The right of the Admiralty to impress men to serve in the Royal Navy when need arose was derived from ‘a prerogative inherent in the Crown, grounded upon common law and recognized by many Acts of Parliament’. This pronouncement of the legality of impressment made by Sir Michael Foster, Recorder of Bristol, in 1743 was never overturned. Even in peacetime sufficient volunteers could not be obtained to man the ships of the navy, and on the outbreak of war the need became acute. To meet the demand, press gangs organized by the Admiralty's Impress Service would descend on seaports or other towns and scour the streets, public houses and dwellings to seize those deemed suitable for the service. Seamen were the prime target, but men in other occupations might also be taken unless they had protections from the Admiralty. In a ‘hot press’ little or no discrimination was observed. The violence and brutality that frequently accompanied this forcible recruitment is well documented, as also is the strenuous resistance offered to the press gangs not only by their immediate quarries but often by the populace of the area concerned. From time to time both sides suffered fatalities. The prospect for those impressed was indeed grim. Torn from their homes and their families (which if deprived of the breadwinner would be plunged into destitution), they were subjected to the notoriously harsh naval discipline, and thrust into the perils of active service for the duration of the war. The Admiralty normally granted protections against impressment to the keelmen, and without this security they refused to work, as in 1653 and 1709 (see above, Chapters 1 and 2). When an attempt was made to impress some of them in 1742, they dragged the Impress Service's tender ashore and threatened the lives of the captain and his crew. ‘Few trades were as belligerent as this one’, the historian of naval impressment remarks. The Newcastle Courant of 10–17 September 1743 reported an incident when, evidently disregarding protections, the crew of a tender tried to impress a keelman: