Militia ( Great Britain ) The Militia of Great Britain were the principal military reserve forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain during the 18th century . For the period following the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 , see Militia ( United Kingdom ) . Great Britain . In 1707 , the Acts of Union united the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain . The English and Welsh Militia and the Scottish Militia became part of the framework of the new British armed services . The Royal Scots Navy was incorporated into the Royal Navy , and the Scottish military ( as opposed to naval ) forces merged with the English , with the regular Scottish regiments maintaining their identities , although the command of the new British Army was from England . The Militia Act 1757 had effect only in England and Wales and aimed to create a professional national military reserve . Records were kept , and the men were selected by ballot to serve for longer periods . Uniforms and weapons were provided , and the force was ' embodied ' from time to time for training . The threat of Ireland ' s belligerent all - Protestant militia to copy the American colonists and seek to free their country from British control if Ireland ' s demands for free trade were not met , and the inability of the British , after years of war overseas , to police Ireland easily , would later lead to the Union of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 . The militia was embodied at various times during the French and Napoleonic Wars . It served at several strategic locations and was particularly stationed on the South Coast and in Ireland . A number of camps were held at Brighton , where the militia regiments were reviewed by the Prince Regent , the origin of the song " Brighton Camp " . The militia could not be compelled to serve overseas , but it was seen as a training reserve for the army , as bounties were offered to men who opted to ' exchange ' from the militia to the regular army . Scottish militia . In the late 17th century , while the Kingdom of Scotland was still an independent country sharing a monarch with England , there were calls for the resurrection of the country ' s militia , with the understated aim of protecting the rights of Scots from English oppression . Following the merger of Scotland into the new Kingdom of Great Britain , the British Militia Act of 1757 did not apply in Scotland . There , the old traditional system continued , so that militia regiments existed in some places and not in others . This was resented by some , and the Militia Club , soon to become the Poker Club , was formed in Edinburgh to promote the raising of a Scottish militia . This and several other Edinburgh clubs became the crucible of the Scottish Enlightenment . The Militia Act of 1797 empowered the Lord Lieutenants of Scotland to raise and command militia regiments in each of the " Counties , Stewartries , Cities , and Places " under their jurisdiction . Irish militia . The Parliament of Ireland passed an act in 1715 raising regiments of militia in each county and county corporate . Membership was restricted to Protestants between the ages of sixteen and sixty . In 1793 , during the Napoleonic Wars , the Irish militia were reorganized to form thirty - seven county and city regiments . While officers of the reorganized force were all Protestants , membership of the other ranks was now opened up to members of all denominations , including Roman Catholics . Colonial militias . The English had raised militia forces in their settled colonies in the New World immediately upon establishing them in the first decade of the 17th century . Whereas militias in England remained little used during the following century , those in the North American colonies were to play significant roles . In many actions fought with Native Americans , the militia were the primary English force in the field , as professional full - time military forces were usually far away . Even when the English colonies around the world became the British Empire , and regular forces began to become available for garrison duty , militias were still a vital part of Great Britain ' s military power in the Americas , and British victory over Spain and France during the Seven Years War , and its resulting hegemony in North America , could not have been realised without the colonial militias and their Native allies . It was the presence of their militia that allowed thirteen American colonies to launch the secessionist American War of Independence . In Bermuda , settled in 1609 , with no native population , the Militia followed a trajectory more like that in Britain , finally becoming moribund after the American War of 1812 , by when the build - up of regular forces had removed the demand for the militia . Nevertheless , during the first century of its settlement , Bermuda ' s militia had remained the colony ' s sole defence , manning its fortifications and coastal batteries and calling up all available manpower in times of war . This included slaves and indentured servants , among whom were Irish and Scottish Prisoners of war ( POW ) , forcibly removed from their homelands following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the invasion of Scotland by England during the Third English Civil War and sold to the highest bidder . Large numbers of Irish POWs and civilians were sold in Bermuda , where they were highly antagonistic to the English majority . In 1661 , the local government alleged that a plot was being hatched by an alliance of Blacks and Irish , one which involved cutting the throats of all the English . The Irish were perceived as the chief instigators of this plot . Governor William Sayle prepared for the uprising with three edicts : The first was that a nightly watch be raised throughout the colony ; second , that slaves and the Irish ( defined by the government as indentured servants , though imported and sold against their will ) be disarmed of militia weapons ; and third , that any gathering of two or more Irish or slaves be dispersed by whipping ( a ban was also placed on the further importation of Irish to Bermuda ) . Enslaved Bermudians continued to serve in the colony ' s militia , however , which was to lead a unique judgement on their rights as British subjects . By the 18th Century , virtually all Bermudian men were engaged in the maritime trades , including building and crewing ships . The colony ' s dependence on its seamen was such that the Royal Navy excluded them from impressment , to which all other British seamen were liable . Perennially short of manpower , the crews of Bermuda ' s merchant fleet ( most of which turned to privateer ing whenever war broke out ) were required , by local law , to contain a percentage of black sailors , most of whom were enslaved . British law at the time required that all crewmen of British vessels be British subjects , which slaves were not generally considered to be . Following the arrest of a Bermudian vessel by the Royal Navy due to its enslaved crewmembers , Bermudian ship owners protested to the courts that their service in the Militia meant that Bermuda ' s slaves should be considered British subjects , and this view was upheld by the courts . Bermuda ' s seasonal occupants of the Turks Islands also raised militias there , as their lucrative salt trade invited attacks from enemies , foreign ( France and Spain ) and domestic ( the Bahamas ) . The fortifications built in Bermuda by the militia ( including the Castle Islands Fortifications ) , starting in 1612 , remain the oldest English new world structures , as well as the first stone fortifications , the first coastal artillery , and the oldest surviving fortifications built by the English in the New World . The Militia manned these fortifications with standing bodies of artillerymen ' til the fortifications were taken over by the regular British Army following the American War of Independence , with some , like Fort St . Catherine ' s , used well into the 20th Century .