The Treaty of Paris was signed in February 1763, officially ending the hostilities between France and Great Britain that lay at the heart of the global conflict we call the Seven Years' War. Hundreds of thousands of men were consequently demobilized in Britain, France and across the Continent. Britain alone had around 200,000 men in its army, militia and navy by the end of the war. Even though Great Britain kept a strong contingent of regular troops stationed in the American colonies, many more went home to the uncertainties of civilian life. Among them, Thomas Dunckerley, master gunner and sometime teacher of mathematics, had ample reason to be concerned. On 31 May 1763 he was paid off, having served most recently as gunner on HMS Prince, a second-rate ship of the line. This had been his most prestigious naval posting, and was the culmination of a career that dated back to at least 1744. That spring he was forty-two years old, with a family to support, and no real prospects.

Dunckerley came from a modest but respectable family, though with no formal education and no inheritance he looked rather grimly towards the peace. He was not, however, entirely without assets he could leverage.