1 page, 4to, 332 x 206 mm, separations along creases. Granting letters of marque to a Privateer schooner, the Mayflower, belonging to Andrew Giddings and William Coombs, both of Newburyport, MA and Samuel Cutts of Portsmouth, NH.

Captained by Andrew Giddings, the Mayflower was provisioned to have 8 carriage guns and 35 men.  Giddings died at sea in 1779.  He and Coombs were both members of the Marine Society of Newburyport, and Coombs championed merchant investment in privateers. Coombs owned a wharf in Newburyport, and in 1798, after Congress established a navy, he was one of eight initial subscribers to finance the first "subscription" vessel of the U. S. Navy, the sloop Merrimack. Samuel Cutts, a Portsmouth merchant, played a pivotal role in the early Revolution. He met with Paul Revere in 1774 and helped coordinate with local the raid on Fort William and Mary, commencing on 14 December 1775, and resulting in the seizure about 100 barrels of gunpowder, enough to supply the local militia in not only Portsmouth, but nearby Exeter and Dover.