Captain Marsland, Stockport Troop 1850

This rough sketch was made by me at the National Army Museum in Chelsea c 1985, so memory of the actual portrait is hazy (and nowhere to be found on the internet). It was copied from a monochrome photograph of a portrait of Captain Edward Marsland in the Binns collection kept in the NAM library. The blue hussar uniform is similar to the one worn by Captain John Howard but there are some details that add to our knowledge of the special pattern dress uniform of the Stockport Troop. The note says that 7 rows of braid can be seen crossing the chest of the jacket and pelisse. The word ‘buttons’ indicates that the cording was fastened, unusually for a hussar officer, by buttons instead of olivets. The pelisse is slung over the left shoulder and kept in place with silver cords that go under the right arm and link with a toggle. There are tassels on his chest that are the ends of the cap-lines (probably gold). There is a detail of the cuff braiding separate to the figure, and there appears to be no lace, only silver braid. His pouch-belt is of silver lace and patterned either with Austrian Wave or Chevron and Vellum double point pattern. Around his waist is a hussar barrel sash of gold and crimson. He holds his shako which is the straight-sided type, with a white falling horsehair plume. The badge on the front looks like the Prince of Wales plume badge worn on the Light Dragoon shako of the rest of the regiment. This is likely as the Cheshire Yeomanry was re-named as the Earl of Chester’s Yeomanry in 1849. The trousers are dark blue with a single silver stripe down the side.
Edward Marsland of Henbury Hall Cheshire was born in 1806 the second son of Major Thomas Marsland MP for Stockport. He was a magistrate for the counties of Cheshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire and for the borough of Stockport. He was Captain of the Stockport Troop. In 1843 he was married to Jane Haigh and they had a daughter. He died in 1868.

Regimental Details | Cheshire Yeomanry Uniforms