Wednesday 21 March 2012

Full and half pay rates


Following the previous post on the 1714 Half-pay list of regimental officers, it was thought convenient to collect some payment details. In the above figure the daily pay is given for officers of horse, dragoons and foot on the English and Irish Establishments.These numbers should be valid for the period 1689 up to the end of the Seven Years' War.

The full pay includes all, i.e., allowances for servants and for forage are in this number. For Irish full-pay not all rates could be found in literature, unfortunately.

One first observation is that Irish half-pay is exactly half of the full-pay (what one would expect ..). For the English Horse and Dragoons it is a little bit more complicated it seems. This probably had to do with different calculation for the servants and fodders, but the exact formula is still to be found. Any ideas are obviously welcomed!

(For those from the younger generations: one pound = 20 shilling, one shilling = 12 pence)