Printed prize appeal from the Vice-Admiralty Court of Jamaica. Captured ship: Guana,...

Printed prize appeal from the Vice-Admiralty Court of Jamaica.

Captured ship: Guana, formerly Sally (master George Johnston or Johnson).

History: an unflagged (British) vessel, bound from Georgetown, South Carolina to Jamaica and thence to London, laden with tobacco, indigo, rice, turpentine; seized in port in Jamaica on 6 July 1778 by HMS Minerva (John Stott commanding).

Appellant: James Keith, John Grant and Hugh McGibbon, in 1778 residents of South Carolina.

Respondent: The captor and other HM ships, namely HMS Aeolus (Christopher Atkins commanding), HMS Lowestoffe (William Lockyer commanding), HMS Hornet (Robert Haswell commanding) and HMS Glasgow (Thomas Pasley commanding).

Bound printed appeal, with manuscript decree of 18 March 1780.

Folios 1-27v, comprising:-

• folios 1-5v: case on behalf of the appellant;
• folios 6-13v: appendix to the appellants' case;
• folios 14-17v: case on behalf of the respondent;
• folios 18-27v: appendix to the respondents' case.

Session of Saturday 18 March 1780, in the Council Chamber, Whitehall: sentence recorded in manuscript on folio 17:-

• Present: Henry, Earl Bathurst, Lord President of the Council; Earl of Denbigh; Earl of Marchmont; Earl of Hillsborough; Earl of Clarendon; Viscount Stormont; Lord Amherst; Sir Thomas Parker.
• The Guana, George Johnson master. Lushington. Crespigny. For sentence on the second assignation and information.
• "An objection having been made by the Respondent to the reading [of] the depositions on special interrogatories in the first instance, the Lords having heard counsel by consent of the parties admitted the said depositions to be read and having heard counsel on the merits by their interlocutory decree reverse the sentence of the judge below condemning the ship and rest of the cargo and decreed the same to be restored or the value thereof to be paid to the Claimant and Appellant but pronounced for just cause of seizure and condemned the Appellant in the costs of the captors."