A sticker-up of bills on Tower Hill at the rendezvous at the King's Arms
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A sticker-up of bills on Tower Hill at the rendezvous at the King's Arms
The King's Arms on Tower Hill, London, was the City naval rendezvous, most significantly that for the local impress service, which included both voluntary recruitment and the 'press gang' when emergency required this. Recruits of both sorts were housed on the 'Enterprise', the name of a series of receiving ships moored off the Tower, before being shipped down to Sheerness and beyond by naval tenders. Whether this bill-sticker was specifically naval (for recruiting posters) is not clear, since there were many other sorts, but this anonymous portrait is an extraordinary record of a worker at one of the lowest levels of London life. He appears to be wearing a dilapidated fair wig on top of naturally dark hair. Since there are several October 1774 drawings in the Bray album which may be London subjects, it is possible Bray was at the King's Arms waiting for (free) passage by sea round to Portsmouth on one of the naval tenders, rather than taking the public coach. It is probable from other evidence that he was in fact in London by about the end of September.
Gabriel Bray
Original size: 216 mm x 184 mm
- Image reference: PT1985
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
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