¹ Prater, 31 July 1756.

² Brown, John, An Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times (London, 1757), 29.Google Scholar

³ Wilson, Kathleen, The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715–1785 (London, 1995)Google Scholar; Newman, Gerald, The Rise of English Nationalism: A Cultural History, 1740–1830 (New York, 1987)Google Scholar; Kent, Susan Kingsley, Gender and Power in Britain, 1640–1990 (London, 1999)Google Scholar; McCormack, Mathew, “The New Militia: War, Politics and Gender in 1750s Britain,” Gender and History 19, no. 3 (November 2007): 483–500.Google Scholar Quotation from Wilson, The Sense of the People, 165.

⁴ Newman, The Rise of English Nationalism, 69, 73. See also Colley, Linda, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (London, 1992), 87–88.Google Scholar

⁵ Wilson, The Sense of the People, 185.

⁶ Ibid., 186–87.

⁷ Kent, Gender and Power in Britain, 81.

⁸ Ibid., 80.

⁹ McCormack, “The New Militia,” 485.

¹⁰ London Magazine, April 1756, 193.

¹¹ Newcastle to Devonshire, 10 April 1756, Newcastle Papers, British Library (BL), Additional (Add.) MS 32864, fol. 205.

¹² Cumberland to Henry Fox, 19 May 1756, Holland House Papers, BL, Add. MS 51375, fol. 1043.

¹³ Whitehall Evening Post, 16–18 March 1756.

¹⁴ London Evening Post, 31 January–3 February 1756.

¹⁵ For Cressy and Blenheim, see Universal Visiter, May 1756, 238–40; for comments about French naval strength, see Gazetteer, 5 March 1756; and London Evening Post, 4–6 March 1756. Belief that the French were no match for the English at sea was fairly common. Walpole, e.g., thought that the French were “not ready for Minorca” (Walpole to Mann, 18 April 1756, in W. S. Lewis, ed., The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, 48 vols. [New Haven, CT, 1960], 20:549); for comments about French inability to recover from a naval war, see Gazetteer, 6 March 1756.

¹⁶ “A New Song,” London Magazine, April 1756, 188.

¹⁷ Boddely's Bath Journal, 31 May 1756; Pennsylvania Gazette, 5 August 1756.

¹⁸ Boston Gazette, 23 August 1756.

¹⁹ Read's Weekly Journal, 29 May 1756.

²⁰ Public Advertiser, 22 May 1756; Whitehall Evening Post, 20–22 May 1756; Boston Gazette, 9 August 1756. The Maryland Gazette (29 July 1756) noted that many disputed the veracity of the account because it came through Amsterdam, but it noted that, “when it is examined into, that should give more reason for it's [sic] being founded in truth.”

²¹ Whitehall Evening Post, 8–10 June 1756.

²² Derby Mercury, 11–18 June 1756; Boddely's Bath Journal, 21 June 1756; Read's Weekly Journal (19 June 1756) also noted that Byng had ventured a second engagement; Bath Advertiser, 19 June 1756; Pennsylvania Gazette (19 August 1756) also claimed the existence of a second engagement.

²³ SirStephen, Leslie and SirLee, Sidney, eds, The Dictionary of National Biography, 22 vols. (London, 1921), 3:571.Google Scholar

²⁴ Baugh, Daniel A., “Byng, John (bap. 1704, d. 1757),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, September 2004)Google Scholar; online ed., http://www.oxforddnb.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/article/4263 (accessed 9 January 2010).

²⁵ Much of that section deals with the myth of Admiral Byng. See Tunstall, Brian, Admiral Byng and the Loss of Minorca (London, 1928), 1–15.Google Scholar

²⁶ Pope, Dudley, At 12 Mr. Byng Was Shot (London, 2002), 1–30.Google Scholar

²⁷ Tunstall, Admiral Byng, 12–13.

²⁸ General Advertiser, 29 October 1745.

²⁹ “We learn from Vado that Admiral Byng is very diligent in causing small vessels to be built to intercept the convoys which the French send to Genoa” (General Evening Post, 5–7 April 1748). See also Jacobite Journal, 2 April 1748.

³⁰ When a force of 3,000 Genoese soldiers attempted to destroy the fleet stationed at Abisola, the “vigilance of Admiral Byng, the ready assistance of the English Men of War, the good countenance shewn them by the Garrison, and the Dispositions made to give them a warm reception” combined to ensure their defeat (General Advertiser, 9 April 1748). For further examples, see the Westminster Journal, 3 October and 17 October 1747.

³¹ London Gazette, 5–9 April 1748, reprinted in the Penny London Post, 8 April 1748.

³² General Evening Post, 23 February 1748. See also the London Evening Post, 15 March 1748, which states that English ships had captured “several” enemy ships and their valuable cargoes; and the St. James Evening Post, 22 August 1747, which suggests that Byng had battled a fleet of fifty French, Spanish, and Genoese ships and had taken ten of them.

³³ By all measures, Newcastle and his ministry had been unassailable through 1754 and 1755. He faced little opposition from within parliament, from the City of London, or from the nascent reversionary interest at Leicester House. Moreover, Newcastle had the unwavering support of the king, who loathed both of Newcastle's chief rivals, Pitt and Henry Fox, with equal measure. Newcastle's position seemed as strong as it could be. For relations with parliament, see Clark, J. C. D., Dynamics of Change: The Crisis of the 1750s and the English Party Systems (Cambridge, 1982), 229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For relations with the city, see Nicholas Rogers, who notes that confrontations between the City and the Court ceased between the Jewish Naturalization Bill of 1753 and the loss of Minorca in 1756 (Whigs and Cities: Popular Politics in the Age of Walpole and Pitt [Oxford, 1989], 93). Lucy Sutherland notes that Newcastle's ministry was one of only three driven from office while retaining the full support of the Crown (The City of London and Devonshire-Pitt Administration, 1756–57 [London, 1960], 155).

³⁴ The London Evening Post noted in February that preparations were being made for an attempt on the island. See London Evening Post, 19–21 February 1756. See also the Whitehall Evening Post, 4–6 March 1756.

³⁵ London Evening Post, 6–8 May 1756. See also Gazetteer, 12 June 1756. It states: “Considering how we had intimation of their design upon Minorca might not that valuable island have been saved?” Similar sentiments run through many opposition works. See, e.g., A Rueful Story, or Britain in Tears: The Conduct of Admiral Byng in the Late Engagement in the Mediterranean (London, 1756), esp. 6.Google Scholar

³⁶ Gazetteer, 18 June 1756.

³⁷ Gazetteer, 19 July 1756. It also noted that, since the government was aware of the plan to attack Minorca, it could have “had leisure sufficient to encrease our naval force in the Mediterranean to the number of 25 or 30 sail” (Gazetteer, 20 July 1756).

³⁸ Mann to Walpole, 28 May 1756, in Lewis, Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, 20:559.

³⁹ London Evening Post, 6–8 May 1756. A similar piece appeared in the Gazetteer, 8 May 1756.

⁴⁰ State of the Ships at Home, April 1, 1756, Admiralty Papers, The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), Admirality (Adm.) 1/5116, fol. 2. A “gentleman of Oxford” asked why a weak squadron was sent while twelve fully manned ships of the line waited at Spithead (Some Further Particulars in Relation to the Case of Admiral Byng from Original Papers [London: 1756], 6).

⁴¹ George Grenville to Pitt, 7 June 1756, in Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 4 vols. (London, 1838), 1:163–64.Google Scholar

⁴² Monitor, 5 June 1756. A similar argument was made in the Boston Gazette, which reprinted a letter, asking: “Where are all the English Admirals?” (23 August 1756). See also An Account of the Facts which Appeared in the Late Enquiry into the Loss of Minorca from Authentic Papers by the Monitor (London, 1757), 80.Google Scholar It suggests that not only was nothing done to prepare the fortifications at Minorca but also that the greatest “force was kept inactive, or at most to watch an uncertain destruction of some fishing boats, and unarmed vessels in the French ports.”

⁴³ Keene to Castres, 21 July 1756, in The Private Correspondence of Sir Benjamin Keene, ed. Lodge, Richard (Cambridge, 1933), 485.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ The Conduct of the Ministry Impartially Examined: In a Letter to the Merchants of London (London, 1756), 44–45.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ London Magazine, June 1756, 263. See also the Gazetteer, 12 and 13 May 1756.

⁴⁶ Byng to Admiralty, 4 May 1756, Letters from commanders-in-chief, Mediterranean, 1741–46, TNA: PRO, Adm. 1/383, fol. 389.

⁴⁷ The State of Minorca and its Lost Condition, when Admiral B—g appeared off that Island (London, 1757), passim.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Hardwicke Papers, BL, Add. MSS 35594, fol. 148.

⁴⁹ An Appeal to the Throne (London, 1756), 16–17.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ “Forasmuch as they had embezzled to themselves great part of the monies which had been raise to expedite this fruitless Expedition” (A Chronicle of the Short Reign of Honesty. In Four Chapters [London, 1757], 6). See also London Magazine, November 1756, in which Fiat Justicia suggests that the ministers had raised “immense fortunes on the ruins of the people.”

⁵¹ Bath Advertiser, 3 July 1756. See also Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, which suggests that “money has become a governing passion” (23 July 1756)

⁵² Bath Advertiser, 10 July 1756.

⁵³ Reed Browning calls Newcastle “feckless” and reveals that of the £27,500 his estates earned, a large proportion went solely to debt repayment (The Duke of Newcastle [New Haven, CT, 1975], 42).

⁵⁴ S. Squire to Newcastle, 19 August 1756, Newcastle Papers, BL, Add. MSS 32866, fols. 491v–492.

⁵⁵ For details, see Anderson, M. S., The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740–1748 (New York, 1995), 200–209Google Scholar; Browning, Reed, The War of the Austrian Succession (New York, 1995), 358–63Google Scholar. See also Langford, Paul, Modern British Foreign Policy: The Eighteenth Century, 1688–1815 (London, 1976), 129.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Simms, Brendan, Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire (London, 2007), 353.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ General Evening Post, 2 January 1748.

⁵⁸ Newcastle to Hardwicke, 8 May 1756, Newcastle Papers, BL, Add. MSS 32864, fol. 486.

⁵⁹ Gazetteer, 19 July 1756; London Evening Post, 17–20 July 1756. See also A Real Defence of A—l B—g's Conduct: Wherein is clearly exploded the common error so prevalent of censuring the Gentleman's behaviour, By a series of indisputable facts hitherto Concealed (London, 1756), 15Google Scholar, which argues this clause could be found in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

⁶⁰ In the play, possession of Minorca was further secured by bribing key English ministers with nothing more than a purse of gold (The Sham Fight or Political Humbug: A State Farce in Two Acts as it was acted by some persons of Distinction in the M-d—n and elsewhere [London, 1756], act 1, scene 1, lines 6 and 8).

⁶¹ Monitor, 22 May 1756.

⁶² London Evening Post, 22–24 July 1756; Gazetteer, 24 July 1756.

⁶³ Newcastle had needed to be calmed down by Hardwicke on more than one occasion. However, even though Newcastle was beside himself, some members of the government and their supporters seemed nonplussed by the public's rage. Hardwicke dismissed many opposition accusations, especially Pitt's claim that the government was complicit in the loss of Minorca, noting that Pitt's speech was “ridiculed by everybody” (Hardwicke to Newcastle, 7 May 1756, Newcastle Papers, BL ADD MSS 32864, fol. 504). See also West to Newcastle, 8 May 1756, Newcastle Papers, BL, Add. MSS 32864, fol. 499. West claims that Pitt's assertions were merely “improper.”

⁶⁴ Walpole to Mann, 24 July 1756. Lewis, Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, 20:578.

⁶⁵ American commentators hoped that an inquiry would explain ministerial policy toward them as well. The Boston Gazette (8 November 1756) noted: “What grand discoveries may be made is hard to say; but if some People's conjectures are to be rely’d upon, it will finally appear that when the true causes of the Mediterranean misfortunes are thoroughly known, those in America will be accounted for without any difficulty.”

⁶⁶ Newcastle to Nugent, 31 July 1756, Newcastle Papers, BL Add. MSS 32866, fol. 324.

⁶⁷ Pope, At 12 Mr. Byng Was Shot, 155.

⁶⁸ Gentleman's Magazine, June 1756 (emphases in original). The charge seemed to originate with the Evening Advertiser, 26 June 1756, subsequently reprinted in Bungiana, or an Assemblage of Wha-d’ye-call-em's in Prose and Verse that have occasionally appeared Relative to the conduct of a Certain Naval Commander: Now first collected in order to Perpetuate the Memory of his Wonderful Achievements (London, 1756), 7Google Scholar; see also Bath Advertiser, 3 July 1756. The Advertiser's editor, Stephen Martin, adds the following comment to further suggest Byng's cowardice: “where the British Admiral has remained in perfect security and Freedom from Alarms.” See also Maryland Gazette, 7 October 1756; and Boston Gazette, 20 September 1756.

⁶⁹ Augustus Hervey fought these visual depictions by releasing his own placing Byng's fleet closer to the action. See Erskine, David, ed., Augustus Hervey's Journal (London, 1953), 206.Google Scholar See also “The New Art of War at Sea, now first practised by the English ships under the Command of the Prudent Admiral Bung” (London, 1756), printed in Stephens, Frederick, ed., Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 11 vols. (London, 1877), 3:983Google Scholar, entry BM 3354. The Catalogue of Prints and Drawings suggests that this print was released on 20 May 1756, the day the battle was fought. This seems unlikely. It is certain that the “New Art of War” was advertised for sale on 5 July 1756. See the advertisement in Public Advertiser, 6 July 1756.

⁷⁰ Campbell, John noted that, “from the earliest time down to the present reign … the claim of this nation to the dominion of the seas is not only as ancient as any memorial of time past whatever; but that it has been constant and invariable, through a long course of ages” (Lives of the Admirals and Other Eminent Seamen, 2nd ed., 4 vols. [London, 1750], 1:i).Google Scholar

⁷¹ An Inquiry into the Late Causes of our Naval Miscarriages with some Thoughts on the Interest of this Nation as to a Naval War and the only True Way of Manning the Fleet, 2nd ed. (London, 1707), 13.Google Scholar

⁷² Ibid., 14.

⁷³ Professional standards were introduced in 1677 requiring prospective officer candidates to have both formal naval education and sea-going experience before ascending the chain of command (Holmes, Geoffrey, Augustan England: Professions, State and Society, 1660–1730 [London, 1982], 274–87 and passim).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ The commanders of the fleets at those battles, Arthur Herbert, Lord Torrington and George Rooke, were tarpaulin officers. Remarks upon the Navy, the Second Part, containing a reply to the Observations on the First Part, With a Discourse on the Discipline of the Navy, shewing that the Abuses of the Seamen are the Highest violation of Magna Charta and the Rights and Liberties of English Men. Letter from a Sailor to an MP (London, 1700), 23.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Remarks upon the Present Condition of the Navy, and particularly of the Victualling, in which the notion of fortifying garrisons is exploded and tis clearly proved that the only security for England consists in a good fleet. In a letter from a sailor to a Member of the House of Commons (1670; repr., London, 1700), 11.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Old England, or the Constitutional Journal, 9 February 1745. This theme was revisited on several occasions by the Old England, or the Constitutional Journal, including 11 May 1745.

⁷⁷ Old England, or the Constitutional Journal, 21 July 1744. Many more examples of this concern were expressed throughout the 1740s and 1750s. Many were predicated on the exclusion of Admiral Vernon from his place atop the hierarchy. The Gentleman's Magazine, reprinting a letter from the Old England, complained that “boys are placed at the head of a set of time-servers” when Vernon could not escape half-pay (August 1747, 367). Indeed the complaints regarding Vernon would continue well into 1756.

⁷⁸ Pennsylvania Gazette, 26 February 1756.

⁷⁹ Macaulay, Thomas Babington, The History of England from the Accession of James II, 5 vols. (London, 1985), 1:230–31.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ “The Life of George Byng, Lord Viscount Torrington,” Universal Magazine, March 1756, 97–106. Interestingly, his son, John, entered the naval service at the age of fourteen. See Tunstall, Admiral Byng, 8.

⁸¹ The Lives of British Admirals Displaying in the Most Striking Colours the Conduct and Heroism of the Naval Commanders of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols. (London, 1787), 2:64.Google Scholar

⁸² Gentleman's Magazine, April 1756, 185.

⁸³ Old England, 8 November 1746.

⁸⁴ Blake was considered “as great a Master of Military Merit as this nation had ever knew” (Pennsylvania Gazette, 7 October 1756). Drake was bound to a sea master “with whom he endured much hardship, and was thereby fitted to suffer the fatigues and labours of the sea” (Robert Burton, The English Hero: or Sir Francis Drake Reviv’d Being a Full Account of the Dangerous Voyages, Admirable Adventures, Notable Discoveries and Magnanimous Atchievements of that Valiant and Renowned Commander [London, 1750], 6). Legge was “one of the best seamen the island had ever produced,” because he was “a perfect master both of theory and practice … he understood ship building, gunnery, fortification and the discipline of land service” (The Lives of British Admirals, 2:25). Balchen was considered a “thorough master of every branch of his profession” (Ibid., 1:27).

⁸⁵ After discovering that the Italians called Mathews “Metheus il Furibondo,” Horace Walpole and Horace Mann adopted the nickname wholeheartedly. Initial mention was made in a letter dated 16 September 1742. See Lewis, Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, 18:46. For further references, see also 18:60, 106, and 108.

⁸⁶ Mathews was willing to engage the enemy at anytime. When told of Spanish intentions to invade Tuscany, Horace Mann reported that Mathews promised “to cut them all to pieces if they offer to put their noses into Tuscany” (Lewis, ed., Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, 18:26). This attitude earned him the admiration of the king.

⁸⁷ Walpole to Mann, 16 October 1742 in Lewis, Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, 18:79.

⁸⁸ The Lives of British Admirals, 1:44.

⁸⁹ Old England, 23 March 1745. A similar argument was made by the London Evening Post, 15–17 July 1756.

⁹⁰ The Life of Admiral Blake, 9.

⁹¹ London Magazine, May 1748, 227.

⁹² The Lives of British Admirals, 2:109.

⁹³ Ibid., 1:36.

⁹⁴ Burton, The English Hero, 9.

⁹⁵ Gentleman's Magazine, September 1749, 422.

⁹⁶ The Lives of the British Admirals, 1:27.

⁹⁷ [Johnson], The Life of Admiral Blake, 17.

⁹⁸ Ibid., 17. This contention is reiterated in the Universal Magazine, supplement 1756, vol. 18, 301. See also The Lives of the British Admirals, 1:81.

⁹⁹ Old England, 26 April 1746. The Monitor suggested that frugality was needed to overcome the corruption of manners that were ruining England (18 December 1756, 437).

¹⁰⁰ Gazetteer, 6 May 1756.

¹⁰¹ London Magazine, January 1747, 49.

¹⁰² Campbell, John, Lives of the British Admirals, 4 vols. (London, 1785), 4:58.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Bath Journal, 4 February 1744–45.

¹⁰⁴ Gentleman's Magazine, October 1746, 595.

¹⁰⁵ An Inquiry into the Late Causes of our Naval Miscarriages, vi–vii.

¹⁰⁶ “And this man / Hath for a few light crowns, lightly conspir’d / And sworn to the practices of France / To kill us here in Hampton” (William Shakespeare, Henry V, act II, scene ii, lines 88–91, in The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston, 1974), 943.Google ScholarPubMed

¹⁰⁷ Luttrell, Narcissus, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1857), 2:117.Google Scholar Samuel Pepys once noted of Torrington: “Of all the worst men living, Herbert is the only man that I do not know to have any one virtue to compound for all his vices.” Quoted in Padfield, Peter, Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that shaped the Modern World (London, 1999), 131.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Gentleman's Magazine, September 1746, 487.

¹⁰⁹ Pennsylvania Gazette, 4 November 1756.

¹¹⁰ Gentleman's Magazine, September 1746, 487; Gazetteer, 8 July 1756.

¹¹¹ “To the Restorers of Our Naval Honour,” London Magazine, November 1747, 577.

¹¹² London Evening Post, 7–10 May 1743.

¹¹³ Monitor, 31 July 1756, 308 (my emphasis).

¹¹⁴ London Evening Post, 11–14 September 1756.

¹¹⁵ Brown, John, An Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times (London, 1757), 79–80.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Anderson, Fred, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (New York, 2000), 170.Google Scholar Noble heritage was becoming less important, however. A letter to the Universal Magazine (June 1756, 264) suggests that “the single consideration of a man's descending from a great family cannot demand any extraordinary homage.” The connection of this statement to the Minorca fiasco cannot be overstated. It is clearly political in purpose, as the author's intent is to undercut support for Byng by suggesting his birth into an ennobled family was the cause of the problem.

¹¹⁷ Edward Boscawen noted sarcastically that Byng had a particular talent for acquiring money (Naval Miscellany, vol. 4 [1955], 140).

¹¹⁸ Byng was a noted collector of fine china (Pocock, Tom, The Battle for Empire: The Very First World War, 1756–1763 [London, 1998]).Google Scholar For a study of the pottery craze, see McKendrick, Neil, “Josiah Wedgewood and the Commercialization of the Potteries,” in The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, ed. McKendrick, Neil, Brewer, John, and Plumb, J. H. (Bloomington, IN, 1982), 99–144.Google Scholar Bevis Hillier believes that Byng's penchant for porcelain was “part of his weakness.” See Hillier, Bevis, Early English Porcelain (London, 1992), 14.Google Scholar My thanks to Hermann Helmuth for the reference.

¹¹⁹ Brooke, John, The House of Commons, 1754–1790: Introductory Survey (Oxford, 1964), 27.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Pointon, Marcia, Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven, CT, 1993)Google Scholar.

¹²¹ Indeed, the final touches were being put on the estate as Byng was being sentenced to death for his role in the loss of Minorca. See Gazetteer, 11 September 1756.

¹²² The Boscawens were certainly not fans of Byng. Frances noted one evening in December 1750: “At Gammer Stukeley's I met Admiral Bing, who seems to me to be a mixture of coxcomb and f–, if you’ll allow me a judgement on an admiral. He had on an undressed frock, very richly embroidered with silver, which in my eyes is a strange dress and his discourse and manner pleased me no better than his garb” (Letter from Frances Boscawen to Edward Boscawen, 29 December 1750, in Admiral's Wife: Being the Life and Letters of the Hon. Mrs. Edward Boscawen from 1719–1761, ed. Aspinall-Oglander, Cecil [London, 1940], 136).Google Scholar

¹²³ Whitehall Evening Post, 16 August 1750; London Evening Post, 16 August 1750.

¹²⁴ London Evening Post, 8–11 May 1756.

¹²⁵ London Evening Post, 10–13 July 1756. See also Gazetteer, 19 July 1756.

¹²⁶ Universal Visiter, June 1756, 340. See also Pennsylvania Gazette, 7 October 1756; Maryland Gazette, 14 October 1756; and Boston Evening Post, 25 October 1756.

¹²⁷ Gentleman's Magazine, June 1756 (emphases in original); Bath Advertiser, 3 July 1756.

¹²⁸ Public Advertiser, 26 August 1756; Boddely's Bath Journal, 23 August 1756.

¹²⁹ Some Friendly and Seasonable Advice to Mr. Admiral Byng (London, 1756)Google Scholar.

¹³⁰ Ibid.

¹³¹ A Sorrowful Lamentation and last farewell to the World of Admiral Byng (London, 1757)Google Scholar.

¹³² Boston Gazette, 20 September 1756.

¹³³ The author reiterates that it appears Byng had not intended a skirmish. London Magazine, July 1756, 331; Pennsylvania Gazette, 30 September 1756; Boston Evening Post, 20 September 1756; Boston Gazette, 20 September 1756; Maryland Gazette, 7 October 1756.

¹³⁴ Gentleman's Magazine, August 1756, 394.

¹³⁵ Bath Advertiser, 25 September 1756; Newcastle Journal, 25 September–2 October 1756.

¹³⁶ Bath Advertiser, 4 September 1756; Newcastle Journal, 4 September 1756.

¹³⁷ National Maritime Museum, counters in the coin collection numbered E3656-1 and E3656-2, artist unknown.

¹³⁸ Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, 23 July 1756. See also the Whitehall Evening Post, 17–20 July 1756; and Boddeley's Bath Journal, 26 July 1756.

¹³⁹ Gazetteer, 13 November 1756. See also The Block and Yard Arm: A New Ballad, on the Loss of Minorca, and the Danger of our American Rights and Possessions (London, 1756)Google Scholar, which suggests “we’re bought all, my friends, by shining French gold.”

¹⁴⁰ Pennsylvania Gazette, 30 September 1756.

¹⁴¹ Salisbury Journal, 21 March 1757, quoted in Rogers, Nicholas, Crowds, Culture, and Politics in Georgian Britain (Oxford, 1998), 63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴² Gazetteer, 24 August 1756.

¹⁴³ Bath Advertiser, 24 July 1756.

¹⁴⁴ Admiral Byng and the Elysian Shades: A Poem (London, 1757), 6–7.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁵ In Clark, Anna, Scandal: The Sexual Politics of the English Constitution (Princeton, NJ, 2004)Google Scholar.

¹⁴⁶ The Sham Fight, 22–23.

¹⁴⁷ “Bung's last effort, or the Brave Soldier, Outwitted the Cowardly Sailor” (London, 7 September 1756), printed in in Stephens, Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 3:1007, entry BM 3381.

¹⁴⁸ “Admiral B—g's Attempt or Miss Mistaken” [London, 7 September 1756], printed in Stephens, Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 3:1006, entry BM 3380. Some historians believe these diatribes are a natural reaction to Byng's reported homosexuality (Pocock, Battle for Empire, 22). There is no evidence to substantiate Pocock's assertions, as he himself confesses, stating “were his inclinations such, he kept them well hidden.”