The New Romney Fencible Cavalry (Duke of York's Own) 1794 to 1800

P1..\TJ•: I King GEORGE and Old England . . EiglJ.t gy.t􀀆eas And One Guinea to the Bringer of a Recruit. His Majcfly having been pleafed to augment the New Romney Light Dragoons, c oTL 01 F-ti'tL0 bii°fitl N o, All High Spirited YOUNG MEN, Who arc delirous of /hewing their Attachment to their KING and COUNTRY, are invited to ferve in this rdpcclable Regiment, where every poffible Attention is paid to the Cc,mfort and Happinefs of the Dragoons, and where they will be hand. fomely clothed and mounted upon excellent Horfes. ThcGencrnl Order-. commjefiy's O«lcrs, enry SolJ,cr w,11 rccei,·c • Loaf of good llread, weighing 1,-.. Pounll, for Fl\·e•pcocc. whcrca􀈌 thc:y hil.VC. hitherto􀈍 Jt the prc(cnt 􀈎lark.d. Price, paid Eight•pcnce for,\ Lo􀈏I wt:ighing only four Poun in. :?1 in.) lfa,,· p. 11 THE NEW ROMNEY FENCIBLE CAVALRY (DUKE OF YORK'S OWN) 1794 to 1800 By CoLONEL E. A. c. FAZAN, M.C., T.D., D.L. The New Romney Fencible Cavalry served their six years of embodiment against the background of the war of the French Revolution and of the Irish Rebellion in 1798, the threat of which became the occasion for their serving in Ireland from 1797 to September, 1800. On April 24th, 1794, a general deputation of the Cinque Ports and their members met the Lord Warden (Pitt) at Dover Castle as a result of which £6,500 was secured to form units within the Ports.1 Pitt himself subscribed one thousand pounds and of the various sums furnished by the Towns and Ports, the Port of Romney raised £104 17s. 6d.2 Early in 1794 a threat of invasion drove the British Government to various expedients to raise men. Letters of service were issued for the raising of thirty-one corps of Fencible Infantry and twenty-one units of Fencible Cavalry in Great Britain. To these latter the Cinque Ports contributed two units, The Cinque Ports Fencible Cavalry and The New Romney Fencible Cavalry. Troops of Yeomanry and companies of Volunteers were also raised within the Ports, but no Fencible Infantry. It seems strange that the Portsmen recruited for wholetime service should have been for cavalry units only, since barely ten years before there had been in existence during the War of American Independence a Cinque POi/ls Battalion of Fencible Infantry. It was commanded by Lieut.-Col. the Hon. George Augustus North, son of Lord North, then Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, who was Honorary Colonel. The writer has collected considerable detail about the service of this unit which was a most interesting one because it formed one of eight only of such units which were then raised throughout Great Britain. It was often referred to as North's Cinque Poi·ts. 8 1 Wal1ner Oastle and us Loi·dB Warden, by the l\forquoss of Curzon (1927), pp. 47, 48. 1 Records of Walrner, by Charles Elvin (1800), pp. 246, 247. 3 This unit appears in the Army List 1780, p. 82, under Fen<'ible and Pro• vincial Regiment.a in Great Britain as The Cinque Port.s BaJt