Captured ship: La Cérès (master Jean Hardy). History: a French merchant ship (150...

Captured ship: La Cérès (master Jean Hardy).

History: a French merchant ship (150 tons, 26 men and boys, 1 passenger) bound from Martinique to Nantes, laden with sugar, cotton, coffee, indigo, gold, silver and sundry articles; taken on 28 April/9 May 1744 at 47º10, within 15 leagues of Belle Isle, by the privateer Dartmouth Galley (George Legros commanding), and brought into Dartmouth.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1-CP 3]: standing interrogatories, three examinations [one document], commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 4]: affidavit and claim to part of the cargo of coffee on behalf of Jacob van Herzeele merchant of Amsterdam;
• [CP 5-CP 8]: notarised documents in support of Van Herzeele's claim, marked A-C, with translation of C;
• [CP 9]: allegation;
• [CP 10-CP 11]: attestation as to ship's papers, and abstract and translation of those of the ship's papers which are now numbered SP1-SP4.

Ship's papers, now numbered SP 1-SP 4.

A large collection of papapers and letters, numbered throughout by the court:-

Master's Archive:-

Parcel 1, nos. 1-130: mostly receipts and bills of lading for Les Bons Amis (Hardy's previous command) 1740-1743, and for Cérès, 1744. (nos. 4 and 28 are missing).

Mail-in-transit, and archives of the crew:-

Parcel 2, nos. 131-217:

• 131-175, 195: mail-in-transit;
• 176-194, 196-217: letters dated 1741 to 1744, addressed to (and received by) Hardy and members of his crew, including several when serving on the Telemark, Mons. Gigonais, master. Several are from their wives.

More ship's papers:-

Parcel 3, nos. 218-266:

Parcel 4, nos. 267-334:

• 267-284: ship's papers;
• 285-334: letters dated 1740 to 1743, addressed to (and received by) Hardy, including one from his wife. No. 303 is a freight agreement concerning the St Jacques, of which Jean Hardy was master, dated 1731.

[Decision: ship and part of the cargo condemned on 19 June 1744, the rest restored on 2 August 1744]