POLITICAL HISTORY 



In 1797, however, a fresh troop was raised in the vale of Blackmoor 

 under Captain Meggs. Under the fear of a French attack upon the Dorset 

 coast, not only the volunteers, but the whole posse comitatus, consisting of 

 20,857 able-bodied men over fifteen years old, excluding peers and 

 ecclesiastics, were ordered to be in readiness. This was done by the 

 authority of the sheriff, not of the lord-lieutenant.^ During the second 

 invasion-scare of 1798 three fresh troops were raised. Captain Tregonwell's 

 at Cranborne, Captain Clavell's in the Isle of Purbeck, and a second in the 

 vale of Blackmoor under Captain Bower at Shaftesbury. ° In 1801 there 

 were only nine troops, but as Captain Bower was now adjutant it is probable 

 that the Shaftesbury troop was the one disbanded. This first Dorset Corps 

 of Volunteer Rangers came to an end on the signature of peace between 

 England and France, in March, 1802. Frampton, in his Memoirs, gives 

 three reasons against the maintenance of a permanent yeomanry force in the 

 county. He says the poor disliked yeomen forces of armed farmers, who 

 could keep up the price of provisions, that the farmers themselves suffered 

 under the sense of being always obliged to belong, if they had once joined, 

 and that the attendance of yeomen diminished much as soon as the imme- 

 diate fear of invasion was withdrawn.' 



On the rupture of the Peace of Amiens the yeomanry was again 

 raised, and consented to receive the allowance granted by Government for 

 accoutrements ; preparations made for removing stock were put under the 

 control of such deputy-lieutenants and other gentlemen as were not engaged 

 in any other military duty, thus relieving the Yeomanry officers. With the 

 increased fears of invasion the regiment became more efficient. Their 

 alertness was tested, in 1804, by a rumour that the French had landed at 

 Portland. Weymouth was thrown into confusion, till it was found that a 

 fishing-fleet had taken refuge in the Roads during a fog.* 



Lieutenant-Colonel Damer's death in May, 1807, led to the command 

 of Frampton, under whom the numbers of the corps greatly increased, the 

 Secretary of State giving permission for the strength to be raised to twenty- 

 four officers and 450 non-commissioned officers and men.' The regiment 

 was disbanded in 18 14 on the conclusion of peace. Frampton, with 

 150 mounted men armed with constables' staves, dispersed the agrarian 

 rioters at Winfrith in 1830^ : and in December of that year the Dorset- 

 shire Yeomanry Cavalry was again raised. It now consisted of five troops, 

 recruited mainly from West Dorset. A scheme to raise a regiment in 

 East Dorset in 1831 came to nothing. Instead, four independent troops 

 were raised at Wimborne, Blandford, Wareham and the Isle of Purbeck, 

 and Charborough. These were, however, disbanded in 1838, with the 

 exception of the Charborough troop, which had been disbanded in 1835.^ 

 The throwing out of the Reform Bill caused a serious riot at Sherborne in 

 October, 1831 ; the yeomanry were called out. The regiment assembled 

 for 'permanent duty ' for the first time in May, 1832, at Dorchester.* In 

 June, 1843, the title of ' Queen's Own ' was given to it. 



' C. W. Thompson, Dorset Teomanry, 23, 25. ' Gage, Dorset Teomanry, 174. 



' C. W. Thompson, Dorset Yeomanry, 49. ' Ibid. 69. 



Mbid. 84, 86, 89. Mbid. 108-9. 



' Gage, Dorset Yeomanry, 174. * C. W. Thompson, Dorset Yeomanry, 127. 



