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Christopher Moody

A principal in Bartholomew Roberts's company, hanged at Cape Corso Castle in 1722, whose forename was later attached to the ship and captaincy of a different man, William Moody of the Rising Sun.

BornNot establishedDiedexecuted early April 1722, Cape Corso CastleAlso writtenChris. Moody (the list of prisoners, General History, Vol. I, 1724); Moody (the trial evidence at Cape Corso Castle, 1722); Captain Christopher Moody (popular usage, not period; it fuses his forename with William Moody's captaincy)

Two men of this surname were at sea between about 1717 and 1722, and the popular life of Captain Christopher Moody staples them together. One is a captain, William Moody of the ship Rising Sun. The other is Christopher Moody, a member of Bartholomew Roberts's company, hanged at Cape Corso Castle in 1722. The forename belongs to the second man, the ship and the captaincy to the first. They are two men.1,2

The name forms sort cleanly. The hanged man is "Christopher Moody" and "Chris. Moody" in Johnson's volume of 1724. The captain is "Captain William Moody" in Hamilton's despatch and "William Moudy" in the depositions enclosed with it. The Charles Town letter names a "Moody" and gives no forename at all.3

The captain among the islands

Governor Walter Hamilton wrote from St Christophers on 19 December 1718 with an account of three pirate vessels cruising among his islands: a ship of 24 guns commanded by one Captain William Moody, a brigantine of eight guns under Captain Frowd, and a sloop. They had taken, stranded and burnt several vessels between St Christophers and Santa Cruix, and had lain days at anchor off St Thomas, supplied there with provisions. Hamilton thought that no accident: "that is a nest that harbours all villains, and vagabonds."4,5

John Brown, late commander of the brigantine John and Thomas of Rhode Island, deposed at Antigua on 12 March 1718/19 that on 5 November he was taken off the Bay of Carolina by "a pirate ship, the Rising Sun, William Moudy Commander, mounted with 36 guns and having on board 130 men, white and black." At the end of November they lay two or three days at St Thomas and took three Martinique vessels, sending each master ashore to demand provisions as ransom or they would burn his ship.6,7

Robert Leathes of the Upton pink deposed the same day that on 17 January, in latitude 35 north, bound from Belfast to South Carolina, he was taken by a pirate brigantine under Richard Frowd, of about four guns and sixty men, "tender to the pirate ship Rising Sun." The figures will not settle. Frowd's brigantine has eight guns in the governor's report and four in the deposition of a man it robbed; the Rising Sun has 24 in the one and 36 in the other. The Charles Town letter makes her fifty guns and near two hundred men, which no colonial paper supports.8,9,10

That letter was written to correct Johnson. A Moody was off Charles Town in the autumn of 1718, taking two ships bound there from New England, and taking the Minerva, Captain Smyter, laden with wine from Madeira, plundered and then discharged once he was warned the governor was fitting out against him.11

Hamilton wrote his covering letter on 19 December 1718; the two depositions that name Moody were sworn at Antigua on 12 March 1718/19; the bundle reached London, endorsed as received on 15 May and read on 9 June 1719.12

The crewman

Christopher Moody is one line of a list. The charge exhibited "against the following Pyrates taken out of the Royal Fortune" has him among them, marked as condemned: "Chris. Moody", come in "under Davis" in 1718. A year and another man's name is the whole of his origin.13

Evidence given at Cape Corso against the surgeon Peter Scudamore, who had quarrelled and fought with him at Calabar, calls him "one of the Heads of the Gang". Dutch masters deposed that he was aboard at the robbery of the Flushingham near Axim in January 1722 and of the Gertruycht near Gabon the December before. At the taking of the Royal African Company's King Solomon he took a large glass from one of his own people and "threatned to blow his Brains out" if he muttered at it. Hunting a hidden man aboard a merchantman, he and Harper "with their Pistols cock'd, searched every Corner of the Ship".14,15,16,17

On the passage to Cape Corso he joined the plot formed with Ashplant, Magnes and Mare "to rise, and kill the Officers, and run away with the Ship".18

The gallows at Cape Corso

On 31 March 1722 the court remanded six men for sentence: David Sympson, William Magnes, Richard Hardy, Thomas Sutton, Christopher Moody and Valentine Ashplant. They were to be hanged within the flood-marks outside the castle gates, then taken down and their bodies hanged in chains. The warrant went to the provost-marshal on 2 April, for nine the next morning.19,20,21

Moody was in the first six called out, "all of them old Standers and notorious Offenders", and when they were brought up to have their fetters struck off, none appeared the least dejected. They cursed the court and wished its members the same justice they had been dealt. They were poor rogues, they said, "and so hang'd, while others, no less guilty in another Way, escaped." A ship's surgeon stood in for the ordinary and asked their country and age; some answered "What was that to him, they suffered the Law, and should give no Account but to God". The execution list puts his age at 28. The column for his habitation is empty.22,23,24,25

The flag

No surviving paper of a victim, a master or a witness describes a flag of any Moody.26

The Christopher Moody half of this page comes out of one printed book of 1724, which reproduces the Cape Corso trial documents but is still one book; the printed Tryals of 1723 and the Admiralty file that would test it were not read here. The captain's half rests on one bundle of colonial paper, uncollated against the manuscript. There is no birthplace here, and against the hanged man's name the clerk's own column for a home town stays empty.27,28

What the evidence does not settle

Two Moodys

  • Whether any independent captain Christopher Moody existedLikely

Rising Sun armament

William Moody's end

  • What became of William Moody after the colonial reports

Origins

  • The execution list leaves his habitation blank

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 surname Moody in the pirate record of about 1717 to 1722 attaches to at least two distinct men who are routinely run together: an independent captain named William Moody, commander of the Rising Sun, and Christopher Moody, a member of Bartholomew Roberts's company executed in 1722. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers and period narrative: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797, Governor Hamilton to the Council of Trade and Plantations, with the depositions enclosed; A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials of Bartholomew Roberts's crew at Cape Corso Castle
  2. No primary source read for this record names the independent captain Christopher; the forename attaches only to the executed Roberts crewman, so the popular Captain Christopher Moody fuses William Moody's ship and captaincy with Christopher Moody's forename. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers and period narrative: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797; A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the Cape Corso Castle trials; The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the letter from Charles Town
  3. The attested name forms are "Christopher Moody" and "Chris. Moody" for the man hanged with Roberts's crew, "Captain William Moody" and "William Moudy" for the captain of the Rising Sun, and "one Moody", without a forename, in the Charles Town letter. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative and calendared state papers: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the Cape Corso Castle trial documents; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30, item 797 and its enclosed depositions; The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the Captain Worley chapter
  4. Governor Walter Hamilton, writing from St Christophers on 19 December 1718, reported three pirate vessels cruising among the Leeward Islands, a ship of 24 guns commanded by one Captain William Moody, a brigantine of eight guns under Captain Frowd and a sloop of six or eight guns, which had taken, stranded and burnt several vessels between St Christophers and Santa Cruix. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797, Governor Hamilton to the Council of Trade and Plantations, St Christophers, 19 December 1718
  5. Hamilton reported that the three vessels had lain several days at anchor off the harbour mouth of St Thomas and were said to have been supplied with provisions from that island, which he thought likely, "for that is a nest that harbours all villains, and vagabonds". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797, Governor Hamilton to the Council of Trade and Plantations, St Christophers, 19 December 1718
  6. John Brown, late commander of the brigantine John and Thomas of Rhode Island, deposed at Antigua on 12 March 1718/19 that on 5 November he had been taken off the Bay of Carolina by the pirate ship Rising Sun, William Moudy commander, mounted with 36 guns and carrying 130 men, white and black. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Deposition, calendared: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797. i, the deposition of John Brown, Antigua, 12 March 1718/19
  7. Brown deposed that at the end of November the Rising Sun lay two or three days at St Thomas and took three vessels belonging to Martinique, sending the master of each ashore to the governor to demand provisions as ransom on threat of burning his ship. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Deposition, calendared: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797. i, the deposition of John Brown, Antigua, 12 March 1718/19
  8. Robert Leathes of the Upton pink of Belfast deposed at Antigua on 12 March 1718/19 that on 17 January, in latitude 35 north on a voyage from Belfast to South Carolina, he had been taken by a pirate brigantine under Richard Frowd of about four guns and sixty men, "tender to the pirate ship Rising Sun". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Deposition, calendared: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797. v, the deposition of Robert Leathes, Antigua, 12 March 1718/19
  9. The gun counts disagree inside item 797: Hamilton's covering letter gives Moody's ship 24 guns and Frowd's brigantine eight, while the enclosed depositions give the Rising Sun 36 guns and the brigantine about four. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797, Governor Hamilton's letter against the enclosed depositions of John Brown and Robert Leathes
  10. The Charles Town letter printed in the second volume of the History of the Pyrates makes Moody's ship fifty guns and near two hundred men, figures larger than anything in the colonial papers. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the Captain Worley chapter, the corrective letter to Mr Johnson naming Moody off Charles Town
  11. The Charles Town letter, written to correct Johnson, has a Moody off Charles Town in the autumn of 1718 taking two ships bound there from New England and taking the Minerva, Captain Smyter, laden with wine from Madeira, which he plundered and discharged after he was warned that the governor was fitting out against him. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the Captain Worley chapter, the corrective letter to Mr Johnson naming Moody off Charles Town
  12. Item 797 carries an internal dating tension: Hamilton's covering letter is headed 19 December 1718, the two depositions that name Moody were sworn at Antigua on 12 March 1718/19, and the bundle was endorsed as received on 15 May and read on 9 June 1719, with the Colonial Office manuscript still uncollated. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797, the entry heading, the endorsement, and the depositions of John Brown and Robert Leathes
  13. Johnson prints the charge exhibited "against the following Pyrates taken out of the Royal Fortune" and enters Christopher Moody in that list, marked as condemned, as having come in "under Davis" in 1718. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials of Bartholomew Roberts's crew at Cape Corso Castle, the list of prisoners taken out of the Royal Fortune
  14. Evidence given at Cape Corso Castle against the surgeon Peter Scudamore, who had quarrelled and fought with him at Calabar, describes Moody as "one of the Heads of the Gang". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trial of Peter Scudamore at Cape Corso Castle, the depositions of Harry Glasby, Jo. Wingfield and Nicholas Brattle
  15. Dutch masters deposed at Cape Corso Castle that Christopher Moody was aboard at the robbery and plunder of the Flushingham, taken near Axim at the beginning of January 1722, and of the Gertruycht, taken near Gabon in December 1721. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials at Cape Corso Castle, the evidence of Geret de Haen, Benj. Kreft, James Groet, Castel and Wingfield
  16. At the robbery of the Royal African Company's ship King Solomon, Moody took a large glass from one of his own company and "threatned to blow his Brains out" if he muttered at it. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials at Cape Corso Castle, the evidence of Captain Jo. Trahern and George Fenn against Jo. Mansfield
  17. Searching a captured merchant ship for a man hidden aboard her, Moody and Harper "with their Pistols cock'd, searched every Corner of the Ship". Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials at Cape Corso Castle, the deposition concerning the Tarlton episode
  18. On the passage to Cape Corso, Moody joined a conspiracy among the prisoners with Ashplant, Magnes and Mare "to rise, and kill the Officers, and run away with the Ship". Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the narrative of the passage of the prisoners to Cape Corso Castle
  19. The printed proceedings record that on 31 March 1722 the court remanded six men for sentence: David Sympson, William Magnes, Richard Hardy, Thomas Sutton, Christopher Moody and Valentine Ashplant. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials at Cape Corso Castle, the remand for sentence of 31 March
  20. The sentence ordered the six to be carried to the place of execution without the gates of the castle and there within the flood-marks hanged by the neck until dead, and afterwards taken down and their bodies hanged in chains. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials at Cape Corso Castle, the sentence pronounced after the President's address
  21. The warrant for execution, dated 2 April 1722, directed the provost-marshal to hang the condemned men within the flood-marks outside the castle gates at nine the following morning. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials at Cape Corso Castle, the Warrant for Execution addressed to Joseph Gordyn, Provost-Marshal
  22. Moody was among the first six called to execution, described in the print as "all of them old Standers and notorious Offenders", and when the six were brought up to have their fetters struck off and the halters fitted none of them appeared the least dejected. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the account of the behaviour of the condemned at Cape Corso Castle
  23. The six exclaimed against the severity of the court and cursed its members, saying that they were poor rogues "and so hang'd, while others, no less guilty in another Way, escaped". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the account of the behaviour of the condemned at Cape Corso Castle
  24. A ship's surgeon who acted in place of an ordinary asked the condemned men their country and their age, and some of them answered "What was that to him, they suffered the Law, and should give no Account but to God". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the account of the behaviour of the condemned at Cape Corso Castle
  25. The execution list gives Christopher Moody's age as 28 and leaves the column for his habitation blank. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the list of pirates executed without the gates of Cape Corso Castle, with their ages and habitations
  26. No victim, deponent or trial witness in the papers read for this record describes a flag of any Moody at all. Speculative An inference, not a finding. Documented absence: The silence of the Cape Corso trial evidence and the depositions enclosed in CSP Colonial vol. 30, item 797
  27. The fullest source read for Christopher Moody and the Cape Corso trial is Johnson's first volume, which reproduces the trial documents but remains a single printed source; the printed Tryals of 1723 and the High Court of Admiralty file were not read. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), the trials of Bartholomew Roberts's crew at Cape Corso Castle
  28. Item 797 is the strongest surviving evidence for William Moody as captain of the Rising Sun, and it has not been collated against the Colonial Office manuscript, whose reference is not established. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 797, read in the British History Online transcription of pp. 404-424