Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Port of Philadelphia, Transcripts of Ship Manifests and Bonds: circa 1814, transcribed circa 1937-1941. Note: This series was formerly labeled as Transcripts of Letters of Marque, 1804-1815, This Digital Object is provided in a collection that is included in POWER LIBRARY: Pennsylvania Photos and Documents, which is funded by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Education., Arranged chronologically by date of letter. Indexed internally, alphabetically by name of vessel. Primarily transcripts of reports, manifests, and bonds for cargoes carried by vessels captured under Letters of Marque entering the Port of Philadelphia and from the ports of Africa, New York, Tuckerton, Elizabeth City, Little Egg Harbor, and St. Bartholomews and lists of the names of crews of ships. The type of information provided on the lists is name of vessel, date of manifest, name of master, names of each crew member, their rating, their native country, place of residence, age and height, quantities of each type of merchandise and the duties due. The ship manifests give the name of the vessel and the name of vessel, which was the prize, name of prize master, where cargo was loaded, weight, breadth, depth, where constructed, name of owner, name of merchant, date embarked, and a description of the contents. This series was formerly labeled Transcripts of Letters of Marque from 1804 through 1815 issued at the Port of Philadelphia. A letter of marque was a license or commission granted to a private person to fit out an armed vessel for use as a privateer to seize enemy ships and their cargo.
