Hi
Just been reading a newspaper article (Newcastle Courant, 4th March 1786) of an English ship's Captain returning from Algiers, recalling an account of a ship being boarded at Cape St Vincent by an Algerine Corsair, to whom he showed his Passport and every other effort to prove he was a British Ship.
Because they thought he was an American imposter they impounded his ship and goods and took him off to Algiers.
It seems some Indexes of Passport Applications (probably name only?) survives in the FO (Foreign Office) Series.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/passports/FO 639/1 Register of British ships entering Barcelona, passes issued, and imports and exports carried.
1786 to 1796
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C253809FO 639/2
Entry Book of Certificates, Notes of Protest, Manifests, inventories of ships' stores, details of passports.
1777 to 1803 (Note Oct 1784 to Dec 1795).
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C253810FO 610/1
Entry Book of Passports
Within this and the other volumes in the class it has been the practice to start a new numerical series on the appointment of a new Foreign Secretary 1795 to 1822
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C253179Apparently, if your Ancestor was a Master Mariner (Captain), Merchant or Diplomat and needed to travel abroad there is a possibility they might have applied for a Passport and their name be listed in a Register?
Has anyone seen these please and what detail do they contain, or are they just names of Passport applicants?
If anyone wants to see these for their own research, they are likely original documents and a Readers Ticket would need to be applied for (with formal proof of your ID and current address). See 'Visit Us' on TNA website.
Mark