a glimpse of We^moutb ant) the 

 1802*3. 



By the Rev. W. OWEN COCKCRAFT. 



(Read 17th February, 1920). 



HE pages of an old record of Naval Officers' 

 Services would at first sight not seem likely to 

 afford a glimpse of Weymouth at the opening of 

 the war with Napoleon. But the troubles of 

 Captain George Wolfe, as recorded in the pages of Marshall's 

 Naval Biography, do give us some view of Old Weymouth and 

 its people of that day. Captain Wolfe was appointed in 

 December, 1802, to the new-built frigate Aigle. Then, for his 

 sins, the unfortunate man was sent, of all places, to Portland, 

 and, of all services, to impress seamen and raise volunteers for 

 the Navy ! Captain Wolfe, good easy man, seems, however, 

 to have had some inkling of what all this meant; for, on 

 anchoring in Portland . Roads, he went ashore and saw the 

 Mayor of Weymouth in order to secure his assistance and 

 support. The arrival of the frigate in the Roads seems to 

 have caused an immediate alarm; for the mayor informs the 

 captain that the seamen of the port had, to avoid impressment, 

 got the quarrymen from Portland ready to help them to resist 



