List of British fencible regiments

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This is a list of British fencible regiments. The fencibles (from the word defencible) were British Army regiments raised in Great Britain and in the colonies for defence against the threat of invasion during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars in the late 18th century. Usually temporary units, composed of local volunteers, commanded by Regular Army officers, their role was, as their name suggests, usually confined to garrison and patrol duties, freeing up the regular Army units to perform offensive operations.

The article is broken into two periods the first list is for the fencible regiments raised during the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence the first was raised in 1759 two years after the start of the Seven Years' War and the last was disbanded in 1783 when active hostilities with the America colonies ended and the British recognised the de facto existence of the United States of America to be formalised by the Peace of Paris (1783).

There is a far larger list for the French Revolutionary Wars and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The regiments were raised during a time of great turbulence in Europe when there was a real fear that the French would either invade Great Britain or Ireland, or that radicals within Britain and Ireland would rebel against the established order. There was little to do in Britain other than garrison duties, escorting and guarding prisoners as happened at Edinburgh Castle and some police actions.^[1] In Ireland there was a French supported insurrection in 1798 and British fencible regiments were engaged in some minor pitched battles. Some regiments served outside Great Britain and Ireland. Several regiments performed garrison duties on the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. A detachment of the Dumbarton Fencible Regiment escorted prisoners to Prussia, and the Ancient Irish Fencibles were sent to Egypt where they took part in the operations against the French in 1801.

When it became clear that the rebellion in Ireland had been defeated and that there would be peace between France and Britain in 1802 (The preliminaries of peace were signed in London on 1 October 1801) the Fencible regiments were disbanded. The final ratification of the Peace of Amiens was concluded in March 1802. When hostilities were renewed with France during the Napoleonic Wars the British used alternative methods to defend the Home Nations (see for example the Additional Forces Acts 1803) and with the exception of the Royal Manx Fencibles (third corps, 1803–1811) no more fencible regiments were raised for home defence.

Several fencible regiments were raised in the early 1800s in Britain for the defence of Canada, some of these saw active service during the Anglo-American War of 1812 (see the section (Further information).