Crowd Funding the Volunteers: The Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry Kickstarter: June 1794

 Crowd Funding the Volunteers: The Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry Kickstarter: June 1794 

Matthew Boulton

Sheriff of Staffordshire

On 9th June 1794 a meeting was held in aged and soon to be replaced Shire Hall in Stafford. [1]  The meeting was called by the industrialist Matthew Boulton, in his capacity as Sheriff to set about raising a body of troops to defend Staffordshire against internal and external enemies. [2]  As a result of the meeting a subscription was, in the words of the piece sent to several newspapers, ‘immediately opened’ and over £3000 was pledged. [3]  This article intends to look at what we can deduce from the initial attempt to kickstart the Staffordshire Volunteer [later Yeomanry] Cavalry.

Following the general meeting, a committee was formed ‘in pursuance of the ..resolutions’.  It moved over the road to the Swan Inn. The proceedings of the general meeting and the committee were ordered to be ‘..advertised in the Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Derby papers; The True Briton and General Evening Post.’

Consequently, on 16th June 1794 Aris’s Birmingham Gazette carried the following list of subscribers on page 3.

The Shrewsbury Chronicle followed on Friday 27th June 1794.

The Derby Mercury did not choose to print the list.

The first thing to say about the lists is, unless we are to believe that all these men, and one woman, formed themselves into an orderly queue in order of how much they intended to give, it has been curated before being passed on to the newspapers.  As Mr. William Keen was appointed Secretary of the Committee, it is reasonable to assume it was his work. [4]

No single rule has been applied to the ordering of the list however certain trends are clear to see. Generally the list goes in order of the amount of cash given, although in the case of the nobility, rank gives precedence. This is flouted at the top of this list where the Sheriff, Matthew Boulton, is placed ahead of his social and positional superior, Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of Stafford. Possibly Boulton’s role in organising the meeting was deferred to. 

The nobility are grouped next and are all amongst the greatest of givers. The Marquis, who donated the largest amount, £400, is placed second on the list, overall. Third is his son, the Earl Gower Sutherland, whose social position seems to grant his £100 precedence over Lord Bagot’s £200.  The peers, Lord Harrowby, Viscount Chetwynd and the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, are then fitted in, although this seems to be more based on the cash given than strict order of precedence.

Once the nobility had been taken care of the list devolves down to groupings in order of monies pledged, with a little shuffling. Dudley Ryder tops the non-nobles, with 200.  The hundreds are topped by a baronet, a soon to be baronet, Josiah Wedgewood, whose social position may have caused some debate as he rose into the squirearchy, and then two established ‘esquires.’

The Birmingham Gazette’s list names 85 contributors. The total is £3638 4 shillings, giving a mean average of almost £43, a mode of £50 and a median of  20 guineas.  It is highly probable that not all the people who pledged money attended the meeting.  The Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of Stafford, for example is not thanked for his attendance, unlike his son, although his ‘zealous exertions in support of the happy constitution’ are noted. [5] Likewise, while The Hon Dudley Ryder may have found time to attend but, as he was Paymaster of the Forces and Vice-President of the Board of Trade he may well have been in London at the time and ‘phoned’ his pledge in.

The list that appears has been regularised to give all amounts in pounds and shillings, rather than the guineas that, for example, Francis Hughes gave. It is possible that the subscribers gave their names to the secretary but it seems more likely they wrote them and the amount themselves. This would account for the variation in style, for example, A. Ward not being graced with his first name, Abraham, while most non-nobles get Christian and surname. Some of this may be the type setter trying to reduce the space used, for example, Jos. Wedgewood, but, given the way A. Ward, Stafford Mills, joyfully occupies two lines, this is not entirely certain. 

Some of the names are accompanied by qualifiers. Given part of the function of the list was to demonstrate who had generously donated it is clear the Rev William Robinson, giving £30, may well feel he needed to add ‘Rector of Stoke & Swinnerton, and so distinguish himself from plain William Robinson, who gave a fiver. Likewise J. Harrison may have kept the ‘Stoke-on-Trent next to his name to distinguish him from the county’s other J. Harrisons.

The social class of the subscribers was overwhelmingly from the gentry.  Most are described in other documents as esquire. A few can be found being described as ‘Mr’ and include William Chrees, a Wolverhampton lawyer, the North Staffs potters, the Spodes, and John Kenderdine - the only person to have a trade put to his name - ‘maltster.’

One woman appears in the lists, Mary Whitby of Shut End.  Whitby is described in other newspaper reports of the decade as ‘widow’. When bachelor Thomas Hoo, Lord of the Manors of Great Barr and Wednesbury died in 1791 [6] she contested a ‘pretend’ will, had it declared null and void [7] and, with another of Hoo’s second cousins, Elizabeth Maria Foley Hodgetts, inherited the estates.  They would later, jointly, appear in estate matters, such as the registering of game keepers [8] and altering the route of a road in 1797. [9]

Before looking at where the subscribers came from, the two lists do contain one anomaly.  John Gough appears in the Birmingham Gazette of 16th June, where he sits a little uncomfortably on top of the second column, having given 100 guineas.  Gough was a prominent member of Staffordshire Society, having served as Sheriff in 1792, a post he would hold again in 1797. Where he is placed on the list suggests the Birmingham Gazette inserted him after the original list had been set. He would donate that sum sometime after the meeting. Possibly the Birmingham Gazette knew of this and decided to insert his name - although they did not do that for others - and the Shropshire Chronicle remained ignorant of the fact or did not see it worthy of changing the list.  [10]

Map 1 is an attempt to show the geographical distributors of that initial attempt to crowdfund the Volunteers. History is, by its nature, a non-binary subject. I have included all those who had a residence in Staffordshire that I feel reasonably confident of. I do not feel confident in identifying the homes of the secular William Robinson [as opposed to his religious name sake] or George Stedman.  Some, like Lord Bagot, are easy to track to Blithfield Hall. Some can be found through records such as the issuing of Game Certificates [11] or other appearances in the local papers. [12]  When presented with a choice of locations, for example the Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry could be placed in Lichfield or his house at Eccleshall Castle, the decision has been to place them where they would seem to have had more impact in Staffordshire.  This is obviously the case where someone, like John Jervis, had a home at Darlstone Hall and Soho Square, London.  I have tended to put the clergy in their major parish, although as many held positions at Lichfield Cathedral it is clear they had the opportunity to network, when not actually being related to each other.  Reverend William Leigh does not appear on the map. Leigh’s family had held land in Staffordshire but by 1794 Rushall Manor was in ruins. Although Rector of Little Plumstead, in Norfolk, he rented Ashbourne Hall and left his Norfolk concerns to a curate. [13]

Map 1: Subscribers to the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry June 1794

While it is difficult to express how much money was worth in the past, even in a society which was moving towards a cash economy, the Bank of England inflation calculator estimates a £2 being the equivalent of approximately £232 and £400 being nearer 46,417 in November 2025 terms. Thus, the median donation of 20 guineas [equivalent £2,436] was a notable amount of cash. [14]  Obviously both population and the wealth it had was not evenly distributed across the county. Likewise ease of travel to a Stafford meeting was not equal to all.  The map does show several distinct patterns for subscribers, not least being the relative absence of Moorlanders, a thing which would have been more pronounced if the Bill family of Farley had not turned up. [15] The extreme south-west is underrepresented, as is the urbanizing areas between Tipton and Walsall.

Map 2: Donations by subscribers [June 1794] who contributed above the mean average.

The chief subscribers, especially in the north and centre of the county, were rural dwellers, as would be envisaged by the term used in the later times ‘The Yeomanry’ and could be expected from the more wealthy. The cluster around the South and Eastern part of the map may well have been influenced by the role of Matthew Boulton, as Sheriff and local grandee in influencing support for the project. [16] Central Staffordshire has many of the grandee families dwelling in it, especially in the Trent Valley.  The interests of the Leveson-Gowers [father and son] may have influenced the cluster around Trentham.

Map 3: Homes of the subscribers who fell below the median point of the list

The smaller subscribers [Map 3] tend to represent the ‘urban’ core of the body - roughly 60% of those who gave less than the median [20 guineas] were based in and around towns.  This compares to the roughly 35% of ‘urbanites’ of the group over all.  Of the whole cohort, Twelve, [14%] came from Stafford and all but one gave £20 or less. This almost certainly represents the ease these less wealthy members of the elite had in attending the meeting.  Six came from Stoke - although if you put all the Potteries together this rises to eight.  Seven men of Lichfield pledged money, three were clergy.

The clergy stand out as a group in donating to the cause. Twenty-three [27%] of all subscribers were men of the cloth. The reason for their involvement can never be fully ascertained. With the meeting on a Monday they may have found it easier to be free to attend. As very public figures they may have felt the pressure to or accepted the role as community leaders supporting this very public initiative. The same may be said of many of the county’s leading men.  Was the 73 year old Marquis of Stafford making a point in donating so much, given his recent retirement from central government - he stood down as Lord Privy Seal having been involved in Parliament or Government Office for almost 50 years - or was he just performing the function of community leader?

The influences on all the subscribers will be a matter of speculation. Some, like the Rev William Fernyhough, put his patriotism on the record in such poetic efforts as ‘On Earl Cornwallis’ Glorious Achievements in the East Indies’ [17], although given the then curate of Stoke on Trent soon after became Vicar of Aspatria - praising the brother of your bishop [18] may have had more earthly motives. Some would be found in the lists of those contributing to local worthy causes, for example John Southwell [19] and others in supporting Loyalist causes [20]. Some may have felt the need to engage in some costly shows of patriotism in the fevered atmosphere of 1794.  James Keir had been a member of the Lunar Society which, while now in terminal decline, had been targeted by Loyalist Violence during the Priestley Riots - events that had seen Matthew Boulton arm his workers in defence of his property. [21]

Whether patriotic or performative, what is more than hinted at is peer influence, if not in subscribing, than the amount given.  Five of the six subscribers from Stoke either gave twenty or thirty pounds. [22] Five of the Stafford contingent gave exactly five guineas each. [23]  It is possible to imagine them each watching what their neighbour was giving and feeling the need to match it but necessarily not the need to go beyond it.

Having seen who donated, the question is, who did not. On 4th June 1794 the newly formed committee would meet again. [24]  All but Edward Monckton had contributed to the cause.  Given he was to be Lieutenant Colonel of the Yeomanry from 1794 to 1800 and then Colonel till 1829 this may seem unusual. As he was MP for Stafford and the Commons were in session till 11th July his absence at this point may be explained.  When the Committee met again on 8th August, to establish the framework for recruiting [25] four of the twenty-one had not contributed to the initial subscription. Of the fifty-one men who set out to be formal recruiters for the Yeomanry, twenty-six had not contributed at this stage. If nothing else, this suggests the commitment to the Staffordshire Volunteer Cavalry was an evolving thing in the summer of 1794.

Below the lists of subscribers was printed, with almost undue haste, a further list of those who had donated cash for the Augmentation of the Militia. It contained familiar names, such as Stafford, Gower Sutherland, Harrowby and Bagot. It also included Donegal  - who had recently been given a barony in Staffordshire, Uxbridge, who had been colonel of the Staffs militia in the War of American Independence and Thomas Anson, MP for Lichfield.  Possibly the placing of these lists together meant William Sneyd [£50 to the militia] would not come under undue criticism for lack of patriotic fervour in not giving to the Yeomanry at once.

Now some capital had been pledged and a committee had been formed. The next step was to raise the Volunteers - or at least have another committee meeting about it.

Footnotes

[1] The Shire Hall of June 1794 had been a project of the 1580s, not completed till 1607. In 1793 it was finally decided to replace it and the Stafford Shire Hall Act had been passed by Parliament that year and received Royal Assent on 9th May 1794.  Building the new hall began in 1795.

[2] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, Monday 2nd June 1794, carried an appeal by the sheriff to attend a meeting at noon, in Stafford, for the inhabitants to meet to consider ‘a subscription for the purpose of adding to the Internal Defence of the Kingdom, conformably to the Act recently passed’.  [Volunteer Corps Act 1794, given Royal Assent on 17th April 1794].  According to the printed piece sent in by Boulton this was a response to the request by ‘many noblemen, Gentlemen, Clergymen and freeholders’ - the voting classes.

[3] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.3 Monday 16th June 1794

[4] William Keen was a partner in Keen & Collins, solicitors.  He would serve in many county administrative functions as Deputy Clerk of the Peace across the 1790s.

[5] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.3 Monday 16th June 1794

[update 3/3/26 - In March 1794 reports were in regional newspapers that the Marquis of Stafford was to be replaced by his son, Lord Carlisle, as Lord Privy Seal. This would have been a shock to everyone, including his sons, Earl Gower and Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, future Viscount Granville. His removal as Lord Privy Seal came in Mid July [Reading Mercury, Oxford Gazette 14th July 1794] which was because Prime Minister Pitt was busy rebuilding his government and needed to find room for some Whigs, and Stafford was regarded as expendable. Eric Evans 'The Forging of the Modern State' 2019 p.71.

was very active in the Lord's Secret Committee

[6] https://comerfordfamily.blogspot.com/2007/12/comberford-10-wednesbury-and-comberford.html

[7] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.1Monday 17th December 1792

[8] Staffordshire Advertiser p.1 Saturday 8th September 1795

[9] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.4 Monday 4th September 1797

[10]  Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.4 Monday 7th July 1794

[11] For example The Staffordshire Advertiser p.2 Saturday 17th September 1796

[12] For example John Scott appears in his role of banker of Lichfield in The Staffordshire Advertiser p.2 Saturday 10th October 1795.

[13] https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/index.jsp

[14] https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator 

[15]  Charles Bill had served as a Deputy Lieutenant in 1792 and donated £20.  Robert Bill gave £50 and the Reverend John, £10.

[16]  The maps are based on the Greenwood 1820 version. https://maps.nls.uk/view/262720197 I placed on it key settlements connected to the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry.  For others I have used the 1801 census, where possible, to mark urbanizing, if not urban spread of south and north Staffordshire. Given populations can be spread over large parishes it is sometimes difficult to say when a place became a town of note. To help the clarity of the diagram I have marked Burselm [6578 in 1801] but left out Stoke and Hanley for this early map.

[17] Adam’s Weekly Courant, Chester, P.4 Tuesday 7th August 1792

[18]  Bishop James Cornwallis, had been appointed Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1781. His brother, Charles, was created Marquess Cornwallis for successes in the Third Anglo-Mysore War.

[19] Subscribers for the Relief of the Poor  Staffordshire Advertiser, P.3 Saturday 22nd August 1795

[20] John Dudley, Rector of Himley is second on a list of people in the neighbourhood of Dudley who met to demonstrate their loyalty in December 1821. Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.1 Monday 1st January 1821

[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Keir  Lunar Society of Birmingham - Wikipedia

[22] Thomas Wolfe [20], Rev William Robinson [30], Samuel Spode [20], John Harrison [30] and Josiah Spode [30].  

[23] Rev Joseph Dickenson, Rev Edward Dickenson, William Haddersich, Abraham Ward and Thomas Wright.

[24]  Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.4 Monday 7th July 1794

[25] The Derby Mercury P.3 Thursday 28th August 1794.

[26]  Aris’s Birmingham Gazette p.4 Monday 7th July 1794