A Pennsylvania Viewpoint on the 1757 English Militia Law

A PENNSYLVANIA VIEWPOINT ON THE 1757 ENGLISH MILITIA LAW The English Militia Law, enacted by Parliament, was published in the Gentleman's Magazine, July 1757. It was reprinted in the American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle, November 1757, in which it was not well received. 1 The English law required "the head constables to deliver in a list of all the men between the age of 18 and 50, in their several districts, except peers, officers of the regular forces or garrison, members of either university, clergymen, teachers of separate meetings, peace and parish officers, articled clerks, and apprentices, and seamen, noting in the list the men labouring under any bodily infirmity." Details were provided for the exercising of the seven to twelve companies of forty men in each county as: "On the first Monday in the months of March, April, May,June,July, August, September, and October, they shall be exercised in half companies; and on the third Monday in the said months in companies. And once every year, on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, of Whitsun-week [the week following the seventh Sunday after Easter], they shall be exercised in whole regiments." Many details about eligibility, exemptions, and procedures are given, including a statement that "No persons selling liquors by retail shall be capable of being a serjeant of the militia." PENNSYLVANIA'S RESPONSE The law presented in the American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle dealt specifically with English counties, but it was generally perceived that it might soon be applied to the colonies. The concept of an organized, government-controlled militia didn't meet with popular acceptance in Pennsylvania. In a section entitled "Proposal for a Militia in Pennsylvania," the Magazine objected that: Tis very necessary for the defence and safety of a country, that its inhabitants be trained to the use of arms. But the same militia Law cannot suit the genius and constitution of every country .... The province of Pennsylvania has something peculiar to itself that renders this task harder in it than in al1 American Magaztne and Monthly Chrontcle, 57-68; Xerox University Microfilms, roll 3505. It was a literary magazine, with colonial and political news, "by a society of gentlemen," published by William Bradford. 166 Pennsylvania GenealoRical MaRaztne Vol. 44 (2005) 2005 The 1757 English Militia Law 167 most any other country. We arc at present a trading and not a military colony, and of eight religious denominations that are of most note among us, (if we follow the example of our mother country) we can only depend on four to bear arms. The Roman Gatholicks arc excluded for political reasons; the Unitas Fr~ trum or Moravlans, arc exempted from all personal service by an act of parliament in 1749; and the Quakers and Menontsts, two numerous and wealthy societies, cannot bear arms consistent with their religious tenets; so that the danger and burden of publlck defence is devolved on the members of the church of England, the English and German Presbyterians, the Lutherans, and the English Baptists. But these will think it hard and unequal to maintain their neighbours in ease and safety ... A detailed analysis of who could or would serve and the cost to the colony then followed. PENNSYLVANIAMILITIAACTS At the time of the English act, Pennsylvania had passed two recent militia laws of its own. On 25 November 1755 the Assembly had codified the volunteer militia organization known as Associators that had been in existence since about 1747. Pennsylvanians, unlike the residents of most of the other colonies, believed that any militia should be voluntary and nongovernmental. This is made dear in the title of this legislation: "An Act for the better ordering and regulating such as are Willing & desirous to be united for Military purposes within this Province. "2 In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin says that he had: drawn a Bill for establishing and disciplining a voluntary Militia, which I carried thro' the House without much Difficulty, as Care was taken in it, to leave the Quakers at their Liberty. To promote the Association necessary to form the Militia, I wrote a Dialogue, stating and answering all the Objections I could think of to such a Militia, which was printed & bad as I thought great Effect.3 The 1755 act was eventually disallowed. There was no small amount of dickering over a new act, with the interwoven aspects of religion and finance being thorny points. In the early spring of 1757, Governor William Denny, who was himself being nagged by Lord Loudoun, ent the ·incial Council: rteiJof Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Toco. Fenn & Co. .-.r.<Lllu..u .....,,"""..,." ~aat.~r •• -~r----- and Henry Flanders, Statutes at Large of Pennsylisburg; William Stanley Ray, 1898), 5:197-201 ]. The fuU tc;xt was published in the Pennsylt.tanta . page 1. • The Library of America series (New York: Viking J. A. Leo Lemay S3fS "This dialogue and the Militia eby & March l 7S6," although it ~ems much more Franklin W2S referring was •A Dialogue between :X, • State of Affairs in Pennsylvania,· Pennsylvania page 1. 168 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 44 Gentlemen: Being convinced that nothing could more cffectwllly secure the People of this Province from the Attack of the Enemy than a well trained and regular Militia, I thought it my Duty to recommend it to you, in the most pressing Terms, at your first Meeting in October last, to frame a ju t and equitable Militia Bill with all possible Dispatch. Moved by the same Sense of Duty, I must again request that you will not suffer a Matter of o great Importance to be any longer delayed. /s/ William Denny; March 21, 1757. A few weeks later, he lamented in a letter to William Pitt, "As the ~ embly of this Province seem determined not to offer such as Militia Bill, as can be passed, I hope the Parliament will please to take it into Consideration, ... "4 The "Act for Forming and Regulating the Militia" finally passed 29 March 1757. It directed that lists be made of males "abov th age of Seventeen and under Fifty-FiveYears, noting against every N amc to what R ligious Society each Person belongs, especially such as are Papists." Catholics were not to bear arms, but were to report to mu ter; religious groups "against bearing arms," which included Quakers and Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren, Moravians), were exempt. 5 Men would report for a six-hour muster on the first Monday of June, August, November, and March (note that this is considerably fewer days than in the English Militia Act).6 Many people thought the act gave too much power to the governor, who in turn thought he hadn't been given enough. This, then, helps explain the reaction in the American Magazine to the English Militia Act. quoted above. The politics of the publisher, William Bradford, were decidedly anti-British and pro-independent-rule by the colonies. Although legislation adjusting elements of the act were later passed, there was not another comprehensive militia act until 1777.7 The best analysis of this law and explanation of the operation of the militia ap-peared in this journal in a lengthy article by Hannah Benner Roach, "The Pennsylvania Militia in 1777."8 She began by commenting "The organization of the Pennsylvania militia, ... has never been adequately explained or fully understood." Her thorough explanation remedies this. 9 4 Letter written 9 April 1757; Pennsylvania Archives, 1st series, 3(1853): 106. 5 The issue of raising troops in Pennsylvaniain areas with high pcrcencages of denominations with a conscientiou objection to armed conflict continued to be of great concern. Sec Douglas L Royer, "The Civil War Conscientious Objector: A Study of Conflict in Religious Belief and Republican Civic Virtue in Montgomery County," Pennsylvania GenealogtcalMagazine [PG.Ml 42(2001): 5-33. 6 Act for Forming and Regulating the Mili~ 1757, in Pennsylvania Archives, 1st series, 3(1853): 120-36; also Statutes at Large, 5:6o9-34. 7 Statutes at LMge, 9:75-94. 8 Hannah Benner Roach, "The Pennsylvania Militia in 1777/ PGM, 23(1964): 161229; also available as Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania publiation SPl. 9 For a practical genealogical appUcation, see in this issue David Kend2ll Martin's "Daniel McMullen:A Close Reading of a Wyoming Massacre List. 1778," PGM, 44:14253, at 144-45, 152-53.