High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Montgomery of Newburyport, formerly Nancy...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Montgomery of Newburyport, formerly Nancy, (master Joseph Rowe).

Capture history: an American merchant ship (ship, 260 or 280 tons, 17 men, 2 passengers) bound from Newburyport, Massachusetts to Bordeaux, laden with masts, tobacco, linseed, oil, flax seed, staves; taken on 14 March 1777 in latitude 46°N, longitude 6°W off Cape Ortegal, Galicia by HMS Albion (John Carter Allen commanding), and brought into Plymouth.

Intended voyage: from the United States to France.

Court papers numbered CP 1-3:-

• [CP 1]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1-9) brought in by the prize master James Kinneer lieutenant, Dock Town, Stoke Damerel, 25 March 1777;
• [CP 2]: three depositions of Joseph Rowe, Joshua Flint both of Massachusetts, and Norman McCloud of Stornoway in the highlands of Scotland, commissioners' affidavit, taken at Dock, Stoke Damerel, 26 March 1777;
• [CP 3]: allegation, 10 May 1777.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-9 (Massachusettts papers):-

• SP 1: crew list and agreement, Nov-Dec 1776;
• SP 2: account of Rowe with owners Jackson, Tracy and Tracy, detailing expenditure in Newburyport;
• SP 3: formal attestation by Nathaniel Tracy (in place of a ship's register) before the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety for Newburyport, as to the ship Montgomery, a British ship condemned as prize by a Maritime Court in Massachusetts in 1776, current owners Nathaniel Tracy, John Jackson and John Tracy; with a certification added that as the Massachusetts General Assembly has not as yet regulated the Marine Department nor appointed proper officers to grant register, the Newburyport committee has issued this document, 6 December 1776;
• SP 4: clearance bond, 7 December 1776;
• SP 5: invoice of sundries;
• SP 6: receipt for oil;
• SP 7: owners instructions to Captain Rowe at Sheepscut, to continue preparations despite the embargo, 14 December 1776;
• SP 8: owners instructions (including Enoch Titcombe) to Captain Rowe at Sheepscut, enclosing an order drawn on John Langton, Pownalborough, for money, 19 December 1776;
• SP 9: letter in French from James Simonet, Newburyport to Mathieu Gosset [Matthew Gossett], merchant, Jersey (via poste restante at Granville, France, 20 January 1777; arrived on 11 December in a privateer commanded by John Fletcher, his previous ship having been taken off Bilbao; he has not had any opportunity to arrange an exchange of prisoners; sends love to his mother, siblings etc.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-6; Ship's papers: 7-15 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].

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