“Transport Office, Dorset Square, Westminster, established in August 1794, for the purpose of conducting the transport business which had hitherto been transacted by the Navy Office; it has also the care of the prisoners of war. It was at first managed by three commissioners, but the business having much increased two more were added in the year 1795. The salary of each commissioner is a thousand a year. They have under them, several resident agents at the different sea-ports both at home and abroad, to superintend the particular service of embarking, re-embarking of troops, etc., and seeing that the contracts made in this particular service are strictly adhered to. These agents are captains and lieutenants of the Royal Navy. There are also several agents afloat. The captains have one guinea a day; the lieutenants fifteen shillings, and nineteen shillings more per month for a servant. At the conclusion of the war in 1802, the Board was reduced to three commissioners; Capt. Schank retired on a pension of £500 per annum, and Joseph Hunt, Esq., was removed to the ordnance as clerk of the deliveries. _Commissioners_. Hugh Cloberry Christian, Esq., afterwards Sir Hugh, K.B. Philip Patten, Esq. Ambrose Serle, Esq. September 1795. Rupert George, Esq. John Schank, Esq. Wm. Albany Otway, Esq. John Marsh, Esq. Ambrose Serle, Esq. January 1799. Joseph Hunt, Esq., _vice_ March. {7} In order properly to understand the establishment of the Depot at Norman Cross, it is necessary to briefly review the events which led up to it. It arose at a very momentous era in our history. It was not officially called a barracks, or a prison, but a Depot. At that time there were few barracks in England, practically none, and what we term garrison towns were very scarce. Our regular army was abroad fighting, and the internal defence was in the hands of the Militia and Yeomanry. Service in the former was compulsory, but substitutes could be purchased, so that it is easy to judge who would actually serve, especially at a time when scarcity and high prices were the rule, while the Militia were well fed. In the Yeomanry were enrolled the gentry and well-to-do persons of each locality; this was a very large force. There was a special troop of Norman Cross Yeomanry, in which the farmers and others from the neighbouring villages gave their services, and there were one or more troops in Peterborough and the neighbouring towns. The duty mainly consisted in putting down the various small riots that arose in different parts of the country. In their travels they were “billeted” on the publicans and the public at a tariff fixed by the Government, and which, not being very extravagant, gave rise to much dissatisfaction, oppression, and fraud.