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Adam Baldridge

The English-speaking settler who kept the fortified trading post at St Mary's off Madagascar from 1690 to 1697, victualling, arming and fencing for the Red Sea pirates and trafficking in enslaved Malagasy, and who swore his own account of it at New York in 1699.

BornunknownDiednot establishedAlso writtenCaptain Baldridge (his own deposition and the Perkins deposition); Baldredge (the Perkins text); Adam Ball (the New York marriage licence, about 1700)

Adam Baldridge swore an account of himself at New York on 5 May 1699, before Abraham de Peyster. It opens "I, Adam Baldridge" and it is signed "ADAM BALDRIDGE". He had kept a shore station on a Madagascar island, and he sat down and listed the ships.1

He was a settler and a shopkeeper to thieves. He was styled Captain, and everything he is known to have done happened ashore: a house, a fort, cattle, goods in and out. Samuel Perkins, deposing in 1698, called him a man who had turned pirate, a word Baldridge never used of himself. Perkins also passed on hearsay, "as he was informed", that Baldridge "had formerly killed a man in Jamaica, and thereupon turned Pirate about 13 years agoe". Baldridge says nothing of any killing. On Jamaica he says only that the Batchelors Delight, one of the ships that called on him, "belonged to Jamaica".2,3

The post at St Mary's

He founded the place by force. In 1690 and 1691 he "went to War with them", meaning the Malagasy of the island, came back with cattle "and some slaves", and only then built his house. The rest of his company left or died, and by his own account "none continued with me but my Prentice John King". King is the only companion the founding has a name for.4,5

Then the ships began to come, and he wrote them down. From 17 July 1690 to his departure in 1697 he kept a dated list, vessel by vessel, tonnage and guns and cargo set against the day of arrival.6

What he sold, and what he took in

Between 1691 and 1697 he victualled the Red Sea crews as they came back down. Cattle and provisions went out to Raynor, Coats, Tew, Wake, Hore and others; guns, powder, shot, iron and trade goods came in as payment. The Batchelors Delight, the Nassaw, the Amity, the Susanna, the John and Rebeckah are among the ships he names. He bought their cargoes as well. Most of the Charming Mary's goods went through his hands, and Glover's brigantine goods after them, and he sold both on to the next crew in and to the white settlers ashore.7,8

Raynor gave him "five great Guns for a fortification", he says, and Coats six more, about eleven in all. Perkins reports "a platforme of a Fort with 22 Guns". Henry Watson reports "seven or eight guns". Three figures from three men, and no way to reconcile them.9

At least three vessels belonging to Frederick Philipse of New York reached him: the Charles in 1693, the Katherine in 1695, and Cornelius Jacobs's ship in 1697. Henry Watson, writing in February 1698, called Baldridge and Lawrence Johnston "factors for one Frederick Phillips". The consigned cargo came out; slaves, coin and goods went back.10

The traffic in people

Against the Charles's cargo he returned 34 slaves. From the war of 1691 he brought back cattle "and some slaves". The Madagascar slave and rice trade ran through his post from 1691 to 1697. He sets the figures down without a word of justification, because in his telling it is simply the trade.11

The heaviest charge came from William Kidd and reached London through Bellomont: that Baldridge "inveigled a great number of the natives of St. Maries, men, women and children" on board and sold them to the French at Mascarene, and that this was what set the island against the settlement. Perkins, independently, had Baldridge sailing to Mascarene to sell prize goods. Baldridge said nothing about inveigling anybody, and blamed the rising on the privateers and their handling of the islanders. Kidd was a hostile witness.12

The rising, and New York

In 1697 the Malagasy rose. About thirty white men were killed, and Baldridge was away trading when it happened. He did not go back, but crossed to America and settled at New York, where Bellomont at first took him for "a sober man and reported wealthy".13,14

The Board of Trade warned of his piracy connection, Kidd supplied fuller information, and the governor who had "thought well of him" stopped. Nothing followed from it. Baldridge was never tried and never convicted, and the deposition was given voluntarily, by a settled citizen of the town. About 1700 a chaplain of the New York fort married him to the wife of Edward Buckmaster, one of Giles Shelley's men who was supposed to be still alive, the licence being taken out for "Adam Ball" with the "-dridge" added afterwards. In the colonial papers for 1700, Baldridge the pirate and Adam Ball are entered at one and the same item.15,16,17

His own defence

Perkins, deposing on 25 August 1698, and Watson, writing that February, tell the same story of the supply network, and the three men agree on the substance of the rendezvous. They stop agreeing on what it meant. The dates, the ships and the cargoes stand. The causal story, that the privateers and not he provoked the rising, is Baldridge's own defence, and Kidd's charge runs the other way. Jameson, printing him two centuries later, called the paper "Baldridge's tale of innocence".18,19,20

What the papers will not give is the end of him. Nothing read for this record supplies a date or a place of death, or any securely documented later career past the 1699 deposition and the marriage note of about 1700; later writers furnish him with New York years, a death in his seventies and a return to piracy, and none of that is established here. Nor is there any help from the obvious book: Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates carries no Baldridge and no Madagascar St Mary's at all, its single "St. Maries" being a Devonshire crewman's home parish.21,22

What the evidence does not settle

Later life

  • Baldridge's birth, death and life after about 1700Likely

The St Mary's rising

  • Whether privateer violence or Baldridge's slave trading caused the 1697 rising

Fort armament

  • Seven or eight, about eleven, or twenty-two guns

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. Adam Baldridge swore his own account at New York on 5 May 1699 before Abraham de Peyster, opening it "I, Adam Baldridge" and signing it "ADAM BALDRIDGE". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; printed in Jameson (1923) as document 68; also N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526)
  2. Baldridge is styled "Captain" in the sources but was a shore-based settler, trader, supplier and receiver at St Mary's rather than a pirate ship-captain, although Samuel Perkins said he had "turned Pirate about 13 years agoe". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn depositions and modern scholarly edition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); Deposition of Samuel Perkins, relating to pirates in the East Indies (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65); editorial notes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents
  3. Baldridge was connected with Jamaica, saying in his own account that the Batchelors Delight "belonged to Jamaica", while Perkins reported the hearsay, "as he was informed", that Baldridge "had formerly killed a man in Jamaica" and turned pirate on account of it. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Sworn depositions: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); Deposition of Samuel Perkins, relating to pirates in the East Indies (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65)
  4. Baldridge founded his post at St Mary's in 1690 and 1691 by making war on the Malagasy of the island, in his own words having "went to War with them", returning with cattle "and some slaves" before building his house. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; printed in Jameson (1923) as document 68; also N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526)
  5. When Baldridge first stayed at St Mary's in 1691 the rest of his company left or died and his apprentice John King alone remained with him: "none continued with me but my Prentice John King". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; printed in Jameson (1923) as document 68; also N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526)
  6. Baldridge's own dated narrative supplies an unusually firm chronology of the St Mary's post from 17 July 1690 to his departure in 1697, keyed to the arrival of named ships with dates, tonnages, guns and cargoes. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; printed in Jameson (1923) as document 68; also N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526)
  7. From 1691 to 1697 Baldridge victualled and supplied the returning Red Sea crews at St Mary's, selling cattle and provisions to Raynor, Coats, Tew, Wake, Hore and others in exchange for guns, powder, shot, iron and goods, the vessels named in his account including the Batchelors Delight, the Nassaw, the Amity, the Susanna and the John and Rebeckah. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn depositions and calendared state papers: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); Deposition of Samuel Perkins (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65); Narrative of Henry Watson, in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697 to 1698), entry 224 (14 Feb 1698), pp. 107-108
  8. From 1693 to 1697 Baldridge bought cargoes brought in by pirates, among them most of the Charming Mary's goods and Glover's brigantine goods, and sold them on to other crews and to the white settlers on Madagascar. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn depositions: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); Deposition of Samuel Perkins, relating to pirates in the East Indies (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65)
  9. Baldridge maintained a fort at St Mary's whose armament the sources report differently: he names about eleven guns received, "five great Guns for a fortification" from Raynor and six more from Coats, while Perkins reports "a platforme of a Fort with 22 Guns" and Henry Watson "seven or eight guns". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn depositions and calendared state papers: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); Deposition of Samuel Perkins (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65); Narrative of Henry Watson, in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697 to 1698), entry 224 (14 Feb 1698), pp. 107-108
  10. At least three vessels owned by Frederick Philipse of New York reached Baldridge at St Mary's, the Charles in 1693, the Katherine in 1695 and Cornelius Jacobs's ship in 1697, and Henry Watson's narrative names Baldridge and Lawrence Johnston as "factors for one Frederick Phillips", receiving consigned cargoes and returning slaves, coin and goods. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers and sworn deposition: Narrative of Henry Watson, in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697 to 1698), entry 224 (14 Feb 1698), pp. 107-108; Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68)
  11. Baldridge's own account records that he returned 34 slaves against the cargo of the Charles, brought back "and some slaves" from his war of 1691, and supplied the Madagascar slave and rice trade between 1691 and 1697. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; printed in Jameson (1923) as document 68; also N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526)
  12. Captain Kidd alleged, in an account reported by Bellomont and quoted by Jameson, that Baldridge "inveigled a great number of the natives of St. Maries, men, women and children" aboard ship and sold them as slaves to the French at Mascarene, so provoking the rising of about 1697, a charge Baldridge's own account never answers and which Perkins corroborates only in outline by placing Baldridge at Mascarene selling prize goods. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarly edition and sworn deposition: Editorial headnote and footnotes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Jameson (1923), quoting N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 333, 413, 518-526, 552, 766); Deposition of Samuel Perkins (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65)
  13. Baldridge's post left St Mary's in 1697 amid the Malagasy rising, in which about 30 white men were killed while he was absent trading, and he thereafter returned to America. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn depositions: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); Deposition of Samuel Perkins, relating to pirates in the East Indies (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65)
  14. After his St Mary's years Baldridge settled at New York, where Bellomont at first reckoned him "a sober man and reported wealthy" before being warned of his piracy connection. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition and modern scholarly edition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); editorial headnote and footnotes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Jameson (1923), quoting N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 333, 413, 518-526, 552, 766)
  15. Baldridge was never tried or convicted and gave his deposition of 1699 voluntarily as a settled New York citizen, Bellomont having at first "thought well of him" before the Board of Trade warned of his piracy connection and Kidd supplied fuller information. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition and modern scholarly edition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); editorial headnote and footnotes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Jameson (1923), quoting N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 333, 413, 518-526, 552, 766)
  16. About 1700 a chaplain of the New York fort married the wife of Edward Buckmaster, one of Shelley's men supposed to be still alive, to Baldridge, the licence having been obtained for "Adam Ball" with "-dridge" added afterward. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarly edition: Editorial headnote and footnotes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Jameson (1923), notes to docs 65, 68 and 73, citing N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 333, 413, 766)
  17. The index to Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 18 (1700) enters "Baldridge (pirate)" and "Ball, Adam" at the same item, 851. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 18 (1700), Index: B
  18. Baldridge's sworn deposition of 5 May 1699 survives as C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II, printed by Jameson in 1923 as document 68 and in N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526, and it is the single most important source for him, first-hand but self-serving. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition and modern scholarly edition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68; N.Y. Col. Doc. IV. 518-526); editorial notes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents
  19. The deposition is independently corroborated on the supply network by Samuel Perkins's deposition of 25 August 1698 and by Henry Watson's narrative calendared in Calendar of State Papers Colonial volume 16 at entry 224 of 14 February 1698, which names Baldridge and Lawrence Johnston as factors for Frederick Philipse. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition and calendared state papers: Deposition of Samuel Perkins, relating to pirates in the East Indies (C.O. 323:2, no. 131; Jameson (1923) doc 65); Narrative of Henry Watson, in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697 to 1698), entry 224 (14 Feb 1698), pp. 107-108
  20. The factual scaffolding of Baldridge's deposition, its dates, ships and cargoes, is reliable, but its causal framing, that the abusive privateers and not he provoked the rising, is his own defence, contradicted by Kidd, and Jameson calls the document "Baldridge's tale of innocence". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition and modern scholarly edition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); editorial headnote and footnotes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents
  21. No source read for this record gives Baldridge a date or place of death or a securely documented later career beyond his New York deposition of 1699 and the "Adam Ball" marriage note of about 1700, while later accounts assert a later New York life, a death in his seventies and a return to piracy, none of them checked against a primary document here. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Sworn deposition and modern scholarly edition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II; Jameson (1923) doc 68); editorial notes to documents 65, 68 and 73 in Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents
  22. Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates carries no Baldridge and no St Mary's Madagascar material, its single "St. Maries" being a Devonshire crewman's home parish. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period print: A General History of the Pyrates (Gutenberg ebook 40580)