Folios 437B-482. Volume containing fair copies of documents relating to military...

Folios 437B-482. Volume containing fair copies of documents relating to military recruitment and deployment, the planning of Sir Charles Grey's West Indies expedition and its consequences for home defence, Ireland, Gibraltar and the Mediterranean:

Extract [folios 438-441] [undated] from a plan for embodying volunteer companies for coastal defence under the direction of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and the lords lieutenant of the respective counties;

Return [folios 441-442] dated 11 May 1793 showing a requirement for 6,656 troops in order to raise each of the regiments on foreign stations (Gibraltar, Leeward Islands, Jamaica and Bahamas) to 600 rank and file;

Report [folio 442] dated 11 May showing the source of 1,018 troops to be sent to Gibraltar, allowing complete regiments to be deployed from there to other duties;

Statement [folio 443] dated 11 May showing the composition of a force totalling 11,400 that can be ready for service by September;

Report [folios 443-444] dated 15 May giving current and planned troop movements to and from Ireland;

Report [folios 444-445] dated 15 May stating progress in completing Independent Companies with a War Office return of the same date showing the distribution of the troops, mainly to Ireland;

Memorandum [folios 445-446] [undated] relative to Independent Companies;

Return [folios 446-447] of the officers, serjeants, corporals, drummers and fifers, privates, women and children of Independent Companies, embarked at Duncannon Fort, who sailed on 2 May 1793;

Statement [folio 447] dated 15 May of the number of men supposed already to have been raised by Independent Companies;

Letter [folios 447-449] to Evan Nepean [under-secretary] from [Matthew] Lewis [of the War Office] on the need for training raw recruits from Ireland in cleanliness and feeding rather than marching and drill, and enclosing statements of the number of Independent Companies that may be expected to be completed (141) and of those that have been completed (70);

Memorandum [folios 449-450] dated 5 June proposing the steps whereby a force of 5,400 troops could be mobilised for foreign service whilst retaining 5,200 for home service (Westminster, Tower, Teignmouth, Scotland, Guernsey and Jersey);

Memorandum [folios 450-451] dated 6 June updating progress with the recruitment and deployment of Independent Companies;

Account [folios 452-453] dated 24 June of the reported state of recruitment together with [Matthew Lewis's] observations thereon, followed by a postscript of 25 June regarding a body of Irish recruits embarked for Gibraltar;

Statement [folios 453-454] [undated] of the difficulty in gauging when recruitment to Independent Companies might be complete, with a list appended of the locations of 282 disposable recruits;

Schedule [folios 454-455] showing the state of detachments of the 6 regiments (2nd, 11th, 25th, 29th, 30th and 69th) serving on board the fleet in June 1793;

Minutes [folios 455-456] of a meeting of 2 August between Lord Amherst [commander-in-chief], Henry Dundas [home secretary] and Mr Pitt regarding the troops, transport, provisions, clothing, accommodation, artillery, ammunition and military stores required for an expedition to the West Indies;

Letter [folios 457-460] dated 6 August to Lord Amherst with 2 enclosures, the first a paper setting out the conditions on which Major Alan Cameron would raise a regiment in Scotland, and the second a paper giving the terms under which gentlemen of influence with no military rank might be encouraged to raise regiments;

Memorandum [folio 460] dated 16 August stating senior appointments to the West Indies expedition;

Memorandum [folios 460-463] dated 31 August demonstrating how certain battalions already in the West Indies were to be completed by drafting from others and from the pool of recruits at Chatham, and setting out the composition of the force totalling 16,356 under the command of Sir Charles Grey;

Orders [folio 464] dated 21 August in which Lord Amherst required all absent officers of the 33 listed regiments to join their respective corps without delay, unless sick;

Schedule [folio 465] dated 1 September of the state of the Army in Ireland together with a calculation showing a debt to Ireland of 901 men following recent troop movements;

Letter [folios 466-474] dated 5 September to Lord Amherst enclosing proposals to be put to the king for completing the regiments returning from the West Indies by means of drafts. The writer states that, with bounties such as are available in the Cavalry and the Guards being unaffordable, Independent Companies provided the only effective means of recruitment to the infantry of the line. Appended is a memorandum cataloguing the disadvantages of recruitment using Independent Companies and proposing for the future a new measure which would not disadvantage experienced subalterns with limited resources;

Memorandum [folios 474-476] dated 15 September listing actions to be taken in relation to the West Indies expedition;

Memorandum [folios 476] dated 19 September of a meeting of Lord Amherst, Mr Dundas and Mr Pitt at which it was decided to appoint Major-General O'Hara as governor of Toulon. Lord Mulgrave would act as lieutenant governor with Lieutenant General Rainsford serving at Gibraltar during O'Hara's absence;

Memorandum [folio 477] dated 22 September setting down the available (but untrained) men available for marine duty in the Mediterranean;

Memorandum [folios 477-479] dated 22 September calculating that 24 ships would accommodate the 800 horses and their associated allowances of hay and oats;

Memorandum [folios 479-481] dated 26 September listing questions and proposals regarding ordnance, military stores and artillerymen.