One of my grandfathers, James Thom from the parish of St Fergus, was in the 2nd Regiment of Aberdeenshire Local Militia. The only evidence I have for that is his wife and family appearing in a list dated 1809 and one dated 1812 of certificates granted for the relief of wives and families of militiamen (in the Aberdeen Archives). I used Bulloch's book (the one in the link in my previous post) to reconstruct the movements of the 2nd Regiment. James certainly wasn't away from St Fergus all the time as he had a son born there in April 1811. Men must have been granted leave.
This is my reconstruction from Bulloch:
The St Fergus and Longside company, 60 men in strength, was commanded by Captain Thomas Kilgour. It was linked (as centre company) with that of Rathen (left company) and that of Crimond and Lonmay (right company). These other two companies were of the same strength, and all three were under the command of Major Alexander Harvey, who ultimately became lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Regiment.
When his children were baptised, James is not described as serving in the militia, just that he was “in Inverugie”. The regiment was stationed at Haddington from May 1806 to May 1807, at Musselburgh from May 1807 to May 1809, at Edinburgh from May 1809 to May 1810, and at Berwick from May 1810 to November 1811. It was then at Dalkeith until December 1812, at Glasgow until February 1813, at Carlisle until March 1813, at Liverpool until June 1813, and at Norman’s Cross, Dover, until January 1814 when it took up residence in the Tower of London. It marched out of the Tower in August 1814 and arrived at Aberdeen on Saturday 17th September. It disembodied on Friday 23rd September, assembling again at Aberdeen on Tuesday 25th July 1815, a month after Waterloo, and continuing under arms until Saturday 24th February 1816.
All that can be said with certainty about his militia service is that James was in Edinburgh with his regiment in June 1809 and at Berwick in July 1810 and July 1811.
