As a quick reminder, we’re looking for historical evidence (a) of a brig sailing out of England (probably London) to Massachusetts (probably Boston) in late April 1738, and (b) of a proclamation that appeared in a London newspaper listing a reward for the capture of a 4-gun French privateer sloop called “The Eagle” or “L’Aigle”. There may also have been mention of the capture of the brig by the sloop in the Boston newspapers in mid-late May 1738.
I listed the Boston newspapers active in 1738 in a previous post: but what of London newspapers?
Lloyd’s List
Without any real doubt, Lloyds’s List would have listed almost all the ships leaving London for Massachusetts in April/May 1738: and would also very likely have mentioned any proclamation made by the King against a French pirate ship. Unfortunately for us, the earliest (according to the website of the MARINER-L mailing list) extant copy of the post-1735 Lloyd’s List series dates only to 1740/1741:
About mid-March 1735, the list was revised again, with publication changed to twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and new numbering. Of this series, the earliest surviving copy is dated 2 January 1740/41, and is numbered 560 [reproduced in McCusker, op. cit., pp. 324-325, Fig. 6A and 6B]
All the same, if you’d like to see these for yourself, Google has made available many digitized early copies.
The Penny London post
“The Penny London post, or, The morning advertiser” is listed at the LOC.
Here are the copies I’ve managed to find of it:
* Worldcat lists copies in the Burney collection from 1733-1734 and 1744-1751
* The University of Queensland has copies from 1744 to 1751, which are also available on microfilm from Research Publications, Inc.
* Copies from 1747-1749 are available behind the newspapers.com paywall here –
* The Harry Ransom Center at U of Texas at Austin has a couple from 1750-1751
So… unless there are separate copies of the Penny London post in other archives, it looks very much as though we’re out of luck for 1738, sorry. 🙁
The London Daily Post
The London Daily Post was another London newspaper active in 1738, and is listed at the LOC.
The British Library’s holdings are as follows:
The London Daily Post, and General Advertiser. no. 1-109, 111, 113, 115-119, 136, 203, 205, 207-210, 213, 219, 220, 223, 225, 227, 230, 231, 236, 238, 247-254, 259-677, 854, 1006, 1009-2244, 2558-2908.; 4 Nov. 1734-10 March 1735, 12, 14, 17-21 March-10 April. 27, 30 June, 2-5, 9, 16, 17, 21, 23, 25, 29, 30 July, 5, 7, 16-26 Aug., 1 Sept. 1735-31 Dec. 1736; 27 July 1737; 19, 23 Jan. 1738-31 Dec. 1741; 1 Jan.-10 March 1744.
This is my red-hot top tip for where to look!
Read’s Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer
The British Library holds the following issues: 283-789, 1331, etc. 22 Aug. 1730-22 Dec. 1739; 3 March 1750-2 May 1761. So this too is a newspaper of the day that needs checking.
Other London newspapers of the time
The British Library also lists:
* The Universal London Morning Advertiser. London, 1743-1744
* Parker’s Penny Post. no. [1-]414. 28 April 1725?-29 Dec. 1727.
I also saw a brief mention of an unnamed Irish newspaper dating back to 1738, which might possibly be a additional source for North Atlantic shipping- and piracy-related news of the day.
Incidentally, webpages posted up by assidous historical newspaper raiders can often list numerous publications that rarely appear in formal lists of newspapers. For a good (if slightly startling) example, I can recommend The Rabbit Woman as collected by Rictor Norton from various obscure sources: and also an online bibliography of the Slave Trade, both of which I am now following through carefully.
Many Eagles
Just so you know, by 1744 there was an English privateer called Eagle sailing out of Dover (Captain Bazely): and in 1745, a new incarnation of HMS Eagle had also been launched. So please try not to get too excited about finding mentions of the Eagle in post-1738 newspapers. :-/
Could the “unnamed Irish newspaper” have been the Freeman’s Journal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman%27s_Journal?wprov=sfla1
Cat Mara: the Freeman’s Journal was a bit late for 1738, but there was the Dublin Journal (1735-) and the Belfast Newsletter (1737-):
* https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/
* https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/publication-list/
I didn’t say it over there, but I can’t let this one go unchecked!..Wake up and smell the coffey (sic). The Eagle won’t shit because it’s dead in the water, the note in the bottle doesn’t even hold water, and the Irish newspapers are full of Blarney, as was the Prince Edward Potato (murphy mag.) hoax, as one might reasonably have deduced by now…..
John sanders: reserving judgement is also an option in these situations.
Nick: By reserving judgement, many an untenable situation has been reversed and the desired initiatives, thus enabled to be secured!….
Unfortunately this list of proclamations doesn’t contain a proclamation from 1738 concerning a French ship ‘Aigle’: https://archive.org/details/royalproclamations12brigrich (see p. xiv).
But absence of evidence is no evidence of absence…
Thomas: well, even though it only contains proclamations relating to America, the start of the book is very helpful in listing where to look for copies of royal proclamations, e.g. in the London Gazette, which is freely searchable available online (though I haven’t found anything of relevance in there yet):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/
Heya Nick, Matt Malone here again, I see your trying to find the ship in the news, I’ve got a premium account on The British Newspaper Archive, i did some research and the only ship i can see that was active with a simaller name to Eagle was “The Eagle Packet” a ship which as far as i can tell wasn’t scuttled around that time period, I’m gonna keep looking but its possible that the L’aigle was a French military ship or a colony prison ship. Or a pirate ship lol
Matt: coincidentally enough, I’m writing up a piece on all this right now, should be published in a few minutes’ time. 🙂
Just so you know, the specific things I would look for if I were to be so lucky as to have a premium account there 🙂 are basically shipping news:
1. Any listings of ships leaving for America (almost certainly from London to Boston) after 2nd May 1738 but before 16th May 1738
2. Any mention of ships in the North Atlantic being ransacked by pirates during May 1738 (i.e. would probably be mentioned no later than end-July 1738).
As I mentioned above, the two 1738 newspapers I’d look at first would be The London Daily Post and Read’s Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer: it’s unlikely there would be a mention of l’Aigle, this part of the search was relating to the merchant ship that J[ames] Crowshay was on that was attacked by l’Aigle (which was most likely a French pirate ship rather than a privateer).
Matt Malone: http://ciphermysteries.com/2018/09/08/searching-for-laigle