High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Friends (master John Norcomb). Capture history:...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Friends (master John Norcomb).

Capture history: an American merchant ship (brigantine, 60 tons, 21 men, 4 passengers) bound from Edenton, North Carolina to St Thomas, Danish West Indies laden with tobacco, staves, shingles and naval stores; taken on 26 March 1782 in latitude 23°N, longitude 59°30' W by the non-commissioned vessel Venus (George Brown commanding), a tender of the Liverpool privateer and slave trader Jenny (Thomas Walker commanding), returning from a voyage to the coast of Africa and the West Indies [Slave Voyages Database ID 92588], and brought first into Crookhaven, Ireland to repair her foremast, and then into Liverpool. Condemned as droits of the Admiralty.

Intended voyage: from the United States to the Caribbean Islands.

Court papers numbered CP 1-15:-

• [CP 1-CP 4]: four insurance policies, for bringing the prize from Crookhaven to Liverpool, April 1782;
• [CP 5]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1-.2) brought in by the prize master Samuel Williams chief mate of the Venus, Liverpool, 12 June 1782;
• [CP 6]: standing interrogatories;
• [CP 7]: two depositions of Powers Everitts, foremastman, of Edenton, and Samuel Williams, prize master, of Liverpool, commissioners' affidavit, taken at Liverpool, 13 June 1782;
• [CP 8]: attestation as to the perishing nature of the cargo from leaking in bad weather, Liverpool, 14 June 1782;
• [CP 9]: release of interest by Williams;
• [CP 10]: commission of appraisement and sale, 31 July 1782;
• [CP 11]: inventory and appraisement, Sept-Oct 1782, Liverpool, net value £8,207 3s 3d, less £123 14s 10d costs of appraisal;
• [CP 12]: sale accounts of the brig Friends and her cargo, net sale proceeds, £9,919 14s 4d, after costs £5,296 8s 3d, 2 December 1782;
• [CP 13]: account of costs of the commission, 10 December 1782;
• [CP 14]: attestation of John Tarleton of Liverpool, of Messrs Tarleton & Backhouse (owners), about the slave-trading nature of the Jenny, and her status as a privateer, and of the Venus as a tender of the Jenny, so that the prize should be considered a capture of the Jenny, 17 December 1782;
• [CP 15]: complete and detailed bill of expenses of HM Procurator General, Gostling for £123 3s 11d, 3 March 1782.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-2 (North Carolina papers):-

• SP 1: clearance bond with a description of John Norcomb and John Small, mate, Roanoke, 16 February 1782;
• SP 2: ship's register, owners Edmund Blount, Thomas Harvey, Lemuel Crucy and Joshua Skinner, Roanoke, 16 February 1782.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-33 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].

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Caribbean

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Piracy and privateering

Slavery

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