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A George III Scottish Provincial
beer mug, of large size, with marks for Banff circa 1810 John Keith, the
bellied body with threaded bands and engraved inscription "To Capt. James
Reid Adjutant in Testimony of their respect from the Noncom'd Officers and
Privates of the Banffshire Local Militia 1810 simple rounded angular
handle.
8.5cm wide, 12.2cm high,
20oz
The Local Militia (as distinct from
the county-based Militia) was formed throughout Great Britain by Act of
Parliament in 1808 (48 Geo. III, c.3). It was largely composed of officers and
men from the numerous Volunteer units that had existed since the early 1790s.
The Volunteers had been formed as a parochial patriotic response to the threat
of invasion from France but, with the diminution of the threat of invasion,
they had dwindled in numbers by 1808. However, Britain still required a
well-organised force available for home defence as well as a pool of trained
manpower available, in an emergency, for drafting into the Regular Army: with
the expansion of the war against France on land after 1808 the latter
contingency was all the more likely. Tightly organised and trained, the Local
Militia fulfilled this role and can be regarded as the ancestor of the
Territorial Army of the 20th century.
Banffshire had been in the forefront
of Volunteering in Scotland, the first company of Volunteers to be raised north
of Edinburgh being that organised by the Incorporated Trades of Banff in August
1794. Deacon of the Incorporated Trades was James Reid (1758-1836) who was the
local surveyor - he designed the Banff prison in 1796 - and who became captain
of the senior company (Incorporated Trades) of Banff Volunteers: Reid's
brother-in-law was appointed 1st Lieutenant and the company mustered 62 men in
1795. When additional companies were raised, in Macduff, Portsoy, Grange and
Cullen, in 1797, it became necessary to regiment them and Reid became adjutant
of the newly-regimented 1st Banffshire Volunteers in that year, giving up his
business in order to devote all his time, without pay, to running the regiment.
Reid fulfilled the role until the standing-down of the Volunteers at the
short-lived Peace of Amiens later in 1801. When war with France was resumed in
1803 and the 1st and 2nd Banffshire Volunteers became the 1st and 2nd
battalions of the Banffshire Volunteers, Reid became the adjutant of the new
regiment, being gazetted to his former rank of captain in 1804. He retained
this post until the creation of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Banff Local
Militia in 1808, thereupon transferring as adjutant to the new regiment. By the
time of the disbandment of the Local Militia in 1814, Reid had served for
twenty years as a senior officer of a very active and conscientious local
auxiliary infantry unit.
The locally-made silver mug that he
was given by the NCOs and men with whom he would have built a close rapport,
many of whom he would have known personally in civilian life, was - at the time
- a touchingly personal gift to him and is now an extremely significant item of
historical importance for the North-East of Scotland. Gifts from the Other
Ranks of the Volunteers to their officers were commonly made and are frequently
encountered today. Ranging from lavishly decorated swords to grand, yet rather
impersonal, items of plate (such as cups, salvers or tea services), they
reflect both the social hierarchy and the parochial relationships embodied in
such units; they were also usually commissioned or purchased from retailers in
large cities. In the Local Militia, such gifts appear to have been less
commonly made but, when encountered, still seem to have been purchased from
established metropolitan retailers. This mug, which may well have been made by
a fellow part-time soldier (for such artisan-craftsmen were typical recruits to
the Local Militia), is thus a highly significant and rare example of a Local
Militia presentation piece, one that was made locally and that was essentially
personal in nature.
Sold as lot 244 by Lyon and Turnbull,
Edinburgh, Scotland
on 20 August 2003.
Reproduced by courtesy of Lyon
and Turnbull, auctioneers. |
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