A29. Captured ship: Anna Elizabeth (master Berndt Boyson). History: a Swedish ship...

A29.

Captured ship: Anna Elizabeth (master Berndt Boyson).

History: a Swedish ship (galliot) (102 tons, 2 swivel guns and 2 pistols, 6 men all Swedes plus 5 French passengers) bound from Stockholm in Sweden to Le Havre in France, laden with 48 lasts of rye from Riga; taken on Friday 23 August 1793 off the North Foreland by HM Hired Armed Cutter Lion (John Clayson, acting lieutenant, commanding) in sight of three Swedish warships and brought into the Downs.

The ship was owned by Jacob Schmidt & Co of Stockholm.

There were five passengers travelling from Elsinore (Helsingør) to Le Havre: four French seamen and le Chevalier Jean Baptiste Eleonore de Guienne, officer in Russian service, aide-de-camp to Prince Potemkin.

Court Papers:

• [CP 1]: attestation as to papers, 24 August 1793: numbered 1 to 86 for the court.
• [CP 2]: standing interrogatories.
• [CP 3-CP 5]: examinations taken on 26 August 1793 of:
  • Berndt Boyson of Stockholm, master, age 50, married, wife and family living in Stockholm
  • Fredrick Enberg of Stockholm, mariner, age 33
  • Mathias Jungstrom of Kalmar in Sweden, mariner, age 51 (made his mark)
• [CP 6]: commissioners' affidavit.
• [CP 7]: sea protest, 27 August 1793.
• [CP 8]: claim, 3 September 1793.
• [CP 9]: affidavit concerning freight, 20 November 1793.
• [CP 10]: account of freight and expenses, 12 September 1794.
• [CP 11]: letter from Dover Victualling Office, 6 December 1794, enclosing [CP 11A] copy of account of sale of the cargo on 31 October 1793, totalling £593 11s 10½d.
• [CP 12]: invoice for the cargo, 21 March 1795.
• [CP 13]: translations of the Ship's Papers for the captors (SP 13 and SP 16 only).
• [CP 14]: translations of the Ship's Papers for the claimants (SP 13, SP 14, SP 18 only).
• [CP 15-CP 23]: expenses incurred after capture, including Ramsgate Harbour dues etc.

Ships Papers: SP 1 to SP 86:

• Nos. 1-10, 12 and 14-17 were restored to Barendt Boyson 3 December 1793: see his receipt for them on cover of [CP 1]. Translations of SP 14 and SP 16 are in [CP 13] and [CP 14].
• SP 11: from the French consul at Elsinore (Helsingør), Denmark, relating to the passage of the four French sailors, named, as passengers in Anna Elizabeth (in French).
• SP 13, 13A and 13B: bill of lading, invoice etc for 48 lasts of Riga rye (in German).
• SP 18: Sea Protest by the master subsequent to capture [not really a ship's paper, but numbered in sequence for the court].
• SP 19: Captain Boyson's instructions (in Swedish).
• SP 20-SP 86: Personal Archive (PoFo) of the passenger, le Chevalier Jean Baptiste Eleonore de Guienne [b. Dieppe c.1748], officer in Russian service, aide-de-camp to Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski [Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman, and favourite of Catherine the Great, 1739-1791], in Stockholm and St Petersburg. The papers date from 1768 to 1793, and include:
  • SP 26: printed notice, 'au nom de la loi', to Madame de Guienne [his wife?] of 47 rue Grand Pont, Rouen, to quit Rouen with 24 hours notice. Dated 9am 11 October 1792, l'an premier de la République Française.
  • SP 32 and 36: two letters from his young daughter Eleonore.
  • SP 34: letter from Potemkin, dated Bender.
  • SP 35: letter to De Guienne in Stockholm from his wife in Roue.
  • SP 37: letter to Prince Potemkin.
  • SP 38: passport (in Swedish).
  • SP 39-42: letters to De Guienne.
  • SP 43: letter [draft?] from De Guienne to his wife, dated St Petersburg 15/26 February 1793.
  • SP 46: certificate of his service in the Comte d'Artois's bodyguards, 1777 to 1778.
  • SP 47, 82 and 85: (in Russian).
  • SP 50: list of about 50 books 'contained in the English chest', dated 25 July 1793 and signed 'Brosseronde'. 'I have given [...] these books [...] to Citoyen Deguienne who promises to [deliver them] as soon as he arrives in France'. Many of the books are in English, others in German, Dutch, Italian and French, and include 'The Dispensary: a poem in six cantos', Gaye Poems, vocabularies, works by Sheridan, Milton, Gaye's Fables &c.
  • SP 51, 53: letters from Jennings (in French).
  • SP 57: mentions Christine Capitaine as travelling 'from here' (in German).
  • SP 60: certificate of De Guienne's service as a lieutenant in the Legion de Nassau, 1779.
  • SP 61: congé de retraite, or certificate of de Guienne's service in the Gendarmerie, 1769-1778.
  • SP 62: Swedish passport (in German) issued at St Petersburg, for de Guienne to travel to Stockholm and London, 2 March 1793.
  • SP 69-71: letters from Christine Capitaine (mentions Jennings): 'Je suis toujours ché la Palinski, et ne les quiterai que pour monté dans mon Kibique'. Jacob Palenskoi is mentioned in SP 65.
  • SP 75: lyric of a chanson 'le Culte de Buveur' (presumed belonging to de Guienne).
  • SP 21 and 67 are missing

Nationality: Swedish.

Languages of ship's papers: English, French, German, Swedish, Russian.

Decision: ship restored absolutely, cargo decreed to be restored. As it had been sold, the captors were ordered to pay freight and expenses but not damages.

Catalogued provisionally, 25 July 2025.