Colonel Robert Bennet’s Regiment of Foot

Parliamentarian foot serving in Barnstaple in 1644 and Cornwall in 1646 and 1648

• June: Regiment raised at Barnstaple, following its recapture
• July to August: Attack on Appledore Fort?
• September: Failed defence of Barnstaple Regiment disbanded.

• March: Regiment reforms
• March to August: Siege of Pendennis Castle
• Garrison of St. Michael's Mount and St. Mawes

• December: Bennet's colonelcy ends

• May: Skirmish at Penzance
• May: Gear Rout

Bennett was originally a Captain in Sir Samuel Rolle’s North Devon Trained Band Regiment of Foot. After the surrender of Barnstaple he appears to have gone to Pembroke returning after the recapture of the town in 1644 and raising a small regiment of foot. Following the second surrender the regiment appears to have broken up, reforming in 1646 for mopping up operations in Cornwall.

Bennett led 120 foot during May 1648 while putting down the Cornish rising.

Scans of Bennet's surviving correspondence can be found at the Folger Shakespeare Library website.

Robert Bennet served as governor of St. Michael's Mount and St. Mawes.

First Colonel's commission 24/07/44 - 18/09/44

Second Colonel's commission 28/02/46 - 10/12/47¹⁾

In between his command of these two regiments Bennet served as Treasurer and Commissary of Musters to Massey's Western Brigade.

From a Muster Roll of 06/07/46²⁾

• Colonel Robert Bennett
  • Captain Lieutenant Richard Gerry
• Lieutenant Colonel William Hinder
• Major William Holmes (24/07/44 - 18/09/44) and (28/03/46 - 11/11/46)³⁾
• Captain Samuel Kekewick
• Captain William Parker
• Captain Francis Vivian
• Captain Degory Cloake
• Captain William Keade
• Captain Francis Langdon
• Captain Christopher Hewer

The muster of 06/07/46 gives a strength of 904 rank and file with Capt Hewer having no men under him.

"The Gear Rout": The Cornish Rising of 1648 and the Second Civil War. Mark Stoyle. Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 37-58