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Abstract
Camden, Calvert & King, a major London shipping firm of the late eighteenth century, was one of the first medium-sized enterprises in Britain to operate on a global scale. They are well known to historians of the African slave trade and Australian convict transportation, but they also sent vessels to the Continent and the Americas, to the East Indies and the Pacific, as well as contracting vessels to government and investing in privateering. This article documents the career of Anthony Calvert, who was managing partner of this and three related firms over more than thirty years. None of Calvert's own records have survived, and the article reconstructs his business affairs from a wide variety of sources, looking at his personal life and his management style, the rise and decline of his business concerns, the diversity of his interests, and the extent of the personal and financial risk faced by him, his partners and their employees
Notes
1 Davis, Rise of the English Shipping Industry.
2 Ville, English Shipowning; Palmer, ‘John Long’; Radburn, ‘William Davenport’; Knight and Wilcox, Sustaining the Fleet, 177–91. There are fuller accounts of shipping enterprises of a later period. See, for example, Munro, Maritime Enterprise and Empire.
3 Walvin, The Zong.
4 This work began with Cozens, ‘Politics, Patronage and Profit’.
5 The records of the East India Company are part of the India Office Records, located at the British Library, St Pancras, London (hereafter IOR). Those of the African Committee are located with the Records of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading with Africa and Successors at The National Archives of England and Wales, Kew (hereafter TNA), TNA T70. The records of the Corporation of Trinity House are to be found at The London Metropolitan Archives, Clerkenwell, (hereafter LMA).
6 Hope Archives, Amsterdam City Archives (hereafter ACA), ACA archive no. 735; Enderby Family Papers, State Library of NSW (hereafter SLNSW), SLNSW A315; Cobb of Margate, Family and Business Papers, Kent History & Library Centre (hereafter KL), KL EK–U1453; Forbes of Callendar Papers, Falkirk Archives (hereafter FA), FA GB558/A37; Papers of John Tasker, Pembrokeshire Record Office (hereafter PRO), PRO GB 0213 D/TE.
7 One of their prize court cases, La Misericordia, ‘Before the Most Noble and Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of Appeals in Prize Causes. La Misericordia, Miguel Pasqual, Master’, London, 1785; TNA TS11/926. Two of the firm's vessels were sold in French prize courts, Departmental Archives, Rennes, Cote 6U2–4. Cases involving employees prosecuted for piracy are found in English Admiralty cases, High Court of Admiralty Papers, TNA HCA 1. King's Bench, Camden and Ors v. Anderson, (1796) 6 Term Reports, 723. Common Pleas, Camden and Others v. Anderson, In Error, (1798) 1 Bos. & Pul., 272. Numerous lesser matters were reported in the newspapers. A number of criminal cases were heard in the Old Bailey, Proceedings of the Old Bailey, www.oldbaileyonline.org. New South Wales cases involving the firm's ships are reported in the journal of the Judge Advocate, see Collins, An Account of the English Colony. Proceedings to confiscate smuggled metal were heard in the Mayor's Court in Bombay in 1793, Bombay Mayor's Court Register, IOR P/418.
8 Klein, ‘The English Slave Trade to Jamaica’; Christopher, A Merciless Place, 290–1; Flynn, The Second Fleet. Richard Woodman also touched on other aspects of Calvert's business operations, but only in passing, in Neptune's Trident, 207–8 and Britannia's Realm, 21–2, 127, 132, 238.
9 Sun, 27 Feb. 1800.
10 Camden was ill from as early as 12 Apr. 1787, when the Baltick Merchant was registered, Ship's Register 296/1787, TNA BT107/8. There is no evidence of him playing a part in the firm after that date. He died in 1796 and his will was proved on 23 Nov., TNA PROB 11/1218.
11 Morton owned ships with Calvert from 1800: Ship's Register 480/1800, Nelson, TNA BT107/12; Ship's Register 343/1801, Flora, TNA BT107/14; Ship's Register 348/1801, Diligence, TNA BT107/14. In late Aug. 1806 the African Committee purchased gunpowder from ‘Calvert & Morton’, receipt from the African Committee, 31 Aug. 1806, African Committee, Detached Papers, TNA T70/1583. And in his will, Calvert referred to Morton as his partner, TNA PROB11/1489.
12 Calvert's memorial at St Peter's Broadstairs reports him as being 75 years of age when he died in Nov. 1808. On his childhood, see the marriage of Elizabeth Colewert (Calvert) and Lancelot Brewer, 5 Mar. 1739, St Dunstan and All Saints, Church of England Parish Registers, 1538–1812, LMA P93/DUN, item 172. Two of their children were later mentioned in Calvert's will, by which it was possible to establish the link to Elizabeth Colewert. Woodman, Britannia's Realm, 127, wrote that Calvert was born at Whitby, but provided no source.
13 There is no mention of a wife or children in correspondence or in his will. Possible confirmation that Calvert was unmarried is to be found in a letter that he wrote in Feb. 1783, in which he argued against his correspondent immediately returning to England from Africa: ‘If you hurry home to be married in order to be happy without you have a good fortune you will (take my word for it) be disappointed. You will, I know my dear friend, excuse me, but brokers generally discover the gamesters' errors. Your situation is respectable on the Coast. I would advise you by all means not to quit it till you are independent.’ Calvert to Miles, 4 Feb. 1783, TNA T70/1549 The meaning of this passage seems to be that Calvert is a broker and not a player in the marriage market, which gives him unique insight into the game.
14 Calvert's nieces feature in his business correspondence as ‘our girls’ and ‘the young ladies’, suggesting that they were well known to his business associates, James Ball to Calvert, 7 Oct. 1781, TNA J90/416 and Calvert to Richard Miles, 4 Feb. 1783, TNA T70/1549. In his will he left £14,395 in 3 per cent consols to the daughters of his sister Elizabeth Brewer, TNA PROB11/1489; Honner v. Morton, (1828) 3 Russ 65. Another niece named her son after him, as did Thomas Morton, Committee of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa (hereafter African Committee), Register of Officers, TNA T70/1456, 107; Saint John at Hackney, Register of Baptisms, LMA P79/ JN1, item 027. From 1798, at least, his niece, Eleanor Hutton, who was the daughter of his sister, Susanna, was living in the Minories, around the corner from his residence in the Crescent, Land Tax Records, Portsoken, London, LMA, MS 11316/305.
Thomas Morton was the son of Calvert's sister Mary: Registers of Clandestine Marriages and of Baptisms in the Fleet Prison, King's Bench Prison, the Mint and the May Fair Chapel, TNA RG7/272, fo. 21; St Paul's Shadwell, Register of Baptisms, Mar. 1737 to Dec. 1774, LMA, P93/ PAU3/003. In 1780 he was master of the Ceres (owned by Calvert & Co); in 1781 chief mate and de facto master of the Active (owned by Calvert & Co); in 1783–6 master of the Commerce (owned by Calvert); and in 1788 the Neptune (owned by Camden, Calvert & King and Timothy Curtis); and in 1791–2 the Surprize (owned by Calvert & Co), Lloyd's Register 1780–6 and 1792; Navigation Passes nos 3552/1781 and 5798/1784, TNA ADM7/103; Navigation Pass no. 1649/1791, TNA ADM7/110; James Ball to Anthony Calvert, 7 Oct. 1781 and 6 Apr. 1782, in ‘Ball Against Calvert’, TNA J90/416; Calvert to Richard Miles, 2 Nov. 1782, TNA T70/1549; African Committee, Arrivals and Departures 1783, TNA T70/1549, 1784–5, T70/1553 and 1785–6, T70/1554; Morton to Miles, 8 Jan. 1784 (wrongly dated 1783), TNA T70/1549; General Evening Post, 24 Dec. 1785. William Buncombe was master of the Fox (owned by Calvert) from 1781 to 1783, and the Venus (also owned by Calvert) from 1783 to 1785, Buncombe to Richard Miles, 1, 8, 13, 14 and 22 Nov. 1783, TNA T70/1549; African Committee, Arrivals and Departures 1784–5, TNA T70/1553 and 1785–6, TNA T70/1554. He was probably the son of Calvert's sister Susanna, St Katherine by the Tower, Composite Register: Baptisms and Burials 1770–1812 and Marriages 1751–4, 1751–1812, LMA SKT/C/01/MS 9668.
15 Crescent, Minories: Detailed Plan of Properties on New St [Vine St], Crescent, Hammett Street & Minories, 1791, LMA COL/CCS/PL/02/349.
16 See Calvert's Will at TNA PROB11/1489, Times, 5 and 13 Jul. 1809, Calvert Memorial at St Peter's Church Thanet, Kent.
17 Euden and Sturgess, pers. comm.
18 Childers, A Mariner of England, 73–5; Camden, Calvert & King to Philip Stephens, 24 Jul. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 165–165a; Robert Taylor to Evan Nepean, 13 Sep. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 535–535a.
19 R v. Donald Trail and William Elrington, Brief for Prosecution for the Murder of John Joseph (hereafter R v Trail), n.d., Churchill Examination, TNA TS11/381, fo. 18.
20 R v. Trail, Beale Examination, TNA T11/381, fo. 1.
21 Andrew Snape Hamond to Evan Nepean, 30 Dec. 1793, TNA HO42/27, fos 718–718a.
22 Grosvenor, Trinity House, 100; Minutes of the By Board meeting, 8 Jun. 1797, Trinity Corporation, TMA MS30010/19, fo. 515.
23 Evidence of William Taylor Money, 29 Apr. 1822, in Select Committee on Means of Improving and Maintaining Foreign Trade Report (Lights, Harbour Dues and Pilotage), House of Lords Sessional Papers, 1801–33, British Parliamentary Papers (hereafter, BPP), 1822, V, 297.
24 Camden v. Ewer, The Times, 19 Jun. 1794.
25 Camden v. Anderson, In Error (1798) 1 Bos. & Pul. 272 at 279.
26 Henry Dundas to Francis Grose, 15 Feb. 1794, TNA CO201/11, fo. 11.
27 General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer, 16 Mar. 1779; Public Advertiser, 22 Jan. 1788; Morning Herald, 15 Jan. 1789; Times, 11 Oct. 1798.
28 London Packet or New Lloyd's Evening Post, 24 Jun. 1799; ‘A List … of Persons who have agreed to become Subscribers to the proposed London Company for the Manufacture of Flour, Meal, and Bread …’, House of Lords Sessional Papers, vol. 002 (18 Dec. 1798 to 29 Jul. 1800), 3–6.
29 LMA, Trinity Corporation Court Minutes 1778–9, MS30004/13; 1790–7, MS30004/14; 1798–1806, MS30004/15; 1807–15, MS30004/16; and By Minutes, 1777–80, MS30010/16; 1781– 5, MS30010/17; 1786–91, MS30010/18; 1792–7, MS30010/19; 1798–1803, MS30010/20; 1804–8, MS30010/21.
30 On the departure of the African Packet, Groat, see Whitehall Evening Post, 15 Sep. 1789 and English Chronicle, or Universal Evening Post, 24 Sep. 1789; and the Mary, Thompson, see World, 3 and 14 Oct. 1789. King subscribed £200 for the insurance of the Kitty on 7 Oct., TNA T70/1559.
31 ‘Committee on Petition of Commissioners of Broadstairs Pier, Report’, (BPP, 1808, II) 75–81; Times, 5 and 13 Jul. 1809.
32 Calvert Memorial, St Peter's Thanet; Kentish Gazette, 25 Nov. 1808; Bury & Norwich Post, 30 Nov. 1808; Madras Gazette, 8 Jul. 1809.
33 Morning Post, 26, 27, 28 and 29 Dec. 1808; Times, 5 and 13 Jul. and 10 and 25 Aug. 1809; Morning Chronicle, 11 Jul. and 11 and 15 Aug. 1809; Kentish Gazette, 4 and 7 July and 8, 11 and 15 Aug. 1809; Calvert's Will and Probate, TNA PROB11/1489; Honner v. Morton, (1828) 3 Russ 65.
34 Calvert's Will and Probate, TNA PROB11/1489
35 Registers of Declarations for Letters of Marque, High Court of Admiralty, Prize Court, TNA HCA26/12, fo.39. Richard Buncombe married Calvert's sister Susanna on 21 Mar. 1754 – St Katherine by the Tower, Composite register: baptisms and burials 1770–1812 and marriages 1751–4, 1751–1812, LMA SKT/C/01/Ms 9668.
36 Public Ledger, 10 Mar. 1761; Public Advertiser, 22 Feb. 1762; Inward Entry at Montego Bay, Jamaica, 10 Mar. 1762, Shipping Returns, Colonial Office: Jamaica Miscellanea, LMA CO142/16, fo. 185 or ‘Naval Office Shipping Lists, Jamaica (1683–1818)’, in Morgan, British Records (hereafter Jamaica NOSL), reel 2, 545–6; London Evening Post, 24 Apr. 1762; Outward Clearance at Montego Bay, Jamaica, 18 Jun. 1762, TNA, CO142/16, fo. 155 or Jamaica NOSL, reel 2, 497; Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser, 4 Mar. 1763; London Evening Post, 28 Jan. 1764; Public Advertiser, 2 Feb. 1764.
37 The 1764 Lloyd's Register reports the Royal Charlotte, 300 tons, as owned by Compden & Co. But Jamaican port records for 29 May 1765 report Calvert as the owner, TNA CO142/18, fo. 104, or Jamaica NOSL reel 3, 204–5. The Slave Trade Database reports the Royal Charlotte collecting 200 slaves sailing from Cape Coast Castle on 1 April 1767, Voyage 76097, The TransAtlantic Slave Trade Database, accessed 16 May 2012, http://www.slavevoyages.org. The Royal Charlotte was lost on the west coast of Ireland in early 1769, and followed by the David, the William and the Three Good Friends, all commanded by Anthony Calvert. All but the David can be confirmed as owned by Camden & Co.
38 In 1768 the snow Layton was declared as owned by Anthony Calvert & Co., and since William Camden lived at nearby Laytonstone, it seems likely that he was one of the owners, Outward Clearance at Montego Bay, Jamaica, 30 Jun. 1768, TNA CO142/16, fo. 104 and Jamaica NOSL, reel 2, 698–9. On the Venus, see the trial of John Innis, Lloyd's Evening Post, 9–11 Nov. 1773. John Camden was deceased by 1781, see ‘La Misericordia, Further Appendix to the Appellant's Case’, 22.
39 The ships' registers name Timothy Curtis, but a letter from the firm to their Bombay agent, John Tasker, confirms that his brother William was a silent partner, Camden, Calvert & King to John Tasker, 22 Jun. 1793, PRO D/TE/4.
40 On Calvert's personal involvement in the management of their ships, see notes 83 to 86 below.
41 Davis, Rise of the English Shipping Industry, 83–4, 88–9, 95, 99.
42 Details of ship ownership over time have been reconstructed from Lloyd's Register, the Register of Shipping and Seamen (TNA BT107), Ships' Passes and Registers of Letters of Marque (TNA ADM7), African Committee Arrivals and Departures (TNA T70), Shipping Returns for Jamaica (TNA CO142/13–29), newspaper reports of ships arriving and departing, and a wide variety of other sources.
43 Information about Calvert's ships has been compiled from a wide variety of different sources – shipping registers, navigation licences and applications for letters of marque, Lloyd's Register, newspaper reports, the records of the African Committee and the Navy Board and Transport Board, among others.
44 On the other articles carried, see below in the discussion concerning the slave trade.
45 Based on a detailed reconstruction of the ships owned by the partnership over the decades. The fate of the Third Fleet vessels is dealt with below.
46 Klein, ‘The English Slave Trade to Jamaica’, 43.
47 Klein, The Atlantic Slave Trade, 82.
48 Walvin, The Zong, 59.
49 African Committee to William Fawkener, 19 Feb. 1788, TNA T70/146, fos 23–25
50 In 1785, the Fly and the Ceres carried spirits purchased at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Cowes Out Letters to the Board, 1783–6, TNA CUST61/6, fos 280–281, 290; Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, 24 Dec. 1785; Public Advertiser, 29 Dec. 1785; Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, 26 Jan. 1786. The Surprize was sent to Ostend in 1791 for spirits, Childers, A Mariner of England, 73. The Union was detained at Ostend in 1793, as she was loading 500 barrels of gunpowder for Africa, TNA HO42/26, fos 161–171.
51 On the Union, see Instructions by Camden, Calvert & King to the Captain, James Thomson, 6 Jul. 1793, at TNA HO42/26, fos 167–168. The records of the African Committee are at TNA T70.
52 Richard Miles to Lord Hawkesbury, 5 May 1792, quoted in Minutes of the Board of Trade, 14 May 1792, TNA BT5/8, fos 37–39.
53 Walvin, The Zong, 61.
54 Based on the details of the ship's voyages drawn from a variety of sources, including Childers, A Mariner of England.
55 See the reports of R v. Hindmarsh at World, 16 Jul. 1791 and TNA HCA1/61/176–9.
56 Instructions by Camden, Calvert & King to Captain Thomson of the Union, 6 Jul. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 167–168.
57 Ibid.
58 On the Fly – ‘An Account of the Number of Vessels … fitted out from England for the Slave Trade in the Years 1795 & 1796 … together with an Account of the Number of Slaves…’, TNA T70/1574. The average mortality rate has been calculated by a study of individual voyages, drawn from a variety of sources.
59 On the Apollo, see ‘Protest of Andrew Smith and Others’, Antigua, 20 Feb. 1777, in Secretaries of State, State Papers Foreign, TNA SP78/302, fo. 229.
60 Jamaica NOSL, reel 3, 622–3.
61 Walvin, The Zong, 60.
62 Daily Advertiser, 26 Jun. 1790.
63 Jamaica NOSL, reel 3, 658–9.
64 Jamaica NOSL, reel 5, 602–3.
65 TNA WO1/59/441–443, quoted in Lokke, ‘London Merchant Interest’, 799–800. See also Lokke, ‘New Light on London Merchant Investments’.
66 Based on a detailed study of the African Committee's records at TNA T70.
67 TNA T70/146, fos 304–354.
68 Ball v. Calvert, 1782, Records of the Supreme Court of Judicature, TNA J90/416.
69 Calvert to the Navy Board, 25 Feb. 1780, TNA ADM106/1256 , fo. 472; Calvert to the Navy Board, 20 Apr. 1781, TNA ADM106/1264, fo. 66; Sir John Barnes to Evan Nepean, 12 Jan. 1785, TNA HO42/6, fo. 23a.
70 Flynn, The Second Fleet, 54–64.
71 Parkinson, Trade in the Eastern Seas, 164–90; Phillips, The East India Company, 85–6.
72 Two dominant figures in this challenge published on the matter, Anthony Brough, Considerations, and John Fiott, Three Addresses.
73 IOR/G/12/85, fos 11–19, Consultations & Diaries of the Canton Supercargoes.
74 IOR/G/12/85, fo. 104; log of the Ranger, IOR/L/MAR/B/421.
75 Minutes of the Committee of Shipping, IOR/L/MAR/C/530, fos 254, 270, 308, 324, 329, 333, 355; and appendices, no. 636, fo. 335, no. 788, fo. 416, no. 846, fo. 461, no. 940, fo. 502, no. 953, fo. 507; IOR/B/104, fos 821, 829–830, 862, 869–870, 889, 890, 908, 963, 1002; IOR/B/105, fo. 617.
76 Ships' Registers, TNA BT107/8 620, fo.1787; Morning Chronicle & London Advertiser, 4 Mar. 1788. At that time, a voyage to Ostend that did not continue to Africa could only mean that she was re-registered for the East India trade, however, in later years, Trail recalled that he had carried cargo from England in foreign bottoms, bypassing the Navigation Act, and this voyage is the only time in his career when this might have happened – General Craig to Commodore Blankett, 16 December 1795, in Theal, Records of the Cape Colony, 254.
77 Furber, John Company at Work, 152–8. Furber was unaware that the real owner was Camden, Calvert & King. This can be ascertained from the Lloyds Register of 1789–91, and an understanding of Robert Charnock's business in Ostend and Flushing and his relationship with Calvert.
78 The Active and the Albemarle carried illicit metal into India, where it was confiscated by Company officials. They were permitted to load with cotton for home, but were taken off the southern coast of England by French privateers in May 1793 and sold at Morlaix and Brest, see Benaerts, Le Régime consulaire, 46–7. The Admiral Barrington was taken by Malwan pirates and never recovered, Bombay Courier, 12 Jan., 23 Feb. and 13 Apr. 1793; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 14 Jan. 1794, Tasker Archive, PRO D/TE/4.
79 The Charnock contracts have been explored in detail by the authors, but little has been published. They are alluded to in Phillips, The East India Company, 85–6.
80 London Chronicle, 19 May 1781.
81 Camden, Calvert & King to Phillip Stephens, 24 Jul. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 165–165a.
82 On the correspondence between Calvert and Forbes, the Forbes of Callendar Papers, FA A727 52/32 & 33, 70/42, 72/3 and 4, 88/17, 21, 31, 39, 41 and 42, 89/2, 106/21 and 22 131/19.
83 Log of the Fame, 22 Jul. 1796, IOR/L/MAR/B/242A. See also log of the Union, 16 Apr. 1796, IOR/L/MAR/B/117B.
84 Childers, A Mariner of England, 72–3.
85 Ibid., 73–5.
86 Kent's Directory (London, 1779–91); Calvert to Richard Miles, 29 Jul. 1783, TNA T70/1549; Morning Post, 29 Dec. 1808.
87 This is evident from a variety of sources, but see the log of the Surprize, Whampoa to Blackwall, 6 Sep. 1791, IOR/L/MAR/B/447B.
88 Will of Anthony Calvert, 11 Nov. 1808, TNA PROB11/1489.
89 This was the Duke of Bronti (or Bronte), Ship Registration, 2 Aug. 1802, TNA BT107/15, 316/1802.
90 On the whaling voyages of the Mary Ann and the Matilda, see Camden, Calvert & King to Nepean, 6 Feb. 1791, TNA HO42/18, fo.128 and Tench, Sydney's First Four Years, 210. The eagerness of the whaling crews of the Third Fleet to begin whaling is evident from Enderby to Unknown, 24 Jan. 1791, TNA HO42/18, fo. 90 and Melville to Enderby & Sons, 22 Nov. 1791, Enderby Family Papers, SLNSW MLA322. On the lay system applying to whalers in the Third Fleet, see ‘Whaling Voyages Round the World in the Britannia and Speedy Transports, 1791–1796’, MS, Dixson Library, SLNSW MSQ36, 247–9.
91 Instructions for the Union, 6 Jul. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 167–168
92 ‘Examinations and Depositions of the Several Sailors Brought Forward by Mr Evans Respecting the Conduct of the Contractors' Master and Mate of the Ship Neptune’, Treasury Solicitor's Papers, TNA TS11/381.
93 Bombay Presidency to the Court of Directors, 20 Oct. 1792, IOR/E/4/471; Bombay Mayor's Court Register, 8 Jan. to 19 Feb. 1793, IOR/P/418/14, fos 23–27.
94 Childers, A Mariner of England, 73.
95 Thomas Greenhough, of Goodman's Fields, in the Parish of St Mary, Whitechapel, was a clerk to Messrs Camdens and Calvert, of the Crescent in the Minories in 1783, ‘La Misericordia, Further Appendix to the Appellant's Case’, 39. John Warren, of Limehouse, cooper, was left £20 by Calvert in his will in 1808, TNA PROB11/1489. Anthony Calvert took Samuel Burford, son of Thomas Burford, of Ratcliff, as an apprentice on 25 Oct. 1794. He appears to have been a plumber, aged 14 years, Indenture, 25 Oct. 1794, Tower Hamlets Local History Library, TH/2954/3.
96 On the Cobbs, Camden, Calvert & King to Messrs Cobb & Co., 20 Feb. 1793, Cobb Archive, KL. On Robert Charnock, see Charnock & Co. to Camden, Calvert & King, 26 Jul. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 169–170a. On Short Amies & De La Rue, see the Instructions for the Union, 6 Jul. 1793, TNA HO42/26, fos 167–168. On Shaw & Inglis, Daily Advertiser, 26 Jun. 1790. On James Baillie & Co., see the Instructions for the Union. John Tasker's role is detailed in his letterbooks relating to the period 1792–3, PRO, D/TE/1, 2 and 3.
97 Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 3 Dec. 1791, PRO, D/TE/2, 8–9; Tasker to Wm Hornby, 8 Sep. 1792, PRO, D/TE/2, 63–5; Memorial of John Tasker to the Governor and Council, Nov. 1794, PRO, D/TE/1.
98 Camden, Calvert & King to Tasker, 5 May 1791, cited in Camden v. Anderson (1796) 6 T.R. 792; Minutes of the Court of Directors, 20 Oct. 1790, IOR/B/112, 523; Camden, Calvert & King to Tasker, 5 May 1791, cited in Camden v. Anderson (1796) 6 T.R. 792; Thomas Morton to George Rose, 20 Oct. 1791, TNA T1/687, fo.148; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 3 Dec. 1791, 20 Jan., 15 and 18 Feb. 1792, D/TE/2, 8–9, 13–14, 20.
99 Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 3 Dec. 1791, 15–18 Feb., 22 Dec. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 8–9, 21–2, 72–6. On Place's relationship with the Curtis brothers, there was a Thomas Place who was purser on the Nottingham in 1781–2, when she was owned by the Curtis brothers, Farrington, A Biographical Index, 628; Hackman, Ships of the East India Company, 165. In Place's will, Sir William Curtis was named as a ‘worthy friend’, TNA PROB11/1484.
100 Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 20 Jan. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 13–14; Tasker to Captains Bowen and Mash, 8 Jun. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 39–42; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 18 Sep. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 58–60; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 21 Oct. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 69–70; Bombay Presidency to the Court of Directors, 21 Dec. 1792, IOR/E/4, 472; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 22 Dec. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 72–6; Tasker to Hunter, 22 Dec. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 76–7; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 15 Jan. 1793, PRO D/TE/2, 91; Tasker to John Mitchinson, 16 Jan. 1793, PRO D/TE/2, 90; John Mitchinson to Tasker, 1 and 10 Feb. 1793, in Bombay Courier, 23 Feb. 1793, 2; Tasker to Gen. Robert Abercromby, 10 May 1793, PRO D/ TE/1.
101 Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 22 Dec. 1792, 15 Jan. 1793, 14 Jan. 1794, 12 Jan. 1795; Tasker & Thomas Place to Camden, Calvert & King, 12 May and 8 Sep. 1792; Tasker to Capts Bowen and Mash, 8 Jun. 1792, Tasker to John Hunter, 21 Oct. and 22 Dec. 1792, Tasker to John Mitchinson, 16 Jan. 1793, in Tasker Archive, PRO, D/TE/2, 36–7, 39–42, 58–60, 69–70, 71–2, 72–6, 91; John Hunter to Tasker, 1 Mar. and 18 Jun. 1793, Camden, Calvert & King to Tasker, 22 Jun. 1793, PRO D/TE/4.
102 On the suspected smuggling of gunpowder and spirits, see footnote 50.
103 Calvert to Evan Nepean, 18 Feb. 1791, TNA CO201/6, fo. 248.
104 The nature of their relationship during this period can be concluded from a series of letters from Calvert to Richard Miles archived at TNA T70/1549.
105 ‘Some observations that have occurred on perusing the paper referred to Mr Atty Genl respecting the ship Neptune & the examination taken in consequence thereof’, n.d., TNA TS11/381; James Bowen to the Navy Board, 14 May 1792, TNA T1/704, fos 151–151a; Depositions of Thomas Sedgewick, 29 Oct. 1792, and James Haley, 7 Nov. 1792, at Bombay Mayor's Court Register, IOR/P/418/14, fos 26–31.
106 The Venus, Lloyd's Evening Post, 9–11 Nov. 1773. The Venus, Buncombe to Miles, 1 Nov. 1783, T70/1549. The Vigilant, General Evening Post, 24 Oct. 1786. The Ranger, Calcutta Gazette, 20 Dec. 1787; Woodman, Britannia's Realm, 127. The Fairy, World, 16 and 30 Jul. 1791.
107 Camden v Ewer, The Times and Morning Post, 19 Jun. 1794; Camden v. Ewer and Camden v. Anderson reported in Morning Post, 19 Jun. 1794; Camden v. Ewer in Oracle and Public Advertiser, 8 Jul. 1794; Camden v. Anderson (1794) 5 T.R. 709; Camden v. Anderson, reported in Morning Post, 30 Jul. 1794, The Times 25 and 26 Oct. 1794, 4; Camden v. Anderson, reported in Morning Post, 30 Jul. 1794; Camden v. Anderson (1796) 6 T.R. 723, reported in The Sun, 28 Jan. 1796 and The Star, 9 Jun. 1796; Camden v. Anderson, In Error (1798) 1 Bos. & Pul. 272.
108 R v Trail & Elrington, Admiralty Court, 8 Jun. 1792, HCA1/61/173–176; R v Hindmarsh, Admiralty Court, 8 Jun. 1792, HCA1/61/176–9; R v Slack & Berry, Admiralty Court, 8 Jun. 1792, PA HCA1/61/179a–181a. The execution is described at Lloyd's Evening Post, 6–9 Jul. 1792.
109 Some of the financial details relating to this venture are to be found in the correspondence of John Tasker.
110 Copy of the contract between the Navy Board and Camden, Calvert & King, 18 Nov. 1790, Hood Papers, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, MKH/9, MS68/099.
111 ‘L'Active de Londres, Extrait des Minutes du Greffe de la Justice de Paix de Brest’, 3–8 Oct. 1793, Cote 6U2–40; ‘Liquidation de la Prize, L'Albemarle de Londres. Extraits des Minutes du Greffe de la Justice de Paix de la Ville & Commune de Morlaix’, 28 Oct. 1793, 6U2–4, Departmental Archives at Rennes.
112 These calculations are based on Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 12 May 1792; Tasker to Captains Bowen and Mash, 8 Jun. 1792; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 18 Sep. 1792; Tasker to Hunter, 21 Oct. 1792; Tasker to Camden, Calvert & King, 22 Dec. 1792, PRO D/TE/2, 36–7, 39–42, 58–60, 71–2, 72–6; Tasker to Gen. Abercromby, 10 May 1793, PRO D/TE/1; John Hunter to Tasker, 18 Jun. 1793, PRO D/TE/4; Camden, Calvert & King to Tasker, PRO D/TE/4; Camden & Co. v. Ewer, reported in The Times, 19 Jun. 1794 and Lloyds Evening Post, 18–20 Jun. 1794; Calvert and Co. v. The Underwriters, 26 Jan. 1796, The Times, 27 Jan. 1796, 3.
113 Samuel Enderby, ‘Vessels Returned from the South Whales Fishery in the Year 1793 with an Account of their Cargoes’, in Enderby Family Papers, SLNSW A322, 531.
114 Hancock, Oceans of Wine, xvi–xvii.