Captured ships: St Philippe (master Jean Meur otherwise John Muir), La Reine de France...

Captured ships: St Philippe (master Jean Meur otherwise John Muir), La Reine de France (master Pierre Lasserre), La Toison d'Or (master Jean Dufourcq), L'Union of Bordeaux (master Élie Fardie), and Le Vigilant (master Robert Godefroy).

History: five French merchant ships proceeding in company from Bordeaux to Saint Domingue and Martinique, taken in fight on 11 and 12 April 1745 off Cape Finisterre, by the privateers Shoreham (Robert Milligen commanding), Lowestoff (Charles Fielding commanding), and Townshend (Nicholas Lewis commanding), and brought into Lisbon.

Documents:- mail in transit. Except for a few that were missed, those letters identified on the envelope as being consigned to the St Philippe, La Reine de France and L'Union were removed in 1955 and placed in HCA 32 with the court records and ships papers of these ships. It is not now possible to determine which letters in this piece were carried in which of the five ships, although there may be further internal evidence within the letters.

The mail comprises approximately 70 personal and business letters (in French) for onward delivery from Bordeaux and other parts of France to Saint Domingue, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Grenada and other islands in the West Indies:-

• several business letters from Étienne Rigaud and from Clock & Compagnie;
• a list of ships leaving Martinique after 21 November 1744 and Saint Domingue after 8 December 1744 (no. 1);
• letters from two sisters to their father Buttet [later governor of Saint Domingue], one enclosing two of her drawings (no. 2) [see also HCA 30/244 for later letters];
• letter to a man on board Le St Jean Baptiste at Martinique from his female cousin (no. 9);
• three letters carried in the mail of La Reine de France (13A-C);
• a father writing to his son, the captain of La Fortune at Martinique (no. 16);
• C Juchereau de St Denis writing to his father about his attempts to join the navy or another suitable career (he was 17 years old) (no. 20);
• certificate of pilgrimage to the Church of Compostela, enclosed with a letter (no. 37);
• letter from Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas (no. 41);
• letter to the intendant of the province of Louisiana at New Orleans (no. 54).

See HCA 30/237, HCA 30/239, HCA 30/240, and HCA 30/241/1 for more papers and mail; and HCA 32/147/10, HCA 32/148/4, HCA 32/155/15, HCA 32/156/5 and HCA 32/156/13 for more letters and the main collection of ship's papers and court process etc

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