Lewis Prydyth
| Lewis Prydyth | |
|---|---|
| Person | Lewis Prydyth |
| Title | |
| First name | Lewis |
| Middle name(s) | |
| Last name | Prydyth |
| Suffix | |
| Spouse of | |
| Widow of | |
| Occupation | Cooper |
| Secondary shorebased occupation | |
| Mariner occupation | |
| Associated with ship(s) | |
| Training | Not apprentice |
| Is apprentice of | |
| Was apprentice of | |
| Had apprentice(s) | |
| Citizen | Unknown |
| Literacy | Signature |
| Has opening text | Lewis Pridith |
| Has signoff text | Lewis Prydyth |
| Signoff image | (Invalid transcription image) |
| Language skills | English language |
| Has interpreter | |
| Birth street | |
| Birth parish | |
| Birth town | |
| Birth county | |
| Birth province | |
| Birth country | |
| Res street | |
| Res parish | Saint Andrew Hubbard |
| Res town | London |
| Res county | |
| Res province | |
| Res country | England |
| Birth year | 1615 |
| Marriage year | |
| Death year | |
| Probate date | |
| First deposition age | |
| Primary sources | |
| Act book start page(s) | |
| Personal answer start page(s) | |
| Allegation start page(s) | |
| Interrogatories page(s) | |
| Deposition start page(s) | HCA 13/72 f.293v Annotate |
| Chancery start page(s) | |
| Letter start page(s) | |
| Miscellaneous start page(s) | |
| Act book date(s) | |
| Personal answer date(s) | |
| Allegation date(s) | |
| Interrogatories date(s) | |
| Deposition date(s) | May 17 1658 |
| How complete is this biography? | |
| Has infobox completed | Yes |
| Has synthesis completed | No |
| Has HCA evidence completed | No |
| Has source comment completed | No |
| Ship classification | |
| Type of ship | |
| Silver Ship litigation in 1650s | |
| Role in Silver Ship litigation | |
Biographical synthesis
Lewis Prydyth (alt. Pridith) (b.ca.1615; d.?). Cooper.
Resident in the parish of Saint Andrew Hubbard in 1658.
Evidence from High Court of Admiralty
Forty-three year old Lewis Prydyth deposed in the High Court of Admiralty on May 17th 1658.[1]
Lewis Prydyth stated that he was a "wyne cooper by trade imployed by Mr Alexander Bence the producent in this cause to open certayne chests of sugar videlicet twelve chests of sugar of fifteene which were brought ashoare from aboard the Oporto Merchant the voyage in question". He remembered well "that two of the sayd chests were very much dammaged soe that the sugar which remayned in them unwasted was congealed in a lumpe togeather as hard as clay by reason of salt water and oyle which they had receaved, and nine more of the sayd twelve chests of sugar were alsoe damnified very much by the like meanes."
Prydyth was sent aboard the Oporto Merchant by Mr Bence to "view the stowage of the sugars in question". Prydyth observed "that the water that lay above the kilson of the shipp and in the dennage under the sayd chest" and heard members of the ship's company say that "the reason why soe much water was in the sayd shipp was for that a pype of oyle was staved at the ladeing of the shipp which oyle (as they sayd) leaked out and came amongst the ballast and dennage of the sayd shipp and thereby choaked the shipps pumpe that it could not voide the water soe well as otherwise it would have done". Prydyth ordered the disputed fifteen chests of sugar to be removed and "did observe that the water lay then among the dennage above the killson or plumbes of the shipp in the hold in puddles, and there continued after the sayd sugars were removed from their dennage."[2]
Prydyth observed that "the fifteene chests of sugar aforesayd or the most of them were stowed abaft the mast and all of them in the ground tyre, and this deponent observed that they that lay neerest the pumpe by the mast were most damnified, soe that it was evident that the dammage which happened to them came by the water that was in the sayd shipp, which as the sayd seamen sayd could not be pumped out by reason the pumpe was choaked in manner aforesayd." Moreover, "the covers of all the fifteene chests were drye, but that divers of them were wett five or sixe inches deepe toward the bottome, soe that the dammage happened only in the bottoms of them by reason of the water aforesayd And saith that hee this deponent beleeveth that all the rest of the sayd shipps ladeing, which lay above the sugar in question were dry and well conditioned for that hee knew divers of their Owners and heard none of them complayne of any damage." The view of members of the ship's company who unloaded the sugar was that the damage amounted to £5 per chest of sugar for the fifteen chests in question. According to Prydyth, Mr Bence requested Joseph Careswell to inspect the sugars or to send a man to do so and " the sayd sugars were kept at Chesters Key in a warehouse above a weeke at the charge of the sayd Bence in expectation of the sayd Careswells coming to view them [3]
Prydyth stated that his observation of the sugar in the Oporto Merchant took place between December 18th and 23rd 1657. He added that "it is usuall for sugars to bee weighed by the officers of the Custome house when they are landed and therefore beleeveth there could noe losse or dammage happen to the sayd sugars after their unladeing for that hee knoweth they were brought ashoare the same day they were unladen and that one John the servant of Mr ffowler a Cooper (imployed to that purpose) came with them in the lighter."[4] The Mr Fowler named by Lewis Prydyth would have been Alexander Fowler, a winecooper of Saint Olave Hart Street, who worked for Alexander Bence, and the servant John would have been John Tuffley.
