HISTORY OF THE DORSET VOLUNTEER FORCE. 71 



Dorset Cavalry Regiment, 



Colonel George, Earl of Dorchester. 

 West Dorset Cavalry (Troop), 



Captain John Bragge. 

 Dorset Volunteers, 1st Battalion 



Colonel Edward, Earl Digby. 

 Dorset Volunteers, 2nd Battalion, 



Lieut. -Colonel John Jeffery. 

 Dorset Volunteers, 3rd Battalion, 



Lieut. -Colonel Edmund Morton Pleydell. 

 Portland Island Legion, 



Captain John Penn. 



It also records that at this time there was not a single 

 vacancy in either of the above regiments or corps for an 

 officer. 



It can, therefore, be only reasonable to think that the other 

 ranks must have been equally well filled which means a 

 force of between 3,000 and 4,000 men recruited from the 

 county. 



There is no doubt that the Colour, now in the Museum, is 

 one of the regimental pair belonging to the 1st Battalion 

 Dorset Volunteers, the other may have been lost, misplaced, 

 or worn out. In former days it was the privilege and right of 

 a Commanding Officer to take as his own private property the 

 Colours of a regiment on disbandonment, or whenever a new 

 set may have been presented to the Corps. Thus, often in 

 this way regimental property became scattered, and passed 

 into the hands of those who had little interest in it, and in 

 consequence were damaged through inattention, or lost 

 altogether. 



The drum, as it bears the inscription " Evershot 

 Volunteers," probably belonged to the company raised and 

 recruited in that locality, and no doubt this company formed 

 one of the units of the 1st Battalion. 



Presumably, about the year 1806, some of these Volunteer 

 Battalions, owing to less demand, and necessity for their 



