Richard Beaumont of Birmingham - as Captain

The previous piece explained that Richard being a Captain in the 84th Regiment is wrong, based on the document appointing his brother as Chaplain having been misunderstood and indeed written over.

So was he a Captain at all? Yes he was.

Richard was first of all commissioned an "Ensign" in the Derbyshire Militia. That was in 1782 when he was 21 (original document in this Archive, Box 1/121; see this blog, 27 Jan.2014).

He then went to make his home in Birmingham but it seems did not give up his links with Derby, as in June 1789 he was made up to Lieutenant "additional to the Light Company" (still Derbyshire Militia) with effect 27 April (London Gazette 23 June 1789 page 455; Derby Mercury 25 June 1789).

This is part of a view of Birmingham looking from southwest to northeast. It depicts the town
as it was when St.Phillips church (upper left) was quite new (from Langford, vol. 2, frontispiece,
and said there to be drawn by J & N Buck, 1731).

Perhaps during the late 1790s or c.1800 Richard and his family moved from the centre of Birmingham to the new suburb of Ashted, where there was a Barracks. He was appointed a Captain in the First Battalion of the Loyal Birmingham Infantry. That was in October 1803 (London Gazette 8 October 1803 page 1380; Langford, A Century of Birmingham Life, 2nd Edition, 1871, vol. 2, page 291).

He was appointed a Captain in the Second Regiment of Local Militia, Warwickshire, on 24 September 1808 (original document in this Archive, Box 1/123) (London Gazette 9 September 1809 p.1455)(confirming date 24 Sep 1808).

Box 1/123

(All officers of the rank of Captain and above were designated Esquire)
(Please note the absence of any middle name)

This note made 26 February 2018