RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: defallowfield on Tuesday 11 August 20 04:14 BST (UK)
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Good afternoon,
My ancestor James Tweedie/Tweedy was in the army. He started receiving a pension 11 April 1827. I am yet to find any possible records for him joining up (in Scotland) but plenty of records about his pension.
My reason for writing is that I cannot decipher the word that lists his rank. I have attached a snippet to show you. The first states 'corporal'. The third is 'private'. But what is the middle one? I can't work it out but I am guessing that many will know.
With kind regards,
Kirk
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He was a matross - an artillery man. Probably HEIC rather than British Army?
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Admission to a pension from the Lord Clive Fund, 11 April 1827. This records that he was on the St Helena establishment:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=BL%2FBIND%2FL-AG-23-2-9%2F00061&parentid=BL%2FBIND%2FL-AG-23-2%2F58900
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Well that's a new term for me - and I've done quite a lot of army history with various ancestors! My new rootschat fact of the day.
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Well that's very interesting Shaun. Thank you. A Matross - that's a new word for me too. And the HEIC. It's amazing because I have two other relatives (not linked to James Tweedy) who were in that company but in India rather than on St Helena.
Do you think the company records will give us details of his people and where he was born? Or is that not really possible...
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I couldn't see anything for him in the FIBIS database. There may be something at the British Library, in "Nominal Muster Roll of St Helena Artillery, Infantry , Invalids and Pensioners 1789-1859 -British Library ref IOR/L/Mil/13/1-14" See https://wiki.fibis.org/w/St._Helena
See also http://sainthelenaisland.info/sthelenasouthatlanticfortressbillclements2007.pdf for context on the role of the HEIC St Helena Artillery at that time