DORSET SOLDIERS 43 



band in 1587, do not seem to have served personally ; but 

 the family gave to the nation a distinguished soldier in the 

 person of Sir Richard Bingham, who saw much service in 

 many countries, and by sea as well as on land, and during the 

 last quarter of the 16th century was, as Governor of 

 Connaught, much engaged in fighting Irish rebels. His 

 brothers George and John Bingham also served in Ireland, 

 the former being killed there in 1595. It may well be that 

 financial disability debarred many of the old landed families 

 from taking the higher posts in the trained bands or leading 

 men to the wars. The only Turbervill of whom I have 

 found mention, as a soldier in Tudor and Stuart times, was 

 one named George, appointed in 1571 to command a hundred 

 men in Dorset; but he was not a success, for the Privy Council, 

 writing to the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, refer to him as one 

 " who hath alwaies from his youth and still is gyven to his 

 boke and studie and never exercised in matters of warre." 

 The officers commanding in the five divisions of the county 

 in 1587 were Sir Henry Ashley, Sir John Horsey, Sir Richard 

 Rogers, Sir George Trenchard, and John Strangways. Of 

 these in 1599 Rogers and Trenchard alone remained, the 

 others being replaced by Thomas Freake, Sir Ralph Horsey, 

 and John Browne. Sir Edward Horsey, described in the 

 Dictionary of National Biography as half soldier of fortune 

 and half pirate, may be included here, for, though his birth- 

 place is unknown, he was a grandson of John Horsey, of 

 Clifton, and a nephew of Sir John Horsey. He served at 

 the siege of Havre in 1562-3 and elsewhere, and, as chief 

 commissioner of the Isle of Wight, was responsible for the 

 defence of the Island. An undoubted Dorset soldier of 

 good standing was Sir Edmund Uvedale, who, being " of 

 knowledge and experience in Martyall affaires," was in 

 1598 appointed Surveyor General of the county trained bands, 

 his duty being to supervise the training and discipline of the 

 men. There must have been others who ought to be named, 

 but the records are not always fair to individuals. Possibly 

 Robert Williams, son of 'John Williams of Herringston, 



