Walter Kennedy (pirate)

Walter Kennedy (c. 1695 – 21 July 1721) was an English pirate who served as a crew member under Howell Davis and Bartholomew Roberts.

Early life

Walter Kennedy was born in 1695 at a place called Pelican Stairs in Wapping, London.^[1] Possibly one or both of his parents were of Irish descent due to the fact that Bartholomew Roberts considered him to be Irish.^[2] Born to a poor family, Kennedy was illiterate and was known to have a bad temper.^[3] He was a burglar and pickpocket in London.^[4]

Later he became an apprentice to his father, who was an anchor smith; he carried out house-breaking in his spare time. His apprenticeship, however, came to an end with the death of his father and he decided to go to sea.^[1] He served in the Royal Navy during the War of the Spanish Succession, where he heard tales of pirates from Henry Morgan to Henry Every, and dreamed of becoming a pirate himself. He was a crew member on the sloop-of-war Buck, part of the fleet that Woodes Rogers took to the Republic of Pirates in the Bahamas in 1718 to suppress piracy there.^[3] Woodes sent the Buck to Havana with a letter for the Spanish governor assuring that official that he was not a pirate, but was in Nassau to suppress piracy. Some recently pardoned pirates were added to the crew of the Buck, and before it reached Havana they, along with some of the original crew, including Kennedy, mutinied, killing the captain, Jonathan Bass, and other crew members who did not join the mutiny.^[5]