Monmouthshire & Brecon Militia - Wiltshire Militia (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, July 28, 2012, 17:38 (4504 days ago) @ rookancestrybest

Hi Jenny,
apologies if you already knew this:

The Brecon Militia were absorbed into the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers Militia based at Monmouth Castle. They still exist as part of the Terriers and have an excellent archive website see
http://www.monmouthcastlemuseum-archives.org.uk/index.php

I can't persuade the Enlistment (aka attestations) "search database" to work, but if you click "list all surnames" then "Richards" it gives 43 results. Your post is ambiguous wrt Robert's estimated birthdate, I think you mean 1788 not 1778 as per your title, please clarify ?); if so then this seems a likely match altho his given occupation of "sailor" seems odd?.

Richards, Robert
Date of attestation: 1807-12-23
Place of attestation: Llandilo
Attested by: Principle
Place of birth: Monmouth Monmouthshire
Age at enlistment: 18 years
Occupation: Sailor
Height at enlistment: 5 feet 4 inches
Physical description: Complexion fresh; eyes grey; hair brown; face round
Record of service: Corporal 26/09/1809

Suggesting born abt 1788

I thought there may be a record for Stephen altho it appears not ?.
Eitherway I hope this superb and highly informative website is of interest, contacting the Museum may be worthwhile.

Clicking the website's "Records Held Elsewhere" and searching "Richards" gives this inforamtion as already shown by MPG, so it looks like brother Stephen was indeed within the Monmouth Militia prior to the Wiltshire, presumably after moving there;

Royal Hospital Chelsea
Soldiers Service Documents: Robert Richards 1807-1829
The National Archives WO 97/1107/8

Royal Hospital Chelsea
Soldiers Service Documents: Stephen Richards 1792-1816
The National Archives WO 97/1107/9

Royal Hospital Chelsea
Soldiers Service Documents: Stephen Richards 1792-1816
The National Archives WO 97/1107/9

The Wiltshire Militia are covered within this website which appears to be still "work in progress" http://history.farmersboys.com/index.htm
The site states that it has a "Searchable index of almost 5,000 Wiltshire Militia attestation papers. These papers are at the National Archives, but have been indexed by our museum's volunteers. Almost 2,000 were born outside Wiltshire."
Again it may well be worthwhile contacting the site's historians.

Finally, I don't have an Ancestry subscription but searching their home page for Robert gives following clues, one is a private member's photo/document for his War Service record (perhaps you are this member?). Also a FreeBMD Death Index entry that may possibly be your Robert:

Surname Given Name Age District Volume Page Transcriber
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deaths Jun 1870
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richards Robert. 80 Brecknock 11b 76 rocky

Suggesting this Robert's birth was abt 1790, and the 1870 death seems reasonable as you say Stephen lived with him until dying in 1865 in Brecon aka Brecknock.
However as FreeBMD shows this is an extremely popular name in the area so ????.

Re Ancestry I use the free-access Library version. Recently our local(Uxbridge, Middlesex) Librairies have also subscribed to FindMyPast. This site seems to carry more Military records than Ancestry, including the above mentioned Militia & Chelsea Pensioner Records, all viewable f-o-c.
I hope this is of some help.