The APC account of this litigation is quite incomplete. Much more is contained in the CSP, which we have expanded to include the surrounding correspondence, most of which is quite adequately summarized in the CSP. Some of the legal documents, however, are not so summarized. These include Mingham’s printed case and Morgan and Martin’s response, reproduced above under Printed Cases, and the following Other Documents: the record, such as it is, of the proceedings in the Grand Court of Jamaica; the petition of Dorothy Mingham to the PC; the depositions of Samuel Harding and Peter Bennett; the answer of Thomas Martin; the deposition of Sir Charles Modyford; and the second petition of Mingham. (Many of the documents in the TNA class CO 1 are bound together in large books, hence the folio numbers.)

Some of the key documents are undated, and some of them refer to documents that may or may not be available at TNA, but if they are, they are not available online. What we have and what is available online in the Calendar of Colonial State Papers (British History Online, publicly available) and the Colonial State Papers collection (Proquest, by subscription) suggests the following outline of the events.

Sometime before 23 Feb. 1680, when Governor Carlisle first mentions it in a letter to the Lords of Trade, Mingham arrived in Port Royal in Jamaica, carrying, among other things, a petition to the PC appealing from the condemnation of his pink Francis of London and an order of the PC dated 10 Oct. 1779 that Morgan and Martin transmit to the PC an account of the proceedings that had led to the condemnation. (See JAM_1679_00.) Morgan and Martin proceeded against Mingham in the Grand Court of Jamaica (with side proceedings in the Chancery Court) for scandal, on the basis of the contents of the petition. These proceedings led to a jury verdict in their favor (£2000 for Morgan and £500 for Martin) and, ultimately, to the imprisonment of Mingham.

As a result of the petition of Mingham’s wife Dorothy in the PC in July of 1680, supported by Mingham’s printed case, the PC ordered Mingham released, so that he might come to London to pursue his petition. In November, with considerable reluctance, the authorities in Jamaica did so. Morgan’s manuscript ‘printed case’ is probably to be dated with his letter to the Lords of Trade of 12 Nov.

In March of 1681, Mingham petitioned the PC to hear both his appeal with respect to the condemnation and with respect to the proceedings taken against him personally in Jamaica. On 15 April, the Council held that the condemnation was unwarranted and that the £300 for which the ship was sold be restored to Mingham (he had redeemed it for the sale price) but without costs because the seizure “was very Colourable.” Turning to the action for scandal, they said: “And as to the Damages recovered against the Petitioner upon the action of Scandall brought against him, we humbly propose that the said Sir Henry Morgan & Thomas Martin do respectively acknowledge Satisfaction upon the said Judgment, to the end that Petitioner may have no further trouble thereby, and that the Security given by the Petitioner for obtaining his Liberty be vacated, as also that your Majesty do expresse your resentment towards Sir Henry Morgan and Thomas Martin, in such manner as your Majesty in your Royall wisdom may deem most meet for the discouragement of persons in like power from exercising such hardships upon your subjects and Contemning the Dignity of your Council Board. And inasmuch as it is alleaged that the Petitioner has suffered deeply by the said imprisonment Wee do further humbly offer that your Majesty should declare your pleasure that the Petitioner be left to take such remedy for the same by Course of law as he shall think fit.” (PC 2/69/267)

That language is quite remarkable. Morgan’s, Martin’s, and Governor Carlisle’s attempts to justify their actions, with which the record is replete and which, at times, seem almost plausible, must be viewed in the light of the conclusions that the PC, which would not seem to have had any particular reason to favor Mingham, reached.

CD