DEVON-L Archives

From: "Stuart Moverley" <>
Subject: Re: Marine Barracks
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 12:34:15 +0100

Hello Barbara,

The main Royal Marine barracks was,and still is,at Durnford
Street,East Stonehouse but there were probably contingents
at other military installation in Plymouth as well such as the
Citadel.The later census's do appear to indicate that families
lived at the barracks as well as military personnel,probably in
some type of married men's quarters.
The passage shown below is taken from a previous enquiry about
the Royal Marines c.1840 but some of it may prove relevant to your
interest.

The Royal Marines at that period had four Divisions - Chatham,
Portsmouth, Plymouth and Woolwich (London), i.e. the main Royal Navy
home ports/dockyards. Every RN ship had a home port, where it was
commissioned, and to which it returned at the end of each voyage, and
the RM contingent on a ship was normally drawn from the RM Division at
the ship's home port. It was very unusual for a man to transfer from
one Division to another during his service.

The RM Barracks for the Plymouth Division was at East Stonehouse.

Records of the Royal Marines are in the Public Record Office at Kew,
London. For the Plymouth Division, the records include:
- attestation forms (signed by each man when enlisting) 1804-1838, and
1848-1900
- description books (containing details recorded at enlistment, such
as age, place of birth, trade, and physical description), 1793-1894
- discharge forms (on completion of service), 1784-1892

Service registers were only started officially in 1884, but contain
some information from as early as 1856 for men still serving when the
register was opened.

The PRO is working on a computerised index of all Royal Marines named
in the records: last time I looked there was only an (incomplete) card
index.

The RM contingent will also be listed in the Muster and Pay Books of
the ships in which they served: bear in mind that these books only
cover the period of a "commission" (voyage) for a ship, and when the
ship returned to the home port the sailors were paid off and the
Marines returned to barracks. The Muster and Pay Books are also in
the PRO; they are not indexed, and can be time-consuming to search.

The PRO has a (chargeable) research service: for details, see their
web page
http://www.pro.gov.uk/

Stuart Moverley
Plymouth,Devon,UK


Stuart's HomePage is at http://www.btinternet.com/~sfmo

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