The First Foot Guards

We are a Revolutionary War reenactment group based in Boston MA,
accurately portraying the royal household regiment that is now known as
The Grenadier Guards

 

A note on 'scroll-s'
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Inftructions to the Recruiting Officer

  1. You are to inlift no man who is not a Proteftant and a native of Great Britain. If any Irifhman or foreigner, through miftake, fhould happen to be approved of, and, within three months after joining the Regiment, fhall be difcovered to be fo, he will be difcharged at your lofs: provided it can be made appear the officer had reafon to fufpect him.

  2. You are to inlift no man under the age of feventeen, nor above twenty-five, unlefs he has ferved in the army; in which case he fhall be accepted of, provided he does not exceed twenty-eight years of age. No man who has been whipped or drummed out of any regiment will be approved of: if any fuch is found out within three months of joining the regiment, he will be difcharged at your lofs.

  3. You must inlift no man who is not five feet ____ without fhoes, or who has not ftraight limbs, broad fhoulders, a good face, and is every way well made. You must inlift no man who cannot wear his hair, who is thin, or who has the leaft defect in his knees.

  4. You will take particular care to have all your recruits carefully examined by a Surgeon; for a man who is fubject to fits, or has any appearance of a rupture, broken bones, fore legs, fcald head, ulcers or running fores, on any part of his body, old wounds ill cured, or any infirmity in body or limb will not be approved of, but will be difcharged at your lofs, if difcovered within three months after joining the regiment. Should you difcover that your Serjeant, Corporal or any man of your party knew that any of your recruits was afflicted as above, and conceal it from you, he or they fhall be brought to a Court-Martial, and feverely punifhed.

  5. All recruits to be duly attefted before a magiftrate. A receipt to be taken on the back of their atteftations, and witnefsed, for the bounty-money agreed on. If any of your party inlift a man for you, you muft allow him five fhillings as an encouragement. The atteftations of the inlifted men are to be fent to the Regiment by the Serjeant or Corporal who brings the recruits to quarters, who is to deliver them to the Commanding Officer, who will give them to the Adjutant, in order that recourfe may be had to them if necessary.

  6. You must inlift no ftrollers, vagabonds, tinkers, chimney-sweepers, colliers or failors; but endeavour to get men born and bred in the neighbourhood of the county you are recruiting in.
  7. For every recruit, approved of at the Regiment, you will be allowed three pounds thirteen shillings and fixpence, out of which fum no more than one pound, eleven fhillings and fixpence fhall be given to fuch recruit as bounty-money.

  8. The non-effective fund fhall be charged with the real expence of all the recruits who die before they join the regiment, provided the day of their death and the exact bounty-money given them be fertified on the back of the atteftation.

  9. Not lefs than four recruits to be fent at a time: they are to go under the care of a Serjeant or Corporal to the Regiment, with money to fubfift them.

  10. You will take particular care that the recruits furnifh themfelves out of their bounty-money with linen, fhoes, ftockings &c.

  11. All fubfiftence given to the recruits before they join the regiments fhall be charged feparately from the levy-money. When you arrive at the place you are to recruit, you will write to the Commanding Officer at head-quarters, to acquaint him of it; and alfo if you change your place of recruiting. No Serjeant, Corporal, drummer or fifer, or private man, once inlifted in this Regiment, muft be discharged, but as the Articles of War direct. When you send any recruits to the Regiment, you will give notice of it to the agent by letter, inclofing a ftate of your account. N.B. When directions are given to inlift lads for drummers or fifers, they are to be inferted in their certificates: when the Commanding Officer shall think proper, they fhall be put into the ranks, and ferve as private foldiers, without being intitled to any further bounty-money.

GOD SAVE THE KING


A note on 'scroll-s'

The above text contains the letter f in the place of the scroll-s. It is still letter s, and should be pronounced as such. It is inserted to give a certain whimsicality, scroll-s being generally unavailable as a typeface (nor would it download correctly on computers without scroll-s in a typeface - fo there!)

 

A note on usage.

In script (handwriting) the scroll-s has more the appearance of a vertically elongated s, with the lower swash continuing below the line of script. In type (printing) it appears like a regular f, but without the crossbar. It is used in all lower case locations except the last letter of a word and the double-consonant (note: Mafsachufetts, Somerfet). When a double-s occurs, the first s is scroll, the second is the usual s. When set in type, many consonants were linked together (ligatured). Common combinations would be ct and th, but the commonest of all would be ss and st . Note the present day German double-s, which is ligatured and appears like a Greek letter beta. Capitals do not use the scroll-s. In contemporary usage many nouns have initial capitals, such as Serjeant.

And while we're discussing it: Ye Olde Tea Shoppe

It's cute to pronounce the above as "yee oldee tea shoppee" and it is indeed a jab at the archness of people who post such spellings. However, what you should know is that in this case the letter Y is actually the Old English (Olde Englishe?) letter thorn, which represents the sound th, and should be pronounced as such.

Watch out, however for the old form of 'you' which is 'ye', and for other words such as yea (yes).

Indeed ye are to take efpecial care of ye orthography, ye fpelling and ye pronunciation. Yea verily.

 

How much is that shilling worth today?
Or any other amount in any year.
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