"Lord Brooke's, the dyers regiment" Topic

As is becoming traditional on a lockdown Wednesday, a unit that appeared very briefly in the early days of my blog, gets it's moment in the spotlight. Today is Lord Brooke's Regiment of Foot, the dyers. To find out why they were nicknamed the dyers see link

Nice looking unit. Although I don't have this namesake regiment in my Parliamentary forces, I do have Lord Brooke as one of my commanders. Since I do have some unpainted Parliamentary units, I'll probably do one as this unit.

Jim

It would be rude not to Jim.

Nice!

Grand looking unit. Excellent addition! You're really cranking em out.

Thanks all

Interesting – do you know the source for the reference to Brooks being known as The Dyers?

Two thoughts spring to mind, firstly that they may have been raised in an area known for dye makers or Dyers, or they may have had a noticeable number of dyers apprentices in their ranks.

However, the other possibility is more interesting to me. For many years there have been various thoughts about whether or not they really wore purple coats and if so what that purple might look like. One way it was obtained in the C17th was by double dying. Once to obtain the blue then a second time to get the red. This method then gives a kind of purple. So the name might come about as a bit of jest at their expense, perhaps a slight at the vanity that they had these unique coats that had to be dyed twice, once not being good enough for this regiment.

If the reference is from Mercurius Aulicus then I think the double dying of their coats is very plausible.

Shame the regiment got mauled so early in the Civil War as it's only useful for a very short period. One day I'll paint them and will propose that my model unit survived Edgehill and Brentwood reasonably intact, remaining with Essex throughout the war.

I believe the source is "Letters from a subaltern officer of the Earl of Essex's army" by Nehemiah Wharton (discovered and recorded by Sir Henry Ellis) and refers to the number of apprentices that formed Holles/Brookes foot that fought at Brentford, namely butchers' boys and dyers' apprentices.

I've seen lots of secondary sources claim that it was from Royalist insults re: coat colours

Thanks – interesting stuff.