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), Lowestoft (Charles Fielding commanding), and Townshend (Nicholas Lewis commanding), and brought into Lisbon.

Documents (in French unless specified): 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

The mail comprises approximately 225 personal and business letters from France (mostly Bordeaux), six in Spanish, one in Latin (no. 97) to Saint-Domingue; 31 personal and business letters from France (mostly Bordeaux) to Martinique; and others to Grenada, Guadeloupe and Antigua, for onward delivery.

Also included are various other papers, some from the captors, including:-

• letters belonging to Captain Fielding of the Lowestoff (nos. 7-10, and 240-241) removed to HCA 32/147/10 in 2021;
• wrapper only of a letter (not included) addressed to Mr John Heard, merchant, Kinsale, by the St Charles, Captain Mathews master (no. 11);
• letter (in Spanish) from Madrid to Bordeaux;
• two signal books, one for a convoy of French merchant ships escorted by the Chevalier D'Epinay [Nicolas-Hercule, chevalier d'Espinay, comte de Rosendael], marked Le Chine Verd de Bordeaux (nos. 20 and 21) ;
• no. 5 of the Gazette de Bordeaux, January 1745 (no. 22);
• prices of sugar and other commodities at Bordeaux (nos. 23, 65B and 92C);
• lists of the gun crews and action stations of two unidentified vessels (nos. 14 to 19);
• list of deaths in the Province of Guyenne, 1743 to 1745 (15 names) (no. 47C)
• last no, no.239.

See HCA 30/237, HCA 30/238, HCA 30/239, and HCA 30/240 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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Trade and commerce

Caribbean

Europe and Russia

Piracy and privateering

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Armed Forces (General Administration)