Tony/Philo
One thing that causes confusion here is that there were actually 2 Acts of Parliament.
The first required the Ports and the Counties to provide set numbers of "volunteers" and the second allowed magistrates to direct "idle persons, rogues and vagabonds" to the Navy as an alternative to prison.
I am lucky enough to have in front of me a list of 130 or so men recruited under the first Act - and everyone of them is described as a
volunteer.
I managed an hour in Birmingham Central Library this evening and double-checked that nothing was reported in the local newspaper about the circumstances of the Navy recruits leaving the town. Maybe there is something hidden away in another local newspaper or a private letter written home by one of the recruits.
BUT I did spot something I had missed before.
Birmingham had met it's quota of volunteers by the end of April - just a few short weeks. But then on 8th June an advertisement appeared which started as follows:
Quote:
REWARDS for apprehending Deserters from the NAVY
NOTICE is hereby given, that whoever will apprehend the under-mentioned Persons, being Deserters from the Quota of the Men, raising in the County of Warwick for his Majesty's Navy, shall receive the several Rewards inserted against their respective Names (being one third of the Bounty for which they were engaged) on their being secured in the Gaol for the same County etc. etc etc.
There then follows
13 names.
In my first cross-check I found 6 of the names on the list of volunteers I have here. Their descriptions were reported in full in the newspaper. Kind of makes sense now why they were recorded in the first place!!
They had been allocated advances on their bounty of amounts between £4 18s. and £6 13s. I wish I knew if they had received it in cash.
And I wish
wish wish I knew in what circumstances they had managed to abscond - so soon after they had enlisted.
Sorry so many unanswered/unanswerable questions - but shows how much there still is to learn about this most fascinating era of history.
MB