Pirates, a prelude to the Salem witch trials

Massachusetts Bay Colony had numerous issues with pirates, from Dixey Bull to Blackbeard. During the interim (post-Andros, pre-Phips) government, the Court of Assistants ruled on a piracy case involving several men from Salem. The final verdicts would reverberate throughout the 1692 witch trials since seven of the nine justices who sat on the Court of Oyer and Terminer had served during the interim government.

For three months, Thomas Pound and his pirate crew captured several ships along the coast from Maine to Virginia. At his trial in January 1690, Pound detailed his travels and pillages. His plan was to head to Curacao to attack French ships, but Capt. Samuel Pease, commander of the sloop Mary, found them first. Outfitted by the government, Mary’s crew went to battle against Pound’s crew, and four pirates died. Capt. Pease died from his injuries a week later, adding murder to the felony and piracy charges.

Back in Boston, the Court of Assistants convicted the pirates and sentenced them to “be hanged by the neck until they be dead.” As the day of execution drew near, Magistrate Waitstill Winthrop sought support to ask Governor Simon Bradstreet to grant the pirates a reprieve. By the time the sheriff received the order, pirate Thomas Johnson had been turned off the scaffold and was dead, and the noose was being prepared for Thomas Hawkins. Since colonials rallied around such spectacles of death—and justice—Magistrate Samuel Sewall wrote in his diary, the last-minute reprieves “gave great disgust to the people; I fear it was ill done.” Sewall’s reluctant agreement with the other magistrates weighed heavily on him as he awaited reprisals from God.

Notably, in court Thomas Pound had pointedly claimed Thomas Hawkins, whose boat was used at the start of their enterprise, was not at any point a prisoner. Hawkins deserted the crew at Tarpaulin Cove, was captured separately, and taken in chains to Boston jail. He was not involved in the battle that killed Capt. Pease. Perhaps Pound wanted to remind the judges that Hawkins was well connected. Hawkins’ sister Elizabeth had married Adam Winthrop (brother of Waitstill) and John Richards, a magistrate; sister Abigail was married to the Honorable John Foster, a justice of common pleas; and sister Hannah was married to Elisha Hutchinson, a magistrate.

Influenced by elite connections instead of the rule of law, the judges failed in their duty to let justice be done. Two years later, these same men failed to respond to neighborly petitions to save victims accused of witchcraft based on spectral evidence. Yet when whispers of witchcraft enveloped elite members of society, those accusations never made it to court.

And as for the pirates? Most were released after paying 20 marks. Bound for England for trial, Thomas Hawkins was slain when the ship was attacked by a French privateer; Pound survived the battle, became captain of a Royal Navy ship, and died a “gentleman” in 1703.

Sources: Pirates of the New England Coast; Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1:309-310; New England Historical Genealogical Register Vol. 45:215-217; Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft.