British New York Vice-Admiralty Court. Captured ship: Perseverance of Virginia (master...

British New York Vice-Admiralty Court.

Captured ship: Perseverance of Virginia (master Robert Harris).

Capture history: an American merchant ship (brigantine, 100 tons, 4 guns, 5 swivels, 17 men, 4 passengers) bound from St Thomas, Danish West Indies to Richmond, Virginia, laden with rum, salt, dry goods; taken on 4 or 5 May 1782 in latitude 24°30'N, longitude 66°W by the loyalist privateer Lively (Thomas Weeton commanding), and brought into New York.

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

Court papers numbered CP 1-4:-

• [CP 1]: affidavit of papers (numbered 1-14) brought in by the prize master Christopher Birbeck, 22 May 1782;
• [CP 2]: libel in Weeton v The brigantine Perseverance and her cargo, 22 May 1782;
• [CP 3]: monition, 22 May 1782;
• [CP 4]: deposition of Robert Harris, 24 May 1782.

[Decision: condemned, if no response to the monition by 12 June 1782].

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-15:-

• SP 1: ship's register, William Pinnock and others , Hampton, James River, Virginia, 6 March 1782;
• SP 2: clearance bond, 6 March 1782;
• SP 2: clearance bond, 6 March 1782;
• SP 3: bill of health, 6 March 1782;
• SP 4: passport according to Article 27 of the French alliance, 6 March 1782;
• SP 5: invoice of cargo shipped by Simon Pellance, St Thomas, 23 April 1782;
• SP 6-SP 10: bills of lading, St Thomas,22- 23 April 1782;
• SP 11: oath made at Hampton, before Moses Armistead, 6 March 1782;
• SP 12: invoice of cargo (padlocks, nails, coffee mills, needles, linen etc) shipped by West, Douglas & Crew to Robert Crew, St Petersburg, Virginia, St Thomas, [April 1782] ;
• SP 13: invoice of cargo (thread and cloth), shipped by William Ritchie to Robert Crew, Richmond, Virginia, 23 April 1782;
• SP 14: invoice of cargo (nails), shipped by John Fisher & Co to David Cross, Commercial Agent of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 23 April 1782;
• SP 15: printed copy of the privateer commission of the captor, issued in Jamaica, 24 May 1781, and endorsed by Thomas Weeton with the appointment of Christopher Birbeck as prize master, 5 May 1782. The commission names the owners as Abraham & John Rawlinson of Liverpool, and William Dillworth & Thomas Baines of Jamaica. [Ellen Weeton, daughter of Thomas Weeton, claimed from her childhood memory that his widow and children were cheated out of £10,000 prize money due to him by the privateer owner 'Richardson': see Ellen Weeton, Miss Weeton's Journal of a Governess, Vol 1 (1936).]

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-4; Ship's papers: 5-19 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].