Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period / Illustrative Documents

THE CAMELION .

50. Agreement to Commit Piracy. June 30, 1683.[1]

June the 30th day, 1683. Articles of Agreement between us abord of the Camillion,[2] Nich. Clough Comander, that wee are to dispose of all the goods thatt are abord amongst us, every man are to have his full due and right share only the Commander is to have two shares and a half a share for the Ship and home[3] the Captain please to take for the Master under him is to have a share and a half. Now Gentlemen these are to satisfy you, as for the Doctor a Share and half, and these are our Articles that wee do all stand to as well as on[4] and all.

These are to satisfy you thatt our intent is to trade with the Spaniards, medling nor make no resistances with no nation that wee do fall with all upon the Sea. Now Gentlemen these are to give you notice that if any one do make any Resistances against us one any factery[5] hereafter shall bee severely punish according to the fact that hee hath comitted and as you are all here at present you have taken your corporall oath upon the holy Evangelists to stand one by the other as long as life shall last.

John Hallamore.
the mark signature mark of
Thomas Dickson.
Robert Cockram.
the marke of X Jo. Darvell.
the marke of X Arthur Davis.
the marke of X Jno. Morrine.
John Renals
the mark of signature mark Robert Dousin.
Nicho. Clough.
Samll. Haynsworth.
Daniell Kelly.
William Heath.
John Griffin.

Henery Michelson.
Albert Lasen.
the mark signature mark of Symon
Webson.
William Strother.
Edwa. Dove.
John Watkins.
Edward Starkey.
the mark of signature mark George Paddisson.
John Copping.[6]
the mark of HL Henry
Lewin.

[1] This very curious document (for one does not expect to find pirates agreeing in writing to pursue a course of piracy) is found embedded in one of the indictments in the case of the Camelion, in vol. I. of the wills in the office of the surrogate, New York City, pp. 312-313 of the modern copy. Its presence among wills requires a word of explanation. The governor of a royal colony was usually chancellor, ordinary, and vice-admiral, and as such might preside in the courts of chancery, probate, and admiralty—courts whose common bond was that their jurisprudence was derived from the civil (or Roman) law, and not from the common law. Most of his judicial action was in testamentary cases. It was therefore not unnatural that the few admiralty cases and cases of piracy tried in these early days should be recorded in the same volume as the wills, though distinguished by the simple process of turning the book end for end and recording them at the back. In this case the record begins with our document 51; but the present document, copied into one of the indictments, is earlier in date. The substance of another pirates' agreement (Roberts's company, 1720, see doc. no. 117) is given in Charles Johnson, General History of the Pyrates, second ed., pp. 230-232; another (Phillips's company, 1727, see doc. no. 120 and note 10), ibid., verbatim, pp. 397-398.

[2] The Camelion had in 1682 sailed for the Royal African Company to the slave-mart of Old Calabar on the west coast of Africa, thence with a cargo of negroes to Barbados, thence to Montserrat and Nevis, thence in June, 1683, to London with a cargo. Off Nevis, June 29, the crew took possession of the ship, then made this agreement on the 30th, sold part of the cargo at the Dutch island of CuraÇao, and brought the vessel to Sandy Hook. For their trial, see the next document.

[3] Whom.

[4] One. The larger shares for captain, master, and doctor were in accordance with custom. Clough, the master, was forced to join the mutineers.

[5] Sic. They probably mean, on any pretext, or, on any occasion.

[6] Copping, it was testified, was the writer of this remarkable agreement.

51. Court for the Trial of Piracy: Commission. September 15, 20,
1683.[1]

Memorandum. That Thursday the twenty day of September, in the five and thirtieth yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the second, by the grace of God of England, Scottland, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc., at the Citty Hall of New Yorke in America, A speciall Court of Oyer and Terminer was holden by Vertue of this following Commission, Viz.

Thomas Dongan Lieutt. and Governour, and Vice Admirall under his Royall Highnesse of New Yorke and Dependences in America.

Whereas his Royall Highnesse James Duke of Yorke and Albany, Earle of Ulster, etc., Lord high Admirall of Scottland and Ireland, and the Dominions and Islands thereof, As also Lord high Admirall of the Dominions of New England and Virginia, Barbados, St. Christophers, Antego, New Yorke in America, etc., hath by his Commission dated at St. James the third day of October in the yeare of our Lord 1682 and in the 34th yeare of his Ma'ties Reigne constituted and made mee his Vice Admirall of New Yorke, and the Maritime ports and Islands belonging to the same, and hath authorized and impowered mee to appoint a Judge, Register, and Marshall of a Court of Admiralty there;[2] I do therefore hereby make and appoint You Lucas Santen Esq., Judge of the said Court, and William Beekman, Deputy Mayor, John Lawrence and James Graham, Aldermen of the Citty of New Yorke, Mr. Cornelis Stenwyck, Mr. Nicholas Bayard, Mr. William Pinhorne, and Mr. Jacob Leysler, and you or any six of you, to hear and determine of any or all Treasons, Felonys, Robberys, Piracys, Murders, Manslaughters, Confederacys, breaches of trust, Imbezleing goods, or other Transgressions, contempts, Misprissions and Spoyles whatsoever, done or committed within the Maritime Jurisdiction aforesaid, on board the Ship Camelion of London, Nicholas Clough commander, and I do also appoint Will. Nicolls to bee Register, and John Collier to bee Marshall of the said Court, and this Commission to bee of Force during the time of this Tryall only. Given under my hand and seale this 15th day of September, 1683, and in the thirty fifth yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the second, by the Grace of God, of England, Scottland, etc. King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Tho. Dongan.

To
Lucas Santen Esqr.,[3]
William Beakman,[4]
Jno. Lawrence,
James Graham,

Cornelius Stenwyck,
Nicholas Bayard,
Willm. Pinhorne,
Jacob Leisler.

[1] Vol. I. of wills in surrogate's office, New York City, pp. 306-307.

[2] Governor Dongan's commission of vice-admiralty "in the usual forme", October 3, 1682, is recorded in the Public Record Office, London, C.O. 5:1182, p. 40. James, duke of York, was Lord High Admiral from 1660 to 1673; he was proprietor of the province of New York from 1664 till he became king in 1685. As Lord High Admiral, he issued commissions to the colonial governors appointing them as his vice-admirals. That which he issued, January 26, 1667, to Lord Willoughby, governor of Barbados, is printed in the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II. 187-198. That to Dongan, issued by James in 1682, when, though excluded from office in England, he was still Lord High Admiral of the crown's dominions, was no doubt similar. At this early period the governor himself sometimes acted as judge; see document 46, note 1. Strictly speaking, what was here appointed was not a court of admiralty but a commission for the trial of piracy and other felonies. By the statute 28 Henry VIII. c. 15 (1536), it was provided that cases of piracy should be tried within the realm, not by the High Court of Admiralty, but before commissions specially appointed for the purpose, and with the aid of a jury. But this statute did not extend to the plantations, and until the passage of the act of 11 and 12 William III. c. 7 (1700), commissioners for the trial of piracy in the colonies were usually appointed by governors in their capacity as vice-admirals, and proceeded under the civil (Roman) law, not the statute. Another commission, for the trial of piracy (to Governor Bellomont and others, Nov. 23, 1701) is printed in E.C. Benedict, The American Admiralty, third ed., pp. 73-79, fourth ed., pp. 70-76; another (1716) is doc. no. 106, below; another (to Governor Woodes Rogers, Bahamas, Dec. 5, 1718), is in Johnson's History of the Pyrates, II. (1726) 337-340; a fourth (1728) is in N.J. Archives, first series, V. 196. See also doc. no. 201, note 1, and Chalmers, Opinions (ed. 1858), pp. 511-515.

[3] Collector of the port.

[4] Acting mayor. Lawrence, Graham, Steenwyk, and Bayard were aldermen, Pinhorne became an alderman two months later. Leisler was the celebrated revolutionary. The accused men were found guilty. Eight of them were sentenced to receive twenty lashes and to be imprisoned for a year and a day. Clough was sent to London to give an account of his stewardship to the Royal African Company. Calendar of Council Minutes, N.Y., p. 34.

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