Women of the Regiment

Military history is not just an account of battles, uniforms and weapons. What was the world of our soldiers like a few centuries ago? And what about their mothers, wives and children? In an attempt to provide a little of the social background to the Border Regiment's two earliest antecedent regiments I offer these sketches about women with links to the 34th and 55th Foot. Pictured left is the talented sculptor Anne Seymour, daughter of Field Marshal Seymour.

Colonel’s mother

Lady Mary Chudleigh was born in Devon in 1656. She married Sir George Chudleigh, 3rd Baronet of Ashton, Devon. Her second son was Thomas Chudleigh, Colonel of the regiment that would become the 34th Foot from 1712-1713 and then again from 1715-23.

Mary Chudleigh’s published work includes: ‘The Ladies’ Defence, Or, The Bride-Woman's Counsellor Answer'd: A Poem in a Dialogue Between Sir John Brute, Sir William Loveall, Melissa, and a Parson.’ It considers marriage from a woman's point of view. She suggests that women should avoid marriage.

This is an beginning of a poem “To the Ladies”.

“Wife and Servant are the same,

But only differ in the Name

For when that fatal Knot is ty'd,

Which nothing, nothing can divide:

When she the word obey has said,

And Man by Law supreme has made,

Then all that's kind is laid aside…”

And nothing left but state and pride:

Fierce as an Eastern prince he grows”

Colonel’s wife

Penelope and James Cholmondeley were married in 1726. It was not a happy marriage. The terms of their eventual divorce was that neither would have any children. She died in 1783.

Lord Lord Egmont in his diary for 4 March 1736 described her asking him “anonymously” for money to escape her husband, who Egmont described as “tyrannical”. However a fortnight later he quotes a friend as saying :

“…that she ran before away with Mr. Shirley and is now gone off with one Anderson, once apprentice to a ship surgeon, but not worth a groat. She is not yet returned. He said Lord Barrimore, her father, gives her up, from whom she ran away to marry Colonel Cholmley (sic)…”

Was she trapped by the customs of the time - Mary Chudleigh’s “wife and servant are the same” - and so became an outlaw of polite society?

Quartermaster’s Daughter

Mrs Anne Grant was the daughter of Duncan McVicar , the Quartermaster of the 55th Foot, whilst the Regiment was in America. She was born in 1755 in Glasgow and travelled to America with her mother in 1758. She spent time with the Schuyler family at Albany. The Schuylers would play a major part in securing American independence.

Her father left the army in 1768 and the family returned to Scotland. In 1773 he became Barrack Master at Fort Augustus and it was here that in 1779 she married James Grant, a clergyman.

Anne wrote ‘Memoirs of an American Lady’ an account of her time in America; ‘Essays on the Superstition of the Highlands of Scotland, with Translations from the Gaelic” and poetry.

“Oh, where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?

Oh, where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?

He's gone with streaming banners were noble deeds are done,

And my sad heart will tremble till he comes safely home;

‘The Blue Bells of Scotland’

Corporal’s Wife

Catherine Whitaker was born at Leeds in 1779. She died in 1857 in Batley.

Catherine wrote an account of her life in diary1 form sometime from 1837 onwards. It includes the hard years of pregnancies and the deaths of children, whilst she was in Spain with her husband Corporal Exley, 2/34th Foot.

Corporal Exley was at the battle of the Maya Pass in July 1813. She describe learning that he had been killed in the battle and searching for his body fruitlessly. Thankfully he had not been killed but taken prisoner. Thinking herself a widow and with a young child, she got back to Britain. Her religious faith allows her to cope with her appalling situation without complaint. This extract from her diary describes her search for her husband Joshua:

“After turning over several of the bodies we found that of a corporal in the very place where it had been said my husband met his death. On examining his clothing I thought I knew it, and cried out, “He is here,” but there was no appearance of the mark on his finger; otherwise, I should have been convinced of his identity. We were employed in this mournful duty three days - women in search of their husbands, officers in search of their brother officers. …”

Colonel’s daughter

Anne Seymour Damer was born in 1748 the only daughter of Field-Marshal Henry Seymour Conway and his wife Lady Caroline Bruce. Conway was Colonel of th e 34th from 1749-1751. Anne and her husband, John Damer, separated in 1774.

Anne was a friend of Josephine Buonaparte, who she corresponded with mostly in connection to Josephine's garden.

During the period 1784–1818, Anne exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy, including this self portrait.

The Editor