Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Unique ID: LON-0AFDB5
Object type certainty: Certain
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A Post Medieval lead alloy (pewter) military button of the 29th Regiment of Foot dating from AD 1773-1787. The 29th became the Worcestershire Regt of Foot in 1782. The front of the button has a concentric ring with the number 29 within. The button is cast in pewter with a separate iron shank, now missing. On the back is the name 'I NUTTING'. The button was manufactured by Joseph Nutting of No.15 Kings Street, Covent Garden.
Dimensions: diameter: 19.30mm; weight: 3.78g.
Bingeman J.M. and Mack A.T.(1997:49) write "Joseph (1) Nutting (1660-1722) Engraver. Married Ellen and had six children all born at Sandon, Hertfordshire. Their eldest son was:
Joseph (2) Nutting (1702-?) Occupation unknown. Married Ann Shelton in 1733 and had two children. The eldest was named John (1734) and the youngest was:
Joseph (3) Nutting (1736-?) Button maker. Married Elizabeth in 1778 and their two children were both born in King Street, Covent Garden. Their eldest being:
John George Nutting (1779-1864) Apprentice button maker on 2 October 1793 and gained his freedom (i.e. qualified) on 6 January 1801. He registered his mark (I. Nutting & Son) with his Father, Joseph (3), on 18 March 1803. Married Grace Henderson in1804.
Since Joseph (1) was an engraver and Joseph (3) was known to be a button maker, it is not inconceivable that Joseph (2) could also have been in the button business as the two trades are very akin to each other. There is a gap in documentary evidence but it seems likely that father and son (Josephs 2 and 3), could have been in partnership making buttons in the 'mid-1750s' and the source of the military buttons found in Invincible."
References:Bingeman J.M.and Mack A.T., 1997. The dating of military buttons: second interim report based on artefacts recovered from the 18th-century wreck Invincible, between 1979 and 1990,The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 26.1: 39-50.
Notes:
29th Regiment of Foot in the American Revolution
Early in the spring of 1776 at the start of the second year of the American Revolutionary War, the regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Gordon was sent with other British regiments to relieve the siege of Quebec City by an American army. On 25 July 1776 Gordon was shot and mortally wounded by Benjamin Whitcomb of Whitcomb's Rangers; Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Carleton of the 20th Regiment of Foot was then promoted to command the regiment. After pushing the American army down the Saint Lawrence River at the Battle of Trois-Rivières, men from the battalion companies served on board the ships of General Guy Carleton in the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain on 11 October 1776. In 1777, the Light Infantry Company and the Grenadier Company were with Lieutenant General John Burgoyne as he headed down from Montreal to Saratoga. Both the Light Infantry Company and Grenadier Company saw action at the Battle of Hubbardton under the command of Brigadier Simon Fraser, as part of his Advance Corps on 7 July 1777. Both companies surrendered with the rest of Burgoyne's Army after the defeats at Battle of Freeman's Farm and Battle of Bemis Heights in September and October 1777. The other eight Battalion Companies remained in Canada and took part in raids and small battles along the Vermont and New York frontiers during the rest of the American Revolution led by Major Christopher Carleton and Lieutenant John Enys.
On 31 August 1782 a royal warrant was issued conferring county titles on all regiments of foot that did not already have a special title. The regiment was retitled as the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot. The change was an attempt to improve recruitment, but no depot was established in the county, and Worcestershire recruits were liable to serve in any regiment. The regiment returned to England in 1787.
During the winter of 1791 Princess Augusta presented the regiment with the music of a march of her own composing, which received the name of 'The Royal Windsor'. The march, with its impressive drum cadence recalling later American marches, appears to have been composed by Princess Augusta at Windsor Castle under the tutelage of Lord William Cathcart. It appears that the Princess used material of Russian origin.
Inscription:
29
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1773
Date to: Exactly AD 1787
Quantity: 1
Weight: 3.78 g
Diameter: 19.3 mm
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Primary material: Lead Alloy
Secondary material: Iron
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
4 Figure: TQ3479
Four figure Latitude: 51.49407113
Four figure longitude: -0.07113608
1:25K map: TQ3479
1:10K map: TQ37NW
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.