16. Peter Haywood to CTP, Dec. 3, 1716, CO 137/12; Lemisch, “Jack Tar,” 377; Davis, English Shipping Industry, 114. Biographical data show that seventy-one of seventy-five pirates came from working-class backgrounds.
17. Betagh, Voyage, 148.
18. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 167, 211–13, 298, 307–8, 321; Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37; Information of Alexander Thompson, HCA 1/55 (1723), f. 23; Snelgrave, New Account, 220; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 337; Rankin, Golden Age, 31.
19. Clement Downing, A Compendious History of the Indian Wars . . . (1737; repr. London: Oxford University Press, 1924), 99; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 121, 139, 167–68, 195, 208, 214, 340, 352; Snelgrave, New Account, 199; Trials of Eight Persons, 24; Boyer, Political State, 28:152; George Roberts (believed by some to have been Defoe), The Four Years Voyages . . . (London, 1726), 39.
20. “Proceedings of the Court Held on the Coast of Africa upon Trying of 100 Pirates Taken by his Ma[jes]ties Ship Swallow,” HCA 1/99 (1722), f. 59; Snelgrave, New Account, 217; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 213–14.
21. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 139; Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37; Boyer, Political State, 28:153; B. R. Burg, “Legitimacy and Authority: A Case Study of Pirate Commanders in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” American Neptune 37 (1977): 40–49.
22. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 294; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 139, 67; George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast, 1630–1730 (Salem, MA: Argosy-Antiquarian, 1923), 217; Trials of Eight Persons, 23; Richard B. Morris, “The Ghost of Captain Kidd,” New York History 19 (1938): 282.
23. Snelgrave, New Account, 199; Burg, “Legitimacy and Authority,” 44–48.
24. Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 42, 296, 337.
25. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 423; Lloyd Haynes Williams, Pirates of Colonial Virginia (Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, 1937), 19.
26. Roberts, Four Years Voyages, 37, 80; The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates . . . (London, 1719), 37; Snelgrave, New Account, 199–200, 238–39; Boyer, Political State, 28:153; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 213–25; Trials of Eight Persons, 24, 25; Tryals of Thirty-Six Persons for Piracy . . . (Boston, 1723), 9; Boston News-Letter, July 15–22, 1717; quotations from Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 213; Downing, Compendious History, 99.
27. Boyer, Political State, 28:151; Snelgrave, New Account, 272; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 138–39, 312.
28. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 88–89, 117, 145, 167, 222–25, 292, 595; Trials of Eight Persons, 24; Downing, Compendious History, 44, 103; Hill, “Episodes of Piracy,” 41–42, 59; Roberts, Four Years Voyages, 55, 86; Boyer, Political State, 28:153. Quotation from Betagh, Voyage, 148.
29. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 211–12, 307–8, 342–43; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 146–47; Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37; Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 22; Morris, “Ghost of Captain Kidd,” 283.
30. See note 20, this chapter; Gosse, History of Piracy, 103; John Biddulph, The Pirates of Malabar; and, An Englishwoman . . . in India . . . (London, 1907), x, 155; “A Narrative of the Singular Sufferings of John Fillmore and Others on Board the Noted Pirate Vessel Commanded by Captain Phillips,” Buffalo Historical Society, Publications 10 (1907), 32.
31. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 212, 308, 343; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 147; pirate Jeremiah Huggins, quoted in Morris, “Ghost of Captain Kidd,” 292; Hill, “Episodes of Piracy,” 57.
32. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 307, 212, 157–58, 339; see note 4, this chapter.
33. Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 30; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 211, 212, 343; Biddulph, Pirates of Malabar, 163–64; Rankin, Golden Age, 37.
34. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 212, 343; Snelgrave, New Account, 256; American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia), May 30–June 6, 1723.
35. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 304; Trials of Eight Persons, 19, 21; Brock, Letters of Alexander Spotswood, 249; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 260. Some men, usually those with important skills, were occasionally pressed; see Cal. St. Papers, 33:365.
36. Trials of Eight Persons, 21; deposition of Samuel Cooper, CO 37/10 (1718), f. 35; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 116, 196, 216, 228; Boyer, Political State, 28:148; governor of Bermuda quoted in Pringle, Jolly Roger, 181; deposition of Richard Symes, CO 152/14 (1721), f. 33; American Weekly Mercury, Mar. 17, 1720; New-England Courant (Boston), June 25–July 2, 1722.
37. Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 278; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 225, 313; Lt. Gov. Bennett to Mr. Popple, Mar. 31, 1720, Cal. St. Papers, 32:19.
38. Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 226, 342.
39. The total of 3,600 is reached by multiplying the number of ship captains shown in the figure by the average crew size of 79.5. See Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 41–42, 72, 121, 137, 138, 174, 210, 225, 277, 281, 296, 312, 352, 355, 671; New-England Courant, June 11–18, 1722; American Weekly Mercury, July 6–13, 1721, Jan. 5–12 and Sept. 16–23, 1725; Pringle, Jolly Roger, 181, 190, 244; Biddulph, Pirates of Malabar, 135, 187; Snelgrave, New Account, 196–97, 199, 272, 280; Hughson, Carolina Pirates, 70; Boston News-Letter, Aug. 12–19, 1717, Oct. 13–20 and Nov. 10–17, 1718, Feb. 4–11, 1725, June 30–July 7, 1726; Downing, Compendious History, 51, 101; Morris, “Ghost of Captain Kidd,” 282, 283, 296; Tryals of Bonnet, iii, 44–45; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 117, 135, 201, 283, 287; Trials of Eight Persons, 23; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 304, 341; Boyer, Political State, 25:198–99; Hill, “Notes on Piracy,” 148, 150; Capt. Matthew Musson to CTP, July 5, 1717, Cal. St. Papers, 29:338; ibid., 31:21, 118; ibid., 33:274; John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania . . . (Philadelphia, 1844), 2:27; Boston Gazette, Apr. 27–May 4, 1724; British Library, Add. Mss. 40806, 40812, 40813.
40. Testimony of Thomas Checkley (1717) in Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 304; Trials of Eight Persons, 11.
41. E. J. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries (New York: Norton, 1959), 5, 17, 18, 27, 28; see also his Bandits (New York: Delacorte Press, 1969), 24–29.
42. The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy . . . (Boston, 1726), 5; Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, iii, iv; Crook, Complete Newgate Calendar, 61; Hughson, Carolina Pirates, 121; Rankin, Golden Age, 28; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 116, 342; Downing, Compendious History, 98. An analysis of the names of forty-four pirate ships reveals the following patterns: eight (18.2 percent) made reference to revenge; seven (15.9 percent) were named Ranger or Rover, suggesting mobility and perhaps a watchfulness over the way captains treated their sailors; five (11.4 percent) referred to royalty. It is noteworthy that only two names referred to wealth. Other names indicated that places (Lancaster), unidentifiable people (Mary Anne), and animals (Black Robin) constituted less significant themes. Two names, Batchelor’s Delight and Batchelor’s Adventure, tend to support the probability (see note 15, this chapter) that most pirates were unmarried; see Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 220, 313; William P. Palmer, ed., Calendar of Virginia State Papers . . . (Richmond, VA, 1875), 1:194; and Cal. St. Papers, 30:263.
43. Betagh, Voyage, 41.
44. Petition of Randolph, Cane, and Halladay (1722) in Palmer, Virginia State Papers, 202.
45. “Proceedings of the Court held on the Coast of Africa,” HCA 1/99 (1722), f. 101; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 338, 582; Snelgrave, New Account, 212, 225; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 301; Voyages and Travels of Captain Nathaniel Uring, xxviii.
46. Hawkins in Boyer, Political State, 28:149–50; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 352–53; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 278; Betagh, Voyage, 26.
47. Crook, Newgate Calendar, 59; Boyer, Political State, 32:272; Boston Gazette, Oct. 24–31, 1720; Ranki
n, Golden Age, 35, 135, 148; Cotton Mather, The Vial Poured Out upon the Sea: A Remarkable Relation of Certain Pirates . . . (Boston, 1726), 21; Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, 227; quotation from Boston Gazette, Mar. 21–28, 1726. It should be stressed that Lyne’s bloodletting was exceptional.
48. Boston News-Letter, Nov. 14–21, 1720.
49. Snelgrave, New Account, 196, 199.
50. Ibid., 202–8.
51. Ibid., 212, 225.
52. Snelgrave, New Account, 241. For other examples of giving cargo to ship captains and treating them “civilly,” see deposition of Robert Dunn, CO 152/13 (1720), f. 26; deposition of Richard Symes, CO 152/14 (1721), f. 33; Biddulph, Pirates of Malabar, 139; Brock, Letters of Alexander Spotswood, 339–43; Boston Gazette, Aug. 21, 1721; Hill, “Episodes of Piracy,” 57; Morris, “Ghost of Captain Kidd,” 283; Elizabeth Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave-Trade to America (Washington, DC, 1935), 4:96; Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 13; Boyer, Political State, 27:616; deposition of Henry Bostock, Cal. St. Papers, 30:150–51; Boston News-Letter, Nov. 14–21, 1720; and Spotswood to Craggs: “It is a common practice with those Rovers upon the pillageing of a Ship to make presents of other Commodity’s to such Masters as they take a fancy to in Lieu of that they have plundered them of,” May 20, 1720, CO 5/1319.
53. Snelgrave, New Account, 241, 242, 243.
54. Ibid., 275, 276, 284.
55. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 351; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 341.
56. Mather, Vial Poured Out, 21, 48; Boyer, Political State, 32:272; Benjamin Colman, It is a Fearful Thing to Fall into the Hands of the Living God . . . (Boston, 1726), 39.
57. Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 2, 4, 3, 34. See also Hughson, Carolina Pirates, 5; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 264, 377–79; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 297; Brock, Letters of Alexander Spotswood, 339.
58. Boyer, Political State, 14:295, 21:662, 24:194; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 79; Hill, “Episodes of Piracy,” 39; American Weekly Mercury, July 13–20, 1721.
59. American Weekly Mercury, Mar. 17, 1720; Brock, Letters of Alexander Spotswood, 338. For other cases of hanging in chains, see Brock, Letters of Alexander Spotswood, 342; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 344; Tryals of Sixteen Persons, 19; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 151; Boston Gazette, Aug. 27–Sept. 3, 1722; Boyer, Political State, 24:201; Gov. Hart to CTP, Cat. St. Papers, 33:275.
60. Deposition of Henry Bostock, CO 152/12 (1717); Snelgrave, New Account, 253; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 217; Spotswood to Board of Trade, May 31, 1717, CO 5/1318; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 315.
61. Deposition of Edward North, CO 37/10 (1718).
62. Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 8.
63. Snelgrave, New Account, 199; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 138, 174; Morris, “Ghost of Captain Kidd,” 282.
64. James Craggs to CTP, Cal. St. Papers, 31:10; Board of Trade to J. Methuen, Sept. 3, 1716, CO 23/12; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 315, 582; Downing, Compendious History, 98, 104–5; Voyages and Travels of Captain Nathaniel Uring, 241; Shelvocke, Voyage, 242; H. R. McIlwaine, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia (Richmond, VA, 1928), 3:612; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 341; deposition of R. Lazenby in Hill, “Episodes of Piracy,” 60; “Voyage to Guinea, Antego, Bay of Campeachy, Cuba, Barbadoes, &c, 1714–1723,” British Library, Add. Ms. 39946.
65. Boston News-Letter, Aug. 15–22, 1720; American Weekly Mercury, Sept. 6–13, 1722.
66. Trial of Thomas Davis (1717) in Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 308; Boston News-Letter, Nov. 4–11, 1717.
67. Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 45.
68. Lt. Gov. Benjamin Bennet to CTP, Cal. St. Papers, 30:263; Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 29, 50; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 195.
69. Gov. Walter Hamilton to CTP, Cal. St. Papers, 32:165; American Weekly Mercury, Oct. 27, 1720; Boston Gazette, Oct. 24–31, 1720.
70. Spotswood to CTP, Cal. St. Papers, 32:328.
71. Council Meeting of May 3, 1721, in McIlwaine, Executive Journals, 542; abstract of Spotswood to Board of Trade, June 11, 1722, CO 5/1370; Spotswood to Board of Trade, May 31, 1721, CO 5/1319.
72. Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 281–82; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 355; American Weekly Mercury, May 21–28, 1724.
73. Hope to CTP, Jan. 14, 1724, CO 37/11, f. 37. See also Treasury Warrant to Capt. Knott, T52/32 (Aug. 10, 1722), National Archives of the UK. Captain Luke Knott, after turning over eight pirates to authorities, requested compensation for “his being obliged to quit the Merchant Service, the Pirates threatning to Torture him to death if ever he should fall into their hands.” Robert Walpole personally awarded Knott 230 pounds for the loss of his career.
74. Barnard, Ashton’s Memorial, 2, 4; emphasis added.
75. Smith, New Voyage, 42–43. See also Morris, “Ghost of Captain Kidd,” 286.
76. Anthropologist Raymond Firth argues that flags function as instruments of both power and sentiment, creating solidarity and symbolizing unity. See his Symbols: Public and Private (Ithaca, NY: Allen and Unwin, 1973), 328, 339; Hill, “Notes on Piracy,” 147. For particular pirate crews known to have sailed under the Jolly Roger, see Boston Gazette, Nov. 29–Dec. 6, 1725 (Lyne); Boston News-Letter, Sept. 10–17, 1716 (Jennings? Leslie?), Aug. 12–19, 1717 (Napin, Nichols), Mar. 2–9, 1719 (Thompson), May 28–June 4, 1724 (Phillips), June 5–8, 1721 (Rackam?); Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 317 (Roberts); Tryals of Sixteen Persons, 5 (Fly); Snelgrave, New Account, 199 (Cocklyn, LaBouche, Davis); Trials of Eight Persons, 24 (Bellamy); Hughson, Carolina Pirates, 113 (Moody); Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 44–45 (Bonnet, Teach, Richards); Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 208 (Harris), 213 (Low); Boyer, Political State, 28:152 (Spriggs); Biddulph, Pirates of Malabar, 135 (Taylor); Donnan, Documents of the Slave Trade, 96 (England); Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 240–41 (Skyrm), 67–68 (Martel), 144 (Vane), 371 (captain unknown), 628 (Macarty, Bunce), 299 (Worley). Royal officials affirmed and attempted to reroute the power of this symbolism by raising the Jolly Roger on the gallows when hanging pirates. See Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 658; New-England Courant, July 22, 1723; and Boston News-Letter, May 28–June 4, 1724. The symbols were commonly used in the gravestone art of this period and did not originate with piracy. The argument here is that new meanings, derived from maritime experience, were attached to them.
77. Boyer, Political State, 28:152. Pirates also occasionally used red or “bloody” flags.
78. Ibid.
79. Hill, “Episodes of Piracy,” 37.
80. Ibid.; Snelgrave, New Account, 236.
81. See note 42, this chapter.
82. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 28, 43, 244, 159, 285, 628, 656, 660; Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 39; Rankin, Golden Age, 155; Mather, Vial Poured Out, 47; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 341; Lt. Gen. Mathew to Gov. Hamilton, Sept. 29, 1720, Cal. St. Papers, 32:167; Bartholomew Roberts (pirate) to Lt. Gen. Mathew, ibid., 169.
83. Gov. Hamilton to CTP, Oct. 3, 1720, Cal. St. Papers, 32:165.
84. Boyer, Political State, 28:153. For similar vows and actual attempts, see Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, 18; Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 143, 241, 245, 298, 317; Dow and Edmonds, Pirates of the New England Coast, 239, 292; Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, 227; Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 296–97; Atkins, Voyage, 12; Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 315; Arthur L. Cooke, “British Newspaper Accounts of Blackbeard’s Death,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 56 (1953): 305–6; American Weekly Mercury, June 16–23, 1720; Tryals of Thirty-Six, 9; Spotswood to Board of Trade, Dec. 22, 1718, CO 5/1318.
85. Cotton Mather, Instructions to the Living, From the Condition of the Dead: A Brief Relation of Remarkables in the Shipwreck of above One Hundred Pirates . . . (Boston, 1717), 4; meeting of Apr. 1, 1717, in Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations . . ., ed. H. C. Maxwell Lyte (London, 1924), 3:3
59.
86. Johnson, History of the Pyrates, 7.
87. Virginia Merchants to Admiralty, CO 389/42 (1713).
88. Lloyd, British Seaman, 287, table 3.
89. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy, 291; Pringle, Jolly Roger, 95; James G. Lydon, Pirates, Privateers, and Profits (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Gregg Press, 1970), 17–20; Rankin, Golden Age, 23; Nellis M. Crouse, The French Struggle for the West Indies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), 310.
90. Davis, English Shipping Industry, 136–37.
91. Ibid., 27.
92. Ibid., 154.
93. Lloyd, British Seaman, 287, table 3; Davis, English Shipping Industry, 27, 31.
94. Davis, English Shipping Industry, 136–37;
95. Pringle, Jolly Roger, 266–67; Violet Barbour, “Privateers and Pirates of the West Indies,” American Historical Review 16 (1910–11): 566; Boyer, Political State, 28:152; Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37; “A Scheme for Stationing Men of War in the West Indies for better Securing the Trade there from Pirates,” CO 323/8 (1723); Boston News-Letter, July 7–14, 1726. Gary M. Walton, “Sources of Productivity Change in American Colonial Shipping, 1675–1775,” Economic History Review 20 (1967): 77. Walton notes that the economic uncertainty occasioned by piracy declined after 1725.
96. See “An Act for the more effectual Suppressing of Piracy” (8 George I, c. 24, 1721), in Sir Thomas Parker, The Laws of Shipping and Insurance, with a Digest of Adjudged Cases (London, 1775), republished in British Maritime Cases (Abingdon, Oxfordshire, 1978), 24: 94–95. If the population range discussed previously is accurate, about one pirate in ten died on the gallows, which would have represented a vastly higher ratio than in any other period of piracy.
97. E. P. Thompson, “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past & Present 50 (1971): 76–136.
98. Hayward, Remarkable Criminals, 37. See also Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas in the English Revolution (New York: Viking, 1972).
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