A General History of the Pyrates
Encyclopedia
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates is a 1724
book published in Britain, containing biographies
of contemporary pirates. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, it is the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates. Its author uses the name Captain Charles Johnson
, generally considered a pseudonym
.
or the publisher Nathaniel Mist
(or somebody working for him).
In his book, The Republic of Pirates, Colin Woodard states:
. The author specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag Jolly Roger; Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts
in June, 1721, and English pirate Francis Spriggs
in December 1723. In giving an almost mythical status to the more colourful characters, such as the infamous English pirates Blackbeard
and Calico Jack
, the book provided the standard account of the lives of many people still famous in the 21st century, and influenced pirate literature of Robert Louis Stevenson
and J.M.Barrie.
The book was released in two volumes. The first mostly deals with early 18th century pirates, while volume II records the exploits of their predecessors a few decades earlier. In the first volume "Johnson" sticks fairly close to the available sources, though he embellishes the stories somewhat. He stretches the truth farther in the second volume, and includes the biographies of three subjects who may be entirely fictional. The book has been hugely influential in shaping popular notions of piracy, and in 1925 the pirate historian Philip Gosse wrote;
While the majority of facts in Johnson's History have proven to be accurate, it is likely that he used considerable licence in his accounts of pirate conversations.
The buccaneers profiled in Volume I are Henry Every
, Blackbeard
, Stede Bonnet
, Calico Jack Rackham
, Israel Hands
, Edward England
, Charles Vane
, Mary Read
, Anne Bonny
, Howell Davis
, Bartholomew ("Black Bart") Roberts
, Thomas Anstis
, Richard Worley
, George Lowther
, Edward Lowe, John Evans
, James Martel
, Francis Spriggs
, John Smith, John Gow
, and Roche Braziliano
. Volume II features Thomas Tew
, William Kidd
, John Bowen
, John Halsey
, Thomas White, Thomas Howard
, David Williams, Samuel Burgess
, Nathaniel North
, Christopher Condent
, Samuel Bellamy
, and William Fly
, as well as biographies of the probably fictional captains James Misson, Lewis, and Cornelius.
1724 in literature
The year 1724 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:* Anonymous - A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard The year 1724 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:* Anonymous - A Narrative of All the Robberies,...
book published in Britain, containing biographies
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of contemporary pirates. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, it is the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates. Its author uses the name Captain Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson (pirate biographer)
Captain Charles Johnson is the British author of the 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, though his identity remains a mystery. No record of a captain by this name exists. Some scholars have suggested that "Charles Johnson" was actually Daniel...
, generally considered a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
.
Authorship
The author has remained unknown in spite of numerous attempts by historians to discover his or her identity. Many scholars have suggested that author could have been either Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
or the publisher Nathaniel Mist
Nathaniel Mist
Nathaniel Mist was an 18th century British printer and journalist whose Mist's Weekly Journal was the central, most visible, and most explicit opposition newspaper to the whig administrations of Robert Walpole. Where other opposition papers would defer, Mist's would explicitly attack the...
(or somebody working for him).
In his book, The Republic of Pirates, Colin Woodard states:
Contents
A General History introduced many features which later became common in pirate literature, such as pirates with missing legs or eyes, the myth of pirates burying treasure, and the name of the pirates flag the Jolly RogerJolly Roger
The Jolly Roger is any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones, a flag consisting of a human skull above two long bones set in an x-mark arrangement on a black field. This design was used by...
. The author specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag Jolly Roger; Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts , born John Roberts, was a Welsh pirate who raided ships off America and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. He was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy. He is estimated to have captured over 470 vessels...
in June, 1721, and English pirate Francis Spriggs
Francis Spriggs
Francis Spriggs was a British pirate who, associated with George Lowther and Edward Low, was active in the Caribbean and the Bay of Hounduras during the early 1720s.-Early career:...
in December 1723. In giving an almost mythical status to the more colourful characters, such as the infamous English pirates Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
and Calico Jack
Calico Jack
John Rackham , commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas during the early 18th century...
, the book provided the standard account of the lives of many people still famous in the 21st century, and influenced pirate literature of Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
and J.M.Barrie.
The book was released in two volumes. The first mostly deals with early 18th century pirates, while volume II records the exploits of their predecessors a few decades earlier. In the first volume "Johnson" sticks fairly close to the available sources, though he embellishes the stories somewhat. He stretches the truth farther in the second volume, and includes the biographies of three subjects who may be entirely fictional. The book has been hugely influential in shaping popular notions of piracy, and in 1925 the pirate historian Philip Gosse wrote;
"Not a long while ago it was the custom to smile indulgently at Johnson's History as being a mixture of fact and fancy, but from time to time old documents have been rescued from some dusty nook of oblivion which have proved his good faith. Many of the incidents looked upon as imaginary are found all to be absolutely accurate in date and circumstance".
While the majority of facts in Johnson's History have proven to be accurate, it is likely that he used considerable licence in his accounts of pirate conversations.
The buccaneers profiled in Volume I are Henry Every
Henry Every
Henry Every, also Avery or Avary, , sometimes given as John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the mid-1690s. He likely used several aliases throughout his career, including Benjamin Bridgeman, and was known as Long Ben to his crewmen and associates...
, Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
, Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet was an early 18th-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes called "the gentleman pirate" because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his...
, Calico Jack Rackham
Calico Jack
John Rackham , commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas during the early 18th century...
, Israel Hands
Israel Hands
Israel Hands was an 18th century pirate, also known as Basilica Hands. Hands is best known for being second in command to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard...
, Edward England
Edward England
Edward England, born Edward Seegar in Ireland, was a famous African coast and Indian Ocean pirate captain from 1717 to 1720. The ships he sailed on included the Pearl and later the Fancy, for which England exchanged the Pearl in 1720...
, Charles Vane
Charles Vane
Charles Vane was an English pirate who preyed upon English and French shipping. His pirate career lasted from 1716 - 1719. His flagship was a brigantine named the Ranger....
, Mary Read
Mary Read
Mary Read was an English pirate. She is chiefly remembered as one of only two women known to have been convicted of piracy during the early 18th century, at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy....
, Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny was an Irish woman who became a famous female pirate, operating in the Caribbean. What little is known of her life comes largely from A General History of the Pyrates.-Historical record:...
, Howell Davis
Howell Davis
Captain Howell Davis was a Welsh pirate. His piratical career lasted just 11 months, from July 11, 1718 to June 19, 1719, when he was ambushed and killed. His ships were the Cadogan, Buck, Saint James, and Rover...
, Bartholomew ("Black Bart") Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts , born John Roberts, was a Welsh pirate who raided ships off America and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. He was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy. He is estimated to have captured over 470 vessels...
, Thomas Anstis
Thomas Anstis
Thomas Anstis was an early 18th century pirate, who served under Captain Howell Davis and Captain Bartholomew Roberts, before setting up on his own account, raiding shipping on the eastern coast of the American colonies and in the Caribbean during what is often referred to as the "Golden Age of...
, Richard Worley
Richard Worley
Richard Worley was an English pirate who was active in the Caribbean Sea and the east coast of the American colonies during the early 18th century. He is credited as one of the earliest pirates to fly the first version of the skull and crossbones pirate flag...
, George Lowther
George Lowther (pirate)
George Lowther was an 18th century English pirate who, although little is known of his life, was active in the Caribbean and Atlantic...
, Edward Lowe, John Evans
John Evans (pirate)
John Evans was a Welsh pirate who had a short but successful career in the Caribbean.Evans was the master of a sloop operating from the island of Nevis until he lost his employment there. For a while he found employment as a mate of ships sailing from Jamaica...
, James Martel
John Martel (pirate)
John Martel, sometimes called James Martel, was a Jamaican pirate captain.Martel is believed to have been a privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession. After the war, like many other privateers, he turned to piracy...
, Francis Spriggs
Francis Spriggs
Francis Spriggs was a British pirate who, associated with George Lowther and Edward Low, was active in the Caribbean and the Bay of Hounduras during the early 1720s.-Early career:...
, John Smith, John Gow
John Gow
John Gow was a notorious pirate whose short career was immortalized by Charles Johnson in A General History of the Pyrates. Little is known of his life, except from an account by Daniel Defoe, which is often considered unreliable, the report on his execution, and an account by Mr...
, and Roche Braziliano
Roche Braziliano
Roche Braziliano , was a Dutch pirate born in the town of Groningen. His pirate career lasted from 1654 until his disappearance around 1671...
. Volume II features Thomas Tew
Thomas Tew
Thomas Tew , also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th century English privateer-turned-pirate. Although he embarked on only two major piratical voyages, and met a bloody death on the latter journey, Tew pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Many other famous pirates,...
, William Kidd
William Kidd
William "Captain" Kidd was a Scottish sailor remembered for his trial and execution for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer...
, John Bowen
John Bowen (pirate)
John Bowen was a pirate of Créole origin active during the Golden Age of Piracy. He sailed with other famous contemporaries, including Nathaniel North and George Booth, who was his captain when he served under him as a crewman aboard the Speaker...
, John Halsey
John Halsey
John Halsey was a colonial American privateer and a later pirate who was active in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the early 18th century. Although much of his life and career is unknown, he is recorded in A General History of the Pyrates which states "He was brave in his Person, courteous...
, Thomas White, Thomas Howard
Thomas Howard (pirate)
Thomas Howard was a pirate primarily active in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea during the Golden Age of Piracy. He served under other pirates of the time, including George Booth and John Bowen. He also commanded the 36-gun Prosperous. He later retired to Rapajura, in India, where he married a...
, David Williams, Samuel Burgess
Samuel Burgess
For the English rugby league footballer of the same name see Sam BurgessCaptain Samuel Burgess was a member of Captain William Kidd's crew in 1690 when the Blessed William was seized....
, Nathaniel North
Nathaniel North (pirate)
Nathaniel North was a pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy who operated in the Indian Ocean. He served under John Bowen and succeeded him as captain of the Defiant following Bowen's retirement in 1704. After losing the Defiant, he was ruler of a pirate colony at Ambonavoula made up of his former...
, Christopher Condent
Christopher Condent
Christopher Condent , born in Plymouth in Devon, was an English pirate who led the return to the Eastern Seas. He and his crew fled New Providence in 1718, when Woodes Rogers became governor of the island....
, Samuel Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy , aka "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century....
, and William Fly
William Fly
Captain William Fly was an English pirate who raided New England shipping until he was captured by some of the crew of a seized ship. He was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts. Reportedly, Fly approached the hanging with complete disdain and even reproached the hangman for doing a poor job, remaking...
, as well as biographies of the probably fictional captains James Misson, Lewis, and Cornelius.