Captured ship: St George of Skein, in Langesund (master Tyge Jansen, formerly Michael...

Captured ship: St George of Skein, in Langesund (master Tyge Jansen, formerly Michael Isaacson Grole) [second capture]

History: a Danish (Norwegian) merchant ship bound from Deal to a port in Norway, laden with linen, slats and mats; seized in the port of Deal during September 1692 on suspicion of smuggling from France, when the captain Michael Isaacson Grole fled with the ship's papers. It is unclear from these papers whether the ship eventually departed from Deal or not.

Documents:-

Court Paper numbered CP 1:

• [CP 1]: docket, very fragile.

Papers numbered A 1-A 54: dating from 1679-1693, they probably belonged to the crew and passengers. Materials owned by different people are scattered throughout the numbering sequence allocated by the court, but many appear to have belonged to Isobel or Isabel Reay and the Dutch sailor Denis Dennison. The collection contains:

• Family letters in English sent to Isobel Reay, mostly from Newcastle. The printed materials in the volume may also have belonged to Isobel;
• Notes perhaps belonging to the Dutch sailor Denis Dennison, including verses in French about William III and in Dutch, English and French about his time in the Williamite navy;
• Two printed pamphlets in English, Samuel Peck, The Substance of a Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Mrs Elizabeth Bell (1687) and Anon., Romes Masterpeece or the Grand Conspiracy of the Pope and his Jesuited Instruments(1643). These perhaps belonged to Dennison;
• Two printed ballads in English with lyrics and notation, An Answer to the Shepherd's Happiness and The Young Lovers Enquiry: or, the Batchelors Question to Cupid. These perhaps belonged to Reay.;
• Seven small volumes in English, Doctor Merry-man: Or, Nothing but Mirth. Being a Posie of Pleasant Poems (undated, missing its cover), The Compleat Cook: or, the Accomplished Servant-Maids Necessary Companion (undated), Young Mans Letter to his Love, for the intreaty of her Good Will (undated), The Shorter Catechism Composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines (1674), A Book of Witty and Ingenious Riddles Set Forth for the Trial of Wit (undated), The ABC with the Catechism (1677), Perkins, A New Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1687; (1687). These perhaps belonged to Reay.
• Six sets of calculations in English relating to different Norwegian ships from 1686, various sets of accounts;
• A set of rules in English to be followed 'at this tuss table', related to gaming with cards;
• A letter in Danish from Henry Lundt to Peter Saxe;
• Four papers issued in lieu of ship's papers after Isaacson Grole fled, including a form of pass issued by the Danish Consul in England, with a translation, a copy of an attestation as to papers, a letter concerning Dennison's nationality and a commission relating to an order from the Privy Council that concerned the ship.

[Decision: discontinued, 1693].