Overview of the data

The most striking trend shown in the data for entry-level recruitment during the last decades of the eighteenth century was the dominance of naval influence among quarterdeck boys, which, by 1791, rose to include more than 60 per cent of the traceable sample. Over the same time frame, gentry and peerage influence remained comparatively low, although the 1791 peak in the importance of naval connections appeared to cause a simultaneous drop in peerage influence. Notable too in 1781 was the spike in the ‘all other’ category, which consisted of boys supported by a combination of professional and trade/merchant influences. This rise saw the greatest impact on gentry connections, which fell by about a third from the 1771 sample.

When it came to junior officers, the most important observation was the virtual equality of all the categories in 1771, followed by changes that saw them diverge widely by 1791. In this year, naval influence took a substantial lead, just as it did in the sample of quarterdeck boys, although the junior officers' data suggested that peerage influence suffered the most, while the relative importance of gentry connections changed little in the eighteenth-century samples.

These findings indicated that of the traceable candidates, naval influence, by far, carried the most weight when it came to obtaining a servants' position aboard a ship – a trend that peaked in 1791. In matters of midshipmen and mates, however, the strong showing of peerage connections in 1771 was followed by a substantial drop in 1791, suggesting changes that rendered the service less popular as a career option for noble sons.