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Military Annals of
Victoria County, Ontario Canada
The essence of the militia system is as old as
Anglo-Saxon history. The recognition that citizenship involves the
responsibility of military service (as well as the establishment of
laws for the enforcement of such service), is part and parcel of our
racial inheritance. On careful retrospection, we find that in Saxon
England all freemen between the ages of 15 and 60. who were capable
of bearing arms were bound, under heavy penalties, to go forth at
the king's summons to the "fyrd" or general levy. The levy of each
shire took the field under its "alderman" or military chief. Its
service held a double aspect. As a civil force the levy was known as
the "posse comitatus,' which might be called on to arrest criminals
and suppress riots. As a military force it was called out to defend
the realm in civil war or against foreign foes. Read
more...
This general levy was always difficult to raise and hard to keep
together, so that the Saxon kings depended much more, especially for
foreign wars, on a well armed, semi-permanent force of military
dependents or thanes, to whom they granted land on the condition of
military service. The Norman Conquest substituted for the thanehood
a similar but much more rigidly feudal aristocracy of Norman war
lords. Norman feudalism petered out in the course of six centuries,
and in 1660 Charles the Second abolished the obsolescent feudal levy
and substituted a small standing army on the basis which still
serves today.
The liability for all able bodied men to serve in
the general levy, however, still continued. The summons to serve
would be issued in each case by the sheriff of the county in the
form of a royal writ or "commission of array." By the end of the
sixteenth century the practice had become established of selecting
from peace time musters a convenient number of men for annual drill
and intensive training. The command and control of these Trained
Bands became one of the principal subjects of dispute between
Charles the First and the Long Parliament, and in the protracted
controversy the word "militia" first came into general use. By a
Militia Act of 1662 the training of small county bands was
discontinued and a system set up reestablishing the direct
responsibility of all property owners to give service or substitutes
of men, horses, and money in proportion to the value of their
property. Amendments have been made to this Act from time to time,
but its provisions summarize fairly well the ancient system, which,
through various statutory phases, has persisted even to our own day.
Early Militia Organization in Canada
When Canada passed under British control in 1763,
her new rulers soon imposed the traditional militia system of their
race. In the form of levy which was ultimately accepted for many
years, all the able bodied men of the country between 18 and 60 were
organized into battalions of "sedentary" militia. Every member of
these battalions was supposed to provide himself with arms and
ammunition. Officers were appointed by the Crown to command and
discipline the respective units. Parades were held for two days in
each year for drill and the inspection of arms.
The Militia were liable to service in time of war, rebellion, riot,
or invasion, and could be kept mobilized for not more than six
months. Quakers, Mennonites, and Tunkers paid an annual exemption
fee of twenty shillings in peace time and ten pounds in war time.
No pay was issued to militiamen. On the contrary, militia officers
were actually mulcted certain fees on receiving their commissions.
The scale of such deductions was as follows: Lieut-Colonels, 30
shillings; Majors and Captains, 20 shillings; Lieutenants,
Paymasters, and Surgeons, 15 shillings; Ensigns and Quartermasters,
10 shillings. These fees were collected by the Officer Commanding
and remitted to the public treasury.
Victoria County, Ontario
Canada Centennial History, Watson Kirkconnell M.A., 1921
Victoria County
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