Barton, Andrew (c. 1470–1511), seaman and shipowner, was one of three brothers, Robert Barton, John, and Andrew, sons of the seafaring merchant John Barton (d. in or before 1494). Like his brothers, Andrew was frequently employed as a naval commander by James IV...
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Clerke, Richard (fl. 1572–1596), navigator and privateer, claimed to have been born at Buckhurst, Essex, but is generally referred to as 'of Weymouth'. He presumably learned his trade in the ships of the latter port, being master of the Pilgrim between ...
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George Clifford, third earl of Cumberland (1558–1605) by Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1590 © National Maritime Museum, London
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Clifford, George, third earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), courtier and privateer, was born on 8 August 1558 in Brougham Castle, Westmorland, the eldest son of Henry Clifford, second earl of Cumberland (1517–1570), and his second wife, Anne (c.1538–1581), daughter of William, third Baron Dacre...
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Bernard Capp
Coxere, Edward (bap. 1633, d. 1694), sailor, was baptized on 16 June 1633 at St Mary's Church, Dover, the seventh (but second surviving) child of John Coxere (d. 1633), sailor, and his wife, Wealthan, née Peace. His mother, widowed when he was only five months old, quickly married a local cordwainer, ...
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Elizabeth Baigent
Crow, Hugh (1765–1829), privateer and slave trader, was born in Ramsey, Isle of Man, the son of Edmund Crow (1730–1809), a tradesman, and his wife, Judith (1737–1807). He lost his right eye in infancy, but despite this was apprenticed to a boat builder in ...
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Davidson, William (c. 1756–1797), privateer, was born in Scotland; further details of his family and upbringing are unknown. In 1791 he was serving as an able seaman on the Niger, then commanded by Sir Richard Keats. Davidson was noted as a comparatively well-educated man of gloomy and silent disposition, but liable to sudden outbursts of temper. While the ship was at ...
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Samuel Pyeatt Menefee
Dover, Thomas (bap. 1662, d. 1742), physician and privateer, was baptized on 6 May 1662 at Barton on the Heath, Warwickshire, the third son of John Dover (bap. 1614, d. 1696), gentleman, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Vade. Thomas was grandson of ...
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Karen Ordahl Kupperman
Elfrith, Daniel (fl. 1607–1640), privateer and colonist in the West Indies, was active in the Caribbean from 1607. Nothing is known of his earlier life. He was memorialized by Alexander Brown in his Genesis of the United States (1890) as 'the man who carried the first rats to the ...
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Elsdale, Robinson (bap. 1744, d. 1783), author and privateer, the son of Samuel and Mary Elsdale, was baptized on 25 December 1744 at Surfleet, Lincolnshire, where his family had long maintained an estate. He entered the navy as a midshipman, but left soon afterwards on account of the slowness of promotion. From 1762 he served in various privateers cruising against the French, chiefly off the coast of ...
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Fenner, George (c. 1540–1618), merchant and privateer, is of unknown parentage. However, the name Fenner was common in west Sussex, and the family into which he was born has been described variously as a mercantile clan in Chichester itself, or as a minor but armigerous gentry family based at ...
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Frobisher, Sir Martin (1535
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Sir Martin Frobisher (1535?–1594) by Cornelius Ketel, 1577 © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
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Richard Raiswell
Glemham, Edward (d. in or after 1594), privateer, was from Benhall in Suffolk. Although he was described as 'esquire', nothing is known of his parents or his early life, but in the summer of 1590 he was of sufficient means to fit out the ...
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Goodall, Thomas (1767–1832
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Thomas Goodall (1767–?1832) by Ridley & Blood, pubd 1808 (after Samuel Drummond) © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Samuel Pyeatt Menefee
Green, Thomas (1679/80–1705), seaman and pirate, of unknown parentage, was brother to John Green, a London attorney. In 1701, when his age was said to be twenty-one, Captain Green, commanding the frigate-built Worcester, chartered by Thomas Bowrey, weighed anchor for India to obtain a cargo of cowries, pepper, turmeric, and saltpetre. This was a ...
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James William Kelly
Halsey, John (1663
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Robert C. Ritchie
Kidd, William (c. 1645–1701), pirate and privateer, was a Scot, by tradition born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, into the family of a Church of Scotland minister; however, the names of his parents are not known and his date of birth is derived from his age, about fifty-six, when he died. He does not appear in the historical record until 1689 when he was a member of a pirate crew brought into service by ...
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Sir Henry Morgan (c. 1635–1688) by unknown engraver, pubd 1684 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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