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George Lowther

Pirate captain who took and plundered the Princess galley on 8 September 1723, was surprised careening on the island of Blanco that October, died there before any court could try him, and left eleven of his crew to hang at St Christopher's.

BornNot establishedDiedOctober 1723, BlancoAlso writtenGeorge Lowther (Worsley's enclosure, deposition of John Wickstead and others, 1723); Captain George Lowther (Hart's enclosure, deposition of Walter Moor, 1724); Capt. George Lowther (A General History of the Pyrates, 1724, chapter heading); Captain Lowther (A General History of the Pyrates)

Lowther took the Princess galley on 8 September 1723. Three weeks later he was careening his sloop on the island of Blanco, an armed sloop came round into the cove, and he did not leave the island alive. John Wickstead, master of the Princess, and Walter Moore, who commanded the sloop that caught him, each swore to what they had seen, and both depositions went home in a governor's despatch. He has a chapter in A General History of the Pyrates as well, and most of what is told of his cruise comes out of that chapter and nowhere else.1

The forename is his own and not a later tidying. Johnson's chapter is headed Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew; Governor Worsley's enclosure has George Lowther and Governor Hart's has Captain George Lowther. The surname is spelled one way in all three.2

The Gambia Castle

The Royal African Company ship Gambia Castle came into port in May 1721 and went out of the settlement again on 13 June, carried off by her own people. Her second mate under Charles Russel was Lowther, and he was ringleader of the mutiny with Captain John Massey. The pirate company begins there.3

Massey did not stay long. He left Lowther, surrendered to Governor Lawes of Jamaica, went home, stood trial before a Court of Admiralty at the Old Bailey on 5 July 1723 and hanged about three weeks later at Execution Dock.4

The cruise

About Christmas 1721 at the Grand Caymans he took in Edward Low as his lieutenant and kept the command himself. They parted on 28 May 1722 at the taking of the Rebecca of Boston, Low going off in the brigantine with forty-four hands and Lowther keeping the sloop with as many.5

Between those dates the sloop worked her way round the Caribbean. The brigantine Charles of Boston was plundered near Barbados on 20 June 1721. The Greyhound of Boston, two hundred tons, Benjamin Edwards master, was taken in the Bay of Honduras on 10 January 1722 after an hour of it, her men whipped, beaten and cut and the ship burnt. The Happy Delivery was lost to an attack while careening at Port Mayo and the sloop Ranger refitted in her place. A New England ship was plundered on 3 June 1722, six enslaved people counted among the goods. Off South Carolina the Amy crippled his sloop, after his men had killed her master Gwatkins.6

The Princess galley

Wickstead, master of the Princess galley, swore with Blowers, Crawford and Flint that Lowther took and plundered the ship on 8 September 1723, and that lighted matches were put between the fingers of Blowers and Crawford until they told where the gold was.7

The Princess's people did not all go the same way. Gibbons and Sedgwick were kept by force; five went over willingly. The court that later sat on the crew kept the distinction, indicting Corp and Winn separately for desertion rather than for piracy.8

Blanco

Blanco lies between Margarita and Rocas, not far from Tortuga. It is well wooded, with heavy scrub growth everywhere, frequented by large sea turtles and carrying great numbers of iguanas, a kind of lizard that grows to about five feet and is very good to eat.9

About the first of October 1723 he unrigged his sloop in the cove at the north west end, sent the guns and sails ashore and began to careen. The armed sloop Eagle, Walter Moore master, came on the cove and surprised him with the vessel on her side. Twenty-four of the company were taken and sixteen of those committed. Moore's twenty-five men beat about the bushes for five days; Lowther and a few others were not in them. Hart's letter dates the capture to 5 October and Moore's own deposition to 15 October.10,11,12

Moore swore that Captain George Lowther shot himself. Johnson has some sloop's men coming on the body, a pistol burst beside it. Neither man was there to see it.13

The trial his men had

The Court of Admiralty sat at Old Road, St Christopher's, on 11 March 1723/4, which is 1724 and not 1722, as Johnson has it. Fourteen men were indicted for robbing the Princess galley; eleven were found guilty and three were not. Winn and Watson were pardoned. Eleven were hanged by the neck until dead on the 20th, on a gallows put up between high and low water mark. Johnson says thirteen of the fourteen were convicted, which does not square with his own three acquittals; Hart held the court and says eleven.14,15

The fourteen who stood there have names as well, Churchill and Mackdonald and Lewis among them.16

The articles

His company wrote their agreement down, and Johnson prints the eight articles: the sixth gives a man who loses a limb in an engagement a hundred and fifty pounds sterling and a place aboard for as long as he wants it, the eighth gives whoever sights a sail first "the best Pistol, or Small-Arm, on Board her". The set that goes under Edward Low's name puts six hundred pieces of eight where Lowther's puts the hundred and fifty, and the two sailed in consort until May 1722. The articles theme and the source record take up that overlap.17,18

He was never tried. He was dead on Blanco months before his men stood in the dock at St Christopher's, so no court ever ruled on anything he did. His crew were convicted of robbing the Princess galley. Nobody was convicted of his part in it.19

Nothing read for this record gives Lowther a birthplace, a parent or a nationality. Johnson puts him on a ship leaving the Thames and offers no origin, and the parish registers and the Royal African Company's own T 70 books that might carry one are still shut. The minutes of the St Christopher's court are not in the calendared despatch, so the names of the men who hanged in his place come from the writer who got the year of their trial wrong by two.20

What the evidence does not settle

Origins

  • Lowther's birthplace, parentage and nationality

Date of capture at Blanco

  • Governor Hart dates the Blanco capture to 5 October

Manner of death

  • His manner of death rests on report, not eyewitness

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. George Lowther is named as a pirate captain by two independent sworn depositions, John Wickstead's naming him as the pirate who seized the Princess on 8 September 1723 and Walter Moore's naming Captain George Lowther among the men taken at Blanco, as well as by A General History of the Pyrates. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), No. 754: Governor Worsley (Barbados) to the Council of Trade and Plantations, with enclosure 754 iv, deposition of John Wickstead and others, pp. 355-372; CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34 (1724-1725), No. 102 and 102 i: Governor Hart (St Christopher's) to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 25 March 1724, with the deposition of Walter Moor, master of the sloop Eagle, pp. 71-76
  2. The forename George is attested in period record rather than supplied by modern editors, the chapter heading of A General History of the Pyrates reading Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew and the two colonial depositions giving George Lowther and Captain George Lowther, and no variant spelling of the surname was located. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers and period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew; CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33, No. 754 iv (Wickstead deposition); CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34, No. 102 i (deposition of Walter Moor)
  3. A General History of the Pyrates makes Lowther second mate of the Royal African Company ship Gambia Castle under Charles Russel and ringleader with Captain John Massey of the mutiny that seized her in June 1721, the ship reaching port in May 1721 and Lowther leaving the settlement on 13 June; no primary document read for this record corroborates the mutiny, and the Royal African Company's T 70 series has not been opened. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew
  4. A General History of the Pyrates has John Massey leave Lowther, surrender to Governor Lawes of Jamaica, return to England, stand trial on 5 July 1723 before a Court of Admiralty at the Old Bailey and hang about three weeks later at Execution Dock; no trial record for it has been read. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew
  5. A General History of the Pyrates has Lowther and Edward Low join forces about Christmas 1721 at the Grand Caymans with Lowther as captain and Low as lieutenant, and separate on 28 May 1722 at the taking of the Rebecca, Low going off in the brigantine with forty-four hands and Lowther keeping the sloop with the same number. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew
  6. The cruise between 1721 and 1723 rests on A General History of the Pyrates alone: the brigantine Charles of Boston plundered near Barbados on 20 June 1721, the Greyhound of Boston of two hundred tons under Benjamin Edwards taken in the Bay of Honduras on 10 January 1722 after an hour's fight with her crew whipped, beaten and cut and the ship burnt, the Happy Delivery lost to an attack while careening at Port Mayo and the sloop Ranger refitted in her place, a New England ship homeward from Barbados plundered on 3 June 1722 with six enslaved people among the goods taken, and the Amy crippling the pirate sloop off South Carolina after Lowther's men had killed her master Gwatkins. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew
  7. John Wickstead, master of the Princess galley, swore with Blowers, Crawford and Flint that Lowther seized and plundered the ship on 8 September 1723 and that lighted matches were placed between the fingers of Blowers and Crawford to force the discovery of the gold, which fixes the late chronology of Lowther's career on primary evidence rather than on narrative. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), No. 754 and enclosure 754 iv: Governor Worsley (Barbados) to the Council of Trade and Plantations, with the deposition of John Wickstead and others, pp. 355-372
  8. The record distinguishes forced men from volunteers: the Wickstead deposition separates two men detained by force, Gibbons and Sedgwick, from five who went voluntarily, and the St Christopher's court indicted Corp and Winn separately for desertion and acquitted three of the fourteen tried. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33, No. 754 iv (deposition of John Wickstead and others); CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34, No. 102 (Governor Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 25 March 1724)
  9. Dow and Edmonds place Blanco between the islands of Margarita and Rocas, not far from Tortuga, and describe it as well wooded with heavy scrub growth everywhere, frequented by large sea turtles and supporting great numbers of iguanas about five feet long. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Marine Research Society, Salem, Massachusetts, 1923), chapter IX, page 139
  10. Dow and Edmonds place the careening in a small cove or sandy bay on the north west end of Blanco about the first of October 1723, with the sloop unrigged and her guns and sails sent ashore. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter IX, page 139
  11. The sloop Eagle under Walter Moore surprised Lowther's sloop careened at Blanco in October 1723 and took twenty-four of the crew, sixteen of whom were later committed, while Lowther and a few others escaped ashore; Governor Hart's letter dates the capture to 5 October and Moore's own deposition to 15 October. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34 (1724-1725), No. 102 and 102 i: Governor Hart (St Christopher's) to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 25 March 1724, with the deposition of Walter Moor, master of the sloop Eagle, pp. 71-76
  12. Dow and Edmonds record that, the captured vessel secured, twenty-five men went ashore in search of Lowther and his crew and, after five days of beating about the bushes, took sixteen of the pirates. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter IX, pages 139-140
  13. Walter Moore's deposition records that Captain George Lowther shot himself and A General History of the Pyrates has the body found by some sloop's men with a pistol burst beside it, neither account being that of an eyewitness, so that the death on Blanco is established while the manner of it rests on report. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers and period narrative: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34, No. 102 i, deposition of Walter Moor, master of the sloop Eagle; A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew
  14. The Court of Admiralty at Old Road, St Christopher's, sat on 11 March 1723/4 and indicted fourteen men for robbing the Princess galley, finding eleven guilty and three not guilty, pardoning Winn and Watson and hanging eleven on 20 March, which corrects the date of 11 March 1722 and the count of thirteen guilty given in A General History of the Pyrates. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34 (1724-1725), No. 102: Governor Hart (St Christopher's) to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 25 March 1724, pp. 71-76
  15. Dow and Edmonds record that men were hanged by the neck until dead on 20 March 1724 on a gallows erected between high and low water mark at St Christopher's. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter IX, page 140
  16. The names of the fourteen accused, Churchill, Mackdonald, Lewis and the rest, are given by A General History of the Pyrates and not by Governor Hart's report as calendared, which carries the counts and a few names but not the list, the minutes of the court not having been read. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative and calendared state papers: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew; CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34, No. 102, Governor Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 25 March 1724
  17. A General History of the Pyrates prints eight articles for Lowther's company, the sixth giving a man who loses a limb in engagement one hundred and fifty pounds sterling and a place with the company and the eighth giving the man who sees a sail first "the best Pistol, or Small-Arm, on Board her", the wording being quotable as text while their authenticity as the company's own articles rests on that print alone. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew, including the Articles of Captain George Lowther and his Company
  18. The sixth article of the set printed by Dow and Edmonds as the articles of Captain Edward Low and his company gives a man who loses a limb in time of engagement six hundred pieces of eight and a place aboard as long as he shall think fit. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Newspaper text via modern reprint: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter X, pages 146-147, printing the articles credited to the Boston News-Letter of 8 August 1723
  19. Lowther was never tried and no court adjudicated his personal guilt, since he died on Blanco in 1723, although his crew were convicted of robbing the Princess galley. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34 (1724-1725), No. 102 and 102 i: Governor Hart (St Christopher's) to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 25 March 1724, with the deposition of Walter Moor, pp. 71-76
  20. No birthplace, parentage or nationality for Lowther is given by any source read for this record, A General History of the Pyrates opening with his sailing from the Thames and supplying no origin, and the full St Christopher's trial minutes with the list of the fourteen accused are not carried by the calendared despatch. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers and period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew; CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33, No. 754 and 754 iv; CSP Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34, No. 102 and 102 i