USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island privateers in King George's war, 1739-1748 > Part 5
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12. If any one of the Company steals, or conceals anything, belonging to any one on board, to the value of one piece of Eight shall forfeit his share to the Company, or receive three Lashes from each of them on his naked Back, which shall be in the choice of the Offender.
13. If any one of the Company happens to loose a joint or joints in the time of Engagement, he shall receive, and have out of the Prize, One hundred pieces of Eight for each joint so lost; or if he happens to loose a limb, he shall receive and have out of the Prize, six hundred pieces of Eight, or Six good, and able Negroes, if the Prize taken amount to so much.
14. That if the Said Sloop or Vessel should happen to be shattered, hurt or damnified in any Engagement, then so much of the spare Stores of the Prize, or Prizes, then taken shall go to repair said Sloop, so as to make her fit for her Cruise.
15. If any one of the Company use any abuse to any Female Prisoner, that happens to be taken in any Prize during the Voyage aforesaid, shall forfeit his Share to the Company, or
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be punished according to the discretion of the Committee hereinafter mentioned.
16. If any of Company, Game on board, to the value of one piece of Eight, during the Voyage aforesaid, shall forfeit their Share to the Company.
17. If any one of the Company, should happen to be killed, or die, in the voyage aforesaid, & the Prize, or prizes, taken before and at the time of his Death, his share, or shares thereof, shall be paid to his Executor or Administrator.
18. If any of the Company leave the said Sloop, before her return to Rhode Island aforesaid, without the special leave, license and consent, of the Captain first had, and obtained, he shall forfeit his Share to the Company; his Debts, if any due to the Vessel shall first be paid.
19. The Captain, Lieutenant, Master, Captains Quarter Master, Doctor, Mate, Gunner, Boatswain, Carpenter, Com- panies Quarter Master, Gunners Mate & Steward for the time being, and their Successors in said office, shall be and are, hereby, appointed a Committee to do and manage all matters and affairs relating to the voyage aforesaid which shall be binding to the Company aforesaid.
20. That the Captains Cabin Boy to have half a share of all prizes taken during said voyage.
2I. All coined Gold and Silver, that shall be taken during said voyage to be divided pro Rata between the Owners & Company.
"In Witness whereof the said Parties to these presents, have hereunto, interchangeably, set their Hands and Seals the day & year first above written. -
"Henry Sabin, John Vaughan, Adam Wallace, Alexander McKensie, William Whitehead, John Wood, Thomas Young,
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Samuel Allin, John Jenkins, Joseph Munro, David Howell, John Caunel, Joseph McCroft, Henry Kelly, John Mansfield, John McDonald, John Thompson, Andrew Tanner, John Ludlow, Jonathan Sabin, Sr., James Rogers, Charles Anderson, William Claggett, Samuel Howard, Leonard Bazin, Edward Johnson, I. Kent, Nathan Shippen, Sheubell Davis, John Drilling, Samuel Doon, Peter Garene (Greenough,) H --- n Hemancel, Joseph Daniels, Morgan Musky (Murphy), Samuel Care (Card), Charles Isgon, Bristol Freeman, Henry Hall, Thomas Cooper, Benjamin Sabin, Simon Porman, John Rodes, D- Barton, W. Chapman, Antone Gomez, Thomas Sang, Holmes Rogers, Richard Thittem (Whittemore), Joseph Harris, John Almy, John Salisbury, Richard Herring, Moses Howard, Jeremiah Excenier, William Harris, John Davis, John Doyle, John Vickers, William Greenman, John Dana, Mathew Eatsforth, Henry Fisher, Peter Smith, Robert Prior, Wm. West, Richard Lester, James Tegman, Dick Webb, Franco Carno, Mentos Allen, Wm. Lewing (Lewen), William Rogers, Isaac Rogers, Mangus Gormarty (Cromate), Joseph Pike, William Bennett, Wm. West, James Allen, Wm. Higgins, Robert Gibbs, Benjamin Tripp, Josiah or Joseph Phillips, Joso Thurston, Daniel Moorhead, surgeon Nicholas Holmes, sur- geon's mate John Stafford, Nicholas Peter, Angelbrit Law- rence, Bartholomew Smith, Jonathan Southwick, Alfred Henley, John Cussinee (Cullamore), Joseph Patterson, Joshua Coggeshall, Thomas Scatte, Thomas Westcote, Edmund Bell, Peter Carrett and Isaac George."
During the cruise of the Revenge, William Lewen, James (perhaps error for Henry) Fisher, Holmes Rogers, Magnus Cromate alias Gomarty, Samuel Card or Care, and Peter Greenough were impressed on board one of H. M. men-of-war from the Revenge. Charles Anderson died, William Pullen, who served on the Revenge, was killed on board the prize, and
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another member of the crew, John Cullamore, left the Revenge at New Providence. Negro Dick, alias Richard Norton, served on this cruise.
Capt. James Allen in the Revenge captured a small sloop laden with oil and sent her into New Providence to be con- demned. News of this capture reached Newport in March 1743-4. The Revenge made another short cruise and returned to New Providence on March 25.
Captain Griffith of the Caesar, another Rhode Island priva- teer, which was in New Providence at this time, went over to the Revenge and talked over with Captain Allen the mutual advantages of sailing in consort. They planned to cruise in consort and to divide the prizes man for man and gun for gun, a custom in vogue at the time. The consortship was to last until they returned to New Providence, and if they should become separated they were to rendezvous at a place called Vreesale or Keesale, but unfortunately the agreement was not drawn up and signed.
About March 30 the two privateers sailed, and soon after crossing the Bar of New Providence the Caesar hauled her jib sheet to windward and waited for the Revenge. Captain Griffith called to Captain Allen and asked if they were to sail in consort. Someone on the Revenge answered "Ay Ay", and the crew gave three cheers. The crew of the Caesar thought that it was Captain Allen, who had said "Ay Ay"; and considered that the agreement had been made. Captain Allen later claimed that it was the master of the Revenge who had replied, and that in any case a verbal agreement was of no force. However that may be, the two privateers sailed in consort for fourteen days, and then became separated, where- upon the Caesar went into Bimini for wood, and waited there from 24 to 48 hours for the Revenge. On April 10, Captain
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Allen in his barge came over to the Caesar and verbally renewed the consortship agreement.
Again the vessels sailed in consort and on April 13, 1744, when about 4 leagues to windward of The Havana, sighted two vessels, one of 10 guns and one of 8. The vessels fired on the Revenge first, and at about the third shot, they killed the gunner on the Revenge. Then they poured in several broad- sides on the Revenge, but as soon as the Caesar came up and fired a broadside at them, they separated. The Revenge en- gaged the one flying the Dutch flag, and the Caesar the one under French colors. The two Rhode Island vessels soon lost sight of each other as their chases went in opposite direc- tions, and eventually the vessel that fought the Caesar escaped.
Meanwhile the Revenge, who flew the English flag from the very first, overpowered and captured her adversary, the "barcq" Fortuijn, a large sloop mounting 8 carriage and 12 swivel guns, manned with 40 men, and commanded by Daniel Pichot. She had sailed out of The Havana only a few hours before she was captured, and was bound for Curacao, and had on board Capt. Thomas Bell, who had been captured by the Spaniards, when they took the sloop Merrimack of Boston, Capt. William Richardson, on November 22, 1743, in the Bay of Honduras. The Fortuijn carried 13,000 Spanish milled dollars, and about the value of 5,000 more in wrought and coined gold plate, together with a cargo of some 700 hides and three negro slaves. The gunner of the Revenge was killed, but no one else on her was hurt. William Higgins was lieu- tenant, Robert Gibbs was master and Benjamin Tripp was company's quartermaster on the Revenge at this time, and Jonathan Sabin, Jr. served on her as a mariner.
Returning direct to Newport the Revenge arrived on Tuesday, May 1, 1744, and her prize on the following day.
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The Revenge was immediately refitted for another cruise, and sailed within a month and a half. The crew of the Caesar sought to recover the share, which they claimed in the prize, and costly litigation ensued as usual.
The Revenge, 115 tons, 12 carriage and 12 swivel guns, Capt. James Allen, filed her report on June 16, and sailed on Thursday, June 21, 1744. The error in the date in the "News- Letter" being due to 12 being written instead of 21. She was provisioned for a six months' cruise, and officered by First Lieutenant Elisha Luther, Second Lieutenant Edward Bissile, Master Ezekiel Hubbard, Quartermaster Paul Tew,* Gunner Godfrey Henly, Boatswain Matthew Boston, Carpenter John Rogers, Surgeon Nicholas Holmes, and Mate Andrew Martin. Joseph Harris was chosen company's quartermaster. Among the crew were Moses Howard, Joseph Patterson, Edward Johnson, William Claggett, Mathew Eatsforth, John Salisbury, Jonathan Sabin, John Vickers, Benjamin Sabin, Daniel More- head, Joshua Coggeshall, Bartholomew Smith, Joseph Phillips, William Greenman, Richard Norton and Joseph Excenier. Sixty men, who came on board to enlist, had to be turned ashore as all berths were taken.
The Revenge fell in with the Prince Frederick, and the two cruised in consort. The account of their engagement with two French privateers off Cape Francois and their capture of the St. Fermin is related in the narrative of the Prince Frederick. The Revenge was in Newport in the autumn of 1744, and was charged for wharfage from October 12 to November 5, 1744.
On November 10, 1744, articles of consortship were entered into by the Revenge, Captain Allen, and the Success, Captain Marshall. The two privateers cruised in consort in the Straits
*Paul Tew was the eighteenth child of Deputy Governor Henry Tew, and hence doubtless a cousin of the pirate Thomas Tew. Paul Tew was born in 1715, became a freeman in 1736, removed eventually to Providence and became sheriff of Providence County in 1762.
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of Bahama, and on March 27, 1745, (N. S.), fell in with a galley called the William or Wilhelm, commanded by Captain Zegarayn, and sailing under Spanish colors with an armament of 12 carriage guns. The three ships engaged, and the Spaniard fired a broadside and several volleys of small arms at the privateers, but being manned by only 36 men was too weak to resist and so soon surrendered. It seems that the "William Gally", as she is called in the prize case, was origi- nally a Dutch vessel of 350 tons, being owned in Amsterdam, Holland. On March 6, 1745, (N. S.) under the command of Peter Cowenhoven, she sailed from Curacao for Amsterdam with a cargo of cocoa, hides, sugar, tobacco, dyestuffs, and money, and on March 18 (N. S.), between the islands of Mona and St. Domingo, about 15 leagues northward of Mona, was overhauled by two Spanish men-of-war, one of which was the Neustra Senora de Carmen, 30 guns, 350 men, commanded by Commodore Don Pedro de Garaycocheo. Upon examination the William was found to have on board Spanish money, Spanish dye-wood and other Spanish products, and so liable to confiscation by the laws of Spain. Commodore de Garay- cocheo thereupon condemned* the vessel a prize, commissioned his lieutenant, Cosmo Zegarayn, captain of the William, put a prize crew of 36 Spaniards on her, took 40,000 pieces-of-eight out of her, and sent her to The Havana. Nine days later the William fell in with the Revenge and the Success, as has been related, and was convoyed by the Revenge into Newport, where they arrived on the night of April 10, 1745. The William galley was condemned a prize, and with her cargo, was valued at £61930-2-0 old tenor. She was reckoned the richest prize that had been brought into New England by a privateer in that war. The Dutch owners appealed and won a reversal of the decision, only the expenses of the privateers were
*Spanish admirals had the powers of an Admiralty court, although the English courts refused to acknowledge it.
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allowed to be deducted from the £61930-2-o which had to be refunded. The Revenge also brought back to Newport the crew of the Success, which had been lost.
From the "Boston News-Letter", we learn that Captain Allen in a Rhode Island privateer (but whether Capt. James Allen in the Revenge or Capt. William Allen in the Britannia is not specified) captured, near Cape Francois, a Spanish vessel bound for Cartagena and laden with a cargo of sugar and salt, valued at about £3,000. The vessel was sent home, manned by a prize crew, but on Monday, March 24, 1744-5, was unfortunately cast away near Sandy Point, (?Nantucket). The vessel and cargo were a total loss, but all the crew were saved.
The following men served on the Revenge under Captain Allen at the capture of the St. Joseph in the spring of 1742-3 : W. Claggett, Mathias Solton (or Sollom), Thomas Doughty, Peter Smith, David Robinson, Mathew Eatsforth and his son, Magnus Cromarty, James File, Martin Vanderhof, Peir Peabruihasse, William Wickley, William Wo, Paulus Pieter- sen, William Lee, Joseph Daniels, Bartholomew Smith, Murty Kelly, Jacob Kollock, Jacob Billott, John Simons, Morgan Murphy, James Mason, Alexander Johnson, Wm. Tho. Garreld, John Pike, Richard Norton, Stephen Tripp, John Arthur Johnson, Michael Maddox, Jacob Hascy, Hugh M'Guier, Peter Vincente, Edward Murphey, Philip Stuerd (Stuart), Robert Reid, Hendrick Holland, John Flowers, James Craton, Godfrey Henley, Robert Herrin, John John- ston, William Higgins, William Sweet, Edward Johnson, Jeremiah Johnson, Hugh Newton, Edward Almy, Edward Howes, Peter Marshall, William Allen, John Ellis, John Mawdsley, Richard Swan, John Taylor, Ralph Coulch (Couch), Hollister Baker, Cornelius Hurley, Jacob Hasey,
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colony of Rhode Island to"
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one year service at chart George as
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RECEIPT SIGNED BY COL. JOHN CRANSTON
From State Archives
RHODE ISLAND PRIVATEERS
Angle Brit Lawrence, Joshua Loyer, B. Wyat, Daniel Brand, Nathaniel Guin, Stephen Pillsbury, William Armstrong, Lench Wanton, John Tweed, Jacob Hazard, Isaac Crandall and Lawrence Coleman.
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CHAPTER IV
THE CHARMING BETTY AND THE ST. ANDREW THE Charming Betty,-CAPTAIN WICKHAM
The Charming Betty was the third Rhode Island privateer to sail in King George's War. She was owned by Capt. Godfrey Malbone of Newport, and was named in honor of his daughter, Elizabeth or Betty, then a girl in her 'teens, who later became Mrs. Shrimpton Hutchinson. This sloop was a vessel of 80 tons, mounted 10 carriage and 10 swivel guns, was well fitted with warlike stores, manned by 70 able men, and commanded by Capt. Benjamin Wickham, a well-known local mariner, whose commission was dated August 30. Joseph Wanton may have had an interest in this sloop.
Capt. Benjamin Wickham was born in Newport in 1701, son of Samuel Wickham, and his second wife Barbara Holden, and so a cousin of the Clarkes and Cranstons. He was mar- ried at St. Paul's Church, London, to Rebecca Watmough in 1733. She died in 1741, and he married secondly in 1743, his cousin, Mary, daughter of Deputy Governor John Gardiner. After his career as a privateersman, he was chosen as lieutenant colonel of the second Rhode Island regiment in 1756, and served as speaker of the House of Deputies in 1757. He died in 1779.
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The Charming Betty set sail from Newport on Friday, September 7, 1739, on a privateering cruise against the Spaniards in the West Indies, under a letter-of-marque and reprisal issued by the Governor of the colony. A Rhode Island priva- teer sloop, which may have been the Charming Betty, was reported to have fought a 50 gun Spanish ship in September or October 1739. She had forty killed, and received con- siderable damage, but the sloop, "having the heels," left her and put in to Georgia to refit. During the autumn the Charming Betty captured two Spanish ships and convoyed them into Jamaica, where they were condemned and sold. Captain Wickham, being rather thrifty, sailed over to the Bay of Honduras and loaded on board a cargo of logwood for South Carolina in order not to come north empty handed. On the passage north the Charming Betty chased a Spanish schooner on shore. Captain Wickham manned his boats and tried to take the schooner, but the Spaniards were both numerous and brave, and defended their vessel. Wickham lost one killed and two wounded in the attack, and was finally forced to retire. He intended to refit at Charleston for another privateering cruise against the Spaniards, but event- ually changed his mind, and reached Newport on April 18, 1740, perhaps getting a better price for his cargo at that port than in the south. Upon the return to Newport, Captain Wickham gave up the command of the Charming Betty, being succeeded by Capt. James Collingwood of London, who was commissioned on June 12, 1740, and soon began to beat up for volunteers. William Mumford seems to have had an interest in her at this time. The Charming Betty and the Tartar sailed in consort on June 26 in quest of a Spanish privateer sloop, and returning, arrived at Newport on Saturday, June 28.
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Governor Belcher of Massachusetts wrote to Governor Wanton of Rhode Island on June 30, 1740, that "last week there arrived at one of our out harbors a ship of upwards of one hundred tons from the Canaries, one William, master, who pretends to be last from Madeira. I am told that the Master, though an Englishman, is a Roman, a subject of Spain, and married at the Canaries". She was said to be trading with the enemy and also smuggling. At 9 o'clock in the morning of June 30, the Charming Betty sailed from Newport in quest of this vessel, news of her presence in Vineyard Sound having reached Newport.
The Charming Betty sighted the Spanish brigantine at about 10 o'clock on July I at anchor between Elizabeth Island and Marthas Vineyard. Captain Collingwood sent his lieu- tenant, John Robinson, in a canoe with five men to board her, but when they approached, the brigantine fired several shots at them, and they returned to the Charming Betty. In about a quarter of an hour, the Charming Betty fired a shot through the rigging of the brigantine, whereupon the Spanirds went ashore, and Lieutenant John Robinson, accompanied by John Gale, master, and James Clarke, captain's quartermaster of the Charming Betty and 12 men in a canoe and launch, boarded the brigantine and found no one on board. She was the brigantine Oratava of Boston, Robert Williamson, master, but in her log was called the galley Fortune, George Simpson, master. She was built at Newbury, Mass., registered as 70 tons, and in 1739 carried two guns according to her papers, but mounted 9 guns when taken. John Gale brought her into Newport on July 2, in company with the Vernon, Captain Willis, and the Tartar, Colonel Cranston. The Oratava was adjudged a lawful prize on July 12, 1740, and together with her cargo was valued at £7979-17-06. From the court pro- ceedings, it appeared that she was owned by James Bowdoin
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and John Cross of Boston, and no transfer of ownership was proved, although it was claimed that she was chartered by parties unknown. She loaded at Teneriffe in the Canaries, an enemy port, in April with wine and brandy, carried con- tradictory ship's papers, claimed to have loaded at Madeira, a friendly port, but instructions were produced in court show- ing that she really loaded in Teneriffe and was to claim she came from Madeira. She had instructions to smuggle the wine on shore at Cape Cod, if possible, and to buy beef and wheat, which was to be taken back to the enemy port of Teneriffe. George Simpson was supercargo, not captain, and one of the crew, Mr. Hubbard, landed at Cape Cod and secretly sold wine and fruit there. When asked why they fired on the party from the Charming Betty, the captain said that he thought the Charming Betty was a Spanish privateer, that he had heard was on the coast, when he landed at Holmes Hole. They had letters to James Bowdoin of Boston and Richard Malbone, collector of the port at Newport, and instructions to carry on illegal trade at St. Eustatia, if they failed at Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Four of the crew were imprisoned at Newport, but soon released. The Oratava was also described variously as of 100 tons and about 140 tons. The testimony also showed, that while there were only 9 in the crew when taken, they had 30 or more foreigners, Spanish and Irish on board, when they sailed from the Canaries, and were accompnied by a brigantine said to be buccaneer. They claimed that the foreigners were removed, and the buccaneer taken by a Portuguese vessel from Madeira. The cargo was purchased of Godfrey Malbone by John Hamock of Boston, wine-cooper, whereupon the collector of customs made Hamock pay double duty on the wine, because it had entered without duty. Hamock appealed to the General Court of Massachusetts and the duty was remitted to him. Although
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the Oratava and her cargo were adjudged a prize to the Charm- ing Betty, yet an appeal was entered from the Vice-Admiralty Court. Malbone and Collingwood distributed £612 of the prize money among the crew, and the latter signed an agree- ment to return this money if the decision in the case should be reversed in the High Court of Admiralty.
A Spanish privateer was reported off Long Island on June 25, 1740, and at noon on the 26th, the Colony sloop Tartar, Captain Cranston, sailed from Newport in quest of her, accompanied by the Charming Betty, Captain Collingwood, manned with 80 men. Captain Malbone had ordered his privateer sloop "to join our man of war that there may be no compliments wanting on our side to welcome this DON upon our coast and to show him the way into our harbor", as a contemporary writer expressed it. The remembrance of the ravages committed by the French privateers on our coast fifty years earlier was still fresh in the minds of the colonists at this time.
The Charming Betty, Captain Collingwood, sailed on Saturday, September 27, 1740, on a cruise against Spanish commerce. She took a rich prize and convoyed it into Jamaica early in 174I.
THE Charming Betty, CAPTAIN JENNINGS.
Godfrey Malbone sold a half interest in the sloop Charming Betty to Turner and Spencer of Jamaica, and she was employed in the merchant service until 1744, when on account of the French War, he decided that it would be more profitable to make her into a privateer, but he did not have time to consult his partners, who were so far away. He therefore petitioned the Admiralty judge in June 1744 to have the vessel appraised,
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so that if she was lost or captured, he would be liable for a definite sum for his partner's interest. The sloop was valued at £2,000 current Rhode Island money, and the inventory returned at this time shows that the Charming Betty carried a main sail, foresail (probably a forestaysail), jib, flying jib, square sail, topsail, and ring tail sail, also 5 sloop oars, one old yawl with 3 yawl oars and 2 sails for yawl. A ringtail sail was a sort of studding sail, laced to a jury-gaff abaft the leach of the spanker and made fast through the bitter-end eye on the end of the spanker boom. In the inventory of the Charm- ing Betty, the spar is called a "ring tail boom" instead of a gaff. The Charming Betty was provisioned for six months, and sailed from Newport as a privateer late in June or early in July 1744 with a crew of 80 men. She was a sloop of 80 tons, mounted Io carriage guns and her officers were Capt. Josiah Jennings, First Lieutenant James Clarke, (who had served as captain's quartermaster on this same vessel in 1740), Second Lieutenant John Lloyd, Master Ebenezer Trowbridge, Quartermaster John A. Moryl, Mate James Dimond, Gunner Thomas Smith and Carpenter Thomas Swingbourn. The Charming Betty, returning from this cruise, arrived at Newport before December 23, 1745.
Captain Malbone's privateer sloop Charming Betty was refitted for another cruise in the spring of 1746. She is listed as 70 instead of 80 tons, and her outfitting return, which is dated May Io, shows that she carried a crew of 60 men and provisions for 6 months. Her officers were: Capt. Thomas Fry, First Lieutenant John Stockard, Second Lieutenant William Bell, Master Abel Michener, Mate Joseph Rider, Captain's Quartermaster Robert Prior, Gunner John Arthur Johnson, Boatswain Samuel Walder and Carpenter Benjamin Haxter.
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The Charming Betty, Captain Fry, joined the Duke of Marlborough, Captain Carr, and these two vessels cruised in consort. The Diana may have been with them. They attacked a French privateer sloop of 8 carriage guns and IO swivels, manned with 80 men. After exchanging a few broad- sides, the privateer surrendered, and they carried her into Nevis before Aug. 1, 1746. This. prize privateer was imme- diately used as a flag-of-truce to carry prisoners of war to Guadeloupe, for which service the public of Nevis paid the privateers £100. The prize was then sold to Mathias Jones and Captain Cradock for £3,500 before condemnation, Jones and Cradock buying her "as is" and running all risks and charges. Samuel and William Vernon, owners of the Duke of Marlborough, did not approve of these transactions, and their subsequent treatment of Captain Carr and Captain Fry, on this account, is described by Jones as "very ill and unjust". The wranglings and bickerings between the owners and the captains of the privateers would make a lengthy chapter on an unpleasant phase of the subject. Continuing their cruise, they fell in with and retook an English brigantine laden with rum, in the vicinity of Antigua, and are reported to have taken another small French privateer. This "English brigantine" is probably identical with the "French brigantine laden with rum", that had been taken by a Rhode Island privateer, and sent north only to be captured off the Carolina coast by Don Pedro in a 36-gun Spanish ship. This brigantine, together with a snow, were put under the command of Spanish prize crews, and ordered to go to The Havana. However, they lost their way and put into New Providence, where they were seized by the English.
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