Folios 203-204: Benjamin William Page, HMS Puissant, Spithead. Writes regarding a...

Folios 203-204: Benjamin William Page, HMS Puissant, Spithead.

Writes regarding a boy named John Williams, deserted from the Puissant on 30 March and is suspected of having taken money from the ship's surgeon, by breaking into his writing desk. Williams was returned to the ship via the brig Censor, by whom he was apprehended on the 8th July and has some charges against his name from Latona, to the amount of one pound, eighteen shillings and two pence. If their Lordships agree Page will add a further amount of five pounds, against his pay, for apprehension and susbsistence. The boy absconded under the pretence of taking his linen ashore to be washed, and the surgeon found afterwards that his desk had been forced - cannot prove it, but suspects the boy of taking eight pounds from the desk, and the boy was seen drinking often in Portsmouth and offered to treat others as he had 'plenty of money'. Notes that the boy receives a pension for wounds to his legs received while serving aboard the Achille, and has wages due from October 1814 to March 1815. Admiralty note on rear says to keep the R against Williams' name, and that his wages will be forfeit and he will be deprived of his pension.