Samuell Symonds
| Samuell Symonds | |
|---|---|
| Person | Samuell Symonds |
| Title | |
| First name | Samuell |
| Middle name(s) | |
| Last name | Syonds |
| Suffix | |
| Spouse of | |
| Widow of | |
| Occupation | Mariner |
| Secondary shorebased occupation | |
| Mariner occupation | Quartermaster |
| Associated with ship(s) | Levant friggat (Master: Captaine Haselgrave) |
| Training | Not apprentice |
| Is apprentice of | |
| Was apprentice of | |
| Had apprentice(s) | |
| Citizen | Unknown |
| Literacy | Marke |
| Has opening text | Samuell Symonds |
| Has signoff text | Simple marke |
| 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 | Ratcliff |
| Res parish | Stepney |
| Res town | |
| Res county | Middlesex |
| Res province | |
| Res country | England |
| Birth year | 1615 |
| Marriage year | |
| Death year | |
| Probate date | |
| First deposition age | 40 |
| Primary sources | |
| Act book start page(s) | |
| Personal answer start page(s) | |
| Allegation start page(s) | |
| Interrogatories page(s) | |
| Deposition start page(s) | HCA 13/70 f.320v 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 4 1655 |
| 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 | Merchant ship |
| Silver Ship litigation in 1650s | |
| Role in Silver Ship litigation | None |
Biographical synthesis
Samuell Symonds (b. ca. 1615; d. ?). Mariner.
One of the quartermasters of the Levantt frigate on voyage to Allicante and the Mediterranean in 1654. Another of the quartermasters of the same ship ws John Tyle.
Resident in 1655 in Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney.
Evidence from High Court of Admiralty
Forty year old Samuell Symonds deposed on May 4th 1655 in the High Court of Admiralty.[1] He was examined on an allegation on behalf of Haselgraves in the case of "Andrewes and Clutterbrooke against Haselgraves".[2]
The case concerned damage to pepper en route from London to Alicante in the Mediterranean.
Samuell Symonds, the quartermaster, described the loading of thirty bags of pepper in the River Thames, which "were taken in on board the sayd shipp the Levant ffrigott by take and not by weight out of a boate which brought the same to the ffrigotts side as shee laye neare dicks shoare". The bags were in poor condition when loaded. They were "very wett which was (as hee beleeveth) the only cause why when the sayd ffrigott came to sea divers of the baggs proved rotten and brake".[3]
When the bags later burst and started to come up with the ships pump, the crew tried to save the pepper "by setting bread basketts and ballast basketts under the pumps mouth that the pepper might in them be preserved". They then "caused it to be dryed upon the decke and mended the baggs which they found to be rotten with Canvas which was on board the sayd shipp and then put the same pepper which they had preserved at the pumpe and dryed into those baggs they had mended some into one bagg and some into an other". The pepper continued to come up with pumping for a full three weeks after the bags burst.
Symonds claimed that the bags of pepper "all very well stowed above three foote high from the seeleing of the sayd shipp and that divers piggs of lead and donage of bavins upon the lead, laye under the sayd baggs of pepper, and divers perpetuanas and bayes which lay somwhat abaft the sayd pepper laye without eceiving any preiudice by wett neerer a great deale to the seeleing of the shipp then the sayd baggs of pepper did".[4]
Before unloading at Alicante the pepper bags had to be repaired "before they were in any fitt capacity to be hoysed over the shipps sides". The freighters factors at Alicante allegedly visited the ship, viewed the stowage of the pepper and found no fault. Instead they "sent canvas aboard to make three or fower new sacks, and the rest there mended with sayles as aforesayd the premisses hee deposeth being quarter master and an eye witnesse of them".[5]
