Pirate Nests Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740 Mark G. Hanna Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture is sponsored jointly by the College of William and Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. On November 15, 1996, the Institute adopted the present name in honor of a bequest from Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr. © 2015 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Kimberly Bryant and set in Merlo by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Hanna, Mark G., 1974– author. Pirate nests and the rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740 / by Mark G. Hanna. pages cm “Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4696-1794-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4696-1795-4 (ebook) 1. Piracy—Great Britain—History. 2. Piracy—Great Britain— Colonies—History. 3. Pirates—Great Britain—History. 4. Great Britain— History—Stuarts, 1603–1714. I. Title. DA16.H25 2015 910.4′5—dc23 2015022645 19 18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1 AckNowleDgmeNtS In 2008, I presented an admittedly sweeping paper on piracy trials in the American colonies at Harvard’s three- week International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World. When I was done, Bernard Bailyn asked me (while laughing) whether I thought piracy explained the entire rise of the British Empire. I cheekily responded, “Yes.” He immediately countered, “Not a chance.” I took this as a call to arms. Such an endeavor required a great deal of intellectual, emotional, and financial help. As my undergraduate thesis advisor at Yale, John Demos was and has been my idea of a model historian. He taught me that a historian’s greatest attribute is empathy, even with pirates and their supporters. I am obliged to my three primary dissertation advisors in Harvard’s History of American Civilization Program. Having raised five children before she entered academia, Laurel Ulrich is uniquely attuned to her students as people, not merely as scholars. As a fellow sailor, Joyce Chaplin was instrumental in helping frame my work in a global context. Jill Lepore counts among the historical profession’s most brilliant natural writers, and served as my original dissertation copy- editor. This committee willingly oversaw what was an ambitious dissertation that took on a huge range of disciplines. I am sincerely grateful for their patience, open- mindedness, and inspiration. While I was writing my dissertation and then this book, many friends and colleagues read parts along the way, providing me support and feedback. At Harvard, I would like to thank those in both the History of American Civili- zation program and History and Literature who helped me with parts of the book: Noam Maggor, Rebekah Maggor, George Blaustein, Michael Kim- mage, Katherine Stevens, Peter Becker, Ann Marie Wilson, Lauren Brandt, Diana Williams, Erin Royston Battat, Jeanne Follansbee, and Amy Spellacy. Many Harvard faculty members gave me advice along the way but I should note specifically Morton Horwitz, Steve Biel, Lawrence Buell, Bruce Mann, and Vincent Brown. I worked with a tight-k nit cohort of early Americanists, namely Phil Mead, Eliza Clark, Sharon Sundue, John O’Keefe, Paul Mapp, Sarah Pearsall, Michelle Morris, Judy Kertész, Linzy Brekke Aloise, Becky Goetz, James Fichter, Sara Schwebel, Travis Glasson, Heather Kopelson, Rick Bell, Kate Grandjean, Margot Minardi, Katherine Stebbins McCaffrey, Sarah v Carter, and Lin Fisher. Special recognition goes to Brian Delay, who, along with Laurel, first suggested that three pages on the captivity of Rhode Island patriarch William Harris at the hands of Algierian corsairs should be the seed for an entire dissertation. My first true immersion into the Anglophone Atlantic as a graduate stu- dent took place at the John Carter Brown Library, thanks to the guidance and support of Director Norman Fiering. There, I received the inspiration and ad- vise of scholars like David Harris Sacks, Neil Safier, Mary Malloy, James Mul- doon, Michael LaCombe, Seth Rockman, Jack Greene, and Amy Bushnell. I am grateful for fellowships and essential financial assistance as a graduate student from the Raoul Berger–M ark DeWolfe Howe Fellowship at Harvard Law School (twice), the Artemas Ward Fellowship, the Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, and grants from the Charles Warren Center and His- tory of American Civilization program, all at Harvard. I also received a grant from the Donald Groves Fund at the American Numismatic Society, and I have included an image of their “Pine Tree Shilling” in the book. Since I began my career at the University of California, San Diego, in 2007, I have been for- tunate to receive a number of awards and fellowships that have allowed me to research and write this book, particularly in London, including a William Nelson Cromwell Fellowship from the American Society for Legal History and an Arthur H. Cole Grant from the Economic History Association. UCSD provides outstanding resources for junior faculty research, and I am thankful to have been awarded a Hellman Faculty Fellowship, a Faculty Career Devel- opment Grant, three Academic Senate travel grants for research in London, as well as grants from the Center for the Humanities. The Huntington Library has been my intellectual home since I moved to Southern California, and I have been privileged to spend two entire sum- mers on fellowships, first as a graduate student and later as a faculty member at UCSD. Reading and researching during the day, I returned to the idyllic bungalow behind Suzy Moser’s San Marino house to write in the evenings. I still visit whenever I have the opportunity, not just to work, but also to re- unite with friends and colleagues. At the Huntington, I have always appreci- ated the support of Steve Hindle, Director of Research. There, I discussed my work with dozens of scholars in varying stages of their careers, particularly Lindsay O’Neill, Kariann Yokota, Terri Snyder, Katie Paugh, Abby Swingen, and Adrian Funicane. Peter C. Mancall and Carole Shammas have both given me tremendous feedback, and they provided me the opportunity to present the fourth chapter at USC’s American Origins Seminar. The greatest influence on my work at the Huntington originates from its recently retired director vi Acknowledgments and a wonderful longtime friend, Roy Ritchie. His presence is fairly obvious throughout the book. I have presented my work in dozens of venues, but I want to specifically thank Phil Morgan for inviting me to present the fifth chapter at the seminar for the History Department of Johns Hopkins. I have also truly enjoyed the feedback on multiple chapters from members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute here at UCSD. I have never presented before a more engaged and enthusiastic group of scholars. This manuscript transformed from a dissertation on the support of piracy in Charles Town, South Carolina, and Newport, Rhode Island, to a narrative about the rise of the British Empire while I was on a two-y ear National En- dowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture from 2008 to 2010. In Wil- liamsburg, Ron Hoffman and Sally Mason treated me like their son over the course of my two years. They even caught me in my office at 9:00 at night on my birthday and took me out to dinner. I hope they have forgiven us for raid- ing the liquor cabinet in their colonial “kitchen” when guest speakers were in town. Among those I worked with while residing in Virginia, I would like to thank Chris Grasso, Karin Wulf, Brett Rushforth, Mendy Gladden, David S. Shields, Christopher Leslie Brown, Kim Foley, Paul Musselwhite, James Horn, Nick Popper, Fabricio Prado, Zara Anishanslin, Jim Axtell, Celine Carayon, Kris Lane, Lorena Walsh, Susan Kern, Jim Allegro, and Amanda Herbert. My copy- editor at the Institute, Kathy Burdette, has been diligent yet thank- fully patient with me. Her kindness stems perhaps from the fact that I always booked all of us dinner at the finest restaurants when we traveled to the Insti- tute’s Annual Conference. In particular, I would like to thank Rob Parkinson and Jonathan Eacott, compatriot fellows, not only for their scholarly engage- ment with my project but also for their good humor during slogs of writing late into the night. This is one of the last books that legendary editor Fredrika Teute will see from acquisition to publication. She has refused any public trib- utes for her retirement so in many ways this book is dedicated to her and the monumental contribution she has made to early American scholarship. I could not imagine a more congenial and supportive work environment than that of the history department at UCSD. This starts at the top with my most recent chairs, Pamela Radcliff and Dave Gutiérrez. My greatest cham- pion at the university was the chair who hired me, John Marino. With his re- cent passing, UCSD lost its most vocal defender for the importance of the humanities to a liberal arts education. My whole department has supported me since I arrived on campus, but I should note a few who read chapters or Acknowledgments vii helped me with specific aspects of the book: Rebecca Plant, Jessica Graham, Paul Pickowicz, Jeremy Prestholdt, Sarah Schneewind, Eric Van Young, Bob Westman, Ed Watts, Ev Meade, Danny Widener, and my former dean, Seth Lerer. I need to give special recognition to Rachel Klein, who has taken my career and personal well- being as a special mission since we first spoke on the phone to set up an AHA interview. This book was crafted in many ways out of a course I first taught at Har- vard, “The Golden Age of Piracy,” then similar classes at the College of William and Mary and finally at UCSD. Students in my UCSD course read many of the primary source documents I explore in this book, and I find new and sur- prising observations from their papers every year. A few undergraduate and graduate students have either read chapters or performed research for this project, namely Emily Whittemore, Hanah Yendler, John Alaniz, and Ruthann Mowry, and political scientists Ryan Jablonski and Steven Oliver. Students in my pirates course work with primary sources from the period because many of them are housed in the Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages in UCSD’s Special Collections Library, where I have served as honorary curator for the last few years. Overseeing these hoards of students is a dedicated staff led by my won- derful friend Lynda Claassen. I was not trained as a maritime historian. Indeed, most of the pirates in this book are on land. However, the most significant shipboard experience of my life was serving as speaker and common seaman for three weeks at sail aboard the S.V. Corwith Cramer. I think the Sea Education Association has no idea how many scholars it has trained over the years, including Joyce Chaplin, Danny Vickers, and Michael Jarvis. As part of a watch, Captain Virginia Land seemed to find me most suitable for the least desirable tasks, like furling the topsails. For this, I am truly appreciative. My second great maritime influence has been working with Ray Ashley, director of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, who team- teaches a course with me called “The Age of Sail,” in which all the students perform sail handling. I was honored when Ray named me the museum’s Bob and Laura Kyle Endowed Chair of Maritime History. Many people have taken a role in the production of this book, but no one has been more involved at both a micro and macro level over the years than Elizabeth Mancke. She has been an active reader over multiple permutations and drafts, providing brilliant insights and sharp criticisms along the way. You can learn more from Elizabeth over one dinner (albeit a two- hour dinner) than in an entire seminar. After being called a cultural historian, a legal histo- rian, or a maritime historian for years, I found it was only when she insisted I was a political historian that the project seemed to come together. I am deeply grateful to my always- supportive family. I thank my father viii Acknowledgments Rusty for inspiring my love of history, my mother Sue for instilling my love of writing, and my brother Alex for encouraging me to think in new and unusual ways. Finally, I would like to thank my partner, Dana Velasco Murillo, whose love and support shepherded me through both tenure and the completion of a book manuscript. Acknowledgments ix