The Press Gang, Impressment, and Prize Money

The Orkney Archive has blogged Which is scarier, Dr Who or Press Gangs ? You decide ! They show a typical document dated 25th April 1803 authorising the impressment of men to run the ship.

The blog asks "Are you delighted by what you have just read? Are you revulsed and appalled? "

It neither horrifies nor delights me.

Fighting ships had to be manned and in the absence of a means to call up people for service, and the means by which people could assent, appeal, or protest; it was a reasonable method.

All of those who served (whether pressed or not) in the Royal Navy would have endured very harsh conditions and privations that we wouldn't find acceptable today, and many were badly injured or died. However many survived, and some survived with quite a lot of prize money and returned wealthy beyond their previous wildest dreams. Far worse would be the suffering of the families left at home, whose father or husband had been the major income for the household.

Royal Navy ships that captured an enemy ship, or cargo from other ships or countries got prize money to the notional value of the cargo and or ship.
In the Napoleonic wars at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the prize money was divided: 1/8 to the admiral, 1/4 to the captain, 1/8 between the officers, 1/8 between senior warrant officers, 1/8 between junior warrant officers, 1/4 between the crew.

What I find unacceptable, even by the standards of the day, is that there was no state support for the parishes of those who had men pressed for service.

In the Scottish Borders, impressment would have affected mainly the Berwickshire coastal villages, though enterprising press gangs may have ventured further inland, or to villages along the shores of the Tweed, since much of it is navigable even with the comparatively heavy boats of yester year.

More information at 'The press-gang afloat and ashore'  and Wikipedia article on Impressment, also a shorter article from the Royal Naval Museum 'Impressment - The Press Gangs and Naval Recruitment'.

Chris Bowles the Scottish Borders Council Archaeology Officer circulated this note this morning.

The Bygone Berwick weekend will take place between the 14th and 15th of May, and as part of this the Heritage and Research group of the Flodden 500 project will be presenting an exciting opportunity to help us gain a full understanding of one of this region's key historical events: the Battle of Flodden. As many of you know, 2013 marks the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden. Archaeological investigation and historical research is on-going in Northumberland as part of the Flodden 500 project, and we are hoping to bring to life a similar project in the Scottish Borders region.

At Bygone Berwick, we will be discussing, and hopefully encouraging some of you to take part in:

• The Flodden 500 Archaeology Project
• The Flodden 500 History Project
• The potential for a related Scottish Borders focussed history project looking at which Borderers went to battle, where they came from and if they ever came back
• The potential for a related archaeology project aimed at locating camps, muster points and the movements of the Scottish army after the battle in 1513

If you are interested, simply turn up on the 15 May from 11 - 12 at the Guildhall in Berwick (Council Chambers) for a discussion of the on-going research and our hopes for a Scottish project.

Welsh Ancestry

Surprisingly to some, there was a lot of movement between Wales and Scotland in past three centuries, so you may well have family members who lived in Wales.

People moved from Scotland especially to work in coal mines and slate quarries, to work as labourers and farm servants on estates, as well as in more traditional industries.

Similarly, people moved to Scotland to work in coal mines, to work as labourers and farm servants on estates, on the hydro-electric scheme construction, as well as in factories.

Of course, there was a lot of migration to and from England and Ireland, and to North America, too.

So you might be interested in television channel S4C's new family history programme, Perthyn, Welsh for 'belonging'.

The first programme is to be broadcast on Wednesday, 4th May at 9pm. This programme is about Geraint Morgan from Penllergaer near Swansea and his search for the reason why his great uncle, Llewelyn Davies, left the village of Myddfai in 1908 aged 17 for a new life in America.

Look at the the S4C Perthyn website for tips and useful links.


(Thanks to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter).