Jeremy R. Moss - The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet

The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate,

Major Stede Bonnet

by Jeremy R. Moss

Copyright 2020 Jeremy R. Moss

ISBN 978-1-64663-150-6

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the author.

REVIEW COPY: This is an advanced printing subject to corrections and revisions.

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THE

LIFE AND TRYALS

OF THE

GENTLEMAN PIRATE,

MAJOR STEDE BONNET

JEREMY R. MOSS

For my wife, Katy, and children, Silas, Aidan and Boadin.

You are the worlds greatest adventure.

Avast, Ahoy, Aye Aye!

AVAST, AHOY, AYE AYE!

Foreword

B efore my second son was born, I would spend weekend mornings with my oldest son, who was only one at the time, so that my then-pregnant wife could rest. On many of these early mornings we would find ourselves at the local library or coffee shop. On one particular morning, we ended up at my favorite local coffee shop in Virginia Beach, Three Ships.

Three Ships was the perfect place for a new father to take his young son. Rustic but vibrant, Three Ships serves delicious coffee and biscuits, and the maritime decor always captivated my young son. We would look at all the pictures on the wall, and I would describe the tall ships, whalers, and schooners.

On this particular visit, though, I picked a small book of local ghost stories. Flipping through its pages, I was particularly enchanted by stories of Blackbeard the pirate, who shared a rich history with Virginia Beach (some of which is discussed in this book). I was immediately hooked, and searched for more and more stories of Blackbeard and his compatriots.

On one hand, I was surprised by the small number of scholarly, historical works about pirates. I expected hundreds of books would have been written over the 300 years since piracys Golden Age. Instead, I found only dozens. Nonetheless, I consumed every book and article I could find.

As I read about Blackbeard, I continued to come across references to a lesser-known compatriot, Major Stede Bonnet. Of all the notorious and well-known pirates who ravaged the coastal waters of early America and the Caribbean, Bonnet stood out as the least likely among them to be called to the life of a sea wolf, a beast of prey, or enemy of mankind.

Major Stede Bonnet was a Gentleman of good Reputation, a Master of a plentiful Fortune, and was given the Advantage of a liberal Education. An heir to an established landowning aristocratic family in Barbados, Bonnet enjoyed luxuries equal to that of the finest houses in London.

But Bonnets life in Barbados was not without trials and discontent. The call of the sea and, perhaps more significantly, the push of his family life cast Major Bonnet onto the unlikely and deliberate course toward piracy.

Easily likable, by friend and foe, many would be drawn to Bonnet. Even now, it is easy to understand how the call of open space, freedom and adventure can have significant impacts on a mans soul. But, for the sane and rational, the duty and love of family quells bouts of wanderlust that may present themselves.

Not for Bonnet. When the whispers of adventure and wanderlust were heard by Bonnet on the Barbadian winds, Bonnet followed them.

While very surprising to everyone, to hear of the Majors life of piracy, Bonnet, through happenstance and luck (good and bad) became one of the most successful and notorious archipirata of the Golden Age of Piracy.

In his two years of piracy, Stede Bonnet stood alongside some of the New Worlds most notorious pirates, including Charles Vane, Charles Condent (also known as Billy One-Hand), Robert Deal, Calico John Rackham, Israel Hands, Benjamin Hornigold, William Kidd, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and the pirate to whom Bonnet will forever be connected, Edward Thatch (infamously known worldwide as Blackbeard).

Through Bonnets brief exploits, he was able to amass a fortune worth almost $5.5 million in todays dollars, putting him as the fifteenth highest-earning pirate according to a 2008 Forbes magazine article.

Obviously different from the rest, Bonnet is affectionately known as the Gentleman Pirate and was generally esteemed and honored, rather pitied than condemned, even after he broke out into open Acts of Piracy. Even after his capture and death sentence, his capturer, Colonel William Rhett, offered to escort Bonnet to England for purposes of an appeal or pardon.

Even with a sparse historical record for many pirates, collections of original source documents are beginning to make their way onto the internet in scanned and translated form.

One of the most significant resources in studying the life of Major Stede Bonnet is Bonnets trial transcript, which still survives in published form today at the National Archives in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally republished in London in 1719 as The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates , the court transcript was supplemented with a preface describing the capture of Bonnet and his ship, Revenge , along with several appendices containing witness depositions and statements used by the prosecution at trial. Recently, the Library of Congress digitized The Tryals , making the transcript available online, in searchable format, for viewing or download.

The Tryals is a unique resource, providing contemporaneous, firsthand accounts from several members of Bonnets crew, including Bonnet himself. Combined with genealogical sources from Barbados, letters from governors, ship captains, and other colonial and English officials, and secondhand sources (like A General History of Pyrates ), much of Bonnets life can be pieced together.

In writing this book, my philosophy has been to seek the original source whenever possible. The book contains a number of quotes from these original sources, including long excerpts and significant portions of The Tryals . These sources may have been originally identified in any of the modern works which have influenced my viewpoint on Major Bonnet, his consort, and pirates generally.

Punctuation, spelling, and, in some cases, diction may have been revised from their original sources to increase readability and comprehension. At times, however, original punctuation, spelling and diction have been left in its original form. Dates, whenever listed, match their original source. But it is important to note that at the time, two different calendars existedthe English-speaking world used the Julian calendar; the French and Spanish-speaking world, the Gregorian (still used today). The eleven-day difference in calendars has proven to be significant, especially when piecing together English and French sources.