Thomas the Pirate notes

. Thomas Hollingsworth the Pirate

There was a notorious pirate named Thomas Hollingsworth who sailed with Captain William Kidd, and was last known to history as he sailed his ship to escape the chase of a French privateer..."Into Dublin Harbour" and up the Liffey River. Was he the father of John, Samuel and William Hollingsworth, that particular "spelling" but really a family continuously using that spelling, is to be found mainly in the Parish of Wigan, Lancashsire, not far from Manchester, nor for that matter, from Mottram, Cheshire. (this was taken from Harry Hollingsworth's HR March 1988 issue)

Thomas sailed with Captain Kidd during the 1690s as a privateer and went on to captain his own ship.

The following is from Pirates of the Eastern Seas (1618-1723), by Charles Grey,

On page 30 in the chapter marked "Avery and Kidd," a brief history of the final exploits of the main gang of the pirates is given. After having befuddled and conned many prominent officials, including those of the British East India Company, warrants for them went out. . After not getting a pardon for themselves from the Govenor of Jamaica (he refused their bribe of L20,000), they split up and attemted to disappear, some doing so in New England - names not given.

The remainder bought sloops at New Providence in the Bahamas (warning: in the old documents it is called simply "Providence" which confused us as to whether Rhode Island was meant), in a final desperate attempt to get home. One Captain Farrell skippered the "Sunflower" carrying Henry Avery and 19 of his crew, which let them off at Dunfanahan on the north Irish coast. From there they went to Dublin. Another sloop commanded by Captain Hollingsworth took sixteen pirates to Dublin. After more than a thousand pounds reward was put up by the British Admiralty and the East India Company, on 19 Oct 1696, 24 of the pirates were arrested and tried, which resulted in six being hanged and the rest transported as slaves to Virginia. Apparently Thomas Hollingsworth was not among the 24 who were apprehended. (Harry Hollingsworth in his HR says the Wexford Hollingsworths were associated with Dublin at this time. Did Thomas turn good, go straight and become our Arklow, County Wicklow and County Wexford progenitor???)

Thomas Hollingsworth the Pirate !!

by Harry Hollingsworth

A lot of people live in fear that some well-meaning ancestor-hunter in their family, will some day find the "horse-thief" of the clan! Your editor has found the Pirate in the Hollingsworth clan! (Run for cover, and for shame!). This fellow was a bona fide water-bourne highwayman of the late 17th century, a contemporary of, and perhaps an acquaintance of, the infamous Captain Kidd! At least, they both were on the high seas at the same time in the same dirty business. Old England didn't frown on their business quite like the French, or others, who seemed to be their target, however.

In the Calendar of (British) State Papers, Colonial, America & West Indies, Volume containing correspondence, etc., for the years 1696 & 1697, (Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.) we find the scurrilous reports: (p.259 et seq.).

"East India House #517. Secretary to the East India Company to William Popple. Forwarding certain documents respecting certain ports in America from which the ships concerned in the late piracies in the Red Sea where set forth, (signed) Ro. Blackborne (Endorsed) Dec. 18, 1696. Annexed: (517 i) T. South to the Lords Justices of Ireland. Dublin, 15 August, 1696. The best place to send shipping to meet the pirates is to Fernando, an island in latitude 3 or 4 degrees where they must touch to water in Feb., or March. The owners of Capt. Wake's ship live in Boston, New England, and were going in a brigantine to bring clothes and necessities to meet him at Fernando; but hearing that we were coming to Providence they followed us thither but did not arrive till after we came away. THOMAS HOLLINGSWORTH now sailed from Galway will meet Wake at Providence, where Wake will certainly be within six or eight weeks, or else not till after Christmas. HOLLINGSWORTH left money for Governor Trott. Wake had already had a pardon for piracy in King James's time... All the ships that are now out (except Tew, from New York & Want, from Carolina), are from New England. They build their ships in New England..."

(517 iii-ibid) "Narrative of Philip Middleton, of the Ship Charles Henry, to the Lords Justices of Ireland, given on 4 August, 1696 (he himself a pirate - Ed.)... another sloop commanded by HOLLINGSWORTH was chased into Dublin by a French Privateer. She had 16 more of the crew of Charles Henry aboard.

(Ibid, Volume for 1700. Page 277, citation #466 xi) "Examination (dated March 25, 1700) of James Brown who sailed from Rhode Island in 1695 on the Susanna, Thomas Wake, Commander, as a privateer with a Commission from the Governor or Deputy Governor. The company were all upon shares. In the seas of India they met with the Phancy, Henry Every, Commanding, who plundered the Susanna. Examinant being weary of being aboard in those parts, with one Capt. Smithsend, and THOMAS HOLLINGWORTH (sic), embarked on the Phancy, which was then designed for Providence." (NOTE: Captain Kidd is referred to in the same group of papers.)

(Ibid, Page 417, cit. #636 ii) "Copy of a Deposition of Sampson Pendley, Master of the Mayflower of Boston. In 1696 he heard Daniel Smith, William & Benjamin Griffin, THOMAS HOLLINGSWORTH, ____ Mincks, Anthony Packer & Thomas Joy, several times declare that they came to Providence in the Fancy with Henry Avery (sic) the Pirate." Dated July 12, 1700 at Bermuda.

Well, that is the extent of the record available to us. This writer has not seen any extraneous matter on this man. Obviously he is not the Thomas Hollingsworth, son to Valentine the Quaker, and surely not the Thomas Hollingsworth of London, also a Quaker of the same period! Some records of Providence, Rhode Island, Boston or the Royal Navy, may give more about this man. "Hollingsworth " may have been a pseudonym, but this suggestion is doubtful, it would be a highly unusual alias to take.

Continued next week.........

A bit of Hollingsworth History:

The following additional information about the Indian Ocean Pirates and our own "Thomas Hollingsworth the Pirate" was sent to me by our member, Simon Hollingworth of Australia. (I included Capt. Kidd's "farewell speech" from a website on the internet.)

Thanks Simon for sending this interesting "follow-up"!

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Thomas Hollingsworth the Pirate !!

(Follow-up information from Simon Hollingworth regarding the article included in the March, 1967 issue of the Hollingsworth Register (Vol. 3, No. 1) written by the late Harry Hollingsworth)

Indian Ocean Pirates

With the decline of the Spanish Main towards the end of the 17th century many pirates shifted their unwelcome intentions towards growing trade in the East. The treasure ships of the Indian Mogul and the merchant men of the various East India Companies provided attractive targets. Most pirates made off for the island of Madagascar (off the east coast of Africa). However, such was the damage to trade and resulting European feeling in India, that governments (and sometimes the traders) were forced to act against the pirates often engaging privateers to seek out and capture pirate ships. Madagascar Pirates -For 30 years from 1690 - 1720 the island of Madagascar was the principle base of the pirates preying on the rich trade of the Indian Ocean. Not colonized and barely explored, Madagascar was the ideal bolt hole for pirates driven out of the Caribbean. A visitor at the end of the 17th century accounted 17 pirate vessels and an estimated population of 1500 men. At various times the island played host to many of the most notorious pirates of the time, including Captain Kidd, Thomas White and Thomas Tew.

William Kidd (1645-1701) Captain Kidd experienced a short-lived pirating career but in it he managed to have a great many people killed, some of which he himself murdered in cold blood. Eventually captured and shipped to England from New York, Kidd experienced a terrible death: the hangman’s rope broke twice, the third time it held. Once he was dead: his body was dipped in tar and hung by chains along the Thames River. Kidd’s body served as a warning to all would-be pirates for years to come.

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Kidd's farewell speech (unconfirmed):

My name was Captain Kidd, when I sail'd, when I sail'd,
And so wickedly I did, God's laws I did forbid,
When I sail'd, when I sail'd.
I roam'd from sound to sound, And many a ship I found,
And then I sunk or burn'd, When I sail'd.
I murder'd William Moore, And laid him in his gore,
Not many leagues from shore, When I sail'd.
Farewell to young and old, All jolly seamen bold,
You're welcome to my gold, For I must die, I must die.
Farewell to Lunnon town, The pretty girls all round,
No pardon can be found, and I must die, I must die,
Farewell, for I must die. Then to eternity, in hideous misery,
I must lie, I must lie.

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Thomas White (1720's)

Henry Avery (aka John Avery, Long Ben/Capt. Bridgeman) (1665-1728?). In September 1695, Avery's ship, Fancy waited outside Mocha for the pilgrim fleet to arrive. Avery was joined by several American pirates:
Captain Joseph Faro on Portsmouth Adventure from Rhode Island
Captain Want on Dolphin from Philadelphia.
Captain William Maze on Pearl from Rhode Island
Captain Thomas Tew on Amity from New York
Captain Wake on Susannah from Boston.

This new group effectively doubled the pirate crew numbers and were able to plunder the pilgrim fleet and the Great Mogul's ship producing about 1000 lbs. of loot for each crewman.

It would appear Thomas Hollingsworth provided relief to Captain Wake on the Susannah of Boston (see below).

Calendar of State Papers (CO 323 2 Nos 25, 25i-iv) in the UK National Archives.

T South to the Lords Justices of Ireland Dublin, 15 Aug 1696. I have this morning obtained the following account:- The best place to send shipping to meet with the pirates is to Fernando, an island in latitude 3º or 4º, where they must touch to water in February or March. The owners of Captain Wake’s ship live in Boston, New England, and were going in a brigantine to bring clothes and necessaries to meet him at Fernando; but hearing that we were coming to Providence they followed us thither but did not arrive till after we came away. Thomas Hollingsworth, now sailed from Galway, will meet Wake at Providence, [p.260] where Wake will certainly be within six or eight weeks, or else not till after Christmas. Hollingsworth left money with Governor Trott. Wake had already had a pardon for piracy in King James’s time. Thomas Jones is concerned in Captain Want’s old barque and lives in Rhode Island. Want is gone to the Persian Gulf and in all probability is either at Rhode Island or Carolina by this time. He broke up there about three years ago after a good voyage, and spent his money there and in Pennsylvania. Captain Tew had a commission from the Governor of New York to cruise against the French. He came out on pretence of loading negroes at Madagascar, but his design was always to go into the seas, having about seventy men on his sloop of sixty tons. He made a voyage three years ago in which his share was £8,000. Want was then his mate. He then went to New England and the Governor would not receive him; then to New York where Governor Fletcher protected him. Colonel Fletcher told Tew he should not come there again unless he brought a store of money, and it is said that Tew gave him £300 for his commission. He is gone to make a voyage in the Red Sea, and if he makes his voyage will be back about this time. This is the third time that Tew has gone out, breaking up the first time in New England and the second time in New York. The place that receives him is chiefly Madagascar, where they must touch both going and coming. All the ships that are now out are from New England, except Tew from New York and Want from Carolina. They build their ships in New England, but come out under the pretence of trading from island to island. The money they bring in is current there, and the people know very well where they go. One Captain Gough who keeps a mercer’s shop at Boston got a good estate this way. On first coming out they generally go first to the Isle of May for salt, then to Fernando for water, then round the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar to victual and water and so for Batsky (sic), where they wait for the traders between Surat and Mecca and Tuda, who must come out at a certain time because of the trade-wind. When they come back they have no place to go but Providence, Carolina, New York, New England and Rhode Island, where they have all along been kindly received. It is hoped that by means of this information they may be taken. Signed T South. 1½ pp.

Thomas Hollingsworth - Pirate or Privateer?
By Bill Hollingsworth (January 2009)
Thomas Hollingsworth first appears in the Indian Ocean and disappears again from Galway City, Ireland. Where he came from, or went to, I don't know. Neither do I know whether he is related to the American or Irish Hollingsworths, or in fact if he is the son, born about 1670 or 1678, of Thomas Hollingsworth and Martha Scampton. Charles Grey in his book "Pirates of the Eastern Seas" suggested Hollingsworth sailed with Captain Kidd in the Sunflower and landed in Dunfanahan on the north-west coast of Ireland. Actually, he may not have done either. But though his appearances are brief, he does manage to pop up in the middle of one of the great sea odysseys of the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy". To give context to his appearance, and perhaps to give a clue as to his origins or his later fate, here is the full tale as I perceive it: La Coruna, Galicia, Spain 7 May 1694: The crew of the frigate Charles II had been unpaid for months. While the captain was drunk, the crew mutinied, led by the former first mate, Henry Every. Every declared "I am captain of this ship now. I am bound to Madagascar, with the design of making my own fortune, and that of all the brave fellows joined with me." They renamed the ship "The Phancy" or "The Fancy" and set sail for Cape Verde. Heading south along the African coast, the pirates plundered three British vessels at the Cape Verde Islands and took two Danish vessels near Sao Tomé/Principé off the west coast of Africa. Early in 1695, they reached Johanna Island (Anjouan) in the Comoros, where Every seized a French pirate ship loaded with booty. Most of its crew joined him, making them more than 170 men. After a brief stop at Madagascar to replenish supplies and wait for suitable weather, Every set sail for Perim Island at the mouth of the Red Sea with the intent of intercepting vessels carrying pilgrims traveling between Mecca and India. He reached Perim by September 1695. Several American pirates were already there - Captain Joseph Faro (Farrell) on Portsmouth Adventure from Rhode Island and Captain William Want on Dolphin from Philadelphia. These two new ships each had a crew of about 60, so the pirate fleet now had three ships and over 350 men. Three days later, even more American pirates arrived - Captain William Maze on Pearl from Rhode Island, Captain Thomas Tew on Amity from New York, and Captain Thomas Wake on Susannah from Boston. On 8 September 1695, the pirate fleet sighted two vessels. The first was the Fateh Mahmamadi, an unarmed merchantship owned by Abd-ul Ghafur, which carried gold and silver valued at more than £50,000. The second ship proved more significant; it was the Gang-i-Sawai, one of the Great Moghul's largest ships. Armed with forty to eighty great guns and four hundred musketeers, captained by Muhammed Ibrahim. Although the forty-six gun Fancy was no match for the larger ship, Every didn't hesitate to attack. One of the pirates' first shots broke the main mast and one of the Gang-i-Sawai's guns exploded, killing or wounding a number of sailors. The Gang-i-Sawai didn't surrender, though, and the battle at Cape St. John, raged for hours. Every's crew looted their prizes at the island of Socotra and split the booty at Réunion Island, where most of the French pirates remained. The East India Company estimated the plunder at 325,000 pounds. After giving small sums to the other pirate ships, each man received about 1,000 in cash plus some of the jewels, Every taking two shares as captain. Somewhere here Thomas Hollingsworth joined the Phancy. Some reports state that Henry Every tricked the other crews into putting all the booty onto the Phancy and then he sneaked away. Others suggest that Thomas Wake's ship, the Susannah, was looted. For whatever reason, Thomas Hollingsworth, Captain Smithsend and James Brown came aboard the Phancy, which then sailed for the Bahamas, stopping at Sao Tomé before crossing the Atlantic. "Examination (dated March 25, 1700) of James Brown who sailed from Rhode Island in 1695 on the Susanna, Thomas Wake, Commander, as a privateer with a Commission from the Governor or Deputy Governor. The company were all upon shares. In the seas of India they met with the Phancy, Henry Every, Commanding, who plundered the Susanna. Examinant being weary of being aboard in those parts, with one Capt. Smithsend, and THOMAS HOLLINGWORTH, embarked on the Phancy, which was then designed for Providence." Also "Deposition of Sampson Pendley, Master of the Mayflower of Boston. In 1696 he heard Daniel Smith, William & Benjamin Griffin, THOMAS HOLLINGSWORTH, ??? Mincks, Anthony Packer & Thomas Joy, several times declare that they came to Providence in the Fancy with Henry Avery (sic) the Pirate." Dated July 12, 1700 at Bermuda." So, if Thomas Hollingsworth was on Wake's Ship, it might mean he originated in Boston too. In the next section Thomas makes more appearances before falling off the radar on reaching Ireland

We have no record of the Ulster Hollingsworths from the mid 17th Century. But then, a Samuel (son of Thomas?) pops up in County Wexford from nowhere in the early 1700s. Were Thomas' family disposessed in Ulster and driven underground in the 1640s? Did his position force him to become a pirate or "sea tory"? Is he the origin of the Dublin and Wexford Hollingsworth?