Captured ship: St Philippe otherwise San Felipe or St Philip of Bordeaux (master...

Captured ship: St Philippe otherwise San Felipe or St Philip of Bordeaux (master Jean Meur).

Nationality: French.

History: a French merchant ship (280 tons, 20 guns, 62 men, 3 passengers) bound from Bordeaux to Cap Francois, Saint Domingue and Martinique (in company with five other Bordeaux ships, four of which were also captured), laden with wine, flour, beef, butter, candles, soap, oil and provisions; taken in fight (four and a half hours) on 12 April 1745 off Cape Finisterre, in latitude 44°30'N, by the privateers Shoreham (Robert Milligen commanding) and Lowestoff (Charles Fielding commanding), and brought into Lisbon with the other Bordeaux ships.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1]: two examinations, commissioner's affidavit by the vice-consul at Lisbon;
• [CP 2]: allegation;
• [CP 3- CP 4]: abstract and translation of the 13 ship's papers, and wrapper.

Ship's papers, numbered by the court SP 1-SP 13, and SP 14-SP 17 added in 2021 (SP 14 is a playing card, 4 of spades, annotated).

Privateers' ship's papers now numbered PP1-PP 11, evidently sent to court in error with the captured papers, being mostly letters to Charles Fielding, captain of the Lowestoff, from Captain Milligen, Elisha Johnson, Mr Mathews and Samuel Meare giving orders concerning the cargo, sails etc, and letters from crewmen imprisoned in Lisbon, after the capture of the French ships [PP1-PP6 added from HCA 30/241 in 2021];

Mail in transit, comprising letters thought for some reason (often not obvious) to be identifiable as having been consigned to this ship. Letters to Saint Domingue have been grouped by their material features:-

• DF1-DF46: flattened letters to Saint Domingue [or perhaps Martinique], opened soon after capture, now without envelopes or addresses, but some with enclosures; some writers or recipients identifiable, others not;
• DO1-DO27: letters to Saint Domingue, opened soon after capture, with integral envelopes or addresses, and refolded in 2021 (DO 1 has annotations by the captors written on the open letter);
• DS1 -DS11: letters to Saint Domingue, opened soon after capture, still in their separate envelopes and some with enclosures (DS 9 contains 2 printed songs; the envelope annotated by the captors; DS 10 contains DS 10D, an unopened letter);
• DU1-DU120: unopened letters to Saint Domingue (letters, or packets with further unopened contents), left unopened in 2021;
• E1-E2: unopened letters to Europe, left unopened in 2021;
• G1-G10: flattened letters to Grenada, Guadeloupe, St Martin and America, opened soon after capture;
• MO1-MO28: letters to Martinique, opened soon after capture, with envelopes, or addresses, or name of recipient;
• MU1-MU26: letters to Martinique, unopened letters or packets with unopened contents;
• ST1-ST37: stray papers and empty envelopes from mail in transit, to all islands; ST 7-ST 20 are notarised baptismal certificates of the Gruand family; ST 21 a parchment document relating to the marriage of Bernard de Bezoller; ST 22-ST 24 prices current, Bordeaux; ST 26-ST30 empty envelopes to St Domingue; ST 31-ST 37 empty envelopes to Martinique.
• UF1-UF6A: currently unidentifiable family letters, 1-5 from children and others in Paris to M St Martin in [Saint Domingue ?], 6 from a son to his mother and uncle.

For the very many other letters consigned to the 'convoy' (where the actual ship is not identifiable) see HCA 30/237-HCA 30/241.

[Decision: condemned as prize, 3 October 1745]