After Our very hearty Commendations to Your Grace Whereas His
Majesty's Service doth at this time require a speedy Supply of able Seamen,
and Seafaring Men , to Man His Majesty's Fleet which is now fitting out
We do therefore, by his Majesty's Command hereby pray and require Your
Grace, to call upon the Justices of the Peace , within the County of Middlesex ,
and City and Liberty of Westminster , whereof your Grace is Custos
Rotulorum, and strictly enjoyn and require them, to cause all straggling
Seamen, who are fit to serve on Board His Majesty's Ships, to be taken up,
and sent by proper Persons, from Place to Place, until they shall be
brought to the Clerks of the Cheque of His Majesty's yards at Deptford ,
Woolwich , Chatham , Sheerness Portsmouth , Plymouth or Harwich ,
according as those Places shall be nearest to where such Straggling
Seamen shall be taken up, that so they may be put on Board such of
his Majesty's Ships or Vessells as shall be appointed to receive them,
And that there be paid to the Persons who shall be intrusted with the
Conducting them by the aforesaid Clerks of the Cheque, Twenty Shillings [..]
for each Seaman fit for His Majesty's Service, and six pence a Mile for,
every Mile they respectively travel, not exceeding Twenty Miles, But that
if the Men so taken up shall be sent to any Place where no suchPlaceClerk
of the Cheque doth reside, that then the same Allowance be paid to the
Conductors by the Collectors or proper Officers of the Customs, residing at or,
nearest to the Place whereunto they shall be brought (out of Money to be
furnished them for that purpose by the Lords of his Majesty's Treasury as
heretofore) upon Certificates from the Captain or Commander of the Ship
or Vessell whereinto they shall be put, or from a Regulating Captain of
his having received them - Which Allowance is to be reimbursed to the
said Officers of the Customs by the Principal Officers and Commissrs. of
His Majesty's Navy, upon their transmitting to the said Principal Officers
and Commissioners, Authentic Accounts of what Money they shall expend
And so not doubting of Your Graces Zeal and Vigour in the performance of this Service, We
bid Your Grace very heartilly Farewell - From the Council Chamber
at St. James's the 6th. day of February 1755 .