[1643/6/16]¹

Letter: to the English parliament

Letter to the speakers of the houses of parliament of England

Right honourable,

The convention of the estates of this kingdom, being informed that various ships going with victual and other necessaries from several parts thereof for supply of the Scottish army in Ireland have been set upon by some Irish and Dunkirk frigates full of Irish soldiers upon our north coast, their passengers tortured and the ships spoiled and burnt, have commanded me to represent to you the hard condition our army in Ireland will be brought to if such proportions of victual and other necessaries as we spare to them, and without which they could not have subsisted until this time, may not without danger be transported from any part of this kingdom; and therefore earnestly to desire you to represent this to both houses of parliament, that not only ships of war may be appointed for guarding the passage between Scotland and Ireland according to the treaty, but also that some ships of war be presently sent to guard our north coast since great numbers of Irish and Dunkirk frigates do appear thereupon, whereby both provision to our army and all other traffic and commerce by sea is hindered. I rest etc. Signed, [John Campbell, earl of] Loudoun, chancellor. In presence of the convention, Edinburgh, 29 June.