John Quelch (pirate)
John Quelch | |
---|---|
Captain | |
Base of operations | Marblehead |
Commands | Charles |
Wealth | £10,000 sterling |
John Quelch (1666 – 30 June 1704) was an English pirate who had a lucrative but very brief career of about one year. His chief claim to historical significance is that he was the first person to be tried for piracy outside England under Admiralty Law and thus without a jury. These Admiralty courts had been instituted to tackle the rise of piracy in colonial ports where civil and criminal courts had proved ineffective.
Pirate career
In July 1703, Governor
Death
When the Charles returned to
Charles
The Charles was an eighty-ton vessel built in Boston between 1701 and 1703. It was owned by some of the most prominent people in Boston and was equipped to go privateering off the coast of Newfoundland and Arcadia.[2]
Crew
Here follows a list of all the known crewmembers aboard the Charles while Quelch was captain.[2]
- Austin, James
- Breck, John
- Carter, Dennis
- Carter, John
- Chevalle, Daniel
- Clifford, John
- Chuley, Daniel
- Davis, Gabriel
- Dorothy, John
- Dunbar, Nicholas
- Farrington, Thomas
- Giddens, Paul
- Harwood, John
- Holding, Anthony
- Hutnot, Joseph
- James, Charles
- Johnson, Isaac
- Jones, William
- King, Charles
- King, Francis
- King, John
- Lambert, John
- Lawson, Nicholas
- Lawrence, Richard
- Miller, John
- Norton, George
- Pierse, George
- Perkins, Benjamin
- Parrot, James
- Pattison, James
- Perkins, Benjamin
- Peterson, Erasmus
- Pitman, John
- Pimer, Matthew
- Quelch, Captain John
- Quittance, John
- Rayner, William
- Richardson, Nicholas
- Roach, Peter
- Scudamore, Christopher
- Templeton, John
- Thurbar, Richard
- Whiting, William
- Way, John
- Wiles, William
Of the above, six including Quelch were hanged. More than half the crew escaped capture. Parrot, Clifford, and Pimer had turned Queen's evidence and escaped prosecution. John Templeton was found to be only a servant on the ship and was not even 14, so he was released.[2]
Old Roger
Popular myth has it that John Quelch flew a pirate flag referred to as Old Roger by his crew. It is sometimes considered to be the origin of the name
References
- ^ New England Pirates -ThePiratesRealm.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gosse, P: "The Pirates' Who's Who Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers", page 253. Lenox Hill Pub, 1968
- ^ a b c d "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Jolly Roger". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) -Blind Kat Publishers - ^ a b c Quelch' Gold -Summary of the book Quelch's Gold
External links
- Quelch's Gold at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 October 2007)