Benjamin Fearing and Benjamin Bourne to James Madison, 18 May 1815
From Benjamin Fearing and Benjamin Bourne
Wareham May 18th. 1815
May it Please the President
The Subscribers Select-Men of the Town of Wareham in the County of Plimouth in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts humbly represent that in the month of June last past the principal Village in said Town of Wareham was invaded by a detachment from the Brittish fleet then lying in that neighbourhood; that most of the shipping lying in the River running thro’ said Village was by the said detachment destroyed, and other property there damaged and injured, by which the owners of said property were greatly distressed, and many of them were reduced to a situation bordering on Beggary. For which we conceive that those sufferers are intitled to a remuneration from that Government under whose authority this outrage is pretended to have been committed.
We are not insensible that when two Nations have been at war, and that war is succeeded by a peace that each nation sits down with its own losses, provided those losses happen by the opperation of a war carried on in conformity to the principles of Law established and practiced on by civilized nations; but when they are the consequences of outrageous proceedings; proceedings which the nation whose officers commit them will not pretend to Justify or even to paliate, we conceive that the Sufferers in such case have not only a Right, but that it is a duty for them to call on the Government under whose name the outrage has been committed for indemnification.
We beg leave to represent that the detachment who committed the Outrage complained of came under the spur[i]ous shew and protection of a flag of Truce, and continued under its protection ’til it was too late to attempt to prevent their depredations, and also that the Outrages they committed were done after they had verbally stipulated not to injure any property own’d by the Inhabitants of that Town provided they met with no opposition from the inhabitants. The particulars of their procedure and the Estimate of the Damage done by them are particularly set forth in the Document accompanying this, to which we particularly refer.1
We therefore humbly pray you to take this Subject into consideration and if you should conceive there is any rational hope of success to give the necessary instructions to your minister at the Court of London to make a suitable appeal to the Justice of that Court for a suitable remuneration to those Sufferers. We can not refrain from expressing a strong confidence that a nation whose boast is impartial Justice and who value themselves so highly on their Reputation will without hesitation afford that Justice to those sufferers which they stand so much in need of, and to which they have so strong a claim. And as in duty bound will ever pray
| Benjamin Fearing |  |
Select men of Wareham |
| Benja. Bourne |
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 185, Great Britain, Treaty of 1814, Mixed Claims, Misc. Records, box 3, folder 9). RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by Fearing and Bourne. For enclosures, see n. 1.
1. Fearing and Bourne enclosed the depositions (7 pp.) of Wareham residents Rowland Leonard, William Fearing, Mary Morton, Andrew Besse, and Abner Bassett, taken by justice of the peace Abraham Holmes and all dated 18 May 1815, except for Leonard’s, which was undated. They stated that on 13 June 1814, six British barges from the British ship of the line Superb and sloop of war Nimrod entered Wareham under a flag of truce; that Fearing, Bassett, and other residents met them and persuaded the commanding officer to agree that if allowed to proceed unmolested, his force would destroy no private property in the town except for “four or five Vessels … belonging to Faylmouth”; that the British nevertheless shot at Bassett and burned a ship on the stocks, several other vessels, and a “Cotton factory,” together worth $40,000 to $50,000 or more; and that they departed “without a gun being fired” by the residents, again under the white flag by order of the commander, despite the protest of one of his subordinate officers “that it was a damned shame to Enter a little defenceless place like this and commit the greatest ravages possible and then return under a flag of Truce.” Besse added that about a month later, while being held as a prisoner of war aboard the Nimrod, he heard similar denunciations of the commander’s behavior from British officers and sailors who had participated in the raid.