The existence of the fourteen troops is proved, as has been stated, by the accounts of the paymaster of Manchester's army, and by the explicit statement of Richard Baxter. The names of the officers themselves can be collected from the accounts, from Cromwell's letters, and from the newspapers and correspondence of the period. The lives of all the more important officers can be traced from the time when they joined the regiment to the Restoration, and even in some cases later.

1. Cromwell's own troop claims the first place. Lieutenant Cuthbert Baildon and Comet Joseph Waterhouse, the two officers named in the list of the army under Essex as belonging to Cromwell's troops, are not heard of again in connection with the regiment. The command of the colonel's troop or company in any regiment was during the civil war practically vested in his lieutenant, who bore the title of captainlieutenant. Cromwell's captain-lieutenant in 1643 was James Berry, who had been before the war, (according to Richard Baxter) a clerk in some ironworks in Shropshire.

Ironside Cornet 1644. Cromwell's own cornet is generally considered as being unknown. The illustrated source shows a standard with a fringe but no devices or motto. As the artist painted a series of "pro-forma" blank cornets it is usually taken that he never got around to filling in Oliver's cornet. However given that infantry, and some cavalry, colonels had plain colours and that the Cromwell family colours were silver, there exists the possibility that the plain white cornet could be Cromwell's own. (From the ramblings of Dave Ryan and Les Prince.)

At the battle of Gainsborough in July 1643, Berry slew Charles Cavendish, the Royalist general, ' with a thrust under his short ribs,' as Cromwell's despatch relates (Carlyle, Letter XI.). And in August 1644 he became captain of a vacant troop in the regiment. Berry was succeeded as captain-lieutenant by John Gladman, who held that rank in 1645, when the regiment was incorporated in the New Model. [21] Berry passed into another regiment as major in 1647, and became colonel in 1651. His subsequent career is traced in the ' Dictionary of National Biography.'

2. The second troop in the regiment was that of Edward Whalley, Cromwell's cousin. He is styled captain in the ordinance of April 25, 1643, empowering Cromwell to seize the horses and plate of malignants. In Cromwell's despatch on the battle of Gainsborough, Cromwell describes Whalley as his major, and in narrating the retreat after the battle he says ' Major Whalley did in this carry himself with all gallantry becoming a gentleman and a Christian' (Carlyle, Letter XII.). In 1644 Whalley became lieutenant colonel of the regiment. Cavalry regiments in general at this period did not possess lieutenant-colonels, which was a rank confined to infantry regiments.[22] In the New Model no cavalry regiment had a lieutenant-colonel, but Cromwell 's regiment, with the fourteen troops it finally numbered, was so large that an additional field officer doubtless seemed necessary, and for that reason Whalley was made its lieutenant-colonel. There was another regiment also in the army of the Eastern Association-viz. Manchester's own regiment of horse-which contained in 1644 no less than eleven troops, and in consequence it also had a lieutenant colonel, in the person of Nathaniel Rich.

3. The third troop to be formed was pretty certainly that commanded by John Desborough.[231 Desborough, the husband of Cromwell's sister Jane, began the campaign of 1644 as quartermaster to his brother-in-law's troop. His commission as captain dates from April 1643 or earlier. A warrant for the pay of a trooper named Lewis Browne of Cambridge states that he entered the troop of Captain John Desborough on April 12, 1643, and Desborough is mentioned as a captain in the sequestration ordinance of April 25, 1643. When Whalley was promoted to be lieutenantcolonel of the regiment Desborough became its major, and held that rank when it was incorporated in the New Model in 1645.[24] He became a colonel in 1649, and lieutenantgeneral in 1659. An account of his life is contained in the Dictionary of National Biography.'

4. The fourth troop was that commanded by Cromwell's son, young Oliver. Baptised on February 6, 1623, he was now just over twenty years old, and had entered Essex's army in 1642 as cornet to Lord St. John's troop of horse. A curious letter from him to the Steward of Norwich, dated August 15, 1643, about some deserters from his troop, is printed in ' Notes and Queries."[25]

According to the author of the 'Squire Papers,' young Cromwell was killed at a skirmish near Knaresborough just before the battle of Marston Moor, but it is now ascertained that he died of smallpox in his quarters at Newport Pagnell about March 1644. 'A civil young gentleman, and the joy of his father,' says the newspaper which relates his death.[26] On his death the command of the troop went to Captain John Browne,[27] who still held it at the formation of the New Model. Browne became major in 1649, left the army after the battle of Worcester, re-entered it in 1658, and played a small part in bringing about the restoration of Charles II.

5. Like its four predecessors, the fifth troop was commanded by one of Cromwell's relatives. Its captain was young Valentine Walton, son of Cromwell's sister Margaret and of Colonel Valentine Walton, the Governor of Lynn [28] This was the young officer whose death at Marston Moor Cromwell relates in Letter XXI. in Carlyle's ' Collection.' ' A gallant young man, exceeding gracious,' writes his Colonel, and 'exceedingly beloved in the army of all that knew him,' who died lamenting that God had not suffered him to be any more ' the executioner of his enemies,' and bidding his men ' open to the right and left that he might see the rogues run.'

Walton's troop passed to William Packer, formerly, I believe, its lieutenant, [29] who continued with the regiment after its incorporation in the New Model, becoming a major about 1652, and colonel in 1659. His life is given in the ' Dictionary of National Biography!

6. The sixth troop was that of Captain Ayers, or Ayres. Who Captain Ayres was it is difficult to say. He may perhaps be identical with a certain William Eyres, a friend of Harry Marten's, and a leading spirit amongst the Levellers. At all events, whoever he was he left the regiment about June 1644, and his troop was given to James Berry, who has been already mentioned as the captain-lieutenant of Cromwell's own troop. [30] Berry kept the command of the troop until 1647, when he became major of Colonel Twisleton's regiment, and obtained the command of a regiment himself in 1651. Subsequently he became one of Cromwell's major generals, and his life is to be found in the 'Dictionary of National Biography!

7. The seventh troop was Captain Patterson's. It was raised before the end of 1643, as a bill for its quarters during January 1644 proves. [31] Captain Robert Patterson [32] left the regiment about the spring of 1644, and was succeeded in command of the troop by Captain Robert Horsman.[33] Horsman had been governor of the garrison established at Rockingham Castle, but, quarrelling violently with the Rutlandshire Committee, and being complained of by them to Parliament, he resigned or was forced to resign.[34] His troop is mentioned as quartered in Huntingdonshire in April 1644. Horsman left the regiment when it was incorporated in the New Model.

8. The eighth troop was that of Captain John Grove. It is mentioned in the accounts for January 1644, and throughout the year. John Grove continued to command it until the regiment was incorporated in the New Model. He became major of Colonel Francis Hacker's regiment about 1652, and continued in the army until the Restoration. Grove was an exile on the Continent in 1666. [35]

9. The ninth troop was Captain Samuel Porter's. It was raised in 1643, during the summer or early in the autumn. [36] Captain Porter continued with the regiment up to the time of its incorporation in the New Model, and then seems to have left the army. In 1650 he took service again, and was a captain in Ireton's regiment of horse in Ireland.

Cornet attributed to Samuel Porter. Yellow background. Motto translates as "For the faith once and for all handed down". It is a very common icon and motto. Porter came from Essex and served with the regiment until April 1645, he later served in Ireland under Ireton. It is therefore difficult to conjecture other Ironside cornets from this example.

10.The tenth troop was that of Captain Adam Lawrence, and was raised by the autumn of 1643 [37] Lawrence was a friend of Richard Baxter's, and when Baxter became chaplain to Whalley's regiment, in the summer of 1645, he found Lawrence the only orthodox officer in the regiment. [38] Lawrence commanded the troop when the regiment was incorporated in the New Model, and was killed at the siege of Colchester in 1648. [39] The cornet of this troop in August 1644 was Edmund Rolfe - once Cromwell's servant - an officer who became notorious in 1648 because he was accused of a plot to kill Charles I during the King's captivity at Carisbrook. [40]

11. The eleventh troop, Captain Swallow's, is one of special interest. LetterXIII. in Carlyle's Cromwell, dated August 2, 1643, is a letter from Cromwell addressed to a gentleman at a place not named, where the young men and maids had raised 2401. to equip a company of foot. Let them turn their proposed foot company, says Cromwell, into a troop of horse, 'which indeed will by God's blessing far more advantage the cause than two or three companies of foot.' It was true that £ 240 was not enough to buy pistols and saddles for a troop of horse, but he himself would provide horses to mount the men if they provided arms. ' Pray raise honest godly men,' he concludes, ' and I will have them of my regiment. As for your officers, I leave it as God shall or hath directed to choose. [41]

Norwich, as the comments of a Royalist newspaper show, was the town in question, and its young men and maidens did as Cromwell requested.[42) A troop of horse was raised, and Captain Robert Swallow became its commander, with Joseph Sabberton as his lieutenant, two officers who continued to serve in the army right up to the Restoration. [43] In December 1643 the troop was in the field, doing good service in Lincolnshire. A newspaper says ' Captain Swallow, the captain of the Maiden troop raised by the maids of Norwich, hath lately done some service, and surprised some of the enemies horse which were formerly of the garrison at Gainsborough.' [44]

In 1644, or earlier, the men being men of the kind Cromwell had desired, the troop was incorporated in Cromwell's regiment, and it is paid as part of it throughout that year. Swallow became a colonel in 1659, succeeding Whalley when the latter was turned out by the restored Long Parliament, on account of his connection with the Cromwell family.

12.The twelfth troop added to the regiment was that of Captain Christopher Bethell.[45] The bills for horses and saddles for the troop which occur in the accounts of the Eastern Association for April 1644, show it was raised during the spring of that year. [46] Bethell and his lieutenant, John Pitchford, were great favourers of sectaries, and the ranks of this troop, according to Richard Baxter, were filled with Anabaptists and Levellers of the worst kind.[47] Both officers continued with the troop till the regiment was incorporated in the New Model, and also after that event took place. Bethell was mortally wounded at the storming of Bristol in 1645; [48] Pitchford retired about 1648.

13. The thirteenth troop is also a troop with a history. It was raised in the latter part of 1643, apparently in Suffolk. Its commander was Captain Ralph Margery, whose character and doings form the subject of Letters XVI and XVIII... in Carlyle's 'Cromwell.' In September or thereabouts Cromwell wrote to the Suffolk Committee urging them to haste in raising their quota of cavalry and to care in choosing their commanders. ' I understand,' he says, ' Mr. Margery hath honest men will follow him; 4 if so be pleased to make use of him; it much concerns your good to have conscientious men.... I beseech you give countenance to Mr. Margery. Help him in raising his troop; let him not want your favour in whatsoever is needful for promoting this work.'

The defect of Captain Margery was that he was a man of small estate, and of no position in the county-not a gentle man, it seems to have been said. Cromwell had answered this objection by anticipation in his letter to the Committee: ' I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain, that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else.' A week or two later he had to argue the same point again, and did so equally forcibly: 'It may be it provokes some spirits to see such plain men made captains of horse. It had been well that men of honour and birth had entered into these employments but why do they not appear? Who would have hindered them? But seeing it was necessary the work must go on better plain men than none; but best to have men patient of wants, faithful and conscientious in their employment. And such I hope these will approve themselves to be. [49]

There were, as we shall see, other complaints against Margery, with respect to the manner in which he proceeded in equipping his troop. The upshot was a general desire in the Suffolk Committee to get rid of him and his troopers, to which Cromwell answered with promptitude: 'If these men be accounted troublesome to the country, I shall be glad you would send them all to me. I'll bid them welcome.' Sent to him they accordingly were, and before the close of 1643, or early in 1644, they were incorporated in his regiment. Margery seems to have given satisfaction as an officer, since he remained in the army till 1653, but he never rose higher than captain.

14. The fourteenth and last troop in the pay list of 1644-5 is that of Major Ireton. This was probably the troop which Ireton had raised in 1642. When the Civil War began, says Mrs. Hutchinson, Henry Ireton, being zealous for the cause of the Parliament, and finding the county of Nottingham generally disaffected to it, gathered a troop of those godly people which the Cavaliers drove out, and joined the army under Essex. At the end of 1642 a Parliamentary Committee was established in Nottinghamshire, and began to raise forces. Essex at their request sent Ireton's troop back to defend their own county, and Ireton became major of the regiment of horse raised for Sir Francis Thornhaugh. In July 1643 the three or four troops of horse forming this regiment were drawn off from Nottingham by Sir John Meldrum. to assist in raising the siege of Gainsborough. Ireton, and probably Ireton's troop, did not return to Nottingham. 'Major Ireton,' says Mrs. Hutchinson, 'quite left Colonel Thomhaugh's regiment and began an inseparable league with Colonel Cromwell.[50] On July 28, 1643, Parliament had appointed Cromwell Governor of the Isle of Ely, and about August he appointed Ireton his deputy, and the latter at once established himself at Ely. [51]

Ireton's troop being part of the garrison of the Isle of Ely, and therefore under Cromwell's command, came naturally to be part of Cromwell's regiment, and served with it in the field throughout 1644. [52] It fought at Marston Moor, and about three weeks after that battle. Ireton was appointed quartermaster-general in Manchester's army. [53] He left the regiment at the formation of the New Model, when he was made colonel of a regiment of horse raised in Kent, in place of Sir Michael Livesey. [54]

The next question to be considered is the question of the numerical strength of the troops whose history has been traced and of the regiment as a whole. At the commencement of the civil war, as has been seen, the ordinary strength of the troop in Essex's army was sixty men. Afterwards it was fixed at eighty. In the Eastern Association the strength of the troop originally seems to have been also fixed at eighty. In Cromwell's letter to the young men and maids of Norwich he says, ' employ your twelve score pounds to buy pistols and saddles, and I will provide four score horses.'[55] A year later, on July 12, 1644, it was declared, by an ordinance for raising additional forces in the Eastern Association and elsewhere, that no troop of horse should consist of less than 100 men.[561 The order was not rigidly observed, but the troop of horse in the army of the Eastern Association frequently rose to 100 men, inclusive of officers, and the average number of a troop in Cromwell's regiment was over eighty. A muster of eleven troops out of the fourteen taken on February 20, 1645, shows a total of 914 troopers, besides commissioned and non-commissioned officers, so that the whole regiment must have contained over 1,100 troopers.[57] The officers who are not included in this computation consisted of four commissioned officers for each troop - captain, lieutenant, comet, and quartermaster; while there were also three corporals and about a couple of trumpeters per troop.

Note: Footnotes not in issue-RL

Ironsides Introduction

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