Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Part 38

FRANCIS WARRELL. WM. WOOLGAR.

JOSHUA ATKINSON. PETER SHAW.

Sworne to before the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Tryall of Pirates

Test, PETER BEVERLEY Cl. Arr.[2]

[Footnote 2: Clerk of arraignments.]

_101. Deposition of Joseph Man. [June 11, 1700.]_[1]

[Footnote 1: Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson A. 271, f. 44b. Man, an able seaman, was afterward taken over to England to testify against the pirates, and was granted 60 by the Privy Council for his services in the fight, besides five months' pay promised him by Nicholson.

_Acts P.C. Col._, II. 360.]

Virginia Sct.

Joseph Manns aged 30 yeares Examd: and Sworn saith

That on Sunday being the 28th day of April last past Capt. John Aldred, Comander of his Maj'tys Shipp the _Ess.e.x Prize_, came on Sh.o.a.re to Collo. William Willson at Kyquotan and informed his Excellency Francis Nicholson, Esqr., his Maj'tys Lieut. and Governor Gen'll of Virginia, and Capt. Pa.s.senger, Comander of his Maj'tys Shipp the _Shorham_ Galley, in the hearing of this depon't, that he had been on board of a Pink and was there informed that there was a Pirate lay in Lyn haven bay and that she made her Escape from them, upon which information soe as aforesaid given Capt. Pa.s.senger immediatly went on board his Maj'tys shipp the _Shorham_ and got her under saile, designeing to goe downe in the night, and this depon't further saith that upon the aforesaid 28th day of April in the Evening his Excellency, accompaned with Capt. John Aldred, Peter Heyman, Esqr.,[2]

and this depon't, went on board his Maj'ty's ship the _Shorham_. the next morning about six of the Clock wee came up with the Pirate (which this depon't since understands is called the _La Paix_, the Captaines name said to be Lewis Guittar). we threw abroad the Kings Jack, flagg and Ancient,[3] the Pirate hoisted up blood red Colloures and refused to submit, whereupon wee immediatly Engaged with them and Continued the fight till about four a Clock in the afternoone. Peter Heyman, Esqr., standing on the left hand of this depon't within a foot of him, made severall shots into the Pirates Shipp, and about one or two of the Clock was by a shott from the Pirates shipp unhappily slaine.

about four in the afternoone the Pirate struck his b.l.o.o.d.y Collours and hoisted up a flagg of truce and then fired no more Gunns, whereupon Capt. Pa.s.senger Comanded a boat and hands to board the Pirate, who brought back with them about 124 Pirates Prisoners, and it was supposed there was about 25 or 30 kill'd in the fight and that about 40 or 50 English Prisoners were redeemed, whome the Pirate had taken.

And this deponant Yet further saith that two of the Pirates men, being left on board the shipp called the _Nicholson_, Robt. Lurten Master, which was taken by the Pirates the 28th of April, were upon the coming up of his Maj'tys ship the _Shorham_ seized and brought on board us as prisoners, that this deponant was on board the _Shorham_ Galley all the time of the Engagement upon the quarter deck near to his Excellency, and saw all the Transactions, and further says not.

JOSEPH MAN.

Sworne to before the Court for tryall of Pirates Test, PETER BEVERLEY C. Arr.

A true copy, C.C. THACKER C. Sec. Off.[4]

[Footnote 2: Heyman was collector of customs for the lower district of James River. Gov. Nicholson caused a tombstone to be set in commemoration of him, with a laudatory inscription which is printed in the _Southern Literary Messenger_, IX. 695.]

[Footnote 3: Ensign. See doc. no. 33, note 15.]

[Footnote 4: Clerk in the secretary's office. The name of Chicheley Corbin Thacker deserves a comment, for double Christian names were at that period very rare. "In forty-nine church registers out of fifty, throughout the length and breadth of England, there will not be found a single instance of a double Christian name previous to the year 1700." Bardsley, _Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature_, p. 226.]

_102. Report of Dr. George Bramston. November 27, 1702._[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, Admiralty 1:3666, p. 162. The writer of this report, George Bramston, LL.D., was a notable pract.i.tioner of the civil law, and from 1702 to 1710 was master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His uncle writes of him in his autobiography, a few years before this, "George is doctor of law, ... fellow of Trinity Hall, and is admitted at the Commons, and lives there in some practice, but very good repute." _Autobiography of Sir John Bramston_, p. 29. To whom the report was nominally addressed is not clear, but it was intended indirectly for the enlightenment of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne, whose wifely partiality had in May of this year raised him to the office of Lord High Admiral. As such, he nominally presided over the High Court of Admiralty; finding the need of having its activities supplemented by additional prize courts in the colonies, and instructed by this and similar reports, he on Dec. 7 applied for authority under the great seal to commission colonial governors (vice-admirals) to hold prize courts.]

DOCTORS COMMONS,[2] November 27th, 1702.

[Footnote 2: Doctors' Commons (see ch. VIII. of _Sketches by Boz_ and ch. XXV. of _David Copperfield_), near St. Paul's, was the headquarters of the doctors of the civil law and of the admiralty and other civil-law courts.]

_Sir_,

The matter in yours of the 18th instant being of a Nature That was little knowne to Me, It seemed proper to take longer time to consider thereof, than otherwise would have been decent, for the Information of His Royall Highness as to the Power of the Vice-Admiralls of the Forreigne Plantations.

I humbly conceive it plaine, That they can have no Authority to condemne Prizes, in their Commissions from the Lord Admirall,[3] for He has none in that Patent which const.i.tutes Him Lord Admirall of England.

[Footnote 3: A typical commission of a vice-admiral (Barbados, 1667) may be seen in the _Publications_ of the Colonial Society of Ma.s.sachusetts, II. 187-198.]

And you may please to call to mind, that the Power by which Ships are adjudged Prize, Proceeds from a Commission for that purpose particularly granted, under the Great Seale, to his Royall Highness.

And as to what may be most proper for the condemning of Prizes in those parts, I humbly conceive it cannot be Regularly done, but by an Authority grounded upon a Commission under the Broad Seale.

All which I humbly submitt with the a.s.surance That I am

Sir

Your must Humble Servant

GEO. BRAMSTON.

To be sent to Lord Nottingham[4] if it came from him.

[Footnote 4: The Earl of Nottingham was one of the two secretaries of state.]

PRIVATEERS AT MARTINIQUE.

_103. Letter to Boston News Letter. May 8, 1704._[1]

[Footnote 1: A specimen of news of privateering in Queen Anne's War from one of the earliest issues of our first established newspaper; from the _Boston News-Letter_ of May 15, 1704. That newspaper was founded by John Campbell, postmaster of Boston, son of Kidd's friend Duncan Campbell (see doc. no. 75). The first issue was for the week from Monday, April 17, to April 24, 1704. The text is taken from the file of the _News-Letter_ possessed by the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society.]

NEW-YORK, May 8. On the 3d Arrived here a Sloop from St. Thomas, in whom Mr. John Vryling, who Sail'd the 23d Decemb. last from Boston, in the Ship _St. Jacob and Philip_, of whom was Owner and Merchant, Charles Farnam Master, bound for Barbadoes, and on the Sabbath following, lost her Mane and Misin Mast in a Storm, taken in sight of Barbadoes, and carried into Martinico, and says that 7 Weeks ago was a Prisoner at Martinico, that the Governour permitted him to go in a French Sloop bound for St. Thomas, That the French have taken 130 odd Vessels this War into Martinico, and when he left it there was 17 Privateers out.[2] The Ships lately taken and carried thither are, the _Venetian Merchant_, Captains, Alexander, the Ship _Virgin_, John Sherwood, _Brintania_ William Bartrum, Darvar of Bidiford, Richard Barton of Liverpool, Henry Punsunby of Dublin, John Reading of Barbadoes, belonging to Boston, Twisden a Brigantine, Chadwel another, Farnam a Ship, Andrews, Porter a Sloop. Nicholas Bradock, and Crute of Philadelphia, Peylton of Bermuda, Johnson of Maryland, a Sloop, Penley Master, Stephens a Ship of Boston taken into Guardiloop. after Mr.

Vryling had been 14 days at St. Thomas, had advice from Martinico, 5 Brigantines carried in thither, on Board of one of which was Major Wheeler of Barbadoes[3] and several other Pa.s.sengers, but what Ports bound to, or to whom the Brigantines belong'd, heard not. The Ship _Princess Anne_, bound from Barbadoes to London, being Leaky put into St. Thomas, there condemn'd as insufficient to go to Sea. Yesterday from Albany by information from our Indians acquainted, that the French of Canada are sending out 300 men to attack some parts of N.

England. We have very rainy, dirty, and cold Weather for the Season, and so continues. We hear the Virginia Fleet Sails the last of this Month. Captain Davison hopes to Sail this Month.[4] The Wind and Weather hinders our Pensilvania Post coming in.

[Footnote 2: A letter written from Martinique a little later (June 27) by a captive colonel from St. Christopher's says, "We have had 163 vessels brought in here since the warr, ... there is about 30 privateers now belonging here, so that it's almost impossible for a vessel to pa.s.s to or from the Islands without a good convoy, and then they take some from them". He encloses a pet.i.tion from some 300 British prisoners, "some whereof have been here 16 months in close prison". _Cal. St. P. Col._, 1704-1705, p. 184.]

[Footnote 3: Lately a member of the council of that island.]

[Footnote 4: Capt. John Davison, in the _Eagle_ galley, had arrived at New York on Mar. 13, but had been long detained by disputes between the governor, Lord Cornbury, and the collector of the port over questions concerning the legal status of its cargo. _N.Y. Col. Docs._, IV. 1105-1110, 1121.]

CASE OF JOHN QUELCH AND HIS FELLOW PIRATES.

_104. Account of their Execution. June 30, 1704._[1]

[Footnote 1: What is here reproduced, to show somewhat of the harrowing circ.u.mstances under which the pirate's career might end, is a very rare "extra" of the _Boston News-Letter_, found in the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society's file of that newspaper. The case of Quelch and his a.s.sociates is related in much detail by Mr. A.C.

Goodell in the _Acts and Resolves of the Province of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay_, VIII. 386-398, and in the _Publications_ of the Colonial Society of Ma.s.sachusetts, III. 71-77. The pursuit of the pirates is described in Sewall's diary, with extracts from the _News-Letter_, in Ma.s.s.

Hist. Soc., _Collections_, XLVI. 103-110. In August, 1703, the brigantine _Charles_, fitted out as a privateer to cruise against the French, was riding off Marblehead, with her captain lying too sick to take her to sea. The crew seized the ship, put it in command of Quelch, threw the captain overboard, and sailed for the coast of Brazil, where for some months they engaged in a profitable career of piracy at the expense of subjects of the King of Portugal, with whom England had just concluded a particularly close alliance. In May, 1704, they reappeared on the Ma.s.sachusetts coast, landed, and dispersed, but were presently suspected, accused, proclaimed, and "rounded up", the main capture being made at the Isles of Shoals, by an armed force under Maj. Stephen Sewall, the diarist's brother. The trial, June 13, 16, 19-21, was the first held in New England under the act of Parliament 11 and 12 Will. III., ch. 7, which gave the crown authority to issue commissions for the trial of pirates by specially const.i.tuted courts, outside the realm of England. The governor, Joseph Dudley, presided. Mr. Goodell maintains that the trial was conducted illegally in important particulars. Of the six pirates named above, as executed on June 30, Lambert was a Salem man, Peterson apparently a Swede, Roach Irish, Quelch and the other two English. Judge Sewall records that "When the Scaffold was let to sink, there was such a Screech of the Women that my wife heard it sitting in our Entry next the Orchard, and was much surprised at it; yet the wind was sou-west.