High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Aurora (master John Hutchason or Hutchinson...

HCA 32/274/5

1777 Jan 20

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Aurora (master John Hutchason or Hutchinson or Hutchison) formerly Oxford (master John Stewart).

Capture history: an American merchant ship (200 tons, 13 men of whom 5 were American and 8 were British prisoners of war working their passage to France after having refused to fight for America, and 1 passenger named James Richards) bound from Virginia to Nantes laden with 412 hogsheads of tobacco; seized on 20 January 1777 in 47°N 16°W by her British boatswain, William Turner, assisted by three other British seamen (Henry Gill, William Swabrick and William Jones) and brought into Liverpool on 28 January 1777, where she was boarded by Customs men.

Originally the British transport Oxford of Glasgow (master John Stewart) owned by Alexander Speirs & Co and in 1776 transporting a company of the 42nd Regiment under Captain John Smith from Glasgow to Boston, Massachusetts; taken in fight (as recorded in detail in the journal SP 20, p71) on 29 May 1776 in 40°45'N 57°5'W off the Newfoundland Banks by USS Andrew Doria (Nicholas Biddle commanding), taken into Rhode Island and condemned at the Admiralty Court of Williamsburg. (On the same occasion, Biddle also took another of Speirs & Co's ships, the Crawford, carrying men of the 71st Regiment under Captain McLeod). The American owners of Aurora were John Richards & Co of Rappahannock, Virginia, Hall & Horner and Watson & Taylor: as attested to by witness statements and the ship's papers, upon her arrival in Nantes she was be converted into a 16-gun privateer, for which purpose she was carrying a commission from Congress. As the captors had no commission, this was a case of Droits of Admiralty.

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

Court papers numbered CP 1-43:

• [CP 1]: allegation;
• [CP 2-CP 7]: standing and additional interrogatories; depositions of John Hutchason (master), William Swabrick (seaman), Henry Gill (seaman) and John Hall (Quaker merchant from Virginia, a passenger to Nantes); commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 8-CP 9]: attestation and claim on behalf of the original owners Alexander Speirs & Co of Glasgow;
• [CP 10-CP 11]: attestations as to papers. The ship's log was taken and numbered No. 1 by the Customs officer who boarded the ship in Liverpool (now SP 22). Other papers were taken from Hutchason's pocket book by William Turner and numbered by him 1-15; these Turner gave to another Customs officer who sent them to the Treasury (his superiors). Turner also showed him (another) log which Turner did not give to him (this would be the log Turner took to the HCA in London - see his deposition at CP 15;
• [CP 12-CP 13]: explanation of the papers being sent to the Treasury, with an attached letter;
• [CP 14]: deposition of William Gisby, Aurora's mate, before the HCA in London;
• [CP 15]: deposition of William Turner, Aurora's boatswain, before the HCA in London. He identified papers nos. 1-16 as those he had found on board and handed in, and nos. 17-21 as the papers he had brought with him to London, excepting that 18 and 21 were copies of papers which were sent to the Treasury and subsequently mislaid. He was also shown a journal which he could not identify (presumably the log taken by the Customs officer, now SP 22);
• [CP 16]: attestation of William Turner concerning the numbering of the papers;
• [CP 17]: attestation as to SP 18 and SP 21 being true copies;
• [CP 18]: James Dyson's authority to act for the Receiver of Droits;
• [CP 19-CP 33]: letters of attorney of the crew for their prize money, including the Americans;
• [CP 34]: attestation of William Turner and William Stone. A pithy account of the seizing of the Aurora and subsequently, trying to cut the Americans out of their share of the prize money by downplaying their role. Says the American crew were pressed into the Royal Navy and that Jesse Topping and Hugh Johnson escaped from the tender. 21 June 1777;
• [CP 35]: attestation of the other British crewmen to the same effect as CP 34. 24 June 1777;
• [CP 36]: attestation that Jesse Topping, now in the Fanny owned by Gildarth & Bescigny of Liverpool, was one of the Americans who signed an oath and undertaking to help sail the Aurora to England. 15 November 1777;
• [CP 37]:"Vouchers from No. 1 to No. 25: receipts for expenses incurred since the arrival of the ship at Liverpool. Despite the endorsement on the wrapper, the numbering went awry and nos. 14, 19, 20 and 21 were used twice, no. 17 thrice, and there were two unnumbered papers. Now numbered: CP 37/1-27 (duplicate numbers e.g. 19A, 19B, with 19 not used);
• [CP 38]: bill of expenses of HM Proctor;
• [CP 39]: bill for taking the depositions at Liverpool;
• [CP 40-CP 43]: commission of appraisement, appraisement and sale.

Ships Papers numbered SP 1-22:

• SP 1: privateer commission issued by Congress;
• SP 2: printed instructions to commanders of US privateers;
• SP 3: master's instructions;
• SP 4: instructions to Thomas Morris in Nantes regarding the cargo. SP 5-SP 11 were originally contained in SP 4 until opened at the Treasury (information of William Turner (in CP 16);
• SP 5: letter to Messrs Pliance, Penet & Co;
• SP 6-SP 7: invoices for the cargo;
• SP 8: charter party;
• SP 9-SP 10: bills of lading for the cargo;
• SP 11: certificate noting some of the cargo was in poor condition when loaded;
• SP 12: partial manifest of the cargo;
• SP 13: copy of the condemnation of the Oxford by an Admiralty Court at Williamsburg, Virginia, 10 August 1776;
• SP 14: leave for Jesse Topping, Jesse Jenkinson and Joseph Walker, soldiers in the 9th Regiment of the Virginia Forces, to make the journey to Nantes in the and to return to their regiment on their return;
• SP 15-SP 16: bills of lading for the cargo (same as SP 9-SP 10):
• SP 17: articles of agreement with the crew;
• SP 18: copy of clearance;
• SP 19: log of the Aurora 30 August 1776 to 29 January 1777 (in the hand of William Gisby, the mate, added from HCA 30/715/2 in July 2023);
• SP 20: journal of William Gisby, including earlier voyages, such as taking emigrant families (named in the back) from the Isle of Skye, Hebrides, Scotland to North Carolina in 1775, a drawing, and a smattering of aphorisms, added from HCA 30/715/3 in July 2023);
• SP 21: copy of the agreement between the English and American crewmen after the seizure (Gisby's spelling);
• [SP 22]: the master's log which William Turner took and gave to the court only after the other papers had been numbered.

[Papers sorted and renumbered in 2023]. See also T 1/529/32-35.

HCA 32/274/5/1-129

Public Record(s)

English

Open Document, Open Description

Topics

Internment

International

Litigation

Army

Trade and commerce

Caribbean

Europe and Russia

Conflict

Piracy and privateering

Weapons

Navy

Americas

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns