In my short essay about William Peckover,¹ I suggested that he came into the Royal Navy possibly through the auspices of the Marine Society in order to combat the horrors of the Press Gang. 

The Marine Society was founded on 25 June, 1756, at Kings Arms Tavern, Cornhill, London, by Jonas Hanway, John Thornton and the Earl of Romney.  During a recent visit to my old school of Archbishop Temples in Lambeth Road, London (subsequently bought by the Marine Society), I was made aware of the good offices of that Society, and that in the main corridor were the original 18th century benches upon which candidates would wait to be interviewed.  I thought of William Peckover's naval origins.

I asked about the Marine Society's records, and was informed that they were now held by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.  A professional researcher visited the Caird Library there on my behalf.  He found the Marine Society records catalogued as MSY/H/2, MSY/H/3 and MSH/4, covering the period 1758 to 1768. 

Unfortunately, there was no mention of William Peckover.  However, he did discover that some recruitment had taken place in Edinburgh, which gave me another idea for a search.  

I made contact with Dr Roland Pietsch of Queen Mary's College, London, who had recently written the excellent book The Real Jim Hawkins: Ships’ boys in the Georgian Navy.²  I gave him the back­ground to my research on William Peckover, and to his joining Captain Cook in Endeavour. 

Dr Pietsch felt sure that Peckover had been initially recruited by the Marine Society, but that any such action would only have taken place when Peckover reached the age of 13. 

On reading Pietsch's book it appears to have been common practice in the 18th century where any young boy was the responsibility, under the Poor Law, of the Parish.  The Marine Society and the Government encouraged those youngsters, classed as poor, to be recruited into the Royal Navy at a time when the Seven Years War meant an urgent need for men in the Royal Navy.  We do know from the Parish Records of Aynho that, following the death of Peckover's father, William was considered to be “a poor boy”. 

Jeremy Coote in his excellent essay about Peckover,³ raises the idea that some person locally was responsible for Peckover joining the Navy.  Therefore, the answer might lie in the Aynho Parish records at the Northampton Record Office. 

Barry Marriott

References

1. Marriott, Barry.  “To Haxard my life” in Cook's Log.  2004.  Vol. 27, no. 2.  Pages 15–16.
2. Pietsch, Roland.  The Real Jim Hawkins: Ships’ boys in the Georgian Navy.  Pen & Sword Books.  2010. 
3. Coote, Jeremy.  Who Was William Peckover’s Uncle?” in Cook's Log.  2023.  Vol. 46, no. 1.  Pages 3–5.

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 30, volume 48, number 1 (2025).