Kingsmill (1798 ship)

Kingsmill was a French vessel launched in 1793 under a different name, captured in 1798, and sold to British owners who renamed her. She then became a slave ship, making three voyages from Africa to the West Indies. A French privateer captured her in 1804, but she returned to her owners in 1804. In 1807 she became a West Indiaman. In 1814 she became the first ship to trade with India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC) after the EIC lost its monopoly on British trade with India. She was badly damaged in 1821 and subsequently disappears from the registers.

History
France
Name: Unknown
Launched: 1793
Fate: Captured c. 1798
Great Britain
Name: Kingsmill
Owner:
  • 1798:Mullion, Lennox & Co.
  • 1804:Forbes & Co. or Tobin & Co.
  • 1806:Swann & Co.
  • 1808:Humble & Co.
  • 1810:Holland & Co.
  • 1811:Gladstone & Co.
Acquired: c.1798 by purchase of a prize
Fate: Severely damaged 1821; not listed in 1822
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 310, or 500,[1] or 504,[1] or 510, or 514, or 516,[1][2] or 518[1] (bm)
Propulsion: Sail
Complement:
Armament:
  • 1798:26 × 12-pounder guns + 6 swivel guns[1]
  • 1799:26 × 9&12-pounder guns[1]
  • 1804:20 × 9-pounder guns[1]
  • 1808:22 × 18&12-pounder guns[1]
  • 1809:18 × 12-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades[3]
  • 1810:10 × 12-pounder guns[1]
  • 1812:4 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 12-pounder carronades
Notes: Two decks

Career

Kingsmill first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1798 with T. Mullin, master, H. Mullin, owner, and trade Liverpool—Africa. Her burthen appeared as 310 tons,[4] but that was corrected to 510 tons in the 1799 volume. H. Mullin was Hamlet Mullion, possibly Thomas Mullion's elder brother.[5]

Captain Thomas Mullion acquired a letter of marque on 10 May 1798.[1] Because of her size, Kingsmill was rated as having a legal capacity of 560, or 850 slaves.[Note 1]

Mullion sailed Kingsmill to the Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands. From there she took her slaves to Martinique.[7] She left on 4 July,[6] and on 22 January 1799 Kingsmill was reported to be off the coast of Africa, with destination Dominica. She was still of the coast on 22 January. By 16 April she was at Martinique with destination Liverpool.[8] She apparently carried 650 slaves, the second largest number of all Liverpool slave ships that sailed between 5 January 1798 and 5 January 1799.[6]

For reasons that are not clear Mullion acquired a second letter of marque on 10 July 1799.[1] In 1800 he made a second slaving voyage to the Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands and then Martinique.[7] On 24 January 1800 Kingsmill was at Liverpool, with destination the Windward Coast. On 18 April she was still at Liverpool, with destination Bonny (Bight of Biafra). By 28 November Kingsmill was at Bonny with destination Martinique.[8]

In 1803 Captain J. Tobin sailed Kingsmill on her third slaving voyage. He too sailed to the Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands, but took his slaves to the Bahamas.[7] She delivered 395 slaves on 19 April 1803. She was one of only four slave vessels to bring slaves from the Bight of Biafra to the Bahamas, and all four came from Bonny and arrived in 1802–1803.[9]

From here on there is a period where Kingmill's history becomes ambiguous. On 27 February 1804, Captain John Moon received a letter of marque. He did not appear in Lloyd's Register or the Register of Shipping, but the Kingsmill of the letter is of 500 tons, and there is only one other contemporary Kingsmill, and she is of 148 tons.

Lloyd's List (LL) reported on 26 June 1804 that the French privateer Buonaparte captured Kingsmill as she was sailing from Liverpool to Barbados and took her into Guadeloupe. Captain Moon was killed in the engagement.[10]

In the table below, columns two through four are from Lloyd's Register, and columns five through seven are from the Register of Shipping.

Year Master Owner Trade Master Owner Trade
1804 J. Tobin Tobin & Co. Liverpool—Africa J. Tobin Forbes & Co. Liverpool—Africa
1805 J. Tobin Tobin & Co. Liverpool—Africa Not listed
1806 J. Tobin Tobin & Co. Liverpool—Africa Not listed
1807 W. Wade Swann & Co. Liverpool—Barbados Not published
1808 W. Wade Swann & Co. Liverpool—Barbados Not published
1809 Hanby Humble & Co. Liverpool—Demerara J. Hanley Holland & Co. Liverpool—West Indies

It is not clear how Kingsmill returned to her owners' hands. The fact that she did suggests that she was recaptured relatively quickly.[Note 2] In 1806 Swann & Co. purchased Kingsmill.

On 17 September 1808 Swann & Co. sold Kingsmill to Humble & Holland.[13] Captain John Hanley acquired a letter of marque on 20 September 1808.[1] The data in the table below is from Lloyd's Register.

Year Master Owner Trade
1810 Hanby
J. Brown		 Humble & Co.
Holland & Co.		 Liverpool—Demerara
Liverpool—The Brazils
1811 J. Brown
M'Clune		 Holland & Co. Liverpool—The Brazils

Captain John Brown acquired a letter of marque on 8 May 1810.[1] In 1811 John & Robert Gladstone & Co. purchased Kingsmill. (John Gladstone was father of the future Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.)

Year Master Owner Trade
1812 J. M'Clure Gladstone & Co. Liverpool—Demerara
1813 J. M'Clure Gladstone & Co. Liverpool—Demerara
1814 J.M'Clure
Casells		 Gladstone & Co. Liverpool—Madeira

In 1814 Kingsmill became the first vessel to sail to India under a license from the EIC after the EIC lost its monopoly on trade with India.[14] She sailed after George Canning wrote on 16 May 1814 to Secretary of the Admiralty John Wilson Croker requesting an exemption for her from the requirement that vessels travel in convoy. She had missed the convoy and Croker argued that Gladstone would suffer a substantial financial loss if she had to await the next convoy. Croker further argued that Kingsmill was well-armed and so would not be vulnerable to attacks from most privateers.[15]

Kingsmill, A. Cassels, master, sailed on 22 May and returned 15 months later with a profitable cargo.[14] Thereafter she traded between Liverpool and Bengal. By 1818 R. M'Dowall had replaced Cassels as master.

Year Master Owner Trade Source
1821 R. "McDwl" Gladstone Liverpool—Bombay Lloyd's Register
1821

} M'Dowall

 Gladstone Liverpool—"F.Ind" Register of Shipping
1821 C. Parnell Gladstone Liverpool—Valparaiso Lloyd's Register — Supple.[16]

Fate

Lloyd's List reported on 9 February 1821 that Kingsmill, Purnell, master, ran aground on the North Bank while sailing from Liverpool to Valparaiso. She was gotten off and taken into King's Dock, where her cargo had to be unloaded as she had sustained much damage. At one point she had four feet of water in her hold, but it was believed that the dry goods were not injured.[17] Kingsmill is not listed after 1821.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. By one account, an Act of Parliament permitted slave ships to carry five slaves for every three tons of burthen. It also mandated that crews number 10 men per 100 slaves.[6] However, the Slave Trade Act 1788 (Dolben's Act), apparently set the limit at 1.67 slaves per ton for the first 207 tons (bm), and one slave per ton thereafter. This would yield a maximum of 560 slaves for Kingsmill.
  2. HMS Cyane captured Bonaparte, of eighteen 8-pounder guns and 150 men on 12 November 1804 off the island of Marie-Galante. Captain George Cadogan of Cyane reported that Bonaparte had sustained extensive damage three days earlier in an engagement with three British letters of marque that she had captured.[11] In January 1805 HMS Barbadoes recaptured an unnamed "English Guineaman, laden with slaves",[12] but this is too late to be Kingsmill.

Citations

  1. "Letter of Marque, p.71 - accessed 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  2. Hackman (2001), p. 289.
  3. Register of Shipping (1809), №41.
  4. LRr (1798), Seq. №59.
  5. Behrendt (1990), p. 89.
  6. Williams (1897), pp. 681-685.
  7. Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database voyages: Kingsmill.
  8. Knight (n.d.).
  9. Chambers (2014), p. 25, fn.37.
  10. LL №4465.
  11. "No. 15778". The London Gazette. 5 February 1805. p. 178.
  12. "No. 15794". The London Gazette. 2 April 1805. p. 436.
  13. Pope (1819), p. TITLE III: Registers.
  14. Picton (1875), pp. 321 & 324.
  15. Croker (2012), pp. 56-7.
  16. Lloyd's Register (1821), Supple. Seq.№K1.
  17. LL №5567.

References

  • Behrendt, Stephen D. (1990). The Captains in the British Slave Trade from 1785 to 1807. 140. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. pp. 79–140.
  • Chambers, Douglas B., ed. (2014). Runaway Slaves in the Bahama Islands, 1784–1819.
  • Croker, John Wilson, ed. (2012). The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108044585.
  • Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-96-7.
  • Knight, John (n.d.) Slave Trading: the Triangular Route, 1799-1800
  • Picton, James Allanson, Sir (1875). Memorials of Liverpool, Historical and Topographical: Including a History of the Dock Estate. 1.
  • Pope, Charles (1819). The Practical Abridgement of the Laws of Customs and Excise ...
  • Williams, Gomer (1897). History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade. W. Heinemann.
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