The Lybell of Richard Haddon of the City of New York Marriner[3] Commander of the private vessell of Warr called the Peggy in behalf of himself and the Owners and Company of the said Schooner Peggy in all Humble Manner Sheweth unto your honor that his most Gracious Majesty George the Second, by the Grace of God of Great Brittain france and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, Vfd. by his Commission under the seal of the Court of Vice Admiralty of New York Bearing date the Twenty Ninth Day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand Seven hundred and fifty Six writeing as is therein Recited did thereby Grant Commission to and Lycence and Authorize Jasper Farmer[4] and Nathaniell Marston[5] of the City of New York Merchants to Sett forth in warr Like manner the said Schooner called the peggy under the Command of the said Richard Haddon, therewith by force of Arms to Attack, Surprize, Seize and take by and with the said Schooner and the crew thereof any place or fortress upon the Land or any Ship or Vessell, Goods, Amunition, Arms, Stores of Warr or Merchandize belonging to or possessed by any of his said Majesties Enemies in any Sea, Creek, Haven or River and Such other Ships, Vessells and Goods which are or shall be Lyable to Confiscation pursuant to the treaties between his Said Majesty and Other princes, States and potentates and to bring the same to such port as should be most convenient in Order to have them Legally Adjudged in his said Majesties high Court of Admiralty of England or before the Judges of such other Admiralty Court as Shall be Lawfully Authorized within his Majesties Dominions, which being Condemned it Should and might be Lawfull for the said Richard Haddon to sell and Dispose of Such Ships, Vessells, and Goods, Amunition, Arms, Stores of Warr or Merchandise so Adjudged and Condemned in Such sort and Manner as by the Course of the Admiralty hath been Accustomed as by the said Commission may more fully Appear, and the said Richard Haddon Doth further Show unto your Honour that in pursuance of his Said Commission on or About the Seventh Day of December Last past being on the High Seas within the Jurisdiction of this Court in the said Schooner Peggy with his Company and Crew on Board the Same in or About the Latitude of twenty-one Degrees and Eighteen Minutes North Longitude Eighty Seven[6] Degrees fifty Seven Minutes West from London he did meet with, sett upon and take a Certain Schooner Belonging to the Subjects of the french King Enemies of our Said Lord King George the Second, having on Board ten Doubleloons,[7] five thousand seven hundred and Sixty four Dollars, one hundred and five pistereens,[8] and Some Small Silver as also one Bracelett, twenty Gold rings, Some Silver Buckells, six Swivell Guns, Some Shott, one Cask of Powder, Some Cutlasses and one Kegg of Indigo being the Money, Chattles, Goods and Effects of the Subjects of the french King, Enemies of our Said Lord King George the Second, which money, Bracelett, Rings, Buckells, Swivell Guns, Shott, powder, Cutlasses and Indigo Belonging to the Subjects of the french King and Enemies of our Said Lord King George the Second the said Richard Haddon hath brought into this his Majesties port of New York in the said Schooner Peggy in Order to have the Same Legally Condemned by the Sentence and Decree of this Honourable Court (But the said Schooner being unfitt to Come upon a Winters Coast and he the said Richard Haddon having a Great Number of prisoners Delivered her to a Number of them to Carry them to some french port After takeing out of her the Money, Goods and Chattles aforesaid) Wherefore the said Richard Haddon Humbly prays your Honour that the said Money, Bracelett, Rings, Buckells, Swivell Guns, Shott, Powder, Cutlasses and Indigo Aforesaid belonging to the Subjects of the french King and Enemies of our Said Lord the King may by the Sentence and Adjudication of this Honourable Court be Condemned as Lawfull prize to the Use of the said Richard Haddon and the Owners and Company of the said Schooner Peggy According to the Common Right of Nations and the Law of Arms in Such Case used.
Richd. Morris Pr.[9] for the Lybellent.
[Endorsements:] New York Court of Vice Admiralty.—
Richd. Haddon in Behalf of himself the Owners and Comp'y of the Schooner Peggy v. 10 Doubleloons, 5764 Dollars, 105 Pisterreens, one Bracelett, 20 Gold rings, Some Silver Buckells, Some Small Silver, six Swivell Guns, Some Shott, one Cask of Powder, Some Cutlasses and one Bagg of Indigo.—Read and filed Wednesday the 9th of March 1757. Proclamations Wednesday the 9th, Thursday the 10th and Fryday 11th March. Sentence Thursday 31st of March.
[1] This document, and all that follow relating to this case, [nos. 184-196], are derived from the files of the vice-admiralty court which during the colonial period sat in New York. They are preserved in the offices of the United States district court in that city. In the case of the colonial admiralty courts which sat in Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston, only the record-books of those courts, from which several of our documents were obtained, have survived, and of the other courts apparently nothing; but from the New York admiralty court we have, besides records, a copious mass of papers relating to the cases, preserved by an exceptionally careful assistant register. By the care of Hon. Charles M. Hough, U.S. circuit judge, these papers have been arranged, mounted, and bound in model fashion. In interpreting the papers here printed, the editor has been much assisted by an opportunity to read a manuscript of Judge Hough's concerning them.
The case of the Virgen del Rosario, more exactly the cases of Richard Haddon v. 10 Doubloons, etc., of Ybañez v. £2409, and of the King v. Thomas Miller and Sampson Simpson, give excellent illustrations of the chicanery with which prize cases could be conducted and of the manner in which through admiralty courts the ends of justice could be defeated. The materials are copious. The history of the capture is sufficiently set forth in docs. [no. 187] and [no. 188]. The legal history of the case may be summarized as follows. Sept. 20, 1756, Nathaniel Marston and Jasper Farmar petition governor and council for a privateer's commission for the Peggy or Charming Peggy, whereof Richard Haddon was to be commander, Christopher Miller lieutenant; Cal. N.Y. Hist. MSS., II. 659. Sept. 29, 1756, the commission is granted. Dec. 7, 1756, the Peggy captures the schooner La Virgen del Rosario y el Santo Christo de Buen Viage, plunders her, and lets her go. (It will be remembered that Great Britain was not at war with Spain at this time, but only with France.) Mar. 5, 1757, the Peggy arrives at New York, "having taken as many Prizes during her Cruize as she could well man"; Pennsylvania Gazette, Mar. 10. Mar. 9, Haddon libels the plunder ([doc. no. 184]). Mar. 31, the admiralty judge decrees that it shall be his, provided no better claimant arises within a year and a day, and provided he furnishes sureties to the register of the court to the value of £2409. 4s. 11d.; notes of Sir William Burrell on this case in Reports of Cases determined by the High Court of Admiralty and upon Appeal therefrom, temp. Sir Thomas Saulsbury and Sir George Hay, ed. R.G. Marsden (London, 1885), pp. 185-186. July 26, 1757, the sureties present their account of sales ([doc. no. 186]). Feb. 17, 1758, and Mar. 10, on pressure from London, where Captain Ybañez has made his complaint, the advocate general in New York files a claim for money and goods, in the king's name, to restore them to the Spaniards. Apr. 5, the sureties demur. Apr. 19, the judge dismisses the advocate general's claim. Sept. 27, 1758, Ybañez files his own claim or libel ([doc. no. 188]), but the judge rules Feb. 10, 1759, that his time had expired (Marsden, loc. cit.). Dec. 19, 1760, the Lords Commissioners of Appeals in Prize Causes reverse the colonial court, and condemn the captor in costs and damages (ibid., and [doc. no. 195]). July 4 and 26, 1761, the New York judge declares that, while the Lords of Appeal had apparently reversed his decree of Mar. 31, 1757, on Haddon's libel, they had not reversed his decree of Feb. 10, 1759, on that of Ybañez, the decree actually appealed from (court papers). But so the matter had been dragged on until, Jan. 4, 1762, Great Britain declared war against Spain, and it may be considered certain that Ybañez never recovered anything; perhaps he did not deserve to, for pretty clearly he had been violating or evading the laws of his own country.
Meanwhile, July 14, 1758, the advocate general, on account of irregularities on Haddon's part violating his commission as a privateer, had sued his bondsmen (King v. Miller and Simpson). Their counsel moved for a commission to take evidence in Havana, which was granted by the court, Sept. 2, 1758; hence docs. nos. [189], [191-194]. June 27, 1761, on all the evidence now collected, the court decreed forfeiture of the bond. July 7, 1761, the sureties appealed ([doc. no. 196]), but there is no record evidence that their appeal was ever perfected, or that they ever paid. See [doc. 196], [note 1].
[2] Lewis Morris (1698-1762)—son of Lewis Morris the governor of New Jersey and father of Lewis Morris the signer of the Declaration of Independence, of Richard Morris the judge, and of Gouverneur Morris—was admiralty judge in New York from 1738 to 1762. His own record of his life, from his family Bible, is in N.Y. Gen. and Biog. Record, VII. 16-18.
[3] Richard Haddon, mariner, was a New Jersey man, but became a freeman of New York City in 1749; N.Y. Hist. Soc. Fund Pubs., 1885, p. 167. An extract from a letter of his, written during this same cruise, Dec. 29, 1756, and conveying valuable information he had picked up respecting the proposed expedition of the French up the Mississippi to the Illinois country, is printed in N.Y. Col. Docs., VII. 219; it was an enclosure in a letter from Governor Hardy of New York to Secretary Pitt, Feb. 26, 1757, printed in Miss Kimball's Correspondence of William Pitt, I. 12; cf. p. 31.
[4] Jasper Farmer, merchant, owner in several privateers of the time, and militia captain, was killed a few months later, Apr. 23, 1758, by one whom he was trying to impress.