Captured ship: Pelham (snow) of Glasgow (master Henry Waide, formerly George Yuille;...

Captured ship: Pelham (snow) of Glasgow (master Henry Waide, formerly George Yuille; French prizemaster Pierre Paul Paumier).

History: British merchant ship (120 tons, no guns, 14 Englishmen originally/12 Frenchmen and two of the English crew when a French prize) bound from York River, Virginia, to London, laden with tobacco and small quantities of snake root, beeswax, indigo and hides; taken on Saturday 18 December 1756 around 6pm 10 leagues off the Scilly Isles by the French privateer Le Machault of Granville (Denis Francois Le Mengnonnet commanding - 24 guns, 280 men), retaken the next day about 11am 3 leagues from Morlaix by the Guernsey privateer Blakeney (William Solby/Solbe commanding), and taken into Guernsey on 20 December, still carrying her original mail.

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Court Papers:

• [CP 1]: examinations of Pierre Paul Paumier 49 years (French prizemaster) born and residing at Granville, Jean Baptiste Francois Desdouetis 24 years (French prize crew) born and residing at Granville, Philippe du Tertre 35 years (French prize crew) born near and residing at Granville; commissioners' affidavit.
• [CP 2]: affidavit as to papers.
• [CP 3]: attestation and claim for the ship and cargo.

Ship's Papers (originally numbered 1 to 301 letters, now many missing, and 302 to 308):

• 1: cargo manifest of Pelham, 1754 (consignees include seminal figures John Randolph, William Randolph, Payton Randolph, Elizabeth Randolph).
• 2-82: collection of 81 letters (in English) addressed to Captain Yuille at various ports, from merchants in Glasgow (bearing Glasgow postmarks) and others, 1750-1756. PoFo. Plus nos. 308, and [312]-[313] which are also Yuille's personal papers, 308 being dated 1749 and relating to a previous ship of his being captured by the French in 1748.
• 93, 94, 119, 141, 160-161, 186-187, 198, 202, 229, 233, 236, 238, 245, 268-269, 276, 287 and 300: Mail-in-Transit: 21 letters in English from Virginia to Britain, September to November 1756. Including (no. 93) two letters from John Kello (see: Randolph Cock The fatal effects of being over hasty: the Life and Death of John Kello, a clever fellow’ in MAGNA May 2016 pp. 44-48), and (nos. 94 and 161) letters from Graham Frank and his new wife.
• 302, 303, 303A: manifests of tobacco on board.
• 304, 305, 306, 307: Bills of Lading and invoice for tobacco shipped in Pelham enclosed in a letter to Messrs John & George Murdoch, Glasgow, from Thomas Yuille, Rocky Ridge.
• [309], [310]: certificates for a ship that gives bond to return to Great Britain only.
• [311]: half a letter of unknown provenance added here on the balance of (circumstantial) probabilities.

Re-catalogued 20 December 2024.