The Loyal Ongar Hundred Volunteers

In March 1794 parliament responding to the invasion threat posed by revolutionary France passed an act that called upon ‘gentlemen of weight or property’ throughout the realm to initiate local defence plans that included the establishment of volunteer military formations.

The Volunteer Corps typically drew its members from the propertied classes. Officers were usually members of the gentry (though some junior officers were members of the professional or middle classes) and the enlisted ranks tended to be from the lower middle classes (for example shopkeepers and publicans).

Lord Hobart, who had succeeded Dundas as Secretary of War, considered the yeomanry cavalry a very useful force but was less convinced about the volunteer infantry who he considered were “by no means so well composed or regulated”.

The Loyal Ongar Volunteers were raised in 1798 – 1801 as one company under the command of a Captain Dyer and lieutenant Turner. The infantry volunteers (but not the Yeomanry or artillery) were disbanded at the Peace of Amiens in 1802.

By late 1803 more than 100,000 enemy troops were stationed on the northern coast of France, and by the spring of 1804 up to 2,000 invasion craft were believed to have assembled in French channel ports for planned landings in Kent and Sussex – no wonder that home defence dominated British military strategy throughout 1803 and 1804.

The Loyal Ongar Hundred Volunteers were re-raised in 1803 as a six-company unit consisting of some 400 men, when Napoleon’s planned invasion became a serious threat.

The Loyal Volunteers were, in effect, the Territorial Army of their day. The members were men who were ready and willing to fight for their country should the need arise. They met regularly and practised their rifle skills with regular competitions. Many local men of all classes of society were members.

Button of the Loyal Ongar Hundred
Volunteers

The Ongar Hundred consisted of the following parishes:
Abbess Roding; Beauchamp Roding; Bobbingworth; Buckhurst Hill; Chigwell; Chipping Ongar;, Fyfield; Greensted; High Laver, High Ongar; Kelvedon Hatch; Lambourne; Little Laver; Loughton; Magdalen Laver; Moreton; Navestock; North Weald Bassett; Norton Mandeville; Shelley; Stanford Rivers; Stapleford Abbots; Stapleford Tawney; Stondon Massey; Theydon Bois; Theydon Garnon; and Theydon Mount
Promotions and changes of personnel in the LOHV were reported in the London Gazette and these show that there was a steady movement of officers.

The London Gazette 4th October 1803.

Craven Ord, appointed Lt. Colonel-Commandant.

To be Captains
Thomas Smyth, Esq.
John Wright, Esq.
John Mauby, Esq.
John Hughes, Esq.
John Le-Gros, Esq.

To be Lieutenants
Charles Tower, Gent
Henry James Henley, Gent
William Haldane Burton, Gent

To be Ensign
John Potter, Gent

London Gazette dated 29th November 1803.

John Owen appointed Major, with Harry Darby as Captain.

To be Lieutenants:
Nathaniel Micklethwaite
John Hawes, Gent
Samuel Wyld.

To be Ensigns
William Jones, Gent
William Walby, Gent
John Taylor, Gent
William Bellamy Risdon, Gent.

London Gazette 15th December 1803.

Robert Sutton, Esq; to be Captain
John Burrell Haigeley, to be Lieutenant.

London Gazette 7th January 1804.

Lieutenant Samuel Wild to be promoted Captain in place of Smyth who had resigned. Ensign Risdon to be Lieutenant in place of Wild.

London Gazette 20th March 1804
Captain John Wright to be Major on resignation of Owen

London Gazette 17th April 1804.

John Rutherford Abdy, Esq; to be Lieutenant-Colonel, Commandant on the resignation of Ord.

London Gazette 19th May 1804.

Major John Wright to be Lieutenant Colonel- Commandant upon the resignation of Abdy.
Captain John Hughes to be Major.
Lieutenant Charles Tower to be Captain upon the resignation of Manby.

London Gazette 7th July 1804.

Lieutenant Henry James Henly to be Captain (dated 31st May).
Ensign John Potter to be Lieutenant (dated as above)
William Ellson to be Ensign (dated as above).

London Gazette 24th July 1804

Lieutenant William Holdane Barton to be Captain. (Dated 4th July)
Thomas John Hopkins, Gent, to be Second Lieutenant.

London Gazette 22nd September 1804

John Gough, Gent, to be Lieutenant (dated 19th August)
Thomas Simpson, Gent, to be Ensign (dated as above)
Captain John Boutell from the East Essex Regiment of Militia to be Adjutant (dated 25th May)
John Potter, Gent, to be Surgeon (dated 6th August).

London Gazette 15th December 1804.

Lieutenant John Goff to be Captain upon the resignation of Weld.
Ensign John Taylor to be Lieutenant.

London Gazette 15th February 1805

Lieutenant John Hawes to be Captain on resignation of Darby (dated 14th January).

London Gazette 11th May 1805.

James Bennett, Gent, to be Lieutenant (dated 7th March).

London Gazette 30th May 1807

Major John Hughes to be Lieutenant Colonel – Commandant on the resignation of Wright (dated 5th May)
Captain William Le-Gros to be Major (dated as above)
Lieutenant James Bennett to be Captain (dated as above).

London Gazette 8th July 1805

Charles Naylor to be Captain on the resignation of Goff (dated 1st June).

London Gazette 29th August 1807

Daniel Wright, Esq; to be Captain on the promotion of Le-Gros Dated 5th August).

To be Lieutenants
Frederick Heathfield, on the promotion of Hawes (dated as above)
Ensign Thomas Simpson (dated 6th August).

London Gazette 19th September 1807.

Commission in the Loyal Ongar Hundred Volunteers, signed by the Lord Lieutenant of Essex,

John Ogle, Gent, to be Adjutant (dated 27th August).

London Gazette 24th October 1807

Lieutenant John Potter to be Captain on the resignation of Tower (dated 13th October)
William Darby, Gent, to be Lieutenant on promotion of Potter (dated as above)
Richard Noble, Gent to be Lieutenant on promotion of Bennett (dated 14th October).
William Eve, Gent, to be Lieutenant on the resignation of Michlethwayte (dated 15th October).
John Jones, Gent, to be Lieutenant on the resignation of Risdon (dated 16th October).
William Wright, Gent, to be Ensign, on the resignation of Ellson (dated 13th October).

London Gazette 14th June 1808

John Sieveright, Esq; to be Captain (dated 31st May).
John Wilkin, Esq; to be Captain (dated 1st June)
William Snow, Gent, to be Ensign (dated 31st May0.

In 1805 the London Gazette reported that Lieutenant John Hawes to be appointed Captain in place of Darby who had resigned.