I’ve been carefully reading the diary entry scanned in from the Prince Edward Island Magazine by Matt Malone, and wondering if it might be possible to reconstruct the secret history yet further. We now have what seems likely to be a name for the person who constructed the cryptogram: while the account gives a number of pointers to specific pieces of historical evidence that could feasibly be tracked down. Hence I thought I’d post a list of possible research leads to follow.
J Crowshay?
What little I can see beyond ancestry.com’s paywall is that a James Crowshay (born 1715?, hence aged 23 in 1738) married a certain Margaret Seuton. This seems to have been in York (according to this Spanish Geneanet page).
Might this J Crowshay have been the same young man who was (according the diary account) a seaman on a brig (presumably sailing out of London) bound for the (then British colony of) Massachusetts in late April or early May 1738 that was accosted by the French sloop L’Aigle (The Eagle); and who was rewarded for his zeal in defending the brig against French pirates by being taken prisoner by them? “The ship escaped without serious injury”, but was most likely relieved of all its cargo (and the single fighty seaman taken prisoner).
The Attacked Brig?
If the account of the French seaman (who had returned to Prince Edward Island to dig up the treasure, but had found his memory wanting) is correct, the ship from which the young seaman was taken prisoner was a brig (only lightly armed merchant ship) on its way to Massachusetts, so probably sailing into Boston.
Might there have been a mention of this action in the Massachusetts press of late May 1738 not long after the brig presumably arrived there?
As far as I can see, there were six newspapers published in Massachusetts during 1738, all from Boston (none of which are in the LOC, while Harbottle Dorr Jr’s newspapers all start from 1765, while BGSU doesn’t list any from 1738 as being freely available on the Internet). GenealogyBank has copies from 1735 for name searches, but behind a paywall.
The newspapers I’d like to have a look at for May 1738 are as follows, two of which are listed on the Massachusetts Historical Society’s ABIGAIL database:
* Boston Evening-Post
* Boston Gazette
* Boston Weekly News-letter
* The Boston Weekly Post-boy (Massachusetts Historical Society: OFFSITE STORAGE SH 18R2 )
* The New England Weekly Journal (Massachusetts Historical Society: OFFSITE STORAGE SH 18XP Q (1733-1738) )
If anyone has shelfmarks in different archives for the other newspapers, please let me know, thanks!
Other newspapers may be listed in (1907) Check-list of Boston Newspapers, 1704-1780, which I haven’t yet consulted.
The Eagle or L’Aigle?
The diary account includes no names or details of the French pirate ship The Eagle (L’Aigle). However, the French seaman telling the story to the diarist relates that the young seaman taken prisoner had in his possession a newspaper account (published “in the city of London”) that detailed how the King (presumably of England) had made a proclamation offering several hundred pounds for the capture of The Eagle.
If this is correct, it should be possible to find a copy of this proclamation – it (and/or any copies of it in the London press) may well have additional information. However, all I have found so far for 1738 relates specifically to Spanish attacks on British shipping than with the French:
Alderman Perry, on the 3d of March [1738] brought into the house of commons a petition from the merchants, planters, and others, interested in the American trade, specifying these articles of complaint, which they recommended to the consideration of the house. This petition with others of a like nature, which produced warm debates, were referred to a committee of the whole house, and an order was made to admit the petitioners to be heard by themselves or by counsel. Sir John Barnard moved for an address to the king, that all the memorials and papers relating to the Spanish depredations, should be laid before the house, which with some alteration proposed by Sir Robert Walpole, was actually presented, and a favourable answer was returned.
This parliamentary debate appears in the History and Proceedings of the House of Commons Vol. 10. The King of England in 1738 was George II, for whose coronation Handel wrote “Zadok The Priest”: his response to the petition made no mention of the French:
Gentlemen,
I Am fully sensible of the many and unwarrantable Depredations committed by the Spaniards; and you may be assured, I will make use of the most proper and effectual Means, that are in my Power, to procure Justice and Satisfaction to my injured Subjects, and for the future Security of their Trade and Navigation. I can make no Doubt, but you will support me, with Chearfulness, in all such Measures, as, in Pursuance of your Advice, I may be necessitated to take, for the Honour of my Crown and Kingdoms, and the Rights of my People.”
Any good suggestions as to where to look next?
The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1738, 269 i, mentioned a sloop Eagle in May 1738, but it seems to have nothing to do with Crowshay’s sloop, https://archive.org/stream/1969colonialrecordsc44greauoft#page/136/search/eagle
Thomas: you’re right, it’s almost certainly not the same sloop Eagle, but very well done for finding a name match nonetheless. 😉
The first initial could be either G. or J. (Crowshay) according to the substitution rules (I’m not discounting the possible connection to James, just offering more information). Crowshay wasn’t a particularly common name, so I looked around…
From the History of Leeds (pub. 1787):
William Crowshay and William Crowshay, jr, musicians, Kirkgate (church road)
From the Thoresby (Thor’s town) Society of Leeds, England (1906), listed in the Yorkshire Lay Subsidies: Johannes Crowshay
The Yorkshire Parish register (1908) treats Croshaw and Crowshay as synonymous and lists a James Croshaw in the Howden Register of baptisms for October 1704 (thus 34 yr. in 1738)
The earlier Yorkshire Parish registera (1899 and 1900) treat Crowshay and Crashaw as synonymous and lists quite a few names under Crowshay and a few under Crashaw . Horbury lists a baptism May 17, 1761 of a daughter to Sam Crashaw (who was probably born c. 1730s). He may also have fathered Thomas in 1768.
There’s also a Robert Crowshay of Lincolnshire.
The Colne, County of Lancaster registers (1904) treat the name Crowshay and Crawshay as synonymous but it may not be the same family line as the other Crowshays mentioned above. This line appears to be in the upper classes, there is a mention of a Lord Crowshay and other references suggesting prominence in the late 16th and early 17th century.
The Yorkshire Archaeological Society mentions a Johannis Crowshay de Almholme (which is southeast of Leeds, in Doncaster).
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So, it seems that Crowshay families were found especially in north-central and northeast England in the 16th to 18th centuries. The men from the Yorkshire Parish have several J and G names such as Jesse, John, George, and Godfrey.
If there is any information out there on a sloop of the description being suggested, the three logical sources of inquiry should be, the British Post Master General, Lloyds of London for both shipping and insurance records and of course the Admiralty. At around that time there was much concern about Royal Mail packet shipping, being taken en route to and from England by privateers under French direction, mainly from the English Carribean protectorates; presumaby the authorities would have been mindful to a anti British developing in it’s Canadian possessions.
Forget Lloyds; the oldest register still available is 1764 and although ten eagles of various nationalities are listed in the civil section, being built between 46 and 64, they can be deep sixed. My earlier search of the navy records would seem to suggest no luck there either; might I be so presumptuous as to suggest that no old sloop called eagle is likely to be alighting on this link the way things are looking.
john sanders: according to the French sailor whose story the diarist related (and who was in charge of the guns on the Eagle in 1738, decades before 1764), it had 4 guns. Pirates of that era would typically capture a ship and pimp it out with the biggest cannons it could carry: and 8-pounders (though more typical for ships of the line) were just about the biggest you could fit on a typical sloop. They were heavy, for sure: but all manner of heavy things were transported by ship in those days, cannons being merely one of many such items. So your objections aren’t really holding up so far, sorry.
Whether it’s relevant or not… a number of the records of the upper-class branch of the Crowshays (in north-central England) are in French.
Nick: The only real relevence I can find with your mention of 1764, apart from the Lloyds list of that year, is that it may also have been about then that maps started refering to that large ‘bay of islands’ off Newfoundland, as The Gulf of St. Lawrence and you might note that the French maps of 1709 & 1756 don’t seem to think it especially worthy of any name. The actual year that the eight pound, naval guns were introduced was around 1780, which coincidently was the given pound weight of each barrel (short version at 78 inches). How would you personally go about getting a bunch of them ashore then manouvre them to that place along Hollow River as per your decryption, for their boxed interment?. Perhaps you might call up a handy sky hook!…..
john sanders: the 1764 date was yours, not mine – and ships (particularly pirate ships) were using eight pounder cannons many decades before 1738. And if they were using cannons, they were able to get them on board and off board those ships.
Nick: I’ve done my level best to help you out with the eight pounders (livres) and the only improvement I ‘m able to make on 1786 for the dedicated French naval model is a Spanish all purpose with tow ring from 1756 Not saying this or that old man, but are you sure your not mixing your gun up with an eight inch main broadside cannon. I might just make mention that many of those light ships of yesteryear, working cold waters of the north, had a very long service life. So in that light, ship’s registers eg. my Lloyd’s 1764 ( the earliest I could find), might well have been likely to list ships built prior to 1738 and still have been in service.
For those who are still into this virtual quest and hold doubts concerning the validity of my histortorically based arguments, I’m prepared to make a few concessions, in the interests of bon homme…Firstly I’ll sideline contentions that the so called Gulf of St. Lawrence was known as such and not The Bay of Islands or similar in 1738. I’ll also cheerfully hand over my previously held doubts regarding likely existence of a sloop (lately barque) named Eagle and its four tons of unwanted ballast in the form of five eight pound easily land transportable cannon. I’ll take my Geoffrey O’Sheay and shove him, in certain knowledge that J. Crowshay is much more likely in view of its commonality for the period. What I could have been thinking of when I suggested an alternate location such as Loupe Island, I can’t begin to guess and so I’ll ask absolution for such foolishness. All of this I’m prepared to offer as a quid pro pro, in order that we might be enabled to break our impass, which can let us move on. We might then discuss for instance, the as yet untouched aspects of the mystery such as whether the strangly coded account of buried treasure could actually be genuine and of the date specified, as opposed to a type more befitting a later period eg. circa 1899. Contained within a sealed plonk bottle jettistoned from our French pirate vessel Eagle (conceded) by a captive Britisher a century earlier all sounds great, however we should pursue other avenues to counter nay sayers who would contend that the note in the bottle is not worth a punt full of cold water.
Brig sorry; not to be confused with Brigantine; simple case of frigging in the rigging, although a sloop was only allowed a single gun deck.
Little Isle St. Jean (NE) or Big Island St. Jean (SW)
here is the map https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3402s.ar025600/?r=0.467,0.138,0.294,0.162,0
From Le petit atlas maritime. 1764.
You see the Harbor of St. Pierre as mentioned in the diary, on the top of the BIG Island of St. Jean. Bottom left, SW.
Signed. J CROWSHAY -> Alternative possibilities, for example:
Captain Jean Corneille, of H.M. Engineer Corps.
https://archive.org/stream/prominentfamilies00burkrich#page/332/search/Jean+Corneille
Davisch: A brilliant set of charts to be sure. We can see clearly now, the course Eagle’s motley crew allegedly took northwards along the eastern coast of big St. Jean, rounding Nth. Pointe, then tracking south along the desolate west coast to their eventual perported landfall between Capes Gage & Wolfe. Of course our latter day local history buff informant, would have known the general lay of the land, which I’d dare to say may well have remained as it had been from before the Acadian purges of around 1756. On a visit to the specific area in 1849, crew of The Hawk, described it as a barren no-mans-land with no signs of recent human encroachment visible, though some scant evidence of past tillage, along with ruins and an ancient coastal path were noted. If one were to have been present for said visit or happened to read the resultant exploration notes of the missionaries involved, then that might of itself have been sufficient information to provide a basis for our Prince Edward Island journal presentation circa. 1900.
It seems that those aboard ‘the Hawk’ did run into a couple of very old people in their meanderings about their landing, describing a very pretty rural aspect and seemingly well run farm. As for its denizens, they were apparently unkempt and filthy, the farmer named Blanchard being well into his nineties and his wife not so much in arrears of that age. The narative describes well laid out fields that seem to have been encountered by members of The Eagle’s crew on their preliminary scouting mission, also mentioning a pond of some size. Nail pond is a fairly long narrow epanse of water further north than a smaller hole called Skinners Pond. If I were to be chosing a possie to grow good spuds, I’d be pretty happy to set up my squat near the latter due to a more suitable, less flood prone lay of the land.