1To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, [ca. 6 September 1785] (Jefferson Papers)
As an unfortunate affair has happened to us and being subjects to Baltimore in Maryland, has taken the Liberty to implore your protection and assistance as far as lies in your power. Being bound from Baltimore to Liverpool with Flour and Tobacco and finding in Virginia that Tobacco would answer our Markets Better in Liverpool, discharged part of our Flour and one Hdd. of Tobacco in Hampton...
2To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 7 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Please your Excellency Sir St. Pauls Prison Sep. 7th. 1785 At last our unhappy sentence is passed, our Vessel and Cargo condem’d and we are condem’d to pay 6000 Livres, a sum it is impossible for us to raise being in a strange Country. Hope for the Almightys sake you will take our unfortunate cause in Hand. We are condem’d to the Gallies for a crime we are innocent of and our families now will...
3To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 8 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
St. Pol de Léon, 8 Sep. 1785 . He wrote TJ the day before, with the news of their sentence by the farmers-general, and writes again in less agitation at the advice of Father John Mehegan. He begs TJ to intervene, for they have been in close confinement three weeks, are short of provisions, and are exceedingly anxious for their families. Encloses a petition of Father John “in our Favor as he...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 19 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your kind and exceptionable Letter which has relieved my mind of a great deal of trouble. I left Baltimore on the 20th. of June and got down to Hampton Roads and, finding that all Tobacco would answer better than Flour, discharged 50 Barrels of Flour and one Hdd. of Tobacco, it not being very good. But before our Cargo came on board we were drove out to sea by a heavy Gale of Wind...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 28 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
St. Pol de Léon, 28 Sep. 1785 . “I am now convinced of the Villiany of the People we have here to deal with and beg in the name of God your protection and assistance.” After believing that Picrel had engaged a lawyer and paid him, they now find that the lawyer demands twelve guineas to take the case, and that “Picrel has deceived us the whole time and had a design himself on the Vessel. As we...
6To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 3 October 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
St. Pol de Léon, 3 Oct. 1785 . Asquith has received from Picrel a copy of a letter from “Mr. Maisoneiuve Floch Procureiur of Brest,” the lawyer engaged earlier by Picrel, who agrees now to take the case if Asquith advances him ten guineas, though he has already received three. Asquith is doubtful whether his last three guineas will satisfy. He had instructed Floch to write TJ a state of their...
7To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 17 October 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
St. Pol de Léon, 17 Oct. 1785 . He has heard nothing from Floch himself but learns he can do nothing until he receives the prisoners’ papers, which were sent to him and the judge of the Court of Admiralty several weeks before. Asquith also learned from Father John Mehegan that the case will be settled at Paris by Vergennes and Calonne; the prisoners would surely have lost it at Brest “as the...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 23 October 178[5] (Jefferson Papers)
I received your kind and exceptionable Letter yesterday by Mr. Diot which gives me great Satisfaction to find he has Orders to assist us when in such great Distress for want of Provisions, which Favors we are not able to express our thanks for. The Circumstances that occurred since our arrival are: On our arrival in the Isle of Bas Roads the Officers came on board and I reported to them the...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 14 November 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
St. Pol de Léon, 14 Nov. 1785 . Asquith has heard nothing from TJ since his letter of 12 Oct., but he encloses a letter from Picrel informing him that the case is to be settled at Paris. Diot says he has written TJ of this and thinks, since the arrangements were made in Brest, that Desbordes could give Asquith more information than he. At the advice of the judge of the admiralty, Asquith this...
10To Thomas Jefferson from Lister Asquith, 28 November 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
St. Pol de Léon, 28 Nov. 1785 . They have now been in prison for fourteen weeks “and yet have no appearance of our releasement without you have got it finished at Paris.” Asquith heard from Desbordes, Frères that they had written to TJ advising him to try to have the case settled by the French ministry. “As they [the Farmers-General] could find no flaw against us for smugling they now pretend...