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Maxwell (1804 ship)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ55622521 ↗
Source-derived summary

Maxwell was launched at Boston in 1798. She came into British hands in 1804, as a West Indiaman, trading between Liverpool and Barbados. She wrecked in January 1814.

Career

Maxwell enters Lloyd's Register in 1804, with J. Edwards, master, Higginson, owner, and trade Liverpool–Barbados.

In 1808 or 1809, Barton, Irlam and Higginson acquired Maxwell, and John Irlam became her master. He acquired a letter of marque on 28 March 1809.

Maxwell successfully fought off an attack off Demarara from the American privateer General Armstrong on 29 November 1812, in the course of which John Irlam was seriously wounded. He survived, however, and was presented a silver cup by the Underwriters of Liverpool in gratitude for his successful defence.

On 11 January 1813, Maxwell sailed from Barbados in company with Tiger, which too belonged to Barton & Co. On their way they captured two American vessels that they sent into Barbados: Lavinia, which had been sailing from Cadiz to Savannah, and Rising States, which had been sailing from Salem to St.

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The public source identifies “Maxwell (1804 ship)” as open-knowledge reference entry. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maxwell, ship and Open-knowledge.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1798, 1804, 1814, 1808—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1798. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Maxwell, ship and Open-knowledge providing the first useful test.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55622521. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1798, 1804, 1814 and 1808.

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This entry incorporates text from “Maxwell (1804 ship)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.