Matthew James, John Fowler.
Witness, William Lilly.
(2) Contract between the owner and builder of a vessel on November 20, 1779:
I, Joseph Billups, Sr., of Gloucester county, Kingston Parish, do agree to build a boat 34 feet keel, with proper width of beam and hold, for John Avery…. I do hereby oblige him first to pay me, the said Billups, 120 gallons of good West India rum, and 300 pounds of lawful money…. The said Avery to oblige himself to pay the said Billups 100 pounds per ton, to supply the said Billups with suitable iron at ten shillings per pound…. To furnish him with money if wanting to carry on the said boat….
Joseph Billings, John Avery.
Teste, Joseph Billups, Jr.
Various statistics were given by different writers for the number of Virginia owned vessels in the period just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. In Shipyard Statistics by H. C. Smith and L. C. Brown, one of the articles that comprises The Shipbuilding Business in the United States of America, edited by F. G. Fassett, Jr., and published in 1948 by the Society of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineers, there are given lists of vessels owned by the several provinces in the years 1769, 1770, and 1771. Virginia is listed as having in 1769, 6 ships, 21 sloops and schooners—27 vessels of 1269 tonnage; for 1770, there were 6 ships, 15 sloops and schooners, 1105 tons; and for 1771, 10 ships, 9 sloops and schooners, 1678 tons. We notice that the report of 27 vessels for 1769, is the same number reported by Governor Andros in 1698, which is rather surprising, and shows how inadequate the statistics were, and how careful a writer must be in using them.
APPENDIX II
The items on shipping given below were selected from the Virginia Gazette to show some details of Virginia shipping in the eighteenth century: the home ports, the ports entered and cleared, the types of vessels and various kinds of cargo. Sailings are given from September 3, 1736, when a Virginia owned vessel was first mentioned in the Gazette, to June 28, 1768, and is by no means a complete list, even in the copies of issues now extant; it is well to recall that copies of many issues have never been found. Later sailings in the Gazette have frequently omitted the type of vessel. A large number of vessels here named were Virginia owned and many of them Virginia built.
1736, September 3. Ship Priscilla of Virginia, Richard Williams, entered at the port of York river from Barbadoes.
1736, November 9. Ship John and Mary of Virginia, Richard Tillidge, entered the port of York river from Barbadoes.
1737, February 9. The brigantine belonging to Col. Benjamin Harrison, arrived in James river last week from London, but last from Salt Islands loaded with salt.