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tSelprv ilcQtmcnt -(Svcuatrtcvs. 



By the Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 



R. NATHANIEL C. CURZON, of Lockington, pur- 

 chased in a lot at the sale of the late Mr. C. 

 Hunter's effects, at Derby, in the year 1861, an 

 "orderly book" of the Belper Local Militia for 

 1809-1813. Recognising its great local interest, Mr. Curzon 

 kindly presented it to the Belper Volunteer Corps. Through the 

 courtesy of Major Holmes, the book was for a time placed in our 

 care, so that we are able to give a full transcript of its contents. 

 It is an oblong memorandum book, fastening with a clasp, bound 

 in smooth red calf, with a black, gold ornamented label on one 

 side. The label is lettered, " Belper Regiment — Grenadiers." 



In order to understand the nature of this regiment, it will be 

 best to give a brief account of the rise of the old volunteer 

 movement in Derbyshire, especially at Belper, for the local 

 Militia was its immediate successor.* 



In consequence of the threatened invasion of revolutionary 

 France, volunteers were enrolled in England as early as 1793. 

 In 1794, Mr. Pitt brought in his first Bill to facilitate the raising 

 of a Volunteer and Yeomanry force, by voluntary contributions. 

 Derbyshire, as a central county, was not so soon moved as shires 

 on the sea-coast, in the forming of infantry corps ; but on April 

 23rd, 1798, the Deputy-Lieutenants of the county were summoned 



* These introductory pages that follow are taken in the main (with Messrs. 

 Bemroses' permission) from the Military Section of Rev. Dr. Cox's Three 

 Centiiries of Dci-byshiTe Annah, 2 vols., now in the press; but there is no 

 reference in that work to this orderly bonk. 



