South Staffordshire Regiments

Summary. Staffordshire regiments formed early 17th-century fought in sieges at Eccleshall Castle and Lichfield Close. A regiment of foot was raised in Lichfield in 1793. There is a long list of engagements with Staffordshire and later Mercian regiments.

 Earliest militia

          Colonel John Bowyer of Knypersley, near Biddulph, commanded a regiment of foot and two troops of horse in 1648. He fought for the Parliamentarians involved in the destruction of Eccleshall Castle, home to the Bishop of Lichfield. Colonel Bagot of Blithfield Hall, near Uttoxeter, raised a troop of horse and fought for the Royalist cause including defending the fortress-cathedral at Lichfield, see the post, ‘Fortress cathedral – 1640.’

          In 1793, a volunteer yeomanry cavalry was formed at the Swan Hotel in Stafford. It had five divisions and the Lichfield division was commanded by Major Francis Perceval Eliot. By 1798, Eliot became colonel of the Staffordshire Yeomanry Infantry. He took command of the Third Staffordshire Militia, disbanded a year later.

 

38th Regiment of Foot

A Regiment of Foot was raised by Colonel Luke Lillingston[1] at Lichfield on 26 March, 1705. The enlistment occurred at the King’s Head coaching inn in Bird Street.

Plaque on the wall of the King’s Head pub.

        

Its first posting was Ireland and then in 1707 was sent to the West Indies, but without Lillingston. In 1708, Lillingston was promoted and ordered to join his regiment, but he refused, and consequently was dismissed. The Regiment was given to his second-in-command which now became the James Jones's Regiment of Foot. It served in the West Indies, mostly Antigua, for 57 years; this was the longest posting of any Regiment. It was grossly neglected, unpaid and virtually forgotten. It became the first regiment to create a tropical uniform; it had to improvise since the regiment was neglected.  In 1751, it was renamed the 38th Regiment of Foot.[2] 

AI gen. recruiting in Lichfield 1751.
                                                                         Badge of the 38th Regiment

The regiment returned in 1764 and was then posted to Boston, Massachusetts in 1774. It fought throughout the  American War of Independence, 1775-83, most notably at Bunker Hill 1775, and Brandywine 1777, with heavy losses. In 1782/3 it was renamed the 38th Regiment of Foot (1st Staffordshire). 

                     Soldier of the 38th Regiment of Foot   

AI rendition of a 38th Regiment of Foot (1st Staffordshire) soldier.

On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, 1793-1802, the main body of the regiment was sent to Flanders. In 1796, the whole regiment was again in the West Indies helping to capture Martinique. The regiment went on to help take St Lucia 1796, and Trinidad 1797. In 1805, it helped capture the Cape in South Africa 1805, and then fought, 1806, in South America at Montevideo and Buenos Aires.​​​​ In 1808, it fought at Roliça (formerly Roleia) and Vimeiro in Portugal in the Peninsular War, 1808-14, before joining the retreat to Corunna, Spain. In 1812, the regiment returned to the Iberian Peninsula to fight at Salamanca 1812, Vitoria, near Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1813, San Sebastián 1813, Nivelle 1813, the Nive 1813, Orthes 1814, Toulouse 1814, and Bayonne 1814. Ten battle honours were won in the Peninsular War.[3]

They arrived too late to fight at Waterloo, 1815, but helped in the occupation of Paris. In 1818, the regiment was sent to South Africa to fight in the 5th Cape Frontier War, 1818-19. Four years later they were in India and Burma, experiencing poor conditions with much disease.

38th Regiment Colours 1826–1839

 

From 1840, the regiment was in the eastern Mediterranean and then over the next eight years in Gibraltar, Jamaica and Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1854, the 38th sailed for the Crimean War,1854-56, fighting at the Alma 1854, Inkerman 1854, and Sevastopol 1854-55. They experienced much discomfort not being equipped for a winter campaign. The 38th was then sent to India during the Mutiny,1857-59, and took part in the capture of Lucknow in 1858 and then stayed in India until 1872.

 
Monument to Major William Hodson when he captured the King of Delhi, shown handing over his sword. Hodson later killed the family of the king and gained the reputation of being a bigoted murderer. He died in the siege and capture of Lucknow. He was the son of an archdeacon of Stafford and Canon at Lichfield. The monument has contested history and is a Victorian product of celebrating heroes no matter their wrongdoing. It is a fine piece of sculpture, but has a very dark side.

 

80th Regiment of Foot[4]

          This regiment was raised 9 December 1793 in Lichfield, enlistment again being at the King’s Head, by the 25 year old Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.[5]  Paget became the regiment’s Lieutenant-Colonel, despite having little military experience. It was in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution.[6] The regiment was largely recruited from the Staffordshire Militia[7] and comprised of men living on Paget’s estates. The 700 men wore red tunics, blue trousers with yellow facings, collars and cuffs.

It was sent to garrison Guernsey and then fight in the dreadful Flander’s campaign. Many died in the harsh conditions and in 1795 around half of the regiment returned. In 1796, it was sent to assist in the seizure of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch and a year later, 1801, to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

AI rendition of a 80th Regiment of Foot soldier.                                                               
                                   Badge of the 80th Regiment

 

In 1801, the regiment left Ceylon and joined General Abercromby’s expedition to recover Egypt from France. It won a sphinx in its cap badge for the campaign.

                                             Sphinx badge

Monument to the 80th Regiment who ejected Napoleon from Egypt.

 

 In 1802, the regiment absorbed the Staffordshire Volunteers. From Egypt it went to India fighting in the Second Maratha War, 1803-05, and against the Nairs of Wynaud and the Travancore rebellion, 1808. From 1821, the regiment was in Gibraltar and Malta for ten years. Between 1831 and 1845 the regiment was in England and Ireland, before escorting convict ships sailing to Australia, and garrisoning Norfolk Island and New Zealand. In 1845, it sailed for India again fighting at Moodkee and Ferozeshah in 1845, and Sobraon in 1846 in the First Sikh War, 1845-46. There were heavy losses.

                                                                 Memorial to the men fighting in the Sutlej Campaign or First Sikh War.

 The regiment was heavily involved in the Second Burma War, 1852, participating in the storming of Rangoon, Pegu and Prome, Myanmar. The regiment returned to India on the outbreak of the Mutiny, 1857-59, taking part in the Central India Campaign. Warfare involved long marches in intense heat. This new Indian posting lasted until 1866 and involved service during the Bhutan War,1864-65. In 1872, the regiment was sent to the Far East to garrison Singapore and Hong Kong. In 1877, it moved to Natal, fighting in the Ninth Cape Frontier War, 1877-79 and then the Zulu War, 1879, including the battles at Myers Drift, Isandlwana and Ulundi (1879). The regiment’s first V. C. was won at the battle of Isandlwana. A second was won shortly afterwards at Ntombi River, 1879.

Zulu shield shapes with the names of 88 soldiers killed in the three battles. The barrier has representations of assegais, type of spear or javelin with an iron tip. Such a monument within the cathedral has been contested.

 

In 1880, Whittington Barracks was built. In 1881, in Malta, the 38th and 80th regiments were amalgamated to become the South Staffordshire Regiment. The 38th was the 1st battalion of the regiment and the 80th was the second battalion.

Memorial to the soldiers who fell in the South African (Second Boer) War, 1899–1902.

 

In 1948, the two battalions fully joined and in 1959 joined with the North Staffordshire Regiment to become The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales’s).      In 2007, it became part of the Mercian Regiment.

                                                                                                          Cap badge of the Staffordshire Regiment

[1] Lillingston, Lillingstone or Lillingstein, 1643–1713, accompanied William Orange to England in 1688. The regiment formed in Lichfield was the third Foot Regiment to bear the name of Lillingston. The first was a takeover of another regiment in 1692 and was then disbanded in 1694.The second was raised in the West Indies in 1694, but was disbanded in 1696 or 1697. Lillingston was forced to sell his estate at North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, and was also married twice.

[2] Foot regiments wore scarlet tunic uniforms with different coloured collar and cuffs; those of the 38th and 80th regiments were yellow. The 38th were nicknamed the Pump and Tortoise from their extreme sobriety and the slow way they set about their work when stationed at Malta. The 80th were nicknamed the Staffordshire Knots. The Staffordshire Knot does not appear until the 15th-century, though similar symbols have been found on Anglo-Saxon artefacts.

[3] D. Cooper, The Staffordshire Regiments: Imperial, Regular and Volunteer, 1705–1919. ‘Knotted together’. (Churnet Valley: 2003), 24.

[4] See https://staffs80.weebly.com/history.html There had been two previous 80th regiments.

[5] He first became a lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of Foot, 1795, then captain in the 23rd Regiment of Foot, 1795, then to major in the 65th Regiment of Foot,1795 and finally lieutenant-colonel in the 80th Regiment of Foot on 30 May 1795. One month later he left the Regiment and became a colonel of the Light Dragoons.

[6] On the outbreak of war with revolutionary France in 1793, most counties raised militias. It has been estimated 30,000 men enlisted between 1793 and 94.

[7] Paget was commissioned Colonel of the newly-raised Staffordshire Militia on 22 April 1776 during the War of American Independence.

 

  

Bishop Walter Langton - local benefactor

Summary. . Bishop Walter de Langton, treasurer of England, 1295-1307, paid for considerable enhancement of the cathedral and The Close including building a bishop’s palace, arranging a sumptuous shrine for St Chad and attaching a Lady Chapel to the east end.

     Walter de Langton, 1243–1321, was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (and nominally Chester), for 25 years, 1296–1321. He was a considerable benefactor to the cathedral and oversaw much of its construction. Harwood called Langton another founder of this church.[1]

          It has been stated he was born in West Langton[2] or Church Langton, Leicestershire, but it could have been in any of the five Langton villages.[3] Langton named himself as the son and heir of Simon Peverel,[4] whose family ruled from Peveril Castle in Derbyshire. The Peverels had family links to lords of Dudley and Tutbury. Walter could therefore qualify as a ‘local’. Copies of charters state his paternity.[5] Early on he owned land in the area and essentially was a local man. There were past members of the family in the church. An uncle became Dean of York in 1262 and was elected to be archbishop in 1265 only to be quashed by the pope. There was possible kinship between John Langton, the chancellor and bishop of Chichester with Walter.

AI gen, of Walter Langton based on his statue from the third row on the right of the west front of the cathedral. He appears to be holding a model of the Lady Chapel.

 

          Langton became a clerk of the wardrobe, 1281–2 in Edward I’s royal chancery. He was in Gascony with the king in 1286 and 1289. In 1290 he was made Bishop of Ely and keeper of the wardrobe. In that position he was responsible for improving the wardrobe's methods of accounting for its expenditure and receipts. During this time, he obtained many ecclesiastical preferment's, bringing him wealth. At some time during his early career Langton was clerk to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells and the treasurer of the exchequer and this must have brought him close to the office of treasurer. In 1292, he was made the temporary treasurer before John Langton's appointment.[6] In September 1295, he became treasurer of the exchequer and retained it until 22 August 1307. A year after becoming treasurer, 1296, he was made Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.[7] He arranged for his enthronement to take place at Coventry on 4 January and at Lichfield on 11 January 1299. According to letters in his register this was the first time in his episcopate that Langton visited his diocese. He stayed at Coventry until at least 6 January and was at Lichfield on 8 January, remaining there until the day after his enthronement.  

          

AI rendition of Edward I based on a statue from the second row of the west front of the cathedral. He is holding a poisoned arrow said to have wounded him from an attempted assassination on his holy crusade in 1272. His Queen Eleanor sucked the poison from his wound. There are variations of this story with Edward wounded with a poisoned dagger. It needs reminding that Edward was a murderous king of the Welsh, Scots and Jews in order to hold a very large Angevin realm.

           It was his close associations to the king for which Langton is remembered. The Queen described him as 'the king's right eye.’[8]  He attended the marriage of Edward I to Margaret of France in September 1299, and on the following Saturday at Canterbury he celebrated Mass for the queen. In the years 1298-1300, he was an appointed keeper of the realm during Edward I's absence in Scotland. His devotion to Edward regardless of ecclesiastical considerations caused a rift with Archbishop Robert Winchelsey. He also became unpopular with some barons, and in 1301 they asked Edward to dismiss him with accusations of murder, adultery and simony.[9] He was suspended and went to Rome to be tried before Pope Boniface VIII. The Bishop of Lincoln and royal letters were sent to the Pope supporting Langton in his inquisition. The pope referred the case back to the archbishop and although Winchelsey possibly disliked him, some think the animosity was more targeted at Edward, and surprisingly he found Langton innocent. By 1303, he was reinstated. Paradoxically, Langton visited Pope Clement V for his consecration in 1305 and persuaded him to suspend Winchelsey. With Archbishop William Greenfield of York, Langton was appointed keeper of the realm during Edward I's absence in Scotland. He was not at Edward's death on 7 July 1307, but on accompanying his body to London he was arrested and imprisoned in The Tower. His lands and much of his considerable wealth were seized with the accusation of misappropriation and venality. Edward II had long held a grudge against Langton, but he may have been provoked by envy and financial necessity as well as personal enmity.[10] There has been an alternative narrative that Edward’s close friend, Piers Gaveston, demanded the arrest, but this is unlikely. An account in 1307 showed Langton held land in sixteen counties and probably six more.[11]

Drawing of Langton now lost in a window in the cathedral. Drawing from Stebbing Shaw. 1798.    

                            AI rendition of the window drawing.

          Langton was ordered to appear before a panel of justices to answer for trespass, misprision, losses inflicted on the king and many other wrongdoings. He was released in March 1309, pardoned in January 1312 and again became the treasurer. After Gaveston had been executed, Langton became a favourite of Edward II. Excommunicated by Winchelsey, he again appealed to the pope which was revoked on the archbishop’s death. He was a member of the royal council from this time until his dismissal at the request of parliament in 1315. In 1316 to 1317, he appeared again to be on the Council. In 1318, he was trying to retrieve a wealth of £20,000; he had obtained very many benefices and was owed much.[12] He died in November 1321 at his palace in The Strand, London, and was buried in Lichfield cathedral. . His sepulchre in white stone was not placed in the southeast corner of the choir aisle until 1360 when the presbytery alterations were completed. His defaced monument in Derbyshire marble rests in the south aisle of the cathedral choir. His executors spent decades securing the return of his wealth. He left land and houses in eleven counties, mostly in the Midlands and the East.

          It is clear Langton schemed unscrupulous financial dealings, was ruthless when embroiled in considerable litigation and very good at conniving to make personal gain. This was only possible with royal support and in return Langton was totally loyal to the crown.

AI rendition of Langton’s original monument that was in the 5th arch of the south choir aisle by the high altar. Line drawing, 18th-century, held in the National Portrait Gallery.   

Tomb slab from the south choir aisle. His tomb was plundered in the Civil War, 1643. Some believe this is the remains of Langton’s tomb, but it does not match entirely the line drawing opposite and a drawing held in the William Salt collection at Stafford.

 

There is a long list of gifts given by Langton to the cathedral.[13] He gave his vestments and books to the cathedral for use or sale. He paid for a chalice and two cruets of gold, silver plate, and a bejewelled gold cross worth £200 for the cathedral. He gave houses in exchange for service from the vicars choral and provided 20s. a year for their commons. He organised the building of the Lady Chapel and gave 904 marks in his will for its completion. It is not known how much was finally given to build the Lady Chapel. His store of money at Lichfield and Eccleshall was left in his will (value unknown) to be used for the completion of the building of the cathedral. He probably had a hand in reordering the great west window and the west towers which were being built in his time. The vaulted stone roofs of the transepts might have been reordered in his episcopacy.[14] Within the retroquire he paid £2120 for a shrine to be made in Paris to house the relics of Chad. Chantries at the altars of St. Mary and St. Nicholas were endowed and given pensions. Emulating Wells Cathedral, Langton built a stone wall 15 m high with battlements around the Close. It had two fortified gates, four large towers and a moat and ditch.[15] This fortification must have come immediately prior to the first use of cannon; 1324 in the siege of Metz, France, and possibly in 1327, when used in battle by the English against the Scots. Probably the wall had to be reinforced soon after the age of cannon began. He constructed a new palace on the east edge of the Close and adorned it with embellishments celebrating Edward I.

AI gen. reconstruction of the fortified cathedral occupied by the Royalists in 1643

 

Within the town he built causeways over the pool (Dam Street and Bird or Bridge Street) and obtained a licence to levy tolls on goods brought into the city for sale over a seven-year period and with the money provided pavement in the town and Close. He repaired his London house, and completely rebuilt his residences at Eccleshall Castle and Haywood, Shugborough.

AI rendition of the Bishop's Palace in Langtons time.

How effective was Walter Langton as a bishop?

The traditional view has been there is a little evidence he visited Lichfield and many of his episcopal mandates were made outside of the diocese. He had little time for the diocese[16] and left its organisation to archdeacons. For most of his time he was undertaking the king’s business and was often abroad. He has therefore been criticised for being distant, unspiritual, more administrator than churchman and even negligent.[17] His great gifts to the cathedral might be seen as offsetting his neglect.

Recent analysis has shown a very different narrative. Apart from a protracted dispute over the visitation of certain prebends, his relations with the cathedral were very good. When Langton was suspended by Boniface VIII the Dean and Chapter wrote to the Pope in his defence, testifying that he was a God-fearing man, devoted to his ministry and had performed notable services for the cathedral.[18] Copies of letters in his register reveal he was a conscientious bishop transacting diocesan business whenever possible. Whether through personal choice or prevailing custom, Langton only employed vicars-general when he went abroad and to cover two absences in England.[19] During Langton's two terms of imprisonment in 1307-8 and in 1311 he again remained in contact with his diocese and appointed a vicar-general only for the first occasion.[20] He personally conducted the majority of ordination services held all over the diocese; five were in the cathedral. Had he been neglectful he would have employed a suffragan bishop more frequently. He was in Lichfield from 27–30 May 1300. In January 1310, Langton absolved Richard Leghton from a sentence of excommunication in the consistory court at Lichfield. On 12 January 1319, he was recorded as visiting Farewell Priory and staying in Lichfield. On the 14th he passed through Lichfield again. His burial in the cathedral testifies to his loyalty and veneration of Chad. His tomb was probably totally destroyed in the Civil War and a stone effigy in the south choir aisle is unlikely to be of Langton.

In 2011, a list was made of the 250 richest people that had lived in Britain since 1066 and Langton was 53rd with a calculated wealth of £11.099 billion in today’s currency.[21] He owned land in at least eleven counties[22] and many houses, palaces and a castle.[23]

---

[1] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806). 10–1.

[2] T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain, (London: 1738), 233.

[3] Langton's mother, Amicia Peverel, was buried at Langton which suggests he could have been born in one of the Langton villages. He held three acres of land in Church Langton at his death and this may indicate his place of birth.

[4] Until recently, he was said to be of lowly birth and loosely connected with the Peverel family. See J. Blackwell Hughes, ‘The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, with a calendar of his register’, Unpub. thesis, University of Nottingham, 1992, 198.

[5] Langton granted land and the advowson of the church of Adlingfleet, Yorkshire, to Selby abbey in his family name. It is stated in his register for 1291–3.

[6] Not thought to be a close relative. Also with Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury.

[7] His consecration by Béraud de Got, cardinal-bishop of Albano, took place on 23 December 1296, at Cambrai, where he was engaged in peace negotiations with the papal nuncios. On his return he made his profession of obedience to the archbishop before the high altar at Canterbury.

[8] N. Denholm-Young, The liber epistolaris of Richard de Bury, (Roxburghe Club Oxford: 1950) 317. He was appointed the principal executor of the king’s will.

[9] The accusation was he was living in adultery with his stepmother and had murdered her husband. Another was communicating with the devil, which was witchcraft.

[10] A. Beardwood, ‘The trial of Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, 1307–1312’. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. (1964), 54, 3, 5.

[11] Ibid, 33.

[12] By 1295, before he became treasurer, it has been estimated his benefices gave him £1000 annually. See A. Hamilton Thompson, 'The College of St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, with some account of its Deans and Prebendaries', Archaeological Journal, (1927), 84, 68.

[13] Listed in the Chronicon Lichfeldense and copied in H, Warton, Anglia Sacra,I 423. Originally it was titled ‘The book of Alan de Assheborn, Vicar of Lichfield’ and dated in 1320s.

[14] J. Britton, The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1820) 28.

[15] It is possible the bishop employed Henry Ellerton, master of the king's works, as his master mason at Lichfield.

[16] See T. F. Tout, ‘Langton, Walter’. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 32. 130. The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield stretched south from the river Ribble in Lancashire to Edgehill in south-east Warwickshire, and from the western borders of the present county of Cheshire, including parts of the former counties of Flintshire and Denbighshire, to the boundary of the diocese of Lincoln. It had five archdeaconries; Chester, Coventry, Derby, Shrewsbury and Stafford.

[17] T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England, ii (Manchester, 1920) 16, 21.

[18] M. W. Greenslade and R. B. Pugh (eds.) 'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970), 140–166.

[19] J. Blackwell Hughes (1992), 268. See note 3.

[20] Ibid. 270.

[21] P. Beresford and W. D. Rubinstein, The richest of the rich. The wealthiest 250 people in Britain since 1066. (Petersfield: 2011), 117.

[22] Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem, Parliamentary Writs, I, 300.

[23] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i, (1691), 442 and 447.