Catalogue description Captured ship: Franciscus of Hamburg (master Christian Lourentzen, otherwise Lawrence)...

Captured ship: Franciscus of Hamburg (master Christian Lourentzen, otherwise Lawrence) [continued in HCA 32/111B].

History: a Hamburg ship (60 lasts, built at Boston, 9 men, 1 boy, 3 passengers; owned by Messrs Joachim Kahler and Joachim Heinsch or Heus of Hamburg), bound from Tenerife to Dunkirk and Hamburg if war had not yet been declared against France (with four colorable bills of lading) or straight to Hamburg, laden with campeche wood, Canary wine, and dollars; taken on 12/23 June 1744 off Beachy Head by the privateer Dover (James Gravener commanding), and brought into Dover.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1-CP 7]: standing interrogatories, five examinations including that of passenger John McCarrick of Sligo, Ireland, commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 7A]: attestation as to the perishing nature of the cargo;
• [CP 8-CP 32]: 7 sets of attestations and claims for goods and money on the ship by Bartholomew Burton, Anthony Luetkens, Thomas Lane, Henry Kemmers, Lewis Mendez, John McCarrick and Pierce Butler, with letters and bills of lading as exhibits;
• [CP 33]: allegation by the captor;
• [CP 34]: attestation by the master that the ship's tackle, apparel and furniture were worth about £300;
• [CP 35-CP 52]: 18 sets of abstracts and translations of papers in French, Spanish and Dutch found aboard the ship in 10 bundles, each allocated a letter A-L by the captor. These translations relate to the bundles as follows:
  • CP 35-36: Bundle A (hidden in a buoy);
  • CP 37-39: Bundle B;
  • CP 40: Bundle C;
  • CP 41: Bundle D;
  • CP 42-43: Bundle E (hidden under the buoy of an anchor);
  • CP 44-46: Bundle F (hidden under a cask of wine);
  • CP 47: Bundle G;
  • CP 48-49: Bundle H;
  • CP 50-51: Bundle I/J;
  • [Bundle K: no translations];
  • CP 52: Bundle L.
• [CP 53]: translation of a letter from John Blake to Joachim Kahler;
• [CP 54-CP 56]: abstracts and copies of some ship's papers, including A46, B90, B102, B 106, D193, D218, E291, K22, and 127, 128, 138, 168-71, and 221 (hidden);
• [CP 57]: table in English of the bills of lading;
• [CP 58-CP 62]: receipts for letters and papers restored from the Registry [i.e. the papers no longer here];
• [CP 63-CP 66]: three attestations as to papers found on the ship, some found concealed in a buoy and others under a pipe of wine, tag formerly attached to the papers.

Ships' Papers and mail-in-transit in bundles:

• Bundle A, numbered A 1-A 65, letters and papers sent from Tenerife:
  • A 1-A 8: letters and invoices in English from John Collogan to Dunkirk and Rotterdam concerning wine;
  • A 9-A 12ii: letters in English from William Farrell to his cousin and parents in Waterford, Ireland, describing his misadventures in North Africa and Tenerife;
  • A 13-A 14ii: letters in Spanish from Elizabeth Smalley to her brother Raphael in London;
  • A 15-A 18i: letters in English from James Astigarraga and Bernard White to Henry Setrup and Theodore and Jacob Vanzeller, with bills of lading;
  • A 19ii-A 35: letters in French from Monsieur Bonhomme to his correspondents (including women) in Paris, Rouen, Dunkirk, Le Havre, Montpellier, Amsterdam, Gouda, Hamburg and San Sebastian, concerning trade, politics and the outbreak of war;
  • A 36-A 37: a letter in Spanish from Matthias Grahuysen to the London-based painter Domingo Sánchez Carmona;
  • A 38-A 40: letters in English from Bernard White to Irish contacts in London and Dunkirk;
  • A 41: letter in French and Spanish from Clementia and André Orange to Patrick Madan in London;
  • A 42-A 53: letters in English and French from John Blake to correspondents in Port Louis, Dunkirk, Rouen, and Rotterdam, with bills of lading;
  • A 54-A 55ii: letters in Spanish from Juan (John) de Frankley to Domingo Sánchez Carmona and to Patrick Madan, with a small note in the same hand discussing 'a mulatto named Thomas Francisco Boza';
  • A 57i-A 65: letters in French, Dutch and English to Hamburg, Amsterdam and South Carolina, some from David Lockhart with bills of lading;
• Bundle B, numbered B 67-B 106, letters and papers sent from Tenerife:
  • B 67-B 71ii: letters in English from the Peter Russell and family to Andrew Russell, at school with the English Benedictines at Douai, with one in Latin from Christopher Russell, a Franciscan friar;
  • B 72-76ii: letters in French from Pierre Harp to correspondents in Rouen, Saint Domingue, Dunkirk and Bordeaux;
  • B 77ii-B 78: letter in French from J Pozlieu to the Compte de Maurepas, with a list of French inhabitants of the Canaries;
  • B 79i-B 82: letters and invoices in English from John Collogan to correspondents in Ostend, Amsterdam and Rotterdam;
  • [B 83 not here]
  • B 84i-B 87: letter from J Pozlieu to the Compte de Maurepas, with 2 of rates paid on Spanish register ships;
  • B 88: letter in Dutch from Van Stemfort & Doscher to Dunkirk;
  • B 89i-B102: letters in English, from Peter Russell and family to Catherine Russell, at school with the English Poor Clares at Dunkirk, to Abbess Elizabeth Langdale and to other nuns;
  • B 103-B 106: letters in Spanish from Francisco Xavier Castellanos and David Lockhart;
• Bundle C, numbered C 107-C164b [with gaps], letters and papers sent from Tenerife, predominantly to London:
  • C 107-C 138: letters in English, French and Spanish from Edward Newton, John Josiah Rounsivalles, Etienne Cambrelin, John Collogan, Pedro (Peter) Hubbort, Nicholas Hern and Francisco Xavier Castellanos, David Macghee, Margaret Hubbort, Patrick Roche, John Blanchfield and Josiah Paris, with a cargo list, all intended for London, Amsterdam or County Kerry, Ireland;
  • [C 139-C 147 not here];
  • C 148-C 166: letters from John Blake, mostly to Alexander French in London;
• Bundle D, numbered D 168-D 245, letters and papers sent from Tenerife:
  • D 168-D 184i: letters in Spanish from Dominican nuns at Santa Catalina de Siena, including Angela Endrisen de Roo, Augustina Antonia Mahado and St Joseph Sturdy, predominantly to Cayetano Henrisen de Roo, a Dominican friar at Dunkirk, concerning gifts, family and trade, with a fabric sample for making habits;
  • D 185-D 187i: bills of lading, letter in English from Patrick Roche to Mathias Berckenhout in Hamburg;
  • D 188-D 203i: letters in French, Spanish and English from John Blake concerning trade to Hamburg, with accounts of sale and bills of lading;
  • D 204-214i: letters in Spanish from Nicholas Dankerz, Don Baptista to the Marquis de la Candia and one in English from John Cross, complaining about domestic English and international politics;
  • D 215-D 245: letters in French and Spanish from Bonhomme, Anthony Fitzgerald, John Collogan, Bernard White, Agreda and Antonio Madan, M. Gaja, J. Pozlieu, André Orange, Fray Pedro Espinosa, Fray Joseph Melian and Roberto de la Hanty, with one from the latter about sugar mills.

[Decision: part of the cargo condemned, 2 August 1744; the ship and part of the cargo restored, 15 February 1745]