Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
An appeal being on the first of this month lodged with the Secretary against the sentence passed in the court of Admiralty, for the port of Philadelphia, in the state of Pensylvania, in the libel “John Barry, qui tam &c. vs. the sloop Betsy, &c.”1
Ordered, That it be referred to a committee of five, and that the said committee be empowered to hear and determine upon the said appeal:
The members chosen, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Paine, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Hooper, and Mr. Rutledge.2
Journals of the Continental Congress, 6:931–932.
Capt. John Barry (1745?-1803) of the Continental Navy brig Lexington, captured Lord Dunmore’s Fleet Sloops Betsy (Samuel Kerr, master) and Lady Susan (William Goodrich, master) off the coast of Virginia. The Betsy was condemned as a prize ship at a Pennsylvania Admiralty Court on Sept. 26, 1776. This condemnation was appealed on Sept. 28, and the verdict upheld on Nov. 23, 1776 (Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 6:716, 1011–1015). Barry was rewarded with the command of the new frigate Effingham. He remained in naval service and died as head of the navy (
ANB
).
A qui tam action is one in which the plaintiff states that he sues as well for the state as for himself (Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th ed., 1126).
Samuel Chase replaced Edward Rutledge on the committee, Nov. 19, 1776 (Journals of the Continental Congress, 6:964).