Naval families, war and duty in Britain, 1740-1820 / Ellen Gill

A study of the competing commitments of family and service in the lives of eighteenth-century seamen. The author has drawn on correspondence from naval and military officers, ordinary sailors and their families, as welll as petitions to the Admiralty Board for support submitted by Royal Dockyard workers and the naval mutineers at Spithead and the Nore. The correspondence reveals the practicalities of parenthood and family life during wartime and also the importance of patronage and networks for progression. Correspondents featured include Philip Bowes Vere Broke and his wife Sarah Louisa (Loo), Matthew Flinders and his wife Ann, Thomas Woods Knollis and his wife Mary, George Perceval, Henry Jenkinson, William Waldegrave, Everard Home, William Edward Fiott, William Webley-Parry, Susanna Middleton, George and Elizabeth Bass, Sarah Sturgeon, Anna Walker and James and Elizabeth Whitworth. The text is supported by a detailed bibliography.