Ref. HCA 25/206

There were three principle documents required to act as a privateer – a bond had to be given to guarantee good behaviour, a declaration giving details of the vessel ownership, guns etc., lastly the all important licence or Letter of Marque – more information is given at Prize Law.

The most interesting is the declaration and those issued against the United States for the war of 1812 are given below.

The link from the commanders’ name gives the declaration – additional information can be found on the link from the Vessel name.

To ensure that all the names are available to search engines they are available in pdf. Owners and Crew
However I would suspect some of the crew names look more humorous rather than accurate.

The index prize cases for vessels taken in the War of 1812 – the note on the cover shows how to convert the case number into the Kew ordering reference.