Dimensions 1425 x 29 cm. Manuscript on paper. Seven joined vellum membranes. A trifle creased and discoloured. Inscribed at foot: 'Examined by Thomas Lowley, Deputy Clerk of the Pipe, 10 July 1811'.

An examined copy of a roll of foreign accounts, dealing, at a largely superficial level, with the financing of troops stationed in Gibraltar, Ireland, North America, the West and East Indies, and associated plantations. Some specific sums are recorded, such as the receipt of £300 18s 2d for the sale by public auction in Quebec of the brig Maria. Charges and receipts amounted to £3,377,122 0s 11 1/2d and payments and allowances to £1,772,059 19s 11d, which after further allowances was reduced to a debt of £423,277 2s 2 3/4d.

Perhaps the most interesting inclusion is the list of deputy-paymasters and their stations and the numerous officials, and the salaries which they received. The office of Paymaster of the Forces was established in 1661. By the eighteenth century it had become a political prize and potentially one of the most lucrative offices one could obtain during a parliamentary career, offering a salary of £4,000. At the time this roll was produced the office was jointly held by future Prime Minster William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville (1759-1834) and naval officer and politician Constantine John Phipps (1744-1792).