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John Bowen

Pirate captain of the Speaker, the Speedy Return and the Defiance in the Indian Ocean about 1700 to 1704, known from a single book and never brought before any court.

BornNot establishedDiedc. 1704, Don MascarenhasAlso writtenCapt. JOHN BOWEN (chapter heading, Johnson, History of the Pyrates, Vol. II); Captain Bowen (Johnson)

Everything connected that is known about John Bowen comes out of one book, Charles Johnson's History of the Pyrates, second volume of 1728. Between about 1700 and 1704 he is said to have commanded three ships in the Indian Ocean and on the Madagascar round: the Speaker, the captured Scots ship Speedy Return, and a Moorish prize he renamed the Defiance. He was never tried, and no court ever tested any of it.1,2,3

The name and the origin

The forename rests on a chapter heading, "Capt. JOHN BOWEN". Everywhere else he is the bare "Captain Bowen", and nobody spelled the surname any other way.4,5

Where he came from was an afterthought. Johnson left the origin out of the main life because he "had not that Certainty of his Original", and printed it later in an appendix, on the word of "one who personally knew, and often convers'd with him". That informant made Bowen a Bermudian, born "of creditable Parents, in the Island of Bermudas" and bred to the sea. "The first Voyage he made was to Carolina", where merchants gave him a ship for the West Indies. Coming home from that voyage he was taken by a French pirate who had no navigator and kept aboard to work the ship; he could get no discharge, and was carried to the Guinea coast and then into the East Indies. Modern writing sometimes calls Bowen a Creole. No period account uses the word of him.6,7,8,9

The Indian Ocean, 1700 to 1703

He did not start as the Speaker's captain. The North appendix has him succeeding a Captain Booth, who died; the main chapter simply hands him the ship in 1700, and the two are never reconciled.10

In the Speaker his company worked the Malabar coast through 1700, taking ships of all nations, the crew itself being of all nations. Off Callequilon they took Captain Coneway's East India ship, homeward from Bengal, and sold her, hull and cargo together, in three shares to two Indian merchants and a Dutch factor. The Speaker was lost at Mauritius about the end of that year or the start of the next, and the company left the wreck about the middle of March 1701, after three months on the island.11,12,13

At Maritan, about the beginning of 1702, Bowen's men came aboard the Scots ship Speedy Return and her attendant brigantine under pretence of trade, and took both without a shot or a wound. He kept the ship, burnt the brigantine and sailed on.14

At Mayotta, about the beginning of March 1703, in consort with Howard's Prosperous, they took the East India Company's Pembroke; her chief mate and one other man were killed in the skirmish, and her commander Whaley, whom Johnson misprints as Woolley, was held aboard as a pilot before the ship was plundered and let go. Later that year a Moorish ship of 700 tun, bound from Mocha to Surat, was carried into Rajapora and stripped of about 22,000 pounds sterling in gold, the richest prize of his own taking. Howard took a second Moorish ship off Daman, plundered her of about 84,000 chequins and left her adrift. The Pembroke crossed their path again late in 1703 and lost sugar and small goods before being released a second time.15,16,17,18

The shore that bought it

None of it works without the coast. There was an open market ashore, where "the Merchants of one Town never scrupled the buying Commodities taken from another", and those same merchants furnished the robbers with what they needed. The Rimae affair runs the other way about. Late in 1703 a Dutch broker named Malpa wanted that country ship taken out of Mudbay and put the pirates on to her; it came to nothing when one Punt of the factory would not pilot a vessel out to them.19,20

Surat felt that season, whoever caused it. Arnold Wright, going through the Company's Surat papers for his 1918 book on Annesley, found that towards the end of August 1703 "a European pirate suddenly appeared off the Guzerat Coast" and fell on the country shipping, and that when the news reached Surat a mob came down on the Old Company's factory and found the gates shut against it. He names no pirate, and nothing ties the raid to Bowen.21,22

The man who hanged for the Speedy Return

Captain Thomas Green of the Worcester was hanged at Leith with two of his men in April 1705 for the piracy and murder of the Speedy Return's crew. William Foster, annotating Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies for the Argonaut Press in 1930, set down that the Worcester had been seized in retaliation for the arrest of the Annandale, and that "the execution was unwarranted is now admitted". Who did take the Scots ship he could not say. Johnson names Bowen, and no one else does.23

The evidence that hanged him did not hold together. The deposition of the Indian boy Antonio Ferdinando and that of the surgeon Charles May put the supposed attack in places that "could not be less than 140 miles asunder".24

The end at Don Mascarenhas

Bowen died at Don Mascarenhas, on no recorded day. The year comes out of the sequence: the Defiance sailed at the latter end of October 1703, lay three months at Mauritius, and the company then spent six months ashore, which puts the death about 1704.25

What is missing from this record is everything official. Nothing read for it came from the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, the Scottish Admiralty record of Green's trial, the printed trial pamphlets of 1705, or the Company of Scotland's own papers on the Speedy Return, and those are the four places where a Bowen who existed outside a book would leave a mark. Alexander Hamilton, a near-contemporary who sailed those seas and wrote a chapter on the Madagascar pirates, does not name Bowen or the Speedy Return in the passages read. Until one of those archives answers, the Speaker, the ruse at Maritan and the gold out of Mocha rest where Johnson left them.26,27

What the evidence does not settle

Identity

  • Independent evidence for the forename JohnPossible
  • Evidence for Bowen's reported Bermuda origin
  • The Bermuda origin rests on Johnson's appendix alone

The Speedy Return

  • Whether Bowen's company took the ship for whose loss Thomas Green was hanged

His end

  • Bowen's date and place of death

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 connected narrative of John Bowen's life comes from a single book, Charles Johnson's History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728): the chapter Of Captain Bowen at pages 49 to 64, a short appendix supplying his origin at pages 371 to 372, and the appendix life of Nathaniel North, which alone carries his death. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (containing Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64; the appendix Of Captain Bowen, pp. 371-372; and the appendix Life of Captain Nathaniel North, which carries Bowen's death)
  2. A pirate captain named Bowen is said to have operated in the Indian Ocean and on the Madagascar round about 1700 to 1704, commanding successively the Speaker, the captured Scots ship Speedy Return, and the Moorish prize renamed the Defiance. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64, with the appendix life of Nathaniel North
  3. Bowen was never tried and no court adjudicated his personal guilt for any of the acts attributed to him. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64, with the appendix life of Nathaniel North
  4. The forename John rests only on Johnson, whose main chapter is headed "Capt. JOHN BOWEN"; no other source read for this record supplies a forename. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64 (chapter heading)
  5. The only name forms located for him are "John Bowen" and "Captain Bowen", both from Johnson, and no variant spelling of the surname and no second forename were found in any source read. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64, and the appendix Of Captain Bowen, pp. 371-372
  6. Johnson placed Bowen's origin in an appendix because he "had not that Certainty of his Original" when the main life was printed, and says he had the birth from "one who personally knew, and often convers'd with him". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the appendix Of Captain Bowen, pp. 371-372
  7. Johnson's appendix states that Bowen "was born of creditable Parents, in the Island of Bermudas" and was educated for the sea, and that "The first Voyage he made was to Carolina", where merchants gave him command of a ship for the West Indies. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the appendix Of Captain Bowen, pp. 371-372
  8. Johnson traces Bowen's route into piracy through being taken, on a homeward voyage from the West Indies, by a French pirate who had no navigator and detained him to work the ship, so that he could obtain no discharge and was carried to the Guinea coast and thence to the East Indies. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the appendix Of Captain Bowen, pp. 371-372
  9. The descriptor "Creole", sometimes applied to Bowen in modern writing, is carried by no source read for this record, which gives only a Bermuda birth and a Carolina first voyage. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the appendix Of Captain Bowen, pp. 371-372
  10. Johnson's appendix life of Nathaniel North has Bowen succeeding to the command of the Speaker after the death of Captain Booth, while the main chapter presents him as the Speaker's captain from 1700. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the appendix Life of Captain Nathaniel North, against the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  11. In 1700 Bowen's company is said to have taken shipping of all nations off the Malabar coast in the Speaker, the crew being of all nations likewise. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  12. About 1700 the company is said to have taken the homeward English East India ship of Captain Coneway from Bengal near Callequilon, and to have sold her, ship and cargo, in three shares to two Indian merchants and a Dutch factor. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  13. The Speaker was lost at Mauritius about the end of 1700 or the beginning of 1701, Johnson dating the departure from the wreck to about the middle of March 1701 after a three-month stay. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  14. About the beginning of 1702 the Scots ship Speedy Return and her attendant brigantine were seized at Maritan by a boarding ruse under pretence of trade and without bloodshed, Bowen taking command of the ship and burning the brigantine. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64; the loss of the Speedy Return to pirates also in the editorial note on Captain Thomas Green and the Worcester in the 1930 Argonaut Press edition of Hamilton's A New Account of the East Indies
  15. About the beginning of March 1703, in consort with Howard's Prosperous, the company took the East India Company ship Pembroke at Mayotta, her chief mate and one other man being killed in the skirmish and her commander Captain Whaley, whom Johnson misprints as Woolley, detained as a pilot before the ship was plundered and released. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  16. In 1703 a Moorish ship of 700 tun bound from Mocha to Surat was carried into Rajapora and plundered of about 22,000 pounds sterling in gold, the richest single prize Johnson credits to Bowen personally. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  17. In 1703 the consort Prosperous, under Howard, took a second Moorish ship off Daman, plundered her of about 84,000 chequins and left her adrift. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  18. Late in 1703 the Pembroke was plundered a second time on the Malabar coast, of sugar and small goods, and then let go again. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  19. Johnson describes a Malabar coast on which pirate plunder was openly traded, "it was made so much a Trade, that the Merchants of one Town never scrupled the buying Commodities taken from another", the same merchants furnishing the robbers at the same time with all necessaries. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  20. A projected taking of the country ship Rimae, lying in Mudbay, at the instance of the Dutch broker Malpa, came to nothing late in 1703 when one Punt of the factory refused to pilot a vessel out to the pirates. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  21. Arnold Wright records that towards the end of August 1703 "a European pirate suddenly appeared off the Guzerat Coast" and fell on the native shipping there, plundering some vessels and driving others ashore. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (London: Andrew Melrose, 1918), chapter XIV, p. 274
  22. Wright records that when news of that raid reached Surat a mob descended on the Old Company's factory and found the gates closed against it. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (London: Andrew Melrose, 1918), chapter XIV, p. 274
  23. Captain Thomas Green of the Worcester was hanged at Leith with two of his men in April 1705 for the piracy and murder of the Speedy Return's crew, the Worcester having been seized in retaliation for the arrest of the Annandale, and William Foster's editorial note states that "the execution was unwarranted is now admitted". Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern editorial note and period narrative: Editorial note on Captain Thomas Green and the Worcester in the 1930 Argonaut Press edition of Hamilton's A New Account of the East Indies; The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  24. Johnson reproduces the trial evidence against Green, the deposition of the Indian boy Antonio Ferdinando and that of the surgeon Charles May, and argues it self-contradictory, noting that the two witnesses placed the supposed engagement in positions that "could not be less than 140 miles asunder". Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  25. Bowen died at Don Mascarenhas about 1704, Johnson giving no calendar date and the year following from his own sequence, in which the Defiance sailed at the latter end of October 1703, lay three months at Mauritius, and the company then spent six months ashore. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), the appendix Life of Captain Nathaniel North, with the chapter Of Captain Bowen, pp. 49-64
  26. No primary or official record bearing on Bowen was read for this record: the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, the High Court of Admiralty of Scotland record of the Green trial, the printed 1705 trial pamphlets and the Company of Scotland records of the Speedy Return all remain unread. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: The History of the Pyrates, Vol. II (1728), as the only source read for the life; the four bodies of official record named remain unread
  27. Alexander Hamilton, a near-contemporary who sailed those seas, does not name Bowen or the Speedy Return in the passages read for this record, and supplies the Madagascar milieu only. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: A New Account of the East Indies (the Madagascar chapter, on the pirates of the island)