PRIVATE (LATER ACTING SERGEANT) JOHN HAYCOCK (SURNAME SPELT HAYCOCKS IN SOME RECORDS), PLYMOUTH DIVISION, ROYAL MARINES, HMS ANSON. Naval General Service Medal, 1 clasp, 12 OCTR 1798 (an officially engraved late issue replacement medal with “Hunt

PRIVATE (LATER ACTING SERGEANT) JOHN HAYCOCK (SURNAME SPELT HAYCOCKS IN SOME RECORDS), PLYMOUTH DIVISION, ROYAL MARINES, HMS ANSON. Naval General Service Medal, 1 clasp, 12 OCTR 1798 (an officially engraved late issue replacement medal with “Hunt & Roskell” engraved naming, engraved in large serifed capitals: JOHN HAYCOCK.). Good Very Fine to Almost Extremely Fine.

Eight 12 OCTR 1798 clasps to HMS Anson (no officers, 8 ratings).

Medal accompanied by biographical details and a selection of muster and victualling rolls for HMS Anson for the period 1798-1805, which confirm that Haycock first saw service aboard HMS Anson on 1/1/1798 and was discharged to shore from her on 16/8/1805, along with copied extracts 1841 and 1851 census returns, marriage and death records, and copied medal roll extracts (2, original and published), confirming medal and clasp.

The original and published medal rolls confirm that Haycock was issued with a replacement medal, both noting a “duplicate prepared”, either to replace a lost original medal or an incorrectly named original medal returned for disposal, the published medal roll additionally noting that the duplicate medal referred to had engraved naming (undoubtedly this medal, since the original medal issued to Haycock would have had officially impressed naming). Haycock’s original medal with officially impressed naming is not recorded as having survived, indicating that this “duplicate” medal is probably Haycock’s sole surviving medal, issued to replace an incorrectly named and disposed of original medal.

The award of the Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840, a retrospective award, was not actually announced until 1st June 1847, and it was not until June 1848 that it was confirmed that the medals were available for distribution, and January 1849 before the medals first began to be distributed. The Royal Mint ceased producing officially named medals, with impressed naming, circa February 1851. After that date the task of naming the medals was subcontracted to Hunt & Roskell, who thereafter issued entitled recipients with late issue or replacement medals with officially engraved naming. The naming on Hunt & Roskell officially egraved late issue or replacement Naval General Service Medals is identical to the naming on the early issues of the Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with wide suspender, of 1848-1875, on which Hunt & Roskell also engraved the official naming.

This medal will be included in a list of known surviving examples of the Naval General Service Medal 1793-1814 with Hunt & Roskell officially engraved naming, to be published by Barry Scott (OMRS 1373).

John Haycock is confirmed as a unique name on the medal roll for the Naval General Service Medal, the original and published rolls both confirming that he was present aboard HMS Anson as a Private in the Royal Marines on 12th October 1798, during the lengthy, 11th – 18th October, action off Tory Island, on the north-west coast of Ireland, between Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren’s British squadron and a French squadron comprising the 74 gun ship-of-the-line Hoche, three French frigates, a schooner and a brig, the French squadron then engaged in transporting French troops to Ireland to assist rebel forces there during the 1798 Rebellion.

John Haycock (1779-1857) was born in Baschurch, Shropshire, 6/6/1879. The Muster Rolls for HMS Anson confirm that Haycock first saw service aboard that ship on 1/1/1798 as a Private, Royal Marines, and that his previous trade had been that of farmer. Muster Rolls confirm Haycock was promoted Acting Corporal, 25/9/1801, Acting Sergeant, 9/6/1804, and was discharged to shore from HMS Anson when that ship was “paid off’ on 16/8/1805. At the time of discharge Haycock was recorded as serving with the Plymouth Division, Royal Marines.

John Haycock(s) married Esther Berry at Stoke Damerel, Devon, on 21/7/1812. He is recorded in the 1841 census as a 60 year old bricklayer (surname spelt Haycocks) resident in Baschurch, Shropshire, with his 55 year old wife Esther Haycocks and a 13 year old George Haycocks, and is recorded in the 1851 census as a 71 year old Greenwich Pensioner resident in Baschurch with his 67 year old wife Esther, and a George and Sarah Haycocks (aged 23 and 6 respectively). John Haycock died in Baschurch in 1857 (buried 16/10/1857), aged 78.

A similar official late issue Naval General Service Medal with official Hunt & Roskell engraved naming was sold by Noonans (then Dix Noonan Webb) on 12/11/2020 (lot 420). That medal, a 2-clasp example to a Lieutenant James Neville, had had the original naming erased and was re-engraved “upside down” in serifed capitals in an identical style to this medal. The auctioneer of the Neville medal noted that it “could well be a privately commissioned piece from Hunt & Roskell”, produced after February 1851.

HMS Anson was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line, launched on 4/9/1781. She initially played only a minor part in the engagement off Tory Island between the British and French squadrons Tory Island in October 1798, because she had sustained storm damage in the days leading up to the action, and as a result struggled to maintain her position in the line of battle in the British squadron. However, during the closing stages of the protracted engagement, on 18/10/1798, she fought a separate action during which, having been joined by the brig HMS Kangaroo, she captured the damaged French frigate Loire. During that action Anson’s captain, Philip Charles Durham, struggled to manoeuvre his ship as he brought it in to action, due to the fact that HMS Anson had earlier lost her mizzen mast, main, lower and topsail yards.

HMS Anson was wrecked on 29/12/1807, driven ashore during a gale, with enormous loss of life. The loss of the Anson caused great controversy at the time, because of the treatment of the dead sailors washed ashore. As a result, a local solicitor, Thomas Grylls, drafted a new law to provide drowned seamen with a proper burial. John Hearle Tremayne, member of parliament for Cornwall, subsequently introduced a new law to parliament which was enacted as the “Burial of Drowned Persons Act 1808”. A monument to the drowned sailors from HMS Anson and the passing of the Grylls Act stands on the eastern end of Loe Bar, on the cliff above the beach, about 1.5 miles from Porthleven Harbour. Additionally, Henry Trengrouse, who witnessed the wrecking of the Anson, distressed by the loss of life caused by the difficulty in attaching lines to the wreck during the attempt to rescue Ansons sailors, developed a rocket apparatus to shoot lines across the surf to shipwrecks in order to evacuate survivors in cradles, a precursor of the Breeches Buoy.