To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Weymouth one of
his Majesty's Principal Secretary's of State.
The Memorial of the Underwriters of a Policy of Insurance
on the Ship Vine Captain [James] Pratchell. ー

Sheweth

Unto your Lordship that the Ship Vine loaded with French produce was taken by an American Privateer (the same that carried the Rebel Dr Franklin to France) coming from Rochelle for Hull the Day after she set Sail and carried into Nantz where she now lays uncondemned though detained. —

That the Master of the Privateer has Piratically sold or embezled the Cargo of the said Ship upon a Representation of which to the French Court orders (as your Memorialists are informed) have been given to the Agent of the said Ship to Seize the Effects of the Rebels belonging [to] the said Privateer to satisfy the Value of the Cargo by which means the Underwriters of the Cargo will be saved harmless And therefore Your Lordships Memorialists beg leave .to supplicate Your Lordship that immediate application may be made to the Ambassador at the French Court for the delivering up the said Ship for the benefit of the Owners or that the Value of the said Ship (which is underwrote at Hull for Seven hundred Pounds) of the Effects of the Proprietors of the Privateer may be seized for the benefit of the Underwriters or that such other means may be used to indemnify Your Memorialists as Your Lordship shall think proper And your Lordships Memorialists shall ever hold themselves under the highest obligations to Your Lordship.

Hull 31st January 1777.