British New York Vice-Admiralty Court. Captured ship: Aimable Genevieve (master Raymond...

British New York Vice-Admiralty Court.

Captured ship: Aimable Genevieve (master Raymond Eymat).

Capture history: a French merchant ship (snow, 120 tons, 15 men) bound from the River Potomac, Baltimore, Maryland to Nantes, laden with tobacco; taken on 8 November 1778 off the Capes of Virginia by HMS Daphne (St John Chinnery commanding), and brought into New York.

Intended voyage: from the United States to France.

Court papers numbered CP 1-2:-

• [CP 1]: libel in Advocate General at the relation of Chinnery v The snow Aimable Genevieve and her cargo, 1 December 1778;
• [CP 2]: affidavit of papers brought in by the prize master John Linton, midshipman, 7 December 1778.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-19:-

• SP 1-SP 6: official ship's papers;
• SP 7-SP 8: muster roll, baptism certificate for the surgeon;
• SP 9-SP 17: ship's business papers;
• SP 18: owner's instructions to Abel Longdon, as Eymat does not speak English, 10 October 1778;
• SP 19: a serial letter in French from Oster, Philadadelphia, to Captain Eymat at Georgetown, written between 1 and 6 October, 1778.

Mail-in-transit numbered MT 1-5:-

• MT 1, and MT 1A-MT 1E: a packet of business letters addressed to Joshua Johnson, merchant at Nantes and William McCreery, from William Russell, Maryland enclosing 4 unsealed letters and copies of letters (one enclosing a bill of lading) intended for Matthew Ridley, who is difficult to contact and is therefore losing business;
• MT 2: a letter addressed to Messrs Arnaud, Père et Fils, Nantes, from John Dorsey, Baltimore, 8 October 1778, enclosing an invoice and bill of lading for 166 hogsheads of tobacco shipped on account of Don Juan de Miralles of Philadelphia;
• MT 3: a packet addressed to Samuel and J H Delap, and William McCreery, Bordeaux, comprising MT 3, a letter of 7 October 1778 from William Smith, Baltimore to the same, enclosing MT 3A and MT 3B, two Continental Loan Office Bills of Exchange (both second bills), for $600 and $30, payable in Paris, and MT 3C, an order for sundry goods;
• MT 4: a packet addressed to Samuel and J H Delap, and William McCreery, Bordeaux, enclosing MT 4A, a letter of 7 October 1778 from John McClure, Baltimore, about insurance; MT 4B a bill of lading of December 1777 for tobacco on the schooner Enterprize (master John Bryman), and with MT 4C and MT 4D, notarised declarations of the insurance of the same; MT 4E, a public instrument of declaration and protest of 26 August 1778 on behalf of John McClure and other owners of the sloop General Gates (master Thomas Steel) taken by the English privateer Levant of Bristol (John Martin commanding), and condemned in New York [a sea protest against the captor ? see HCA 32/339/5];
• MT 5: a business letter to Samuel and J H Delap, and William McCreery, Bordeaux, from William Russell, 5 October 1778, also asking for the latest edition of the volumes published to date of Dr Robertson's History of America.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-2; Ship's papers: 3-40 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2024].

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