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Auction: 17020 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 880

Autographs
Privateers during the Napoleonic Wars
'Betsy': 1803 (29 July) Bill of Sale indenture for this 60 ton sloop of war. On vellum, the sale indenture is between Thomas Martin and Hannibal Curnow-Blewett for the sum of £700 for this one deck, one mast and eight gun vessel which had, apparently, previously been sold by the Admiralty as spoils of war. With blue 10/- deeds revenue stamp. The details within the indenture include the new Master of the ship, Mr Harvey and that the ship was originally sold by Order of the Admiralty Court on 2nd December 1796 in Plymouth, being previously a French Sloop of War, and had issued a Certificate of Freedom in 1797. The ship was then registered in Plymouth in 1800.


Letter of Marque: 1807 (3 June) on vellum featuring a portrait of King George III within large initial capital, Royal Coat of Arms in an internal setting with busts and statues, large Admiralty seal at foot. This document is for the armed Sloop Betsy, to engage any ships belonging to the Dutch and the Batavian Republic. This letter, on vellum, spells out in detail the terms of the Letter of Marque and gives the right to proceed against the Dutch and Batavian Republic and the types of items, goods and vessels that could be appropriated in accordance with the law. The ship was to be commanded by Commander Aaron Grant with the beneficial owners of the Betsy being John Edward Blewett and Aaron Grant Blewett of the Island of Guernsey. Information about the success of the Betsy is sketchy but there are records to show that the ships Leo and Minerva were captured in 1807-08 and that prize money was distributed by Hannibal Blewett in February 1811. Three other ships are recorded. Included with this lot is a transcript of the Letter of Marque and research notes by Tony Pawlyn. Photo


The 'Betsy' was registered as as being a single decked, single masted, sloop rigged vessel, with a square stern, no quarter galleries, and no figure head; measuring Fifty-seven feet, four and three-quarters of an inch in length, Sixteen feet six inches, beam, and Eight feet three inches deep in the hold; which, by the formula then in force, gave her a registered tonnage of sixty tons. The previous owners were probably smugglers, and the Betsy was a smuggling sloop, based on the village of Cawsand. This would in part explain why Blewett is then described as of Guernsey - where he resided at times.


Between 1803 and 1807 the 'Betsy' was placed under contract to the Admiralty and, during this period, sent in at least 14 vessels into Plymouth

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Estimate
£2,000 to £2,500