{"id":11881,"date":"2015-11-13T11:47:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T16:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=11881"},"modified":"2015-11-13T11:47:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T16:47:59","slug":"is-there-a-pirate-in-your-family-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/is-there-a-pirate-in-your-family-tree.html","title":{"rendered":"Is There a Pirate in Your Family Tree?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog article, Mary searches old newspapers to learn more about pirates \u2013 their legends, and their true stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

As long as there have been newspapers, there have been stories published about pirates. You can certainly find lots of them in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Search Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Use these search terms to find pirate stories in the old newspapers: buccaneer, buried treasure, corsair, freebooter, marauder, raiders and privateer.<\/p>\n

\"illustration<\/a>
Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division: LC-H824-T01-240<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So avast ye family historians \u2013 is there a pirate in your family tree? Some of the stories I found in old newspapers will shiver ye timbers. Read on if you want to know more about this spine-tingling topic.<\/p>\n

Pirate John Quelch (1666-1704)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Private ship owners were often commissioned to make reprisals or gain reparations for the British crown. They were called \u201cprivateers.\u201d When they seized an enemy ship it was called a \u201cprize\u201d and all was perfectly legal. Proceeds were split, so it was a lucrative undertaking. But not all excursions went well.<\/p>\n

Ponder Captain Daniel Plowman\u2019s story. In 1703 he was commissioned a privateer by Governor Joseph Dudley, who happens to be one of my ancestors. His ship the Charles<\/em> was authorized to attack French and Spanish ships off the coast of Newfoundland and Arcadia, but his crew soon mutinied and murdered him. See Wikipedia\u2019s article about Quelch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[search_box]<\/p>\n

John Quelch, Plowman\u2019s lieutenant, was elected leader and turned the Charles<\/em> south to plunder Portuguese ships off the Brazilian coast. Legend has it that some of the pirates\u2019 captured gold was later buried on New Hampshire\u2019s Star Island. After looting and plundering for ten months, they returned to Marblehead, Massachusetts, where some of them were captured. Quelch and five others were executed and the rest put in jail. After languishing for 13 months, a pardon was granted to Charles James, William Wilder, John Dorrothy, John Pittman, John Carter, Dennis Carter and Charles King. Perhaps one of them is your ancestor.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Boston News-Letter (Boston, Massachusetts), 23 July 1705, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pirate Narratives<\/strong><\/p>\n

Encounters with pirates were the tabloid sensations of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

This gripping report describes actions with a pirate schooner, chases and even how a brig was \u201cmuch cut up with musquetry.\u201d During one encounter the captain was burned from a gun powder explosion but survived, with the fight leaving several pirates dead on the ship\u2019s deck.<\/p>\n

\"stories<\/a>
Hallowell Gazette (Hallowell, Maine), 12 June 1822, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Obituaries That Mention Pirates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pirate encounters often followed men to their death by appearing in their obituaries.<\/p>\n

James MacAlpine, who passed away in 1775, had been \u201ctaken by a French Pirate and carried into Rattan, where he lived six weeks entirely upon turtle…\u201d Interestingly, this forced diet cured him of consumption which earlier had nearly killed him.<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
Pennsylvania Ledger (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 1 April 1775, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This next obit from 1789 for Captain Luke Ryan reports that his ship Black Privateer<\/em> had \u201ccaptured more vessels belonging to Great Britain than any other single ship during the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being captured in 1781, Ryan was tried as a pirate and thrown into the Old Bailey prison. Although condemned to be executed on four different occasions, each time he was reprieved \u2013 though he ended up dying in prison.<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
Massachusetts Centinel (Boston, Massachusetts), 7 October 1789, page 26<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Famous Pirates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ever wonder if legendary pirates were real? Even if they stretch the truth, some of the anecdotal articles you can find in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> are marvelous.<\/p>\n

For example, there is this 1789 account of one of Blackbeard\u2019s legends. After a swordfight that went \u201cpell mell,\u201d Blackbeard supposedly \u201creceived a severe stroke on the shoulder\u201d from a lieutenant from a \u201cBritish ship of war\u201d who had challenged the old pirate to single combat. \u201cHah, cried he, that\u2019s well struck brother soldier!\u201d A stronger blow followed that \u201csevered his black head from his shoulders.\u201d The old newspaper article reports that Blackbeard\u2019s head was then boiled and a drinking cup made out of his skull. The cup was presented to a \u201ckeeper of a publick house, as a cup to drink punch out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Massachusetts Centinel (Boston, Massachusetts), 26 August 1789, page 186<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Believe It or Not<\/strong><\/p>\n

The depth of one\u2019s imagination often runs wild when it comes to the subject of pirates.<\/p>\n

In 1820 a man identified only as J— D— passed away, supposedly at the age of 103. He claimed to have been one of the crew of the \u201cold noted pirate\u201d Captain Kidd. Since Captain William Kidd (1645-1701) died 119 years earlier, it\u2019s apparent that this claim merely came from JD\u2019s vivid imagination.<\/p>\n

\"obituaries,<\/a>
Concord Observer (Concord, New Hampshire), 17 January 1820, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any Pirates in Your Family History?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please share your genealogical pirate stories in the comments section.<\/p>\n

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Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog article, Mary searches old newspapers to learn more about pirates \u2013 their legends, and their true stories. As long as there have been newspapers, there have been stories published about pirates. You can certainly find lots of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[10788,10766,5287,10776,10783,10768,10772,10782,10779,10775,1658,2233,10769,12,465,2424,5351,10784,9537,10778,10780,10770,10774,10790,5352,10786,10785,2020,27,4818,1084,5059,10765,10781,10773,10767,10771,10787,5969,10789,10777],"class_list":["post-11881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-blackbeard","tag-buccaneers","tag-carter","tag-charles-james","tag-charles-king","tag-corsairs","tag-daniel-plowman","tag-dennis-carter","tag-dorrothy","tag-dudley","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-freebooters","tag-genealogy","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-historical-obituaries","tag-james","tag-james-macalpine","tag-john-carter","tag-john-dorrothy","tag-john-pittman","tag-john-quelch","tag-joseph-dudley","tag-kidd","tag-king","tag-luke-ryan","tag-macalpine","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-newspapers-for-genealogy","tag-obituaries","tag-obituary-archives","tag-pirates","tag-pittman","tag-plowman","tag-privateers","tag-quelch","tag-ryan","tag-wilder","tag-william-kidd","tag-william-wilder"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}