Sir Lewis Dyve’s Regiment of Foot
The last of the "that's a cracking discount, must buy a big expansion for 2020" figures - which turned out to be 13 Regiments of Horse, 4 Regiments of Foot, some mule trains, and a few bits and bobs. I will of course continue to document my older units, which appeared only briefly on the blog.
Sir Lewis Dyve raised a Regiment of Foot in late 1642. They were part of the King's Oxford army and fought at Edgehill, possibly Aylesbury, Turnham Green (if they were at Turnham Green, one would presume that they were present at Brentford also), First Newbury, Cropredy, Lostwithiel, Second Newbury, Dorchester, Blandford, Weymouth, and the siege of Sherborne Castle.
A Parliamentarian newspaper report describes four white coated regiments at Aldbourne Chase muster on April 10th 1644: there were a number of regiments present at the muster, and we know their coat colours (which weren't white) apart from four - Dyve's, Cooke's, Duke of York's and Bernard Astley's. So it is quite possible that Dyve's wore whitecoats. A number of websites list their coat colours as being grey, but provide no evidence. We also know the colour of their colours - a yellow field with red balls.
Sir Lewis was captured at the siege of Sherborne and was sent to the Tower of London; he was sent for trial at the Court of the King's Bench but managed to escape whilst being transferred. He took up arms again and was captured at Preston, this time earning himself imprisonment at Whitehall. He managed to escape from there too, which he recorded in his diaries as the planned day of his execution: he leapt from a second floor toilet chute into the Thames at high water, swimming to a waiting boat. He then fled to Ireland to join the Royalist cause.
He died two years later having gambled much of his fortune away. He is buried at Combe Hay in Somerset.
Sir Lewis Dyve raised a Regiment of Foot in late 1642. They were part of the King's Oxford army and fought at Edgehill, possibly Aylesbury, Turnham Green (if they were at Turnham Green, one would presume that they were present at Brentford also), First Newbury, Cropredy, Lostwithiel, Second Newbury, Dorchester, Blandford, Weymouth, and the siege of Sherborne Castle.
A Parliamentarian newspaper report describes four white coated regiments at Aldbourne Chase muster on April 10th 1644: there were a number of regiments present at the muster, and we know their coat colours (which weren't white) apart from four - Dyve's, Cooke's, Duke of York's and Bernard Astley's. So it is quite possible that Dyve's wore whitecoats. A number of websites list their coat colours as being grey, but provide no evidence. We also know the colour of their colours - a yellow field with red balls.
Sir Lewis was captured at the siege of Sherborne and was sent to the Tower of London; he was sent for trial at the Court of the King's Bench but managed to escape whilst being transferred. He took up arms again and was captured at Preston, this time earning himself imprisonment at Whitehall. He managed to escape from there too, which he recorded in his diaries as the planned day of his execution: he leapt from a second floor toilet chute into the Thames at high water, swimming to a waiting boat. He then fled to Ireland to join the Royalist cause.
He died two years later having gambled much of his fortune away. He is buried at Combe Hay in Somerset.
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What a man! I must add him to my own armies...
ReplyDeleteWould be rude not to I think
DeleteI said at the time I posted my version that a beer with him would be sure to be entertaining.. not changed my mind... :o)) Did you read about how he made that last escape into the Thames? Climbed out via the toilet chute... LOL!
ReplyDeleteCertainly a character, think he'd make my list of 'people I'd like to have had a beer with' too.
DeleteThe account I read of his escape omitted the toilet chute bit. Feel slightly cheated now!
LOL... " John Evelyn records in his Diary on 6 September 1651 that Dyve dined with him and related the story of his "leaping down out of a jakes two stories high into the Thames at high water, in the coldest of winter, and at night; so as by swimming he got to a boat that attended for him, though he was guarded by six musketeers." For a story like that the first round would definitely be on me.. I might even go as far as a packet of dry roasted peanuts as well.. :o))
DeleteAbsolutely! Thanks for the info Steve, much appreciated
DeleteDyve by name, Dyve by nature! :-)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
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