Folios 187-188: William Charleton, Regulating Captain, North Shields. He has been...

Folios 187-188: William Charleton, Regulating Captain, North Shields. He has been asked to report on the case of William Beckley, impressed at Shields on 3 December 1803. He was detained because the wages he was to be paid had been erased from the ship's articles. The Master and the Mate of the vessel said they had not erased them, and it now appears from the enclosed afffidavit that this was done by someone else. If the articles are regarded as a binding contract between the parties and [this] man, the Admiralty might be justified in discharging him.

Folios 189-190: enclosed with folios 187-188. Letter dated 17 December 1803 from George Major, 60 Wapping Wall, Shadwell, London, to the Admiralty. Asks that the enclosed papers be presented to the Admiralty to secure the discharge of William Beckley, Mate of the ship Major.

Folios 191-192: enclosed with folios 187-188. Affidavit sworn by Edward Aubone Major, Master of the vessel Major of Newcastle, sworn before Justice of the Peace Richard Wallis at South Shields in December 1803. William Beckley, who was impressed on December 3, served as Mate of the vessel on a voyage from London, and had been engaged for the return journey. The articles he signed were produced to Captain William Charleton, the Regulating Captain at Shields, who refused to release him because the figure for wages opposite his name had been struck out. Neither he nor Beckley had made this alteration, it must have been done by another unknown person.

Folios 193-194: enclosed with folios 187-188. Affidavit sworn by George Major of Monkton, County Durham, part owner of the vessel Major of Newcastle, Edward Aubone Major, Master, before Rupert Clarke, Shadwell on 17 December 1803. Swears that Edward Major contracted with William Beckley to act as Mate of the vessel for a voyage from Shields to London and back and that he signed the ship's articles, and that his wages of £10 10s were entered against his name, but that George Major later crossed these out because he understood that Beckley's wages could not be fixed until the seamen had been signed on. He struck out the figure without the knowledge of either Beckley or the ship's Master. He is informed that Beckley was impressed from aboard the Major, and is now aboard HMS Zealand at the Nore. Beckley has never been a seaman, and has never belonged to or deserted from any of His Majesty's ships.