Folios 261-262: Wilson Rathborne, Regulating Officer, North Shields. Responds to...

Folios 261-262: Wilson Rathborne, Regulating Officer, North Shields. Responds to the letter of 17 October and reports on the case of William Dodds, sent to The Nore on the Lyra tender on 16 October. He returns the enclosure and the certificate taken when he was pressed. William Dodds, Ordinary Seaman, was pressed by Lieutenant Liddle, Sunderland, on 10 October and detained for the service as being a seafaring man illegally protected as a Keelman. He is known to have been in a Man of War by Mr Swinney, Midshipman at Sunderland, but he does not recall which ship, nor how he got his discharge. William Dodds is about 30 years old, a stout healthy man, well suited for service.

Folios 263-264: enclosure with folios 261-262. Letter dated 14 October 1811 from Jonathan Cockerill, North Shields, to The Admiralty. Requests the discharge of William Dodds, currently on board the Lyra tender, in exchange for an able-bodied seaman as a substitute. When taken he was employed as a Keelman in the River Wear. He had worked in that capacity for 7 years and has a certificate stating that he has contributed his proportion of the expense of raising volunteers at the port.