Piracy in Cornwall.
From a very early period the whole coast of the British Isles was disturbed by the activities of pirates, and the pest was not effectively destroyed until the end of the 19th century. The first pirates on the English coast were themselves English, and preyed as a rule on foreign shipping. Englishmen who were originally naval seaman, privateers in Queen Elizabeth’s navy fighting the Spanish. However, when King James 1st came to the throne he and the Spanish King became friends, ceased battling and decreased the size of the English Navy. This left thousands of naval personnel without a job and near to starving. Piracy was an option and many took to it.
Piracy of this nature had become popular also because of the law of 1224, which placed Geoffrey de Lucy a nominated keeper of the whole coast from Pevensey to Bristol. Realising this was far too much for a single person to handle, this district was divided only a month later, a keeper of Cornwall and Devon being appointed, whose principal duties were the suppression of piracy, the repulsion of raiders, and the maintenance of security for the coasting trade.
The Cornish coast, owing to its distance from London and its comparative barrenness, has not held out much temptation to foreign invasion, but has offered many advantages to piratical incursions. It was far removed from state interference, it is near the mouth of the Channel, and it has many useful havens, often unfortified. Of these havens Helford was a favourite among pirates.
Falmouth harbour was guarded by the forts at St. Mawes and Pendennis, but the Helford River was never fortified. Even the forts of Falmouth were not always effective, usually because the forts appear frequently to have been insufficiently manned. However, Pendennis was usually under the charge of the Killigrew family many of whom were personally interested in piracy.
A certain Peter Killigrew, was charged with piracy in Ireland in 1555 and was under examination in the Tower in 1556. The same gentleman was fined £55 for "dealing with pirates and pirates goods" in 1578. The most extraordinary member of this family was, however, John Killigrew, Captain of Pendennis Castle. In 1577 he was found to have purchased stolen French wines from a pirate named Hix, but was allowed to settle the matter by paying the real owners for the goods.
In the winter of 1580-1 a Spanish vessel, bound from Calais to Biskay, the "Marie of San Sebastian" by name, was driven by stress of weather into Falmouth Harbour, having lost her masts. During the night she was plundered by "certain” Englishmen, three or four are said to be Killigrew's servants. Lady Killigrew is said to have ordered the raid.
Sir John was ordered by the Privy Council to restore the vessel and goods to their owners, and to render an account of the episode to the Council. Such an account appears to have been rendered but Sir John neither appeared before the Council nor returned the goods, he had disappeared and the ship also.
"A Commission of Enquiry is to be appointed to enquire into the matter, and if he can be found, to take surety of £1,000 from him for his appearance before the Council."
Sir John still avoided his pursuers and warrants for his arrest were issued in October 1588, in connection with another piratical affair, in which a Danish vessel was plundered. Next a general proclamation was issued for his arrest, and county officers were ordered, if necessary to use force. Being still missing in April 1589, he was deprived of his office of Vice Admiral of the County of Cornwall.
Strange to say, on 31st July, 1589, he was granted freedom from arrest for thirty days, and in October for three months. In 1596 we find him again referred to as Captain of Pendennis. He was then once more dabbling in piracy.
A piratical incident is recorded in connection with Helford in 1597, the story is told by a sailor driven into Dartmouth by stress of weather, and there arrested and examined as a pirate. He related how, when in the service of one "Captain Elliott", they took a fly-boat, armed it, and went to Helford with it, bringing in a Dieppe prize, laden with knives, victuals, etc. for Brazil, which they had taken.
Sir John Killigrew, instead of arresting them, warned them of the approach of H.M.S. Crane, and, according to one account, bribed the Captain of the man-of-war with £100. As for his reward he had from Elliott nine bolts of Holland cloth and a chest. Elliott and his crew sailed away and continued their piracy until taken by the Spaniards, when Elliott saved his skin by taking command of one of the vessels of the Spanish fleet, a position in which his knowledge of England was, of course, regarded as valuable
Among the centres of piracy in the West, Fowey stands pre-eminent, and since 1472 ships of Fowey appear to have been plundering as far away as the Portuguese coast. By 1634 the power of Fowey was long over but, while it lasted, it formed a most striking example of piracy by the English. Ships were not safe then even in the harbours; for instance a vessel entering Dartmouth in 1345 was at once plundered.
In the 16th Century complaints from foreigners that they had been plundered by the English in English waters were often brought before the Privy Council. The powerful Hanseatic League (Union of towns, chiefly in N.Europe, for trading purposes) for instance, complained of piracy against one of their vessels near Falmouth in 1546, and a similar charge by the French against the men of the "West Contrie" appears under the date of 1550.
An official enquiry into piracy in Devon and Cornwall appears to have been made late in 1563.
We read of French pirates almost as early as the English, especially pirates of Dunkirk who preyed on the English coasts. Netherlanders also soon appeared on the scene.
Efforts were continually made by the government to suppress piracy, but for some time they were not effectual, owing to the imperfect state of the navy. It must be remembered that the merchant service was drawn on for naval purposes and men-of-war pure and simple were only permanently introduced by Henry VIII, and then only to supplement the levies of merchant vessels. Commissioners in various parts of the country, and small squadrons, did what they could until the Elizabethan period. Then under the Queen's keen grasp of affairs and the masterly and thorough administration of Lord Burghley, piracy like most other matters, received systematic treatment.
Burghley's strong attitudes towards piracy are sufficiently expressed in his description of the three branches of maritime enterprise. "The one is to cary or recary merchandizes, the other is to take fish; for the thyrd, which is the exercise of pyrecy, is detestable and cannot last”. He laid the foundations of naval power, In the 1630’s piracy was at its worst (it was at this time that the worst piratical attack on St. Keverne took place) and that in his great work of perfecting the navy Cromwell provided the means for the final crushing of piracy. There was not much piracy after the Restoration. Thus the "Brest pirates" during the Cromwellian period were privateers on the Stuart side, sometimes sailing in a fleet under the command of Prince Rupert. During the quarrel of the Protector with Spain, we hear of "Spanish pirates". It is this privateering element which accounts for the fact that piracy always assumed a more alarming aspect during and immediately after a war.
About this time (i.e. after the Armada), raids by Spaniards were common, and in July, 1595, Hanibal Vyvyan reported the burning of Penzance, Newlyn, Mousehole, Poole Church and Church Town, and other villages adjoining, without resistance. Spaniards were pillaging and taking boats between the Lizard and St. Michael's Mount in the first part of the l600’s.
We read of French pirates almost as early as the English, especially pirates of Dunkirk who preyed on the English coasts. Netherlanders also soon appeared on the scene. Sir Francis Godolphin, a high official of the county, 1628, relates how the "Lewis" a ship of war out of Brest, came ashore at Penryn, on the previous Friday. The crew abandoned her. "The country came thick with their axes and other tools" cut down the mast and rifled the ship of all her tackling and ordnance. There were 100 people aboard rifling. Penryn seems to be incorrect as the name of the place where the ship went ashore, both for geographical reasons, and because St. Keverne men plundered her!
250 years ago all this Coast suffered to a degree which seems to us incredible from the ravages of what were then called Turkish pirates but which were in reality Algiers and Gallic rovers. The justices of Cornwall complained to the Lord Lieutenant that in one year the Turks had taken no less than a thousand Cornish Mariners, while Looe alone, in the ten days before the letter was written, had lost 80 men.
About the beginning of the 17th Century, probably, came the terrible Turkish, Algerian, or Barbary pirates. These came from a greater distance than the others, and consequently in larger ships, which were fully armed, so that the official records often refer to them as "Turkish men-of-war". Although these Barbary pirates (They are often also referred to as "Rovers of Gallee") penetrated far into the English Channel, raiding the coast, or preying on local shipping, their course brought them first to the Lands End and the Lizard, and as they could there prey on ocean- going vessels, they were always especially active in this area.
In 1640 there were many references to Barbary pirates on the Cornish coast. In one case they took three barks "in the open view of Penzance", took three other ships the same night at Mousehole and the Land's End, while three other vessels were pursued and escaped, one after eight hours' fighting. Many other vessels were seen deserted on the seas. In another account there are reported to be sixty "Turkish men-of-war" on the coast. In a third, sixty men, women and children were taken from about Penzance. In 1656 seven boats and forty two fishermen were taken by Turks (actually Algerian pirates) between Falmouth and the Lizard. Moorish pirates were also active along the north Cornish coast and ransacked Padstow on a regular basis, the aim being to take white-skinned women, much sought after by the Arabs, away to their base at Lundy ....Ooh Aarh
In 1651, a search was being made for a pirate in the Helford River, about the same time as losses in Falmouth were being reported. The "Turkish" peril by that time became severe. A small fleet, under Sir John Pennington, and comprising a number of ships called the Lion's Whelps, cruised the Channel for several years to suppress these Barbary pirates, who are described as "the scourges of all Christian navigations". Later Sir John Pennington was cruising between Mount's Bay and the Lizard when he saw the sails of five Turkish men of war standing in the Channel. They turned and fled when they saw Pennington's fleet.
It appears that a number of boats fishing off the Manacles, were taken by the "Turks" and their crews carried away as captives. The number of boats is given as seven in every account, but the number, of men is given variously as 42 to 50.
A letter dated July 10th 1656 and quoted in the State Papers says that ’ seven boats and two and forty fishermen were taken by the Turks off the Manacles between Falmouth and the Lizard last Wednesday was three weeks.’
The same Turkish vessels had just previously taken 5 boats off Looe, which were engaged in deep sea fishing between England and Ireland. Graphic details are given of boats seen drifting unmanned and without sails, of weeping women, of constant fear of the raiding and destruction of the village, and of the men that put to sea and were never seen again. A contingent of Moors met their match when they invaded Mounts Bay with a fleet of thirty ships and took the congregation of the church who were at prayers as hostages. The local taverns emptied and the Pirates of Penzance joined with the men of Newlyn in fierce hand-to-hand fighting with cutlasses on the beach. The invaders were repelled with great loss of life.
The captain of a barque of Plymouth, reported that he sailed from Plymouth for St. Keverne and "arrived there on Thursday morning last, where he heard it credibly reported, with sorrowful complaint and lamentable tears of women and children, that on the 15th instant three fisher boats belonging to St. Keverne, three others of Helford, and one more of Mollan (Mullion) and about 50 men in them, being on the coast fishing near Black Head, between Falmouth and the Lizard, not three leagues off the shore, were taken by the Turks who carried both men and boats away. During the time of his abode at St. Keverne, which was from Thursday till Sabbath-day then following, there was no news heard of either men or boats, so that it goes for an absolute truth thereabouts that they were all surprised by the Turks and carried away".
The Earl of Northumberland, in command of the fleet at Plymouth, sent two vessels in chase of these pirates, who were suspected to have gone into the Severn estuary, a place they frequented, but they were not caught.
At about the same time as the loss of the St. Keverne fisher-boats, there occurred an exciting skirmish in the Helford River. On the llth of May 1636, two Dunkirk frigates brought four French ships, taken by them as prizes, into Falmouth. On the 14th they set sail with their prizes, but were met outside the harbour by a Dutch pirate, the "Black Bull" of Amsterdam, which attacked them. The Dutchman chased one of the frigates under Pendennis fort, which opened fire on him. He therefore abandoned the pursuit, and chased the other frigate into the Helford, following her a mile up the river, till both vessels grounded. The Dutchman fired on her with his ordnance, landing thirty musketeers on the south side of the river, which shot into the frigate from the land, killing one of her men. The frigate surrendered, the Dutchman remaining in charge of her in defiance of His Majesty's Officers, who commanded him to deliver her to them. Eventually the Dutch captain was taken and sent to Portsmouth in custody, his prize being sent with him. The enquiry into the matter led to an amusing complication, for the Dunkirk frigate herself was found to contain stolen English goods, so that the Dunkirk's captain was also arrested. The complicated legal position was not argued out, however, since most of the officers of the Admiralty had fled from Portsmouth to avoid the plague, and the last record of the matter in the Calendar of State Papers, which is dated August l3th, 1656, states that the "Black Bull" and the Dunkirk frigate were then still in Portsmouth harbour.
Islands played a big part during the golden age of piracy. Piracy flourished on the Isles of Scilly since the middle Ages. In 1209, 112 captured pirates were beheaded on Tresco in a single day. In Charles I reign in the 1640s many pirates based themselves there. One of the earliest pirates recorded was Eustace the Monk who held Sark, in the Channel Islands, in 1214. Originally locked away in a monastery he turned to piracy and with the French King Louis VII in 1217 attempted to invade England with 900 ships. Unfortunately for him, The Bayonne, his flagship, was captured and he was hung from the yard arm at sea, although offering a 10,000 mark bribe for his life...a fortune for a simple monk. His daughter was brought up in Salisbury as an English lady, educated at the fashionable Wilton Abbey. Thomas Salkeld set up his pirate colony on the Isle of Lundy around 1610. ‘Such a place the like of witch I never saw Lundy Island’ (Lundy means 'puffin' in Norwegian) is a great isolated rock in the middle of the Bristol Channel, an ideal base for piracy. Not only had the English used it.
Lundy Island was invaded by various groups of pirates to be used as a stronghold and base for operations against the heavily laden merchant ships passing by; en route to and from Bristol, Barnstaple, South Wales, Chepstow, and Bridgwater; and also against the Irish fleets bringing pilgrims to the North Devon coastline. In 1067 Danish pirates invaded Barnstaple from Lundy.
Thomas Salkeld crowned himself as the ‘King of Lundy,’ much to the displeasure of King James1, who dispatched Captain William Munson a famous pirate hunter. Another famous pirate hunter was Admiral John Benbow (1651-1702) served under Admiral Whetstone (father in law to Woodes Rogers, Caribbean pirate hunter and governor) and they both saw service in the West Indies. His eldest son, John, 1681-1708 was captured by pirates in Madagascar and held to ransom for 7 years, by the West Country pirates who lived there, who realized his importance. He was held in bad conditions and died on his return to England from the experience. Another son Colonel Benbow was executed as a traitor by Cromwell’s Roundheads when he helped King Charles Stuart to escape their ambush.
Off Land’s End, in 1641 the "Merchant Royal" was chased and ran aground with 36 bronze cannon and £500,000 in silver bullion on board. After this the official records contain little on piracy for some time. This is probably due more to the disorganisation caused by the Civil War than to a great decrease in piracy.
By 1649 piracy again loomed very large indeed in the Domestic State Papers - Dunkirkers, Ostenders, and Barbary pirates, are all infesting the coasts of England. Cases are considered by the Council of State at almost every meeting. The Council drew the attention of the Generals at sea to the "growing strength of pirates at sea" and "The great danger the fishermen are in to be deprived of the fruit of their labour", and dictated a general policy of suppression.
The Brest pirates or Stuart privateers then came into prominence. The terror with which the inhabitants of Western Cornwall regarded the Barbary pirates did not, however, extend to those of Brest. A naval captain reported in 1655 that he discovered a Brest man-of-war at the Lizard and "at anchor amongst the fishermen, with whom he seemed to hold correspondence". The Englishman gave chase, and the Frenchman, seeing he could not escape, left his vessel and landed in a fisher boat, the vessel herself being run ashore and all the men except five or six escaping up the country. The Englishman landed men who took thirteen of the fugitives prisoners "one being an Englishman, and their gunner" but he could not take the Captain as the "country was treacherous".
In 1659 the Ostenders got to Falmouth and took a vessel, but before many more years had passed, the evil of piracy was suppressed.
Meagre as are the facts which appear to be available in connection with pirate raids enough can be found to show that the whole coast was in continual apprehension of piracy, that Helford was a constant haunt of pirates, and that Penzance itself is the subject of one of the most distressing of these outrages. However the Mayors that controlled commerce in the south western towns were dependant on income from their local pirate and took a percentage from the sale of smuggled goods sold to their townsfolk. The mayor of Penzance received £40 in his year of office in 1776.
In the 1400s Fowey was the most flourishing centre of piracy in Europe. In Edward III’s time, the pirate nest at Fowey were called the Fowey gallants and they frequently raided the Normandy coastline. In 1442 Hankyn Seelander, a Dutchman or German, moved there to patrol the area for the Crown. However, he seized a ship off Brittany, selling the cargo in Fowey. Then he took a Dartmouth ship and then a Spanish ship with an enormous quantity of cloth. For the next thirty years the situation got really bad and the whole community was involved in piracy. In 1449 two Fowey ships owned by John Trevelyan, Thomas Tregarthen, Nicholas Carminow and Sir Hugh Courtenay seized a big Spanish vessel. All were influential merchants and land-owners. Courtenay continued to rob several ships.
Islands played a big part during the golden age of piracy. Piracy flourished on the Isles of Scilly since the Middle Ages. In 1209, 112 captured pirates were beheaded on Tresco in a single day. In Charles I reign in the 1640s many pirates based themselves there. One of the earliest pirates recorded was Eustace the Monk who held Sark, in the Channel Islands, in 1214. Originally locked away in a monastery he turned to piracy, and with the French King Louis VII in 1217 attempted to invade England with 900 ships. Unfortunately for him, The Bayonne, his flagship, was captured and he was hung from the yard arm at sea, although offering a 10,000 mark bribe for his life...a fortune for a simple monk. His daughter was brought up in Salisbury as an English lady, educated at the fashionable Wilton Abbey.
Lundy Island was invaded by various groups of pirates to be used as a stronghold and base for operations against the heavily laden merchant ships passing by; en route to and from Bristol, Barnstaple, South Wales, Chepstow, and Bridgwater; and also against the Irish fleets bringing pilgrims to the North Devon coastline. In 1067 Danish pirates invaded Barnstaple from Lundy.
Sir William de Marisco married into the Archbishop of Dublin’s family and inherited Irish estates. He held an important position at the Court of King Henry 111 and for his services to the Crown was awarded estates along the North Devon and Somerset coastline. From his Manor at Portishead in 1235 he was outlawed from the Court at Westminster for slitting the throat of the King’s messenger and so fled to the remote island of Lundy where he felt safe, using the steep village of Clovelly on the mainland as his port of supplies. He built an almost inaccessible castle on top of the high cliffs and from there sallied out to intercept passing ships; not only to plunder them of gold and silver but to take victuals, since the island was barren and could not sustain life.
He soon found it profitable to capture the many passing Bristol merchant ships bringing back valuable goods from overseas. Because of the dangerous shingle banks in the fast flowing River Severn and Bristol Channel, with its 32 ft tide, they had to navigate close to his big rock 12 miles out. He was soon into piracy and ransomed the more wealthy passengers, including the brother of the Mayor of Bristol. His menace infuriated the King even more and when de Marisco sent some of his brigands to Woodstock to murder the King, for seizing his Irish estates he provoked retaliation by an angry Henry who sent in the dragoons one misty night. They scaled the steep cliffs and captured him alive in his castle (which is now a pub) and at Clovelly, dragged him up the steep cobbled high street by tying his legs to two separate horses to be taken back to the King. Most of his corpse became detached at Glastonbury and only his ankles and feet were left by the time the dragoons reached Woodstock.
Lundy was the haunt of pirates. The island abounds with strange names such as Puffin Gully, Rat Island, Hell's Gate, Devil's Slide and Mouse Island. There are many unexplored caves where pirate's treasure could be lying mouldering in the dark. Many skeletons have been dug up on the island, including one measuring eight feet two inches in length In 1345 the French there planned a raid on Bristol to burn it down.
In the 1440s Colyn Dolphyn, a Frenchman was based there. Edward Stradling of Coity Castle married a daughter of Henry VI's great uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, and became Chamberlain of South Wales in 1423. His son Harry was captured by the pirate Colyn Dolphyn a native of Brittany.
Operating out of Lundy Island, Dolphyn captured Sir Harry Stradling in 1449 while sailing back to Wales from Minehead in Somerset, where he had stayed for a month. Sir Harry Stradling, his faithful man Dewryn, and the crew of the St. Barbe, were kept close prisoners by Colyn Dolphyn, on board his barque the Sea Swallow for about 2 years. Stradling was ransomed for a price of 2200 marks and forced to sell his manors of Bassaleg and Rogerstone and other estates to regain his freedom.
According to the old chroniclers, Colyn Dolphyn was a tall, athletic, and mighty man, "like Saul in Israel." He "towered head and shoulders" over the Welsh and English alike. Colyn Dolphyn's name was a terror in South Wales.
Some time later Dolphyn was caught in a storm and ran aground on Colhugh Beach and the Nash rocks in Glamorgan. Sir Harry Stradling and his men met them and captured Dolphyn and his men. They were hung the next day.
The Arabs and Lundy Island.
In the early 16th Century Moslems from the north coast of Africa, known as Moors, having been expelled from Spain and still smarting from their defeats by the Crusaders decided upon revenge. In fleets of light-weight, fast, lateen-rigged ships they raided ports in the south-west of England. Because of the threat posed by these raiders, villages were built away from the coast. The tower of the village church was used as a look-out.
The raiding ships were armed with a cannon mounted in the bow with which, using chain shot, they could bring down the rigging of the slower, English ships and then board them and capture them intact with all their crew. These men and women were then taken back to the Barbary Coast as slaves. Between the 16th and 17th Centuries corsairs from the Barbary Coast of Africa descended from Lundy to intercept ships going to and from Ireland and the Americas. In all, they seized some four hundred and sixty-six vessels. Some of their women captives were taken back to Algiers or Tunis or Morocco: DNA testing today would reveal some unusual ancestors. At one time more than twenty thousand were being held as slaves and hostages in the dungeons of the fort. They included prominent men that were passengers bound for Bristol, including the brother of the lord mayor and held for ransom.
In 1520 King James I decided that enough was enough and sent a Royal Navy battle squadron to blockade the Sultans ports and demand the release of the captives. Thomas Salkeld set up his pirate colony on the Isle of Lundy around 1610. ‘Such a place the like of witch I never saw Lundy Island’ (Lundy means 'puffin' in Norwegian) is a great isolated rock in the middle of the Bristol Channel, an ideal base for piracy. Thomas Salkeld crowned himself as the ‘King of Lundy,’ much to the displeasure of King James1, who dispatched Captain William Munson a famous pirate hunter. Another famous pirate hunter was Admiral John Benbow (1651-1702) served under Admiral Whetstone (father in law to Woodes Rogers, Caribbean pirate hunter and governor) and they both saw service in the West Indies. His eldest son, John, 1681-1708 was captured by pirates in Madagascar and held to ransom for 7 years, by the West Country pirates who lived there, who realized his importance. He was held in bad conditions and died on his return to England from the experience. Another son Colonel Benbow was executed as a traitor by Cromwell’s Roundheads when he helped King Charles Stuart to escape their ambush. It was to take Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s to sort them out. He found the sailors along the south west coast ports were frightened to venture out. When they caught an Arab they were brought back to the gibtaylor in Bristol to be drowned.
Murat Reis, the Arab pirate captain, was on Lundy in about 1645. He had taken 310 prisoners off the southwest coastline to Salee Castle, Algiers, to be fattened up for sale. Cromwell got fed up with the Arab menace and insurance prices rising on Bristol merchant ships. William and his brother Giles Penn came to Redcliffe, Bristol but were not allowed to trade by the Bristol cartel. So they traded with the Arabs instead, and had to become ruthless pirates themselves to survive. As a result, when the Mayor of Bristol, who had his own brother held to ransom, was told by Cromwell to commission someone and put up a reward to clear the Arab menace, lying in wait on Lundy Island, he choose Robert Blake from farming stock in the North Devon hills and William Penn from Redcliffe, They took the fight to the enemy and bombarded their stronghold till they surrendered. They released 20,000 people. Penn had been paid privately by Bristol merchants to clear the Severn. He could speak Arabic as his father Giles senior had been ambassador in Africa on behalf of the King Charles.
Insurance rates were escalating. So it was worth some reward to be paid to be a mercenary. So this is how Captain William Penn, son of Giles, the English ambassador to Tunis, became famous and eventually an admiral.
As a result both men were made up to Admirals and Penn was sent to capture Jamaica and the sugar islands in the Caribbean from the Spanish in 1655. Henry Morgan who later became governor of Jamaica was with him. The Penns eventually colonised Pennsylvania USA and lived on Portland Bill, Dorset complete with its pirate graveyard.
Of course when you weren’t worrying about pirates you had famine and plague, both of very frequent recurrence. By 1860 over 692 shipwrecks were recorded off the south west's dangerous coastline.
"From lightning and tempest, from plague, pestilence and famines, from battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us".