High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Freeman (master Alexander Boyd). Capture...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Freeman (master Alexander Boyd).

Capture history: an American merchant ship (schooner, 60 tons, 6 men) bound from Georgetown, South Carolina to Nantes, laden with rice and indigo and with letters of introduction to merchants in France recommending Georgetown as a considerable trading port ... 'if the American trade is in any degree desirable to you'); taken on 2 June 1777 in the Bay of Biscay by HMS Bedford (Weston Varlo commanding), and brought into Portsmouth.

Intended voyage: from France to the United States.

Court papers numbered CP 1-4:-

• [CP 1]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1-17) brought in by Weston Varlo, [26 June 1777];
• [CP 2]: standing interrogatories, additional interrogatories;
• [CP 3]: three depositions of Alexander Boyd of Georgetown, Thomas Durant of Guernsey, and Thomas Harwood of Philadelphia, commissioners' affidavit, taken at Portsmouth, 26 June 1777;
• [CP 4]: allegation, 29 July 1777.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-17 (South Carolina papers) [a marketing campaign to promote Georgetown to French merchants]:-

• SP 1: logbook or journal with a neat canvas cover and watercolour paintings, starting wth the schooner Freeman, with 6 vignettes and decorative borders, and with a starting prayer"May God of mercy infinite protect the good schooner and all her crew and favour us with propitious gales to gain our desired port", 2 May 1777-1 June 1777;
• SP 2: business letter from Henry Laurens, Charleston, to Messrs Noodingh & Haret, La Rochelle, 27 March 1777; recommending my friend George Croft;
• SP 3: business letter from Henry Laurens, Charleston, to Madame Babut & Labouchere, Nantes, 27 March 1777;
• SP 4: wages;
• SP 5: business letter (recommending my friend George Croft) from Alexander Gillon & Co, Charleston to Jacques Gruel, Nantes, 26 March 1777;
• SP 6: business letter (recommending my friend George Croft) from Henry Laurens, Charleston, to Jacob Sandilands, Bordeaux, 26 March 1777;
• SP 7: business letter (by recommendation of the Hon Henry Laurens) from George Croft, Georgetown to Madame Babut & Labouchere, Nantes, 22 April 1777;
• SP 8: business letter (by recommendation of Alexander Gillon & Co) from George Croft, Georgetown to Jacques Gruel, Nantes, 22 April 1777;
• SP 9: owners instructions of George Croft & Co, as to which business house to use, and to destroy the letters to the others as necessary [SP 7-SP 12;
• SP 10: detailed memorandum from George Croft to Boyd as to what goods to buy, with a small sample of lace pinned to it,"edging to pattern";
• SP 11: unaddressed business letter (by recommendation of the Hon Henry Laurens) from George Croft, Georgetown to 'Sirs', 22 April 1777 [no envelope);
• SP 12: George Croft to Captain Boyd, 22 April 1777: memorandum of purchases to be made on the private adventures of George Croft, Capers Boone and Mrs Webb;
• SP 13: invoice of cargo, 22 April 1777;
• SP 14: a general order for goods to be acquired by Captain Boyd; detailed list of desired goods, including musket powder, lead, bird shot, medical supplies and drugs, a great deal of specified cloth (e.g. 4,500 yards of white for 'negroes', 1,000 yards of woolens for 'poor whites', 500 striped blankets fit for 'negroes', 18,000 yards of strong brown linen called osnabrigs [osnaburghs] 'fit for poor people', and much else;
• SP 15: bill of lading, for 150 barrels of rice and 22 casks of indigo, shipped by George Croft, 22 April 1777;
• SP 16: ship's register, owner William Greenwood, Charleston, 18 October 1776;
• SP 17: certificate of compliance, port of Georgetown Winyaw [Winyah], 14 April 1777.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-9; Ship's papers: 10-26 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].

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