Samuel Folker was born about 1755 and was baptised on 23 March 1758 at Felsted parish church for which his name is entered in the register. It is not certain if he had any brothers or sisters however he may have one of each.

Nothing currently is known about Samuel until the time he entered the navy upon being taken by the dreaded 'Press Gang' at the age of 22 in August 1777. On 17 August of that year he was taken by the tender boat Prosperous onto H.M.S. Cornwall which was anchored at Nore. Cornwall was a third rate ship and had a regular compliment of 600 but the numbers were swelled at this time by supernumeraries borne on what was euphemistically called Admiralty Order i.e. having been 'pressed' into service..

Samuel remained on board H.M.S. Cornwall only seven days before being transferred on 24 August 1777 to H.M.S. Aurora, a sixth rate ship, just before it put to sea. The voyage was via Stromys and Downes to Spithead where the ship arrived at the beginning of November. After one month at Spithead the ship sailed for the West Indies celebrating Christmas at sea and arriving at English Harbour in Antigua in mid January 1778.

At the time Samuel was taken into the navy he started at the rank of Able Seaman. He had been aboard ship barely three months before he was promoted to be Coxswain on 25 November, about a week before the ship sailed from Spithead.

The name of William Daunt appears on the muster and this fellow seems to have transferred between successive ships at the same time as Samuel. He was an Irishman born in Cork and was three years younger than Samuel.

Aurora remained on station in the West Indies continuously until August 1779 and the table on a later page summarising the ships muster books shows the ships movements during that voyage. The Captain throughout the voyage was Chas Cumming and the Boatswain Richard Barker. The Master at the start of the voyage was James Roger and the Purser was Neil Momson. Whilst stationed in the West Indies the Master was replaced by Jonas Wilkins and the Purser by Samuel Denton. Finally John Rose took over as Master when the ship returned to Chatham.

The musters show Samuel as having purchased slop cloaths to the total value of £2:16s:4d during his first year on board. Such an amount would have been in excess of one month's pay. The clothes were provided by the navy and stocked on board by the Purser. The amount of the purchase was entered in the muster book then deducted from the sailors wages when he was paid off. Also at the beginning of 1778 he is shown as having bought Dead Men's Cloaths to the value of £2:4s:0d. This was a charitable action by the crew of a ship whereby the clothes of a deceased member of the crew were auctioned at values way above their true value. The proceeds went to the next if kin and the amount was deducted from the bidders wages when he was paid off at the end of the voyage.

The West Indies were a source of great wealth to the countries which had colonised them and the respective navies were station there to protect the interests of their home countries in stopping invasion by others, notably France and Spain.

Samuel would have spent Christmas on board ship for two consecutive years. Although the ship's routine would have to be maintained, there were concessions at Christmas.

Whilst Samuel was in the West Indies he would have taken shore leave when possible and purchased souvenirs of his travels. One such item, a tappee, remained in the possession of the family for about 150 years until it was given to a museum in London. The tappee was a fertility symbol and had passed down to Sydney Folker who was Samuel's great great grandson but Sydney's wife was offended by it and gave it away.

At the beginning of August 1779 Aurora set sail back to England and after a voyage of three months arrived at Chatham at the beginning of November. The muster notes that 101 men had run from the ship during the period of service in the West Indies.

Samuel along with William Daunt transferred to H.M.S. Assurance at Deptford on 13 May 1780, being brought aboard on the tender Friendship. Assurance was a fifth rate ship with a compliment of 300 men and armed with somewhere between 32 and 44 guns.

The ship remained at Deptford until 15 July when it sailed down river to Woolwich arriving the same day then sailed again on 17 August bound for Halifax..

Samuel joined the ship in the higher rank of Midshipman and William Daunt became Captains Coxswain under the captaincy of Jas Cumming whom had also moved from Aurora. The Master was John Pike, the Purser John Richie and the Boatswain Charles Pollexsen. Samuel had served in the navy for about two years before becoming a Midshipman which was about the expected period. As a Midshipman, he would have had a uniform as shown in this illustration taken from the book Nelson's Navy written by Philip Haythornethwaite and William Younghusband and published by Osprey.

Samuel would have received instruction in navigation and be taught how to take a dead reckoning with a quadrant at noon. He would be expected never to be seen lounging about or have his hands in his pockets.

The pay for a Midshipman would have been between £70 and £100 per annum and would be paid to an agent in advance..

As part of his duties, he would still be expected to go aloft with the men to learn and to check on the sails and keep the men lively and in order when furling them. He would take his turn at night watch and during the day would supervise the hoisting of stores. He would also attend to the slinging and stowing of hammocks.

Samuel would have to turn out of his hammock at 7.30 then wash before breakfast at 8.00.

The Midshipman's mess was below water level on the orlop deck and was fairly confined with a headroom of 5' 6". The light would have been from lanterns and also through a cuttle overhead. The smell of the bilges would rise up from below. His berth would not exceed 12 feet in area.

The Midshipmen's mess was their domain and was always busy with pranks, bullying, quibbling, merriment and discussion as depicted in the cartoon below from the book Nelson's Navy written by Philip Haythornethwaite and William Younghusband and published by Osprey.

The Midshipman would keep all his belongings in a wooden chest and that which belonged to Samuel remains in the possession of the family. It now serves the purpose as a family chest in which to keep documents and heirlooms and it is pictured below.

The chest is 3' 3" x 1' 8" x 1' 9" high and is very heavy. It chest carries the scars of time. There are a number of stains and scratches on the lid where objects have been placed on it. The wood is lighter at the bottom where the surface polish has been lifted by flood water. Unfortunately the flood water damaged some old photographs which were stored in the chest along with other family relics.

On 13 May 1781 whilst Assurance was off New York Samuel and William Daunt were transferred to H.M.S. Confederate upon the orders of Admiral Arbuthnot. Assurance thereafter continued her voyage and assisted in the recapture of the British ship Atlanta.

When Samuel joined Confederate it had a full compliment of men plus 47 rebel prisoners. More prisoners were taken on board during the period the ship was stationed off New York.

The movements of the ship during the period that Samuel was on board are detailed on an earlier page. Four weeks after Samuel joined the ship she set sail for Woolwich arriving after a voyage of three months. The ship was paid off at Woolwich in mid September 1781.

On joining the ship Samuel was further promoted to the rank of Masters Mate but William Daunt remained in his rank as Captains Coxswain. These two men had again followed captain Jas Cumming who had taken command of this ship. Josh Wood was the Master and Chas Lowry the Purser. This illustration in the book Nelson's Navy written by Philip Haythornethwaite and William Younghusband and published by Osprey shows the uniform of a Master's Mate as it was in 1810.

Samuel's duties as a Master's Mate were to assist the Master. These included writing up the log and keeping the rates of the chronometers. He would keep records of the messes and attend in the hold when casks were being shifted and attend on the mixing of wines and spirits.

By day he would be responsible for keeping the fore yards trim and the topsail running. He keep watch on the main deck to keep it clear and checked the ship to see that gear was in good order and in the right place. He would keep an eye on the lower decks to prevent disorderly behaviour or misconduct.

Importantly, Samuel as a master's Mate was in command of the port lids and had to ensure they were set correctly. By night he would be responsible for the watches.

Confederate was an American built frigate formerly called U.S.S. Confederacy but which had been captured by the British in 1776. It was of special interest to naval personnel due to the unusual lines of the hull.

A picture of Confederate features in a book called Navies of the American Revolution written by Anthony Preston, David Lyon and John H Batchelor and published by Bison Books.

Samuel next transferred briefly to H.M.S. Greenwich along with William Daunt who moved to the position of Midshipman. The muster shows their date of entry as 22 September 1782 but their actual date of appearance on the ship was 22 February 1782

In fact the ships muster shows Samuel as being an Able Seaman but this would appear to be a clerical error. The ship was moored at Longreach, the captain being Will Daniel, the Master Will Smith, the Purser Will Hewett and the Boatswain John Watt.

Both men were discharged from H.M.S. Greenwich on 29 March 1782 then joined H.M.S. Arethusa's at Spithead on 30 March 1782 as the ship was about to set off on a voyage to Newfoundland. Samuel is recorded as being a Masters Mate.

The ship's movements whilst Samuel was on board are shown on an earlier page. The Captain was Ro Pearson, the Purser Alec Murray, the Master Alec Taylor and Boatswain George Hackey.

The ship took three months to reach St Johns thereafter spending three and a half months on station in that area in its participation of the American Wars. The ship took on prisoners during the voyage. The return voyage took two months including a short stopover at Lisbon arriving at Portsmouth early in January 1783 so Samuel had spent another Christmas at sea.

Samuel was discharged from this ship on 16 February 1783 by order of Admiral Pye. The muster book shows him as owing nine shillings for trusses which indicates that the reason he left was because he had suffered a rupture, something not uncommon amongst sailors at that time. The ships surgeon carried a stock of trusses for such eventualities but the sufferer had to pay.

A sailor discharged for reasons of sickness was likely to rejoin later when he had recovered but such information is not known about Samuel.

It is known that Samuel was not a smoker as his name does not appear in the ships pay book list as owing money for tobacco.

The life of a seaman in the period when Samuel was at sea was undeniably harsh even for petty officers. The book 'Sea Life in Nelson's Time' by John Masefield published by Conway gives a descriptive insight into the conditions.

Each rank freely bullied all those below. Punishment was a regular affair and mostly comprised flogging, usually at the whim of an officer and for whatever transgression was deemed to be an offence. Flogging with a cat-o'-nine-tails varied from a dozen lashes to three hundred, the latter sometimes being fatal.

The food was terrible. When a cruise started, the oldest provisions had to be used first therefore nothing was ever at its prime. Besides this, the person responsible for the victuals invariably did a deal to his own benefit with the provision merchant and took sub standard goods. Beyond that, rations were usually reduced. The men would trade their portions amongst themselves and even hold back on some meals in order to enjoy a more substantial meal later.

Drink played an important part in the life of a sailor and each was apportioned a ration of a gallon of beer per day during the early part of a voyage or when that ran out either a pint of wine or half a pint of rum or brandy. When the beer and wine were finished the sailors were able to look forward to grog which comprised a mixture of rum with water, lemon juice and sugar and was issued in portions of one gill at lunch and another at dinner. It is strange that drink was so liberally allowed on board ship yet drunkenness was punished so severely.

Daily routine started at eight bells (4am) when the watch was called. The fires in the galley were lit, the carpenter and the Boatswain came on duty. By 5am work started in scrubbing the decks. and this along with tidying up the ship continued until 7am when the first lieutenant came up on deck to commence his days supervision. All hands were called at 7:30 then had their breakfast at 08:00. At six bells (11am), those who were to be punished were brought before the captain and flogged. Lunch was from 12:00 to 12:30 following which the alcohol was dispensed. At 1:30 duties varied between drill, tidying the ship. At 4 the boatswain piped supper which lasted half and included a serving of grog. .At 8 the first watch was called and all lights extinguished.

Bearing in mind the description above of life at sea, it is possible to understand that the seaman relished battle action as this afforded relief from the harshly imposed discipline. Each man on board had his position and duty to perform whilst in action and was well drilled in this. There were marines and officers posted at strategic positions around the ship with orders to shoot any man who derelicted in his duty. There was a range of shot fired from the cannon but the main cause of injury to the sailors was by wood splinters after the impact of shot.

Some of the wounds were terrible and the treatment equally severe. The Midshipman's mess was used to treat the wounded. Their tables would be put together and covered with a canvass sail to form an operating table. For those unfortunate enough to perish in the onslaught of battle, their corpses would often be thrown overboard without ceremony during the fighting.

Sundays afforded some relief to the crew as duties were light. They would preen themselves for divine service in the morning after which they had their lunch then were free for the rest of the day. They spent their time either sleeping, telling yarns, playing dice or cards (both forbidden) or reading for those who were able.

The sailors wore their hair either in ringlets or as a cue tied with a silk bow. Beards and moustaches were not worn Those with a cue would have it dressed by a mate sitting on an upturned bucket then do the same for the mate and this took about half an hour per person. It was a tradition that a sailor's cue was cut off when he died. This was true of Samuel and his cue, tied in a black velvet ribbon, remains in the possession of his descendants and is kept in Samuel's own sea chest.

When a ship came into port, it was beleaguered by peddlers and women. The peddlers offered gaudy trinkets at extortionate prices which seemed to tempt the most sailors. Others however spent their money on clothes and fresh food. The women would come on board and live there as long as the ship was in port.

By 1784 Samuel was living at St Catherine's in the City of London. On 14 February of that year Samuel married Sarah Shepherd All saints church in Maidstone, Kent. They married by licence issued the previous day and the witnesses to the marriage were William Nicholson and Richard Shepherd. Sarah, known as Sally was the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Shepherd and she had a brother Richard and sister Jane.

Their only child, Samuel Shepherd Folker, was born on 30 September 1789.

Thereafter there is nothing known about Samuel except that he was buried at Kings Lynn having died about 1824 at the presumed age of 69. Sally survived him and lived to the age of 84. She died in London on 4 April 1845 and was buried at Mile End. Her death certificate states her as being the widow of Samuel Folker, Master Mariner.