Nelson & His World

Discussion on the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson
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 Post subject: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:52 am 
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Does anybody know what the procedure was for paying the Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award? How, when and where was it paid, and for how long after the battle could it be claimed?

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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:12 pm 
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Tony

They were certainly paid separately as you regularly see men who received one and not the other.

As regards the Prize Money the announcement of payment was made in March 1807 as per the attached image from the London Gazette.

I don't know if there was an extension of this three month deadline but I feel that there quite likely was.

Sorry not the whole answer you were looking for but hope it goes some way towards . . . .

Mark


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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:59 pm 
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Thanks again Mark, and especially for taking the trouble to post the Gazette entry. As you suggest, I can't imagine payment was restricted to a three month period, as many seamen must have remained at sea throughout that period. I was guessing that seamen might have been able to claim over a two or three year period, but was wondering whether it might have been much longer.

I believe there are some records at the NMRN at Portsmouth, but I don't know what information they contain, and wondered whether anybody knew the answer.

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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:48 pm 
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Tony

The Ayshford Trafalgar Roll has the Prize Money and Parliamentary Award details for each man so the original documentation must be out there somewhere.

I guess only a limited number of places it could be.

Mark


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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:05 am 
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Tony

Yes it looks as if some or all of the original records are at Portsmouth.

From the Bibliography of "The Prizes of War" by Richard Hill:

RNM 1983/1062: Accounts of Trafalgar Bounty and Prize Money

Not sure if the Bounty part is the Parliamentary Award.

Mark


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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:53 pm 
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I spent a while searching the London Gazette archives for more references, but could only find the notice you already posted. The search isn't very reliable because of OCR inaccuracies, but I tried many different keywords that should have brought up something if it was there.

The sources for the Ayshford Trafalgar Roll info were:
    Prize Money: The ledger books of Bankers Christopher Cooke & Wm Cosway held by the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.(records for only half the ships survive) together with ADM238/10 held at the National Archives.
    Parliamentary Award: The ledger books of Bankers Christopher Cooke & James Halford held by the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. (N.B. Records for only approximately half of the ships survive.)

Pamela & Derek Ayshford also provide some useful information on the distribution:
Quote:
The money was distributed some time after the Battle and the evidence we have been able to gather suggests that a significant number of men, or their relatives, never actually collected their share. It appears that the men/families had up to 4 months from the date of the distribution to claim their money, unclaimed money after this period went to Greenwich Hospital but it was possible to subsequently enter a claim and receive the money. For this reason it is difficult to say exactly the extent of non-claiming. Matters are further complicated by the fact that the two sources, ADM238/10 and the books of Christopher Cooke & Wm Cosway do not always show the same information about unclaimed money.
Where the information came from the books of the bankers it can be seen whether the man used an agent to collect his money, he, or a relative, signed for it or he made his mark. Unfortunately ADM238/10 appears to have been copied from the original bankers' records so this information is not available.

This seems consistent with the Prize Money notice in March 1807, but it seems strange we have not found notice of payment of the Parliamentary award.

Does the change of bankers (or were they agents?) tell us anything about the dates of distribution?

I have another different question about the Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award. I have come across a man who deserted a few months after the battle, but who (according to the Ayshford Trafalgar Roll) received (and signed for) his prize money and award. I have always assumed that men who were marked as 'ran' lost their eligibility. Could a deserter regain his eligibility, and if so, what would he have to do to?

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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:32 pm 
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Oops, I slipped up in my searches. Here is notice of the Parliamentary award, paid in September 1806 and for 3 years afterwards: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/15955/pages/1201

But I would be most interested if anyone has any thoughts on payments to deserters.

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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:28 pm 
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Tony

Quoting directly from "The Prizes of War":

Quote:
Greenwich Hospital also benefited from shares that were forfeit. These generally speaking were the shares of men who had deserted and were marked Run on the ship's books, or the books of any ship in which they had subsequently served. There was only one way for such a man to recover his entitlement: if he was able to have the Run removed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by reason of his subsequent rejoining and good conduct, he could claim the prize money previously forfeit.


That 3 month deadline for claims just doesn't feel right to me. 3 years was a normal deadline. It's almost as if they made a typo! But if they had they would surely have made a later correction. Strange!!

Mark


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 Post subject: Re: Trafalgar prize money and parliamentary award
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:38 pm 
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That's most helpful indeed, thanks Mark. I assume the 'Run' will be marked as removed in the ship's pay book. I wonder whether there would be any other record of the decision?

Yes, the three months for the prize money payments does seem odd. Maybe from experience with the parliamentary award they just accepted that claims would continue to come in and decided there was no point in setting fixed payment days for a year's time.

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