J.P. Hand - The Cape May Navy: Delaware Bay Privateers in the American Revolution

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2018 by James P. Hand and Daniel P. Stites

All rights reserved

First published 2018

e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978.1.43966.431.5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017963919

print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.796.6

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

4. The Mechanics of Privateering:
The Written Record | J.P. HAND

PREFACE

CONSIDERABLE RESEARCH HAS GONE INTO the writing of this text. As not all facts are annotated and documented, the authors would like to give the readers more information about the sources that have been used to compile this volume. Internet search engines such as Google and others were often helpful in identifying further sources. Genealogical sites such as Ancestry and Family Search were utilized in compiling family relationships. Additional internet sites used extensively were Fold 3 and GenBank. The latter was especially helpful in locating contemporary newspaper articles regarding the privateers of Cape May. The many books and other materials are indicated in the bibliography. Other sources include ledger books and personal letters from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Cape May County Museum of History and Genealogy, the Library at Winterthur and Rowan University Library in Glassboro, New Jersey. The Cape May County Quarterly Court records from the Records Room at the Cape May County Clerks Office and the Cumberland County Quarterly Court records held at the New Jersey State Archives were a wealth of information.

Some original and heretofore undiscovered records were uncovered and are extensively quoted in the book. Especially important was a receipt book (177483) of Colonel Richard Somers in the collection of one of the authors (JPH). Surviving headstones from cemeteries and family burial grounds in Cape May County also aided us in our research. Additional records regarding some of the Cape May privateer families are in private collections and were often consulted. We have given credit to the numerous sources for images used in the book.

In quotes excerpted from original eighteenth- and nineteenth-century documents we have preserved the spelling as written. Spelling in the colonies and early United States was often phonetic. Monetary units in colonial America were pounds, shillings and pence. Soon after achieving independence, some states adopted dollars, while others still maintained the British system. Unfortunately, it is difficult to convert any of these monetary values into currency of today. Many states did not conform to a federal standard until the nineteenth century. Estimating the value of currency is further complicated by the extensive counterfeiting of American currency by the British. The reader should refer to values given for goods and services to get an approximate idea of their actual worth. Certainly, thousands of poundswhich was not uncommon to retrieve from prizes taken at seawere a substantial sum in the eighteenth century.

CAPE MAY NAVY TIMELINE

1773

1774

1775

1776

1777

1778

1779

1780