Sir Ralph Dutton's Regiment of Foote

Time for the Royalists to gain some reinforcements..  no idea how it happened but even though I usually paint one for one, the Royalists suddenly find themselves far behind Parliament in terms of unit numbers..

Before the paint brush was wielded then, the Royalists stood at two of foot, one of horse, one of dragoons and some artillery. Parliament however, stands at three of foot, two of horse horse, one of dragoons and the same amount of artillery..

This unit then will re-attain equality in foot for the Royalists, and represents Sir Ralph Dutton's Regiment of Foote. Not a lot I could find about the regiment (by far and away the best source is the ECW Wiki - link below - by the way) but they have the honour of being only the second regiment of foot raised for Charles at the start of the war...  they are described as arriving at Nottingham for the standard raising by Charles, 800 strong and with colours (that's them above) flying...

So they were there from the very beginning, and under their Lieutenant Colonel (Sir Stephen Hawkin), who took over the regiment approximately 1644, they served until the end of hostilities when they surrendered at Oxford in 1646.

In between they were present at the major engagement of Edgehill, Turnham Green, Bristol, first Newbury, Cheriton and the reliefs of Basing House and Donnington. All in all then, a veteran regiment of the Oxford Army, though at the time I have chosen to depict them - newbies, like most of the other regiments on both sides.. 

At the time in question little or nothing is known about uniform - the next year they may have been supplied with either all red, or all blue uniforms, while in garrison at Oxford. Much later in the war they are shown to have been uniformed all in white, but at Edgehill little or nothing is known. There's a really good and coherent argument on this forum [clicky] to indicate that Edgehill was so early in the war  that very few of the regiments may have had a uniform issue, so probably they were dressed in their normal civilian clothes (with the exception of armour etc) - it could also be argued that Dutton (and other colonel's) was known to be rich, and therefore may have made attempts to provide some kind of uniform look for his regiment...  I have gone for a mix of both views, with the men in largely brown trousers, and grey jackets, the kind of civilian type clothes I imagine it would have been possible to buy in numbers...

Speaking of which, Sir Ralph Dutton (of Stratton to differentiate him from the other branch of the family) was born about 1570-1580, and knighted by James I at Woodstock in August 1624. He was married to Mary the daughter of Sir William Duncombe by whom he had four sons and a daughter..  

• William, the first, died 3 days after birth in 1593
• Anna and John were both born c.1596 (John emigrated to America)
• Thomas was born 1619 (an interesting gap between births - it's not clear but I think Sir Ralph may have re-married at some point!)
• Ralph was born 1645 (created a baronet on the 22nd June 1678).

Sir Ralph died in 1646 said to have been wrecked and cast ashore on Burntisland possibly whilst travelling into exile. Interestingly, he compiled a manual of prayers for the use of the regiment.

Figures are mostly Gallia 15mm, the standard bearer is Freikorps, painted November '19..

Sources:

• KING CHARLES I's ARMY OF 1642 - Peter Young (Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Vol. 17, No. 66 - Summer, 1938) 
• ECW Wiki page for the Regiment - http://wiki.bcw-project.org/royalist/foot-regiments/sir-ralph-dutton