A few years later John Churchill reached an age – eighteen years – when he was deemed ready to accept his first commission, and was given a regiment of Grenadier Guards. It was a new regiment. Some men and armaments and other necessaries were made available to him, but he had to raise the rest himself, and so he did the natural thing and recruited many soldiers and non-commissioned officers from his father's militia regiment in Dorset – including me and Jack. For there is a difference ‘twixt Families and Regiments, which is that the latter have no female members and cannot increase in the natural way – new members must be raised up out of the soil like crops, or if you will, taxes.