Pirates
1689-1717
John Rathbun (1628-1702)
Rhode Island’s long history of independence, strong commercial motivation, and plentiful coastline put it firmly into the Atlantic trade. This trade was both legal and illegal, depending on which government’s laws were being considered – and the interpretations were difficult when Rhode Island itself was issuing privateer commissions by the 1650s. Newport was the center of much of this as was, more conveniently offshore, Block Island.
At the outset, the colonies welcomed the goods and trade that pirates brought, as English and other laws often kept them wanting. In a village or a town, pirates could anchor and row ashore, but commerce was more ideal – and in greater quantities and speed – on a wharf. Newport’s Old Town Wharf, now called Long Wharf, first shows in the town records in 1685 and again in 1702 when it needed rebuilding. Newport offered the wharf to certain persons if they would repair it and keep it in order, with the right to collect the wharfage fees. John Rathbun was listed as a proprietor in 1702. The wharf connected town to Gravelly Point, which today is filled in and buried where the southern end of Washington Street turns onto Long Wharf. This was the execution site for of 26 of Edward Low’s pirates on July 19, 1723, somewhat marking the end of the “Golden Age” of piracy.
Although he kept homes in Newport, John Rathbun’s first home and most lands were on Block Island. He was one of the original proprietors and settlers of the island in 1661, where he – in partnership with Edward Vorse – was allotted 480 acres. John was admitted as a freeman of the Colony of Rhode Island in May 1664 by a committee that included Roger Williams. John represented Block (New Shoreham) in the Rhode Island General Assembly for five years, and was one of the Grand Jury in 1688. He was therefore a good target when pirates raided…
“In the year 1689, in the month of July, Mr. Rathbone had a very narrow escape from the French, who were then pillaging the Island. They inquired of some one or more of the people, who were the likeliest among them to have money? They told them of John Rathbone who was the most likely. The French proceeded to capture him, and demanded of him, as they supposed, his money. The captive denied having any besides a trifling sum. They endeavored to make him confess that he had more, and to deliver it to them, by tying him up and whipping him barbarously. While they were doing all this to an innocent man whom they mistook for the moneyed John Rathbone, the latter made his escape with his treasure. He indeed then had a son by the name of John, who, by bearing his father’s name, and by submitting to this terrible scourging, shielded his father and saved him from being robbed. This son probably lived in the house which stood near his father’s, as the locations are still known by the descendants of the first settler.” (source)
Samuel Niles was born on Block Island in 1674 and wrote in detail of the incident, which occurred at the outset of King William’s War between England and France. A small fleet dropped anchor off Block Island’s Eastern shore, and an Englishman named William Trimming rowed in to meet the townspeople, who awaited him armed on shore. Trimming said that his crew was French and Spanish and that their “captain’s name was Pekar, a Frenchman,” that they were bound for Newport from Jamaica, and stopped at Block for provisions and a pilot for Newport. Some islanders went aboard as pilots and were instantly restrained and questioned about the harbor defenses at Newport. Upon hearing of Newport’s strength, the pirates decided to sack Block Island and sent 150 men in three boats ashore with arms concealed. The islanders, although surprised at the immediate return to shore, verbally guided them in past some rocks, only to be met with gun barrels and told “if they stirred from the place, or made resistance, they were dead men.” The pirates locked the islanders in the house of James Sands as a prison and then “set upon plundering houses, and killing cattle, sheep and hogs…stripping people of their clothing, ripping up beds…” Multiple people, including John Rathbun, were whipped and beaten in the attempt to uncover money and valuables. After a week, with the mainland somehow notified, the pirates decided to attack New London but were repelled. They sailed back to Block, with part of the fleet diverting en route to the western harbor at Fishers Island. A party from Stonington observed the ships, crossed over to Fishers and, in a confrontation, killed Trimming. At the same time, two ships left Newport under captains Paine and Godfrey, who sailed for Block and then towards New London in chase. The Newport ships met the pirates in a heated engagement for several hours close to a wooded shore, likely in Fishers Island Sound. Niles reported that Paine, a former privateer, had once sailed with “Pekar together a-privateering.” Pekar survived the engagement, and the French sailed away, only to return to Block Island later that year in another raid, with Niles himself a victim. Shortly thereafter, at the age of 22, Niles went to Harvard or, then, “the college at Cambridge, the Rev. Dr. Increase Mather then being President.”
This captain “Pekar” was most certainly the pirate Pierre Le Picard who had sailed with both Henry Morgan and Francis L’Olonnais. Picard was the sort of man that knew how to assess coastal defenses, get information, and plunder settlements – having done so successfully all over the Caribbean and Latin America. The Block Island incident was toward the end of Picard’s career, which he ended in the French Canadian maritimes. That he served with L’Olonnais is incredibly revealing, as L’Olonnais was one of – if not “the” – most notorious of the Golden Age, even earning a portrait and much text in Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin’s 1684, The History of the Bucaniers, with Exquemelin himself having participated in all that he saw. It makes me wonder if Rathbun was whipped and tortured by Picard himself, as Picard most certainly knew of the methods preferred by L’Olonnais.
Exquemelin said “It was the custom of L’Ollonais that, having tormented any persons and they not confessing, he would instanty cut them in pieces with his hanger, and pull out their tongues; desiring to do the same, if possible, to every Spaniard in the world. Oftentimes it happened that some of these miserable prisoners, being forced thereunto by the rack, would promise to discover the places where the fugitive Spaniards lay hidden; which being not able afterwards to perform, they were put to more enormous and cruel deaths than they who were dead before.”
Once, L’Ollonais asked some survivors of a raid if any more Spaniards were still in hiding, “To whom they answered, there were. Then he commanded them to be brought before him, one by one, and asked if there was no other way to be found to the town but that? This he did out of a design to excuse, if possible, those ambuscades. But they all constantly answered him, they knew none. Having asked them all, and finding they could show him no other way, L’Ollonais grew outrageously passionate; insomuch that he drew his cutlass, and with it cut open the breast of one of those poor Spaniards, and pulling out his heart with his sacrilegious hands, began to bite and gnaw it with his teeth, like a ravenous wolf, saying to the rest: “I’ll serve you all alike, if you show me not another way.”
John Rathbun, Jr. (1655-1723)
John Rathbun, Jr., having had this unfortunate experience in 1689 with pirates on Block Island, shows up again in the town records in connection to a much larger story involving connections to some of the most famous pirates in the history of the trade: Sam Bellamy, Paulsgrave Williams, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach (Blackbeard), William Kidd, Olivier Levasseur (La Buse) and William Moody.
BLOCK ISLAND, NEW SHORAM
Aprell ye 19th 1717
We the subscribers testifie and say that as we went on board of a large Sloop, Paulsgrave Williams Commander, as by some of his men’s Report, and he Likewise being on shore to get some refreshment in order as he said to go to Boston on sd day aforementioned, we and several other went on bord with him. After that we had been on board of him about an houre or two (being then in our Harbor Bay) we all came out of sd Sloop into our Boat without any molestation; but after that we were put off from the Sloop Some distance Rowing to make the Harbor we were immediately Comande on bord again, not knowing what their business was with us; as soon as we came along side of the Sloop three of our men that were in our Boat with us were forcibly taken from us and commanded to come on board of them, one of which was pulled out of the boat into the Sloop by violence and the other two commanded to go on boarde of them. After this manner were those men taken from us (viz.) George Mitchell, William Otesh, and Doctur James Sweete; and forthere Deponents say not.
THOMAS DANIELS
JOHN RATHBUN
THOMAS PAIN
The three persons within personally appeared before me one of his majesty’s Wardins or Justices of the peace of Block Island and took their Sollem Ingagements to the contents within mention as attest pr. Me.
JOHN SANDS, Dep. Warden
MAY ye 19th 1717
My Self being present on bord the boat when the men were taken out as within mentioned. (source)
At this time, John Jr. was 62 years old. The ship was the MARIANNE, captained by Paulsgrave Williams, who had stopped in Block Island to see his wife, Elizabeth, and his sisters.
Williams was born in 1676 and his parents were John Williams and Anna Alcock (1650-1723). Anna’s parents were Dr. John Alcock and Sarah Paulsgrave. John Alcock was also one of the 16 purchasers and settlers of Block Island. Paulsgrave’s father, John, was a freeman of Newport, a representative of Block Island to the General Assembly, and the Attorney General in 1686. Williams grew up in Newport, where he was a silversmith.
The family was already connected to piracy. One of Paulsgrave’s sisters, Mary, married Edward Sands and lived on Block Island. Years before, Sarah Kidd and her six year old daughter, Sarah, stayed at Mary & Edward’s house when her husband, pirate William Kidd, was being pursued in June 1699. Kidd was no stranger to Block Island and had addressed a letter to Lord Bellomont in Boston from his June 24 anchorage on the ST. ANTONIO off what is now Crescent Beach north of Old Harbor – then called “Block Island Roads.” He had also already deposited two cannon with the Sands family. Mary Sands even accompanied the Kidds when they sailed to Gardiners Island the next day on a mission involving Kidd’s treasure. They then sailed for Boston. After Kidd’s ultimate imprisonment in Boston, his shipmate, John Gillam, from Newport, was back on Block Island and it was reported that “Edward Sands carried Gillam away westward in a small boat from Block Island.” Gillam was captured in Massachusetts and sent to London where he was tried and hung. A letter from Peleg Sanford to Governor John Winthrop of Connecticut captures the Block Island event:
Newport on Rhoad Island Augst 12, 1699
Honble Sr
Haveing used my utmost endeavors for appreheding one James Gillam Some time belonging unto Capt Kid Just now received advice from Block Island by persons comed on purpose that Said Gillam comeing from Some part of long Island in a Small boat, with one block Island man meeting in the Sound with a dutch sloop being becalmed the master of Sd Sloop came on board, the said boat and informed Gillam that there was warrants out for to Seize him and that Capt. Coddington was sent on purpose to Block Island for that end comeing unto Block Island and they went both on shore, but the said Gillam left the man going into his house and said Gillam went back againe unto the canoe and went on board the boat which he ran away with; it is supposed that he came directly to Capt. Paines to cononocu where its reported he left mony and yesterday seene about point Judeh as its supposed, and so may not as yet be got on beyond Fishers Island, being alone when ran away, there was in the boat a Chest Six pound in mony Clothes wheat and some tobacco, being so well Stored its like may have increased his company honored Dr. please to extend forth your authority wish diligent search for apprehending of him it will be of great service to his majesty and a favour to the Earle, Sr please to give your assistance for the Spedy convayance the incloased the which will greatly obleidg yor most humb Svt.
-Peleg Sanford
Sr I have now accott that a small Boat was seene going Betwene Fishers Island and the maine land about 12 o Clock yesterday.
Joseph Doane (1659-1757) & John Cole (1670-1746)
Williams likely befriended Samuel Bellamy in Massachusetts and, in 1716, they were together in the Caribbean and Bahamas with the intention of recovering the wrecks of a Spanish treasure fleet. They were unsuccessful, and made the transition from treasure hunting to piracy, where they soon joined a fleet under English pirate Benjamin Hornigold and his ship the MARIANNE. Hornigold refused to attack English ships and for this his crew voted him out and elected Bellamy to be the captain of the MARIANNE. Hornigold, as well as crew member Edward Teach, more widely known as Blackbeard, sailed another ship back to Nassau – where Bellamy and Williams were also based. In February 1717, between Cuba and Hispaniola, Bellamy and Williams captured the slave ship WHYDAH from a former member of Sir Henry Morgan’s fleet. It was named after a kingdom in Guinea, became Bellamy’s flagship, and Williams was placed in command of the MARIANNE.
Williams and Bellamy sailed northward up the Atlantic coast, in the MARIANNE and WHYDAH, respectively, taking prizes along the way. Their courses diverged, with Williams sailing to Block Island and Bellamy continuing on toward Damariscove Island in Maine, an island named for an original member of the Popham Colony later charted by Capt. John Smith. While Damariscove was primarily a fishing outpost, and one that helped the fledgling Plymouth colony survive, it was intended by Sam Bellamy to become a pirate republic – the northern bookend of the same in Nassau. Reaching it, however, required navigating the dangerous shoals around Nantucket and rounding Cape Cod.
Williams’ intentions while visiting Block Island related to family, but the record above relating to the seizing of John Jr. clearly shows that he was interested in augmenting his crew as well. It is unknown why John Rathbun and others “went on bord with him” and it’s not known whether the three that were subsequently taken out of the rowboat were due to the results of a fight or their physical position within the boat itself. Fortunately, John was not kept aboard, or I would not likely be typing this.
Bellamy was sailing the WHYDAH alongside the ANNE GALLEY, taken off Virginia, the MARY ANNE, captured by Bellamy between Nantucket and George’s Bank, and the FISHER, commandeered to act as a pilot around Cape Cod and beyond.
The Wrecking
After taking the MARY ANNE, Bellamy’s fleet found itself far too close to shore. He “gave orders…to Steer North-West and by North; Who answered, They would, and accordingly followed that Course, till about Four of the Clock in the afternoon, when the Ship and the Snow, which last was also taken and made a Prize of by Capt. Bellamy, and the Pink lay too, it being very thick, foggy Weather. And presently after the Snow came under the Ships Stern, and told Capt. Bellamy, They had made discovery of Land. Wherefore he ordered the Pink to Steer away North, which the Prisoners did; And when Night came on the Ship put out a Light a-Stern, as well as the Snow and the Pink: And also a Sloop from Virginia surprized and taken by Capt. Bellamy the same day; and then all of them made Sail again.”
The ships were caught in a strong nor’easter with Cape Cod as a lee shore and the WHYDAH went aground and sank on April 26, 1717. The wreck is within swimming distance between what is now Marconi Beach and the Marconi Station, both to the North of Nauset Lighthouse. Her treasure, 60 cannons, and all the implements of daily shipboard life went into less than 20 feet of water, where they were soon covered by a protective layer of sand. The crew was 146, and only two made it to shore alive. In later testimony that October at the trial, the scale and nature of the treasure was clearly presented: “Peter Hooff declares, That he was born in Sweden, is about 34 Years old, and left his Country 18 Years ago. The Money taken in the Whido, which was reported to Amount to 20000 or 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. No Married Men were forced. Their Money was kept in Chests between Decks without any guard, but none was to take any without the Quarter Masters leave.“
The MARY ANNE grounded between ten and eleven o’clock on the same night, and its crew came ashore just over four nautical miles south of the WHYDAH on a barrier island, Pochet, which is presently adjoined to the mainland. The following morning at around ten o’clock, according to later testimony by Thomas Fitzgerald, the former mate of the MARY ANNE, “two Men, viz. John Cole and William Smith came over to the Island in a Cannoe, and carry’d the Pink’s company to the Main Land; and then Mackconachy discovered the Pirates, so that they were Apprehended by Warrant from Mr. Justice Doan at Eastham.” Alexander Mackconacy and Thomas Fitzgerald were both original crew from the MARY ANNE, while the others were WHYDAH pirates. In later testimony at the Boston trial, “John Cole saith, That on the Twenty-seventh day of April last he saw the Prisoners now at the Bar, in Eastham soon after they were cast on shore, That they tarryed a short time at his house, and look’d very much dejected and cast down; they enquired the way to Rhode-Island, and made great haste from his house, tho‘ he asked them to tarry and refresh themselves.” Upon learning of the situation, Joseph Doane, justice of the peace, pursued them with a group of men and arrested them at an Eastham tavern and took them to the Barnstable jail.
Joseph Doane wrote the adjacent letter almost ten years later, on June 2, 1727, to William Dummer, who was made Lt. Governor of Massachusetts in 1716 and served until 1730.
The Petition of Joseph Doane of Eastham one of the members of the House of Representatives humbly showeth that your Petitioner In the month of April Anno:1717 being informed that a number of Men were cast on shoar on the backside of the Town of Eastham the night before who were suspected to be Pirates & had that Morning passed through sd. town Inquiring the way to Rhoad Island.
And your Petitioner being one of his Maj[isties] Justices of the Peace in the County there did judge it his Duty so to do took with him a Deputy Sheriff persued overtook Seized Examined & Committed Seven of the Pirates that belonged to the Ship Whida comanded by Samuel Bellame Capt. of the Pirates which sd. Pirates were cast on shore in a Pink by them taken the day before & two days after he your Petitioner seized Examined & Commited one Man more that got alive ashore out of sd. Ship Whida which was also cast on Shore the same night with the sd. Pink. In October next after, being the time when sd. Pirates had their tryall in Boston you Petitioner living one hundred Miles distant was directed by his Excellency Samuel Shute Esqr. Governour & Commander in Chief to be predent in Boston at the tryall of sd Pirates to Inform & c.
The Massachusetts governor, Samuel Shute, received news of the wreck and sent Capt. Cyprian Southack to investigate and recover any valuables. He arrived on May 3, 1717, Southack was also a skilled cartographer, and later made the adjacent map, where he noted his burial of bodies he found on the beach when he arrived on May 2, 1717. He could still see an anchor sticking out at low tide marking the spot where the ship broke up, but the wreck was spread for a distance of four miles. His journals indicate that, during is stay in Eastham (now Wellfleet), he stayed at the home of Joseph Doane. Locals, including John Cole, scoured the beach for treasure, but the majority remained offshore. Southack’s letter dated May 8, 1717 says “Fryday 26 April at 12 night Pirate Ship came a shore Saturday 27 instant at 5 morning came the English man that was saved of Pirate Ship came to the home of Samuel Harding two miles from the Reck. After a small time the said Harding took the English man on his horse and carred him to the Reck, the two made severall times from the Reck to Harding house, so they [. ] by 10 clock the same morning they got to the Rack about 10 men more and got a great deal of Riches. Sunday morning Joseph Doane Esq. Go to the Reck but all was gone off….so he commanded the Inhabtants to save what they could for the King.….The men that were Down first at the Reck: Samuel Harding, Joseph Collins Senr, Abiel Harding, Samuel Horton, Jonathan Cole, Edward Knowles, Thomas Wood, Samuel Airy”.
Joseph Doane was a son of Daniel Doane, brother of my ancestor Lydia Doane. John Cole is the eighth-great uncle of my wife, brother of her ancestor Joseph. Thus, both sides of our family spent time with the condemned WHYDAH pirates, whose names we know from the October 1717 Boston trial: “the said Simon Van Vorst, John Brown, Thomas South, Thomas Baker, Hendrick Quintor, Peter Cornelius Hoof, and John Shuan, all and each of them ought to be punished by Sentence of the said Court with the pains of Death, and loss of Lands, Goods and Chattels, according to the direction of the Law, and for an Example and Terror to all others.…you shall be carryed to the Place of Execution, and there you and each of you, shall be hanged up by the Neck until you & each of you are Dead; And the Lord have Mercy on your Souls.” They were preached to by Cotton Mather, who delivered a sermon and spoke with each at their final moment before the noose upon a tree on the Charlestown shore on November 15, 1717.
After leaving Block Island, Williams sailed the MARIANNE westward 30 nautical miles to Gardiner’s Island, New York, where he weathered the same storm that sunk the WHYDAH. He was in Maine by May, where he learned of the WHYDAH’s fate. After cruising by the location of the wreck, he sailed south to the Bahamas and eventually surrendered under King George I’s Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates. Around 1718, Williams headed out with pirates William Moody and, once again, Olivier Levasseur, towards Africa. His ultimate demise is unknown. Had he sailed towards Maine with Bellamy, it’s highly probable that he also would have perished off the Cape Cod beach.
The WHYDAH was the first intact and authenticated pirate shipwreck ever found, discovered by Barry Clifford in 1984. Finding the ship’s bell was the coup de grâce. WHYDAH’s artifacts and treasure – more than 200,000 pieces – continue to come up in a multi-year archaeological dig, all of which you can see at the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts.
In Their Own Words
While much of the modern conception of the pirate’s life is romanticized, much is based on fact, as seen by the documentation referenced here. Additional color from the WHYDAH trial testimony captures virtually all the classic trappings of the pirate life: muskets, pistols, cutlasses, a black flag with skull & crossbones, voting, burning, escaping, chasing, marooning, drinking, and threatening piratical speech:
Thomas Baker
“accordingly he went, but found that Bellamy would not discharge him, on the contrary threatned to set him ashore on a Moroon Island if he would not be easy. When they took Richards, Tosor and Williams they spread a large black Flag, with a Death’s Head and Bones a-cross, and gave chase to Captain Prince under the same Colours.“
Thomas South
“That the Pirates brought Arms to him, but he told them, He would not use any, for which he was much threatned…That they came on this Coast to meet their consort Paul Williams, whom they expected to find at Block Island. That he was One of Seven, who were sent on board the Pink, He told the Mate that he was a forced Man, and if he could get a-shoar he would run away.”
Thomas Fitzgerald
“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 Colours, 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.”
James Dunavan
“That Simon Van Vorst and the rest of the Prisoners at the Bar came on Board the Pink Armed, and had their Pistols Charged with Powder and Ball…And that the Prisoners at the Bar steer’d the Pink after Bellamy’s Ship, as he gave Orders. That they drank plentifully of the Wines on Board…The Deponent further saith, That he heard John Baker threaten to shoot Mackconachy, Cook of the Pink, thro’ the head, because he steer’d to the windward of his Course; and said moreover, That he would make no more to shoot him, than he would a Dog; and that he should never go on shoar to tell his Story.”
Thomas Baker
“That he attempted to make his escape at Spanish Town, and the Governour of that Place seemed to favour his design, till Capt. Bellamy and his Company sent the Governour word that they would burn & destroy the Town, if that the said Baker, and those that concealed themselves with him were not delivered up. And afterwards he would have made his escape at Crab Island, but was hindred by four of Capt. Bellamy’s Company.”
John Brown
“was taken to the Leeward of the Havana by two Piratical Sloops, one Commanded by Hornygold and the other by a Frenchman called Labous, each having 70 Men on Board….then left Labous and went on board the Sloop Commanded formerly by Hornygold, at that time by one Bellamy…Plying to the Windward the Morning they made Saba they spy’d 2 Ships, which they chased…Having plundered the Ships and taken out some Young Men they dismist the rest…and made a Man of War of Richard’s, which they put under the Command of Bellamy, and appointed Paul Williams Captain of their Sloop.”
Thomas Davis
“When the company was called together to Consuls, and each Man to give his Vote, they would not allow the forced Men to have a Vote. There were One hundred and thirty forced Men in all, and Eighty of the Old company; and this Examinate being a forced Man had no opportunity to discover his Mind…All the New Men were Sworn to be true and not to cheat the company to the value of a piece of Eight.“
Simon Van Vorst
“They cleaned at St. Croix, where 3 of their Men Ran away, and one of them being brought back was severely whipped….The Examinate went on Board Crumpsty’s Pink Armed with a Gun and Pistol, and he and the other 6, who were with him were all equal as to the commanding part, being in course according to the list or Watch Bill.”