British New York Vice-Admiralty Court. Captured ship: Aimable Jeannette of Martinique...

British New York Vice-Admiralty Court.

Captured ship: Aimable Jeannette of Martinique (master Jean Dupuche).

Capture history: a French merchant ship (brigantine, 160 tons, 11 men and 5 passengers) bound from (Martinique and Mississippi) to Port Royal, South Carolina, and thence (after 13 May 1778) to Martinique, laden with rice, indigo, staves and tobacco; taken on 7 June 1778 in latitude 32°40'N, longitude 77°W by the loyalist privateer Experiment of New York (Peter Scott commanding), retaken with her captor on 16 June 1778 by the French 40 gun ship Lion (F Michel commanding), the crew restored to her (and the English crew restored to the Experiment as there was doubt about whether war had been declared), the Aimable Jeannette was brought into the Chesapeake and the York River: now bound from Williamsburg, Virginia to Martinique, with at least some of the same lading; taken on 28 August 1778 in latitude 36°30'N, longitude 77°W near Cape Henry, Virginia by the loyalist privateer Tryon brigantine (George Sibbles commanding, with a commission from East Florida), and brought into New York as an American ship.

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

Court papers numbered CP 1-5:-

• [CP 1]: affidavit of papers brought in by the prize master Joseph Smallwood, 11 September 1778;
• [CP 2]: libel in Sibbles v The brigantine Aimable Jeannette and her cargo, 11 September 1778;
• [CP 3 -CP 4]: two depositions, of Jean Dupuche and Antoine Dupuche, 24 September 1778;
• [CP 5]: account of sale of the ship and cargo, for £1657 after costs, 27 October 1778.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-59:-

• SP 1-SP 10: official ship's papers;
• SP 11: muster roll;
• SP 12-SP 18: papers relating to the crew;
• SP 19-SP 37: ship's business papers;
• SP 38-SP 44: bills of lading;
• SP 45-SP 53: master's papers etc at Williamsburg, with SP 45 being a statement about the state of the ship, their arrival at Williamsburg, and the two first captures, explaining Michel's doubts about whether France was at war or not;
• SP 54-SP 57: three letters to the master;
• SP 58: a poem;
• SP 59: an empty envelope addressed to Madam Lassaile, Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe [perhaps in the wrong file].

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-58; Ship's papers: 59-62 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2024. [CP 5] added from HCA 49/91]. See also T 1/544/278-279

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