The Cheshire Parlimentarians

Okay, enough fluff and history let's see the troops I have painted so far.  Here's Sir William himself to wave us off.

 

The Cheshire Horse

I'll start with the cavalry. At Brereton's insistence, the Cheshire Horse were merged into a single large regiment under his personal command.  This was probably to avoid having several small regiments under various competing local gentry.  Abram says they numbered 5 troops and perhaps 3-400 men in early 1643, but a year later were 14 troops strong.  A simple linear expansion can't be assumed but by the time of Nantwich they probably had the greater part of the 1000 officers and men they would peak at in 1645.  This powerful and coordinated force bears reasonable comparison with Cromwell's Ironsides, and was well equipped and officered.  

I won't be doing all fourteen troops, but assuming squadrons of two bases, at a scale of about 150-200 men per squadron, Brereton's Regiment of Horse might have fielded 3 or 4 such bodies in early 1644, for 6-800 cavalry overall.  I will probably eventually do five squadrons, so I have the numbers for Rowton Moor as well.

 

The cornets are oversize to allow some hints at the flag designs in Abrams' "More like Lions than Men" but don't look too closely at the details.  I may redo them at some point but I'm happy enough for now.

The figures are all 3d resin prints provided by my club mates. They seem a little continental rather than English in look, so I have clipped a few feathers and modified a few hats.  They are true 15mm scale, so will probably match well with Peter Pig, Warlord Epic and Steel Fist Miniatures ranges. The wonderful KeepYourPowderDry blog has some good posts on figures here.  A couple of other highlights, amongst the many useful posts there, are these on coats and colours.

The first unit is Brereton's own troop. This troop arrived with Brereton in January 1643 and continued even after the regiment was passed to Colonel Jones, following the self denying ordinance. 

The second unit of Horse is Colonel Jones' troop.  Michael Jones was the staunch protestant son a Welsh puritan bishop in Ireland.  He had served in the King's Irish army but refused to fight for the Royalists following the cessation of arms with the Irish Confederates, defecting to Brereton on returning to England.  It is unclear exactly when Jones joined as Brereton's Lieutenant Colonel of Horse but if not before Nantwich these troops can serve as Sergeant Major Browne's troop.  John Browne was a professional officer, probably formerly of Lord Brooke's regiment in the Earl of Essex' army, one of several officers sent to Brereton on request.  Browne seems to have left Cheshire in July 1644 and the capable Captain Zankey of Brereton's troop was promoted to Sergeant Major.  Abram has an image for the cornet of Jones' troop but not one for Browne's, so they may have been similar or even the same unit.

The third Horse unit I have painted is Colonel Duckenfield's troop.  Robert Duckenfield was a member of the Cheshire gentry and a close associate of Sir William Brereton.  Duckenfield commanded a Regiment of Foot in the Cheshire army at Nantwich and elsewhere, so his troop was commanded by his brother Francis.  

The last mounted unit I have painted is a unit of dragoons.  Brereton arrived in Cheshire with three troops of dragoons and seems to have quickly raised two more.  They were formed into a regiment but the number of men and troops seems to vary over time.  They may have been firelocks from the beginning but were equipped as such by 1644 at the latest.  

I'm not sure if I will need dismounted dragoons but these will serve as them or as commanded shot instead.

 

The Cheshire Foot 

Now we can switch to the infantry.  Four Cheshire Regiments of Foot are known at Nantwich.  The quality of the Cheshire foot was generally good, and although less experienced than their Irish army opponents, they were probably more committed and performed well.  They had gained considerable experience prior to the battle, and been well trained and handled by Sergeant Major James Lothian.  This excellent Scottish professional officer had arrived early in 1643 and conducted most of the army's foot and siege operations.  Lothian was unfortunately captured at Burford near Nantwich in December, and not exchanged until July 1644, but his students did him proud in the battle.

Sir William Brereton’s Regiment of Foot
At least some are know to have been issued with grey coats, and there is evidence they carried black, and possibly also white Colours.  I have given them black colours, and kept the white for Duckenfield's regiment, as these match the colours known for their respective troops of horse.  This seems reasonable as the reference to white colours could possibly have been another unit of Brereton's army, rather than his own regiment.  Brereton's regiment was very large and may at times have fielded more than one battalia.  I have fielded them only as a single unit as I wanted to make each battalia distinct, and they may have detached companies to bolster other units or provide garrisons anyway.

Colonel Robert Duckenfield’s Regiment of Foot
The coats and colours of Duckenfield's regiment are unknown but I have assumed grey coats, which seems typical of many northern foot.  I have given them the white Colours that are recorded as carried by some companies of Brereton's army.  These could have belonged to Brereton's own regiment, or another Cheshire regiment.  As Duckenfield's horse troop carried a white cornet, they seemed the most likely candidates.

 

The last two regiments of Cheshire foot known to be at Nantwich were Sir George Booth’s Regiment of Foot and Colonel Henry Mainwaring’s Regiment of Foot.  It is again unknown what coats were worn, or colours carried, by either.  

Booth's regiment may have been within the garrison of Nantwich but I'm not yet clear on that.  George Booth Senior seems to have commanded the town, although it could have been his grandson namesake.  Whoever commanded the garrison, they sallied out to attack the Royalist rearguard late in the battle.  The Nantwich trained bands seem likely to have been present in the town itself, but they can't have been alone and the overall picture is still quite confused.  Different accounts contradicting each other.  I'll do some more research on this.

Mainwaring's seem to have been with the main field army but were probably, by the time of Nantwich, a smaller unit whose companies were brigaded with another regiment, or distributed across multiple battalia.  If Booth's were not in the garrison it may have been with them that Mainwaring's were brigaded, as they fought together against Prince Rupert later in the year.   

Whatever the situation, I have painted this third foot battalia with red coats and a blue colour.  They can stand in for any unknown unit in the Nantwich army, and also serve as a New Model Army unit, such as Robert Overton’s Regiment of Foot.   Overton's fought at St Fagans in the second civil war, which is another battle I would like to re-fight eventually.

 

It was quite normal to form composite battalia in the civil wars, and it is possible there were only six such bodies of Parliamentarian foot at Nantwich.  In light of this reasoning, I will make the last three foot battalia from the Lancashire units.  

All this is excluding the Folorn Hope, probably composed of dragoons under Captain Thomas Morgan, and a possibly a body of 'clubmen', which may have served as pioneers.  

 

Finally to round out the arms of service I have this single base of light guns.  I seem to recall reading that a brace of drakes was sent to Brereton from London in 1643 but I'm struggling to find the reference now.   I'll confirm it if I do.