Table of Contents

Colonel Edward Sexby’s Regiment of Foot

Active1650 to 1660
CountryEngland
AllegianceParliamentarian
ConflictsThird Civil War
Glencairn’s Rising
Restoration
TypeFoot
ColonelEdward Sexby
Thomas Reade
Area Raised
Coat ColourRed
Flag Colour
Flag Design
Field ArmiesMonck 1651
Monck 1659-60

Later Colonel Thomas Reade’s Regiment of Foot

Regiment of foot raised for service in Ireland, instead serving in Scotland throughout the 1650s and supporting Monck at the Restoration

Service History

1650

1651

1652

1653

1654

1655

1656

1657

1658

1659

1660

Notes

A history of the regiment is given in The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army by Sir Charles Firth and Godfrey Davies, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1940.

Sexby’s regiment were raised in June 1650 for service in Ireland but were instead sent to Scotland, where they served under Monck. Sexby was Court-Martialled in 1651 for hanging one of his soldiers and was replaced by Thomas Reade. Under Reade the regiment mainly served in garrison at Stirling, with detachments in the Highlands.

Reade was loyal to Monck and continued to lead the regiment up to the Restoration. It was disbanded at Tower Hill in October 1660.

Coats, Flags and Equipment

Red coats.

Notable Officers

Edward Sexby

Edward Sexby (c1616-1658) was an agitator, originally serving in Cromwell’s Ironsides, who rose to be governor of Portland in 1649. Made colonel of a newly-raised regiment in 1650, he was cashiered in 1651, became a prominent Leveller and plotted to kill Oliver Cromwell, he died as a prisoner in the Tower of London in 1658.

Thomas Reade

Reade had previously served with distinction as Lieutenant Colonel of Colonel Robert Overton's Regiment of Foot

Strength

See Also