Washington's Dragoons were one of the King's "Edgehill regiments", a not infrequently encountered appelation which in the Civil War had much the same connotations as the term "out since Mons" coined during the 1914-18 war. They were first commanded by Colonel James Usher, a professional soldier who had been the Major of the Earl of Barrimore's regiment of Foot in 1640 and more recently been one of the half-pay officers on the Guildhall list earlier in 1642. He seems to have raised his Dragoons in the Midlands for his Lieutenant Colonel, Henry Washington - another 1640 Captain - came from Packington in Leicestershire and most of the other officers from Warwicks and Worcestershire. With the regiment recruiting in the area it would seem not at all unlikely that they may have been part of Sir John Byron's force in the operation which culminated in the fight at Powick Bridge just outside Worcester on September the 23rd.

At Edgehill fight they were drawn up on the extreme right of the Royalist army and at the outset of the battle briskly attacked and dispersed a body of commanded musketeers from Colonel Denzill Holles' and Thomas Ballard's regiments. This happy beginning was immediately emmulated in even greater measure by the Royalist Horse under Prince Rupert, but while as is well known the troopers were too much carried away by their own success Usher (or Washington, for some accounts imply that he and not Usher commanded that day) kept his men well enough under control to assist the Foot and provide covering fire while the Horse rallied. Given the feeble resistance which they had encountered casualties are likely to have been rather light and indeed the only known one is a Captain Gawdye wounded by two bullets in the thigh. As has been suggested by Brigadier Young he was probably the Francis Gaudy serving as a Lieutenant in Captain Urney's company of Lord Grandison's regiment in 1640. He was, it appears, a Norfolk man and it is interesting to note in this connection that Washington's Lieutenant Colonel also came from East Anglia.

When the Royalist army dispersed into winter quarters on the 9th of December, Usher's Dragoons were alloted to the Cotswold village of Burford along with Sir John Byron's regiment of Horse. Three days earlier a detachment led by Henry Washington had taken part in the storming of Marlborough and on the 2nd of February the regiment was drawn out of its quarters for a similar if rather larger operation at Cirencester where a Major Hutchinson belonging to the regiment was wounded. His successor was probably Nathaniel Gray yet another professional soldier who had served in Ireland under George Monck (Washington also served in the same regiment), certainly he was serving as Major later that summer. Shortly afterwards the regiment was taken north by Prince Rupert into the West Midlands striking first at Birmingham and then at Lichfield where Usher was slain in the storming of the breach.

No sooner had the city been taken than Rupert was forced to hurry southwards again, this time to take part with the King in the attempted relief of Reading, blocked by the Earl of Essex at Caversham Bridge. With Usher dead, Washington now took over the regiment and for his Lieutenant Colonel chose Henry Huddleston of Sawston in Cambridgeshire. As with many of the regiments officers, he was a professional soldier having served in Sir Jerome Brett's regiment of Foot in 1640. It would seem likely that a detatchment of Washington's Dragoons took part in the famous Chalgrove Raid for a Captain Henry Colthorpe received a quantity of muskets and powder-bags for the regiment on the 16th of June, the day before the raiders set out. These muskets had it appears been "on order" for some time but the timing is nevertheless rather suggestive.

The next action undertaken by the unit as a complete regiment was the storming of Bristol in July. Here they distinguished themselves, first in siezing Clifton Church which lay outside the defences and provided the Royalists with an excellent observation post and then in the taking of the city itself. Attached to Colonel Henry Wentworth's tertio they were originally intended as a brigade reserve, but all did not go according to plan and since the point of entry was afterwards called Washington's Breach it is evident that the regiment played an active role in the forcing of the outer defences. Once inside they continued to spearhead the assault making their way past an inner fort called the Essex Work (named after a former governor - not the Earl of Essex) and into the cathedral from where they blazed away at "a Little Worck & a hows where the Enemy had a peece of Canon and beat them from it." By this time the struggle was becoming rather less ferocious for the Royalists were becoming exhausted and the Parliamentarians had lost heart, indeed the Essex Work seems to have been abandoned without a fight and that evening a surrender was agreed. According to the Royalist official account produced by Prince Rupert's engineer officer Captain De Gomme, Washington's Dragoons mustered 7 Troops at Bristol, three of these would of course have belonged to the three Field Officers: Washington himself, Huddleston and Gray. The identity of the four remaining Troop commanders is less easy to determine however. One was of course the Captain Colthorp who had signed for muskets a month earlier and another would have been Francis Morrison who is mentioned as having been at Cirencester and who later became Major to the regiment in succession to Grey. The two remaining Captains are likely to have been William Tuke who had in fact fought at West Wycombe a week after Chalgrove, an Essex man he had been Lieutenant to Captain William Honnings of the Marquis of Hamilton's regiment in K&O, and Captain Henry Norwood of Bishopton in Worcestershire, commissioned in December 1642. In addition two Troops of Sir Robert Howard's Dragoons were attached to the regiment for the occaision.

After Bristol the Royalists chose to besiege Gloucester and Washington's regiment evidently took their turn in the trenches as evidenced by issues of powder, match and ball. When the siege was raised however they do not appear to have followed the army to Newbury for they are next found in garrison once again at Banbury, though in the new year they moved to Evesham. From this point on the story of the regiment becomes rather shadowy. They had left Evesham by the summer for they were not there when the King marched through during the campaign which culminated in the battle of Cropredy Bridge and in fact according to the Royalist newspaper MERCURIUS AULICUS they took part in Prince Rupert's storming of Stockport from which it may be inferred that they also fought at Marston Moor. At any event they next appear in the garrison of Worcester when Washington was appointed to the governorship and were evidently reduced to being a regiment of Foot. Evidence of this is to be found in the List of Indigent Officers where certain Dragoon officers are also mentioned as Foot officers. Just to add further confusion a Captain Alexander Frankish appears both as a Dragoon officer and as a cavalry officer! From this it would appear that the unit was largely dismounted save for one troop, probably the best riders mounted on the best of the remaining animals. Frankish incidentally came from Waters Stratford in Buckinghamshire, as did Michael Bellamy one of the Captains mentioned under both Foot and Dragoons in I.0.

The Worcester garrison was one of the last to surrender and Washington only gave up on July the 23rd 1646 after a siege of two months without hope of relief.

It is clear from the Royalist Ordnance papers that the regiment was armed with matchlock muskets and as an Oxford Army regiment they are likely to have been dressed either in red or in blue. Their standards are unknown but it would in fact seem likely that they were white. Two white Dragoon standards (illustrated by Mike Seed in issue 4 of ECW N A Q) were taken by the Earl of Essex's army shortly after the relief of Gloucester and a further two or three white standards were taken by the Parliamentarians at Marston Moor. One of the latter being described thus:

"A White Coronet of Dragoones with a blew and white fringe in the midst whereof is painted a roundheads face, and on its top the letter P. (which is conceived to signifie a Puritan) with a sword in a hand reached from a cloud, with this mott, FIAT IUSTITIA".

Another was a white cornet with a blue and white fringe and a red cross in the middle, probably a Lieutenant Colonel's. If these were indeed Washington's standards the blue element in the fringe may suggest blue rather than red coats.

Sources:
The Royalist Ordnance Papers (Ed. Dr.Ian Roy 1964 & 1975)
List of Indigent Officers (1663)
"Edgehill 1642" Brigadier Peter Young
"Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers" (Peacock)
Calendar of the Committee for Compounding and Sequestration

(I should like to acknowledge John Lewis' Comments in RETURN FIRE ECW NSQ 6, which contribute to shedding light on their whereabouts in Late '44/Early 45 - Stuart).

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