To this abstract, the undersigned has taken the
liberty of annexing some observations, which naturally arise out of the
statement of the transaction, and which may perhaps tend to throw some
small degree of light on the general merits of the case.
In the late war, Thomas Pagan was agent for, and part owner of a
privateer called the Industry, which, on the 25th of March, 1783, off
Cape Ann, captured a brigantine called the Thomas, belonging to Mr.
Stephen Hooper, of Newburyport. The brigantine and cargo were libelled
in the Court of Vice-Admiralty in Nova Scotia, and that court ordered
the prize to be restored. An appeal was however moved for by the
captors, and regularly prosecuted in England before the Lords of Appeals
for prize causes, who, in February, 1790, reversed the decree of the
Vice-Admiralty Court of Nova Scotia, and condemned the brigantine and
cargo as good and lawful prize.
In December, 1788, a judgment was obtained by Stephen Hooper in the
Court of Common Pleas for the county of Essex, in Massachusetts, against
Thomas Pagan for three thousand five hundred pounds lawful money, for
money had and received to the plaintiff's use. An appeal was brought
thereon in May, 1789, to the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, held at Ipswich, for the county of Essex, and on the
16th of June, 1789, a verdict was found for Mr.
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