Henry Float (1788-1824) and Sarah Scott (1799-1828).
My 5th-great-grand uncle and aunt.
Henry was baptised on 26 March 1788 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex. His parents were William Float and Sarah Michel and he grew up in the village.
After a spell working as a labourer, he signed up to serve in the army as a private in the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Foot Guards, which was subsequently named the Grenadier Guards and was the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army. He served in the Battle of Waterloo in the fight against Napoleon but left the army early after being injured.
A Regimental Register of Pensioners for the 1st Foot Guards suggested that he served for more than four years, but another pensions record noted that he enlisted on 5 April 1813 giving a total service period of two years and three months. The discrepancy arises from the fact that soldiers who served at the Battle of Waterloo were allowed to add two bonus years to their pensionable service as a reward.
By the time Henry joined, the Guards had long been involved in the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal, fighting with the Iberian nations in order to drive the invading French under Napoleon Bonaparte back to France. In late 1813, however, the 2nd Battalion – of which Henry was a part – was posted to the Netherlands. In 1814 – the year that Napoleon was defeated and went into his first exile – it’s more than likely that Henry was in present-day Belgium.
In 1815 Napoleon escaped from exile and landed in France, where he gradually marched his forces northwards. By June he had tens of thousands of men at his disposal, and it was in that month that he faced Britain and its allies. Henry would’ve been involved in the Battle of Quatre Bras in Belgium on 16 June, in which Wellington scored a tactical victory over the French but was stated to have lost strategically because Napoleon’s forces had prevented him going to the aid of an allied Prussian force that were fighting a larger French army under Napoleon’s command.
Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June, when British forces under the Duke of Wellington finally defeated the French over the course of the day. It was later in the course of events that the British 1st Foot Guards came into their own, when their commander Peregrine Maitland ordered them to stand and fire at the approaching Imperial French forces (he’d previously ordered them to lie down to protect them from cannon fire). The firepower the French faced resulted in the deaths of several of their senior officers and many men. The Foot Guards followed up with a bayonet charge. It was a significant moment in the overall battle but it ended badly for Henry because he was injured by a gunshot in his face and lost his right eye.
He was pensioned out of the service on 15 February 1816 having received the Waterloo Medal. He was described as a labourer on his pension documents and just over 5ft 10ins tall, with a dark complexion, dark eyes and dark hair.
Henry married local woman Sarah Scott at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex, on 10 October 1818. She’d been baptised in the village on 10 November 1799, the daughter of George and Barbara Scott, and went on to have three children with her husband. But Henry died young, in 1824, and was buried on 1 December in Washington. Whether his death was related in any way to his military service is unknown. Sarah remarried in Washington on 1 October 1826, her new husband being William Naldret, but she too died young and was buried in nearby Storrington on 15 September 1828.
Henry and Sarah’s children were:
- Barbara Float (1819-1857), who was baptised in Washington, Sussex, on 31 August 1819. She was sentenced as a servant to one month in prison in 1837 for stealing two pairs of stockings from her master in Storrington (Sussex Advertiser 10 April 1837). The following year, on 16 September 1838, she married agricultural labourer Charles Farrow in Pagham, Sussex, and they settled in the parish – the 1851 Census listed them in the Nyetimber neighbourhood. They raised a family but Barbara died in 1857 and was buried in the village on 12 February. Charles died in 1885 and was buried in Pagham on 24 December.
- George Float (1821-1842) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, on 15 October 1821 and worked as an agricultural labourer. He died in the Thakeham Union Workhouse at Heath Common, Sussex, in 1842 – probably as a result of an illness that was being treated in its infirmary – and was buried in Washington on 2 May.
- Frances Float (1824-????) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, on 1 June 1824 but I’ve been unable to find records that can be clearly linked to her.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, military and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and familysearch.org.
Workhouses.
Waterloo and associated military information at Waterloo Association and Grenadier Guards.
Military and Royal Hospital Chelsea pension records at National Archives under WO 97, WO100, WO12.