The Sneek Exercise Society was at the time of the patriot era an armed private organization with the purpose of practicing the bourgeoisie in handling the gun.
The Society was founded on October 19, 1783, with the approval of the City Council and the States of Friesland by Citizens L. Adema, W. van Loon, H. van Zwaanenburg and C. Hoekstra.
This free corps consisted of several companies of 20 to 40 people. At the head of each company was a captain. This captain was assisted by a lieutenant, a steward, two sergeants, and had a tambourine or two pipes. In Sneek there were two companies; the grenadiers and the musketeers. Above the captains were the colonel and his adjudant, besides, there was also an exercise master.
The members carried a snaphaan, a bayonet and a saber. The sergeant carried a hellebeard and dough. The grenadiers wore a high hat and half boots. The officers carried a sponton with men and a blue skirt, black pants and camesool, a ring collar for the chest, a blue and white echo around the chest and white stockings. Everyone had a blue bow or cocarde with a white rose in the middle on the head cover. On top of that, officers carried a white-blue plume. Blue and white were the traditional colors of Westergo; Elsewhere in the country, the patriots carried black coconut.
In Sneek, the corps practiced November to March weekly on Wednesday afternoon. In the winter months this happened monthly. A Wapenschouwing took place every year before the magistrate of the city. This representation is shown above on the image. The dog in the foreground is the symbol of the patriots, a so-called keeshond. Besides this is the citizen-dressed man, possibly a mayor of Sneek.
Exercise societies in Friesland were forbidden around May 1787. This led to fierce protests and eventually a failed coup. In September, armed patriots triggered a revolution in Franeker, Bolsward and other places, which were pushed a few weeks later by Oranjegezinde troops. The main leaders had to flee abroad.
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