After her Arrival in Port, she was seized first by a Privateer, and then by the Southerland Man of War, who both claim her as their Property respectively.
Colonel Morris, the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty, apprehending that the Lords of the Admiralty might be interested, issued a Warrant, by which the Snow was taken into the Custody of the Marshal of that Court; and as their Lordships have as yet appointed neither Proctor nor Advocate in this, and the Colonies of Connecticut and New Jersey, his Honour the Commissary was pleased on this Occasion to assign Council (as you will perceive by the inclosed) to examine into the Affair, and prosecute on their Lordships Behalf.
We have accordingly interposed a Libel for that Purpose, and let me beg the Favour of you, to wait upon their Lordships, for an authentic Copy of their Patent, and such Information, as may be thought proper to be transmitted.
Whether their Lordships, in Case of a Sentence in their Favour, will be pleased to consider the Captors, or chuse rather to reserve the Prize to themselves, I conceive it will be necessary, that a proper Power be sent over; of which you will be so good as to put their Lordships in Mind; and whatever Directions and Papers are given into your Hands, please to forward them with the utmost Dispatch to,
Sir,
Your most obedient
humble Servant
Wm. Smith Junior.
Captain Morris,
[Endorsed:] By the Leicester Packet: To Staats L. Morris, Esquire, London.[4]
[1] London, Public Record Office, Admiralty, 1:3882.
[2] Le Bon Rencontre. The case was a curious one (notes of Judge Hough, from the papers relating to it in the files of the New York vice-admiralty court). On March 22, 1757, this French snow of 160 tons, while on a trading voyage from Port Louis in Guadeloupe to Bordeaux, was captured off Bermuda by the English ship Maxwell, Etherington master, and the New York sloop St. Stephen, Thomas, who sent her with an English crew to New York; but neither of them had any letters of marque, or commission authorizing them to take prizes. The snow was brought to anchor inside Sandy Hook. Early in the morning of April 6, John Crew, captain of the New York privateer Fox, came aboard from a small boat with a few men, and took possession. Later, the snow was taken over by the Sutherland man-of-war. Thus, the Bon Rencontre was without doubt a captured enemy vessel, but the captors had not been authorized privateers, and the authorized privateer and the king's ship had not made the capture. Under these circumstances the admiralty judge, Lewis Morris, ordered the marshal to take custody of the snow, and appointed Benjamin Nicoll and William Smith, jr., the writer of this letter (see [doc. no. 188], [note 13]), to be advocates for the Lords of the Admiralty, whose interests seemed to him to be involved. Thus there were four parties claiming—the original captors, Crew, the King, and the Admiralty. April 7 the snow was libelled on behalf of the Admiralty. Later, Etherington withdrew and Crew's claim was ruled out, but as between the King and the Admiralty Judge Lewis Morris gave no decision before his death in 1762. His successor, Judge Richard Morris, gave judgment Aug. 10, 1764, but it has not been preserved.
[3] 200 hogsheads, says the New York Gazette of Apr. 11; the Gazette of June 27, by the way, enumerates 23 privateers then in New York harbor.