Samuel the Soldier

One of the most well documented Madder family trees in my one-name study is that descended from Samuel Madder (1804-1870). I became interested in him for three reasons:

1. He was a tailor, as were many of my Madders.
2. In 1827 he married Frances Stolworthy in Fakenham, Norfolk. My Madders came from the same area.
3. His place of birth was Chelmsford, Essex. This was my own place of birth and where my Madder line arrived about 1870.

In the 1841 and 1851 censuses Samuel and his family were living in Windsor, before moving to London, where he died in 1870. I discovered he was baptised in Chelmsford on 15^th Jun 1804, the son of Samuel and Catherine – in fact he was baptised as Samuel Taylor Madder – a clue to his mother’s maiden name? I have yet to find a marriage, if in fact they were married!

Samuel next appears in a list of children admitted to the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea. He was aged 4 when he was admitted on 16^th May 1809.  His parents were given as Samuel and Charlotte (Is this or the name on the baptism wrong – or is it a second wife?) and his father’s regiment was the 3^rd Regiment of Foot Guards. He was discharged on 4^th May 1818 to William Cook of Eaton, Bucks, presumably as an apprentice. Is Eaton in Bucks the same place as  Eton, near Windsor, where Samuel was in business in 1841?

There the search ended, for a while, until I discovered findmypast had put some Napoleonic War Records 1775-1817 online I searched this for Madder and Samuel Madder was one of two names that came up (More about the other another time). Both were in the Regimental Indexes for 1806. The transcription showed that Samuel had enrolled on 24^th November 1800 in the 3^rd Foot Guards +. I was intrigued by the + but had to wait until I went to the TNA to see the original.

WO 25/876 Samuel Madder is just below the centre fold

WO 25/876 showed me that the + meant that Samuel Madder had been in the Norfolk Fencibles (a yeomanry force) from 10th July 1798 to 10 May 1800, when he joined the 3^rd Foot Guards. This proved another Norfolk connection for Samuel. Was there anything else I could find out about him? I was told that I might be able to find him in the muster/pay books of the regiment, so this Tuesday, armed with a few TNA references I caught the coach to Kew.

After a false start of ordering the wrong documents, I eventually worked my way through WO 12/1802 to 1812. These were the muster lists for the 3^rd Regiment of Foot Guards from December 1799 to June 1810. Unlike other Army muster lists each covered six months 25 Jun – 24 Dec and 25 Dec – 24 Jun and were divided up by Company. All I had to do was find the right Company and follow it through. As expected there was no mention of Samuel in WO 12/1802 but I found him in WO 12/1803 Dec 1800 – Jun 1801 in Col Thomas Grosvenor’s Company, which helpfully said that he had entered on 14^th March (1801)

Extract from WO 12/1803
Col Grosvenor's Company 25 Dec 1800 to 24 Jun 1801

I followed him through until I got to Jun 1802 – Dec 1802 – he wasn’t there! I searched through all the lists and found him in Lt Col George Henry Duffield’s Co. In 1803 he moved to Lt Col Thomas Carey’s Co, and two years later to the Company of Lt Col Sir Windham William Dalling. He stayed there until 1808 when he was in Lt Col Thomas William Gordon’s Co. By June 1809, together with the rest of the 1st Battalion 3rd Foot Guards, they were serving in Portugal, under the Duke of Wellington.

The battalion fought at the battle of Talavera on 28th July 1809 and suffered casualties of 5 officers killed and 6 officers wounded and 49 men killed and 261 men wounded out of strength of approx 1350 men. Samuel must have survived this, or perhaps was one of the wounded, as he died between 15^th October 1809 and 6^th January 1810. He had obviously become a Corporal at some point.

Page from Casualty List from 25 Dec 1809 to 24 Jun 1810
WO 12/1811 (Samuel Madder about a quarter of the way down)

I still have to go back to the TNA to look at the Pay books, which may give me a bit more information. I have also heard that I might be able to get his Service Record. These  records for soldiers in Guards regiments  are held by the Regimental HQ – the TNA only has pension records.

So there may be more about Samuel Madder in a later post and more about how he connects to my family tree.