

WEYMOUTH AND THE WAR, 1802-3. 51 



Admiralty. Trouble soon came. The lieutenant was seized 

 on landing along with the midshipman of the boat by a Wey- 

 mouth mob, who dragged them before the Mayor. Terrorized 

 by the mob, the Mayor signs the committal of the two officers 

 to Dorchester Gaol on a charge of wilful murder of the four 

 men who had been shot in the riot a few hours before. 

 The authorities further yielded to the feeling of the mob by 

 holding an immediate inquest on the four men, the Coroner 

 agreeing to a verdict of murder against Captain Wolfe, 

 Lieutenant Francis Hastings, Lieutenant Jeffrey of the Marines, 

 and Mr. John Fortescue Morgan, Midshipman. Here then, 

 with the French already molesting our shipping in the Channel, 

 and only some weeks before war was formally declared, on 

 May 18th, 1803, and while a formidable army, that of the 

 Rhine, under General Moreau, was known to be preparing for 

 a possible invasion, in the face of much national danger, one 

 of our ships of war is held up by a factious charge instigated 

 by a turbulent mob. The four officers indicted seem to have 

 been all lodged in Dorchester Gaol for trial at the Summer 

 Assizes. But the publicity arising from the affair, and the 

 quick coming of war, appear to have worked some measure of 

 common-sense and moderation. The four prisoners would 

 seem, on the outbreak of war, to have been permitted 

 to rejoin their ship on bail until the assizes came on. The 

 unfortunate Captain Wolfe received some solace for his troubles 

 by his capture during this interim of a very rich prize. 

 Cruising in the Channel he took no less than six homeward- 

 bound and therefore richly laden French West Indiamen. 

 The subsequent trial ended in the complete acquittal of all the 

 accused, the jury sensibly agreeing that the four parties indited 

 had acted in self-defence, The chief fact this glimpse of the 

 past gives us, is the extreme lawlessness of the district. The 

 mob gathers rapidly, is dangerous and dominant. Its power 

 is seen in the extreme subservience of the authorities. The 

 Mayor of Weymouth, though anxious to run with the naval 

 hare, is still more desirous of hunting with the hounds of the 

 Portland and Weymouth mobs. He makes promises to 



