Militia and Volunteers Records
May’s Document of the Month looks at the records of local Volunteer Militias held at the Council Archives.
The raising of a militia force in Scotland was outlawed by statute before 1794 to prevent powerful landowners putting together private armies, although bodies of armed men were traditionally recruited to fight for the Crown in times of emergency. In that year, a Royal Warrant empowered Scottish Lord Lieutenants to raise and command militia regiments. Lieutenancies were based on County boundaries and led by a Lord Lieutenant appointed by the monarch who in turn appointed deputies. They were instructed by the Warrant to provide for the protection of their counties in the event of invasion or threat of civil uprising, and granted the authority to direct all local volunteer forces. This provided for the muster of a militia in potentia and prepared the ground for later legislation. In Stirling, the first Lord Lieutenant was the Duke of Montrose (1755 – 1836).
The increasing tension in relations with France in the latter years of the eighteenth century led to the passing of the Militia Act of 1797, which empowered the Lieutenants to raise militia forces. Militiamen were to be selected by ballot, annual training was to be provided and in times of crisis Corps were to be embodied. The counties of Fife, Stirling, Clackmannan and Kinross were united for the purpose of becoming a militia, known as the 5th or Fifeshire Regiment of North British Militia. In 1803, Dumbarton was substituted for Fife to form the Stirling, Dumbarton, Clackmannan and Kinross Militia, later called the 90th Regiment of British Militia, with an initial force of 800 men. Payments were made to the dependants of serving militia men by the parish or burgh authorities but those chosen by ballot often raised subscriptions to employ substitutes to serve in their place. In 1808, only 5 of the 222 men in the Stirling Militia were those chosen by ballot.
The threat of invasion by Napoleon had the effect of encouraging more men to become Volunteers. As a result of this in Stirling in 1800, the Corps of Loyal Stirling Volunteers was embodied. However, this initial enthusiasm waned after the passing of the Local Militia Act in 1808 under the provisions of which pay for volunteers was abolished. It is largely as a consequence of this that most volunteer units disappeared.
Stirling Militia was disbanded as a standing army at the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1816. Between then and 1855 the force was only called out for training 4 times. The Militia (Scotland) Act of 1854 revived the Militia, giving it a permanent peacetime existence but the use of volunteers rather than recruits reduced the responsibilities of the Lieutenancies.
From 1855, the Stirling Militia was known as the Highland Borderers Light Infantry and then, from 1881, as the 3rd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The Stirlingshire Volunteers became volunteer battalions in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. They were transformed into the Territorial Force with the creation of the Territorial Army in 1908.
Lists of officers and recruits for both the Militia and the Volunteers’ regiments known as Muster Rolls or Nominal Rolls are held by Stirling Council Archives as part of the Stirling County Council collection. We are currently in the process of compiling an index of the names on these records with the help of our regular volunteers.