Catalogue description Captured ship: Santa Catherina or Santa Catharina (master João de Faria Leitão, or Joas...

Captured ship: Santa Catherina or Santa Catharina (master João de Faria Leitão, or Joas de Faria Leitas). Allegedly, formerly the Marie Joseph of Chandanagore.

History: a French merchant ship (200 tons, 12 guns, 49 officers and crew, and about 15 passengers and servants) leased to Armenian merchants from New Julfa, Isfahan, sailing under Portuguese colours, bound from Basra to Bengal, laden with 50 chests of silver zolotas, fruit, dates, almonds, wine and rosewater; taken on 30 April / 11 May 1748 off Negapatam / Nagapattinam by HMS Medway's Prize (William Holmes commanding) (part of Admiral Thomas Griffin's squadron) and taken into Fort St David, near Cuddalore, India.

There were three Armenian passengers on board: Minas de Eliaz, the supercargo; Johannes de Nazar, Minas's clerk and brother-in-law; and Johannes de Gregory, a merchant trading on his own account and for others.

The ship and cargo were sold in India, and with the involvement of the East India Company, the case was brought to the prize court in London, where a claim for part of the cargo was made by Stephen Cogigian (Stepan di Khojijian) on behalf of the Armenian merchants. The High Court of Admiralty found in favour of the claimants on 10 February 1752, but the captors lodged a successful appeal against the sentence, disputing Cogigian's authority to represent the claimants. No claim was made for the ship.

Documents:

Court Papers: (CP 1 to CP 34 were moved from HCA 42/26 in 2018)

• [CP 1-CP 3]: standing interrogatories, 7 examinations at Fort St David, 8-10 May 1748, commissioner's affidavit;
• [CP 4]: deposition of James Taylor at Fort St David, 4 June 1748;
• [CP 5]: deposition of James Barton at Trincomalee, 24 December 1748;
• [CP 6]: deposition of John King in the Princess Mary at sea, 19 February 1749;
• [CP 7-CP 8]: two releases, 4 December 1749;
• [CP 9]: attestation as to papers, made by John Haman (victualling agent at Fort St David, sole commissioner, and prize agent for the captors) 29 November 1749;
• [CP 10]: certificate that three Armenian papers, nos. 2, 3, and 5, and two Armenian books, nos. 2 and 10, have been deposited in the Registry. n.d.;
• [CP 11]: affidavit of Siljas Jalil, secretary to the Doge of Algiers, signed in Arabic 16 June 1750, saying he had read the papers in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Indian marked J.H. [for John Haman] and numbered them 1 to 71;
• [CP 12-CP 13]: Cogigian's affidavit that he has read all of Bundles A to D and translated all that relate to Santa Catherina or her cargo, 28 December 1750. Also, rough draft of similar, n.d.;
• [CP 14-CP 18]: attestation and claim by Cogigian on behalf of Hage Mab De Shafras Minas John and others, 18 February 1751, with:
  • 'A': schedule of claim;
  • 'B': letter from Julfa to the Armenians of Julfa who are inhabitants of Amsterdam or Venice, with seven 'signatures' and their chops (seals);
  • 'C': translation of 'B' into Spanish;
  • 'D': translation of 'B' from Spanish into English.
• [CP 19]: attestation of Jacob Treve, 1 July 1751, that the Stephen Cogigian who was employed as translator from January 1749 to January 1750 is the same Stephen Cogigian who has since made the claim on behalf of the Armenians of Julfa;
• [CP 20-CP 21]: two copies of an attestation by Cogigian and Treve about some papers not translated, 5 July 1751;
• [CP 22]: consent for Cogigian to translate any further papers, or there are two other Armenians in London who could do it, 13 August 1751;
• [CP 23-CP 24]: attestation by Cogigian and Treve, 7 February 1752, that in the second book of translations they forgot to translate some dates to the western calendar. With addendum supplying omitted dates;
• [CP 25]: allegation by HM Procurator-General, 10 February 1752 (moved from HCA 32/103/10 in 2019).
• [CP 26]: inhibition and monition for Cogigian and Haga Mab de Shafras Minas John to appear before the Privy Council to answer the appeal that Cogigian lacks authority to represent the claims of the Armenian merchants, 11 February, 1752;
• [CP 27-CP 28]: appeal and libel of appeal by HM Procurator-General, 27 February 1752, against errors in proceedings made by the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, arguing that Cogigian had not produced sufficient authority to act, and the claim was not attested by oath as required by the Act of Parliament;
• [CP 29-CP 32]: attestation of Cogigian, 12 March 1752, affidavit from Amsterdam marked no. 1, accompanying translation marked no. 2, and another translation of it, relating to Matheus de Ouan (Armenian church-warden in Amsterdam) receiving the letter from Julfa dated 30 May 1750;
• [CP 33-CP 35]: two attestations and a schedule about how long it might take to receive a letter sent from Isfahan, 18-19 March 1752;
• [CP 36]: unidentified document written in Armenian, dated 1750?;
• [CP 37-CP 39]: first set of translations for the court, first from Armenian into Spanish by Cogigian and Treve, and then from Spanish into English (previously bound together; separated in 2019, but kept in order):
  • [CP 37]: translations from Armenian to Spanish of Bundle 'C' nos. 1 to 237;
  • [CP 38]: translations from Armenian to Spanish of Bundle 'D' nos. 1 to 15;
  • [SP 1 - 11]: original ship's papers marked PP and B-L, at least some of which were in the bundle thrown overboard and fished out by the Medway's Prize's boat:
    • [SP 1] PP: ship's pass for Malabar Coast, Persian Gulf and Basra, in Portuguese;
    • [SP 2-SP 8] B - H: receipts, in Portuguese;
    • [SP 9-SP 11] J - L: letters, in French.
  • [CP 39]:
    • pp 1-310: translations from Spanish to English of Bundle 'C' nos. 1 to 237;
    • pp 311-443: translations from Spanish to English of Bundle 'D' nos. 1 to 15;
    • pp 444-[454]: translations into English of the ship's papers B-L (now SP 2-SP 11);
    • pp [455-456]: attestation of Cogigian and Treve stating which papers they translated and how, 28 December 1750.
• [CP 40-42]: second set of translations, of unidentified documents numbered 1 to 164, translated into Spanish by Cogigian and Treve, and the Spanish translated into English by Sebastian Puchol, 23 November 1751 (previously bound together; separated in 2019):
  • [CP 40]: attestation of Cogigian and Treve, 6 February 1752;
  • [CP 41]: pp 1-259: translations into Spanish;
  • [CP 42]: pp 1-418: translations from Spanish to English.

Decision: ship and cargo condemned to Medway's Prize .

See HCA 13/91 for three more examinations, HCA 32/1832 and HCA 32/1833 for letters and papers, and HCA 42/47/1 for the dispute over fees for the case. In addition, around 400 letters and papers which originally formed part of this collection are now in the British Library, Lansdowne MS 1046-1048.

Gagan Sood, India and the Islamic Heartlands (CUP 2016); Sebouh Aslanian, Trade Diaspora versus Colonial State: Armenian Merchants, the English East India Company, and the High Court of Admiralty in London, 1748–1752, Diaspora 13:1 2004,