'The Recruiting Serjeant', 1769

Engraving by J Collett after J Goldar, published by Thomas Bradford, No 139 Fleet Street, and Henry Parker, No 82 in Cornhill London, 1 September 1769.

During the eighteenth century Army recruiting officers would often use unscrupulous methods to persuade men to enlist. Potential recruits would be seduced with misleading tales of the glamour and glory of army life and would also be offered the enticement of a 'bounty'. This was a large sum of money, supposedly paid to the new recruit when he enlisted. In fact most of it disappeared in various 'deductions' and the recruit was lucky to see any of it.