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Captain Lewis

A pirate captain without a forename, who left no prize, no trial and no date behind him, and who is probably part fiction.

BornNot establishedDiedNot establishedAlso writtenLewis (Johnson, General History, Vol. II, 1728); Captain Lewis (Johnson, 1728); this worthy Gentleman (Johnson's irony); honest Captain Lewis (Johnson's irony); William Lewis (later writers; no period basis)

Captain Lewis is a chapter. "Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew" sits in the second volume of Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates, printed in 1728, and no other surviving paper names the man.1

The man without a forename

He has no forename. The chapter heading is "Of Captain Lewis" and the text calls him "Lewis" or "Captain Lewis"; when the narrator turns sardonic he becomes "this worthy Gentleman" or "honest Captain Lewis". The "William" that later writers now attach to him is not in the 1728 book at all.2,3

Nationality goes the same way. Johnson leaves it open "because it is doubted whether he was French or English, for we cannot trace him back to his Original". He does credit him with "a great Aptitude for Languages": the tongue of the Mosquito Indians, French, Spanish and English.4,5

What he is said to have done

The story opens with a hanging. Lewis was a boy aboard the pirate Bannister, in Johnson's words "hang'd at the Yard Arm of a Man of War in sight of Port-Royal in Jamaica", with Lewis and another boy "brought into the Island hanging by the Middle at the Mizzen-Peak" and spared. In the Bay of Campeachy about ten Bermuda sloops lay becalmed. He forced forty enslaved African sailors out of them and a white carpenter, kept the largest at about ninety tons, and mounted her with twelve guns.6,7

He beat the master of one of those sloops with a rope's end and drove him about his own decks with a cane for lying by instead of running, and when the man offered to show where money was hidden he cursed him for betraying his owners and hit him harder. He wrote to a Captain Tucker offering ten thousand pieces of eight for his Bermuda-built brigantine of ten guns, and warned that if he were refused he would lie in his way and take her "either by fair or foul Means". Tucker got away. Then the Leeward Passage in the Gulf of Florida, robbing homeward-bound West India ships and releasing them, and a cruise off Virginia and Carolina, forcing men out of the merchantmen he took.8,9,10

In Newfoundland he seized the Herman, a galley of twenty-four guns under a Captain Beal, at Trinity Harbour in Conception Bay, and when his quartermaster was taken ashore he held two fishing shallops and threatened to put every prisoner to death until the man came back. He got him back, and the hostages went home. Then he manned those shallops, stormed a shore battery and boarded a twenty-four-gun French ship built for a privateer, renamed her the Morning Star, and killed the owner's son, aboard out of curiosity. Fearing the English of his crew meant to maroon his French, he put them and the men he suspected into a boat ten leagues from land with ten pieces of beef and sent them off; it was supposed they perished. The cruise ends on the Guinea coast against English, Dutch and Portuguese shipping, a Carolina master named Smith released civilly with more than had been taken from him, the Frenchman le Barre disarmed, set ashore, his sloop sunk. Lewis was never tried. He was killed on that coast, and nothing in any of it was ever put to a court.11,12,13,14,15

Nothing is dated

Not one year, month or day is fixed anywhere in it, from the escape at Havana to the death in Guinea. The nearest thing to a date is a phrase in passing: the French prize renamed the Morning Star was "built at the latter End of the War for a Privateer". If that war is the Spanish Succession, the Newfoundland episode falls after 1713, decades after the hanging the story opens with. Which war it was is never said.16,17

Two real names

Two real names give the story a veneer of specificity. Captain Tudor Trevor, commanding the Sheerness man of war and missing Lewis by four hours off St John's, was a genuine Royal Navy officer, though whether he had the Sheerness in Newfoundland waters then is unsettled. The other name is worse. Johnson's "Captain Woodes Rogers" is at Trinity Harbour, chaining Lewis's quartermaster to a sheet anchor, which is hard to square with the career of the Woodes Rogers who governed the Bahamas and reads as a confusion.18,19

Other men of the name are on record, and none of them is this one. Captain Thomas Lewis was a privateer. Jonas Lewis deposed in a case. The tempting one is the French pirate Louis Guittar, taken off Virginia in 1700, tried in England and hanged in London on 13 November 1700, whose forename some records anglicise and whom the index to the colonial papers for 1700 enters as "Lewis , Captain (pirate), 395, 405; and see Guittar."20,21

The devil in the cabin

Twice the story stops even pretending to report. Lewis, so the tale runs, tears out a handful of his own hair and casts it up with "Good Devil take this till I come", and the ship sails faster. Later he tells his crew the devil had been in the cabin and had told him he would be murdered that night.22

The portrait is a double one. The beating of the sloop master and the boat sent off with ten pieces of beef stand beside the civil release of Captain Smith and the Newfoundland hostages who came to no harm. The figure is probably part fiction.23,24

What the surviving record does not give: a forename, a birthplace, a date of birth or death, a court that heard any of it, one line about him written by anybody but Johnson. Lewis may have existed. On the papers he cannot be shown to have.

What the evidence does not settle

Identity

  • Lewis's forename, birth and documentary existenceLikely

Nationality

The Sheerness pursuit

  • Whether Tudor Trevor commanded the Sheerness in the reported pursuitPossible

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 whole of the evidence for a pirate captain named Lewis is a single chapter, 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew', in the second volume of Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates (1728); no colonial dispatch, naval log, deposition or newspaper naming him has been located. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  2. Johnson supplies no forename: the chapter is headed 'Of Captain Lewis' and the text calls him only 'Lewis' or 'Captain Lewis', so the modern form 'William Lewis' has no basis in the 1728 source. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  3. The attested name forms are 'Captain Lewis' and 'Lewis' in Johnson (1728), Johnson's ironic 'this worthy Gentleman' and 'honest Captain Lewis', and the modern 'William Lewis' of later writers; no period forename has been located. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  4. Johnson leaves Lewis's nationality unresolved, writing that he spoke English 'because it is doubted whether he was French or English, for we cannot trace him back to his Original'. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  5. Johnson credits Lewis with 'a great Aptitude for Languages', giving him the tongue of the Mosquito Indians, French, Spanish and English. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  6. Johnson makes Lewis a boy aboard the pirate Bannister, who was 'hang'd at the Yard Arm of a Man of War in sight of Port-Royal in Jamaica', Lewis and another boy being 'brought into the Island hanging by the Middle at the Mizzen-Peak' and spared. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  7. Johnson has Lewis take about ten Bermuda sloops becalmed in the Bay of Campeachy, force out of them forty enslaved African sailors and a white carpenter, and keep the largest, of about ninety tons, mounting her with twelve guns. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  8. Johnson has Lewis beat the master of one of the Bermuda sloops with a rope's end and drive him about the decks with a cane for having lain by instead of escaping, and redouble the blows when the man offered to show where money was hidden. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  9. Johnson prints a letter in which Lewis offers Captain Tucker ten thousand pieces of eight for his Bermuda-built brigantine of ten guns and threatens, if refused, to lie in his way and take her 'either by fair or foul Means'; Tucker escaped and the brigantine was never handed over. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  10. Johnson has Lewis rob and release homeward-bound West India merchant ships taking the Leeward Passage in the Gulf of Florida, and take and plunder several merchantmen off Virginia and Carolina, forcing men out of them. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  11. Johnson has Lewis seize the twenty-four-gun galley Herman, Captain Beal, at Trinity Harbour in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, and take two fishing shallops as hostages with a threat to put all his prisoners to death until his seized quartermaster was returned; the quartermaster was recovered and the hostages released unharmed. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  12. Johnson has Lewis man the two captured shallops, storm a shore battery and board a twenty-four-gun French privateer-built ship which he renamed the Morning Star, the owner's son, aboard out of curiosity, being killed in the boarding. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  13. Johnson has Lewis, fearing that the English of his crew meant to maroon his French, put the English and the men he suspected into a boat ten leagues from shore with ten pieces of beef and send them off, keeping only French and enslaved men; Johnson supposes they perished at sea. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  14. Johnson closes the cruise with depredations on the coast of Guinea against English, Dutch and Portuguese ships, the civil release of a Carolina master named Smith with more than had been taken from him, and the forcing of the separatist Frenchman le Barre to disarm and go ashore, his sloop being sunk after him. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  15. Lewis was never tried and no court adjudicated any act attributed to him; Johnson has him killed on the Guinea coast, so every deed in the chapter stands as the allegation of a single narrator. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  16. Johnson's chapter is entirely undated: it gives no calendar year, month or day for any event of Lewis's career, from the escape at Havana to the death on the Guinea coast. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  17. Johnson says the French ship Lewis renamed the Morning Star was 'built at the latter End of the War for a Privateer', which if the war meant is the War of the Spanish Succession would place the Newfoundland episode after 1713, decades after Bannister's hanging. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  18. Captain Tudor Trevor, named by Johnson as commander of the Sheerness man of war that missed Lewis by four hours off St John's, was a genuine Royal Navy officer, but his command of the Sheerness in Newfoundland waters at the relevant time is not established and the pursuit carries no date. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Museum catalogue record and period narrative: Trevor, Captain Tudor RN, fl. 1711 (signature record), Royal Museums Greenwich object rmgc-object-507030; A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  19. Johnson places a 'Captain Woodes Rogers' at Trinity Harbour in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, chaining Lewis's quartermaster to a sheet anchor, an identification difficult to reconcile with the known career of the Woodes Rogers who governed the Bahamas and probably a confusion. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  20. Johnson's Captain Lewis is distinct from the other men of the surname in the colonial record: Captain Thomas Lewis, a privateer; the French pirate Louis Guittar, anglicised as Lewis, taken off Virginia in 1700, tried in England and hanged in London on 13 November 1700; and Jonas Lewis, a deponent. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Edited primary-source collection: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents
  21. The index to the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies for 1700 enters 'Lewis , Captain (pirate), 395, 405; and see Guittar.' and so refers the reader on to Guittar. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 18 (1700), Index: L
  22. Johnson relates that Lewis tore out a handful of his hair and cast it up with 'Good Devil take this till I come', after which his ship sailed faster, and that he said the devil had told him in the cabin that he would be murdered that night. Speculative An inference, not a finding. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  23. Johnson's portrait of Lewis is deliberately double, setting the beating of the sloop master and the marooning of the English beside the civil release of Captain Smith and the sparing of the Newfoundland hostages. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'
  24. No forename, birth date or place, trial record, colonial report or newspaper notice of a pirate Lewis has been found, and the figure is probably part fiction, so the scarcity of the record is itself the central finding. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Edited primary-source collection: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents