Charles I - volume 496: Undated 1642 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1641-3. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1887.

'Charles I - volume 496: Undated 1642', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1641-3, (London, 1887) pp. 435. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/domestic/chas1/1641-3/p435a [accessed 23 April 2024]

Undated 1642



Papers relating to a Spanish vessel, the Sancta Clara, which fell into the hands of the Parliament in August 1642, and so remained till 1650. The case was briefly this:—The master, Strafford, being with the Sta. Clara at St. Lucar or Sanlucar in Spain, let her to freight to Spanish merchants for 15 months, to go for St. Domingo in the West Indies, there to discharge and relade for St. Lucar. At St. Domingo she was detained 12 months beyond that time by the factors and President of St. Domingo refusing to give them despatch or make the master any certificate; and, the ship being worm-eaten, at the desire of certain merchants, subjects of the King of Spain, who had laden her with cochineal, silver coin, and bars, the master was forced to depart with his ship, and, not daring to return to Spain without his certificate, he came for England, for justice against those that freighted the ship. When the ship reached Southampton the Parliament took the cochineal, silver, &c. into their custody till the matter of ownership was settled in the Admiralty Court, to which the master took it. These papers consist of orders of Parliament, resolutions of the Council of State, and of the Committee of Lords and Commons for Foreign affairs; references to and reports by the Judges of the Admiralty; applications from various English merchants for letters of marque against the Sta. Clara for seizure of their vessels by Spaniards, without reparation being made; remonstrances and letters of the Spanish Ambassador to the Parliament and Council of State, &c. They extend from August 1642, when the Sancta Clara arrived in Southampton, to 1650. The latest paper is an unfinished report by the Judges of the Admiralty to the Council of State on the whole case, early in 1650.