Gabriel Duvall

“ And the collector was of opinion, until he consulted the district attorney, that he ought not to be permitted to take the oath prescribed, as he could not do it without swearing to a fact which was known to be untrue. For this reason he refused to administer the oath to Captain Myrick in his life time.
There are strong grounds for the belief that the Neptune never had a genuine register. She is represented in the manifest to have been built at Boston-to be owned by Captain Myrick of New-York-and that she belonged to the port of Wilmington, in North Carolina. ”

“ The ship Neptune, owned and commanded by Captain Myrick, arrived at New Orleans from London on the 20th of October, 1815. On the next day he appeared, in company with George M. Ogden, one of the appellants, at the custom house, and reported the Neptune as a registered vessel of the United States, belonging to Wilmington North Carolina, where, he alleged, and it was so stated in the manifest, she was registered. He declared, at the same time, that he had lost the register in ascending the Mississippi, and required a new one to be issued in lieu of it. ”

“ If she had been built at Boston, and belonged at the time to a person residing in New-York, it is more than probable that, pursuant to the provisions of the third section of the act, she would have been registered at one of those places. If Captain Myrick or the present owners had been desirous of obtaining correct information on the subject, it would have been furnished on application to the treasury department. ”