42 DORSET SOLDIERS. 



maritime towns were few and mostly at sea. It is improbable 

 that the last statement was true, and it may be gathered 

 that the officers of the trained bands, like the nation at 

 large, were beginning to range themselves on different sides 

 in the disputes between King and Parliament. It would 

 seem that for some sixty years or more before the Civil War 

 the standard of military strength aimed at in Dorset was, 

 apart from companies at certain places on the coast, a well 

 trained and well armed force of 1,500 soldiers with a much 

 larger reserve of men with little training and obsolete arms. 

 It may be noted that an attempt to revive the bow was made 

 as late as 1629 when, as Whiteway chronicles, a commissioner 

 from the King arrived at Dorchester " about the setting up 

 of archery." 



Such description of the numbers and equipment of the 

 trained bands as is possible on the present occasion having 

 been furnished, mention will now be made of some of the 

 military leaders of the county, followed by some account 

 of the soldiers who served under them, whether in the 

 companies of the trained bands or in the units especially 

 constituted for operations outside the county. 



All through the 16th century the names of certain families 

 occur over and over again among the more prominent of 

 Dorset soldiers. There was generally a Strangways of 

 Melbury, a Trenchard of Wolveton, a Rogers of Bryanston, 

 a Horsey of Clifton May bank, an Ashley of Wimborne St. 

 Giles, a Williams of Herringston, and a Uvedale of Crichel. 

 Many of these and other names will be referred to later as 

 commanders of Dorset levies despatched on various expedi- 

 tions. Sir Giles Strangways, Sir Thomas Trenchard, and 

 Sir Thomas de la Lynde must have been of some military 

 repute early in Henry the Eighth's reign, for they were among 

 the hundred nobles and gentlemen who were present at the 

 Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. It must not be supposed 

 that all the families not so far named achieved no distinction 

 as soldiers. The squires of Bingham's Melcombe, with the 

 exception of a Robert Bingham, who was captain of a trained 



