From Lionel S. Challis's "Peninsula Roll Call"
Is this the item you refered to Ian as it does state Peninsula service till Apr 1813?
Sorry for the delay in providing more details of Lt Jonathan Layton's life outside his service years.
Jonathan Layton was named after his father’s elder brother Jonathan (1742-1801), who was the squire/copyholder of Reedham Hall (Norfolk) until his death. Young Jonathan was born in Clippesby, the second son and third child of Charles Layton (1744-1791) and Catherine Lawne (1755-1837), and was baptized there on 24th February 1782. He was followed by seven more siblings - the last, Henry, being born only a year before his father died. The family lived at Clippesby Hall, as had his paternal grandparents Charles (1715-1772) and Elizabeth Pritchard (1716-1772). After the untimely death of her husband, Charles in 1791 (aged only 48), Catherine and her 9/10 small children may well have gone to live in Reedham Hall with her bachelor brother-in-law, the elder Jonathan. Upon his death in 1801 her children inherited most of his property and fortune, but were mostly under-age. The eldest son Charles took over the largest properties (Reedham, Salhouse, etc), while his brothers received smaller estates and/or cash legacies. Catherine apparently moved to Caister-next-Yarmouth (Caister on Sea), inherited by her youngest son Henry, as the property appears in her name on the inclosure map of 1802, or she may have stayed on at Reedham until her sons successively attained their majority (age of 21).
According to the Military List of 1805, Jonathan (1782-1836), the second son, began his military career as an Ensign in the Norfolk East Militia (15 May 1804) and was soon commissioned as Lieutenant on 22 Aug 1804 (aged 22); he became a militia Captain on 3 Sept 1806. His income must have derived mainly from the rents in Salhouse (a small estate owned by Hawes in 1798/9 but purchased by his uncle), which he had retained after inheriting it in 1801 from his wealthy uncle Jonathan (1742-1801). However, his older brother Charles sold his larger Salhouse estate in 1802 and, while living at Reedham Hall, became interested in acquiring further land and estates, including the two manors of Cantley, where he also purchased the lordship title from William Morriss (farmer and copyhold tenant of Cantley Uphall) on 25th August 1815, thereby becoming squire of both Cantley and Reedham.
Being in Harwich, he should have embarked for Sweden with part of the 1st Battalion and other forces led by Sir John Moore, arriving Gothenburg 7 May 1808. However, still pending trial, he was not permitted to join the expedition. He didn’t miss much as there was no action, only drills and exercises.
After two stints of service in the Peninsula ((Nov 1808 - Jan 1809, & July 1809 - Apr 1813), Jonathan returned to the depot in Kent for unknown reasons. In 1815 he was wounded in the wrist and side at Quatre Bras but is not listed among the wounded - so maybe the wounds were considered minor, enabling him to retain command of Charles Beckwith's 10th company at Waterloo?
On 1 May 1825 Jonathan Layton married Emily Mingay (from near Salhouse?) in St Marylebone, New Church, London. Did he still receive any income from his small estate in Salhouse, Norfolk, or had he sold it?
On 27 Dec 1828, when his half pay apparently ceased (10 years?, after a total of 21 years of service. What about the two years extra pay and pension promised to the victors of Waterloo?), Jonathan and Emily were living at No 47 London Street, Fitzroy Square, London; during the previous 5 years he had lived at Hermitage House & Reading, both in the county of Berkshire, and at No 24 Upper Marylebone St., Fitzroy Square, London (Jonathan Layton’s service record at Kew, WO 25/765/9. First page in the folio, urgently needs preserving as it is damaged through excessive handling).
Was this strictly true? Was he really still on half-pay? His sojourn in the White Cross Prison must have been in relation to his earlier insolvency and debts.
Jonathan Layton died 3rd July 1836 (aged 54), and was presumably buried somewhere in Marylebone/Regents Park; evidently he was not buried in Reedham. Was he among the 600 or so burials moved from inside the church to another cemetery?
18 July 1836 his widow, Emily Layton, claimed the balance (was there any?) of his half pay – no will left? She was then living at 6 Frederic Street, Regent’s Park. In the 1841 census she was possibly a domestic servant (35 rounded down) in the household of a merchant, James Duff, at 13 Harley Street, Marylebone. She remarried OND 1842 to William Mines, a retired oilman, and in 1851 they were living at 1 Windsor Cottage, Tavestock Road, Hampstead (she was then 47 and he was 49).
Well, that's about all I have. Apart from the Waterloo medal issued in 1816, he would also have been entitled to the campaign medal and five clasps for his Peninsular War service. However, they were not issued until 1847, long after his death in 1836, which explains why his name is missing from the medal rolls.
Hope this is of interest. Any comments or extra information would be much appreciated!
Does anyone know anything about the Late Issue Waterloo Medal awarded to those who fought between the 16th and 18th June 1815? It appears to have been distributed later, to those who were wounded (in hospital?) and who were not with their battallion/company at the time of the first issue. What were the actual dates of the first and late issues?
Lieutenant Jonathan Layton was wounded in the wrist and side at Quatre Bras on the 16th, but it seems impossible to know whether or not he was present and in command of the 10th company (Beckwith's) on the 18th. Does anyone have access to the pay list that immediately followed the final battle? If Jonathan was indeed hospitalised then I presume he would not figure in the 10th company's roll?
Hi, I may have given the wrong signals, but I do know that Jonathan received a Waterloo Medal (he is on the list just cited). However, according to Caldwell & Cooper's "Rifle Green at Waterloo" he did receive a Late Issue Medal and I was trying to find out more about the two, apparently separate, issues. Did the medals differ in any way and what was the time interval between their issue?
I shall be in England and hope to visit the PRO at Kew between 4th to 7th May - hopefully to find out more about the military career of my remote ancestor, Jonathan Layton. If anyone (perhaps Adrian?) has any tips on which series of records I should look at, to clarify his return home from the Peninsula in 1813 and his participation or non-participation in the actual battle of Waterloo (he was wounded in the wrist and side at Quatre Bras), I would be most grateful to hear from you.
You will need to bring proof of ID (drivers licence etc) and they will issue you with a readers card. The staff are helpful and will point you in the right direction but from experience they aren't familiar with everything so may take a bit of digging.
The set of files you are after are marked WO (for War office), and from memory all the monthly returns are in WO13. That is probably the easiest way to see his name on the roster during the Waterloo period. It's worth remembering that the returns are not listed by engagement/ battles but by monthly periods.
Service records are there but I have yet to look at them so I can't help you with that one.
Thanks Adrian, once again, for your advice. I have been to the PRO many moons ago, so I am aware of the bun fight to get documents!
He confirms that Layton commanded the company at QB but does not mention him at Waterloo at all. However he states that Layton's injuries were minor and I therefore believe that he continued to command the company at Waterloo. Here are the quotes.
Lieutenant Layton commanded the company, Lieutenant Stewart, Lieutenant Simmons, Lieutenant Felix, 2nd Lieutenant Wright, Mr Smith Volunteer, these officers constituted the mess, for whom I had to provide.
I sprang up & said ‘Fire it yourself.’ Layton entreated me to do so, not this time. The sergeant then placed his rifle over the stump, I pointing at (almost bent over him) a man at the corner of a wall. At this moment a round shot struck him in the face, dashing his head into long shreds or ribbons, throwing him backwards a distance of 10 yards. It was quite marvellous, his smashed head did not touch me, only a little sprinkling of blood. Layton & Felix were close by [&] observed ‘George Simmons, you really have a charmed life.
P. S. Reference late issue Waterloo Medals.
I was lucky enough a number of years ago to browse the original Waterloo Medal list at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant (I believe it is now held at Kew). It would seem that the lists sent in by regiments were not always correct and certainly not consistent in their approach; some including the dead others not etc. A number of medals were issued beyond the issue date of 1816 (memory serves me that the last listed was in the 1830's), some to families of deceased, others wounded or missing not on the return etc and even some for lost originals. There was no official re-issue date; they simply issued out spare medals (all cast together in the original batch) to claims as they came in and were accepted as genuine.
Gareth! Many thanks indeed for keeping an eye open for Lt Jonathan Layton. I had not expected to get any further with his career and exploits and I really needed to get George Simmon's own words rather than relying on Mark Urban's words. I am therefore most grateful for your verbatim extracts from the original journals and for your useful observations on the issuing of the Waterloo medal.
More details about the life of Jonathan Layton keep cropping up! On retiring on half pay in 1818, he appears to have returned to Reedham Hall in Norfolk, where his older brother Charles had lived until 1817 - continuing the family's ties with the property, dating from the 1730s. In 1822, however, he held a sale of livestock, farm implements, furniture, etc., and was no longer the tenant in 1823. Among his possessions up for auction were four peacocks, three Spanish asses, a rifle gun, mahogany loo table ('loo' was a popular card game), mahogany card tables, etc., which give some idea of his lifestyle and may well account for his economic downfall.
One wonders if he had brought the Spanish asses from the Peninsula in 1813, when he returned to England, and if his rifle gun was the one he might have used in the Peninsula and at Waterloo? Or did officers only have pistols and swords?
After a long silence, I have at last something more to add to the tale of Lt Jonathan Layton of the 1st battalion.
Named silver campaign medals (Waterloo 1815) were awarded for the first time to all men and officers that took part in the Waterloo battles and were distributed in early 1816. Lt Jonathan Layton must have received one but, possibly because of his wounds, he did not appear on the original medal roll (as was the case with a number of other officers and men). However, he appears on the late claims roll 5th February 1818; BUT, he is shown as ‘James Laton’, so his medal rim could possibly be named as this, and the name of the Regiment may well be ‘Late 95th, Rifle Brigade’ as a number of others were. I doubt he was pleased to receive his medal with the wrong christian name and misspelt surname!
Does a collector still have this medal? Jonathan may have pawned it when he was hard up in London!
The Views counter seems to have gone berserk... Nothing more to add unfortunately.