68th Durham Light Infantry

[stclar]

Hi all... need some pointers please.

I have a Robert Howlett in a number of census returns as being a tailor and Chelsea Pensioner born abt 1795. I have managed to get a copy of his discharge papers that stated that he enlisted January 1814 at Eye, Suffolk and was discharged May 1829 being 'worn out'.

Q1: How come Robert was placed into the 68th DLI when he joined in Suffolk?
Q2: Where and what was the 68th doing between 1814 and 1829?
Q3: Do further records exist of this unit, if so, where?
Q4: Also, would any enlistment records list next-of-kin, parents...?
Q5: Tailor as an occupation. Would he have known this trade prior to enlistment or during service?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[t mo]

hi and welcome to rootschat
in answer to why did he join the 68th regt the possibility is that back then the army used recruiting sgts to travel round villages and towns trying to get men to enlist , one trick was to get them drunk get them to take the kings shilling make a mark as more than half couldn,t read or write and they were in the army then ,that,s one reason .
others will know the movements of the 68th i,m sure
as to enlistment records showing nok , the records that are in find my past service / pension section are all there are no other details other than what is on those exist and from all i,ve seen none of the early records have detail of nok in fact like this one they have minimal detail of service at all .
do you mean would he have been a tailor before joining up ? or something he learned whilst in the army , certainly there were tailors in that period and a lot of soldiers could make a little bit of extra money doing repairs and such for others whilst in service .
hope this helps
trevor

[neil1821]

Q2: Where and what was the 68th doing between 1814 and 1829?

Up to 1814 they were in Spain and southern France for the Peninsular War
At some point in that year after the war ended they moved to Ireland
1814-18 Ireland
1818-29 Canada
1829-33 back to Ireland

[stclar]

t mo.
I understand fully your reasoning about how 'enlistment' worked back then. I do find it strange however that a sgt from the DLI would be down my ancestors neck-of-the-woods recruiting.
Pity about the lack details to help trace NOK, looks like I'll have to keep trawling through the baptism registers.
As for the tailor trade...Robert was approx 19years old when he enlisted. Could it be possible that he was an apprentice before he joined up...was their time?

neil1821
Thanks for the dates for the 68th. Looks like my Robert was worn out after the trekking round Cananda.

[t mo]

if you read up on the peninsular war and see how many men died during that long campaign not only from fighting but disease and the general conditions they lived under at that time most regts were depleted some more than others so the necessity for recruitment was of the essence were ever and when ever possible the recruiting sgts would need to get out and about where ever possible , and depending where the dli was in barracks at the time of his joining up it doesn,t necessarily mean they had come all the way down from durham .
as to his tailoring bear in mind that back then he probably started work when he was between 12/14 so yes plenty of time for an apprentice and if it was at eye where he worked again bear in mind it,s only a small village/town now so back then was quite a back water place of village proportions not in the league of a big city , so tailoring on a very small scale for the few who could afford it .
it,s too easy to think of how things are today than get a picture of there life back then .
i,m not being patronising but just trying to conjure up how there life was so much different to how it is today
this is where it helps reading a lot about past lives of them all a hard life most living and dying in the same place just making enough money to exist .
sorry to ramble on 
regards
trevor