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Joseph Moore: 14th Regiment of Foot

For many years, my great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Moore, was little more than a name in the family tree. We knew only that he had served in India, married there and raised a family, but the details of his life were difficult to recover. A collection of military prize records, baptism registers and regimental records recently made available online now allows us to follow him through nearly twenty years of service with the British Army’s 14th Regiment of Foot.

Joseph arrived in India in 1813. Research undertaken by Beth le Page found him in the regimental musters as a recruit from England who joined the 14th Foot at Berhampore in Bengal in October 1813. The muster recorded previous service in the Lancashire Militia. I have not yet seen the original muster entry, so this remains dependent upon Beth’s transcription.1

The regiment Joseph joined already had a long Indian history. Its first battalion had sailed for India in 1807 and subsequently served in Java and elsewhere in South-East Asia before returning to Bengal.2 The 14th was stationed at Cawnpore and subsequently campaigned against the Pindaris and Mahratta forces before settling at Meerut.3

On 4 November 1816, Joseph married Elizabeth Jump at Cawnpore.4 Elizabeth had grown up within the 14th Foot because her father, Thomas Jump, was a private in the regiment.

Thomas came from Lancashire, where a parish record identifies a Thomas Jump, son of James and Betty Jump, as being baptised at North Meols on 3 June 1781. A military record identifies Thomas Jump as a private in the 1st Battalion, 14th Foot, enlisted on 18 April 1805.

According to Beth le Page’s research, Thomas sailed for India with the regiment aboard the Wexford, arriving at Madras on 31 December 1807. With him were his wife Hannah and three children. The family subsequently sailed from Madras up the coast to Calcutta aboard the Northampton, arriving on 17 March 1808. Tragically, baby Katharine died only four days after their arrival and Hannah herself died a few months later.5 Another child, John, died the following year, leaving a young Elizabeth to be raised by her father.6 Further tragedy came in 1814 when Thomas fell ill and also died, leaving a teenaged Elizabeth to find her own way.7

Two years after her father’s death, Elizabeth married Joseph Moore, who was another member of her father’s regiment.8 Without the support of welfare systems in India, this kind of pattern occurred in army garrisons. The 14th Foot was not merely Joseph’s employer, it formed the community within which both he and Elizabeth lived.

Their first child, Hannah (named after Elizabeth’s mother), was born in Cawnpore on 10 February 1817. By the time she was baptised in 1818 the family was at Meerut, following the movement of the regiment. Her baptism identifies Joseph as a private of the 14th Foot.9

The family remained at Meerut for much of the next seven years. Their son Joseph, my great-great-grandfather, was born there on 17 September 1819 and baptised eleven days later. The register again identifies his father as a private in the 14th Foot. Another son, Amos, followed in 1821, with Joseph again recorded as a private. Frederick was born in September 1822, and his baptism likewise describes his father as a private of the 14th.10

At the baptism of Emma Elizabeth Moore, born on 17 November 1824, Joseph was described not simply as a private but specifically as a ‘Musician H.M. 14th Foot’. A musician remained an enlisted soldier, so later records that again call him a private are not necessarily contradictory.11

Joseph’s military service was not confined to garrison life. A Royal Hospital Chelsea prize record places him with the 14th Foot during operations in the Deccan and Mahratta States in 1817–18. The regiment was employed during this period against the Pindaris before moving to Meerut.12

His most significant documented campaign came several years later. In November 1825 the 14th left Meerut to join the British force assembling for the siege of Bhurtpore, now Bharatpur. More than 900 officers and men of the regiment took part. On 18 January the following year, the 14th and 59th Foot led the principal assaults on the fortress. After a mine exploded beneath the defences, the 14th attacked through one of the breaches and fought its way along the ramparts. The regiment suffered heavy casualties before the fortress was secured.

Joseph’s personal presence in the campaign is established by the prize-money records. One return names Private Joseph Moore, 14th Regiment of Foot, among those entitled to share in the proceeds of Bhurtpore. Another records his entitlement as 40 Sicca rupees and 5 annas, with the annotation ‘Paid at Berhampore’. The records link Joseph himself to the Bhurtpore campaign.13

After the siege the regiment returned to Meerut, but in October 1826 began a long journey towards Calcutta. The men and their families travelled by boat down the Ganges. On 27 December 1826, Elizabeth gave birth to their daughter Margaret Catharine. Her baptism at Fort William on 21 January 1827 records her birthplace as ‘in the River Ganges’, indicating that it occurred during the regiment’s voyage to Calcutta. The same record describes Joseph as ‘Musician H.M. 14th Regt’ and records the family as dwelling at Fort William.14 The records and the regimental history intersect perfectly. Cannon’s history records the 14th travelling down the Ganges at precisely this time.

The regiment moved to Berhampore in 1828, and the Moore family was there the following year. In October 1829 two more sons were baptised there. Thomas Moore had been born on 4 October, while John Moore was born on 10 October and baptised on the day of his birth. The register identifies both as sons of Joseph Moore, Private, H.M. 14th Regiment, and Elizabeth. Berhampore provides another point of convergence between military and genealogical records. The children’s baptismal register places Joseph at Berhampore, while the Bhurtpore prize-money register independently records his prize as paid at Berhampore.15

The regiment finally left India in 1830–31. Beth le Page’s notes state that Joseph returned to Britain with it and continued in the regimental band until he was discharged on gratuity at Haslar Barracks in January 1832. That detail still needs confirmation from the original discharge papers, but it provides a plausible end to a military career extending from 1813 to 1832.16

14th Regiment Stations in India, 1813–1832

Military postings of Joseph Moore and the 14th Regiment during service in northern India

What happened to Joseph afterwards is less certain. Beth believes that he went to live in West Bromwich in Staffordshire and died in 1873, but those details have not yet been supported by documentary evidence. The India years are different. There Joseph’s life can be followed through documents created at the time. We can see him as a private soldier, then as a musician at Cawnpore, Meerut, Bhurtpore, on the Ganges, at Fort William and Berhampore. We can follow Elizabeth and the children with him and the regiment as it moved across northern India.

The result is not simply the service history of a British soldier. It is the story of a regimental family, living much of its life on the move and repeatedly touched by the demands, dangers and losses of military service in India.

Featured image

The featured image is from a series of lithographs by Captain John Luard (1790-1875) entitled ‘Views in India, Saint Helena, and Car Nicobar, drawn from nature and on stone’ originally published by C.Hullmandel, JGraf and Soret, 1838. This image is from the National Army Museum, NAM 1971-02-33-529-7.

  1. Beth le Page to Michael Robinson [email], 31 November 2011, original held by author. ↩︎
  2. Richard Cannon, Historical Record of the Fourteenth or the Buckinghamshire Regiment of Foot: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1685 and of its Subsequent Services to 1845, Parker, Furnivall and Parker, London, 1845, pp 62-78. ↩︎
  3. Cannon, Historical Record of the Fourteenth, p 80. ↩︎
  4. Marriage of Joseph Moore and Elizabeth Jump, 4 November 1816, Cawnpore, India, British India Office Marriages, findmypast.co.uk accessed 1 July 2026. ↩︎
  5. Burial of Katharine Jump, 22 March 1808; Hannah Jump, 24 October 1808, Fort William, Bengal, India, British India Office Deaths & Burials, findmypast.co.uk, accessed 1 July 2026. ↩︎
  6. Burial of John Jump, 3 November 1809, Fort William, Bengal, India, British India Office Deaths & Burials, findmypast.co.uk, accessed 1 July 2026. ↩︎
  7. Burial of Thomas Jump, 1 October 1814, Burials at the outstations, Bengal, India, British India Office Deaths & Burials, findmypast.co.uk, accessed 1 July 2026. ↩︎
  8. Marriage of Joseph Moore and Elizabeth Jump [details]. ↩︎
  9. [Details] ↩︎
  10. [Details of baptisms] ↩︎
  11. [details] ↩︎
  12. [details] ↩︎
  13. [details] ↩︎
  14. Baptism of … ↩︎
  15. [details] ↩︎
  16. Beth pers comm details… ↩︎

Bibliography

  • Cannon, Richard, Historical Record of the Fourteenth or the Buckinghamshire Regiment of Foot: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1685 and of its Subsequent Services to 1845, Parker, Furnivall and Parker, London, 1845.

  • Copyright © 2026 Michael Robinson
  • Last updated 11 August 2026
  • Non-commercial use permitted with attribution.
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