John Coxon (pirate)
John Coxon | |
---|---|
Piratical career | |
Type | Buccaneer (Pirate) |
Allegiance | None |
Years active | 1677–1682 1683–1684 168?–1688 |
Rank | Captain |
Base of operations | Spanish Main |
Captain John Coxon, sometimes referred to as John Coxen, was a late-seventeenth-century
Coxon's ship, a vessel of eighty tons that carried eight guns and a crew of ninety-seven men, is lost to date, with no traces of its name anywhere.[2]
John Coxon as a pirate
Very little is known about Coxon's early life. The act that brought Coxon to public notice was his surprising and plundering the Spanish town of Santa Marta in the Caribbean.[1] Coxon was held responsible for abducting the governor and the bishop of Santa Marta to Jamaica.[1][2]
Capture of Santa Marta
John Coxon took part in a raid in June 1677 where he and his crew sacked the town, taking the Governor and Bishop as prisoners for ransom.[3] Soon after, the three warships of Armada de Barlovento advanced upon them with 500 soldiers, forcing them to retreat to Port Royal.[3] Coxon entered the port on 28 July 1677, with the Bishop Dr. Lucas Fernandez y Piedrahita and a Spanish friar and presented them to Lord Vaughan, the colony's Governor.[3] English officers attempted to acquire the prisoner from the pirates only to be met with a ship of drunkards who were impossible to cooperate with.[3] Governor Vaughan ordered that the French sailors depart and advised Coxon that it was illegal for him to serve under different nations.[3] The French sailors left bitterly with their prisoners, releasing Bishop Fernandez y Piedrahita to the Spanish in Cartagena.[3]
Raid in the Gulf of Honduras
Soon after, Coxon met with many
Shortly afterwards, Coxon made himself an ally of several other important buccaneers of the day, including
Because of the plundering of Portobelo, the Governor of Jamaica, Lord Carlisle, issued search warrants for Coxon and his notorious crew.[2] In addition, Henry Morgan, when acting as governor, issued another warrant for Coxon, but nothing resulted from these writs.[1]
Raids in Panama
After sacking Porto Bello in 1680, John Coxon and Peter Harris led their company across Panama.[4] With these two men were other famous pirates such as Bartholomew Sharp, Basil Ringrose, William Dampier, William Dick, John Cox, Edmund Cooke, and Lionel Wafer, some of whom left journals of their exploits.[4] The pirates crafted small canoes from trees and eventually traded the canoes for larger ships in the Bay of Panama.[4] After a series of desertions the ships came under command of Bartholemew Sharp who conducted raids in the South Sea for two years using uninhabited lands like the islands of Juan Fernandez and the islands Plata, Gorgona, and Coiba as hiding spots in between raids.[4] From there they plundered the South and Central American Pacific coasts, where attacks spanned from Coquimbo to the Gulf of Nicoya.[4]
Against a Spanish fleet
Due to the carelessness and the scarce treasure that Coxon and his crew plundered at Porto Bello, Coxon became quite angered and returned to
Heated arguments
Having done both of these feats, Coxon quarreled with the other
Disguise
Having robbed letters of marque that were sealed for Robert Clarke, Coxon continued to commit acts of piracy, sometimes under this disguise.[2]
Coxon was caught and tried several times, but always managed to escape the gallows somehow.[2]
Privateering
By 1682 Coxon had turned pirate-hunter, sent by the Governor of Jamaica to bring in French pirate Jean Hamlin after two Royal Navy ships failed; Coxon was also unsuccessful.[6]
In 1682, Coxon received a
In November 1683, Coxon returned to piracy; however, early in 1684, he obtained a commission to hunt pirates and Indians from the governor of the
Disappearance
To date, no one is sure of what happened to John Coxon or his ship, but several accounts, including those of his crew's, stated that his ship weighed around eighty tons and was equipped with eight guns.[2]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Philip Gosse and Burt Franklin, The Pirates' Who's Who: Giving Particulars of the Lives and Deaths of the Pirates and Buccaneers. (1924) s.v. Coxon, John"
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Coxon, John". thepirateking.com. Retrieved 23 January 2008.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-202-9.
- ^ OCLC 46774934.
- ISBN 9781510713048. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
- ^ Gosse, Philip (1924). The Pirates' Who's Who by Philip Gosse. New York: Burt Franklin. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
- ^ ISBN 1-85326-384-2.