Difference between revisions of "MRP: HCA13/71"

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HCA13/71

Editorial history

16/12/11, CSG: Created page

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[f. 628r.]

Notes, not a full transcription

Examinacon upon an Allegation on the behalf of the said John Jeffreys, Colelough, Beane, Lewellin and others

Thomas Clarke of
Rederhithe or Redriffe in y:e
County of Surrey late
Master and Commander of
the said shipp y:e Xappahawarke
aged 42: yeares or thereabouts
sworne in Court and examined
saith as followeth-

The ship, the Sarah, was freighted "from London to Guiney and from thence to Barbadoes and Virginia and from thence to London, in which voyage the said shipp was surprized and seized as hereafter shall bee dexxxxxxx."

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[f. 629r.]

"the Sarah had XXXXXXX been there bartered away and XXXX
16X Negroes or thereabouts, and that they were in the quiett and
peaceable possession of the same upon the high and open seas neere
unto a place called XXXX de Lopez in Guiney aforesaid as such since as
the said shipps and their respective ladings more XXXXXed and to bee
XXX hereafter reste to bee XXXXed, And further hee cannot depose

To the 5:th Article of the said Accon hee saieth That in or about the
moneth of September 1656, and upon y:e 11:th day of the said moneth
according to y.e English style, the said shipp the Xappahamarck and or
y:e XXuct of this depon:t being at sea with y:e said 53 or 54 Negroes
and the residue of her said Cargo, and sayling towards and
being in sight of the said Cape de Lopes upon her quiett and peaceable trading
was mett with by two duch shipps the one called the Mary of
Amsterdam, and the other called the XXXX of Middleburgh both
of them being commanded by the aclate John SXXoll a Duchman
and Subject of the States of the United Provinces, which did then in
a violent and hostile manner sett upon surprize and take the said
shipp y:e Xappahammarke togeather with her Tackle furniture and
Negroes and the rest of her lading, and dispoyled and utterly ?deprived
this depon:t and Companie thereof and ?converted y:e same to the use
and benefitt of the said John Scroll and Companie. The premisses hee
knoweth by sadd a psonall experiences. And further saith, That by and
according to the credible relation of the said Arthur Perkins and Comp:nie
the said two Dutch shipps in the moneth of August, immediately
precedent had alsoe in a violent and
hostile manner assaulted surprized and taken y:e said shipp y.e Sarah
and her tackle furniture and Negroes aforesaid shee being at an anchor
at or neere Cape de Lopes aforesaid, and had dispoyled and depXXXed
said Master and Companie thereof. And that indeed this depo:t being
himselfe and his said shipp shortly after surprized and taken as afores:d
did soe the said shipp Sarah in the power and possession of the said
John Scroll and of those under his Command in the said Dutch shipps
And further cannot depose

To the 6:th hee saith That the said shipps the Marye and y:e
Unicorne at the time of the surprizeall of this deponents said shipp y:e
Rappahamarrke were Dutch shipps, that is the Mary was and is a
shipp built at Amsterdam in Holland, and the said shipp y:e Unicorne
a shipp which had beene taken by the Holland:ers or Zealanders from y:e
Portugueze and had been repaired and built upon in Zeeland, and saith
That at the time aforesaid both the said shipps carried Spanish Colours
but the night immediately prceeding the said seizure, this depon:t had
seene them carry the Colours of Middleborough in Zeeland And farther
saith that the said shipps were from y:e said United Provinces sett out

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to sea each of them with a cargo of goods to trade at Guiney [?for]
Negroes, and pticulalry that one ?Vandergoes of Zeeland XXX XXX
principall ?Owner and imployer of the said shipp the Unicorne
was alsoe interested in the other shipp y:e Mary and that the ?said
Vandergoes and others the Own:rs of the said shipps the Mary and
Unicorne were Dutchmen and Subjects of the said States of y:e
United Netherlands Provinces, ??All which the premisses of this dep:t
saith hee hath understood and beene very credibly informed of XXX
before the seizure of the said shipp the XXappahamarck and the
one Lucas ?Carrots Master of a shipp in XXXX belonging to Holland
then trading in these parts with whom this dep:t XXX at the XXX
dayes before y:e seizure of the said shipp XXappaXXXX XXXX the
depon:t asking whether there were any men of warr upon y:e XXX
answered noe, but that there were some Dutch Merchant shipps
and that hee knew where their Own:rs and Imployers lived, XXXX XX
hee know where his owne Own.rs lived, and that if hee were in
Amsterdam hee could presently goe to their or severall of their houses
habitations in that place, and moreover that therefore hee did not
feare them under any such notion, And ptly for y:t the said
Commander John Scroll and the Gunner of the said shipp y:e
Unicorne (this depo:t upon y:e said seizure being brought on bord XXX
and there continueing a prisoner for about 6 weekes after) did
sevearall times declare in the hearing of this depon:t that the said ships
were sett out, as aforesaid, by the said Vandergoes and others subject
of the States of y:e said United Provinces, and saith that XXX
said Scroll and one Claes or Nicholas ?Praine Merchant or
Supra Cargo of the said shipp Marie did aboard y:e said shipp
Unicorne declare to this depon:t that they had in and about y:e
said shipps a Cargaison for y:e procureing of two Thousand
ffive hundred Negroes to be transported to ??Carthagona in the
West Indies there to be disposed of and sold for y:e use of XXX
of such their Dutch ?Proprietors And further said That soe long as
this depo:t continued a prison:r in and aboard the said shipp Unicorne
hee well observed that all or the most pt of their shipps XXX
and provisions consisted in ?grett, ?horse ?beXxanes and other XXXX
usually employed in shipps fitted and victualled from Holland and
other united provinces, and that severall of the said shipps ?Companie
then confessed, that the provisions of beef, and sundry XXXX of
water which they then had aboard y.e said shipps had beene by XX
taken in, in the said united Netherlands, or words and expressions
to that or the like effect. Hee further saith That hee this depon:t

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was not present at the seizure of the said shipp y:e Sarah and therefore
doeth not know, what colours y:er said Dutch shipps carried at the time
of the said seizure otherwise than that hee hath credibly understood both
by the said Captaine Perkins and by severall of his Companie, thyt y:e
said Dutch Shipps at the time of the said seizure were or carried the
Hollands or Middleborough colours as this XXXXX now remembreth
And further cannot depose

To the 7:th hee saith, That by and according to y:e confession of the said
John Scroll and severall of his companie made to this depo:t during his
said imprisonment, hee the said John Scroll was an inhabitant of or
neere ??Monnisbondam in Holland, and that this depo:t during his said
restraint well observed abnd to the pticular notice y:t the said Scroll and
the Gunner, Steeresman, Chirurgion, Boatswaine, Carpenter and
Saile-maker and many others both Officers and common men aboard
y:e said shipp were Dutchmen subjects of the said States of the United
Netherlands; and that they generally acknowledged themselves soe to
bee, and that they were sent and employed out of the said United
Provinces for Guinney aforesaid. Hee further saith, That during
such this depon:ts restraint, the said Dutch shipps giving chase to enother
English shipp, whuch had beene tradeing in thoses parts of Guinney and
was then bound thence to y:e east Indies, by name the Lion and
Providence, whereof was Captaine Timothy Craven, the said John
Scroll within this depo:ts sight and observation caused two gunns to be
fired at or against y:e said English shipp with intent to make y:e
same strike sayle to them & y:t a sword being brandished upon y:e said English
shipp in manner of Defiance, or that they would to their power defend
themselves, as is usually understood in such Casesm thereupon
the said Scroll tooke up a sword and brandishing y:e same said in Dutch
theise words or the like in effect, [Italics added by this editor] Ick hebbe mel een sweerde, ick
sal straax bÿ u comen, and soe by the said Scrolls order and direction
severall great gunns were discharged at and against the said English shipp
till such time, as shee was necessitated to submitt and surrender to y:e
said shipp the Mary then Admiral of the said Dutch shipps
which during all y:e said Conflict carried the Spanish Colors, but
when they first espyed any strange shipps, and particulalry when any of
West India shipps of the said United Netherlands came
neere them, they constantly carried the Middelborough Colo:rs and
saith that that place being beyond the Line, upon occasion of such
meeting, if the said shipps the Mary and Unicorne had beene
Spanishe, they and the said other Dutch West India shipps
would in all probability, and according to common and usuall custome

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either have ?attacked or beene attacked by the Dutch, for y:t this XXXX
?Doth not usually tolerate any shipp or shipps of other nations ??tradeing ??in
y:e West Indies And further hee cannot depose

To the Eighth Actle hee saith, That every one of the said XX XX XX
Negroes which this depon:t had on board his said shipp y:e XXXXXX
at the time of the XXXX XXXXX, and alsoe the hundred Negroes XXXXXX
this depo:t intended to have procured with the XXX of the XXX outward
Cargoe would have given and produced in Virginia being the
place to which they were designed, thirty pounds ?ster:g at y:e
least, this depon:t before hee sett forth upon y:e voiage aforesaid
haveing here at London been offered 25:li sterling ready money ?for
?such Negroes hee should procure and deliver at Virginia XXXX
and to have the benefitt of the moneys for y:e whole voiage, XXXX
would have procured rather more than ??less benefitt than that XX
is by him preXXXed, And further saith, That hee this depo:t
verily veleeveth, That the 160 negroes or thereabouts in and on
board the said shipp Sarah at the time of her said ?surprisall by
by being designed for Virginia or the Barbadoes, would have XXXXXX
?produced to the Owners 30:li XXXX p head, or the worth thereof
in goods and ?Commodities of those Countreyes, And this dep:t
saith That about the eighteenth or 20:th day of December ?thatt this
depo:t after y:e seizure aforesaid being come to y:e Barbadoes, ?there
was credibly??informed by M:r Giles Thornbury Master of and English
Vessell then newely come in therewith Negroes from y:e XXX
of Guinney aforesaid, that hee had sold and disposed of them XXX
with another for 27 hundred weight of sugar p head, ?and a
hundred being there valewed at five and XXXX shillings, which is
more than y:e summe by him predeposed, And further cannot depose
saveing that the Negroes ?psons, which hee this depon:t had soe pcured
were all of them lusty young persons and soe hee intended to
have procured the remaining hundred of negroes, soe that they
would without any difficulty have procured the valew by him
predeposed and upwards. And further hee cannot depose

To the 9:th hee saith, hee knowing nothing of the contents of XXXX
further or otherwise than hee predeposed, for that hee this
depo:t was not at any time about y:e said shipp Sarah XXX XXX
their at the said Scroll and Companie had taken all y.e goods
and Negroes in question out of the same

To the 10:th Actle hee saith, That the said shipp y:e XXXXXXXXXXX
being a shipp of the burthen of 220 tunns or thereabouts

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bearing eight peeces of Ordinance togeather with her tackle apparell
furniture and provisions for y.e shipps companies and negroes were
at the time of the seizure aforesaid really worth the summe of Two
Thousand seaven hundred pounds sterling money of England, which
hee knowth for that a sixteenth pt of the said shipp before shee was
soe fitted and furnished to sea upon y:e voiage aforesaid, of this depon:ts certaine knowledge was by Richard Bull the former Master and pt
Owner thereof, sold unto y:e said Jeffereys and Colclough for ine
hundred pounds at the least, soe y:t the whole shipp in the condition shee
then was did after y:t rate amount unto 1600:li or thereabouts and with
y:e addition of all necessary tackle apparrell furniture provisions and
all conveniences for such a boiage and service, this depon:t is in his Conscience
and to the best of his Judgement fully convinced and assured of the value
of the premisses as hee hath predeposed y:e same, And as to y:e said
shipp y:e Sarah, hee cannot depose anything knowlingly, as to the value
thereof, nor touching the freight or mens wages in and aboard y:e same
the voiage in question. And further or otherwise hee cannot depose

To the 11:th hee saith, That about two moneths after y:e
seizure of the said shipp ?Xappahanmark the said Scroll and Companie
redelivered unto the Companies of the said surprized shipps, and of two
other English shipps, which they had alsoe thereabouts surprized and taken,
the said shipp Sarah, they haveing taken out of the same all the provision
of Victualls, saveing two butts of beanes, two barrells of beefe, one hundred
of Stockfish and about 5. or 600. weight of bread, togeather with
some tunns of water, the Company then by them putt aboard y:e said
shipp Sarah being about 70. psons, and being strictly ordered and
enjoyned by the said seizo:rs to goe directly for England upon paine of
forfeiture of the said shipp if they deviated or tooke any other Courses or ?voiages ??20:th
would have required about three moneths time, but this depon:t and the said
Arthur Perkins & the rest of the seized shipps companie soe putt on board
the said shipp Sarah finding that such provisions were altogeather insufficient
for such a Companie and voiage, and haveing but one ?entire anchor; and one
peece ofa cable of about 50. or 60. fathom, and one suite of sailes very
thin and insufficient for such a voiage, and being unwilling to expose their
lives to such imminent and almost inevitable danger, they sailed from
Cape de Lopes aforesaid to y:e Island of S:t Thomas, where they were
necessitated to sell the said shipp y:e Sarah for Victualls to keepe them
alive and to furnish another small Vessell, which they there procured to
carry them to y:e Barbadoes, there to gett passage for England, and saith
if they had not steered y:e Course and sould the said shipp to the use and
intent aforesaid, they must in all probability have perished for want of
Victualls. The premisses hee declareth and knowth by sadd experience
to bee true And otherwise to this Acle hee cannott depose

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End of images for this deposition - go back to physical manuscript to see if there are further depositions. Also search elsewhere for any financial accounts of the voyage