High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Aimable Agathe of Le Havre formerly L'Imperatrice...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Aimable Agathe of Le Havre formerly L'Imperatrice Reine (master Jean Jacques Cornet).

Capture history: a French merchant ship (300 tons, 4 guns, 27 men and a passenger) bound from Port au Prince, Saint Domingue to Brest or Le Havre, laden with about 350 tons of sugar, coffee, cotton and indigo; taken on 26 February 1779 in latitude 48°15'N, longitude 8°W by the privateer sloop Betsy of London (Abraham Bailleul commanding), who later accepted the help of the privateer Dreadnought of Liverpool (John Taylor commanding) to bring the prize into Falmouth, but being separated, Taylor behaved fraudulently and instead brought the prize into Liverpool.

Intended voyage: from the Caribbean Islands to France.

Court papers numbered CP 1-30 [disputed joint capture]:-

• [CP 1]: letter from Taylor on the Dreadnought to Cunliffe on the prize, instructing him to take her into Liverpool, if the Betsy does not reappear, as Falmouth would be very expensive and London even worse, Friday [27 March 1779];
• [CP 2]: letter from Cunliffe to Taylor the next day, 'I was at them all last night and likewise today... but they want to go to Falmouth';
• [CP 3]: letter from George Coker Fox at Falmouth, Cornwall to Benedict Paul Wagner in Liverpool (owner of the Dreadnought), with news from the captain of the Betsy, that her prize is expected here soon; and other shipping news, 1 March 1779; [Note CP 1-CP 3 were produced as exhibits later in the court process;
• [CP 4]: three depositions of Jean Jacques Cornet, George Jacques Pellouin, and Emmanuel Guerard, taken at Penryn, Cornwall, and commissioners' affidavit 3-6 March 1779
• [CP 5]: attestation of papers (numbered 1-141) brought in by Abraham Bailleul, Penryn, 6 March 1779;
• [CP 6]: three depositions of Jean Fouaghe, Thomas Laurent Goument and Jean Baptiste Monceau, taken at Liverpool, 6 March 1779;
• [CP 7]: further deposition of Cornet, Pellouin, and Guerard that they were chased by the Betsy and that no other ship was in sight when they were taken at about 8pm, Penryn, 17 March 1779;
• [CP 8]: letter from Jeremiah Smith in Liverpool to B P Wagner, that William De Jersey, owner of the Betsy, has ordered him to bring the prize from Liverpool to London, 22 March 1779;
• [CP 9-CP 10]: affidavits of James Taylor and James Cunliffe, prize master put aboard the prize from the Dreadnought;
• [CP 11]: affidavit of John Davies, purser, Jeremiah Lawes, prize master, and Robert Robertson, first lieutenant, and Jeremiah Smith, mariner, of the Betsy, Liverpool, 24 March 1779;
• [CP 12-CP 14]: allegation and two copy allegations in Bailleul v The ship Aimable Agathe and against Taylor, 27 March 1779;
• [CP 15]: act of court on petition of both proctors, 3 April 1779;
• [CP 16] translations of the ships papers, 5 April 1779;
• [CP 17]: attestation of Jeremiah Williams, late boatswain [described in CP 27 as a 'mulatto', and of Samuel Johnson, late quartermaster, of the privateer Betsy, taken in Liverpool, 30 April 1779;
• [CP 18]: attestation of Charles Mollin, late sailing master, and of Alexander Dobbins, late linguist, of the privateer Dreadnought, taken in Liverpool, 11 May 1779;
• [CP 19]: commission to take further depositions in Liverpool, 22 April 1779;
• [CP 20]: depositions of Cornet, Pellouin, Guerard, William Carkeet of Falmouth, Fouaghe, Goument and Monceau, taken in Liverpool, with commissioners' affidavit, 25 May-3 June 1779;
• [CP 21]: separate commissioners' affidavit, 3 June 1779;
• [CP 22]: commission to take the answer of Abraham Bailleul to a pretended allegation, 8 June 1779;
• [CP 23-CP 24]: answer of Bailleul and commissioner's affidavit, Plymouth, 25 June 1779;
• [CP 25]: affidavit before a JP of Pierre Caulle, lieutenant, Michel Richer, ensign, and Pierre Custard, surgeon, of the Aimable Agathe, now prisoners of war in Helston, Cornwall, that both the privateers were in sight and both fired at the prize when she was taken, 30 June 1779;
• [CP 26]: attestation of William de Jersey, merchant of London and owner of the Betsy, that the prize was taken to Liverpool by fraud, that the value of the cargo would be 15% higher if sold in London, and that he had insured the cargo for £17,000 to be brought to London, 5 July 1779;
• [CP 27]: deposition of James Cunliffe, and three others as to events on board the prize and the Dreadnought, Liverpool, 5 August 1779;
• [CP 28]: deposition of Samuel Woodward comparing unfavourably the unloading of sugar in London against the better practices of Liverpool, 6 August 1779;
• [CP 29]: deposition of William Boats and Thomas Ryan, privateer owners of Liverpool, comparing unfavourably the business practises of London against those of Liverpool, for selling prize goods, based on their experience with the prize Prudente, 6 August 1779;
• [CP 30]: personal appearance of B P Wagner, producing the letter to him from G C Fox, now CP 3, 28 August 1779.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-141, of which 4-10 and 12-29 are no longer here:-

• SP 1-SP 71: bills of lading;
• SP 72-SP 132: many invoices, a few bills of lading and receipts etc, some from the master's previous ship La Desire, and from tradng at St Marc, Saint Domingue;
• SP 133-SP 141: official ship's papers (SP 134 is the muster roll).

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-122; Ship's papers: 123-251 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2024].

Topics

Internment

International

Litigation

Trade and commerce

Caribbean

Europe and Russia

Conflict

Piracy and privateering

Weapons

Race relations

Food and drink

Navy

Crime

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns