Burslem Volunteer Corps - Document from the Enoch Wood Scrapbook

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Date:Not Recorded

Description:THAT a VOLUNTEER CORPS of INFANTRY be formed

Printed public notice announcing the resolutions from a meeting that took place in the Legs of Man in Burslem on June 2Oth, 1797.

A number of businessmen have decided to organise a local armed defence corps.

At the meeting it was decided that a book was to be opened so that members of the parish could enlist.

It was proposed at the meeting that the corps be armed by the government but that volunteers purchase their own uniform!

The Committee

Members of a committee, formed to organise the volunteer corps, are also named on the notice. They are;

JOHN ROGERS, Longport.
ENOCH WOOD, Burslem.
GEO. ROGERS, Longport.
JOHN ROBINSON, Burslem.
CHRIS. ROBINSON, Burslem.
CHA. COTTON, Burslem.
ROBT. WILLIAMSON Junior, Longport.
JOHN ADAMS, Cobridge.
GREGY HICKMAN, Burslem.
WILLIAM DANIEL, Newport.


Volunteer Corps

The French Revolution in 1789 signalled the start of a very turbulent period in European history.

During the 1790s the French Revolutionary government waged war on much of Europe, including Italy, Spain, the Netherlands. In 1793 the Republic declared that it was at war with Great Britain.

Fear of invasion prompted the organisation of voluntary home defence forces all over the country.

Added urgency!

There is a document in the collection from 1803, giving notice of similar attempts to form a volunteer corps.

The notice from 1803 has a more urgent introduction, possibly because France were being particularly hostile at the time.

Wood and the volunteer corps

Enoch Wood was a central character in the formation of a local volunteer corps for the Burslem area. His name appears in virtually every committee created to organise and decide how the corps should be run.

About this Document

This article was printed by Tregortha in Burslem. It was collected by local industrialist Enoch Wood and is now part of the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.

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