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Thomas Anstis

Captain of the brigantine Good Fortune, which ran from Bartholomew Roberts on 18 April 1721 and cruised the West Indies until the surprise at Tobago in 1723, where he got clear in the brigantine and nine of his company were carried into Antigua.

BornNot establishedDiedNot establishedAlso writtenAnstis (Johnson, General History, 1724); Tho. Anstis (Johnson, General History, 1724); Thomas (forename, Johnson, General History, 1724)

A company deserted Bartholomew Roberts on 18 April 1721, and in May 1723 HMS Winchelsea came on what was left of it at Tobago. Between those two dates a crew in the brigantine Good Fortune worked the West Indies. Their captain is another matter. No colonial paper names him.3,4,5

The name

Charles Johnson's chapter is headed "Of Captain Anstis, And his Crew" and opens "Thomas Anstis ship'd himself at Providence". The state papers that record the same men name the Good Fortune, the Morning Star and the consort John Fenn, never the captain of the brigantine. Anstis, Tho. Anstis and Thomas are the only forms of the name. His birthplace, parentage, age, nationality and appearance are nowhere.6,7,8

Leaving Roberts

By Johnson's account he shipped at Providence in 1718 aboard the Buck sloop, one of six who conspired to go off a-pirating: Howell Davis, Dennis Topping, Walter Kennedy and two he would not name. On 18 April 1721 the Good Fortune left Roberts on the Guinea coast and stood back for the West Indies. The deserters' own petition gives the same day, "on, or about the 18th Day of April 1721". Only Johnson gives a reason: the inferiority Anstis stood in under Roberts, who used the brigantine as a tender and left her people the refuse of their plunder.9,10,11

About the middle of June 1721, between Hispaniola and Jamaica, they took Captain Marston and stripped him of apparel, liquors, provisions and five men, leaving his cargo alone. Off Martinico they took a ship Johnson thinks was the Irwin of Cork, Captain Ross, with Colonel Doyly of Montserrat and his family aboard; the colonel was abused and wounded.12,13

Johnson writes that twenty-one of the crew forced a woman passenger in turn, broke her back and flung her into the sea, and that Doyly took his wound trying to save her. He will not be positive it was this crew. He is positive it was done: "that such a Fact was done, there is too much Evidence for it to be doubted of".14

The prize that changed the company was the Morning Star, taken on her way from Guinea to Carolina and kept, so that the company had her and the brigantine both. A Barbados ship gave up her guns and tackle to mount her with thirty-two, a hundred men went aboard, and John Fenn was made captain.15,16

The petition and the island

Johnson has too many new men aboard for any bold enterprise; whatever the captain proposed was carried against him. A petition for pardon was signed in the manner of a round robin, the names in a circle so that no man should appear pre-eminent or be marked out as a principal rogue. Its plea was that they had been "forced by him and his wicked Accomplices, to enter into, and serve, in the said Company, as Pyrates, much contrary to our Wills and Inclinations".17,18,19

The companies of the Morning Star and the Good Fortune petitioned Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica, on 14 June 1722, two round robins together, and the copies went to the Council of Trade and Plantations that November. Johnson prints one petition, addressed to the King, and gives it no date.1,20

They waited on an island off Cuba. Johnson says "about nine Months", which will not fit the dates: the petition went in on 14 June 1722 and the brigantine was at sea again at the beginning of August, nearer two months of waiting than nine. On the island they set up a mock court of judicature to try one another for piracy, the criminal of one day made judge the next.21,22

Tobago

Sailing south, by intolerable neglect they ran the Morning Star onto the Grand Caimanes and wrecked her; the brigantine hauled off in time and weathered the island. The Hector landed men and took forty of her crew, who made no resistance, alleging they were forced men glad to escape. Through the rest of 1722 came Captain Durfey's Rhode Island sloop near the Bay of Honduras, other vessels destroyed and their crews kept, and at the Bahamas the Antelope sloop of Dublin, loaded with provisions.23,24,25,26

The Antelope's cargo went with them to Tobago at the beginning of April 1723, and there the Winchelsea came in. The pirates fired their own ship and the sloop and fled ashore, and Anstis got away in the brigantine. The Winchelsea carried nine of the company into Antigua in May, where Hart examined them aboard and seven were tried at St John's on 17 May before fourteen commissioners. John Fenn, formerly gunner of the brigantine, was convicted and afterwards hung in chains on Rat Island.27,2

How he died

Johnson has his own men shooting Tho. Anstis in his hammock in 1723, the survivors surrendering the vessel at Curacao, where they were tried and hanged. Hart, writing from the spot, has the Good Fortune escaping Tobago with twelve men aboard and Captain Brand of the Hector after her, and no death in it.28,29

No court ever tried him. His company was tried at Antigua and, by Johnson's account, at Curacao, but nothing was ever charged against Anstis himself. Those left on Tobago got aboard a small sloop, came into the Bristol Channel about October 1723 and sank her. One of them was John Phillips, who got a chapter of his own.30,31

The life rests on one chapter of one book, propped at two points by the calendared state papers: no trial of Anstis, no deposition of his, no notice of his death in print. The papers give the ships, the consort and the men who were hanged; the victims are Johnson's alone: Marston, Ross, Durfey, the woman off Martinico. What is missing is the man, who moved through the colonial record for two years without once being named.32,33

What the evidence does not settle

Name and origins

  • Evidence for the name Thomas Anstis beyond Johnson

Death at Tobago

  • Whether Anstis died in the Tobago escape or survived with the twelve men

The petition

  • The date, addressee and signatures of the manuscript petition

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 date is attested independently of the General History by the deserters themselves: the companies of the Morning Star and the Good Fortune petitioned Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica, on 14 June 1722, stating that they had been taken and forced by Roberts and had run away from him on or about the 18th day of April 1721 in hope of the King's pardon, and the copy was referred at Whitehall to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 9 November 1722, read there on 13 November, and calendared as signed in the form of two round robins at C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32 and 32.i. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state paper: Order of Committee of Council, 9 November 1722, item 333, with enclosure 333.i, in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 33, 1722-1723, ed. Cecil Headlam (HMSO, 1934), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; the printed round robin in A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter X
  2. HMS Winchelsea under Captain Henry Orme carried nine of the company from Tobago into Antigua in May 1723, where Governor John Hart examined them aboard and seven were tried at St John's on 17 May before fourteen commissioners; John Fenn, formerly gunner of the brigantine, was convicted and afterwards hung in chains on Rat Island, and Hart's own account of the sentences does not reconcile, so this record states no execution total. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state paper: Governor Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, St Christophers, 8 June 1723, item 576, with enclosed Antigua Council minutes, C.O. 152, 14. ff. 223-225, 226v.-230v., 232v., in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 33, 1722-1723
  3. The chronology of Anstis's independent cruise is anchored by two firmly dated points, the desertion from Bartholomew Roberts on 18 April 1721 and the surprise at Tobago reported by HMS Winchelsea in May 1723, everything between them resting on Charles Johnson's loosely dated narrative. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  4. A pirate company commanded from the brigantine Good Fortune, having deserted Bartholomew Roberts, existed and operated in the West Indies between 1721 and 1723, corroborated by the crew's own petition and by Governor Hart's report. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  5. Anstis is never named in the colonial state papers read for this record, which attest his ships, his consort and his company but not the man. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14
  6. The personal name Thomas Anstis rests solely on Charles Johnson's General History, whose chapter heading reads "Of Captain Anstis, And his Crew" and whose text opens "Thomas Anstis ship'd himself at Providence". Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  7. The only attested name forms located are Anstis, Tho. Anstis and the forename Thomas, all of them Johnson's, and no alias or alternative spelling has been found. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  8. No source read for this record supplies Anstis's birthplace, parentage, age, nationality or physical description. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  9. Johnson states that Anstis shipped himself at Providence in 1718 aboard the Buck sloop and was one of six who conspired together to go off a-pirating with her, the others being Howell Davis, Dennis Topping, Walter Kennedy and two men he declines to name. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  10. Anstis separated from Roberts on 18 April 1721 in the Good Fortune brigantine off the Guinea coast and returned to the West Indies, a date given by Johnson and, independently, by the crew's own petition, which says they ran "on, or about the 18th Day of April 1721". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  11. Johnson's Roberts chapter gives the grievance behind the desertion: Anstis was a malcontent over the inferiority he stood in with respect to Roberts, who regarded the brigantine only as a tender and left her people no more than the refuse of their plunder. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. IX, Of Captain Bartho. Roberts, and his Crew)
  12. Johnson states that about the middle of June 1721, between Hispaniola and Jamaica, the company plundered Captain Marston of his wearing apparel, liquors and provision and five of his men, without touching his cargo. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  13. Johnson states that a ship he takes to be the Irwin of Cork, Captain Ross, was captured off Martinico with Colonel Doyly of Montserrat and his family aboard as passengers, and that the colonel was much abused and wounded, while declining to be positive of the ship's identity. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  14. Johnson relates that after the taking off Martinico twenty-one of the crew forced a woman passenger successively, then broke her back and flung her into the sea, and that Colonel Doyly was wounded trying to save her; he will not be positive it was Anstis's crew that acted it, yet states "that such a Fact was done, there is too much Evidence for it to be doubted of". Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  15. The company took the Morning Star, bound from Guinea to Carolina, and kept her, their possession of both the Morning Star and the Good Fortune being attested by the crew's petition. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  16. Johnson states that the guns and tackle of a Barbados ship were taken out to mount the Morning Star with 32 guns, that she was manned with a hundred men, and that John Fenn was appointed her captain. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  17. Johnson has the government of the company disturbed by malcontents, with so many new men aboard not inclined for the game that whatever the captain proposed was carried against him and no fixed resolution for any bold enterprise could be reached. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  18. Johnson states that the petition for pardon was drawn up and signed by the whole company in the manner of a round robin, the names written in a circle to avoid all appearance of pre-eminence and lest any person be marked out by the government as a principal rogue among them. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  19. The petition as Johnson prints it pleads that the petitioners had been "forced by him and his wicked Accomplices, to enter into, and serve, in the said Company, as Pyrates, much contrary to our Wills and Inclinations". Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  20. Johnson prints the petition as a single document addressed to the King and gives it no date, where the calendared copy is dated 14 June 1722, addressed to Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes and described as signed in the form of two round robins, and the archival wording has not been collated against Johnson's printed text. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  21. Johnson's statement that the company lay "about nine Months" on the island off Cuba is difficult to reconcile with the petition dated 14 June 1722 and the return to sea at the beginning of August 1722, which would leave nearer two months awaiting an answer. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew); Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i
  22. Johnson states that on the island the company appointed a mock court of judicature to try one another for piracy, in which the man who was a criminal one day was made judge the next. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  23. Johnson states that by intolerable neglect the company ran the Morning Star upon the Grand Caimanes and wrecked her, and that the brigantine, seeing the fate of her consort, hauled off in time and weathered the island. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  24. Johnson states that the Hector landed her men upon the island and took forty of the Morning Star's crew without any resistance, they alleging that they were forced men and glad of the opportunity to escape from the pirates. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  25. Johnson states that near the Bay of Honduras in late 1722 the brigantine took Captain Durfey's Rhode Island sloop and two or three other vessels, destroying them and bringing their crews aboard. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  26. Johnson states that the company took the Antelope sloop of Dublin, laden with provisions, at the Bahama Islands about December 1722, and carried her cargo to Tobago. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  27. On the arrival of HMS Winchelsea at Tobago about April 1723 the pirates fired their own ship and the Antelope sloop and fled ashore, and Anstis escaped in the Good Fortune brigantine. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  28. Anstis was shot in his hammock by his own mutinying crew in 1723, the survivors surrendering the vessel at Curacao, where they were tried and hanged; this rests on Johnson alone, while Governor Hart has the Good Fortune escaping Tobago with twelve men and Captain Brand of HMS Hector in pursuit, and reports no death. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew); Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14
  29. Governor Hart's report is the strongest independent corroboration in the surviving material, fixing the Tobago captures by HMS Winchelsea and the trial and executions at Antigua, but it does not name Anstis and reports no death for him. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14
  30. Anstis was never brought to trial and no court adjudicated his personal guilt, so no act can be called proven against him, though his company was tried at Antigua and, by Johnson's account, at Curacao. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14; A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew)
  31. Johnson states that the company's survivors dispersed after Tobago and came home to the Bristol Channel about October 1723 in a small sloop which they then sank, and his John Phillips chapter names Phillips as one who came home in her. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew); A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. XV, Of Captain John Phillips, and his Crew)
  32. The primary material for Anstis is thin and unbalanced, one continuous narrative of 1724 and a small number of colonial state papers, with no trial transcript of Anstis himself, no deposition by him and no contemporary newspaper notice located. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew); Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14
  33. The victim record of the cruise is almost entirely Johnson's, only the two ships named in the petition and the persons in Governor Hart's trial record being colonially attested, while named victims such as Marston, Ross, Durfey and the woman passenger rest on Johnson alone. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: A General History of the Pyrates (Chap. X, Of Captain Anstis, and his Crew); Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 333 with enclosure 333.i (round robin petition of the companies of the Morning Star and Good Fortune, 14 June 1722), C.O. 323, 8. Nos. 32, 32.i; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Vol. 33 (1722-1723), no. 576 (Governor John Hart to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1723), C.O. 152, 14