SOME DORSET PRIVATEERS. 35 



career by breaking his leg at the age of sixty-seven, when in 

 charge of harbour works at Weymouth in 1647 ; unfortun- 

 ately, his log books have not come down to us. 



It was when fortune had smiled upon their voyages that we 

 learn most concerning these merchant adventurers, who, 

 after bringing in their prizes, too often quarrelled among 

 themselves and doubtless handed over to the lawyers a fair 

 proportion of the spoils taken from the foreigner. The 

 archives of the seventeenth century Courts of Exchequer 

 and Chancery take us behind the scenes and furnish some 

 instructive details at which we will briefly glance. 



A Chancery suit in 1632-3 between Antiochesten Phelps (who 

 surely hailed from the Tarrant valley) and John Gardner, mer- 

 chant and controller of Customs at Poole and Weymouth, 

 tells us that the Content of the latter port had captured the 

 St. Jago of Lisbon, laden with sugar, Brazil tobacco, &c. 

 The ship and cargo were said to be worth 7,000 beyond 

 the Lord Admiral's share, and the cost of fitting out the 

 Content had been 360 : a very profitable result, but one of 

 the owners laments that another of their vessels, the Sarah, 

 had returned empty and lost her voyage. It was apparent!}' 

 the custom to sell " 5 ventures " to anyone with a liking for 

 lotteries, and several Dorchester men had purchased shares 

 in the Content. Another suit relates how the Gift of God, of 

 Weymouth (Edward Cuttance, master) had captured in 1627, 

 when on a voyage to the Isle of Maye, a Portuguese carvel 

 valued at nearly 7,900, and a small French vessel worth 

 200. A well-known Weymouth mariner, Peter Sallanova, 

 who owned and commanded more than one privateer, tells 

 the Court that his ship, the Truelove, had brought in the French 

 Dolphin, laden with Bank's fish and train oil, and the same 

 individual is, on another occasion, officially commended for 

 the capture of a cargo of French wines, which were, no doubt, 

 an acceptable prize at a time when communications with that 

 country were cut off. 



The owners of the Poole and Lyme " men of war " were 

 presumably less litigious than their brethren of the central 



