Lewis, James A. Neptune's Militia: The Frigate South Carolina in the American Revolution, (The Kent State University Press, 1999).
Moss, Bobby Gilmer. Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution, (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983).
Revill, Janie. Copy of the Original Index Book: Showing the Revolutionary Claims Filed in South Carolina Between August 20, 1783 and August 31, 1786, (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969).
Wates, Wylma Anne. Stub Entries to Indents: Issued in Payment of Claims Against South Carolina Growing Out of the Revolution, Books C-F, (South Carolina Archives Department, 1957).
All through out the operational life of the frigate South Carolina, there were personnel who served on board her that hailed from foreign places in the Atlantic World. Most certainly, there was the Voluntaires du Luxembourg, the first contingent of marines to serve on board the frigate South Carolina, including the officers, surgeons, musicians, and culinary personnel who accompanied the marines while the ship voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean towards Philadelphia, PA and their departure from the service of the frigate. Also, there were most certainly many sailors of French extraction, who probably made up a majority of the first crew of the frigate South Carolina. Then there were Germans, Italians, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, and Spanish, to just name a few. The majority of these same personnel departed the frigate after she docked in Philadelphia, PA, though certainly there are foreign names recorded in the captive's lists of the three British men-of-war after December 20, 1782.
Yet, there is a rather unusual occurrence regarding fourteen of these seemingly foreign personnel who served on board the frigate South Carolina and filed claims against the state of South Carolina after the end of the war. The writer of this blog will attempt to address/unravel this unusual situation and possibly draw some conclusions concerning it. Hopefully, these fourteen men and their claims against South Carolina will assist in forming opinions concerning other foreign personnel who served on board the frigate South Carolina and their role on that warship.
These men will first be presented by citing their stub entries as they are found in Wates's work, Stub Entries to Indents, pages 128-129. The men's stub entries are listed in no particular order but, are all consecutive in number from 711-719. This blog writer will cite their text in their entirety exactly as they appear in Wates's work:
Number 711, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to Lewis Mollier 33p..12s..5d Sterling Ballance of Wages due him for his Service on board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from Captain Joyner.
Principal - 33p..12s..5d
Interest - 2p..7s..0d
(Note: a footnote after this entry states: "Added in red: 'This No. to 719 inclusive as per a Resolve General Assembly'.)
Number 712, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to John B. Petrie, Esq. 139p..0s..10d Sterling Ballance of Wages due William Bulain, Renie Surplie, Joseph Soullier, Anthonia Mossina, Antonio Parcour, John Baptist Tetardo, for their Services on board the South Carolina Frigate.
Principal - 139p..0s..10d
Interest - 9p..14s..7d
Number 713, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to John B. Petrie, Esq. 31p..3s..0d Sterling Ballance of Wages due Nicholas Raveline Service on Board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from John Joyner the Captain.
Principal - 31p..3s..0d
Interest - 2p..3s..7d
Number 714, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to John B. Petrie, Esq. 37p..1s..9d Sterling Ballance of Wages due Alexander Tomas for his Service on board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from captain John Joyner.
Principal - 37p..1s..9d
Interest - 2p..11s..11d
Number 715, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to Francis Albert 34p..16s..7d Sterling Ballance Wages his service on board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from Captain John Joyner.
Principal - 34p..16s..7d
Interest - 2p..8s..9d
Number 716, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to Ambrose Picque 35p..3s..6d Sterling Ballance Wages Service on board the Ship South Carolina as per a Certificate from Captain Joyner.
Principal - 35p..3s..6d
Interest - 2p..9s..2d
Number 717, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 Peter Dematez 30p..1s..0d Sterling Ballance of Wages Service on board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from Captain John Joyner.
Principal - 30p..1s..0d
Interest - 2p..1s..3d
Number 718, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to Francois Dennis 28p..9s..11d Sterling Ballance of Wages Service on board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from Captain John Joyner.
Principal - 28p..9s..11d
Interest - 1p..19s..10d
Number 719, Book C - Issued 26 March 1788 to Dennis Dumont 18p..5s..8d Sterling Ballance of Wages Service on board the South Carolina Frigate as per a Certificate from Captain John Joyner.
Principal - 18p..5s..8d
Interest - 1p..4s..7d
There are several similarities that occur as one reads through these stub entries. First, all the individuals cited in these separate stub entries appear to be foreigners. Just based on name morphology alone, most appear to have French surnames, with a few Italian surnames and possibly Spanish surnames also appearing. Their first or Christian names also all appear to be of these same three origination languages, though with these first names there may be some Anglicizing at work with some of the spellings.
Second, all the stub entry numbers are consecutive in their order - from Number 711 - Number 719. This was not readily apparent in the earlier post concerning these men entitled "'To Make Them a Bit More Real, Pt. III' - Additional Information on Some Men Who Served on board the Frigate South Carolina - Certificates Issued After the End of the Revolutionary War - Foreign Personnel" and dated "04/16/2015". In that post, the men were arranged in alphabetical order, which they are not arranged in this manner in the citations above. Rather, they are randomly arranged by the order in which their stub entries were presented to the South Carolina General Assembly. Thus, the sequential nature of their stub entries is not readily evident to the casual reader.
(Note: the above mentioned post dated "04/16/2015" deals almost exclusively with this group of men that this post is addressing.)
There may be a reason for these men all filing their stub entries at the same time. It is evident in Numbers 712, 713 and 714 that a third-party individual has entered the process of collecting these overdue amounts of wages - John B. Petrie, Esq. This man is almost assuredly a lawyer who is representing these men before the South Carolina General Assembly. He may well have offered his services to this entire group of men but, only eight took him up on his offer of professional representation before the local governmental body of potentially a foreign power. But, we do not know for sure the status of these men - whether they were foreigners seeking to gain the just wages of their labors on board the frigate South Carolina or if they were already citizens of the new United States of America and chose to use the services of a professional man in gaining their rightful wages, now many years overdue to them.
Third, and closely related to the above argument, the dates of the issue of these stub entries to indents are all the same - March 26, 1788. This indicates that these stub entries were all issued to the individual men by the South Carolina General Assembly on the same day. There again is some force at work here that is not readily evident to the reader of this blog. It may be that this too is related to the person of John B. Petrie, Esq. He may well have personally come before the South Carolina General Assembly and presented the cases of all these men, though officially representing only eight of the fourteen men involved here. The South Carolina General assembly may have considered them as a total case and decided on them all at once. Thus, they could have issued the stub entries to indents all at the same time as a result of their unique considerations of the pleas of these men. The date of the issuance of these stub entries to indents - March 26, 1788 - is well after the end of the American Revolution, which would have ended over four and one half years earlier. These men, regardless of which side of the Atlantic Ocean they were dwelling on, must have stood in need of the financial assistance of a kind government and asked for their just dues for services in its behalf during the dark days that preceded its birth.
Fourth, there are the names of six men contained in the single stub entry, Number 712 - William Bulain, Renie Surplie, Joseph Soullier, Anthonia Mossina, Anthony Parcour, and Jean Baptist Tetardo - which stub entry was issued to John B. Petrie, Esq. All the other stub entries - 711, 713-719 have a single unique feature in that all of them are "endorsed" or supported by a certificate from Captain John Joyner, which is specifically mentioned at the end of each of the stub entries 711, 713-719. He is variously referred to as Captain Joyner; John Joyner, the Captain; and Captain John Joyner. It would seem that the lawyer, John B. Petrie, Esq., sought to insure that his clients' requests for assistance from the South Carolina General Assembly would be accepted by the assembly by including the name of the commanding officer on board the frigate South Carolina as a sign of endorsement of their request. Even when Commodore Alexander Gillon was on board the frigate, it was Captain John Joyner who was actually the commanding officer of the frigate. After Commodore Gillon's departure from the frigate, Captain John Joyner was truly the commanding officer on board the frigate South Carolina up to its capture by the three British men-of-war off the Capes of the Delaware on December 20, 1782.
Fifth, and finally, the amounts paid to each of these men are quite small in comparison to others who also sought the "balance of wages due" them for service rendered on board the frigate South Carolina. The amounts paid to the individual men range from a high of just over 37 pounds to a low of just over 18 pounds. With the subsequent interest added in, these amounts would be slightly increased but, not substantially in any way. When compared with the other stub entries paid to members of the crew and marines on board the frigate South Carolina, these men seem to be placed in the category of those who held a "position" of "sailor", "seaman" or "mariner" or, possibly, even "landsman" or "boy", though none of them are labelled as such in regards to this last mentioned "position". It seems to be apparent that these men all occupied rather lowly, common "positions" on board the frigate South Carolina.
(Note: The writer of this blog has no possible way of discerning the exact amounts paid to each of the individual men whose names are all stated in stub entry Number 712, Book C. The stub entry mentions six men by name - all cited in the paragraph dealing with the fourth point of this specific post - and gives only a "lump" sum for the stub entry for these six men - an amount of 139p..0s..10d with the interest amounting to 9p..14s..7d, for a total of just over 148 pounds sterling. There again is no indication as to the amounts paid to the individual men cited in this stub entry.)
Many, but not all fourteen, of these men's names are also cited in Moss's work Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution with very slight alterations in the spelling of their first or last names. But, these alterations are so slight that the men can still be readily recognized when one compares the various sources cited here. All of these men are cited in Revill's work, Copy of the Original , page Index Book, page 386. Lewis's work, Neptune's Militia, the section entitled "Appendix: Crew and Marines of the South Carolina" cites all these men and he possible alterations in the spellings of their names, both first names and last names.
There is no doubt that these fourteen men all served on board the frigate South Carolina at some point during the cruises of the frigate. Again, they seem to have been ordinary sailors who no doubt served well and, years after the cessation of hostilities, must have sought out the only possible manner of collecting their wages due them and filed their stub entries, either collectively or individually, with the state of South Carolina and hoped for the best. With the issuing of their stub entries, these men's modest attempts at gaining their long overdue "balance of wages" for services rendered on board the frigate South Carolina seem to have been fulfilled by the new United States of America.