Colonel Daniel Abbott’s Regiment of Dragoons

Regiment of Dragoons raised for Cromwell’s Irish Campaign

• April: Raised from five troops of Colonel John Okey’s Regiment of Dragoons
• August: Depart for Dublin with Cromwell on his Irish Campaign
• September: Siege of Drogheda

• October: Battle of Meelick Island

• March: Raids into Irish-held areas

• Abbott petitions for an increase in pay

• January: The regiment to be paid the same rate as horse

A history of the regiment is given in The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army by Sir Charles Firth and Godfrey Davies, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1940

Abbott’s dragoons were formed out of five troops of Colonel John Okey’s Regiment of Dragoons, selected by lot for service in Ireland. They accompanied Cromwell on his Irish campaign and fought at the Battle of Meelick Island and probably took part in the subsequent massacre. They remained in Ireland throughout the 1650s.

Presumably red coats.

Abbott had served in Okey’s Dragoons as a Captain and by 1647 was promoted to Major. Initially he led the detachment of 5 companies in Ireland as a Major. From 1656 he sat on the committee to distribute forfeited lands in Ireland.