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Nicholas Brown

Providence pirate who took Spanish service at Cuba, was demanded back from Trinidado by Jamaica as a traitor, and was refused on the ground that he had been baptised a Catholic.

BornNot establishedDiedNot establishedAlso writtenNicholas Brown (Johnson, General History, Vol. I, 1724); Nicolas Brown (Sir Nicolas Laws to the alcaldes of Trinidado, 26 January 1721-2, as printed by Johnson); Brown, an English renegado (memorial of Henry White, calendared 1723)

Nicholas Brown is assembled entirely out of other men's complaints: a Jamaican governor demanding him back as a traitor, a naval lieutenant repeating the demand from the water, and a Bahamas memorial charging him with a taking off Hispaniola.1

The Providence men who went the other way

He was one of the pirate commanders at Providence when the proclamation of pardon came, with Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, John Martel, James Fife, Christopher Winter and Paul Williams. Johnson hedges his own roll of them: "I think were these." The men are then disposed of in a clause apiece. Cocklyn, Sample and Vane hanged. England living at Madagascar. "Winter and Brown surrendered to the Spaniards at Cuba." No date, no port, and no more than that half sentence.2

The forename is worth a moment, because it has been doubted. Henry White, reporting to the Council of Trade and Plantations in 1723 what two Frenchmen had told him, wrote only of "one Brown, an English renegado". Elsewhere the name is spelt three ways in the same few years, Nicholas Brown in the roll of commanders, Nicolas Brown in the governor's letter, Nicholas Brown again in the lieutenant's, and all three were set down by men who wanted him arrested.3

The letters to Trinidado

On 26 January 1721-2 Sir Nicolas Laws wrote from St Jago de la Vega to the alcaldes of Trinidado. He complained of robberies on the King's subjects by "a Parcel of Banditti, who pretend to have Commissions from you, and in Reality are sheltered under your Government". He named Brown and Winter as traitors "to whom you have given Protection". He demanded restitution to Captain Chamberlain of the snow Happy of "all the Negroes which the said Brown and Winter have lately taken off from the North-Side of this Island", along with the sloops and effects taken since the cessation of arms. Lieutenant Joseph Laws, sent in by Commodore Vernon, put the same demand from the water, naming the two men, "both of them being Traytors, Pyrates and common Enemies to all Nations".4

The alcaldes answered on 8 February. No Jamaican vessels or captives were in the port. Such vessels as had been taken "have been for trading in an unlawful Commerce on this Coast". As for the Englishmen demanded back, "they are here as other Subjects of our Lord the King, being brought voluntarily to our holy Catholick Faith, and have received the Water of Baptism." The printed years of this exchange do not agree, the lieutenant's letters dated 1720 and the reply of the same day 1722, so the day is firmer than the year.5,6

Pirate or privateer

The quarrel over the word was general. In July 1724 the Council of Trade and Plantations told the King that the Spanish coastguards, "under the colour of lawful commissions commit frequent acts of piracy upon your Majesty's subjects, in direct violation of the treaties now subsisting between the two nations". The same report set the ships coming from Africa with enslaved people at the head of the losses and laid an excessive rise in insurance rates at their door.7

An Englishman in Spanish pay was not unusual either. The Assiento factors at Havana told Governor Phenney of the Bahamas in April 1724 that the governor there would not give up English deserters, since "the consideration only of becoming Christians of the Romish Church is a sufficient motive to dispense their remaining here", and that with the garrison long short of men "all renegados of French or English are immediately taken into their pay". The same arrangement held at sea: a Cuban-commissioned guard de la costa off the capes of Virginia in June 1724, sixty Spaniards, eighteen Frenchmen and eighteen Englishmen aboard, and an English captain beside the Spanish one.8,9

The one act on paper

The one act charged against him in any detail happened near Hispaniola in 1723. A Spanish sloop out of Baracoa, with "one Brown, an English renegado" aboard, took an English ship that was carrying about three hundred enslaved people from Guinea to Jamaica, turned the master and most of his men adrift, and brought ship and captives into Baracoa, where both were condemned and sold under a pretended master. White had it from two Frenchmen.10

The end, as reported

Later writers date his death to November 1726, but no paper of the period gives a date at all.11

The surviving record gives no birth, no parentage, no trade before Providence, no burial. It gives no trial, no sentence, no inventory of what he took. One act attributed to him is fixed by an official paper of his own decade, and every other date here is approximate; the date of his death comes from accounts written long afterwards and has been traced back to nothing.12

What the evidence does not settle

Origins

  • Brown's birth, parentage, trade and first ship

Death

  • The date and manner of Brown's death
  • Modern accounts give November 1726 without a period document

Reward

  • Whether Jamaica offered a reward for Brown

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. Nicholas Brown is named in Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, Volume I of 1724, in the letters between Jamaica and the alcaldes of Trinidado that Johnson prints, and in a memorial calendared for 1723. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction; and Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), item 817: Memorial of Henry White respecting a Spanish sloop out of Baracoa carrying 'one Brown, an English renegado' that took an English slave ship near Hispaniola (pp. 425-429)
  2. Johnson's General History lists Brown among the pirate commanders at Providence at the time of the proclamation of pardon, with Hornigold, Teach, Martel, Fife, Christopher Winter and Paul Williams, and reports that he and Winter afterwards surrendered to the Spaniards at Cuba, giving neither date nor port. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction, the list of commanders at Providence and the fates that follow it
  3. The forename stands in print in 1724, as Nicholas Brown in Johnson's list of commanders and as Nicolas Brown and Nicholas Brown in the two letters to the alcaldes of Trinidado that he reproduces, while the memorial calendared for 1723 names only 'one Brown, an English renegado'. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction; and Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), item 817 (pp. 425-429)
  4. Sir Nicolas Laws, governor of Jamaica, wrote to the alcaldes of Trinidado on 26 January 1721-2 complaining of robberies by men pretending to hold Spanish commissions, naming Brown and Winter as traitors given protection there, and demanding restitution of the enslaved Africans, sloops and effects they had taken off the north side of Jamaica; Lieutenant Joseph Laws repeated the demand for Commodore Vernon. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction, the letters of Sir Nicolas Laws (26 January 1721-2) and Lieutenant Joseph Laws to the alcaldes of Trinidado
  5. The alcaldes of Trinidado answered that no vessels or captives taken from Jamaica since the cessation of arms were in their port, that such vessels as had been taken were taken for unlawful trading on the Cuban coast, and that the Englishmen demanded were now subjects of the Spanish king, brought voluntarily to the Catholic faith and having received the water of baptism. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction, the answer of the alcaldes of Trinidado, signed Hieronimo de Fuentes and Benette Alfonso del Manzano
  6. The years printed on this correspondence in Johnson's General History do not agree, the lieutenant's letters being dated 8 February 1720 and the alcaldes' answer of the same day 8 February 1722. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction, the datelines of the Trinidado correspondence
  7. The Council of Trade and Plantations reported to the King on 24 July 1724 that Spanish guarda costas committed frequent acts of piracy on British subjects under the colour of lawful commissions and in violation of the treaties then subsisting, and that the ships coming from Africa with enslaved people were their particular prey, driving up the rates of insurance. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34 (1724-1725), no. 291 i, Council of Trade and Plantations to the King, Whitehall, 24 July 1724 (pp. 168-185)
  8. The Assiento factors at Havana reported in April 1724 that the Spanish governor there refused to give up English deserters, holding their becoming Catholics a sufficient motive for their remaining, and that with the garrison long short of men all French and English renegades were immediately taken into Spanish pay. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 34 (1724-1725), no. 245 ii, W. Nicholson and J. Calder to Governor Phenney, Havana, 2 April 1724 (pp. 126-143)
  9. Johnson describes a Cuban-commissioned guard de la costa off the capes of Virginia in June 1724 manned with sixty Spaniards, eighteen Frenchmen and eighteen Englishmen, carrying an English captain as well as a Spanish one. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), Introduction, the advices from America dated 9 June 1724
  10. A memorial of Henry White calendared for 1723 reports that a Spanish sloop out of Baracoa carrying 'one Brown, an English renegado' took an English ship bound from Guinea to Jamaica with about three hundred enslaved people aboard, turned the master and most of his men adrift, and carried ship and captives into Baracoa, where they were condemned and sold under a pretended master. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), item 817: Memorial of Henry White respecting a Spanish sloop out of Baracoa carrying 'one Brown, an English renegado' that took an English slave ship near Hispaniola (pp. 425-429)
  11. Brown's death is dated to November 1726 in modern accounts, no period document giving a date has been located, and the calendared papers read for late 1726 are silent about it. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers: Checked against Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 35 (1726), December 1726 (16 to 31) and related 1726 sections (e.g. pp. 188 to 204)
  12. Only the taking reported in the 1723 memorial is fixed by an official paper of the period; every other date attached to Brown is approximate, and the death, the reward and the severed head rest on modern accounts whose underlying documents have not been read. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), item 817 (pp. 425-429), read against the modern accounts of Brown's death and the reward