THE IMPRESS SERVICE Commonly called THE PRESS-GANG

In

HULL AND YORKSHIRE

When I was young and scarce eighteen,

I drove a roaring trade;

And many a sly trick I have played On many a pretty maid.

My parents found that would not do,

I soon would spend their store,

So they resolv’d that I should go On board a Man-of-War.

A bold pressgang surrounded me, Their warrant they did show, And swore that I should go to sea,

And face the daring foe, So off they lugged me to the boat,

O how I cursed my fate,

‘Twas then I found that I must float

On board a Ninety-Eight.

This song was printed on broadsides in both England and Ireland in the early and late 1800s. Printers included J. Catnach of London, who printed it sometime between 1813 and 1838. Copies of these can be found at the Bodleian Library.

The practice of officially taking men for the armed forces of England or latterly Great Britain dates back long before what is understood by the meaning of Pressgang, or Impressment. Most people only ever think of the pressing of men for the military in naval terms however, but the practice is much older and involved the enforced recruitment of men for the army too. It was a practice that in law survived much longer than many people realise, and took acts of parliament to overturn it and send it to depths of history.

One can trace the history of this dreadful though perhaps necessary means of recruitment into the Navy as far back as pre-Norman Conquest times, but for our purposes here, it is more relevant to begin with one of the most famous of England’s threats from a foreign power.

In the briefest of terms, the Impress, or Press-gang as it is more popularly called is described in the following passage:

“The discipline of the navy was regulated by a statute in the early days of Charles II., which after periodical amendments, was displaced by a new act in 1749, the act under which the unfortunate Byng suffered. The ranks of the men were filled up by forcible recruiting to a much greater extent than was the case with the army, though curiously enough, the terms ‘impressment’ and ‘pressgang’ originally had nothing to do with the employment of force, being derived from ‘imprest’, the cash in advance paid down to sailors on enlistment. The practice of compelling men to serve in the royal ships seems to have dated from the earliest times, though it would appear never to have been either established or abrogated by statute. It is probably to be regarded as royal prerogative. By custom at least it was supposed to apply to the impressment of mariners, and did not warrant the impressment of lands-men. The pressgang could only act under a warrant in the hands of a commissioned officer. It is, however, certain that no great care was taken, in effecting captures, to distinguish between mariners and lands-men and that it was by no means easy for a lands-man to obtain a hearing to his demands for release.”

Designed by Richard Hayton 2008
email richard@yorkshirehistory.com