"and Dollars to be taken out of their Pay in Case they dont appear with a good Firelock"

By His Excellency
WILLIAM SHIRLEY, Esq;
Captain-General and Governour in Chief in and over the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England.

To {Begin handwritten}John Bark Goutr{End handwritten}

Sir,

AS you have receiv'd Beating-Orders from Me to enlist Men into His Majesty's Service for the Expedition intended,

In the Management of that Trust, I give you the following Directions;

1. You are to enlist no Person under the Age of eighteen Years, nor above Forty-five Years.
2. You are to enlist none but able-bodied effective Men, free from all bodily Ails, and of perfect Limbs.
3. You are to enlist no Roman-Catholick, nor any under five Feet two Inches high without their Shoes.
4. You are to assure such Persons as shall enlist, That they shall enter into Pay, {Begin inserted text}

{Begin handwritten}and subsistance{End handwritten}{End inserted text} {Begin deleted text}{Omitted text, 6w} {End deleted text}. {Begin inserted text}

{Begin handwritten}Upon their first general Rendezvous{End handwritten}{End inserted text}

5. That they shall at the Day of their Enlistment receive a good Blanket. {Begin inserted text}

{Begin handwritten}{Omitted text, 1w} Dollars and Dollars to be taken out of their Pay in Case they dont appear with a good Firelock{End handwritten}{End inserted text}

6. That their Pay will be Twenty-six Shillings and eight Pence, per Month, lawful Money, during their Service. {Begin inserted text}

{Begin handwritten}& one Month's advance Pay upon being mastered.{End handwritten}{End inserted text}

7. That they shall be exempt from all Impresses for Three Years next after their Discharge.
8. To such of them as shall be provided with sufficient Arms at their first Muster, they shall be allowed a Dollar over and above their Wages, and full Recompence for such of their Arms as shall be inevitably lost or spoiled.
9. You are to enlist no {Begin inserted text}

{Begin handwritten}P{End handwritten}

{End inserted text}erson but such as you can be answerable for that they are fit for Service; and whom you have good Reason to think will not desert the Service.
10. You are before your delivering the Blanket allowed, or any other Bounty that may be allowed by this Government to any Person, cause the second and sixth Sections of War to be read to them, and have them also sworn before, and their Enlisting attested by, a Justice of the Peace.

Given under my Hand at Boston, the {Begin handwritten}Seventeenth{End handwritten} Day of {Begin handwritten}April{End handwritten} 1755, in the Twenty-{Begin handwritten}Eight{End handwritten} Year of His Majesty's Reign.

{Begin handwritten}??Hutchinson by Govr. Shirley's ordr{End handwritten}

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

Library of Congress - American Memory