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The Cape Coast Trial and Executions, 1722

The Vice-Admiralty court held at Cape Coast Castle (Cabo Corso) on the Guinea coast that tried the surviving crew taken from Roberts's ships. Of those brought before it, 74 were acquitted, 52 hanged, and 20 sentenced to seven years' servitude to the Royal African Company; 17 were referred to the Marshalsea in London. It was one of the largest mass executions of pirates of the Golden Age; the count of 52 hanged is Confirmed.

From28 March 1722Tolate April 1722Also writtenthe Cabo Corso trial; the trial of Roberts's crew

The Pirate War did not end at sea. It ended on shore, in a courtroom inside a slave-trading castle on the Guinea coast, where the men taken from Roberts's ships were tried by a Vice-Admiralty commission. It produced one of the largest mass executions of pirates of the Golden Age: 52 men hanged.8

The court sat at Cape Coast Castle, which the record spells Cabo Corso, from 28 March 1722 into late April. Its president was Captain Mungo Herdman; John Atkins, the Swallow's surgeon, served as Register and signed the papers. Ogle himself did not sit. As he wrote, "I being Captor, was disqualified from sitting", so the man who had taken the prisoners was kept off the bench that judged them.2

Front page of The London Gazette, issue 6091, for 1 to 4 September 1722. Under the masthead a dispatch begins: a letter from Captain Ogle, commander of His Majesty's Ship Swallow, dated from Cape Coast Road in Africa, reporting the action against the pirates.
Captain Ogle's dispatch, in the London Gazette, issue 6091 The official notice of the action, printed in the London Gazette for 1 to 4 September 1722: Ogle's letter from HMS Swallow, dated Cape Coast Road, 5 April 1722, reporting the taking of Roberts's ships. The same dispatch is reprinted in the 1723 trial pamphlet. The London Gazette, the official public record, issue 6091. Public domain.

The charge turned the crew's own government against them. They were indicted for making "a Hostile Defence and Resistance for some Hours" against the King's ship, and for doing it "without any Pretence of Authority more than that of your own private depraved Wills ... under a Black Flag". The court pressed the point that these were volunteers who had set their own officers over themselves and fought under their own colours, which is what the depositions describe: men signing pirate articles, sharing plunder by rule, serving under officers of their own election.

Of those brought before the court, 74 were acquitted, listed by name under the heading "Total 74". Of those sentenced to death, "Whereof were Executed 52". Twenty had their sentence changed for "seven Years Servitude in Africa" to the Royal African Company, named man by man. A small group was respited "till the King's Pleasure is known", conventionally two, and 17 were referred to the Marshalsea in London for further process. The often-repeated "272 taken" is a reconstruction and no total of the pamphlet's own, roughly matched by Atkins's count of about 200 Englishmen and 60 or 70 enslaved Africans across the three ships.3,7,5

The sentence was read in the old triple form: each condemned man was "to be hanged by the Neck till ye are Dead, Dead, Dead. And the Lord have Mercy upon your Souls." The 52 were hanged in batches over the first weeks of April, within the flood-marks below the castle. For named men the court added the further exposure: they were to be "taken down, and your Bodies hung in Chains", gibbeted on the shore as a warning to the coast.4

The court that hanged 52 men treated the enslaved Africans found among the crew not as defendants but as property: about 65 to 70 of them were returned to slavery under the Royal African Company rather than tried. The 1724 General History prints "Negroes in both Ships, 70"; the tables in the 1723 print do not count them at all.6

The whole proceeding survives in the 1723 printed account, which reprints the dispatch, the indictment, the depositions and the tables; the manuscript, in TNA HCA 1/99, is catalogued only as "Africa, 1722" and is not digitised, so the case has to be read through the print. It is a good record of who hanged and by what verdict, and a poor one of how the accused answered for themselves: the wording of the address to the prisoners is not established word for word, though the indictment's charge of self-made authority is. The figure of 54 condemned that circulates is best read as the 52 executed and the 2 respited.

What the evidence does not settle

Identity of the HCA 1/99 case

  • HCA 1/99 is identified with this trial only by inferenceVery likely

Per-defendant verdicts

  • The verdict returned for each defendant

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Roberts was killed in action and never tried; 'proven' can attach only to the Cape Coast Castle proceedings against his crew, never to Roberts personally. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period print and legal frame: He was never captured, arraigned, deposed or confessed; no court adjudicated his personal guilt
  2. The Vice-Admiralty court sat at Cape Coast Castle (Cabo Corso) from 28 March into late April 1722, with Captain Mungo Herdman as President and John Atkins as Register; Ogle was disqualified from sitting as Captor. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The 1723 pamphlet: 'A Journal of the Proceedings of the Court of Admiralty, held at Cabo Corso Castle... April the 20th, 1722. Captain Mungo Herdman, President'; Ogle's dispatch: 'I being Captor, was disqualified from sitting'
  3. The pamphlet's own summary tables record 74 acquitted, 52 executed, and 20 sentenced to seven years' servitude to the Royal African Company, with a small respited group and 17 referred to the Marshalsea in London. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The 1723 pamphlet, read in full: 'A LIST OF THE Pyrates Acquitted... Total 74', 'Whereof were Executed 52', 'seven Years Servitude in Africa, viz. 20'; '54 condemned' equals 52 executed plus 2 respited
  4. The condemned were sentenced 'to be hanged by the Neck till ye are Dead, Dead, Dead', and named men were ordered afterward to be hung in chains. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The 1723 pamphlet, read in full; the sentence and gibbeting order are signed by Mungo Herdman with John Atkins as Register
  5. The figure of about 272 prisoners taken is a reconstruction; the pamphlet prints no single 'taken' total. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Eyewitness memoir and reconstruction: Atkins, read in full, gives about 200 Englishmen plus 60 or 70 enslaved Africans across the three ships; the aggregate 272 is not a printed figure
  6. Formerly enslaved Africans found among the captured crew were treated as Royal African Company property and returned to slavery rather than tried; their number is about 65 to 70, the 1724 General History's disposal column printing 'Negroes in both Ships, 70', David Wilson giving seventy-five sold without trial, and the reference accounts rounding to 65, the 1723 print's tables not counting them. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period print and secondary synthesis: Johnson (the disposal column, 'Negroes in both Ships, 70') and the trial record; David Wilson, Suppressing Piracy in the Early Eighteenth Century (2021), chapter 5, for seventy-five; reference accounts for the round 65; Atkins gives 60 or 70 enslaved Africans across the three ships
  7. The Vice-Admiralty court held at Cape Coast Castle in 1722 tried Roberts's surviving crew and returned 74 acquitted, 52 executed and 20 sentenced to servitude. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial record: A Full and Exact Account of the Tryal of All the Pyrates Lately Taken by Captain Ogle (1723), summary tables. Court held at Cabo Corso Castle, President Mungo Herdman, John Atkins Register.
  8. The hanging of fifty-two of Roberts's crew was one of the largest mass executions of pirates of the Golden Age. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Comparative synthesis over a Confirmed count: The figure of 52 executed is Confirmed from the 1723 printed record; the superlative is a comparative reading resting on a survey of other crews, and is Probable.