If he was "18 years of age" and that 1842 date has any validity, it could well be about 1861, when the blockade of the Confederate South was taking hold. Lancashire was highly dependent on slave cotton, and may mills were on short time or closed. For a young man without family support, joining the army might seem an option preferable to starvation.

This period gave rise to other compositions, including Samuel Laycock's Welcome, Bonny Brid- a poem about the additional stress on an already stretched family, due to the birth of another child.