scout through the records you've linked. If anything interesting pops up I'll post back here. Thanks again!

TD