Extract from an intelligence report for the Admiralty given by ship master, Samuel Jones whose ship was captured off the Scillies by French privateers from Nantes, 12 October 1745 (SP 42/29/111).
Transcript
We came from Brest, being the Twenty fourth of last Month, those ships that had been lately graved [ships repaired in dry dock] had not more than half a dozen Seamen at work on board each, nor did it seem to me they had either men or materials to fit them out in less than Two Months, if they had such intent, but of that I heard no mention, nor saw any further a likelyhood than have expressed, these other seemed very Old, and wanted a deal of repair, they had no Transports there, nor any Extra soldiers in Town as I could learn, nor did I hear or see anything like an Embarkation of soldiers from that Place, there were on the Road from Brest to Morlaix about 50, or 60 Troopers, which I was told were marching to Dunkirk, there was among the others a Gentleman, a German born, who came often to visit us while in Goal, He commanded a company of French noblemen as he said, this Gentleman (we being masons) told me very Friendly, that the young Chevalier [Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender] was received and Crowned at Edinburgh, that his Army consisted of Thirty Thousand Men, and that he would soon have a Reinforcement of Twenty Thousand Spanish troops [for Scotland] which should Embark from Ferroll [Galicia, northern Spain], and then he would March to London, and at the same time the French from Dunkirk would make a descent elsewhere, to cause a diversion, this is the ultimate of what I heard relating to an Embarkation, and the way I came by it, which submit to your Lordship’s wisdom…