These five regiments represent the bulk of the French military refugees. They were disbanded in 1699; but in the wars of Queen Anne they reappeared under new Colonels, reinforced by subalterns of a younger generation. From an old pamphlet I extract a tabular view of the strength of each regiment in 1698:
| No of Companies. |
Officers. | Non-Commissioned Officers. |
Privates. | Total. | |
| Galway’s Horse | 9 | 113 | 45 | 531 | 689 |
| Miremont’s Dragoons, | 8 | 74 | 144 | 480 | 698 |
| Marton’s Foot, | 13 | 83 | 104 | 780 | 967 |
| La Melonière’s do., | 13 | 83 | 104 | 780 | 967 |
| Belcastel’s do., | 13 | 83 | 104 | 780 | 967 |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | ||
| 436 | 501 | 3351 | 4288 |
An English list spells the names of the regiments thus:—
Lord Galloway’s, Mermon’s, Martoon’s, Lamellioneer’s, and Belcastle’s. Hibentia Notitia calls them Gallway’s, Moliniere’s, Lifford’s, Belcastle’s and Miremont’s.
6. officers who served in piedmont (p. 187).
Ruvigny, Earl of Galway (then Viscount Galway), had from 1693 to 1696 a regiment, known as Lord Galway’s Regiment in Piedmont. Jacques Saurin (born 1677, died Dec. 1730), the celebrated pulpit orator, was a student in Geneva about the time of Galway’s appointment to his command in Piedmont. The young refugee scholar, though he had dedicated his life to the use of the spiritual sword, was determined to have one rap at the French dragoons with carnal weapons. He accordingly served as a subaltern in the above-named regiment, and when the peace had been arranged, he returned to his studies.
Cornet Vilas, of Galway’s regiment, son of a medical practitioner in Saint Hypolite, was a prominent agent in a plot to surprise Nismes and Montpellier, and to carry off, to the Anglo-Dutch fleet, Basville, the Duke of Berwick, and otlier officers of the highest rank, along with the judges and bishops of the two towns — Basville to be executed, the rest to be detained as hostages. The conspiracy failed. Vilas was broken on the wheel, and died with the greatest fortitude, 23d April 1705. A storm that dispersed the fleet was the immediate occasion of the failure. Two French refugee officers, who were shipwrecked, fell into the hands of their great enemy; Pierre Martin, captain in the English service, was hanged, and Charles de Goulaine holding a Dutch commission, was beheaded.
In 1740 Captain Lacan, late of Lord Galway’s regiment of foot in Piedmont, gave information of some Jacobite plots prepared in Holland by Sir George Maxwell, Captain Levingston, and others.
Officers from Piedmont, whose names a committee had stnick out of the Irish Establishment, were reinstated in their half-pay to the amount of £1012, by the King’s letter, dated 12th August 1718.
7. observations on the huguenot soldiers as a body (p. 188).
Old Schomberg wrote from Dundalk, 12th Oct. 1689, “When we arrived [in Ireland], I had not more than 6000 men, no equipages, and the officers of the army not one horse. I was happy that the troops found horses to buy; these did not answer our necessities. Among those who took some horses there are Frenchmen; and, I believe, people are very glad in the letters that they write from hence to lay the blame upon them. I do not take a side either way. Others can inform Your Majesty that the three regiments of French infantry, and their regiment of cavalry, do their duty better than the others.”
