ABSTRACT
This treatise was published during the Seven Years War, when William Agar (c. 1710–1776) was chaplain in the 20th Regiment of Foot. He served in France and Germany as well as at various posts in the British Isles. Military Devotion was a collection of fourteen of the sermons that Agar had preached while stationed in Dorset between 1756 and 1757. He was keen to establish uniform prayers for army worship, so the book included appendices with some prayers for soldiers who were wounded in the field, sick in hospital, or in other crisis situations. Such advocacy of the widespread use of standardised prayers was likely an attempt to curb the influence of Methodist preachers on soldiers. The excerpt below appeared among these appendices and followed a discussion of the Swedish kings’ ability to promote standard prayers amongst their men. Here, Agar argued that married men made more loyal soldiers and made a case for better relief for wives and children left behind when regiments went to war. He proposed an institution to house army wives and children and promised to help to fund it if his book went into a second imprint. Agar’s firsthand observations that married soldiers were responsible, caring patriarchs with respectable and industrious wives were significant in contradicting popular stereotypes.
