Catalogue description High Court of Admiralty: Instance and Prize Courts: Early Instance and Prize Papers

This series contains the first of six series of instance papers, this series being known as the early series.

The first four pieces in the series covering 1586 to 1652 but with strays from 1735-1737, are prize papers. The documents in the remainder of the series, covering 1650 to 1778, are instance papers.

The series contains a wide variety of loose miscellaneous documents, such as affidavits, bills of lading, examinations, exhibits, interrogatories, first decrees and inventories, similar types of which exist in other HCA series.

Later instance correspondence and papers are in HCA 52