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A DELEGATE IN LONDON 113
the Admiral." He said that he was on his way to
Portsmouth—he was travelling in a post-chaise—and that
he had power to draw money wherever he pleased. 1
Perhaps this mutineer was the man who was arrested
in Exeter, nearly a fortnight later, as a deserter from a
ship in Plymouth. The deserter, Thomas Williams, was
heard to say in a public house in Exeter that he was a
delegate from Sheerness ;
that he had done his business
in Plymouth, and was returning to the Nore. He said
that he could draw money in any town, and to any
amount—a boast which is curiously like that of the
mutineer in Leman Street,—and added "that the sailors
had long been put upon, but now they would get their
rights." When he was arrested, Williams denied that
he was a sailor, but a seaman's outfit was found in his
baggage, and he was soon identified as a quota-man who
had recently joined the Braakel at Plymouth, had
received his bounty money on 6 June, and had almost
immediately deserted. It appeared that Williams made
a regular practice of volunteering and deserting, for he
confessed to having had more than ^200 in bounties
during the war. 2
Whether the sailor in Leman Street was really Thomas
Williams or another, his behaviour was characteristic of
the mutineers. Their aggressive conduct and their
truculent speech were natural to a body of ill-educated
men used to poverty and oppressive discipline, who
suddenly found themselves in a position of power, free
from the law itself. And to some extent their confidence
was justified by the friendly attitude of the public on
shore, who connected this mutiny with the risings at
1. Evidence of John and Sarah Carter (Solicitor's letters, A.S.I.
3685). This conversation took place on Saturday 27 May. In the
evidence the date is wrongly given as the 26th.
2. The Mayor of Exeter to Admiral King, 9 June (A.S.I. 812, B 464).
Williams was tried, and punished with a severe flogging. His statement
in regard to bounties is not impossible, for the recruiting officers found
such difficulty in supplying the fleet with men that they made little
inquiry into the life histories of the volunteers.
I