Name of Vessel:

Nancy

Master of Vessel:

John Churchill

Rig of Vessel:

Brigantine

Date of Capture:

[October] 1776

Place of Capture:

Captor:

Massachusetts Navy Brig Independence

Home Port:

From What Port:

To What Port:

Cargo:

Provisions, whale oil, blubber

Tonnage:

140

Battery:

Crew:

Owners:

Prize master:

Lieutenant Adams

Prize crew:

Ordered Into:

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Into What Port:

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Date Arrived:

[18] November 1776

Date Tried:

14 January 1777

Date Sold:

15 February 1777

Action:

No

Recaptured:

No

Comments: The 140-ton brigantine Nancy (John Churchill) was captured, about October 1776, by the Massachusetts Navy Brigantine Independence (Captain Simeon Samson) and sent into Plymouth, Massachusetts, under prize master Lieutenant Adams.  Nancy had a cargo of provisions, and whale oil and blubber aboard, as well as seventy-five Irish fishermen. William Sever, the Massachusetts Agent for the Southern District, wrote to the Massachusetts Council for instructions, noting the expense of keeping them in the area. He suggested that they might be considered as prisoners and put aboard a cartel then at Marblehead, Massachusetts and bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Many of the men had families in Ireland and wished to return home. Sever also suggesting sending them out to work for families during the winter, trading lodging and food for labor. On 21 November the Council concurred, except that such as choose to stay might enter into the Massachusetts or Continental Navy. On 23 November the Massachusetts General Court ordered the fishermen sent to Marblehead, to be sent to Halifax on the cartel that was in port there. The General Court also ordered the whale oil and blubber to be purchased by the state when the Nancy was condemned. Nancy was sent around to Boston, where she arrived on 27 November. Various items of her cargo, in the amount of £1319.0.03 had been sold by 18 December. She was libeled on 26 December 1776 and tried on 14 January 1777. By 15 February 1777, the Nancy, and her remaining cargo, had been  purchased by the state of Massachusetts. She was added to the trading fleet of the Massachusetts Navy.

This is likely to be the brig Nancy (Crooker), that is listed by the London newspaper on 27 December 1776, as being captured and taken into Massachusetts.

[NDAR, VII, 208 and note, 249-250, 313-314 and 314 note, 599-601, 809-810, 1017, 1208-1209; The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston], Thursday, December 26, 1776]

Posted 14 October 2011

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