Captaine Abraham Mootham

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Captaine Abraham Mootham
Person Captaine Abraham Mootham
Title Captaine
First name Abraham
Middle name(s)
Last name Mootham
Suffix
Spouse of
Widow of
Occupation Mariner
Secondary shorebased occupation
Mariner occupation Commander
Associated with ship(s) Unnamed ship (Master: Captaine Abraham Mootham), Pelican ffrigott (Master: Captaine Abraham Mootham)
Training Not apprentice
Is apprentice of
Was apprentice of
Had apprentice(s)
Citizen Unknown
Literacy Signature
Has opening text Captaine Abraham Mootham
Has signoff text Abraham Mootham
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
Res town Redriff
Res county Surrey
Res province
Res country England
Birth year 1610
Marriage year
Death year
Probate date
First deposition age 41
Primary sources
Act book start page(s)
Personal answer start page(s)
Allegation start page(s)
Interrogatories page(s)
Deposition start page(s) HCA 13/65 f.48v 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) Aug 27 1651
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 Naval ship
Silver Ship litigation in 1650s
Role in Silver Ship litigation None


Biographical synthesis

Captaine Abraham Mootham (b. ca. 1610; d. ?). Mariner.

Master of unnamed ship in 1651.

Master of the Pelican ffrigott around 1653.

Resident in Redriff in Surrey in 1651.

There was another naval captain with the surname Mootham, Captaine Peter Mootham, who was a social acquaintance of Samuel Pepys. According to Pepys, Mootham had been a slave at one time in Algiers.

Evidence from High Court of Admiralty

Forty-one year old Captaine Abraham Mootham deposed on Aug 27th 1651 in the High Court of Admiralty. He was examined on interrogatories on behalf of Espinoza and company in the case of "Michaell da Espinosa and others against Captaine Mootham".[1]

Abraham Mootham stated that he seized the ship the ffortuna, and found a box of papers which he brought from Portsmouth to London, and which were returned to Portsmouth by his Proctor Mr. Smith for use in the examination of witnesses in Portsmouth.[2]

The same Captaine Mootham is identified in a separate High Court of Admiralty case in October 1653, when he was master of the ship the Pelican ffrigott/ The case was known as "The clayme of George Bell Andrew Glen James Crawford Lewis Mounteth Thomas henderson George Wilson David Longlands David Mitchell Thomas Edwards Peter Steene and Richard ffalconer of Borestone in Scotland for the shipp the Noahs Arke otherwuse the Arke of which the sayd Richard ffalconer was Master and the tackle apparrell and furniture lately seized by the Pelican ffrigott whereof Captaine ?Mootham was Master".[3]

Comment on sources

1628

PROB 11/153/347 Will of Barnard Mootham, Mariner of Saint Katherine by the Tower of London 22 March 1628

1645

"(Letter) James Franklyn and Abraham Mootham to William Smith, 9 Mar. 1645, TCD, MS 818, fo.155r; History of the Irish confederation, iv.177."[4]

1660

"17. SAMUEL PEPYS TO CAPTAIN MOOTHAM

To Captain Mootheam, commander of the Foresight...Whitehall, 27 June 1660

SIR
I am to advise you in your passage into the Bay of Biscay that you are to forbear to surprise, block or molest any of the Spanish boats or vessels which you shall meet there. It is not thought proper to insert this in your instructions, wherefore you are desired to observe it as if it had. I am directed to give you private advice hereof and rest,

Your loving friend and humble servant
S.Pepys SECRETARY"[5]

1661

"1661. Feb. 8th. Captain Cuttle and Curtis, and Mootham, and I, went to the Fleeece Tavern to drink, and there we spent till four o'clock, telling stories of Algiers, and the manner of life of slaves there,. And truly Captain Mootham and Mr. Dawes, (who have been both slaves there) did make me fully acquainted with their condition there, as how they eat nothing but bread and water..." [6]
  1. HCA 13/65 f.48v
  2. HCA 13/65 f.48v
  3. HCA 13/68 f.287v
  4. Elaine Murphy, Ireland and the War at Sea, 1641-1653 (Woodbridge, 2013), p.43
  5. Guy De la Bédoyère (ed.), The Letters of Samuel Pepys, 1656-1703 (Woodbridge, 2006), p.30
  6. Henry Morley (ed.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys , 1660-1661 (New York, XXXX), p.146