British New York Vice-Admiralty Court. Captured ship: Betsey (commander John Burrows,...

HCA 32/281/6

1781 Jul 6

British New York Vice-Admiralty Court.

Captured ship: Betsey (commander John Burrows, supercargo Jonathan Smith, one of the owners).

Capture history: an American merchant ship fitted for war as a privateer (200 tons, 9 guns, 39 men including 3 passengers, one being Alexander Nelson, an owner) bound from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Cap François, Saint Domingue, laden with flour, porter, bread, beef, biscuit; taken on 6 July 1781 off Bermuda by HMS Iris (George Dawson commanding), and HMS Pearl (George Montague commanding),and brought into New York.

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

Court papers numbered CP 1-4:-

• [CP 1]: affidavit of papers brought in by the prize master George James Decordeux, midshipman, 18 July 1781;
• [CP 2]: libel in Dawson v the ship Betsey, 18 July 1781;
• [CP 3]: monition, 18 July 1781;
• [CP 4]: deposition of James Cavenden, 20 July 1781.

[Decision: condemned, if no response to the monition by 8 August 1781].

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-45 (Pennsylvania papers):-

• SP 1-SP 2: official ship's papers;
• SP 3-SP 5: printed instructions of Congress, parchment and paper privateer commissions;
• SP 6: log book or journal of James Montgomery, for a voyage from Cape Henlopen to Cap François;
• SP 7: crew list and agreement;
• SP 8-SP 11: articles of agreement between James Cochran and Alexander Nelson; owners instructions, of James Cochran;
• SP 12-SP 31: bills of lading;
• SP 32-SP 38: memoranda etc, for provisions;
• SP 39: a sheet of three bills of lading;
• SP 40: a French text about Telemaque, with one line of a translation (in the same hand as SP 45);
• SP 41: a printed invitation addressed to Jonathan Smith, to a meeting [of Freemasons] of the Ancient York Masons, Philadelphia;
• SP 42: text of part of Alexander Pope's Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot [1734], on both sides of a torn sheet of paper;
• SP 43-SP 44: texts of the song 'Beneath the grove the silent shade' and the song The Mulberry Tree, starting 'Behold this fair goblet twas carved from the tree;
• SP 45: exercises in French, in the same hand as SP 40.

Alexander Nelson merchant archive for this voyage: letters of consignment to Nelson, all from Philadelphia, 28 May-20 June 1781, numbered AN 1-30, with enclosures on invoices and bills of lading, from:-

• AN 1, 1A and 1B: Charles Miller;
• AN 2, 2A: White Matlock;
• AN 3, 3A, 3B: Abram Markoe;
• AN 4, 4A: John Hood;
• AN 5, 5A: Robert Hare;
• AN 6, 6A: John Taggart;
• AN 7, 7A: George Bickham;
• AN 8, 8A: Sweiter & Peeters;
• AN 9, 9A: Charles Bunting;
• AN 10, 10A: Charles Lyng;
• AN 11, 11A, 11B: Joseph Spencer;
• AN 12, 12A: James Short;
• AN 13: letter of recommendation, in French, for Nelson from C P Raguet to Messrs Tyrell & Bary, merchants, Cap François;
• AN 14, 14A: Claudius Paul Raguet;
• AN 15, 15A, 15B: Benjamin Harbison;
• AN 16, 16A: John White;
• AN 17, 17A, 17B: John Groves;
• AN 18, 18A: William King;
• AN 19, 19A: Charles Cooper;
• AN 20, 20A, 20B: Bunner Murray & Co;
• AN 21, 21A: Peter & Jacob Kuhn;
• AN 22, 22A: Lockyer & Barge;
• AN 23, 23A, 23B: Henry Wynkoope;
• AN 24, 24A: Clement Biddle & Adam Gilchrist;
• AN 25, 25A: Stephen Hollingsworth;
• AN 26, 26A: Isaac Wikoff & Co;
• AN 27, 27A: Levi Hollingsworth;
• AN 28, 28A: Leonard Jacobi;
• AN 29, 29A: Jacob Alrick Setzel;
• AN 30, 30A: Adam Zantzinger.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-4; Ship's papers: 5-118 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2024]. Some misplaced papers moved to HCA 32/430/9

HCA 32/276/8/1-19

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