Letters of Marque against the American coloni

[Gules]

I’m nearing completion of indexing these – are they of any interest?
They give the ship, port, master and owners

[Pam Downes]

Hi Gules,

I (like probably quite a few of our members ) didn't have a clue what a 'Letter of Marque' is so I had to do a quick google. (Basically, legal permission for ships to attack and capture ships of enemy nations.)

I think it would be interesting to see the list (even if I've no ancestors in it). What are you intending to do with the list, as something as niche as that certainly deserves a wide audience.

Pam

[Gules]

I've online indexes for letters of marque against the French 1793-1815 against the Americans 1812 and will have the American colonies 1777-83
I also had ADM 26 allotments of pay by sailors which included home address - this project stopped some years ago as Kew was working on ADM 27 which was similar - all I have of ADM 26 is online as with the other data at
www.1812privateers.org which includes American and British POWs in the War of 1812

[Pam Downes]

Wow!
That website certainly deserves a lot of visitors. There's a lot of information about a (to me) little-known but extremely interesting subject. I think I might be spending several hours in the coming months having a browse.

I'll have to send the link about the Canadian privateers to my rellies who live near Liverpool where they hold a Privateers weekend in the town each year. Although I could just keep quiet and then when I next visit astound then with my knowledge.

Pam

[Gules]

I've now put the register online - 2,600 entries in pdf format - I've sorted them by Port and Master
There is also an introduction to Letters of marque in general Intro.pdf
https://www.1812privateers.org/Great%...e1777-1783.htm

Any problems questions let me know.

[Ladkyis]

Fabulous information, I had to set the timer so I didn't spend the rest of the day just reading. We live in walking distance of Tredegar House which was owned by the Morgan family and Henry Morgan was a distant cousin. This meant that I learned about letters of Marque in school.
My Dad always called them Pirate Licences but they were so much more than that

[Gules]

Sorry link to PDF was broken but now repaired.

[Pigman]

I’m nearing completion of indexing these – are they of any interest?
They give the ship, port, master and owners

This is a wonderful list! It is exactly the type of information I am looking for. My Pigman family seems to hail from Hunstanton or Norwich, Norfolk and my ancestors could have been the cousins of the first Pigman family which settled in Maryland around 1684.

Is there a list of the indentures who may have signed on for the war efforts?

Regards,
Curtis Pigman

[Gules]

I'm afraid not- at best there may be some crew mentioned in the declarations - but as they were copied from microfilm they were unreadable - the originals will be at Kew