SOME DORSET PRIVATEERS. 37 



considerable success with the Swan and other vessels until 

 the Commonwealth Government withdrew all these commis- 

 sions on the grounds that good sailors were wanted for the 

 Navy and that too many abuses were prevalent. 



Weymouth is again mentioned in 1692, when the William 

 and Mary galley (150 tons, 45 men, conmmanded by Wm. 

 Hollman) had effected several captures in the Channel after 

 her Letters had been revoked, but, by the grace of the authori- 

 ties, her owners were permitted to retain the profits of her 

 exploits. A stirring incident in the year 1694 illustrates 

 the insecurity of the unfortified roadsteads. While two local 

 privateers were lying at Weymouth, two similar French 

 craft sailed in and cut out a ketch laden with Purbeck stone. 

 Although the British commanders were ashore at the time, 

 their men proved equal to the emergency, and retaliated on 

 the daring Frenchmen with such effect that the intruders 

 lost their own ships in addition to their prize. 



The period which covers the long wars of the eighteenth 

 century saw very many additions to the number of Dorset 

 Letters of Marque ; but the mass of the Admiralty Court 

 documents, chiefly without indexes, renders a complete list 

 impracticable, even if such were desirable. A few examples 

 chosen more or less at haphazard must therefore suffice. 

 The Dorchester Museum possesses a newspaper extract 

 (unnamed but marked 1755) which states that Poole mer- 

 chants were then fitting out the Fox privateer with 8 guns, 

 14 swivels, and a crew of seventy, under Capt. Thos. Francklin, 

 but the corresponding Letters are not mentioned in the records, 

 unless an entry under 1778 refers to the same ship. The 

 formalities which obtained under the Stuart monarchs had now 

 become more stringent, every commander being ordered 

 to keep an " exact journal " of events ; he was also required 

 to describe minutely the vessel and its equipment, presumably 

 with the object of placing beyond question the identity of 

 the privateer, and a pinnace was no longer included in the 

 commission. A specimen of one of these " Declarations " 

 is perhaps of sufficient interest to be quoted here. 



