Preston Boston Novr 4, 1775
Sir
I am extremely concerned that the Sloop Phoenix Dean Master,2 mentioned in your Letter to me Sepr 22d, is not yet condemned, what the Reasons are I know not, but there is the most unaccountable Reluctance to condemn Vessels evidently guilty of Breaches of the restraining Acts; And now the Judge begins to doubt the competency of his own Jurisdiction, when he knows there is no other part of the Continent except Halifax where any of the Kings Courts can be held. A very fine Schooner with Gin on board and other prohibited Articles taken in or near the Delaware has been a month in the Admiralty Court for Condemnation, and the Cause at last thrown out for the Reasons above mentioned. You may depend that if the Phoenix is not condemned I will seize her for the Kings Use on your Report. I am &c.
Saml Graves
Capt. Wallace Rose, Rhode Island
1. Graves's Conduct, Appendix, 102-103, BM.
2. The sloop Phoenix, John Sheridan (not Dean), master, with a cargo of flour, sugar and pig iron, from Philadelphia for Jamaica, was taken by H.M.S. Rose on September 15, 1775. See the journal of the Rose, September 15, 1775.
