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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	england_n	king_n	return_v	2,853	5	6.9533	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44078	Humble proposals for the relief, encouragement, security and happiness of the loyal, couragious seamen of England, in their lives and payment, in the service of our Most Gracious King William, and the defence of these nations humbly presented to the two most Honourable Houses, the Lords and Commons of England, in Parliament assembled / by a faithful subject of His Majesty, and servant to the Parliament and nation, and the seamen of England, in order for safety and security of all aforesaid, W. Hodges ; to which is added, a dialogue concerning the art of ticket-buying, in a discourse between Honesty, Poverty, Cruelty and Villany, concerning that mystery of iniquity, and ruin of the loyal seamen.	Hodges, William, Sir, 1645?-1714.	1695 (1695)	Wing H2329; ESTC R2277	51,833	63

Port and some in another Whether the Ships must wait until they are well and how the same Men can get to their own Ships again when they are gone And if they continue sick or die or go on board of other Ships or be sent to the Hospitals and Run out of their Pay whether this be not Injustice Cruelty Opression Discouragement to the King's Service and that whereby no Man in England can be safe to Serve his King and Country for time to come nor no Man safe to trust a Seaman or Seaman's Wife and Family one Groat that is in the King's Service on those terms since the Stoutest Man and Honestest Man in England by keeping long on Board may fall Sick and Die or continue Sick and that a Year or two and if not go on Board or be Prest on board another Ship and so loose his Pay I do protest in the presence of the Lord before whom I Write this I fear if there be none in these Nations to be found to consider these dreadful Cases but suffer Cruelty and injustice to be smugled up that God will Chastise these Nations until they Learn what it is to Ruin Men and Families in their Lives or Pay thousands and ten thousands as by the King's Pay-books and Muster-books will appear and they I appeal to they are such a Register the Nation never saw in the Sea Affairs and the blame must lie somewhere and I suppose some hardened Hearts will say the Running them out of their Pay is right enough but it may be they will not consider that their turning from Ship to Ship until Sickness or Death came was the Cause of a great part and I hope they will not be so Case-hardened as to say they were served well enough to be Run out of their Lives so many ten thousands also I remember the English Nation in some former times was mighty industrious to find out and Punish the Instruments that Ruined the King's Liege-People in their Lives and Estates and had we had but the tenth part of Landmen's Poor Families Stripped of all they had in the World as there hath been Seamen stripped of their Pay it would have made a dreadful out-cry in England And indeed if our Poor in England had been forc'd to be turned from Master to Master without a Penny of Mony for some Years as many Seamen have from Ship to Ship and their miserable Wives and Children Live on Credit or Starve and if at last they should under the burden of all by discouragements fall sick and be Run out of their Mony they had worked for several Years as many have been out of their Pay in several Ships it would look dreadfully bad And some well-meaning men would have nothing said of it to acquaint the Government for fear our Enemies should know it as if the French who hath taken so many hundred Ships from us and near twenty thousand Men Captive this War and hath so many Spies and Treacherous Villains here and doth to outward appearance know a great deal better where to meet our India Ships and Berbado's Ships in several places to take them Home to France than ours did to send Convoys to take them Home to England and yet some seeming Honest Men are afraid the French that take our Ships and Men should know our Case and in short I fear he knows it a great deal more exactly than some do or will do in England for I do think some in England seem to do like what is said of the Woodcocks to hide their Heads in a Bush and think none can see them and so if they let the King Country and Seamen be all Cheated it will continue to be all smuggled up but my Pen runs thirteen to the Dozen and yet the knavery of the Bakers is such that if care be not taken I am afraid some of our Seamens Families will be ready to starve but to that I should propose a Remedy that Seamen may not be Cheated of their Health Lives and Pay altogether First if as many as is possible might be Paid off every year and that it may be would save most of their Lives most of their Healths and all their Pay besides and we might have Ships enough for a Winter Squadron besides and if any did fall Sick then if the Ship goeth away and leaves him set on shoar then if he cannot come on Board to set him in the Ships Book dis-sick at such a place and time and the Man if well to go on Board another Man of War and to have the Captain of the Man of War send up a Certificate to the Office That such a man that was in such a Ship is now in his Ship and this to be Entered in the other Ships Book in the Office to save the Poor Seamens Pay and if the other Ships Book be not there to have a Register Book to enter it in the mean time and if the Man continues Sick or Dies the Surgeon of the place he is sent to to be bound to give a Certificate of his Case to save his Pay since it must needs seem to me to be a barbarous thing towards any for time past to be turn'd from Ship to Ship for several Years until they fall sick and die and then be Run out of their Pay and it may be their poor Ruined Wives who hardly have seen their Husbands this War it may be they must come 100 or 200 Miles to shew cause why they must have any mony and why their Husbands went not on Board their own Ships again and it may be the Ships Journal if looked into at the Office would shew the Ship went away in 24 hours And if God will bring every work to Judgment I doubt our Ships Books and Ships Journals will be sad Witnesses against the Cruelty of some in those Offices to Run poor Wretches out of their Pay that the men are as the Sentence is against those that are to be hanged Dead Dead Dead And therefore if I find not any Remedy against Ruining the Fatherless and the Widow I will not expect any great Security of our Ships and Merchandise And so much to that God is a Jealous God If we Ruin the Poor of Thirty Thousand Pounds the Year by some sort of Tools and God suffers the Nation to lose so many Hundred Thousand Pounds in Riches and the King his Custom by the Ignorance Carelessness and Treachery of others if our own Folly be not too hard for us I fear the Judgments of God will and therefore I advise some way for these Nations to break off their sins by Repentance and their Iniquities by shewing mercy to the Poor and Mercy and Justice both will teach ways to secure Ruined Seamens Pay when wounded or dead or in the Hospitals 9. It is a miserable thing that when men are turn'd over or dead or sick that their poor Wives cannot be informed whether their poor Ruined Husbands are Run

to all hazards and they to none but take my Mony So it is in a Nation if we had not Traded this War we had been Ruined and if we lose not more than we get clear Profit we shall live at last tho by the way the World may admire at us that have near twice the Number of Men of War imploy'd that the Dutch have and yet that they should have so many Millions of Riches come home from the Indies and other parts this year and other years and hardly lose any almost to speak of except what they have lost in our Company for where they take care of their own Concerns themselves for the most part they go and come well But in conclusion I do suppose besides their preservation of their Shipping if I am not under a misapprehension they save a Million of Mony a year more than we in their Ships of War and Mens Wages and it may be half a Million more in the very Wages of Seamen in their Merchants Service and if they spend less by half and lose less by Eight Parts in Ten they will out-do us in Trade and it is not our making a Noise and keeping our Seamen on Board of Ship until they die will save our Trade alive but first the blessing of God 2. The increase and Encouragement of our Seamen and our preserving them alive and having enough to supply the Merchant-men with Seamen cheap and then having Men to order our Convoys at least with as much common sense to preserve our Merchant Ships and meet them as soon and take them home to England for time to come as the French use to do to meet them to take them home to France that we may not be a Grief to our Friends and a Joy to our Enemies and a by-word to the World I bless God I love my Native Country well and our gracious King William well and if I did not I would not be so plain hearted And as to what I said before we must for time to come imploy at least half as many Seamen more in times of Peace than ever we did and to do it in time of Peace if we would when ever God in Mercy sends us peace then mind the very Fishing Trade at our own Doors as others do I find it computed by one Sir John Burrows Keeper of the Records in the Tower and printed with Gerard Malines Lex Mercatoriae which I have by me That the Dutch do imploy in our Brittish Sea which he saith is a continual Harvest and doth imploy 6400 Ships and Busses and 120000 Men at Sea whereby he saith That Holland it self being but 28 Miles in length and a few in breadth imploys in all their Sea-Trade 10000 Sail of Shipping and he saith That Lubeck hath 700 Sail of Ships Hamborough 600 Emden more besides Freemen and other Nations that Fish and Trade in our Seas And he saith That the very Customs of their Fishing Trade of Holland came to 500000 l the Year including the Tenth Fish and Cask paid for Waftage And this if thought of by England when ever God shall send Peace would be the way to imploy and increase our Seamen and to have a sufficient Number always ready to serve the King and Country at 2 Months Warning and not suffer our Seamen in Peace to rove all over the world for imployment to get bread yea to go some Thousands into the West Indies a Buckaneering for want of bread at home This is by the way It may be something of this may be minded some Years hence And this I would leave as a Memorandum That since France is grown so prodigious Great if we double not our Diligence they will endeavour to out-wit us in Peace or War and it may be they may be to England as the Philistines were to Israel when we fall deeply to sinning they may be raised up to scourge us and the Lord prevent the Cause and if it be his holy Will enable us to bring them under 11. And I would say That all possible care ought to be taken that those who have the Command and Offices in the Ships of War should be Men of true Courage in fight and true Kindness to the Seamen at other times And I would appeal to all our Brave Commanders if the Seamen with good usage will not be led with a twined Thread up to the Muzzels of their Enemies Guns at any time by Stout good Natur'd Commanders But hate to be abused like Dogs And I am consulting my Memory and do not remember any one Commander that was an Hectoring and Swearing Damning Cruel Wretch to his Men that ever had the Heart to fight an Enemy And therefore it were in this Age well if there were a Law made Tha● no extraordinary Correction should be given to Seamen in Passion but to have Three or at least Two Officers advise in any Correction more than ordinary 12. That no Seaman be kept above 2 Years out either in the Straits or West Indies before they come home and be paid off it having been often found Ships staying long there have had their Number of Men 6 times over to the Seamen's Ruin And I never heard of a Penny Profit to King and Country by their Ruining of so many 13. None be so turned over above once before his first mony be paid and that to prevent the Ruin of their Pay and Families 14. None to forfeit a Penny of the other Ship 's Pay after he is 3 Months in the Ship 15. No Officer to detain a Seaman's Ticket on any pretence whatever except his Covenant-Servant on pain of Felony 16. None to set a Q. or R. on any Seaman's Pay but to shew Cause and set his Name that did it that Seamen may not be rumed in Life and Death and Pay and All by they know not who nor wherefore 17. None to receive a Seaman's Pay without a true Power and if Counterfeited to have the Middle Joint of each Little Finger cut off and be sold to the West-Indies for perpetual Servitude all their Days 18. No Officer to detain a Seaman's Certificate or Sick-Ticket on any pretence whatever 19. No Officer to keep Men open on the Books a Voyage after they are gone neither to make out Tickets for them or to enter Men in the Ship 's Books that never saw the Ship in their Lives And to prevent this and the other and the Cheating the King and Loss of Ships and Ruin of Seamen for time to come there might be 20. One man in 20 that can write and Cast Accompt to be as Seamen extra to keep a Journal sign'd by them all of the daily motion of the Ship in what place what Wind and what Friends or Enemies met with or run away from and also to take an Exact Account of all the Ship 's Victuals and Stores coming on Beard to see that it is the full Quantity and that no Embellishment might be in the Stores nor

keeping Seamen on board and paying them there that they should not Run away until there is so many dead and gone that there is dreadful Tearing ann Halling in City and Country and the very Watermen out of the Tiltboats that they are afraid to work on their Trades some of them now while our great Ships are so many laid up And by the way this pressing when Men were paid lately frighted away some Hundreds or Thousands of Seamen Whereas if they had but had liberty to have spent their mony freely in one month they would have been glad to have gone again I have heard a Friend of mine declare solemnly He had above 20 Lodgers that belonged to his House went away to their own Countries not daring to come up to London to spend their money here or return it home to their Friends and if so many be seared away in one house how many in all the houses that keep Lodgers in City and Suburbs Therefore men must be taken care of for time to come to have their Lives preserved and their persons encouraged or if not I fear it will produce greater Loss and Damage than is yet foreseen And all mankind that knows the Sea-Affairs knows that 2 or 3 Years keeping on board of Ship commonly 3 fourths of the men die whereas if they had liberty and fresh provisions and Land-Air one month often recruits them again 28. Therefore the Seamen to be encouraged and preserved and paid off at London as formerly and the City would not be Ruined by the War And if it be objected The Seamen would then go in Merchant-Ships many of them To that I do answer if their Lives were preserved they would increase as fast or faster in Men of War than in Merchant-Ships and if there were plenty Wages would fall in Merchant-Ships And had our Fleet increased Seamen as it was expected the Wages would have been so low in Merchant-Ships and what with Lost Voyages Seamen would have strived to have gone into the King's Ships if they had been paid off in every Ship and had Liberty But when they have no hopes of Release but Death or the End of the War and cannot have opportunity to fight to end the War this is a melancholy Case many of them have complained they wanted to fight it out for to end the War And 29. This paying the Seamen off on Shore yearly that is one half one Year and another half another Year would many times save the King near as much charge in small Ships Victuals and Wages while as our Ship is in the Dock as the charge of mending the Ship comes to And indeed this War hath been it may be such a Disappointment to Seamen as the World never knew some Commanders having had so much Love and Reputation and Care as to have Men to Man a Ship and it may be in some months after either the men turn'd great part into other Ships or the Commanders removed into other Ships so that if a Thousand Seamen would be freely willing to serve under such brave Commanders as I know some they are not sure but in a month they may exchange their Drivers And by the way I would observe That tho the Double-Pay Officers have had Pay suitable to buy Two Canes to beat the poor Seamen instead of one whereas before they sometimes did tie a Rope-yarn at the end of their Cleft Sticks but now may buy new but the poor Seamen had not 1 s the month more all this War to buy one course Coat or Wastcoat to keep off a blow Which brings me to another Paragraph that is 30. That the poor Seamen may have their 40 s a piece for Cloaths used to be allowed them if the Ship was lost and this they had before they beat the French and before that they enjoyed some Comforts now and then But to go on 31. No Seamen to be forced to go out of a Man of War into a Merchant-Ship altho the Captain should have several pounds for the same But if Necessity requires the Lending of a Seaman or Two to a Merchant the Seaman may have all the Pay in the Merchant-Ship and the Captain and Purser to have the Benefit of his Victuals only in the Man of War that the King and the Seamen be not both cheated at one time And 32. The Seaman to have a Certificate to come again in a certain time and to be kept from the Press until then 33. No Seaman to be made wait above ten days at the Navy-Office to petition for to have a Q or R. taken off But if whenever paid-off as formerly and incouraged there would be an end almost to that dreadful wretched Ruining and Destruction to themselves and Families of losing their mony for those Letters being set on by any wrongfully and therefore would serve the King cheerfully 34. That those who are discharged fair by Reason of Sickness and have Tickets signed by all the Officers for their Pay may not be cheated of it for the word of one hard hearted wretche's pleasure the Seamen's Ruin being too great already 35. If Seamen are prest away when on Shore the Captain that commands the Ship he is in to be obliged to send a Certificate to the Ticket-Office to be Registred in the other Ship 's book or in a Register-Book as in the Case before of Sickness to secure the Seaman's Pay from being ruined because he lost his Liberty 36. That it may be considered there are 3 things Englishmen do value highly that is Liberty Property and Life and all these have the Seamen lost some share of this War and the Histories of all these Nations cannot parallel and therefore double Care ought to be taken of them for time to come seeing it is to be feared there is some gone to enquire after the preserving of those things in other Nations already as by the King's Books of Ships come home this Year may be seen something 37. Seamen pressed out of Merchant-Ships to be under the penalty of half their Pay to go on board of such a Man of War at such a time and then to have liberty to bring up the Merchant-Ship and to take half their Pay and sell their Ventures and recruit themselves a few days to recover their health that they may not after long Voyages infect the men of War by sickness and when they are gone on board that man of War to have a Certificate sent up to the Office That such a man is come on board such a Man of War and then his other half of his Pay to be paid to his Attorney And if he goeth not on board the Man of War or if she be ordered away sooner than on board another then the other half of his Pay to be forfeit to the Hospital of Greenwich if he goeth not in a Man of War And by this means most of the Seamen might be in the King's Service once in 2 Years and the others