4 - Multiple Offences

Summary

The courts martial presented in this, the fourth and final, chapter involve cases in which defendants were charged with more than one offence. These trials were fairly common. indeed, almost 37 per cent of the men in the sample, 490 of a total of 1,149, stood accused of committing more than one crime. A few such trials arose from extremely serious episodes [119]. Some were the result of feuds, real or supposed slights and the like [122, 134]. Others were the consequence of attempts to throw the book at the defendant, such as charging a man with drunkenness and neglect of duty, since to be found guilty of drunkenness meant that the accused was deemed guilty of being so intoxicated as to be incapable of performing his duty [136, 141]. Still others were the outcome of a single act of indiscretion [120, 121, 123, 125, 128, 129, 136, 138, 139, 141, 144]. however, most adjudication of multiple offences simply occurred because the miscreant had been presumed by his accuser to have committed more than one crime, such as using a ship's boat to desert [117, 118, 124, 126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 133, 137, 140, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148].

117. Court Martial of John Kent

[ADM 1/5330]

Minutes of proceedings at a court martial held on board His Majesty's ship the Defence at Blackstakes on the 9th day of september 1793.

Present

James Cumming, Esq^r., Captain of His Majesty's Ship Resolution and second officer in the command of His Majesty's ships and vessels in the river Medway and the buoy of the Nore, President.

Being all the captains of the post ships in the river Medway and at the buoy of the Nore, except Captain, the Honble Alexander Fr. Cochrane of His Majesty's Ship Hind, Captain John Maude of His Majesty's ship the Leopard, and Captain V. C. Berkley of His Majesty's Ship Assurance, who are absent with leave from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

The prisoner was brought into court and the evidence and audience admitted.