in 1718. Soon afterwards he surrendered to the Spanish Governor of Cuba,
embraced the Catholic faith, and turned pirate once more; and was very
active in attacking English ships off the Island of Jamaica.
BROWN, JOHN.
Of Durham, England.
One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged at the age of 29 years at
Newport, Rhode Island, in 1723.
BROWN, JOHN.
Of Liverpool.
One of Captain Harris's crew. Found guilty of piracy at Newport, Rhode
Island, in 1723, but recommended to the King's favour, perhaps in view of
his age, being but 17 years old.
BROWNE, CAPTAIN JAMES.
A Scotchman.
In 1677, when in command of a mixed crew of English, Dutch, and French
pirates, he took a Dutch ship trading in negroes off the coast of
Cartagena. The Dutch captain and several of his crew were killed, while
the cargo of 150 negroes was landed in a remote bay on the coast of
Jamaica.
Lord Vaughan sent a frigate, which captured about a hundred of the negro
slaves and also Browne and eight of his pirate crew. The captain and crew
were tried for piracy and condemned. The crew were pardoned, but Browne
was ordered to be executed. The captain appealed to the Assembly to have
the benefit of the Act of Privateers, and the House of Assembly twice sent
a committee to the Governor to beg a reprieve. Lord Vaughan refused this
and ordered the immediate execution of Browne. Half an hour after the
hanging the provost-marshal appeared with an order, signed by the Speaker,
to stop the execution.
BROWNE, EDWARD.
Of York River, Virginia.
One of Captain Pounds's crew. Wounded at Tarpaulin Cove in 1689.
BROWNE, JOHN, _alias_ MAMME.
An English sailor who joined the Barbary pirates at Algiers and turned
Mohammedan. Taken in the _Exchange_ in 1622 and carried a prisoner to
Plymouth.
BROWNE, RICHARD. Surgeon.
Surgeon-General in Morgan's fleet which carried the buccaneers to the
Spanish Main. He wrote an account of the disastrous explosion on board the
_Oxford_ during a banquet given to Morgan and the buccaneer commanders on
January 2nd, 1669, off Cow Island to the south of Hispaniola, at which the
details were being discussed for an attack on Cartagena.
Browne writes: "I was eating my dinner with the rest when the mainmasts
blew out and fell upon Captains Aylett and Bigford and others and knocked
them on the head. I saved myself by getting astride the mizzenmast." Only
Morgan and those who sat on his side of the dinner-table were saved.
Browne, who certainly was not biased towards Morgan in his accounts of his
exploits, is one of the few narrators who gives the buccaneer Admiral
credit for moderation towards his prisoners, particularly women.
BUCK, ELEAZER.
One of Captain Pounds's crew. Tried at Boston in 1689 for piracy and found
guilty, but pardoned on payment of a fine of twenty marks.
BUCKENHAM, CAPTAIN.
In 1679 sailed from England to the West Indies. He was taken by the
Spaniards off Campeachy and carried to Mexico. A seaman, Russel, also a
prisoner there, and who escaped afterwards, reported to Lionel Wafer that
he last saw Captain Buckenham with a log chained to his leg and a basket
on his back, crying bread about the streets of the city of Mexico for his
master, a baker.
BULL, CAPTAIN DIXEY.
Born in London of a respectable family, and in 1631 went to Boston, where
he received a grant of land at York on the coast of Maine. Became a
"trader for bever" in New England. In June, 1632, while in Penobscot Bay,
a French pinnace arrived and seized his shallop and stock of "coats,
ruggs, blanketts, bisketts, etc." Annoyed by this high-handed behaviour,
Bull collected together a small crew and turned pirate, thus being the
very first pirate on the New England coast. Bull took several small
vessels, and was not caught by the authorities, who sent out small armed
sloops to search for him, and nothing more was heard of this pioneer
pirate after 1633, although rumour said that he had reached England in
safety.
BULL, MR.
A member of the crew of Coxon's canoe, he was killed in the famous attack
by the buccaneers on the Spanish Fleet off Panama in 1680.
BULLOCK. Surgeon.
One of the crew at the second disastrous attack by Captain Sharp on the
town of Arica, when the buccaneers were driven out of the town. All
escaped who could, except the surgeons, who, in a most unprofessional way,
had been indulging somewhat freely in the wines of the country during the
battle, and consequently were in no condition to take their places with
the retreating force. The surgeons, after being taken prisoner, were
persuaded to disclose to the Spaniards the prearranged signals by smoke
from two fires, which was to be given in case of a successful taking of
the town, to bring up the boats that were hiding on the shore, ready to
take the buccaneers back to their ships. Fortunately the buccaneers on the
shore arrived just as the canoes were getting under way, otherwise the
whole remnant of them would have perished. The only one of these
disreputable surgeons whose name we know is Dr. Bullock. Some months
afterwards it was ascertained, through a prisoner, that the Spaniards
"civilly entertained these surgeons, more especially the women." Surgeons,
even such surgeons as these, were considered to be valuable in those days
in the out-of-the-way Spanish colonies.
BUNCE, CHARLES.
Born at Exeter; died at the age of 26.
Taken by Captain Roberts out of a Dutch galley in 1721, he joined the
pirates, to be eventually hanged in 1722. He made a moving speech from the
gallows, "disclaiming against the guilded Bates of Power, Liberty, and
Wealth that had ensnared him amongst the pirates," earnestly exhorting the
spectators to remember his youth, and ending by declaring that "he stood
there as a beacon upon a Rock" (the gallows standing on one) "to warn
erring Marriners of Danger."
BURDER, WILLIAM.
Mayor of Dover.
It may seem strange to accuse the mayor of so important a seaport as Dover
of being a pirate, but it is difficult to see how William Burder is to
escape the accusation when we learn that in the year 1563 he captured 600
French vessels and a large number of neutral craft, which he plundered,
and also no fewer than sixty-one Spanish ships, to the very natural
annoyance of the King of Spain, whose country was at this time at peace
with England.
BURGESS, CAPTAIN SAMUEL SOUTH.
Born and bred in New York, he was a man of good education, and began his
career on a privateer in the West Indies. Later on he was sent by a Mr.
Philips, owner and shipbuilder, to trade with the pirates in Madagascar.
This business Burgess augmented with a little piracy on his own account,
and after taking several prizes he returned to the West Indies, where he
disposed of his loot. He then proceeded to New York, and, purposely
wrecking his vessel at Sandy Hook, landed in the guise of an honest
shipwrecked mariner.
Burgess settled down for a time to a well-earned rest, and married a
relative of his employer, Mr. Philips.
Philips sent him on two further voyages, both of which were run on
perfectly honest lines, and were most successful both to owner and
captain. But a later voyage had an unhappy ending. After successfully
trading with the pirates in Madagascar, Burgess was returning home,
carrying several pirates as passengers, who were returning to settle in
America, having made their fortunes. The ship was captured off the Cape of
Good Hope by an East Indiaman, and taken to Madras. Here the captain and
passengers were put in irons and sent to England to be tried. The case
against Burgess fell through, and he was liberated. Instead of at once
getting away, he loitered about London until one unlucky day he ran across
an old pirate associate called Culliford, on whose evidence Burgess was
again arrested, tried, and condemned to death, but pardoned at the last
moment by the Queen, through the intercession of the Bishop of London.
After a while he procured the post of mate in the _Neptune_, a Scotch
vessel, which was to go to Madagascar to trade liquors with the pirates
who had their headquarters in that delectable island. On arrival at
Madagascar a sudden hurricane swept down, dismasted the _Neptune_, and
sank two pirate ships. The chief pirate, Halsey, as usual, proved himself
a man of resource. Seeing that without a ship his activities were severely
restricted, he promptly, with the help of his faithful and willing crew,
seized the _Neptune_, this satisfactory state of affairs being largely
facilitated by the knowledge that the mate, Burgess, was all ripe to go on
the main chance once more. The first venture of this newly formed crew was
most successful, as they seized a ship, the _Greyhound_, which lay in the
bay, the owners of which had but the previous day bought--and paid for--a
valuable loading of merchandise from the pirates. This was now taken back
by the pirates, who, having refitted the _Neptune_, set forth seeking
fresh adventures and prizes. The further history of Burgess is one of
constant change and disappointment.
While serving under a Captain North, he was accused of betraying some of
his associates, and was robbed of all his hard-earned savings. For several
years after this he lived ashore at a place in Madagascar called
Methalage, until captured by some Dutch rovers, who soon after were
themselves taken by French pirates. Burgess, with his former Dutch
captain, was put ashore at Johanna, where, under the former's expert
knowledge, a ship was built and sailed successfully to Youngoul, where
Burgess got a post as third mate on a ship bound to the West Indies.
Before sailing, Burgess was sent, on account of his knowledge of the
language, as ambassador to the local King. Burgess, unfortunately for
himself, had in the past said some rather unkind things about this
particular ruler, and the offended monarch, in revenge, gave Burgess some
poisoned liquor to drink, which quickly brought to an end an active if
chequered career.
BURGESS, CAPTAIN THOMAS.
One of the pirates of the Bahama Islands who surrendered to King George in
1718 and received the royal pardon. He was afterwards drowned at sea.
BURK, CAPTAIN.
An Irishman, who committed many piracies on the coast of Newfoundland.
Drowned in the Atlantic during a hurricane in 1699.
CACHEMARÉE, CAPTAIN. French filibuster.
Commanded the _St. Joseph_, of six guns and a crew of seventy men. In 1684
had his headquarters at San Domingo.
CÆSAR.
A negro. One of Teach's crew hanged at Virginia in 1718. Cæsar, who was
much liked and trusted by Blackbeard, had orders from him to blow up the
_Queen Ann's Revenge_ by dropping a lighted match into the powder magazine
in case the ship was taken by Lieutenant Maynard. Cæsar attempted to carry
out his instructions, but was prevented from doing so by two of the
surrendered pirates.
CÆSAR, CAPTAIN.
One of Gasparilla's gang of pirates who hunted in the Gulf of Mexico. His
headquarters were on Sanibel Island.
CALLES, CAPTAIN JOHN, or CALLIS.
A notorious Elizabethan pirate, whose activities were concentrated on the
coast of Wales.
We quote Captain John Smith, the founder of Virginia, who writes: "This
Ancient pirate Callis, who most refreshed himselfe upon the Coast of
Wales, who grew famous, till Queene Elizabeth of Blessed Memory, hanged
him at Wapping."
Calles did not die on the gallows without an attempt at getting let off.
He wrote a long and ingenious letter to Lord Walsyngham, bewailing his
former wicked life and promising, if spared, to assist in ridding the
coast of pirates by giving particulars of "their roads, haunts, creeks,
and maintainers." One of the chief of these "maintainers," or receivers of
stolen property, was Lord O'Sullivan, or the Sulivan Bere of Berehaven.
In spite of a long and very plausible plea for pity, this "ancient and
wicked pyrate" met his fate on the gibbet at Wapping.
CAMMOCK, WILLIAM.
A seaman under Captain Bartholomew Sharp. He died at sea on December 14th,
1679, off the coast of Chile. "His disease was occasioned by a sunfit,
gained by too much drinking on shore at La Serena; which produced in him a
_celenture_, or malignant fever and a hiccough." He was buried at sea with
the usual honours of "three French vollies."
CANDOR, RALPH.
Tried for piracy with the rest of Captain Lowther's crew at St. Kitts in
March, 1723, and acquitted.
CANNIS, _alias_ CANNIS MARCY.
A Dutch pirate who acted as interpreter to Captain Bartholomew Sharp's
South Sea Expedition. Captain Cox and Basil Ringmore took him with them
after the sacking of Hilo in 1679, to come to terms with the Spanish
cavalry over the ransoming of a sugar mill. On Friday, May 27th, 1680,
while ashore with a watering party in the Gulf of Nicoya, the interpreter,
having had, no doubt, his fill of buccaneering, ran away.
CARACCIOLI, SIGNOR, _alias_ D'AUBIGNY.
An Italian renegade priest, who became an atheist, Socialist, and
revolutionist, and was living at Naples when Captain Fourbin arrived there
in the French man-of-war _Victoire_.
Caraccioli met and made great friends with a young French apprentice in
the ship, called Misson, and a place was found for him on board. The
ex-priest proved himself to be a brave man in several engagements with
the Moors and with an English warship, and was quickly promoted to be a
petty officer.
Caraccioli, by his eloquence, soon converted most of the crew to believe
in his theories, and when Captain Fourbin was killed in an action off
Martinique with an English ship, Misson took command and appointed the
Italian to be his Lieutenant, and continued to fight the English ship to a
finish. The victorious crew then elected Misson to be their captain, and
decided to "bid defiance to all nations" and to settle on some
out-of-the-way island. Capturing another English ship off the Cape of Good
Hope, Caraccioli was put in command of her, and the whole of the English
crew voluntarily joined the pirates, and sailed to Madagascar. Here they
settled, and the Italian married the daughter of a black Island King; an
ideal republic was formed, and our hero was appointed Secretary of State.
Eventually Caraccioli died fighting during a sudden attack made on the
settlement by a neighbouring tribe.
CARMAN, THOMAS.
Of Maidstone in Kent.
Hanged at Charleston in 1718 with the rest of Major Bonnet's crew.
CARNES, JOHN.
One of Blackbeard's crew. Hanged at Virginia in 1718.
CARR, JOHN.
A Massachusetts pirate, one of Hore's crew, who was hiding in Rhode Island
in 1699.
CARTER, DENNIS.
Tried for piracy in June, 1704, at the Star Tavern in Boston. One of John
Quelch's crew.
CARTER, JOHN.
Captured by Major Sewall in the _Larimore_ galley, and brought into Salem.
One of Captain Quelch's crew. Tried at Boston in 1704.
CASTILLO.
A Columbian sailor in the schooner _Panda_. Hanged for piracy at Boston on
June 11th, 1835.
LA CATA.
A most blood-thirsty pirate and one of the last of the West Indian gangs.
In 1824, when La Cata was cruising off the Isle of Pines, his ship was
attacked by an English cutter only half his size. After a furious fight
the cutter was victorious, and returned in triumph to Jamaica with the
three survivors of the pirates as prisoners. One of these was found out at
the trial to be La Cata himself. Hanged at Kingston, Jamaica.
CHANDLER, HENRY, _alias_ RAMMETHAM RISE.
Born in Devonshire, his father kept a chandler's shop in Southwark. An
English _renegado_ at Algiers, who had turned Mohammedan and had become an
overseer in the pirates' shipyards. He was a man of some authority amongst
the Moors, and in 1621 he appointed a slave called Goodale to become
master of one of the pirate ships, the _Exchange_, in which one Rawlins
also sailed. Owing to the courage and ingenuity of the latter, the
European slaves afterwards seized the ship and brought her into Plymouth;
Chandler being thrown into gaol and afterwards hanged.
CHEESMAN, EDWARD.
Taken prisoner out of the _Dolphin_, on the Banks of Newfoundland, by the
Pirate Phillips in 1724. With the help of a fisherman called Fillmore, he
killed Phillips and ten other pirates and brought the ship into Boston
Harbour.
CHEVALLE, DANIEL.
One of Captain John Quelch's crew. Tried for piracy at Boston in 1704.
CHILD, THOMAS.
In the year 1723, at the age of 15, he was tried for piracy at Newport,
Rhode Island. This child must have seen scores of cold-blooded murders
committed while he sailed with Low and Harris. Found to be not guilty.
CHRISTIAN, CAPTAIN.
In 1702 the town of Tolu was sacked by Captain Brown of the _Blessing_.
Brown was killed, and Christian was elected to be captain in his stead.
Davis tells us that "Christian was an old experienced soldier and
privateer, very brave and just in all his actions." He had lived for a
long while amongst the Darien Indians, with whom he was on very friendly
terms.
CHULY, DANIEL.
Tried for piracy at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706.
CHURCH, CHARLES.
Of St. Margaret's, Westminster.
One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged on July 19th, 1723, at
Newport, Rhode Island. Age
CHURCH, EDWARD.
In 1830 he served in the brig _Vineyard_, from New Orleans to
Philadelphia. Took part in the mutiny which was planned by the notorious
pirate Charles Gibbs.
CHURCH, WILLIAM.
Of the _Gertrwycht_ of Holland.
At the trial at West Africa in 1722 of the crew of Bartholomew Roberts's,
four of the prisoners--W. Church, Phil. Haak, James White, and Nicholas
Brattle--were proved to have "served as Musick on board the _Royal
Fortune_, being taken out of several merchant ships, having had an uneasy
life of it, having sometimes their Fiddles, and often their Heads broke,
only for excusing themselves, as saying they were tired, when any Fellow
took it in his Head to demand a Tune." Acquitted.
CHURCHILL, JOHN.
One of Captain George Lowther's crew. Captured by the _Eagle_ sloop at the
Island of Blanco, not far from Tortuga.
Hanged on March 11th, 1722, at St. Kitts.
CLARKE, JONATHAN.
Of Charleston, South Carolina.
One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew. Tried for piracy at Charleston in 1718,
and found to be not guilty.
CLARKE, RICHARD, _alias_ JAFAR.
A renegade English sailor, who turned "Turk"--that is, became a
Mohammedan--and was appointed chief gunner on one of the Barbary pirate
ships. Captured in the _Exchange_, and brought into Plymouth in 1622. He
was hanged.
CLARKE, ROBERT.
Governor of New Providence, Bahama Islands. Instead of trying to stamp out
the pirates, he did all he could to encourage them, by granting letters of
marque to such men as Coxon, to go privateering, these letters being quite
illegal. The proprietors of the Bahama Islands turned Clarke out and
appointed in his place Robert Lilburne in 1682.
CLIFFORD, JOHN.
One of Captain John Quelch's crew; tried at the Star Tavern at Boston in
1704 for piracy. All the accused pleaded "Not guilty" except Clifford and
two others who turned Queen's evidence.
CLINTON, CAPTAIN.
One of the notorious sixteenth century pirates "who grew famous until
Queene Elizabeth of blessed memory, hanged them at Wapping."
COBHAM, CAPTAIN.
Of Poole in Dorsetshire.
At the age of 18 he took to smuggling. His biographer tells us that even
at this comparatively early age Cobham "was cautious and prudent, and
though he intrigued with the ladies, he managed to keep it secret." Cobham
was very successful as a smuggler, on one occasion landing a cargo of ten
thousand gallons of brandy at Poole. But a little later on his vessel was
captured by a King's cutter. This annoyed the young captain, and he bought
a cutter at Bridport, mounted fourteen guns in her, and turned pirate.
Out of his very first prize, an Indiaman, which he boarded off the Mersey,
he took a sum of £40,000, and then scuttled the ship and drowned the crew.
Cobham, calling in at Plymouth, met a damsel called Maria, whom he took on
board with him, which at first caused some murmuring amongst his crew, who
were jealous because they themselves were not able to take lady companions
with them on their voyages, for, as the same biographer sagely remarks,
"where a man is married the case is altered, no man envies him his
happiness; but where he only keeps a girl, every man says, 'I have as much
right to one as he has.'" Nevertheless, Maria proved herself a great
success, for when any member of the crew was to be punished Maria would
use her influence with the captain to get him excused or his punishment
lessened, thus winning the affection of all on board. The English Channel
becoming too dangerous for Cobham, he sailed across the Atlantic and lay
in wait for vessels between Cape Breton and Prince Edward Isle, and took
several prizes. In one of these he placed all the crew in sacks and threw
them into the sea. Maria, too, took her part in these affairs, and once
stabbed to the heart, with her own little dirk, the captain of a Liverpool
brig, the _Lion_, and on another occasion, to indulge her whim, a captain
and his two mates were tied up to the windlass while Maria shot them with
her pistol. Maria always wore naval uniform, both at sea and when in port;
in fact, she entered thoroughly into the spirit of the enterprise.
Cobham now wished to retire from the sea, but Maria urged him to further
efforts, as she had set her heart on his buying her a beautiful place in
England called Mapleton Hall, near Poole.
Maria's last act at sea was to poison the whole crew of an Indiaman, who
were prisoners in irons aboard the pirate ship.
Cobham having made a vast fortune, at last decided to settle down, and he
bought a large estate near Havre from the Duc de Chartres. It was on the
coast, and had a snug little harbour of its own, where the retired pirate
kept a small pleasure yacht in which he and Maria used to go for fishing
expeditions. One day, when they were out on one of these picnics, a West
India brig lay becalmed near by, and Cobham and his crew went on board to
visit the captain of the merchant ship. But the temptation proved too
strong, and Cobham suddenly shooting the captain, Maria and the yacht's
crew quickly despatched the rest. Carrying the prize to Bordeaux, he sold
her for a good price. This was Cobham's last act of piracy, and soon
afterwards he was made a magistrate, and presided at the county courts.
Maria, it was thought, possibly owing to remorse, poisoned herself with
laudanum and died. Cobham lived to a good old age, and eventually passed
away, leaving many descendants, who, a hundred years ago, "were moving in
the first grade at Havre."
COBHAM, MRS. MARIA.
A bloodthirsty and ambitious woman pirate, the wife of Captain Cobham,
late of Poole in Dorset.
COCKLYN, CAPTAIN THOMAS.
In 1717 was in the Bahama Islands when Woodes Rogers arrived at New
Providence Island with King George's offer of pardon to those pirates who
came in and surrendered themselves. Cocklyn, like many others, after
surrendering, fell again into their wicked ways, and ended by being
hanged. Only a year after receiving the royal pardon we hear of him being
in company with Davis and La Bouse and several other notorious pirates at
Sierra Leone, when he was in command of a tall ship of twenty-four guns.
Cocklyn ended his life on the gallows.
COFRECINA, CAPTAIN.
A notorious Spanish-American pirate who was very troublesome in the South
Atlantic in the early part of the last century. Eventually captured by
Midshipman Hull Foot of the U.S. Navy in March, 1825, at St. Thomas Isle.
Executed in Porto Rico by the terrible Spanish method of the garotte.
COLE, CAPTAIN JOHN.
Commander of the _Eagle_, _alias_ the _New York Revenge's Revenge_. Tried,
condemned, and hanged in 1718 at Charleston. His was a brilliant career
while it lasted, but was cut short after a brief and meteoric spell.
COLE, SAMUEL.
One of Captain Fly's crew. Tried and condemned for piracy at Boston in
1726. On the way to the gallows the culprits were taken to church, where
they had to listen to a long sermon from Dr. Colman, bringing home to the
wretched creatures their dreadful sins and their awful future.
COLLIER, CAPTAIN EDWARD.