A HISTORY OF SURREY 



regiment was 60 1 effective rank and file in 1793 ; it was made part 

 of a force intended to defend the southern counties from mvasion, and 

 was at Dover, and in camp at Brighton during this year. An Act was 

 passed in 1794' to encourage the raising of volunteer corps. Lord 

 Leslie, who resided at Shrub Hill, Dorking, immediately set on foot the 

 formation of a regiment of yeomanry cavalry, and a subscription was 

 opened in the county for providing arms for the public defence.' In this 

 year barracks were built at Croydon for cavalry ; and at Guildford the 

 old house of the Dominican Friars underwent its last transformation, 

 being turned first into barracks for cavalry and then for the militia. In 



1797 the Surrey Militia was again organized as two regiments, the old 

 number, a nominal 840, being doubled. The second regiment was 

 called the first Supplementary Regiment, or the second Surrey. In 



1798 a second supplementary regiment, or the third Surrey, was ordered 

 to be raised. It was found however so difficult to make up the second 

 Supplementary Regiment to anything approaching the intended numbers, 

 856, that the attempt was abandoned, and the third Surrey disbanded.* 

 Some of the men who might have been in its ranks were in the volunteer 

 corps which were being rapidly formed at this time. 



In 1798 a series of Acts provided for the employment of the English 

 Militia regiments in Ireland, where rebellion and French invasion were 

 imminent : and for the raising of volunteers and yeomanry to take their 

 place in England.* 



On 4 July 1799 the king reviewed the Surrey volunteers and 

 yeomanry on Wimbledon Common. The force numbering 676 cavalry 

 and 1958 infantry. Of the former Lord Leslie's Surrey Yeomanry, 253 

 strong, was the largest corps. There were ten other troops varying in 

 strength from the Richmond Yeomanry 80 strong, to the Wandsworth 

 Volunteers 25 strong. There were 24 companies of infantry, ranging 

 from the Holmsdale Volunteers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Petrie, M.P., 

 208 strong, to the Mortlake volunteers 42 strong. The Clapham com- 

 pany, 120 men under Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Thornton, M.P., were 

 partly pikemen. Henry Smith, of the Camberwell volunteers, published 

 a description of the review. The infantry manoeuvred, and fired three 

 volleys : and then ' the gentlemen of the Surrey Yeomanry ' went 

 through the sword exercise before his Majesty. The king expressed 

 himself much pleased with the appearance of the men.' After the 

 rupture of the Treaty of Amiens the number of infantry volunteers was 

 much increased. At a meeting under the Lord Lieutenant at Epsom, 

 on 8 July 1803, the county was divided into three zones, the southern 

 reaching to two miles north of the chalk hills, the northern comprising 

 the rest of the county excepting Brixton Hundred and Southwark, these 

 two forming the third division. Each of the two main divisions was 

 further subdivided into three parts, from Hampshire to the Wey at Guild- 

 ford, from the Wey to the Epsom and London road, from that road to 



' Stat. 3+ Geo. III. cap. i6. 2 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. i. 676. 



• Davis, p. 128. * Pari. Hist, xxxiii. 1358, 1423. » Times, Fri. 5 July .799. 



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