American Commissioners in France to Comte de Vergennes, December 26, 1777

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Passy 26 December 1777

We beg your Excellency's Permission to make an appeal from the Judgment of the Admiralty, at Nantes which ordains a confiscation of two Prizes (British Westindia Ships) taken legally on the High Seas by two American Privateers,¹ and that Your Excellency will be pleased to request his Majesty to suspend the Departure of those Prizes, and their Cargoes, until the justice of our appeal shall have been regularly decided by the proper Tribunal.

The great value of the prizes in question, the distressed situation of their Captors, and the discredit which has fallen upon the cause of our Country by the disposition which was made of the ships after their Confiscation, as well as by the indecent exultation of our Enemies on that subject, all unite in making it our Duty to trouble your Excellency with this request and to Pray that you will favourably represent it to the King.² We have the honor to be [&c.]

B Franklin
Silas Deane
Arthur Lee

L, Stevens's Facsimiles, vol. 20, no. 1801. Addressed at foot: "M^r. Le Comte de Vergennes." Notations at the head of the page: "annoncé le 27. à M. Deane quil pouvoit employer la voyes juridiques" ["announced on the 27th to Mr. Deane that he could avail himself of the legal course”]; and “Franklin Dean Lée.”

1. Clarendon and Hanover Planter, captured by Massachusetts privateers Fanny and General Mercer, John Kendrick and James Babson, commanders.

2. The same day Silas Deane wrote similarly to Conrad-Alexandre Gérard, arguing further that the original owners could not object to an appeal from a judgment of Admiralty, “a Court from which Appeals may be regularly made." Stevens's Facsimiles, vol. 20, no. 1802. The next day Deane wrote to Jonathan Williams, Jr., urging him to do what he could to help see that the two prizes were detained for the appeal and stating that “to save if possible these two ships, after all that has passed, will be a master stroke and give me pleasure as long as I live.” Deane Papers 2: 286.

Document Information

Date

1777 December 26

Volume

Volume 10

Series

European Theatre from October 1, 1777, to December 31, 1777

Naval Documents of the American Revolution

American Commissioners in France to Comte de Vergennes, December 26, 1777

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