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Colonial Militias and Private Defence

Not one institution but the armed force the English, and from 1707 British, American and Caribbean colonies could raise out of themselves, comprising the statutory militia of each colony with its musters, watches, forts and harbour batteries, the vessels a governor commissioned into private hands against pirates, the sloops a colony hired, pressed or fitted out at the public charge, and the unlicensed self-defence of merchant crews and forced men.

Also writtenthe colonial militia; private defence; the colony's own force; governors' anti-piracy commissions; commissioned private force

Colonial Militias and Private Defence names a capability, not a body: no colonial army, no colonial navy, no instrument constituting either. The record holds five forms: the statutory militia in companies under its own officers, the forts and town watch those companies manned, vessels a governor commissioned into private hands, vessels hired, pressed or fitted at the public charge, and self-defence under no commission at all. It tried nobody, and did much of the catching and killing of pirates between 1690 and 1725.

The governor's commission

The best documented commission of private force was granted at St Jago de la Vega in Jamaica on 24 November 1715 by Lord Archibald Hamilton to Jonathan Barnet of the snow Tyger, with written instructions and a bond in 1,500 pounds signed by Barnet and the owners Lewis Galdy and Daniel Axtell. The instructions forbade hostility on the King's allies, neuters, friends or subjects, and required Barnet "to bring into your commission port all such pyrates as you shall take there to be proceeded against according to law". The licence was to take, not to condemn or hang; the bond bound the owners.1

The same commissions and their critics

The same file carries its own contradiction. The covering letter calls an enclosed list of ten vessels commissioned by Hamilton "not genuine", and the Remarks sent at Hamilton's desire say the Tyger snow "was the first that committed hostilities". Peter Heywood, commanding in chief, wrote on 11 August 1716 that "had not Comissions been granted wch. were given out on pretext of suppressing pyracys these unhappy disorders had not been comitted".2

The militia at Nassau

Woodes Rogers wrote from Nassau on 31 October 1718 that he had erected a small fort of eight guns at the harbour's eastermost entrance and had "formed the inhabitants ... into three companys of Militia, under their own officers, who by turns keep a guard in the town every night". Eleuthera and Harbour Island each had a company under a deputy governor. He doubted whether half of them would join him if their old friends came in strength.3

Cape Fear, 1718

Colonel William Rhett, recorded also as surveyor and comptroller of customs, took two sloops and about 130 men out of Charles Town under a governor's commission and received Stede Bonnet's surrender in the Cape Fear river. The sloops were the Henry and the Sea Nymph. The casualty counts disagree, fourteen dead in the Governor and Council's despatch against twelve in Charles Johnson's General History.4

Ocracoke, and who paid

The men of war could not enter North Carolina's shallow channels, and the King's captains would not hire sloops without orders, so Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood undertook "supplying at my own charge sloops and pilots". The Navy lent men under the first lieutenant of the Pearl and an officer from the Lyme, fifty five by Spotswood's despatch and fifty seven by a later count, and they killed Edward Thache at Ocracoke Inlet on 22 November 1718.5

Jamaica in 1720

In his despatch of 13 November 1720, Sir Nicholas Lawes described the taker of John Rackham as "a trading sloop belonging to the Island being well manned and commanded by a brisk fellow one Jonathan Barnet". The General History instead has a sloop sent round the island by the Governor. The same despatch reports the Assembly's appropriation of an additional duty, laid on enslaved people imported and exported and including a tax of 1,000 pounds upon the Jews, to two guard sloops.6

What the militia did not do

The militia as such appears guarding a watch house, keeping a nightly guard, working on a fort and beating to arms. It does not appear taking a pirate at sea. The men who did that were seamen in hired or private sloops.

No colonial militia statute has been consulted, so the establishment, ages of liability, muster frequency and arms requirement are unstated, and the despatch recording a governor's pressing of private vessels states no legal basis. The names of Rhett's two sloops at Cape Fear come from the General History and not from the despatch. No sum is recorded for the cost of any expedition.

What the evidence does not settle

Militia statute provisions

  • Militia establishment, ages, musters and penalties are unstated for four colonies

Barnet's commission

  • Whether Barnet held a current commission when he took RackhamPossible

Cape Fear casualties

  • Cape Fear casualty figures differ between the despatch and History

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. The legal instrument of private colonial force was a governor's commission accompanied by written instructions and a penal bond from the owners, the commission granted at St Jago de la Vega on 24 November 1715 by Lord Archibald Hamilton to Jonathan Barnet of the snow Tyger being bonded in 1,500 pounds by Barnet, Lewis Galdy and Daniel Axtell, and its instructions requiring him to bring into his commission port all such pyrates as he should take there to be proceeded against according to law. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state paper: Item 131 and enclosures i to v, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717-1718, October 1717 (C.O. 137, 12. Nos. 78, 78 i.-v.)
  2. The same file undermines the commission it records: an enclosed list of ten vessels commissioned by Hamilton in that form is declared by the covering letter not to be genuine, the Remarks transmitted at Hamilton's own desire state that the Tyger snow was the first that committed hostilities, and General Peter Heywood, commanding in chief at Jamaica, wrote on 11 August 1716 that but for the commissions given out on pretext of suppressing piracies the disorders would not have been committed. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Calendared state papers: Items 131 and enclosures iv and v, volume 30, 1717-1718 (C.O. 137, 12. No. 78), and item 308, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 29, 1716-1717, August 1716 (C.O. 137, 12. No. 21)
  3. Woodes Rogers reported from Nassau on 31 October 1718 that he had erected a small fort of eight guns at the eastermost entrance into the harbour and had formed the inhabitants and all the rest of the men on the island into three companies of militia under their own officers, keeping a guard in the town every night by turns, with a further company under a deputy governor at Eleuthera and another at Harbour Island, while doubting whether half of them would join him if their old friends came in strength. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state paper: Item 737, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717-1718, October 1718 (C.O. 23, 1. Nos. 10, 10 i.-viii.)
  4. Colonel William Rhett went out of Charles Town under the Governor's commission with two sloops and about 130 men and received Stede Bonnet's surrender in the Cape Fear river, the sloops' names Henry and Sea Nymph and the captains' forenames John Masters and Fayrer Hall being the General History's and not the despatch's, and the colonial casualties are reported as fourteen dead and twenty wounded by the Governor and Council and as twelve dead and eighteen wounded by the printed narrative. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Calendared state paper and period narrative: Item 730, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717-1718, October 1718 (C.O. 5, 1265. No. 121), with Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, second edition, London, 1724; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
  5. Finding it impracticable for the men of war to enter the shallow channels of North Carolina and the King's captains unwilling to hire sloops they had no orders to hire, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood supplied at his own charge the sloops and pilots that killed Edward Teach at Ocracoke Inlet on 22 November 1718, the captains of the King's ships putting fifty five men aboard under the first lieutenant of the Pearl and an officer from the Lyme. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state paper: Item 800, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717-1718, December 1718 (C.O. 5, 1318. Nos. 61, 61 i.-vi.)
  6. Sir Nicholas Lawes reported on 13 November 1720 that Rackham and eighteen more were taken by a trading sloop belonging to Jamaica, well manned and commanded by Jonathan Barnet, and that the Assembly had appropriated an additional duty, laid on enslaved people imported and exported and including a tax of 1,000 pounds upon the Jews, to fitting out two sloops for guarding the coasts from pirates. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Calendared state paper: Item 288, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 32, 1720-1721, November 1720 (C.O. 137, 13. Nos. 45, 45 i.-iii.)