POLITICAL HISTORY 



mentioned is the Sussex Fencible Cavalry, who were formed in April 

 1794. By the end of June there were 112 rank and file under Sir 

 George Thomas, and in December 1795 they numbered 350. In 

 January 1798 they were at Plymouth, and in the early summer of the 

 same year they marched to Carlisle, and afterwards to Dumfries. Sir 

 George Thomas was superseded in June 1799 by Major-General Garth, 

 who was succeeded in August by Major-General Sir James Erskine, who 

 was still in command when the troop was disbanded at Beverley, in 

 April 1800/ 



Infantry volunteer corps were formed in, or slightly before, 1798 

 at Arundel, Petworth, Seaford and Selsey, and others at Hastings, Rye 

 and Winchelsea, which in 1803 amalgamated as the Cinque Ports 

 Volunteers. In 1803 corps were also formed for Angmering, Bramber 

 rape (North and South), Chichester, Hastings rape, Lewes rape (North 

 and South), Littlehampton and Pevensey rape (North and South). 

 Artillery corps also existed at Blatchington (1798 ; united with New- 

 haven in 1803), Brighton (1803, 'The Prince of Wales's' : the corps 

 of ' Sea Fencibles ' are also mentioned as doing some fine practice 

 shooting at Brighton battery in 1803°), Eastbourne (1803 ; ' a set of 

 fine spirited fellows'^), and Rye (1804^). The county regiment of 

 militia alone survived the great war ; and received the prefix of ' royal ' 

 in 1830, when its strength was ten companies. 



Of yeomanry, the Lewes corps was raised by Sir George ShifFner 

 in 1795, and the Stanmer and Petworth troops about the same time. 

 There were also troops at East Grinstead, Henfield, Midhurst and 

 Parham, as well as at Ashburnham, where Lord St. Asaph had raised a 

 troop in 1803. The corps with the greatest local reputation was that 

 of the Sussex Guides ; and there was also a corps of horse artillery, 

 commanded by the Duke of Richmond, whose services were confined 

 to the district west of the Arun ; they served without pay and consisted 

 of some sixty rank and file with two 3-pounder curricle guns and two 

 4|-inch howitzers.^ All these corps were disbanded after the great war ; 

 but in the troublous winter of i 830-1 the Arundel and Bramber corps 

 of three troops was raised by the Earl of Surrey, and the Petworth 

 troop by Col. George Wyndham. Before the South African war the 

 only yeomanry in Sussex formed part of the Duke of Cambridge's Own 

 Middlesex regiment, but the county has now its own regiment of 

 Imperial Yeomanry. 



In 1805 Sussex for the first time gave its name to a regiment of 

 the line. The 35th Foot was originally raised in Ireland in 1 701, by 

 an officer of William III, to which fact it ovv^ed its orange facings. In 

 1782, while serving in the West Indies, it received the title of the 

 Dorsetshire regiment. It was recruited by a considerable contingent 

 from the Sussex militia in 1799, when it served at Bergen and Alkmaer; 

 and was at Malta in 1800. In 1805 it became the Sussex regiment, 



> W. O. Pay Lists. 2 Parry, op. cit. p. 73. ^ Ibid, p 202. 



« W. O. Pay Lists. 6 Ibid. 



535 



