Captured ship: La Magdelaine de Marseilles (master Joseph Ragordy or Rigordy). History:...

Captured ship: La Magdelaine de Marseilles (master Joseph Ragordy or Rigordy).

History: a French merchant ship (280 tons, 17 men), bound from Martinique to Bordeaux, laden with soap, wine and flour; taken on 14/25 August 1746 in latitude 43°N 5' by the privateers Terrible (Thomas Derbyshire commanding) and Laurel Frigate (John Gradwell commanding), and brought into Liverpool.

Documents (some documents transferred from the appeal papers in HCA 42/39):-

Court Papers:

• [Examinations taken in London, see: HCA 13/90, fos 418-420]
• [CP 1]: Derbyshire's instructions to the prize crew to take the ship into Liverpool, Belfast or Londonderry, with a rough verse on the back ("Prudence and Grace lived in one place, the Angle [angel] keepd the door / Prudence she's dead & Angle fleed and Grace she soon turnd whore"), and annotated 'paper marked with letter A to which Capt Heydock's affidavit refers';
• [CP 2-CP 7]: standing interrogatories, four examinations, commissioners' affidavit taken at Liverpool;
• [CP 8-CP 12]: standing interrogatories, three cross-examinations, commissioner's affidavit taken at Liverpool;
• [CP 13-CP 15]: attestation as to papers, abstract and translations of two ship's papers (SP A-B);
• [CP 16-CP 17]: abstract and translations of the 26 ship's papers;
• [CP 18-CP19]: allegation of the Terrible as sole captor, allegation of the Laurel Frigate and Terrible as joint captors;
• [CP 20-CP 22]: attestation as to commission of appraisement, commission of appraisement, appraisement schedule;
• [CP 23-CP 24]: commission of bail, return of bail;
• [CP 25-CP 27]: two allegations of the Terrible as sole captor, one allegation of the Laurel Frigate and the Terrible as joint captors;
• [CP 28-CP 33]: commission of examination, standing interrogatories, three examinations of witnesses at Liverpool, commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 34-CP 35]: two allegations as to joint capture;
• [CP 36-CP 37]: two letters of substitution, naming Tyndale as proctor on behalf of Thomas Derbyshire and the Terrible and Stevens as proxy for John Gradwell and the Laurel Frigate;
• [CP 38-CP 39]: one examination, commissioners' affidavit taken at Bristol;
• [CP 40a, 40b, CP 41-CP 47]: commission of the examination with detached allegation for joint capture, commission of the examination with allegation for the joint capture annexed, standing interrogations, four examinations taken at Bristol, commissioner's affidavit;
• [CP 48-CP 49]: two attestations as to the Bristol examinations being conducted on behalf of John Gradwell (one incomplete);
• [CP 50-CP 52]: two letters of substitution, one by Tyndale naming Thomas Evans and Thomas Tixton as proxies on his behalf, one by Stevens naming Thomas Blackwell and John Hale as his proxies, affidavit as to Bristol examinations being conducted before Thomas Evans and Thomas Blackwell;
• [CP 53]: release of claim.

Ship's Papers marked SP A-SP B, and another sequence numbered SP 1-SP 16, SP 17a, SP 17b, SP 18- SP 26.

[Decision: condemned as prize, 23 October 1746: this case went to appeal]