For many years a soldier's daily pay, before stoppages, was the shilling given as an earnest payment to recruits of the British Army and the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries. The expression "to take the King's shilling" (or the Queen's shilling as the case may be) meant that a man agreed to serve as a soldier or sailor.[1]
Recruiters of the time used all sorts of tricks, most involving strong drink, to press the shilling on unsuspecting victims. The man did not formally become a soldier until attested before a Justice of the Peace, and could still escape his fate by paying his recruiter "smart money" before attestation. In the 1840s this amounted to £1 (twenty shillings), a sum most recruits were unlikely to have at hand.[1]
Press gangs were used by the Royal Navy as a crude and violent method of recruiting seamen into naval service, often against their will. Recruiting sailors voluntarily was difficult as the conditions on board ship were poor and serving in the navy, especially at time of war, was dangerous. The word press gangs derives from the term impressment, which can be defined as the act of coercing someone into government service. Impressment was used from as early as Elizabethan times and was last used during the Napoleonic wars (1803-1815).[2]
The press gang, a group of 10 - 12 men, led by an officer, would roam the streets looking for likely "volunteers." Merchant seamen were particularly prized as they already had seagoing experience and needed less training. Certain groups were exempt from the impressment process; apprentices, for example, were exempt. Officially, foreigners could not be impressed, although they could be persuaded to volunteer, and there was an age limit of 18 to 55 years. But the rules were often ignored so that the press gang could earn their reward, since they were paid by the head. Often men were knocked unconscious or threatened and often violent fights broke out as groups tried to prevent friends or workmates being impressed into service. When the press gang had seized a man, he was offered the "King's shilling."
There are reports that the "King's shilling" was hidden in the bottom of a pewter tankard (having drunk his pint, the unfortunate drinker found that he had unwittingly accepted the King's offer), and that this gave rise to glass-bottomed tankards. This may be a myth. Other recruits came from the courts, where a criminal's sentence could be commuted to service in the army. The bounty for volunteering for the army was much larger than a shilling. New recruits received £23.17s.6d, but out of this they were obliged to buy their uniform--a considerable expense.[3]
For an in-depth look at recruiting, see Coss, Edward. All for the King's Shilling: The British Soldier under Wellington, 1808-1814 (Oklahoma University Press, 2010).