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The Crisis and the Manhunt

Curator's note

Thirty two days separate the first of these three sheets from the last. In that time a commercial grievance became an obligation on subjects in three kingdoms.

The consequences ran outward from that deck faster than the Fancy could sail. At Surat the governor set a guard on the East India Company's factory, clapped the Company's people in irons and cut off their communication, and English trade in the emperor's ports stopped. Sir John Gayer's Bombay letter of 12 October 1695 records that "one English man in Surrat carrying to Prison, was so wounded by the Rabble, that he dyed three days after". A letter out of Venice corroborates the plunder and the guards through a wholly separate channel.

The Mughal side of the crisis survives in a Persian court chronicle, the English side in the Company's own correspondence, written by a party with everything to lose.

To save itself the Company petitioned the Lords Justices, and the petition was read on 16 July 1696. The Crown answered the next day, and twice more within the month.

The three sheets

and in case of Resistance to Sink and Destroy the said Ship … a Reward of Five hundred Pounds

By the Lords Justices, a proclamation given at the Council Chamber at Whitehall, 17 July 1696. Printed by Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb. Wing E933, ESTC R39433. Original in the British Library. The sheet recites the information received from the Company, commands seizure, offers the King's pardon to accomplices, and charges the reward on the Treasury.

hath changed his Name, and now goes by the Name of Henry Bridgman

Fifty two Frenchmen, Fourteen Danes, and others of other Nations

to the amount of One thousand Pounds a Man or thereabouts

A proclamation of 10 August 1696. Wing E934, ESTC R39434. Original in the British Library. It names twenty five of Every's company, and adds fifty pounds a head for the rest.

from any Hazard of Slaughter, Mutilation, or other Acts of Violence

upon their Highest Peril

at the Mercat-Corss of Edinburgh

A proclamation passed at Edinburgh, 18 August 1696. Wing S1832, ESTC R183498. Original at the National Library of Scotland. It indemnifies the King's subjects for violence done to Every and his men, forbids anyone to shelter them, and orders publication at the market cross.

The first sheet dates itself 17 July and was published on the 18th, which is where the 18 July dating in two standard editions comes from.

That the Company agreed to pay the five hundred pounds rests on an editorial footnote, against three instruments that all direct the payment to the Crown. The Company was the moving party behind both English sheets.

What these sheets say about the Fancy's cruise came to Whitehall from the Company, at second hand. Their forty six guns and hundred and thirty men are the state's allegation of 1696. The standard national reference entry of 1885 reproduced those two figures as plain description. Very likely

The arrests came first

Men of the company were already in custody in Ireland on 20 June and 2 July 1696, taken by a sheriff and two justices of the peace, before any of the three sheets existed. John Dann was taken at Rochester with gold quilted into his jacket. William May was taken three miles off Bath and examined by the Duke of Devonshire, who had signed the July sheet himself.

An ordered timeline of the manhunt. In order: 12 October 1695, the East India Company's letter from Bombay, with the Company's people at Surat put under guard and one Englishman so wounded by the crowd on his way to prison that he died three days after; 20 June 1696, the first arrests, in county Mayo; by 2 July 1696, two of the men held near Ballinrobe; 16 July 1696, the East India Company's petition read; 17 July 1696, the proclamation given at Whitehall and published the next day, twenty seven days after the first men were taken; early August 1696, John Dann taken at Rochester, dated from Luttrell's report rather than from a warrant; 10 August 1696, the second proclamation, naming twenty five men, whose account of the crew's route was got from two of them already in custody; and 18 August 1696, the Scottish proclamation. Three printed sheets went out across three kingdoms in thirty two days.
The order of the manhunt, with the arrests and the printing set on one line. Ordered timeline; drawn from the three proclamations, the Colonial State Papers correspondence and Luttrell
  • 12 October 1695. The East India Company's letter from Bombay. At Surat the Company's people are put under guard, and one Englishman is so wounded by the crowd on his way to prison that he dies three days after.
  • 20 June 1696. The first arrests, in county Mayo.
  • By 2 July 1696. Two of the men held near Ballinrobe.
  • 16 July 1696. The East India Company's petition read.
  • 17 July 1696. The proclamation given at Whitehall, published the next day. Twenty seven days after the first men were taken.
  • Early August 1696. John Dann taken at Rochester. That date comes from Luttrell's report rather than from a warrant.
  • 10 August 1696. The second proclamation, naming twenty five men. The account of the crew's route it prints was got from two of them already in custody.
  • 18 August 1696. The Scottish proclamation.

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