John Stoodley (1778-1862) soldier in the 1st Somerset Militia
Sgt. John Stoodley served for 31 years in the 1st Somerset Militia. His father and brother also served in the same regiment. For John’s first twenty years in uniform, Britain was at war with the French and the Militia were full-time soldiers ready to defend Britain from invasion by the enemy. One of his postings was in Bridgwater where he met his wife Martha Leaker.
His granddaughter Emma Stoodley, schoolmistress, also has a biography on this website.
An Army Family
The Stoodley family has been recorded as living in Crewkerne, south Somerset, as early as 1618. John was born into an army family. His father was Sgt. Benjamin Stoodley (1752-1839) who served in the 1st Somerset Militia for over forty years. As a boy Benjamin had trained as a shoemaker. He enlisted in 1770 and was promoted to corporal seven years later. He married Sarah Dyment in Crewkerne in November 1777 and their first baby, Benjamin junr, was baptised a month later. All seven of their children were born in Crewkerne.
According to his army service record, John was born on 13 July 1778, but he may have put his age up by a year or even two. His elder brother did much the same thing when he told the army in 1794 that he was eighteen. John was not baptised until 15 December 1780. After John there was a boy who died, three girls and then Joseph.
The first of the three brothers to enlist was John in February 1793. He was nominally fourteen, but perhaps younger, when he joined the 1st Somerset Militia as a boy fifer. Benjamin junr (1777-1861) enlisted in 1794 and served nearly twenty-two years in the 1st Somerset Militia as a drummer. The fife and drums were the regiment’s communication system. The high-pitched notes of the fife in particular could be heard above the noise of battle which might drown out a man’s voice. The beat of the drums could be heard for miles.
The youngest brother, Joseph, was born in 1791 so didn’t enlist until 1811. Britain was at war with Napoleon and Joseph volunteered for active service in the 1st Battalion, 82nd Regiment of Foot. This guaranteed that he served overseas, firstly in Spain and then in Canada. In 1819 Joseph went to Mauritius as a sergeant-major. The battalion returned home in 1832 and Joseph was promoted to ensign and adjutant without purchase in 1835 and then to lieutenant in 1837. He died in Gibraltar of consumption in 1839 and his widow had to plead for a pension for herself and their children.
A Soldier in the 1st Somerset Militia
France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793 and John enlisted two weeks later. There was a lot for John to learn about being a soldier and army life, as well as being trained as a musician. He was in the same regiment as his father, but not necessarily in the same company. There were about 600 men in 10 companies, though this changed from year to year according to need. The Militia served at home in Britain and Ireland. Often it was garrison duty but during wartime they were also assigned to coastal defences and guarding prisoners of war. John may have thought serving in Bodmin and Launceston was routine, but in Cornwall the soldiers were bitterly resented by the ordinary people for suppressing smuggling and breaking up the tin miners’ riots. The regiment’s routine was to camp wherever needed during the warmer months, usually somewhere along the coastline of the English Channel. Winter quarters were in a barracks such as at Plymouth or Taunton. Sometimes the regiment was split up into companies and sent to different towns including to Bridgwater.
King George III and his household spent the summers of 1799 and 1800 in residence in Weymouth and both years the entire 1st Somerset Militia marched there for garrison duty. Perhaps John was lucky enough to see the King and Queen going by in their carriage.
John served eight years as a fifer, mostly in the southwest but also in Dover and Ipswich. In February 1801, he was promoted to corporal, but not as a fifer. From then on he was assigned regular duties. During 1801 the strength of the each of the companies was increased to eighty men, which worked in John’s favour. He was now an experienced soldier and he was promoted to sergeant in September.
The Treaty of Amiens in March 1802 ended the war and the 1st Somerset was largely “disembodied” meaning disbanded, in April 1802 at Bridgwater. John, 24, continued to serve in the regiment but still it was a time for celebrations. Peace didn’t last as Napoleon declared war on Britain in May 1803.
In the meantime John had met a girl named Martha Leaker, 18, the daughter of a Bridgwater innkeeper. Martha probably met John while he was posted in Bridgwater with the Militia, and drinking at the Fleur de Lis.
Her parents were Charles Leaker, presumed to be from North Petherton, and his wife Lydia. Charles was landlord of the Fleur de Lis in St Mary Street. Martha was probably born in 1785 in Creech St Michael, near Taunton. There was significant flooding in Creech in 1794 and that may have been the incentive for Charles Leaker to move his family to Bridgwater two years later. John needed her father’s permission to marry Martha because at eighteen she was still a minor. He also needed a marriage licence because he was from another parish. Charles Leaker and Bridgwater hatter John Shutt both duly swore that John Stoodley was a bachelor, though the vicar recorded that John was a cordwainer (a maker of shoes) instead of a soldier. John and Martha were married in St Mary’s Bridgwater on 5 June 1803.
The regiment was increased to 1200 men in 12 companies to fight Napoleon. It was the role of John and other NCOs to train all those new and redeployed soldiers. As well as the regular drills and exercises there were competitions to find the best sharpshooters. Parties were sent to man the fire beacons on the hills, which were kept ready to spread the news of an invasion. The regiment settled back into its previous routine of the coastal defence of southern England, but this time militiamen were encouraged to volunteer for regiments fighting in Europe. John stayed with the Somerset Militia in which his father and his brother Benjamin were also serving. Some wives followed the regiment but it was a hard, unsettled life with no permanent home. They were expected to do chores such as the laundry for all the men and not just their own husbands. They travelled in the regimental baggage wagons and could be sent away anytime at the discretion of the commanding officer.
In the summer of 1809 the regiment supplied a training detachment to the local militia in Bridgwater and John may well have volunteered. John and Martha’s eldest son, John junior, was born about April 1810 and was baptised in Bridgwater. Their next child, Joseph, was born in Plymouth, so Martha was with the regiment then, but the rest of her children were born in Bridgwater.
On 29 December 1813, the regiment embarked at Plymouth bound for Ireland. It was a miserable New Year at sea for the soldiers. The weather was so bad that the seven transport ships were scattered and they were lucky to arrive safely in Cork. The regiment then marched to Kilkenny for garrison duty for nine months. Places on the ships for wives were very limited and Martha and the boys likely stayed in Bridgwater. When Napoleon abdicated the regiment was sent home and arrived at Plymouth in October 1814, expecting to be disbanded. The men are said to have to marched from Plymouth to Taunton in their breeches and leggings because their trousers were worn out. They arrived at the barracks only to be told that they were not going home, which resulted in much disappointment and a petition to the commander-in-chief signed by 200 men. Instead they marched to Dartmoor prison to help guard American prisoners of war. It wasn’t all routine. In April 1815 there was an attempted mass prison break and as the mob of prisoners surged towards the gates, an armed soldier, trapped at his post, fired his weapon. More soldiers started shooting and five prisoners were killed and thirty-four wounded. The newspapers ran headlines like “Horrid Massacre at Dartmoor Prison” but the army said that most of the shots went over the prisoners’ heads. The coroner’s inquest called it justifiable homicide.
Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and many soldiers of the 1st Somerset Militia were demobilised. John was discharged in 1827 after 31 years of service due to enlargement of his knee (arthritis) and defective vision. He was 5’ 8” tall with brown hair, hazel eyes, a fair complexion and his conduct had always been good.
Bridgwater
John was now forty-nine years old and an army pensioner. Altogether John and Martha had four sons and three daughters, of whom four were still at home when John retired. The youngest, Charles, wasn’t born until 1829, making five children to support. John’s pension would always save them from the workhouse, but if he could work the extra income would have been welcome. Unfortunately there were so many soldiers returning from the war that unemployment was high. Martha’s parents are presumed to have already died, but her brothers Charles Leaker junior and John Leaker werethe innkeepers of the Golden Ball and Fleur de Lis respectively, and maybe he gave John some casual work.
The next record of the family is in 1841 when they were living “In the Bath” meaning in a row of cottages near St Matthew’s Field and the Durleigh brook. John, 62, was recorded as independent and so not working, Martha was 50 and with them were Mary, 20, and Eliza, 15, and Charles, 11. Martha died in 1847 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Bridgwater.
John went to live with his daughter Mary, who had married Robert Day, shoemaker. In 1851 John, Mary, Robert and the children were living in West Street. John’s youngest son Charles, 21, a cabinet maker’s apprentice, was also with them. When Mary was widowed she worked as a laundress and cared for her elderly father. John’s army pension was helping to support the family. In 1861 they were living at Hamp and Charles and his wife and child lived next-door.
The years of peace after the defeat of Napoleon had helped end a family tradition at least for the sons of John and Martha. The fate of John junior is unknown. Joseph became a tailor and married Sarah Roberts, a sister of John Roberts, coachbuilder of Bridgwater. Benjamin was a painter, plumber and glazier in Bridgwater and he and his wife were the parents of Emma Stoodley, schoolmistress. Charles was a cabinet-maker.
John died aged 84 in November 1862 and was buried in the Wembdon Road Cemetery, in what is now an unmarked grave in section K. He was survived by at least four of his children and many grandchildren.
by Jillian Trethewey and Clare Spicer 26/6/2025
Sources
British Army service and pension records. The National Archives.
British Newspaper Archive
Kerr, W. J. W.. Records of the 1st Somerset Militia. 1931. Gale & Polden, Aldershot UK.
Parish registers and census records.