The Fencible Regiments in Britain and Ireland, 1793-1802

Fencible regiments were raised in Britain and Ireland during the French Revolutionary Wars, in response to perceived manpower shortages and the difficulties of enacting the quasi-conscripted militia ballot. These regiments were part of the voluntarily-enlisted regular army, but were limited to only serve within the British Isles and for the duration of the war. Limited service was not a new concept in the 1790s, but the nationwide mobilisation of the fencibles represented a significant departure from previous smaller-scale approaches, which had drawn from the Scottish clan networks. Therefore, although a distinct form of auxiliary military force, historians have previously tended to consider these regiments within the British tradition of amateur military service.

In contrast, this thesis examines the fencibles in their own context. As a liminal space between the regular army and the various militias and civilian auxiliary forces, the fencibles provide insight into a range of interactions between the military and civilian society in this transitional period. Not simply motivated by clan loyalty, the fencible experience demonstrates the agency with which men enlisted and served in the British armed forces. They consciously chose limited service, engaged in contractual negotiations with authority, and often continued onto longer-term military careers. The fencibles especially evidence a contemporary ‘typology’ of different forms of soldiering, reflecting the complex nature of popular engagement with the military. Fencible officers and commanders made use of this distinct form of service to further their careers in the British state, seeing their service as a valuable contribution to the war effort, and to reinforce their own martial masculinity in civilian society. Most prominently, this thesis shows that the fencibles are emblematic of both emerging conceptions of Britishness and of the process by which the ‘four nations’, of the United Kingdom, reimagined themselves in relation to this new unifying nationality.