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Item
High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Fox (master Alexander Ross). Capture history:...
Catalogue reference: HCA 32/334/2
What’s it about?
This record is about the High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Fox (master Alexander Ross). Capture history:... dating from 1780 Oct 15 in the series High Court of Admiralty: Prize Court: Prize Papers. It is held at The National Archives, Kew.
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Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- HCA 32/334/2
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1780 Oct 15
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Description (What the record is about)
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High Court of Admiralty.
Captured ship: Fox (master Alexander Ross).
Capture history: an American merchant ship (schooner, 65 tons, 6 men) bound from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Cadiz, laden with rum, rice, sugar; taken on 15 October 1780 off Cape St Vincent by the privateer Alert of London (Willis Machell commanding), and brought first into Portsmouth and then into the River Thames.
Intended voyage: from the United States to Spain.
Court papers numbered CP 1-6:-
- [CP 1]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1-8) brought in by the prize master Jonathan Dixon, first lieutenant, 20 November 1780;
- [CP 2]: standing interrogatories, additional interrogatories;
- [CP 3]: depositions of Richard Coles of Marblehead, mate, commissioners' affidavit, taken at Portsmouth, 20 November 1780;
- [CP 4]: attestation as to the perishing nature of the cargo, the ship being leaky, by Jonathan Dixon, 29 December 1780;
- [CP 5]: attestation of James Margetson merchant of London, one of the owners of the Alert, that all the crew of the Fox had been taken aboard the Alert (except Coles), and that the Fox was lost on the coast of France, 19 January 1781;
- [CP 6]: allegation, 22 January 1781.
Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-8 (Massachusetts papers):-
- SP 1: bill of health, issued by John Gerry, Naval Officer for Marblehead, 7 September 1780;
- SP 2: clearance bond, 7 September 1780;
- SP 3: owners' instructions: in case of capture, to use the enclosed letter of credit for 66000 ryals on Messrs Joseph Gardoqui & Sons of Bilbao, after you have been released from captivity, to buy a vessel and cargo, Gerry, 10 September 1780;
- SP 4: owner's instructions of John Selman, 14 September 1780;
- SP 5: owners' instructions, of Thomas Gerry, John Gerry, Samuel Gerry, John Grush and John Selman, 14 September 1780;
- SP 6: owner's instructions of William Knight, as to his sixth of expenses, and his purchases, 14 September 1780;
- SP 7: instructions of Thomas Gerry as to purchases in Cadiz, including a small sample of brown lutestring [a lightweight silk fabric], with an order to buy 24 yards of lutestring 'agreeable to pattern', 15 September 1780;
- SP 8: instructions of John Grush as to purchases in Cadiz, 14 September 1780.
[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-9; Ship's papers: 10-17 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Closure status (Whether the record is ‘open’ (available to the public) or ‘closed’ (not available due to a legal exemption))
- Open Document, Open Description
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C13505845/
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Series information
HCA 32
High Court of Admiralty: Prize Court: Prize Papers
See the series level description for more information about this record.
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
109,109 records
Within the department: HCA
Records of the High Court of Admiralty and colonial Vice-Admiralty courts
37,247 records
Within the series: HCA 32
High Court of Admiralty: Prize Court: Prize Papers
22 records
Within the piece: HCA 32/334
Captured ships with names beginning with F. Described at item level
You are currently looking at the item: HCA 32/334/2
High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Fox (master Alexander Ross). Capture history:...
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