Tag: Black soldiers in the British Army

New discoveries: Black soldiers in Edinburgh 1792-1848

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

New discoveries cause us to constantly revise our thoughts about history in general and Black British history in particular. More and more records are being digitised and made available online and these lead to new finds and deeper understanding.

Regular contributor, John D Ellis, recently stumbled across a set of data he had never seen before. Careful analysis of the Army attestation registers for Edinburgh, has enabled John to identify the names of over forty Black soldiers who enlisted in British Army regiments between 1792 and 1848 in the city of Edinburgh alone. John makes the point that if such a register was maintained in Edinburgh, similar registers must have been kept in other cities – where are they and what would they reveal about the Black presence in Britain?

We first became aware of John’s work when he spoke at an event we attended in Huddersfield in 2018, what he had to say about the presence of Black soldiers in the British Army in the late 18th and early 19th centuries opened our eyes to an area of black British history that we had been largely unaware of. Since then, our understanding of the Black presence, in terms of both numbers and geographical spread, has come on in leaps and bounds. Working on this site and becoming aware of the work of John, Audrey Dewjee, Ray Costello and many others has been an educational experience for us and, we hope, for you too.

You can read John’s article here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/black-soldiers-and-edinburgh-c-1792-1848/

The York Rangers, 1803 to 1805 – the making of an article

John Ellis’ latest article covers the short-lived existence of a ‘black’ regiment in the British Army, the York Rangers, that was operational from 1803 to 1805. In addition to telling the story of the regiment, John gives us an insight into his research methods.

The trigger that fired the ‘starting gun’ for John’s work was a comment he spotted in an August 1803 newspaper report (the on-going, rapid digitisation of old newspapers is a real boon for any historian), ‘Colonel Stevenson is raising, for the use of the West Indies, a Regiment of Lascars, Mulattoes &c’. The paper went on to comment that the Regiment might help tackle the problem of destitute black men on the streets of London who were in ‘the most deplorable and disgusting state of distress.’

John then identified that the ‘musters’ for the York Rangers (essentially the list of those on the payroll) were still in existence and could be viewed at the National Archives at Kew. Living in the north of England meant John would be unable to see the musters in person for some time but, for me, Kew is a short train journey  away. I was only too happy to help him out (I could happily spend every day of my life at Kew, it is a wonderful resource and completely free to use). In truth my role was that of a humble photographer, here is just one of the many photos I took:

Givins’ Troop

There were dozens of photos like this which gives you an idea of the challenge John faced. If you find it hard to read the names, trust me, the originals are little better!

These photos gave John the names of many black soldiers previously ‘lost’ to history, his next task was to cross-check the names against the various databases available on, principally,  Ancestry and findmypast – painstaking work which yielded some ‘hits’. Just how his work panned out can be seen here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/a-black-and-asian-british-regiment-the-york-rangers-a-regiment-of-lascars-mulattoes-c-c-1803-1805/

History is not set in stone, it moves on as our knowledge and understanding of the past grows. There is plenty more to be found out as my photos covered only a sample of the material and there are other names on other pages that, for now, remain hidden from view.