Quote
A remarkable mode of kidnapping has lately been practised with singular success. A crimp at Charing-cross, who, for some time, has assumed the appearance of a Nobleman’s Steward, engaged between three and four hundred stout young Irishmen as hay-makers, furnishing them with prongs and other implements of husbandry, and hiring waggons, under pretense of carrying them to the Nobleman’s estate, where they were to be employed, on Tuesday safely lodged them in Hilsea Barracks, from whence, as soon as they are cloathed; they are to march for foreign service. These deluded people were promised two shillings a day, which sum was regularly paid them till they were secured as above, when they were reduced to military allowance.
— Kentish Gazette, Saturday 14 July, 1781 (source)