yeomanry

A force of volunteer cavalrymen, formed on a county basis, and first embodied in 1794 to meet the challenge of the French Revolution. Despite regular training, discipline was not always good. The Irish Yeomanry, raised in 1796, was almost exclusively protestant and put down the 1798 rising with great severity. The Lancashire and Cheshire Yeomanry got into difficulties in 1819 trying to disperse the crowd at Peterloo. The yeomanry was merged with the Volunteers in 1907 to form the Territorial Army.