Captured ship: Captured ship: Margery of Dover (master Walter Senserf of Scotland,...

Captured ship: Captured ship: Margery of Dover (master Walter Senserf of Scotland, resident of Rotterdam, otherwise Wouter Senserff, Sencer).

History: an English merchant ship (15-16 men, said to have been built in the Dutch Republic), bound from"Maryland in Virginia" [via Kinsale, Ireland and Plymouth] to Dover (and thence, at owner's discretion if there was still peace, to Rotterdam), laden with Virginia tobacco for the owner, Abraham Stock of Dover; came into Kinsale on 16/26 May 1672, was suspected of being an enemy ship and stayed there until cleared on 8/18 June 1672 by the Vice-Admiralty Court of Munster, Ireland, after several examinations (the master and owner were proven to be inhabitants of Dover); seized at Dover on 17/27 July 1672.

Previous History: previously a Dutch merchant ship with a Swedish commission, the St John of Gothenburg otherwise St John of Amsterdam (master John Willemsen Leyl otherwise Johannes Willemsen Loyle), bound north-about from São Tomé to Amsterdam, laden with sugar; taken in fight on 24 August 1667, south of the Dogger Bank, by HMS Oxford (William Basse commanding) and brought into Kingston upon Hull. Condemned as prize, was bought by Leyl, and she returned to Amsterdam and was sold there in 1668 to Senserf and Nicholas Harris, acting for Stock, and renamed the Margery of Dover, after Stock's wife. This previous history was constructed from related documents: E 134/24Chas2/East 17; HCA 32/1/62; HCA 32/4/97; HCA 32/12/658].

Court Papers, numbered CP 1 :-

• [CP 1]: four examinations taken at Cowes, 1 and 2 July 1672.

Ship's Papers: letters and papers taken from this ship are kept at HCA 30/1070.

Extra information:-

• Previously bound from Rotterdam and the Downs, Deal or Dover to Virginia, July-August 1671;
• Left Kinsale in a convoy on 13/23 June for Plymouth under escort of HMS Reserve (Jasper Grant commanding), arriving in port at Plymouth on 16/26 June, afterwards came into Cowes road with a convoy, there on 1/11 July 1672. See SP 29/311, nos 165 and 165i (Philip Lanyon, 16 June 1672); SP 63/331, no 84 (Thomas Burrowes, 14 June 1672), in Calendar of State Papers Domestic 1672, pp. 229, 241 (NB: Lanyon mistook HMS Reserve for HMS Success);
• See IND 1/9012 f.53v: ship and lading bailed 30 August 1672; part of lading condemned to Lord High Admiral as droits, 17 January 1672/1673.