High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Rising States of Boston formerly Annabella...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Rising States of Boston formerly Annabella (commander James Thompson).

Capture history: an American privateer (brigantine, 210 tons, guns not stated, 39 men, including 'the captain's Negro slave' - but started her cruise with 61) bound from Cape Cod, Massachusetts on a cruise; taken on 15 April 1777 in the Bay of Biscay by HMS Terrible (Sir Richard Bickerton commanding), and brought into Portsmouth.

Intended voyage: a cruise from the United States.

Court papers numbered CP 1-6:-

• [CP 1-CP 1A]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1-13) brought in by the prize master Thomas Hawker second lieutenant, with certificate of John Greenway, Portsmouth, 6 May 1777;
• [CP 2]: standing interrogatories, and additional interrogatories;
• [CP 3]: three depositions of James Thompson, Joseph Lunt second lieutenant, and Henry Fritz, captain of Marines, all of Boston, commissioners' affidavit, taken at Portsmouth, 6 May 1779;
• [CP 4-CP 5]: answer and claim of Samuel Seddon on behalf of the Commissioners of HM Navy, that teh prize was formerly the transport ship Annabella (Hugh Wallace master) in HM service, taken in Nantasket Bay by five American schooners and a brig, for which they had paid the owners Andrew Anderson and others of Greenock, Scotland, 17 June 1777;
• [CP 6]: allegation, 21 June 1777;
• [CP 7]: affidavit of Joseph Lunt and Christopher Clark, carpenter, that the Rising States was the prize Annabella, condemned in Boston and sold to Messrs David Moore, Cams, Mercer and Thompson; that Lunt worked on her conversion to a privateer, and swears to the Inventory A, and Clark swears to Inventory B; taken at Forton [prisoner of war camp], Alverstoke parish, Hampshire, 23 July 1777;
• [CP 8]: Inventory A, of boatswain's and gunners' stores on board the Rising States, put there since 17 June 1776 when she was taken by Americans;
• [CP 9]: Inventory B, of carpenter's stores on teh Rising States, put there since 17 June 1776.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-13:-

• SP 1: large log book, with sail-cloth cover, from 18 February 1777 to 14 April 1777; with details of prizes Prince George, taken on 24 March, and Fleece (master Fortune), taken on 3 April ;
• SP 2: [wanting];
• SP 3: 'waste'; a reused notebook: pp 1-10 a merchant and shipowner's notebook, London 1767, frequent mentions of cousin Kinel or Kind; pp 11-18 used by Thompson in Boston for his ship accounts, 30 Aug 1776 - 17 Jan 1777 ; p 16A loose sheet of accounts;
• SP 4: [wanting];
• SP 5: articles of agreement, 1776;
• SP 6: [wanting];
• SP 7: personal letter from James Thompson, Boston, to his wife, addressed to himself, James Tomson, on board the Rising States, 31 Jan 1777 [Mrs Thompson appears to have been involved in getting the ship out to sea];
• SP 8: owners instructions of Philip Moore, Boston, to Thompson, 31 Jan 1777;
• SP 9: invoice of sundry articles taken from the [prize] ship Prince George and brought on board the Rising States for her use;
• SP 10: printed declaration of the oaths of Thompson and the pilot Thomas Knox taken before Joseph Greenleaf JP, Sufffolk, 27 Jan 1777, concerning a false report that he had taken on board a number of Captain MacNeil's sailors, and soldiers of the United States, and listing his actual crew;
• SP 11: signed agreement of 13 men for a cruise from Boston in the sloop Yankee (Henry Johnson commanding), May 1776; [see HCA 32/490A/4];
• SP 12: owners instructions of Philip Moore, Boston, to Thompson, 27 Jan 1777;
• SP 13: letter from Philip Moore, Boston, to George Moore, at Messrs Murrell & Moor's, London, 27 Jan 1777; recommending the bearer, Captain James Thompson; 'if he should want money, I will see you paid'.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-25; Ship's papers: 26-37 (large pencil numbers): ship's log added from HCA 30/716, and accounts from HCA 30/714. All sorted and renumbered in 2026]. See ADM 106/1240/8 and ADM 106/1240/28-33 for various papers including depositions of crewmen, and ADM 354/194/318-319 and 195/71.