Part One
By Laura Nelson
When you read the transcripts of their interrogations
before their trial for piracy in Boston, Massachusetts on October 18, 1717, it
is amazing how much John Brown had to say in his deposition before trial than
any of the other pirates did.1
There is no explanation of why his deposition is so much longer than the
others. Unfortunately the questions he and the others were asked are not
recorded. But he definitely comes across as a talkative pirate.
Special note: The John Brown who sailed on the Whydah
Galley and was hanged for piracy should not be confused with the John Brown
whose brigantine was captured by the London-born pirate William Moody in 1718
while she was at anchor in the Bay of Caroline.3
Continuing
with John’s narrative, “Labous kept the Examinate on board his Sloop
about 4 months, the English Sloop under Hornygolds command keeping
company with them all that time.'
“Off Cape Corante they
took two Spanish Briganteens without any resistance laden with Cocoa from Maraca.
The Spaniards not coming up to the Pirates demand about ransom were put a-shore
and their Briganteens burn'd. They sailed next to the Isle of Pines,
where meeting with 3 or 4 English Sloops empty, they made use of them in
cleaning their own, and gave them back.'
“From thence they Sailed to Hispaniola in the
latter end of May, where they tarryed about 3 months. The Examinate then
left Labous and went on board the Sloop Commanded formerly by Hornygold,
at that time by one Bellamy, who upon a difference arising amongst the
English Pirates because Hornygold refused to take and plunder English
Vessels, was chosen by a great Majority their Captain & Hornygold
departed with 26 hands in a prize Sloop, Bellamy having then on Board
about 90 Men, most of them English.”4
“Bellamy and Labous
sailed to the Virgin Islands, and took several small Fishing Boats and
off St. Croix a French Ship laden with Flower and Fish from Canada,
and having taken out some of the Flower gave back the Ship.' being brought back
was severely whipped
According to Simon Van Vorst in his testimony before
the same trial, “They cleaned at St. Croix, where 3 of their Men Ran
away, and one of them being brought back was severely whipped.”5
“Plying to the
Windward the Morning they made Saba they spy'd 2 Ships, which they
chased and came up with, one was Commanded by Capt. Richards, the other
by Capt. Tosor both bound to the Bay. Having plundered the Ships
and taken out some Young Men they dismissed the rest & likewise Tosor's
Ship, and made a Man of War of Richards's, which they put under the
Command of Bellamy, and appointed Paul Williams Captain of their
Sloop.”
The ship that they made a Man of War of would have been
the Sultana, according to research by Barry Clifford and Ken Kinkor.6
Simon Van Vorst says of this time that “he saw many of Williams's,
Tosor's, and Richards's Men Cry & express their Grief upon
their being compelled to go with Bellamy.”7
John goes on to say
that, “Next Day they took a Bristol Ship, Commanded by James Williams
from Ireland laden with Provisions, and having taken out what Provisions
they wanted and 2 or 3 of the Crew, let her go. They parted with their French
consort at the Island of Blanco and stood away with their Ship and Sloop
to the Windward passage, where in the latter end of February last they met with
Capt. Lawrence Prince in a Ship of 300 Ton called the Whido with
18 guns mounted, and 50 Men bound from Jamaica to London laden
with Sugar, Indigo, Jesuits Bark and some Silver and Gold, and having given
chase 3 Days took him without any other resistance then his firing two chase
Guns at their Sloop, & came to an Anchor at Long Island. Bellamy's
crew and Williams's consisted of 120 Men.'
“They gave the Ship
taken from Capt. Richards to Capt. Prince, and loaded her with as
much of the best and finest goods as She could carry, and gave Capt. Prince
above Twenty Pounds in Silver and Gold to bear his charges. They took 8 or 10
Men belonging to Capt. Prince, the Boatswain and two more were forced,
the rest being volunteers.'
“Off Pettiguavis
they took an English Ship hired by the French laden with Sugar and Indigo, and
having taken out what they had occasion for, and some of the Men, dismist[sic]
her.'
“Then they stood away
for the Capes of Virginia, being 130 Men in company, and having lost sight of
their Sloop the Day before they made the Land, they cruised ten Days according
to agreement between Bellamy and Williams, on which time they
seized 3 Ships and one Snow, two of them from Scotland, one from Bristol,
and the fourth a Scotch Ship from Barbadoes with a little Rum and Sugar
on Board, so leaky that the Men refused to proceed farther. The Pirates sunk
her.'
“Having lost the Sloop they kept the Snow, which was
taken from one Montgomery, being about 100 Ton and manned her with 18
hands, which with her own Crew made up the number of 18 Men; the other 2 Ships
were discharged being first plundered. They made the best of their way for Cape
Cod intending to clean their S hip at Green Island (having one Lambeth
& an Indian born at Cape Cod for Pilots) and on Friday the 26th
of April last to the Eastward of Cape Cod took a Pink laden with
Wine from Madeira, last from Boston, bound to New York.
They sent seven Men on Board called out on the Watch Bill,8
of whom the Examinate was one.”
John then spoke
briefly about the pirates in general, saying that “there were about 50 Men
forced, over whom the Pirates kept a watchful eye, and no Man was suffered to
write a word, but what was Nailed up to the Mast. The names of the forced Men
were put in the Watch Bill and fared as others, they might have had what Money
they wanted from the Quarter Master, who kept a Book for that purpose, but this
Examinate took only Cloaths[sic].'
“It was the common report in their Ship, that they had
about 20000 Pounds in Gold and Silver.” According to fellow pirate Peter
Cornelius Hoof, in his testimony before trial, “The Money taken in the Whido,
which was reported to Amount to 20000 30000 Pounds, was counted over in the
Cabin, and put up in bags, Fifty Pounds to every Man's share, there being 180
Men on Board.”9
John concluded his
narrative by commenting that “Peter Hoof was once whip'd[sic] for attempting to
Run-away, and the he and every one of the other Prisoners were forced to Join
the Pirates.”
During the trial on October 2nd, 1717,
Thomas FitzGyrald, late Mate of the Pink Mary Anne of Dublin, Ireland,
testified that “on Friday 26th Day of the said month (April),
between the Hours of Four & Six of the Clock in the morning, they
discovered two Sail a-Stern, viz. A large Ship and a Snow between Nantucket
Shoals & St. Georges Banks, which came up with the Pink in the Morning, with
the Kings Ensign and Pendant flying; the large Ship was found to be the Whido,
whereof Samuel Bellamy a Pirate was Commander, Who ordered the Pink to
strike her Colors, and then hoisted out their Boat, and sent the Seven
Prisoners now at the Bar, on board the said Pink, all Armed with Musquets,
Pistols, and Cutlashes.”10
Captain Crumpstey was
ordered to go on board the Whydah along with 5 of his hands and show Bellamy
his papers. The seven pirates (the original group included Thomas South, who
was acquitted at trial,) remained on board the Mary Anne. After a while
several more members of the crew of the Whydah came on board looking for wine,
but had to be content with only a small quantity and some of the clothes of the
Mary Anne's crewmembers.
The pirates took
command of the Mary Anne, and after receiving orders from Bellamy
proceeded to follow the Whydah, steering North-West by North. They continued on
until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. At that point all of the ships laid too
because the weather was turning thick and foggy. They came under the Whydah's
stern and told Bellamy that they had discovered land. Bellamy ordered them to
steer North. As night came on the ships put out lights on their sterns.
Bellamy ordered the Mary Anne to “make more
haste: Whereupon John Brown Swore, That he would carry Sail till she carryed
her Masts away.”11
This entire time the
pirates drank generous amounts of wine and took turns manning the helm. One of
the witnesses, James Dunavan, who was a crewman aboard the Mary Anne, testified
that atone point during the evening John threatened “to shoot the ship's cook
because he failed to steer the correct course.”
“A few drinks later, Brown became even more surly, declaring
that he would shoot him like a dog to make sure that he would not live to tell
his story.”
Unfortunately the Mary
Anne proved leaky, “so all hands were forced to Pump hard, and therefore
they Damn'd the Vessel and wished they had never seen her.”12
The weather continued
to deteriorate. Around 10 o'clock that night the lightning and rain was so
heavy that they were unable to see the shore until they were among the
breakers. Before they could trim the head-sail the Mary Anne ran ashore.
This was between 10 and 11 o'clock. They landed to the south of Cape Cod.
According to Alexander Mackconachy, a crewman on the Mary Anne, it was
at this point “That Thomas Baker cut down the Fore-mast & Mizen-mast of the
pink when she run on shoar.”13
At this point, one of
the pirates, not named, cried out: “For God's sake let us go down into the
Hould & Die together.”14 The entire company spent
the night in the hold.
Thomas FitzGyrald went
on to say that “in their distress, the prisoners ask'd the Deponent to Read to
them the Common-Prayer Book, which he did about an Hour.”15
In the morning they
discovered that the shore side of the Mary Anne was dry, and so they walked out
onto an island. They hung around there until about 10 o'clock, eating
sweetmeats and some other goodies they had found in one of the crewmen's chests
and drank more wine.
It was at about this
time that two men, John Cole and William Smith arrived at the
island in a canoe and rowed the men over to the mainland. Thomas FitzGyrald
says that it was fellow crewmember Alexander Mackconachy who exposed the
pirates for who they were. They eventually were caught while stopping over in a
tavern in Eastham.
Mr. FitzGyrald also
related that “while they were on the Island, Brown and others would have
him call himself Captain of the Pink, and give out that the Pirates on Board
were his Men.”16 He also related that the pirates were very
eager to be on their way to Rhode Island, which at that time was a known pirate
haunt.
During his testimony at
the trial, John Brett, Mariner, said that while he was held prisoner for 18
days on the Isle of Pines, in June of 1716, “John Brown was as active on Board
the Pirate Sloop as the rest of the Company.”17
Another witness, Moses
Norman, said that “he knows Thomas [sic] Brown, and saw him in
company with the Pirates belonging to Capt. Bellamy & Monsieur Labous
when the Deponent was taken with Capt. Brett in the Month of June, 1716.
That he was carryed to the Isle of Pines, and kept Prisoner Seventeen or
Eighteen days, during all which time the said Thomas Brown was very active on
board of Capt. Labous.”18
Later on that afternoon
the pirates were allowed to speak in their own defense. In what apparently is a
typo by the printer of the transcripts, it says that “Thomas Brown
pretended himself also to be a forced Man, but produced no Evidence to make it
appear to the Court.”19
After giving their
defense, the pirates were sent out of the room while the court voted on their
guilt or innocence. When they returned, John “pleaded the benefit of Clergy,
which was denyed him, being contrary to law.”20
Then the court
pronounced them guilty of the crimes of piracy, robbery, and felon, and,
sentenced them to death by hanging. They were scheduled to be hanged on
November 15th, at Charlestown Ferry “within flux and reflux of the
sea.”21
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clifford, Barry, and
Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the
Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic, Washington,
D.C.
Clifford, Barry, with
Paul Perry, Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World's First Excavation of
a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her. Cliff Street Books, 1999.
Cordingly, David, Under
the Black Flag, The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates,
Random House Trade Paperback Edition, New York, 2006.
“The Trials of Eight
Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited
by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007.
ENDNOTES
1Executed
along with John were: John Shuan, Hendrick Quintor, Thomas Baker, Peter
Cornelius Hoof, and Simon Van Vorst.
2“
The Trials of Eight Persons Indited[sic] for Piracy” in British Piracy in
the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto,
2007, p 317
3Cordingly,
David, Under the Black Flag, the Romance and the Reality of Life Among the
Pirates, Random House Trade Paperback Edition, New York, 2006, p 167
4Clifford,
Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates: The Untold
Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic,
Washington, D.C. At this time, Hornigold's crew included a man named Edward
Teach, who would soon become the legendary Blackbeard.
5“
The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the
Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007,
p 319
6Clifford,
Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates: The Untold
Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic,
Washington, D.C., p 58
7“
The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the
Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007,
p 319
8Duty
roster
9“
The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the
Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007,
p 319
10“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 303
11“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 303
12“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304
13“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 305
14“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304
15“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304
16“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304
17“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 305
18“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 305
19“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 306
20“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 308
21“The
Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden
Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 308
