The
Yeomen
of the Guard
Their History from 1485-1885
by
Thomas Preston
edited by
Yeoman Bed Goer William D Norton (Archivist)
Introduction
There are very few institutions in this country which can boast of a history of four centuries, but the Yeomen of the Guard can now do so, for this famous Body Guard of the Sovereign was formed by Henry VII, and made its first appearance in public at His Majesty’s coronation on the 30 October 1485. Since that remote time there has been no royal pageant or ceremonial in which the Yeomen of the Guard have not taken a more or less conspicuous part. Their portly appearance, picturesque costume and ancient weapons, have made them famous, but it is more than a century since any attempt was made to write a history of the Corps. Then Samuel Pegge, who was sometime a Groom of the Royal Chamber, wrote an extremely interesting paper on the subject for the Society of Antiquaries, of which he was a Fellow. Taking Pegge’s paper as a starting point, the compiler of the following pages, with the courteous assistance of Lord Lathom, a past Captain of the Guard, and now the Lord Chamberlain; Lord Barrington, the present Captain; Lieut-General Milman, Major of the Tower; Lieutenant-Colonel Baring, the Clerk of the Cheque; Sir Albert Woods, Garter and other gentlemen, has gone over the same ground and discovered many interesting incidents in documents which a century ago were not know to be in existence of could not be found. Careful search has also been made in several directions not reversed by Pegge, and some original documents from the archives of the Lord Chamberlain’s office have furnished what has proved to be most entertaining reading. These old customs, set before as in such a charming way, give an endless variety of interesting particulars, and convey to us a better idea of the old-time doings than would be obtainable without them and this is the author’s excuse for occasionally wandering somewhat from the subject matter of this history.
The ceremonies described are only given once as examples, to illustrate the duties of the Guard, and as a role, only the part of the pageant or ceremonial in which the Corps itself or some of its members figure is given. The history, deficient as it is, will be found to contain particulars of the formation of the Corps, its constitution, its strength in each successive reign, its weapons, uniform, duties, and privileges. Also a complete list of all it several Captains, with biographical notices of its prominent members. There are very few memorials of the old Guard now left, the Present Order Book only goes back to the beginning of the present century, and it is conjectured that the earlier books and other properties belonging to the Guard were destroyed in the fire which did so much damage to St James’s Palace in the year 1809. This loss had rendered necessary a search through the Council Registers, and it will no doubt surprise many readers of the extracts gleamed there from to find that the Lords of the Privy Council, for so many years and as late as the reign of George III, had so much to do with the arrangements of the Royal Household.
The illustrations have been made expressly for this history, and have been taken either from originals kindly placed at the disposal of the compiler, or from well authenticated copies where originals were inaccessible. A glance at the successive uniforms of 1520, 1585, 1685, 1785, and 1885, shows that the supposition that the present costume is the same as that worn in the time of Henry VIII is erroneous. In the chapter relating to the Tower Wardens the origin of a recent scare concerning a supposed change of uniform is dealt with, and the groundlessness of the alarm made clear which could not conveniently be allotted as belonging exclusively to any particular reign, and the subject of the Officers has a chapter to itself.
YEOMEN
There is some uncertainty as to the derivation and precise meaning of the word Yeoman, and there can be no doubt that it has undergone some changes of signification since its introduction into the language. Dr. Johnson only gives a speculative derivation, of the word in his dictionary, and there seems to be considerable doubt as to its birthplace. From many examples of its use it would seem to have designated a servant of the higher grade, as we hear of the Yeoman of the Guard, Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod, Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Pantry, Yeoman of the Robes, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman of the Mouth, and so forth. In the Gentleman’s magazine, Vol XXIX p.408 is the following instructive information:-“The title Yeoman is generally in no esteem, because its worth is not known. A yeoman that is authentically such is by his title on a level with an esquire the title yeoman is of military origin, as well as that of esquire and other titles of honour. Esquires were so called because in combat they carried for defence an acu or shield: and yeomen were so styled because, besides the weapons fit for close engagement, they fought with arrows and the bow, which was made of yew, a tree that hath more repelling force and elasticity than any other. After the Conquest, the name of Yeomen as to their original office in war was changed to that of archers. Yeomen of the Crown had formerly considerable grants bestowed on them, in the fifth century, (fifteenth?) John Forde, yeoman of the crowne, had the moytie of all rents to the town and hundred of Shafesbury, and Nicholas Wortley, yeoman of the chamber, was made ballieffe of the lordships of Scaresdale and Chesterfeild, with the county of Derby all which prove that the title of yeoman was accounted honourable, not only in remote antiquity but in later ages. “Yeomen, at least those that frequent palaces, should have their education in some academy, college, or university, in the army or at court, or a private education that would be equivalent. Then our Latin writers would be no longer so grossly mistaken as to their notion in this respect. In Littleton’s Dictionary, and I believe in all our Latin dictionaries, yeomanry is Latinised plebs* and yeoman rusticu, paganus, colonus. The expressions of ‘Yeomen of the Crown,’ Yeomen of the Chamber,’ ‘Yeomen of the Guard, ‘Yeoman Usher,’ show the impropriety of this translation, for thereby it is plain that yeomen originally frequented courts and followed the profession of arms. Yeomen of the Crown were so called, either because they were obliged to attend the King’s person at court and in the field, or because they held lands from the crown, or both. Dr Johnson thought that Yeoman in one sense was a ceremonious title given to soldiers, and quotes Spencer:
Tall Yeomen seemed they, and of great might
And were arranged ready still for fight.
Shakespeare puts the word into the mouth of Henry V:
You, good Yeomen whose limbs were made in England show us here the mettle of your pasture
Spencer wrote about “A jolly yeoman marshal of the hall, whose name was Appetite.” So that the beef-eating propensities of the yeomen must have been patient as early as Spencer’s time. Harrison, in his introduction to Holinshed’s History of Great Britain gives the following definition of a Yeoman, as the title was understood about half a century after the formation of the Corps of the Yeomen of the Guard. It gives us an insight into the “manner of men” who were then considered to be desirable protectors of the person of the Sovereign:-
“This sort of people have a certain preheminence, and more estimation, than labourers and the common sort of artificers, and those commonlie live wealthile, keep good houses, and travel to get riches. They are also for the most part farmers to gentlemen, or at the leastwise artificers, and with grazing, frequenting of markets and keeping of servants (not idle servants as the gentlemen do, but such as get both their own and part of their master’s living), do come to great welth, that manie of them are able and doo buie the lands of unthriftie gentlemen, and often setting their sonnes to Schooles, to the Universities, and to the Inns of Court, or otherwise leaving them sufficient lands where upon they may live without labour, doo make them by those means to become a gentlemen. “These were they that in times past made all France afraid, and albeit they be not called Master, as gentlemen are, or Sir, as to Knights appertaineth but onlie John and Thomas etc, yet have they beene found to have done verie good service, and the Kings of England in foughten battles were woont to remaine among them (who were their footmen) as the French Kings did amongst their horsemen, the Prince thereby showing where his cheefe strength did consist”.
OFFICERS – THE CAPTAIN
The Captaincy of the Royal Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard has always been regarded as an honourable post to fill, and for nearly 200 years the service was purely honorary, the only recognition on the part of the sovereign being the occasional present of “a gown.” The Household Books of James I show that this was the custom during the reign of that monarch and the cost of the gown given to the Captain was £14. But it often happened that the Captain of the Guard held some salaried office in the Household. Sir Walter Raleigh was, at the same time, Captain of the Guard and Gentleman of the Chamber, but the post of Vice-Chamberlain appears to have been the office most frequently associated with the Captaincy. A peer of the realm has filled the office of Captain for many generations, indeed (as may be seen by the Table of Officers) with only one exception since the appointment of Sir Henry Rich in 1617. The precedency of the Captain in State processions was considered and decided as recently as 1843. On the 11th of April in that year an order states that the place of the Captain is to be on one side of Gold Stick, the other side being occupied by the Captain of the Corps of Gentlemen at Arms. This was the place assigned to these officers at the coronation of James II, and, with but one or two exceptions; it has been their position in all State processions since that time.
The Captain is distinguished by a richly-chased gold top and a gold lace knot and acorn. This emblem of office is presented by the Sovereign to the Captain on his appointment. The colour of the uniform coat is scarlet, trimmed with gold lace, and the trousers are a dark blue, with gold lace stripes at the side. The cord of the aiguillettes is looped on the top Dexter button. There has been some uncertainty as to the proper position of the bullion sash-tassels. In the sketch they are placed before the sword-hilt as they have been generally worn: but recent authorities say the bullion should be behind the sword. There is very little to admire in the officer’s uniform. By virtue of his office the Captain of the Guard is usually made a Privy Councillor. He goes out of office with the Ministry. Lord Barrington, the present Captain, was appointed in succession to Lord Monson on 29 June 1885. The salary is £1,200 per annum, and in the reign of William III, Lord Grandision was granted a pension of £1,000 a year. At one time there were also some valuable privileges connected with the office: but the only ancient custom which survives is the annual present of venison from the Royal forests. The order respecting this privilege states that the Captain is entitled annually to two bucks and two does: and application for the warrant for same are to be made at the office of Her Majesty’s Woods and Forests, Whitehall, for the bucks about the middle of the month of July, the buck season ending 25 September, for the does at the end of the month of October, and doe season ending the 17 January. The fees payable at the office for the warrants are for the bucks £1 6s and for the does 13s.
THE LIEUTENANT
The second officer is the Lieutenant. He must have been a colonel or lieutenant-colonel in the army or marines or in the Indian army. At the time of the abolition of sale and purchase of commissions the value of the Lieutenant’s commission was £8,000: the salary is £500 a year. The office dates back to the year 1668, and the first of the Lieutenants was the Hon. Thomas Howard, second son of the Earl of Suffolk. The present Lieutenant, Lieut-Colonel Sir Arthur Need, was appointed 11tFebruary 1870.
THE ENSIGN
The third officer-the Ensign-was added by Charles II, and it may fairly be assumed that when appointed he had to do an ensign’s duty, namely, to carry the Banner or Standard of the Corps. Diligent search has more than once been made for this Standard, but it is not forthcoming. Thom, in his Book of the court when speaking of the duties of the Ensign of the Guards says: - “But, though such an appointment was then (1668) made and has, continued ever since, there does not exist the smallest evidence that the Corps ever possessed either Banner or Standard.” The late learned antiquary could not, at the time he wrote his, have seen the Order Book of the Guard at St James’s Palace, for one of the first entries therein is as follows:- “In consequence of the death of Mr Jno Glover, late Secretary of the Earl of Macclesfield, his lordship ordered that the Standard, Books, belonging to the Corps and kept by him be now given up, and that they be considered in future the property of the Corps, and kept as such by the Secretary for the time being.” The Earl of Macclesfield was appointed Captain in 1804, and the great fire in St. James’s Palace occurred 21 January 1809: it reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the Standard was amongst the property destroyed. According to Chamberlayne’s Anglice Notitia for 1672 the Standard of the Guard was “a Cross of St. George and likewise four bends”, but the colours of the field and the charge are not given. By the regulations now in force the Ensign before appointment must have held a commission as a lieutenant-colonel or major in the army or marines or in the Indian army. The salary is £300 a year. The present Ensign is Colonel the Hon. W. J. Colville, who has held the appointment since 11 February 1870.
THE CLERK OF THE CHEQUE
The officer next in rank is the Clerk of the Cheque and Adjutant. This is the oldest paid officer in the Corps and the post is extremely ancient. Long before the formation of the Guard the office of Clerk of the Cheque was usual in the royal households and also in the establishments of the highest of the nobility. His duty was to keep the checkroll or “checker-roll”, which was a book containing the names of the household servants. In an old dictionary he is described as “an officer who has the check and controlment of the Yeomen of the Guard and all the Ushers belonging to the Royal family”. He never was the paymaster of the Corps and had nothing do with “cheques” in the modern meaning of that word. He was and is to all interest and purpose the Adjutant and secretary of the Guard, residing in the Palace, keeping the Order Book, attending all parades, and preparing the quarterly statements. It was customary at coronations to Knight the Clerk of the Cheque. Sir Francis Clarke, who filled the office in 1712, was knighted on the coronation of George I, on 20th October, 1714. Several subsequent Clerks of the Cheque were also similarly honoured, but Coles Child, who held the appointment in the reigns of George III, and George IV, was several times offered the distinction, but, on account of his retiring habits he could not be prevailed upon to accept it.
The silver-topped ebony baton was not carried by the Clerk of the Cheque till 1787, when one was given to Francis Barker, Esquire, on of the Exons, on his promotion, by order dated 5th July 1787. The present regulations require that before appointment the Clerk of the Cheque must have held a commission as a lieutenant-colonel or major in the regular army or in the marines or Indian army. Till Charles II, re-organised the Guard in 1660, the salary of the Clerk of the Cheque was 2s 6d per day, with fees, residence, and table-money: but the new regulations raised it to £150 per annum. Lieut-Colonel Francis Baring, who now fills the post, was promoted from an Exoncy on 4th December, 1884.
KNIGHTHOODS
It was customary for an officer of the Corps, other than the Clerk of the Cheque, to be knighted on the occasion of a coronation; and the following list includes all who have been so honoured during the half century now last past.
Henry Cipriani Senior Exon 18 Sept, 1831
Thomas Horsley Curteis Senior Exon 27 June 1833
George Houlton Ensign 20 June 1838
Samuel Hanock Senior Exon 19 May 1841
Philip Lee Lieutenant 18 May 1843
William Bellairs Senior Exon 17 May 1848
Thomas Seymour Sadler Senior Exon 28 Feb 1849
Captain J Kincaid Senior Exon 30 June 1852
Major-General Benjamin T Phillips Lieutenant 18 Feb 1858
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Cooke Lieutenant 11 Dec 1867
Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Need Lieutenant 25 Feb 1881
It was publicly announced in 1858 that knighthood was not to be looked upon by the officers of the corps as a right, and this intimation was repeated in February, 1881.
The following order related to the abolition of purchase of officers commission, and it gives some directions as to filling future vacancies for the date of the order:- “My Lord I am commanded by the Queen to inform you that is Her Majesty’s pleasure that the purchase of the officers commission in the Corps of the Yeomen of the Guard should cease at the earliest possible moment, and that it is ordered by Her Majesty that the future vacancies in the Corps should be filled up by officers of the army of long and good service, to be selected from a list kept at the Horse Guards by the General Commanding-in-Chief, the recommendation being made to Her Majesty in each case, as now, by the Captain of the Corps. “Any of the officers who acquired their commission by purchase, and are desirous of retiring from the Corps, upon communicating with the Captain, will receive, - the Lieutenant, £8,000, the three Exons £3,500 each (that being the regulation price), for the sale of their commissions, from the Secretary of State for War, and a successor will be appointed to the vacancy, who. however, it must be clearly understood, will not be allowed to sell his commission. “The Lieutenant in future to be appointed must have been a colonel or lieutenant-colonel in the army or marines or in the Indian army. “The Ensign and the Clerk of the Cheque, a lieutenant-colonel or major in the army or marines or in the Indian army. “The Exons, captains in the army or marines or in the Indian army, according to the present regulations of the Corps. “It is further Her Majesty’s pleasure that no officers should be appointed to the Corps above the age of fifty. “Whenever an Exon becomes in the opinion of the Captain permanently incapacitated to perform the duties of the appointment, he will be required to resign it, or half his salary will be paid to a substitute, selected as already described, and who will succeed to the next vacancy of the Corps. “This order is not to be retrospective, or to apply to those officers of the army now in the Corps who have been appointed on the recommendation of the General Commanding-in-Chief.” It is to be clearly understood that all officers who may be appointed for the future under the above regulations will be, as heretofore, entirely under the command of the Captain of the Corps. For many years previous to 1883 there was a Deputy Clerk of the Cheque who acted as Secretary to the Adjutant. The last deputy was Mr Davis, who had been in the Corps sixty-four years when he died. A re-arrangement of the office duties has done away with the necessity for appointing a successor to Mr Davis. Her Majesty has graciously granted his widow an annuity of £40 a year
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
The Messengers, of whom there are now two, rank first amongst the non-commissioned officers of the Guard, and receive £75 per annum. They, like the rest of the Yeomen, are army pensioners, and are at liberty to employ their spare time in any way consistent with their duties. The serjeant-majors rank next, they receive £60 per annum, besides their badge of four chevrons and a crown on the right arm, and they may be distinguished by their batons, which they carry instead of the partisan. Ranking next the serjeants as non-commissioned officers are the Y.B.G’s-the Yeomen Bed Goers, concerning whose peculiar duties there are several examples in the following pages. Then come the six men distinguished by the initials Y.B.H. these are the Yeomen Bed Hangers, and it was their special employment to hang the **** and tapestry in the bed-chamber of the sovereign. George III took his Yeomen Bed Goers and Yeomen Bed Hangers with him when he went to Hanover in 1783. The only other official is the Wardrobe Keeper who finds plenty to do as custodian of the uniforms and arms at St James’s Palace, and in superintending their removal to Windsor and other places to which the Guard may be sent. He is not a Yeoman of the Guard.
Since the first admission of army non-commissioned officers to the ranks of the Corps, fifty years ago, there have been five of them entered on the roll who wore or wear on their breasts the Victoria Cross. They are:-
Stephen Garvin Serjeant-Major 64th Foot. Died 1874
David Spence 9th Lancers Died 1877
Daniel Cambridge Gunner R.A. Died 1882
David Rush Serjeant-Major 9th Lancers Joined 1867
THE BEEF-EATERS
Regarding the sobriquet of “Beef-eater,” which has long been the popular name of the Yeomen Guard; it does not seem to be necessary to go very deeply into the question of the origin of it. There is a story attributed to Fuller the historian, which will be found in the chapter relating to Henry VIII, which gives a very probable origin, but there are other not less likely derivations. When we remember that the Corps itself was copied from a similar Guard which attended the French King, who were nicknamed the Becs du Corbin, from a fancied resemblance of the hooks of their halberds to the beak of a crow, why should not the English Guard have got their sobriquet from the resemblance of their partizans to the bill or beak of the bird called the Beef-eater? Buffon describes the beak of this bird as a “strong thick bill, with which it pecks through the hides of oxen.” This derivation may be far-fetched, but it should be remembered that the English Yeomen were often referred to as bill-men, because they carried a weapon with a hook resembling the beak or bill of a bird. Doubtful the derivation may be, but it seems to be quite as probable as the generally accepted one of the name being derived from buffetier, in as much as the Yeomen never had charge of the buffets at the Royal banquets.
THE PRESENT CORPS
Although the men who now form this famous Guard are not Yeomen in the original sense of the word, they are, it must be admitted, better men for the Body Guard of the Sovereign than those so employed in the last century. What could be a better recommendation for a place in such a corps than the fact that the applicant had spent the best years of his life in the service of his country, and that he had won the medals on his breast for bravery in face of the enemy or for long service?. These medals, which all the Guard wear, show that they have done “Yeomen’s Service” for the Crown already, and if there be more of such service to be done, though of a less arduous and dangerous kind, surely none could do it better than brave soldiers such as those who now comprise the Corps. It will be well to remember that these grand Yeomen or their predecessors have taken part in and added to the brightness and picturesqueness of every Royal pageant or State ceremonial that England has seen during the past four centuries, and they have done this and at the same time guarded their Sovereign without once bringing discredit to their Corps. On the contrary, there is evidence enough in these pages to show that many of them lived the lives of good servants and loyal citizens, and died leaving behind them substantial proofs of their benevolent dispositions. All honour, then to the grand old Guard on this the four hundredth anniversary of its formation, may it continue to be recruited from soldiers such as those who now so nobly fill its ranks and, may it last for ever.
HENRY VII
1485 TO 1509
THE FORMATION OF THE GUARD
STATE VISIT TO YORK
Henry lost no time in letting his subjects see that he was well guarded. In March, 1486 he paid a State visit to York, and went by way of Waltham, Cambridge, Huntington, to Lincoln, where he kept the Feast of Easter, and on Holy Thursday he washed the feet of twenty-nine poor men and gave them alms. The number corresponded to the years of his age, the King then attended service “in the Cathedral Church and in no Private Chapel, the principallest residencers there being present did divine observance.”
The next resting place was Nottingham, and thence he journeyed onward to York, on the road the King was met by the Earl of Northumberland with a grand retinue. At Pomfret the King was accompanied by “great Noblesse, Esquires, Gentilmen and Yeomen in defensible array; for in that tyme ther wer certayne rebells about Rypon and Midlem, which understanding the King’s might and were approaching, within two dayes disperse.” Leland (from whose account of Henry’s progress these extracts are made) goes on to say that “at Tadcastell the King, richly besene to a gowne of cloth of gold, furred with ermine, take his esquire, his henchmen and followers also in goldsmythe’s work, were richly besene.” The Mayor of York met the cavalcade three miles outside the city and there “was ordained a pajaunt.” There was also another “again at hider ende of House Brigge another garnyshed with shippes.”
The Earl of Oxford, who was the first Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, is frequently mentioned as taking an active part in the proceedings, diligent but unsuccessful search has been made for a portrait of the First Captain, and the Curator of the National Portrait Gallery says that there is no known portrait of this Earl of Oxford.
QUARRELS AMONGST THE KING’S SERVANTS
One of the earliest Acts of Parliament issued in the English language is 3 Henry VII, cap.14, and it is worth calling attention to as it relates to the origin of the Body Guard. A slight alteration from the original spelling has been found necessary to make the extract intelligible. It runs as follows:-
“For smooch as by quarelles, made to suche as hath been in greate auctortie office and of Councell with Kynge of this roialme, hath ensued the Destrucccon of Kynge and the neer undoying of this Realme, so as yt hath appeared evedently when compassyng of the deth of such as were of the Kynge’s true subjiettis was hadd, the destruction of the prynce was ymagyned thereby; and for the most part yt hath growen and ben occasioned by envy and malice of the King’s owne housold servantes as nowe late lyke thyng was lykely to have ensued.”
It is then enacted that the Steward, of the King’s Household may enquire, by Twelve Persons of the Cheque Roll of Conspiracies, by the King’s Servants to murder the King or his Counsellors or Great Officers.
There had evidently been something amiss in the Royal Household, for we find amongst the Acts of Parliament for the fourth year of the King (chapter 7) an enactment to the effect that all Letters Patent made to Yeomen of the Crown and Grooms of the King’s Chamber should be void if there were any lack in their attendance.
Sir William Stanley Knight was Lord Chamberlain to Henry VII, when the Corps of the Yeomen of the Guard was formed, but he was unfortunate enough to offend the King and was condemned to the block in 1495. But the best evidence of the extraordinary case taken against treachery is to be found in the following amusing extract from the Household Ordinances as the manner of making the King’s bed.
MAKING THE KING’S BED
After bringing in “the stuff for the bed Then the Esquire of Gentleman Usher shall command them what they shall do. So first, one of them to fetch the straw with a dagger or otherwise (that there be no untruth therein), and then the Yeoman to take the straw and lay it plain and draw down the canvas over it straight, then shall they lay on the bed of down and one of the Yeomen to tumble up and down upon the same for the search thereof, to beat it and lay it even and smooth. Then the Yeoman taking the Assay to deliver them a blanket of fustian on which all the Yeomen must lay hands at once, that it touch not nor ruffle out the bed, then the bolster likewise tried and laid on without touching the bed, then to lay on the nether sheet, likewise to take assay and that it touch not the bed, until it be laid where it should be; then take both the sheet and the fustian and truss the same back together under the feather bed on both sides and at the feet and under the bolster, then the Esquire for the Body to take the other sheet and roll it in his arm or stripe it through his hands, and then go the bed’s head and stripe over the bed twice, or thrice down to the feet. Then all the said Yeomen to lay hands on the sheet and lay it plain on the bed; then the other fustian or two and such a covering as shall best content the King. Then take a pane of ermine and lay it above, then a pane or two of marterns, then to roll or fold down the uppermost of the bed sheet and all, the space of an ell. Then the Yeoman takes the pillows and beat and raise them well, and deliver them to the Esquires of the Body, who shall lay them on as shall best please the King. Then take the head sheet of raynes and lay one side thereof under each end of the bolster and the other side to lie still, then take a head sheet of ermine and lay it above and over, and then the other side of the head sheet raynes and cover the bed over and over on every side, first taking an assay of all those that have touched any part thereof, making a cross and kissing there where their hands last were, and then to stick up the angels about the same bed, and an usher to let down the sparver or curtain and knit them; and an Esquire for the Body to cast holy water on the same bed.
An Esquire for the Body ought then forthwith to charge a secret groom or page to take a light and have the keeping of the same until the time that the King be disposed to go to it.
A Groom or Page ought to take a torch while the bed is making, and fetch a loaf of bread, a pot of ale, and another of wine, and bring it without the traverse, where all they which were at the making of the bed shall go and drink together.
Regarding this quaint description, it should be remarked that it is very similar to a reprint made by I.C. Brooke, Rouge Croix, 15th January 1776. He says that the account is extracted from an original manuscript which belonged to the Earl Marshal of England, containing the whole duty of the Lord Chamberlain, and was copied for the instruction of Henry FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, who was Lord Chamberlain to Henry VIII in 1526. With regard to these details it may be desirable to mention that assay was a “tryal or proof”, the word fetch then meant to test or try; pane was a covering, probably like the counterpane of modern times; marterns is intended for marten, a kind of fur, there is doubt about raynes, but it most likely was a kind of striped velvet; and the sparver was a canopy set up over the bed.
Some of the Guard were called Bed Hangers and some Bed Goers, and the titles are still continued, though their elaborate duties as detailed in the above ordinance have long been obsolete. It may be interesting to observe that at this period a bed of downe with a bolster cost £5, the teaster of tynsell and black velvet with arms, having curtains of silk with fringes, was worth £20. Fifty of the Guard were accountred as bowmen and the other fifty were armed with the halberd, the King himself a famous archer and a contemporary poet say of him
See where he shoteth at the butts,
And with him are lords three;
He weareth a gowne of velvette blacke,
And it is coted above the knee
Amongst his expenses are such items as “Lost to my lord Morging at buttes, 6s 8d; “Payed to Sir Edward Boroughe, 13s 4d, which the King lost at buttes with his crosse-bowe.”
Both the King’s sons were likewise expert archers, especially Arthur, the elder one; and it came to be customary to call the champion archer “Prince Arthur,” and other good bowmen were called his knights; but the pleasantry seems only to have lasted till the next reign, when, as will be seen, the champion Barlow was dubbed Duke of Shoreditch, On the death of Prince Arthur his brother Henry became patron of the art, and Hall, the chronicler, in his Life of Henry VIII, says that when he came to the throne “he shotte as strong and as greate a lengthe as any of his Garde.”
In the Canterbury Tales Chaucer describes the Yeoman bowman as follows:-
And he was clad in cote and hode of grene,
A shefe of pecocke arrows bryght and shene
Under his belt he bare ful thrifteley
Well coude he dresse his tackle yeomanly;
His arrowes drouped not with fethers lowe,
And in hand he bare a myghty bowe.
The “pecocke arrowes” are no fiction, for in a Cottonian MS is an item of 12 arrows for the King, plumed with peacock’s feathers, 12d. An improvement in fire-arms which took place in this reign induced the King to arm some of his Yeomen with the new weapon, which was called the arquebuss. The word is derived from arc-a-bouche, or are-a-bousa, it being a weapon combining the old handgun with cross-bow.
HERE LIES
HENRY THE SEVENTH KING OF ENGLAND
WHO BEING PROCLAIMED KING THE 22ND OF AUGUST
WAS CROWNED AT WESTMINSTER ON THE
30TH OF OCTOBER FOLLOWING, 1485
OFF ALL THE PRINCES OF HIS TIME THE MOST CELEBRATED,
WHOSE WISDOM AND GLORIOUS ACTIONS
RECEIVED ADDITIONAL DIGNITY FROM HIS MAJESTIC
STATURE, HIS AUGUST COURTENANCE AND MAY OTHER
NATURAL ADVANTAGES
THE GLORY OF MONARCHY; MILD, VIGILANT, BRAVE AND WISE
OF A MOST COMELY PERSONAGE;
DIED 21 APRIL 1509.
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THE QUEEN’S YEOMEN
Part of the Guard was told off to attend on the Queen, and in 1502 they were paid at the rate of one shilling per day. One of them, named Griffiths, was buried at the Queen’s expense in the churchyard of St. Margaret, Westminster, at the cost of xiijs. iiijd.
A BRAVE YEOMAN
The following “anecdote of an English Yeoman, in the 4th of Henry VII,” is taken from an old Chronicle reprinted in 1771:-
“On this season the Flemmyings holding Freshe partie, and on especial those of Brugges, with the assistance of the Lord Guardis, had besieged Dixemve on Flaundres. The Lord Dawbency, the Kinge’s Lieutenant of Calais, and the Lord Morley, with divers oudir noble Knightes and Esquires of the garnyson, and of the crew of Calais, and of the Englishe marche in thoos parties, rescued Dixemvie, and brake the sege. And their ware slayne the substance of al servaunts, as the garnyson of Scottes, which lay at Ostenguen, with the substance of the Bruggelingis.
Of the Englishe partie, there was slayn that gentill young Knight the Lorde Morley, and many noblemen hurt; as Sir James Tyrell sore wounded in the legge with a Quarell; and a gentill and a courageous Esquier called Robert Bellyngham, the whiche foughte in his cotte of armes foot gerded with his swerd upon his harnois. And their was wonnen moche Artillerye, whereof moche was brent with the Gounne Pouldre, also it is not to be forgotten, but to by had in remembrance, the goode courage of an Englishe Yemoan (of the Guarde) called John Person, afte that a gounne had borne away his foote by the small of the legge, yet that notwithstanding, what setting and what kneling, shotte after, many of his arrows, and when the Frenchemen fledde, and his felowes were in the chase, he cried to one of his felowes, and saide, “Have thow these vi arowes that I have lefte and follow thow the chase for I may not,”. The whiche John Person died within a few days after; on whose soulle God have mercy.”
HENRY VIII
1509 to 1547
THE GUARD IN FRANCE
THE UNIFORMS The picturesquely handsome uniform which the Yeomen of the Guard now wear is not like that which they wore in 1520. This may be seen from an inspection of the accompanying sketches. Indeed, there was obviously a good deal of diversity in the cut and colour of the dress worn by the Guard previously to 1527. In that year the King gave an order for a livery of red; that is, scarlet cloth for his Guard, and the coats were ordered to be embroidered front and back, with the crowned rose for badges. The coats were to be made to reach down to the knees. The caps to be of black velvet, round, and broad crowned, with ribbons of the King’s colours. The breeches were to be scarlet, and to reach to the knee, and to be guarded with velvet. They also wore grey stockings and broad-toed shoes with knee-bows, that is, roses made up of bows of ribbon, and shoe-bows to match. The cross-belt for the arquebuss went over the left shoulder, and there was a waist-belt with a frog on the left side for the sword. From an entry in the Household Books dated 29th March, 1532, we find that the shooters’ livery coats cost £1 2s 6d each, the charge for two being “xlvs.”
A MS at Heralds’ College contains the following copy of a Payment by Warrant, dated 1543:-
“Item, to Simond FitzRichards and Robert Perry, Yeomen of the Guarde, for their costs in going to London for the riche cotes of the Guard against Whitsuntide by the space of iiij days every of them, and for ij carts for carriage of the said riche coates from London to Kingston-upon-Thames, and for ij carts to carry the said cotes from Kingston to London again by the King’s highness commandmte, as appeareth by a byll signed with Chamberlayne’s hand, xiiijs, viiid.”
THE ARQUEBUSS
Being so much employed in the wars it was only natural that Henry should arm his favourite Guard with the very best weapons obtainable, and of the newest kind. Fire-arms had begun to attract considerable attention, so much, indeed, that Acts of Parliament were passed to prevent the bow being entirely discarded. Nevertheless, Henry armed part of this Body Guard with the new arquebuss, and the accompanying sketch is made from one of these weapons still preserved in the Tower of London. This arquebuss had seen some rough usage in its time, and may have been hidden in the ground, for all the metal work is eaten with rust and the mahogany stock is black. But apart from its probable connection with the Yeomen of the Guard, this weapon is remarkable as being a breech-loader and as having a solid cartridge-case, another illustration of the adage that “there is nothing new under the sun”. The breech is opened by a hinged flange very similar to the breech arrangement of the rifles of the present day, except that it opened from right to left, whereas the snider rifle and carbine open from left to right.
The cartridge-case is of iron, and when charged with powder and ball was inserted in the breech, so that the touch-hole should come opposite a similar hole connected with the priming-pan. The flange was then turned over, and the breech being closed the cartridge-case became fixed in the required position. The weapon was fired by pulling the trigger, which brought down the smouldering match to the priming-pan, and set light to the powder. To re-load it was only necessary to open the breech, take out the empty cartridge-case, fill it again or insert another case already filled. Whether there were any complaints by the Yeomen of “jammed cartridges” is not recorded, but the principle of solid cartridge-cases which is now being reverted to in the army is evidently as old as the hills.
The arquebuss is undoubtedly of the period ascribed to it, for it bears on the band on the barrel the letters H.R. deeply embossed, and on the flange (but partly on the barrel) is the date 1537. On the flange itself is the crowned rose; and the arms of Henry VIII can be traced, as well as the letters W.H., which are supposed to be the initials of the gunsmith who made the weapon. On the brass leaf ornament, on the stock in the rear of the breech, there is a faint outline of an engraving of an arquebussier on horseback.
The remarkable weapon is complete, with the exception of the cleaning road (for which there is a receptacle), and the lid of the cavity in the stock is missing. The barrel is twenty-three inches long.
PRIZE SHOOTING
Shooting in fanciful positions seems to have been practised by archers centuries ago as it is now by the riflemen at the Wimbledon Prize Meetings. Hall in his Life of Henry VIII, relates that:-
“There came to his Grace King Henry the Eighth a certain man, with a bowe and arrowe, and he desired his Grace to take the muster of him, and to see him shoote; from that tyme hys Grace was contented; the man put hys one fote in his bosome, and so dyd shoote, and shote a very good shote, and well towards his marke; whereof not only his Grace, but all others, greatly merveyled; so the King gave him a reward.” The man was afterwards known by the sobriquet of “Fote-in-bosome.”
The title of “The Duke of Shoreditch” originated under the following circumstances:-
“The King having appointed a great archery meeting at Windsor, there came amongst the competitors a famous archer from Shoreditch named Barlow, and he shot so well that he surpassed all the others, which, so much pleased the King, who being in a merry mood, jocosely dubbed the champion The Duke of Shoreditch and this title was long afterwards retained by the captain for the time being of the English archers.”
The following narrative taken from Hall introduces the Yeomen of the Guard in an entirely new uniform; the Captain Sir Henry Guildford, appearing as Robin Hood and the Guard as foresters:-
"The King and Queen, accompanied with many lords and ladies, rode to the high ground of Shooter’s Hill to take the open air, and as they passed by the way they espied a company of tall Yeomen, clothed all in green, with green hoods and bows and arrows, to the number of two hundred. Then one of them, which called himself Robin Hood, came to the King, desiring him to see his men shoot, and the King was content. Then he whistled and all the two hundred archers shot and loosed at once; and then he whistled again and they likewise shot again; their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and great, and much pleased the King, the Queen, and all the company.
All these archers were of the King’s Guard, and had thus apparelled themselves to make solace to the King. Then Robin Hood desired the King and Queen to come into the green wood, and to see how the outlaws live. The King demanded of the Queen and her ladies if they durst adventure to go into the woods with so many outlaws. Then the horns blew till they came to the wood under Shooter’s Hill, and there was an arbour made with boughs, with a hall and a great chamber, and inner chamber, very well made, and covered with flowers and sweet herbs, which the King very much praised. Then, said Robin Hood, sir, outlaws’ breakfast is venison, and therefore you must be content with such fare as we use. Then the King departed and his company, and Robin Hood and his men then conducted.”
In the Household Books there are many entries relating to the making and repairing the butts and targets, but the mark for the best shots was a hazel rod or wand. The prize was usually an arrow of silver or gold. This appears from on old poem entitled “The Mery Gest of Robyn Hood,” in which we read:-
He that Shoteth al of the best
Furthest, fayre, and lowe.
At a payre of goodly buttes
Under the greenwood show,
A right good arrowe he shal have
The shaft of silver whyte
The head and fethers of riche red gold,
In England none is lyke.
Thrise Robin shot about
And away he cleft the wand.
Amongst other items of interest in this reign the following relate to the Yeomen of the Guard:-
1519 – The King sent 100 of his Guard with the Earl of Surrey to Ireland on his appointment to the post of Viceroy or Deputy, as the Lord Lieutenant was then called.
1521 – Part of the Guard was selected by the King to accompany Cardinal Wosley to France on the occasion of his going there to act as mediator between Francis 1. and the Emperor Charles V.
By the King’s command Sir Henry Morney (Captain of the Guard from 1521 to 1523), with 100 of the Guard, attached the Duke of Buckingham and conveyed him a prisoner to the Tower of London; Sir William Kingston, Knight, who was Captain from 1523 to 1536, was sent by the King to Sheffield to take Cardinal Wolsey to the tower as a prisoner.
1544 – The Yeomen were present at the siege of Boulogne, and this appears to have been the last occasion on which they acted with the army.
The following items are extracted from the King’s Household Books:-
1531 – 1 March Paid to the Yeomen of the King’s Garde towards the charges of S. David’s Feast. This item was repeated in 1532 xj s
13 March Paid to John Weste, of the Garde, to ryde into the country for a Hawk by the King’s command. xx s
1 May Paid to John West, one of the Garde, towards his marriage, by the King’s command Iijli vj s viij d
3 June To John Holland, of the Gard, on his marriage, by the King’s command V li
23 May To one of the Garde for shooting at Greenwich Ij s
1 August Paid in reward to one the Garde xxij s vj d
1532 – 27 October Paid to Parker, Yeoman of the Robes, for doublets for the Garde to wrestle before the French King at Calais. Xliiij s viij d
31 October Paid to Michell, one of the Garde, for carrying the King’s staff from Dover to Calais iij s x d
1536 Given to the Yeomen of the King’s Garde, presenting a leek to My Lady Princess Mary, Daughter of Henry VIII. xv s
1537 This item occurs again on St. David’s Day xv s
1543 To one of the Yeomen of the Garde for bringing a trout. v s
For a leek on St David’s Day xv s
This next entry is somewhat obscure “26th August 1531 – Paid by the King’s command, to the Garde for to eat a buck at Woodstock,” Whether the King was in a merry mood and made a bet that the members of the Guard then at Woodstock could not eat a buck, or whether the forty shillings was to buy a buck, is uncertain. Sir H. Nicholas, in his notes on the Household books, says “it is not easily explained.”
Ashmole states that in his time there was in the churchyard of Shottesbrooke, in Berkshire, a marble gravestone whereon are inserted brasses with the following epitaph:-
HERE LYETH BURIED
THOMAS NOKE
WHO FOR HIS GREATE AGE AND VERTUOUS LIFE WAS REVERENCED OF
ALL MEN AND COMMONLY CALLED
FATHER NOKE
CREATED ESQUIRE BY HENRY THE EIGHT
HE WAS OF STATURE HIGH AND COMELY AND FOR HIS EXCELLENCE
IN ARTILLERY WAS MADE A
YEOMAN OF THE CROWNE OF ENGLAND
WHICH HAD IN HIS LYFE THREE WIVES AND OF EVERY OF THEM
CAME FRUIT AND OFFSPRING AND DECEASED 21 AUGUST 1567 IN THE
YEAR OF THIS AGE 87
Noke was a native of Bray in Berkshire. This chapter may appropriately, be concluded with the following anecdote of Henry VIII. The King was fond of disguising himself, and in this manner going about among his subjects. An escapade of this kind is said by Fuller to have given to the Yeomen of the Guard the sobriquet of Beefeaters:-
Once, while on a hunting expedition at Reading Abbey, he dressed himself in the uniform of one of his Yeomen of the Guard, and so disguised paid a visit to the Abbot about dinner-time. Being apparently one of the King’s retinue he received welcome form the Abbot, and was invited to dine at his own table. The principal dish was a large joint of beef, and the King, being “hungry as a hunter,” ate heartily, yes voraciously of the meat. The Abbot, observing his evident enjoyment, addressed him, saying, “Well fare thy Heart! And here in a cup of sack I remember the health of His Grace your master. I would an hundred pounds if I could eat as heartily of beef as you. Alas! my weak and squeamish stomach will only digest a piece of a small rabbit or a chicken.” After courteous thanks the guest departed.
In a few weeks after the Abbot was committed, he knew not, why, a close prisoner to the Tower, and his food was limited to the usual prison fare – bread and water, and with this he had to be content for some time. At least, to his surprise and delight, a joint of beef was put before the prisoner and he attacked it with gusto. While so employed the Abbot was astonished to see the King enter the room and demand a hundred pounds of him for having restored to him his lost appetite for roast beef. The money was ultimately paid, and the prisoner released, and ever thereafter whenever the Abbot saw a Yeoman of the Guard he thought of the Beefeater, and the King in disguise as a Yeoman of the Guard. The tale is told by some other historians with some slight variations, and it is just possible that the jocular name of Beefeater was given to the Guard when this bit of waggery came to be told and repeated, as it would be with great glee.
EDWARD VI
1547 to 1553
MAUNDY
The following quaint and interesting description of the Order of the Maundy made at Greenwich, 19th March, 1572, by William Lambarde, was read before the Society of Antiquaries, 16th March 1749:
“First, the hall was prepared with a long table on each side and forms set by them; on the edges of which tables, and under those forms, were layed carpets and cushions for her Majesty to kneel when she would wash them (the poor). There was also another table laid across the upper end of the hall, somewhat above the foot pace for the chappelan to stand at. A little beneath the midst whereof, and beneath the foot pace, a stool and cushion of estate was pitched for her Majesty to kneel at during service-time. This done, the holy water, bason, alms, and other things being brought into the hall, and the chappelan and poor folk having taken their said place, the Yeoman of the Laundry, armed with a fair towel, and taking a silver bason, filled with warm water and sweet flowers, washed their feet, all. One after another, wiped the same with his towel. And so, making a cross a little above the toes kissed them. After him within a while followed the sub-almoner, doing likewise, and after him the almoner himself also; then lastly her Majesty came into the hall, and after some singing and prayers made, and the Gospel of Christ’s washing his disciples’ feet read, thirty-nine ladies and gentlemen, for so many were the poor folk (according to the number of years complete of her Majesty’s age), addressed themselves with aprons and towel to wait upon her Majesty; and she kneeling down upon the cushions, and carpets under the feet of the poor women, first washed one foot of every of them in so many several basons of warm water and sweet flowers, brought to her severally by the said ladies and gentlewomen, when wiped, crossed, and kissed them, as the almoner and other had done before.
When her Majesty had thus gone through the whole number of thirty-nine, of which twenty sat on the one side of the hall and nineteen on the other, she resorted to the first again, and gave to each one certain yards of broad-cloth to make a gown. Thirdly, she began at the first, and gave to each of them a pair of shoes. Fourthly, to each of them a wooden platter, wherein was half a side of salmon, as much lyng, sic red herring, and two cheat (wheaten) loaves of bread. Fifthly, she began with the first again, and gave to each of them a white wooden dish with claret wine. Sixthly, she received of each waiting-lady and gentlewoman, their towel and apron, and gave to each poor woman one of the same. And after this the ladies and gentlewomen waited no longer, nor served as they had done throughout the courses before; but the treasurer of the chamber (Mr Henneage) came to her Majesty with thirty-nine small white purses wherein were also thirty-nine pence (as they say), after the number of years of her Majesty’s age; and of him she received and distributed them severally; which done she received of him so many several red leather purses each containing twenty shillings, for the redemption of her Majesty’s gown, which (as men say) by ancient order she ought to give to some one of them at her pleasure; but she, to avoid the trouble of suit which accustomably was made for that preferment, had changed that reward into money to be equally divided amongst them all, namely, twenty shillings a piece, and those she also delivered particularly to each one of the whole company; and so taking her case upon the cushion of state, and hearing the choir a little while, her Majesty withdrew herself, and the company departed; for it was by the time the sun-setting
SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON
By far the most prominent and distinguished officer of the Guard in Queen Elizabeth’s reign was Sir Christopher Hatton; according to all accounts a very remarkable man and a great favourite of the Sovereign. The story of his introduction to the Queen and his subsequent rapid promotion is very interesting. Elizabeth was present in the year 1568 at a Masque in the Temple, the Master of the Games being a certain young student named Christopher Hatton, who distinguished himself very considerably as the part author of a tragedy called “Tancred and Gismond,” given before the Queen on this occasion by the students. So struck was the impressionable Sovereign by the good looks and noble bearing of the youthful student, that she at one gave him an appointment, in her household- probably as Keeper of Eltham Palace.
Other honours soon followed. The lucky law-student was next promoted to the post of a Gentleman Pensioner and then to that of Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. Soon after he was appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, and lastly was created Lord Chancellor, having already been knighted and appointed Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen.
Hatton, knowing his power, set his heart upon having part of Ely Place for a residence and easily induced the Queen to ask the Bishop of Ely to let her have the property. But the Bishop was obstinate, urging that he must not scatter what his predecessors had gathered. Whereupon the Queen wrote the famous epistle:-
“PROUD PRELATE, You know what you were before I made you what you are now; if you do not immediately comply with my request, by G-D! I will unfrock you.
“Elizabeth.”
In the Lives of the Chancellors (1708) is the following eulogistic account of Hatton’s career:-
“Sir Christopher Hatton, Knight, was the next person the Queen was pleased to pitch upon for the Great Seal of England, which was delivered to him on the 29th of April, 1587, in the 29th of her reign, with the title of Lord Chancellor; some were of opinion that this was not so much the Queen’s own choice as that she was persuaded to it by some that wished Sir Christopher ill, that thereby he might be absent from the Court, and in expectation that such a sedentary life for a corpulent means, that had been used to exercise, would be a means to shorten his life, wherein were not much mistaken.
“This gentleman was born at Holdenby, in Northamptonshire, but descended from an ancient family in Cheshire, deriving its pedigree from Nigel, Baron of Hatton, in that country. He was bred up to the Law in the Inns of Court, but more like a gentleman than one that pretended to raise himself by that profession. He was first taken notice of by the Queen for the comeliness of his person and his graceful dancing in a mask at court, but more afterwards for his great abilities. He came first to be one of the Queen’s Gentlemen Pensioners, then Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and next Captain of the Guard, from which office he stept to be Vice-Chamberlain and one of the Privy Council. And at last Lord Chancellor, with the addition of the Garter. He was one of those, when Vice-Chamberlain, that was delegated to try the Queen of Scots for her conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth.
“This gentleman had a large share of gifts and natural endowments; his features, his gait, his carriage, his parts and prudence, strove how to set him out. But as his abilities were much above his experience, so was this above his learning, and his learning above his education.
What he did was so exactly just and discreet, and what he spoke so weighty, that he was chosen to keep the Queen’s conscience as her Chancellor and to express her sense as speaker. The courtiers that envy all the last capacity, were by his power necessitated to confess their errors; and the serjeants that refused to plead before him at first could not but own his abilities.
His place was above his law, but not above his parts, which were so very pregnant and comprehensive that he could command other men’s knowledge to as good purpose as his own. And whereas ‘tis said the civil law is sufficient to dictate equity, he made use of Sir Richard Swale, Doctor of the Civil Law, as a servant and friend, who’s advice he followed in all matters of moment. His station was great, his despatches were quick and weighty, his order many, yet all consistent, being very seldom reversed in Chancery and his advice opposed more seldom in Council. He was so just that his sentence was a law to the subject, and so wise that his opinion was an oracle to the Queen.
“However, Queen Elizabeth, who never forgave debts, calling upon him for an old one and rigorously insisting upon prompt payment, he was startled at it, because he could not do it at that time, and that backstroak went so close to his heart that it threw him into a mortal disease. The Queen, being indeed sorry for what she had done, endeavoured all she could to recover him, and brought him cordials with her own hands; but all would not do. And so he died a bachelor in the year 1591, and was buried under a stately monument, under the choir of St. Paul’s.
“This gentleman had adopted Sir William Newport, his sister’s son, to be his heir, who whereupon changed his name to Sir William Hatton; but in default of issue male by him he settled the greatest part of his estate upon his godson, Christopher Hatton, son and heir of John Hatton, his nearest kinsman of the male line, which Christopher, upon the death of Sir William Newport, without issue male, did accordingly enjoy it, and was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King James I., from whom is descended the present Lord Viscount Hatton..”
The inscription on Hatton’s monument which stands on the right side of the choir in St Paul’s Cathedral, and is ornamented with pyramids of marble and alabaster, runs thus:-
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON,
SON OF WILLIAM, GRANDSON OF JOHN, OF THE MOST ANCIENT FAMILY
OF THE HATTONS,
ONE OF THE 50 GENTLEMEN PENSIONERS OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN
ELIZABETH, GENTEMAN OF THE PRIVY CHAMBER,
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD,
ONE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL, AND HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND,
AND OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD;
WHO, TO THE GREAT GRIEF OF HIS SOVERIGN AND OF ALL GOOD
MEN, ENDED THIS LIFE RELIGIOUSLY AFTER HAVING LIVED
UNMARRIED TO THE AGE OF 51, AT HIS HOUSE IN HOLBORN ON THE
20TH OF NOVEMBER, A.D. 1591.
WILLIAM HATTON, KNIGHT, HIS NEPHEW BY HIS SISTER’S SIDE
AND BY ADOPTION HIS SON AND HEIR, MUST SORROWFULLY RAISED
THIS TOMB, A MARK OF HIS DUTY.
Stowe says that “four score Yeomen attended the funeral.”
WORTHY YEOMEN
A Somewhat celebrated Yeoman of this reign was Cornelius van Dun, to whose memory a marble tablet is erected in St. Margaret’s church, by Westminster Abbey. He was a native of Breds, and died in the year 1577. He had been Yeoman Usher to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and died at the ripe old age of 94 years. He was the founder of some almshouses in York Street, Westminster, in which provision was made for twenty poor widows. The houses were pulled down in 1850. He also bequeathed to the poor of St. Margaret’s, Westminster £20.
Records of other Yeomen worthies of this reign are rather scarce. Here is one item of interest, however. In St George’s Chapel, Windsor, near the north door, lie the remains of George Brook, who died 24th October, 1593. A mural brass informs us that he was “a Yeoman of the Guard unto Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth.” It appears from an inscription on the brass that “out of a respect to the memory of the deceased and also to the honour and antiquity of the said guard, this plate was repaired, enlarged, and engraved, at the sole charge of Edward Phillips, Citizen and Merchant Taylor, of London: and one of the 100 Yeomen of the guard to King William III, and Queen Mary II, of blessed memory, and now to Her Majesty Queen Anne; in the sixth year of her reign, and the 52nd of his age, 1707.
The following is worth of notice, inasmuch as certain Yeomen of the guard figure in the affair in question:-
“At the Council Chamber, Westminster, 11th June, 1565.”
“This day the quarrel and fray between the Earl of Ormond and Mr. Butler, his brother, and the Yeomen of the Guard, yesterday night at Westminster, was heard by the Lords of the Queen’s Majesty’s Privy Council. And thereafter their lordships upon the full understanding of the whole disorder it was ordered that the said Earl and his brother should be sent to the Fleet (prison). Edward Knight, Richard Jones, and Robert Gatton, three Yeomen of Guard, were this day committed t the prison of Marchelsea as principal offenders in the fray yesterday night.”
It is recorded that all were discharged next morning, and here is a final item from the Registers of this reign:-
“At Richmond, the 25th Feb, 1574.
“A son of Edward Ap Rees was murdered; he was one of the Queen’s Guard.”
JAMES I
1603 to 1625
THE YEOMEN BED GOERS
The special occupation of the Yeomen Bed Goers and the appropriateness of their name is seen in the subjoined extract from the Council Register:-
“At the Star Chamber, ult, on Nov, 1617.”
“A warrant to the Lord Stanhope for payment to be made unto Wm Hawkins, George Turner, and John Copping, 3 of the ordinary Yeomen of His Majesty’s Chamber, for the charges of themselves and their horses in attending on his Majesty’s bed, in his progress into Scotland and back, from the 10th of March, last past until the 22nd of September following, being 198 days after, the rate of 2s 6d per diem to each of them.”
“At the Court of Whitehall, Sunday, 16th March, 1616.
“A warrant to the Lord Stanhope to pay unto Thomas Symcock and William Wannerton, two Yeomen Ushers of his Majesty’s Chamber, sent to view such houses as should be fit to entertain his Majesty, and also such towns and villages as should be convenient to lodge his Majesty’s train in his progress into Scotland and return from thence, the sum of four score pounds for their charge, pains, expenses.”
The first search for Guy Faux was made at midnight, 4th November, 1605. The ceremony is fully described in the chapter relating to the reign of Queen Victoria.
The Household Books of James I, show that the Captain of the Guard had a gown which cost £14 but no fee. The Clerk of the Cheque was paid 2s 6d per day.
CHARLES 1
1625 to 1649
HERE LYETH YE CORPS OF
THOMAS MOUNTAGUE,
BORNE IN THIS PARISH, WHERE ALSO HE DYED
31 MARCH 1630
WHEN HE HAD LIVED ALMOST 92 YEARS
AND HAD BEN A GOOD PARTE THEREOF A
YEOMAN OF THE GUARD
AND A FRIEND OF THE POORE
CHARLES 11
1649 TO 1685
THE KING’S MAJESTIE
THE GENTLEMEN PENTIONERS, With their Poll-Axes, all afoote.
THE DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, Master of the Horse.
SIR GEORGE CARTERET, Vice-Chamberlain.
THE EARL OF CLEVELAND, Captain of the Pentioners,
THE EARL OF NORWICH, Captain of the Guard
LORD VISCOUNT GRANDISON, Lieutenant of pentioners.
THE GUARD, all on foote, with Halberds.
And the same order of precedence was followed on the coronation day. 23 April, 1661.
The Yeomen Usher, under date of 22 April, 1661, makes note:-
“Monday, 22nd. The King rode from the tower through the City to Whitehall in order to coronation.”
“Tuesday, 23rd. Crowned in the Abbey, and dined in Westminster Hall. At night left to my charge the Globe and two Sceptres, rich with jewels, which I delivered to the Dean of Westminster, Doctor Earle.”
“4th March, 1660. At Whitehall. “The Lords of the Council having made representations to His Majesty that there was a rumour spread abroad that divers persons in the King’s service had not taken the usual oath, it was ordered that the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain, do see that the Royal servants under the respective jurisdictions do take anew the oath of allegiance or be dismissed.”
The Guard were accordingly all resworn. Further precautions appear to have been necessary, for we find under date 18th July, 1660. “Present, His Majesty in person. The Council ordered that the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain should inform themselves, if any, who had formerly served Oliver Cromwell, and were now disaffected to His Majesty, should be turned out. The Earl of Berkshire engaged to give the information,”
ALL NIGHT
The elaborate ceremonial for making the King’s bed adopted in the reign of Henry VII, was again in practice, and in connection therewith the following equally quaint ceremony was gone through daily. It was called “The Service of All Night” and the following account of what was done thereat is taken from a record of the proceedings made by Ferdinand Marsham, who was an Esquire of the Body to King Charles II;-
“The Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter having the charge of constant attendance upon his Majesty until nine o’clock at night, called to the Yeoman Usher attending at the Guard Chamber Door for the Yeoman to attend him for All Night for the King. The Gentleman Usher went bareheaded, and the Yeoman to the pantry for bread, to the buttery for two flagons of beer, to the spicery for sugar, nutmeg, to the wine-cellar for two great flagons of wine, and drank the King’s health in both cellars, causing all to be uncovered, going back, and having a Groom of the Chamber carrying a lighted torch before the Gentleman Usher until he returned into the Presence Chamber, and lay all the service upon the cupboard there, and so deliver all to the Esquire of the Body and takes his leave.
“The Esquire then takes the inner keys and charge of All Night, call to the Yeoman Usher or Clerk of the Cheque for the Roll of the Watch, and the Page of the Presence with a silver bason with a wax mortar and sizes attend the Esquire into the Privy Gallery. Then he takes the bason, and carries it to the King’s bed-chamber and stays until His Majesty goes to bed, and then goes himself to bed under the state in the Presence Chamber in a pallet-bed sent up from the wardrobe.
“At eight o’clock in the morning there was the Esquire’s breakfast usually brought up to the Waiter’s Chamber, where the Gentleman Usher attended with a Quarter Waiter to relieve and discharge him, and to take care of the daily waiting, and to see the Presence and other chambers sweet and clean. The breakfast was a good piece of boiled beef of fourteen pounds weight, with bread, beer, and wine and sundries, a boiled capon, and a piece of veal or mutton.”
There was a silk traverse hung up and drawn by the Page, and the chair turned and the Page lay on a pallet-bed without the traverse. The pallet-bed was a kind of truckle-bed on running castors, so that it could be moved about easily, and, if necessary, could be pushed under the King’s bed.
In later days it was customary for the Exon in Waiting who had charge of the Guard to sleep on a bed of this kind before the door of the King’s bed-chamber, so that no one could enter without moving the bed and so waking him.
“After the Esquire of the Body had carried the mortar into the bed-chamber and received the word (watchword) of the King, with his treble (triple) key which the Esquire in Waiting always had, he locked the outward doors leading into the privy lodgings, and then went into the Guard Chamber and set the watch. He then returned to the Presence Chamber, where he lodged under the canopy, being the chief officer of the night.”
The Bed-chamber Orders for 1685 direct that the Esquire is to bring the mortar and receive the watchword.
The Statues of Eltham (epitomised under the reign of Henry VIII.) provided that after All Night was served, no one was to be permitted to come into the Presence Chamber except the two gentlemen who slept in the Privy Chamber. It is to be observed that according to the New Book of the Household of Edward IV. (1478) All night was served in a very similar manner in the reign of that monarch. From Candlemas to Michaelmas the ceremony (according to the Ordinances of 1478) took place “by day-light; and from Michaelmas to Candlemas by eight o’clock at farthest”
Before leaving this subject of All Night it will be well to explain that the mortar mentioned in the ceremony is a night lamp, and was thus prepared;-“The Esquire takes from the cupboard a silver bason, and therein pours a little water, and then sets a round cake of virgin wax, in the middle of which is a nick of bombast cotton, which being lighted burns as a match light at the King’s bedside.”
For by that mortar which I see brenne,
Know I ful well that day is not far hennie
Trovil & Cres.book iv line 1245.
At the regal State dinners in the reign of Charles II, it was the custom of one part of the Yeomen to bring in the dishes and retire as soon as dinner was served, and another party took post in the Presence Chamber.
In order to enable the King to live, with his revenues the Council decreed on 31 Jan. 1667, that there should be a reduction of half the wages paid to all the Officers and Servants of the Royal Household. But this reduction was not a matter of very serious importance when it was impossible to get any pay at all.
Ways and Means were important matters in the reign of the “Merry Monarch,” and the references in the Council Registers and the records of the time to the question of pay are numerous. The following are sufficient to indicate that the many attempts at retrenchment in the household expenses were certainly needed. Still, in the face of these financial troubles we find the salary of the Captain of the Guard increased from a nominal honorarium to £1,000 a year and the Clerk of the Cheque received an increase from £20 to £150 per annum. A Lieutenant was appointed with a stipend of £500 a year, and Esquire with £300, and four Exempts with £150. The number of the Guard was fixed at 100, with 6 Yeomen Hangers and 2 Yeomen Bed Goers.
Retrenchment being the order of the day in the King’s Household, his Majesty in Council on 8th July, 1668, approved the scheme for reducing the number of Gentlemen Pensioners, but the numerical strength of the Yeomen of the Guard was not altered.
But the poor Yeomen could get no pay, and, on the 4th January, 1668, it is recorded that they lodges a petition in the council Chamber, upon which it was reported that “His Majesty, taking into consideration the great wants and necessities whereunto most of the petitioners are reduced, recommended to the Lords of the Treasury to take an effectual course that the petitioners may have some present supply, according to their respective arrears.”
At his time there had been no salaries paid for nearly four year, and they royal servants offered £12 per cent, for immediate payment of their arrears of pay, but without any result, for the treasury was empty.
But to get rid of some of the complainants it was ordered, on 15th February, 1668, that Viscount Grandison the Captain of the guard, should, at the end of March, muster the whole of the Guard, and select from amongst them one hundred of the most likely “to give their continual attendance upon His Majesty’s person; these to form a new establishment and the remainder to be employed as His Majesty’s servants in other capacities.”
The result of these recommendations was the new establishment referred to in the following extracts from the Council Register:-
“20th October, 1669, at Whitehall. “Whereas the Right Honble, the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury did this day humbly offer to His Majesty in Council the ensuring establishment of the Yeomen of the Guard of His Majesty’s Body as to their Officers, number, and respective pay, as followeth (vizt):-
There that be one Captain of the said Guard at the yearly pay of £1,000; A Lieutenant of £500 per annum; A Clerk of the Cheque at £150; Four Corporals, each at £150 per annum; One Hundred Yeomen in daily waiting, each at £30 per annum;
Seventy Yeomen not in waiting, each at £15 per annum. Which said several sums amount in the whole unto £6,600 yearly.
And when any of the said number on one hundred die that their places be filled up out of the seventy not in waiting, and that if any of the seventy die that no more be admitted in their rooms. Which establishment the King accepted, and directed the Captain of the Guard to remodel the Band accordingly. The names of the Officers of the Yeomen of the Guard of his Majesty’s body:-
George Lord Viscount Grandison Captain
Colonel Thomas Howard Lieutenant
Edward Sackvill, Esqr Ensign
Richard Smith Clerk of the Cheque
Hugh Houghton Corporal
Roger Gardner Corporal
Edmond Ashton Corporal
Richard Sadlington Corporal
The follow the names of 100 Yeomen and 70 “not in daily waiting.”
CHARLES II AT LINCOLN’S INN
The “Merry Monarch” was undoubtedly in a merry mood after dining with the Lincoln’s Inn lawyers, on the 29th February, 1671, as witness the following account, taken from the books of the Inn. It will be observed that the students usurped the functions of the Guard by serving at the King’s table. It is rather significant that amongst the then elected barristers is the name of Andrew Killegrew, the King’s jester.
THE ADMITTANCE BOOKE OF LINCOLNES INNE
Whearin his most excellent Majestie, his Royal Highness the Duke of Yorke, his Highness Prince Rupert, and many lords and honourable person, have entred theire names with theire owne hands the nine and twentieth day of February, Anno Domini, 1671. A narrative of the King’s Majesties reception and enterteynment att Lincolne’s Inn the nyne and twentieth day of February, one thousand, six hundred and seventy-one.
Sir Francis Goodericke, Knight, one of his Majesties learned Councell-att-law, and Solicitor-Generall to his Royal Hignesse the Duke of Yorke, being Reader of this Society of Lincolnes Inn for the Lent reading in the year, 1671, having invited the King, his Royal Hignesse, and Prince Rupert, and diverse of the nobilite, to dine in Lincolnes Inne Hall. On such day of his reading as his Majestie should make choice off, his Majestie was pleased to appoint Thursday, and nine and twentieth of February, 1671; and accordingly that day his Majestie, together with his said Royal Highnesse and his Highnesse Prince Rupert, being also attended by the Duke of Monmouth, the Duke of Richmond, the Earles of Manchester, Bath, and Anglesea, the Lord Viscount Halifax, Lord Bishop of Ely, Lord Newport, Lord Henry Howard, and divers others of great qualitie, came to Lincolnes Inne. His Majestie made his entrance thro’ the garden, at the great gate opening into Chancery Lane, next to Holborne, where Mr Reader and the rest of the benchers and associates waited his coming, and attended his Majestie up to the Tarras Walke, next the field, and soe through the garden, the trumpets and kettle-drums, from the leads over the highest bay-window, in the middle of the garden building, sounding all the while. And from the garden his Majestie went to the new councell chamber, the barristers and students, in their gownes, standing in a rowe on each side, between the garden and the councell chamber. After a little rest his Majestie viewed the chapell, returning agayne to the councell chamber; from thence as soon as his table (being placed upon the ascent at the upper end of the hall and railed in) was furnished, his Majestie was brought into the hall, where his Majestie sat under his canopy of state, being served by the Reader as sewer upon his knee with the towel before he did eat, his Royal Highnesse sitting at the end of the table, on his right hand, and Prince Rupert at the other end.
The Dukes and Lords and other his Majesties attendants of qualitie, after some short tyme of waiting, had leave from his Majestic to sit downe to dinner, at tables prepared from them on each side of the hall. The Reader and some of the benchers, to witt, Sir Thomas Beverley, Master of Requests to him Majesties Sir Robert Adkins, Knight of the Bath, all the time of his Majesties dining waiting neere his Majesties chairs, and four, other of the benchers, Mr Day, Mr Pedley, Mr Stote, and Mr Manby, with white staffes, waited as controllers of the hall to keep good order; and about fifty of the barristers and students, the most part of them attending as waiters and carrying up his Majesties meat, which was served upon the knee, the rest of the barristers and students waiting upon the lords at their table. The three courses, wherein were exceeding great plenty and variety of dishes, and after them a most liberal banquet, was served up by the said barristers and students, and delivered by them upon their knees at the King’s table, the music, consisting of his Majesties violins, playing all the tyme of dinnar in the gallery at the lower end of the hall. Towards the end of dinnar, his Majestie, to doe a transcendant honour and grace to this Society, and to expresse his most gracious acceptance of their humble duty and affection towards him, was pleased to command the booke of admittances to be brought to him, and with his owne hand entered his royal name therein, most gratiously condescending to make himself a member therof, which high and extraordinary favour was instantly acknowledged by all the members of this Society then attending on his Majestie with all possible joy, and received with the greatest and most humble expressions of gratitude, it being an example not precedented by any former King of this realme; his Royal Highnesse and Prince Rupert followed this great and highest example, as also the Dukes and other gownes of the students and put them on, and in those gownes waited on his Majestie, with which his Majestie was much delighted, And his Majestie, thro’ his owne most obliging favour, vouchsafed to it, having made himselfe more nearly and intimately concerned for the good of this Society, was pleased himselfe to begin a health to the welfare thereof, and to cause it to be pledged in his owne presence, immediately gave the Reader leave to drink his Majesties heath, and to begin to his Royal Highnesse. Then, rising from dinnar, he was agayne attended to the new councell chamber, where he conferred the honour of knighthood on Mr Nicholas Pedley and Mr Richard Stote, two of the benchers who had in their turns beene Readers of this house, as also upon Mr James Butler, one of the barristers, and Mr Francis Dayrell, one of the students, that soe each degree and order of the Society might have a signall testimony of his Majesties high favour, His Majestie upon his departure mad large expressions of his most gracious acceptance of the enterteynment, and returned his thanks to the Reader, and was pleased to signify the great respect and esteem he should ever have for the Society.
The Gentlemen of the Horse Guards, Yeomen of the Guard, and other inferior attendants, were bountifully enterteyned at the costs and charges also of the Reader. The Gentlemen of the Horse Guards dined in the old councell chamber; the Yeomen of the Guards in Mr Day’s chamber; and the coachmen and lacquies in the gardener’s house, to all their contentment.
On Saturday, following, Mr Reader, Sir Robert Atkins, Sir Nicholas Pedley, and Sir Richard Stote, Benchers and Readers of Lincolne’s Inn, waited on his Majestie at Whitehall, being conducted to his Majesties presence by the Earle of Bath, and gave most humble thanks for that high and transcendant honour he had beene pleased to vouchsafe to this Society, which was graciously received by his Majestie, and he did the said Benchers the honour to kiss his hand.
In 1675 the Guard were in a poor plight. They could not get their pay, and in order to reduce expenses the Lord Steward cut off their allowance of diet. Whereupon they petitioned the King’s in Council. And explained, that although they had recently had £10 a year struck off their wages they were now required to give up their daily rations, and by reason of the reduction in number had to work longer. The King said it was never his intention to strike off the diet, and it was referred to the Duke or Ormond to set the matter right in accordance with his Majesty’s wishes. On the 18th, June 1675 – a Petition was presented to the King, which is interesting as indicting the treatment accorded t the old Guard of Charles I, during the interregnum which followed the death of that monarch.
“18 June, 1675 – Petition of Mary Richardson, widow of late George Richardson, one of the Yeomen of the Guard, setting fourth that there was due to her late husband £107 9s 8d for salary, and £85 for liveries in all £192 9s 8d That her said husband was always loyal, faithful, and serviceable to his late Majesty, for which he was plundered, imprisoned, and quite ruined in the late evil times, and could leave his widow and children nothing but the above £192 9s 8d. The Petition was referred to the Treasury for favourable consideration."
PRIVILEGES
Amongst the privileges claimed by the servants of the King, that of exemption from performing any parochial offices seems to have been a prominent one. Repeated applications were made to the Council for protection from arrest for neglecting to perform “watch and ward.” On 8th May, 1663, in regard to one of these petitions, the King said that he “doth not take it well that his servants should be so required to serve in parochial matters, and ordered their exemption.” The royal mandate, however, does not appear to have been acted upon, for on the 4th February, 1680, we find that James Trumbull and others of the Yeomen of the Guard were indicted in the Crown Office and at Westminster. Sessions for not serving as watches, thereby being prevented from attending to their duties in his Majesty’s household.
The King considered that in “respect of their painful and continual attendance” on him both day and night they should be exempted from parochial watching, and directed the Attorney-General to put a stop to the proceedings.
On 22nd October, 1680, a draft Order was read at the Council Board for preserving the ancient privileges of the Yeomen of the Guard. Considerable importance was attached to the matter, for it appears that it was referred to the Law Officers to call in the assistance of His Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law to consider the draft Order and examine into privileges and report thereon. Exemption was claimed from all public and parish offices and duties, from serving on juries or in the militia, and from working on the highways.
UNIFORM
The uniform during this reign is thus described:-
“The coat or tunic reaches below the knee, and has a capacious sleeve descending to the wrist. Buskins or short boots were worn, and afterwards shoes and scarlet stockings.” The stockings appear to have varied in colour, being blue, red, grey or white. The hats were made of black fluted velvet, low crowned, flat brim, ornamented with a band of coloured ribbons, red, white, and dark blue, tied up in bows and fastened on a plaited cord.
In the last year of the reign of King Charles II, - 1st October, 1684, His Majesty held a review on Putney Heath, to which the “State Guards” took part. They numbered 100 with 15 Ushers.
This custom of carrying the body of the King to the grave was resumed at the funeral of Charles II. Heretofore, since the death of Henry VII, the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber had performed the office, but the coffin of Charles II, was found to be too heavy for the Gentlemen, and required men of more robust habit. The Yeomen of the Guard were therefore called in to perform the mournful service; and they have carried the coffin at the subsequent royal funerals down to the time of the funeral of Princess Charlotte, on which occasion it is recorded that one of the Yeomen stumbled and hurt himself, and the custom was afterwards discontinued.
1685 to 1688
WILLIAM III and MARY II
1689 to 1702
PRIVILEGES
The right of exemption from public and parish duties was constantly contested by the parochial authorities, and to bring the matter to an issue some members of the Guard were indicted in the Crown Office and at the Sessions for refusing to take their turn at “watching and warding.” On this being reported to the Privy Council on 13th May, 1692, their lordships directed a stop to be put to the proceedings, and ordered that in future on complaint to the Attorney-General of similar indictments he should stop all proceedings against His Majesty’s servants in accordance with the Orders in Council of 8th May. 1663, and 22nd October, 1675, wherein the privileges of servants of the Royal Household are set forth. This seems to have settled the matter for a few years, but on 14th May, 1669, the officers of the Guard found it necessary to memorialize the Board against being compelled to serve in parochial offices, and the Attorney-General had again to interfere.
The principal alteration in the Ordinances in this reign was that the Guard had their table abolished and they were put upon “board wages.”
MOURNING UNIFORM
By the Order of Council, dated 4th January, 1694, it was directed that the Yeomen of the guard and Yeomen Warders of the Tower should have livery-coats of mourning to attend the funeral of Queen Mary. It was also directed that “the badges now worn upon their coats be taken off and put upon their mourning-coats, and that the coats which they now wear be carefully laid up till the time of mourning be past, and that the Captain do take particular care herein.” The Earl of Dorset, the Lord Chamberlain, was authorized to issue his warrant for the liveries accordingly.
A YEOMAN BOXER
In the tomb with Roger Monk, in the western walk of the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey (further referred to in the reign of George IV), there is also buried John Broughton, another celebrated Yeoman of the Guard, who died 8th January, 1789.
Though there is no indication of the fact on the marble tablet or on the gravestone, it is nevertheless true that this is the final resting-place of the First Champion Boxer “Jack” Broughton. Historians describe him as “the father of the noble art of self-defence,” and he was at the height of his fame in this reign. An anecdote is told of him that his Royal patron, the Duke of Cumberland, took him to Berlin, amongst other places, and, showing him the much-vannted Grenadier Guards, asked him what he thought of “a set-to” with some of them, Broughton is said to have replied that he would have no objection to take the whole regiment if he were only allowed a breakfast between each two battles.
His biographers invariably speak of him as having been a man of sense and ability, and he certainly appears to have been a great favourite with the King, the Royal Princes, and the nobility.
He was 86 years old when he died, and had for a long time been one of the Ushers of the Yeomen of the guard. The Yeoman Boxer was an exceptionally well-built man, with such an extraordinary development of muscle that the celebrated Belgian sculptor, Michael Rysbrack, got him to sit as a model for the arms of his statue of Hercules.
GEORGE III
1760 to 1820
NEW UNIFORM
The Officers formerly renewed their uniforms every third year and those for the men were issued annually on the birthday of the Sovereign.
The alterations in the uniform were very slight. The shamrock was added to the badge on the union of Ireland with Great Britain on 1st January, 1801.
White stockings were ordered on 26th July, 1763, and there is an order on the books requiring the men invariably to wear a wig with one curl when on duty.
The Earl of Aylesford ordered rosettes of red leather, to be worn on the shoes of the Officers, instead of buckles, and they wore them till the introduction of the modern uniform, after the accession of George IV.
THE TER-CENTENARY
His Lordship, who was Captain of the guard on the occasion of the ter-centenary of the foundation of the Guard 30th October, 1785, gave three prizes to be shot for with the bow and arrow. The first prize was 20 guineas, the second 10 guineas, and the third 5 guineas. The contest took place on 3rd September; but as might have been expected, there was not much skill displayed, as archery had become quite obsolete; still the contest gave the men an opportunity of meeting and celebrating the occasion.
A Prince was born at St. James’s Palace, 21st August, 1765; and in anticipation of the event the Guard were on duty in increased strength, and they were present at the christening, which took place on 18th September following.
The trial of the Duchess of Kingston, took place in Westminster Hall on the 13th of April, 1776, and following days. It is recorded that “the Yeomen were thus disposed: 12 in the court of Requests, 12 between the throne and passage, 4 in the Court, 2 at the door behind the prisoner, 2 at Lord’s entrance-door, and 2 at the head of stairs. The Board of Green Cloth declined to allow more than 2s 6d per day, and the Captain directed that each man should have an extra 1s 6d per day out of the stock-purse. The Officer’s bill for five days amounted to £34 1s 7d”
10th April, 1810 – The Metropolis was in great state of excitement consequent upon the Sir Francis Burdett riots. The Yeomen on duty at St. James's were supplemented by a detachment of the Foot Guards, and they occupied the Queen’s Guard-room. “The Yeomen had a fire in the Privy Chamber and carried their beds into that room.”
THE YEOMEN IN THE CITY
Lord Mayor’s Day, 1761 – All the Yeomen of the Guard and twenty-four of the Tower Warders attended the King and Royal Party to the Guildhall, where they were entertained by the Lord Major and Corporation of the City of London. The Officers of the Guard were on horseback, “then followed the Ensign, 2 Exons, the 3 Ushers; after them the tallest Yeomen, 4 and 4; then the shorter ones, 4 and 4. The Tower Warders were similarly sized and arranged. Then came 2 Exons on horseback, and there were 2 tall Yeomen on each side of the King’s coach, and 4 Yeomen by the side of the Princess Dowager’s coach, The Lieutenant being in charge of Prince William and Prince Henry did not attend. Five Yeomen were on guard, at St. James’s Palace and 2 at Leicester House.” Their Majesties left St. James’s at noon and returned at two o’clock the next morning.
On Royal birthdays it was customary at this time to summon the whole of the Guard. The assembly was fixed for eleven o’clock and late comers were fined half-a-crown and absentee’s one guinea.
THE STOCK-PURSE
Fines of all kinds were put into the Stock-purse, the contents of which were drawn upon to pay the By-waits and to make up proper allowances when otherwise deficient. The fines must have been numerous for we constantly find instances where the Board of Green Cloth would only allow the men part of what was considered by the Captain to be a fair-allowance.
The benevolent patriotism of the Corps is testified by the fact that on 24th April, 1798, when there was a threat of an invasion by the French, they contributed £162 15s to the public subscription which was started by the Governors of the Bank of England towards the defence of the country.
The current Order Book of the Corps commences, with a number of orders, without date, and apparently copied into the book at the same period of time. The first signed order bears the name of Lord Torrington, the Captain in 1746. There is no reference to any earlier Order Book, and it is conjectured that it must have been destroyed in the fire referred to in the next paragraph.
THE FIRE AT ST JAMES’S PALACE
A fire broke out at St. James’s Palace, on 21st January, 1809, which raged with great fury and did serious damage. It was a long time before it was mastered. The Guard worked well, and were able to alarm the Duke of Cambridge in time to enable him to escape; but his apartments were entirely destroyed. They also managed to save many valuable relics, books, pictures, and furniture, and ably assisted the firemen; but it was known that many objects of interest were destroyed, and amongst them much curious armour, old weapons, and in all probability, the Order Book and the ancient Standard of the Guard. The interior of the Palace from Marlborough House to the first southern turret, including the armoury were entirely destroyed. The flames must have been immense; for it is recorded that they were seen from Staines, “and it was fancied there that all London was on fire.”
The Guard received the thanks of the Lord Chamberlain for their alacrity on the occasion, and the circumstance is recorded in the Order Book.
A characteristic anecdote is told of His Majesty, which will especially interest Yeomen of the guard:-
THE BEEFEATER’S BOY
On the return of the King and Queen from Windsor in October, 1785 (just a century ago), their post-chaise stopped at the door of St. James’s Palace, where a crowd soon assembled to see their Majesties alight, and amongst them was a fine little boy, who had been newly breeched that day. The King, noticing the happy look on the boy’s face stopped and said to him, “And whose boy are You?” To which the lad replied “My father is the King’s Beef-eater,” “Then,” said the King, “down on your knees, and you shall have the honour of kissing the Queen’s hand,” “Oh, no! Said the boy, “I won’t kneel down, for I shall dirt my new breeches.” The reply so pleased the King and Queen that they gave the boy five guineas.
4th June, 1808. – Captain Earl Macclesfield announced that as the Yeomen had been deemed not to be included in the exemption of other Guards from hair-powder duty, they should be reimbursed at the Lord Chamberlain’s Office any sum paid therefore.
On the occasion of the Jubilee in 1809 the Yeomen joined the rest of the Household servants in the celebration, part of them being at Windsor and the rest at St. James’s.
The custom of the Guard dining at the Palace was abolished by a treasury Order in 1813. The Lord Chamberlain, Lord Cholmondeley, addressing the Earl of Macclesfield, the Captain, said that “The Lords of the Treasury having directed his attention to the expense of the establishment of the Board of green Cloth, and to the Table at St. James’s suggested that a pecuniary compensation might with propriety and justice be made to the Yeomen of the Guard, in lieu of their food.” The result was that the Ushers thereafter received 5s 3d per day and the men 3s 9d, table money. The Yeomen of the Guard discontinued carrying the dishes to the royal table in this reign.
At an installation of Six Knights for the Garter in 1805 the fees paid to the Guard, numbering 23, amounted to £37 10s which was equal to £1 11s 3d each in the 1st Division of 12 men and £1 14s each in the 2nd Division of 11 men.
28th May, 1813 – The Duke of Newcastle and Earl of Lonsdale paid 12 guineas as fees; and in 1814 the Earl of Liverpool and Viscount Castleragh paid 6 guineas each to the Guard; this seems to have been the usual feed paid by a Knight of the Garter or the Bath on installation to the Yeomen of the Guard.
THE GUARD ON ACTIVE SERVICE
2nd August, 1786. – Extract from the Gazette:-
“This morning as His Majesty was alighting from his carriage, at the gate of St. James’s Palace, a woman who was waiting there, under pretence of presenting a petition, struck at His Majesty with a knife, but providentially his majesty received no injury. The woman was immediately taken into custody, and upon examination appears to be insane.”
The circumstances attending this alarming event are thus related; As the King was alighting from his post-chariot. At the garden-entrance of St. James’s’ Palace, the woman, who was very decently dressed, in the act of presenting a paper to His Majesty, which he was receiving with great condescension, struck a concealed knife at his breast, which His Majesty happily avoided by drawing back. As she was making a second thrust one for the Yeomen of the guard caught her arm and at the same instant another Guard wrenched the knife from her hand. The King, with great temper and fortitude, exclaimed, “I am not hurt! Take care of the poor woman; do not hurt her! At the judicial examination of the prisoner it was found that her name was Margaret Nicholson. She was declared to be insane, and was conveyed on 9th August to Bethlehem Hospital.
ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
On the 15th May, 1800, the metropolis was in a state of great excitement in consequence of what was at first thought to be a double attempt to assassinate the King. The first incident occurred at a review in Hyde Park, when during one of the volleys a shot was fired from one of the guns and struck a spectator who was standing about twenty feet from the King. Fortunately the wound was not serious, and by direction of His majesty the sufferer was attended to by the army surgeons on the spot. All the cartouch-boxers of the troops on parade were examined, but no more ball cartridges were found, and it was concluded that the shot was accidental.
ANOTHER ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
In the evening, however, a circumstance occurred which coming so soon after the affair in Hyde Park, created a great sensation. The King and Queen went, with the royal princesses, to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the Yeomen of the Guard, who as usual were on duty, had hardly taken their accustomed places when a shot was fired at the royal box, but fortunately without injuring any one. The man who had fired was seized and made prisoner by the Guard. The King them came to the front of the box and bowed his acknowledgements to the excited audience, who called for “God Save the King,” which was sung with the greatest enthusiasm. After the people had been assured that the culprit was safe the play proceeded It subsequently transpired that the unfortunate culprit was ex-Sergeant James Hadfield, who had for some years been insane chiefly owing to wounds on the head which he had received while with the 15th Light Dragoons in Holland. He was acquitted of the charge of high treason, but retained in custody.
EXTRA PRECAUTIONS
It was in consequence of this attempt on the life of the King – a personage whose safety was so dear and important to the State – that additional clauses were added to the Insanity Bill, which at the time happened to be before the House of Lords. The Lord Chancellor in moving the clause which had special reference to the personal safety of the Sovereign, said; “It was well known that person labouring under this deplorable calamity had an unaccountable propensity to intrude themselves into the royal residences. No less than four instances of this kind, more or less alarming had occurred since Hadfield has shot at his Majesty.”
The Body Guard were specially warned to be always on the look out for intruders of all kinds. During this long reign the number of the Guard was not altered. The staff of officers consisted of the Captain, Lieutenant, Ensign, and Clerk of the Cheque, Four Exempts, and an Adjutant or Secretary. The eight Ushers received a salary of £49 11s 3d each; 100 Yeomen £39 11s 3d; six Yeomen Bed Hangers and two Yeomen Bed Goers had the same salary as the Ushers, and there were two Messengers. Four of the guard were superannuated at £26 a year each. As a rule forty of the Guard were on duty in the daytime, and twenty by night. They occupied the Guard Chamber which was on the first floor of the Palace. From the following entry in the Order Book it would appear to have been customary for the Guard to attend the meetings of the Council: - “5th February, 1811 The usual Guard ordered to attend the Privy Council at Carlton House.” It is worth remarking as indicating the manner and customs at the latter end of the last century that in the Order of 29th May, 1761, already quoted, twenty partizans were ordered of a lesser size than usual for the use of the Yeomen of the Guard attending the royal chairs. Of these new weapons sixteen were to be kept at St. James’s and four at Leicester House. The sedan chairs were carried by the royal footmen, and two Yeomen walked before, two behind, and one on each side of the chair.
ROYAL FUNERALS
“8th November, 1765. – On Friday night, the 8th of November, 1765 the body and urn of his late Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland were conveyed from Grosvenor Square to the Princes’ Chamber in the House of Lords, in a hearse drawn by six white horses adorned with white feathers. The next evening at ten o’clock a sky rocket was fired from Westminster Bridge as a signal that the funeral had begun, and being answered by a similar signal from London Bridge the minute-guns began to be fired and were continued till another rocket proclaimed the end of the ceremony. The body was carried to the Abbey by fourteen of the Yeomen of the Guard.”
At the funeral of Princess Amelia, 13th November, 1810, the board and lodging for nine Yeomen for one night at the White Hart, Windsor, was allowed for at £6 8s, and the Lord Chamberlain paid coach hire to and from Windsor, £7 14s and gave each man a gratuity of two guineas.
31st March, 1813 – At the funeral of the Duchess of Brunswick twelve Yeomen attended. They got to Windsor at one o’clock attended the ceremony in the evening, and returned at nine the next morning. Their bill at the Swan was £10 16s 6d, Coach hire, £8 17s 6d, luncheon on road, £2 1s 6d, gratuity to coachman, two guineas. When the men were paid each of the ten bearers had a white napkin presented to him.
On the death of the Duke of Kent, which took place on 23rd January, 1820, the funeral was conducted with all the formalities usual at a royal funeral, the procession being closed by the Yeomen of the Guard in mourning and carrying their partizans reversed.
DEATH OF THE KING
The health of the King began to decline with the close of the year 1819, and on New Year’s Day, 1820, the Yeomen had to mount guard over a bulletin which was evidently intended to prepare the people for a change for the worse. This change came, and the King died on 29th January. 1820. The Yeomen were on duty at the lying in state, which took place at Windsor during two days. At the funeral the body was placed on a “mechanical bier” which was covered with a rich pall, which also entirely concealed the six Yeomen of the Guard who propelled the bier. In the official programme of the ceremony it is stated that ten Yeomen of the Guard carried the coffin from the door of the chapel to the vault, and the rest of them marching with partizans reversed brought up the rear of the procession.
GEORGE IV
1820 to 1830
ROGER MONK ESQUIRE
EXON OF HIS MAJESTY’S YEOMEN OF THE GUARD,
ON DUTY AT THE CORONATION OF
HIS MAJESTY GEORGE IV
HE BEQUEATHED £20 PER ANNUM FOR A
DINNER TO THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD ON THE
REIGNING MONARCH’S BIRTHDAY
Tradition says that the uniform cost over £300. It was the last one made of that pattern for the officers, it being much too costly and the occasions for wearing it were so few and far between. The abandonment of this handsome and most picturesque uniform is much to be regretted, for the present substitute has nothing to recommend it, not even antiquity.
Roger Monk is buried in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey, where a marble tablet on the wall and a grave-stone on the pathway mark his resting-place.
FUNERAL OF GEORGE IV
On the death of George IV, at Windsor the body lay in state in the great Drawing Room in Windsor Castle, attended by one of the Lords of His Majesty’s Bedchamber, two Grooms, two Officers of Arms, four Gentlemen Ushers, six Gentlemen Pensioners, and eight of the Yeomen of the Guard. They were in attendance from ten o’clock on the 14th July, 1830 till nine o’clock of the evening of the next day when the funeral took place. The State Apartment, the guard Chamber, the Presence Chamber, and great staircase, were hung with black cloth and lined by Gentlemen Pensioners and Yeomen of the Guard.
At the funeral the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard attended, walking by the side of the Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners, and immediately before the Groom of the Stole. After the coffin, and next to the Royal Princes, came the Gentlemen Pensioners with their axes reversed and then the Yeomen of the Guard with their partizans reversed, the official programme says nothing about the Guards carrying the body to the grave.
WILLIAM IV
1830 to 1837
PURCHASE OF APPOINTMENTS ABOLISHED
The letter to the Captain was as follows: - 4 April, 1835. - “I am commanded by the Lord Chamberlain to acquaint your Lordship that, in consequence of His Majesty’s directions that the sale and purchase of the various situation under the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard should cease at the earliest moment, and all fees heretofore paid on appointments to the Captain, the Clerk of the Cheque, and the Captain’s Secretary, be put an end to:- “The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury have directed that the following arrangement shall commence and take effect from the 1st of January last, as it regards the salaries and allowances paid in this department of the Corps of the Yeomen of the Guard. “The salary of the Captain is fixed at £1,200 per annum, the salary of the Clerk of the Cheque at £120 per annum, and any fee which may have been received since the 1st of January last by the Captain or Clerk of the Cheque is to be returned to the parties. The salaries of the several Yeomen who may have been appointed without purchase under the arrangement now in force, by which such appointments are made without payment of any fee to the Captain, are to reduced from the 1st of January last to £31 per annum, and none of such persons are to receive the annual allowance of £8 in lieu of old clothing, the Lords Commissioners considering that the persons alluded to being appointed with out payment of any fee, have no claim whatever to such allowance.
APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS
The King also decreed that in future “the Officers shall be named by the King, who will reserve to himself exclusively the selection of the most proper persons as vacancies occur from lists kept by the Commander-in-Chief, who will be responsible to the King for the past conduct and merit of those who may be recommended.” Another order states that no officer on full pay shall be eligible to hold a commission in his Majesty’s Yeomen of the Guard. An entry in the Order Book shows that in the reign of William IV. (1835) the price of a Commission as Exon was £3,500. On 1st May, 1837, an order relating to Drawing Rooms directs that the Officers to attend shall be the Captain, the Lieutenant, the Ensign, and an Exon. In March, 1831, an order was given for scarlet breeches for the Yeomen, and in April, 1834, the Officers were ordered to wear white trousers.
THE STANDARD HEIGHT
On 9th December, 1835 an order was issued directing that the height of 5 feet 10 inches (which was the lowest standard for applicants for admission to the Corps) was to be dispensed with, it being stated that the chief object of the King was to obtain non-commissioned officers of good character and meritorious services, but too short stature was to be avoided. On 30th April, 1837, King William IV, had all the Yeomen of the Guard who had been non-commissioned officers in the army and appointed under the new regulations paraded in full dress at St. James’s Palace, and after inspecting them expressed his entire satisfaction. Very soon after his Majesty was taken ill with a mortal sickens, and the Yeomen were on special duty at the Palace, while the anxious populace march through the room in which the bulletins of the state of the King’s heath were posted from time to time. Amongst the notable Yeomen of this reign must be included John Wilkinson, who died on 6th August, 1833, aged 82. He had been in the Guard over forty-five years, during the latter part of the time he was Deputy Clerk of the Cheque. By his abstemiousness and thrift he was able to bequeath legacies of the value of £30,000, and left the residue, amounting to about £40,000, to trustees to be given away annually in sums of £10 or £15 to poor people of good character.
WHOM GOD PRESERVE!
BEGAN TO REIGN 20TH JUNE, 1837
PRESENTED
BY THE CAPTIAN
THE EARL of ILCHESTER,
TO THE CORPS
ON THE OCCASION OF THE CORONATION OF
HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA
28TH JUNE, 1838
The legend on the outer rim runs thus - The Seal of the Yeomen of the Guard. And in the centre is a shield with the Royal Arms surmounted by the Crown, with the date 1485, the whole being encircled by the Garter with the motto, “Honi soit (qui) mal y pense”
By an order of the Queen in Council, dated 19th July, 1837, the ancient liberties, right, privileges, and exemptions were confirmed to the servants of the Royal Household, the Yeomen of the Guard being included in the denomination of “servants in ordinary with fee,” and as being under the command of the Lord Chamberlain of Her Majesty’s Household. as “servants above stairs.” Besides the occasions before mentioned and the Drawing Rooms and Levees, there have been numerous memorable ceremonials connected with the royal family at which it has been customary for the Guard to be on duty, such a births, christenings, confirmations, marriages, and funerals, about which there has been nothing specially noticeable, except perhaps the marriage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES
Concerning this happy event it appears from the official programme, published in the Gazette, 18th March, 1863, that “at the wedding of the Prince of Wales the Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms, the Lord Foley, walked on the right, and the Earl of Ducie, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, on the left of the Gold Stick. Field-Marshal the Viscount Combermere, in the procession of the royal family and the Queen’s Household. The procession was brought up by six Yeomen of the Guard, under the command of their Officers, the Lieutenant, the Ensign, the Clerk of the Cheque, and the Exon-in-Waiting.”
A guard of ten men of the Yeomen of the Guard was also stationed at Windsor Castle. It may be mentioned that the Countess of Ducie, the wife of the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, attended the wedding, as did, indeed, all “Her Majesty’s Household, with their husbands and wives respectively.”
STATE ENTERTAINMENTS
12th May, 1842 – The Queen gave a Bal Masque at Buckingham Palace, when fifty-five of the Guard and the usual Officers attended. The Yeomen were dispersed over the public rooms, and by command of the Queen the Captain appeared in the costume of and represented his lordship’s ancestor, Lord Percy, Lord Warden of the Marches who in 1346 commanded at the battle of Nevill’s Cross when David, King of Scotland, was made prisoner. The costume consisted of chain armour, over which was a surcoat with the family arms of Brabant and Percy emblazoned thereon, and a baton and cap of honour. The other Officers wore their usual uniforms. At the Bal Costume at Buckingham Palace on 13th June, 1851, the Captain and other Officers appeared in the Costume of the Officers of the Corps in the reign of Charles II.
10th December, 1850 – Her Majesty receive addresses on the Throne at Windsor Castle this day from the City of London and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Thirty of the Guard were on duty under the command of the Exon in waiting. They lined the little Guard Chamber the Grand Staircase, and Vestibule. The Lieutenant and Adjutant were also on duty. After the Addresses were presented the Yeomen dined at the New Inn, and then returned to London. Whenever the Guard go to Windsor their partizans and uniforms are taken down under the charge of the Wardrobe Keeper, who takes them to the New Inn, where the proprietor sets apart the dressing-room and other necessary rooms for the exclusive use of the Yeomen.
Pegge, writing in 1783, says that “the Yeomen of the Guard receive Christmas boxes from the nobility, Foreign Ministers for giving them the honours of the Guard Chamber, commonly called ‘Stand-by’ as they pass up the stairs to the Presence Chamber.”
9th August, 1845. – Under this date the Corps Order Book has an entry stating that the Yeomen of the Guard, attending an Investiture or Installation of a Knight of the Garter, were entitled to a fee of £6 6s but by an oversight it had not been claimed for many years past, the Clerk of the Cheque, therefore, applied on behalf of the Corps to Garter King at Arms and recovered £88 4s and divided the same amongst the Yeomen of the Guard.
THE FEE FUND
These and all personal fees theretofore received by members of Her Majesty’s Household were abolished by an Order under the Royal sign manual as from 5th April, 1851. And by Order of 28th May, 1851, a Fee Fund was established to which all fees were added, and at stated periods, usually at Christmas time, they were equitably divided.
10th March, 1848 – In anticipation of the Chartist riots there was an order made to divide the Corps into eight sections, and the Usher and Sergeant-Major of each division was ordered to drill the men in the use of firearms until they are reported fit for duty. The Chartist demonstrations took place on 10th April and 12th June, 1848, when the Guard were all on duty and were armed like the Line regiments with muskets fitted with bayonets. The Captain, the Marquis of Donegal, had a minute made in the Orderly Book notifying that the Secretary of state, Sir George Grey, had thanked the Captain for the alacrity with which the Corps had been armed and prepared to do good service had such necessary.
INSPECTION PARADES
The order for the annual inspection in the year 1840 was as follows:-
“Officers and men assembled at St. James’s Palace at noon, and after being formed into Divisions, headed by their respective Ushers, they were marched by the Clerk of the Cheque into the Presence Chamber, the King’s guard Chamber, the Queen’s Guard Chamber, and the Outree Gallery, where, after the Cheque Roll had been called over, they received their Captain, the Earl of Ilchester, and were then inspected by this lordship and dismissed.”
Now the Annual Inspection takes place in June on the lawn in the garden of St. James’s Palace. The Captain is generally the Inspecting Officer, but there have been some notable exceptions during the past twenty years, as will be seen from the following table:-
NOTABLE ANNUAL INSPECTIONS
H.R.H The Prince of Wales 29 June 1869.
H.R.H The Duke of Cambridge 28 June 1870.
H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh 9 June 1874.
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales 22 June 1875.
H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught 20 June 1876.
H.R.H. The Crown Prince of Sweden 17 June 1879.
Sir Garnet Wolseley 15 June 1880
This year (1885) the annual inspection took place on Tuesday 23rd June and being the four hundredth anniversary year would have been made more of than usual. But it unfortunately happened that there was a change of Ministry in progress, and it was doubtful whether there would be any Captain at the inspection. However, the Corps assembled in the Guard Room at St. James’s Palace, and at one o’clock marched to the lawn, the men were in full dress and carrying their partizans. They were formed up in two lines with the Sergeant-Majors on the flanks carrying their batons or walking-sticks. The Officers – all of whom were present took post in front, the ranks were opened, and the Captain, Lord Monson, having been saluted, made a close inspection of each man. The ranks were then closed up, and the flanks wheeled inwards so as to form three sides of a square, with the Officers in the centre, The Captain then addressed a very few words to the men. Line was re-formed; the men were faced to the right and dismissed. Ensign the Hon. W. J. Colville then selected some men to be photographed, and the spectators were afforded the usual privilege of inspecting the State Apartments.
The Court Newman furnished the daily newspapers with the following official accountant:-
“The annual inspection of Her Majesty’s Body Guard of Yeomen of the Guard took place yesterday in the garden of St. James’s Palace. The inspection was made by Lord Monson, the Captain, and the following Officers were present with the Corps:- Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Arthur Need (the Lieutenant), Colonel the Hon, W,.J. Colville (the Ensign), Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, Captain Morley, Colonel H. Hume, C.B., and Major Ellison (the Exons), and Lieutenant-Colonel F. Baring (the Adjutant and Clerk of the Cheque).” On 24th June, 1861, an important order was issued by direction of her Majesty by which the purchase of Officer’s commissions was stopped, and certain other arrangements relating solely to the Officers were made. They are given at length in the Introduction to this history in the chapter on Officers.
THE STANDARD HEIGHT
In 1849 there was an order issued directing that in future every man in the Corps must be at least 5 feet 10 inches in height and under fifty years of age, but three years later (1852) this order as regards height was dispensed with where there was record of “distinguished service before the enemy.” So that shortness of stature is now a special mark of merit. There is a story told (names being omitted) that great influence was on one occasion brought to bear upon the Sovereign to get a nomination for a certain non-commissioned officer who had served his country well, and his name was accordingly sent to the Horse Guards. On being measured however the applicant was found to be only 5 feet 9 ½ inches in height, and the Commander-in-Chief declined to break the regulation which required a standard height of at least 5 feet 10 inches. It was not till the rule had been altered that the Duke of Wellington would recommend the man as being qualified to fill the post of Yeoman of the Guard.
2nd February, 1883 – The Royal Bounty in the shape of a pension of £40 per annum, was granted to the widow of the late Thomas Davis, late Assistant Adjutant of the Yeomen of the Guard. There is very little to be said on the subject of uniform during this reign. The admiration for the picturesque old dress has certainly not diminished, as may be judged by the universal indignation which was expressed on the erroneous announcement that the old uniform was to be discarded. This is treated of fully in the account of the Tower Wardens. It only remains necessary to record here that on 31st January. 1843, a General Order was made that “Ruffs and Rosettes be worn by the Yeomen of the Guard when on duty.”
5th November, 1862 – An application was made by an ex-sergeant of the 49th Foot, who purchased his discharge after seven year’s service in the army, including the Crimean War, to be placed on the list of candidates for appointment as Yeoman of the Guard. Hereupon the question arose whether the man, not being a pensioner, was eligible. After considering the matter, the Lord Chamberlain informed H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief that there is no record of any rule which disqualifies from appointment as Yeoman of the Guard any deserving man who has been a non-commissioned officer in the army and (having purchased his discharge) is no longer a pensioner.
SEARCHING FOR GUY FAUX
THE PRESENT GUARD
The salaries of the Guard now are – Messengers, £75 per annum; Serjeant-Majors, £60; and Private, £50. As will be seen from the Muster Roll printed on a previous page, there are now only two men in the Corps who joined before 1835, and they were never in the army. They have for a long time been exempt from duty and are super-annuated. This chapter may be appropriately closed with the following copy of a Certificate of Appointment, which has been in use in the Corps for many years. Its quaint phraseology is amusing, especially the part that suggests that Church-Warden is a servile officer. It is printed on foolscap paper, with blanks for the names:-
CERTIFICATE OF APPOINTMENT
“THESE ARE TO CERTIFY to all to whom it may concern that the Bearer hereof { (A.B.) }, late Sergeant-Major of { }, is this day sworn one of the Yeomen in Ordinary of Her Majesty’s Guard of her Body, by virtue of a Warrant to me directed, from the Right Honorable, { }, Captain of the said Guard, bearing date the [ ], by virtue of which Place the said {A.B.} is to enjoy all such Benefits, Perquisites, and Advantages as to all others of Her Majesty’s said Guard do now belong (that is to say); His Person not to be arrested nor detained, without Leave from the Lord Chamberlain of Her Majesty’s Household, or the Captain of the said Guard, first had and obtained; he is not to bear any servile Office, as Churchwarden, Constable, or the like; nor to serve on Juries or Inquests, nor to Watch or Ward, with divers other Privileges thereunto belonging.
“IN THE TESTIMONY WHEREOF I, [ ], Adjutant of the said Guard, have hereunto set my Hand and Seal this { }, in the Forty-ninth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland queen, Defender of the Faith, etc, etc; and in the Year of or Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-Five.
(Signed) “FRANICS BARING,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Adjutant”
Viscount Barrington
Captain 29 June 1885
Webmasters Note: The book ends with a list of Captains and Clerks of the Cheque between 1485-1885.