<<snipped>> So maybe they wanted to join up but hoped they would not immediately be sent abroad? Just a thought.... <<snipped>> It's as good a thought as any - though I don't think there was much going on in the late 1820s, apart, no doubt, from an ever-present tendency for the locals across the Empire (if it was called that then) to take things as far as they could without calling down too much retribution. Joseph seems to have spent all his time in the UK on garrison duty. Samuel went to India on garrison duty before taking part in the First Opium War (am I permitted to join Gladstone and express shame and disgust at that one?) Adrian B