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Thomas Tew

Captain of the Bermuda sloop Amity, who made two Red Sea voyages under two commissions and was killed by a shot from a Moorish ship in 1695.

BornNot establishedDied1695Also writtenThomas Tew (Dann's examination, 1696; Baldridge's deposition, 1699); Captain Tew (Perkins' deposition; Bellomont's despatch, 1698); Captain Thomas Tew (A General History of the Pyrates)

Thomas Tew commanded the sloop Amity. He made two Red Sea voyages under two commissions, the first out of Bermuda and the second fitted at New York, and on the second, in 1695, a shot from a Moorish ship killed him.1

The name and the sloop

He was Thomas Tew in some hands and Captain Tew in others, and no clerk spelled the name any other way. He had no nickname and no motto; "the Rhode Island pirate" is a modern description doing the work an alias would do.2,3

Baldridge, who supplied and traded with the crew at St Mary's, set the vessel down as a sloop of seventy tons, eight guns and sixty men, most of her belonging to Bermuda.4

Two voyages, not one

The two commissions belong to different voyages. The first came out of Bermuda, where most of the sloop's owners lived, and that voyage brought Tew back to St Mary's in October 1693 and to Rhode Island in 1694. The second was fitted at New York under Governor Benjamin Fletcher, ran from 1694 to 1695, and killed him. The Bermuda commissions went to Tew and George Dew together, "from the then Governor of Bermudas", for a Gambia voyage against the French factory at Goree.5,6,7

Baldridge entered the sloop in his journal three times: in at St Mary's on 19 October 1693, out again on 23 December, and in once more on 11 December 1695 with another man commanding.8

The prize, and the money

Some time before October 1693 the Amity boarded and took a large richly laden Moorish ship in the Red Sea, bound out of the Indies for Arabia with about three hundred soldiers aboard. The prisoners spoke of five more ships as rich, and Tew "would have attacked" them until the quartermaster voted him down. No attack happened.9,10

What she was worth nobody agreed. The crew told Baldridge twelve hundred pounds a man; Johnson has them sharing "near three thousand Pounds a Piece"; Edward Randolph, at second hand, is reported as putting about ten thousand pounds into Rhode Island. The figures differ by more than twofold. Tew went to Rhode Island afterwards and, in Johnson's phrase, "made his Peace" there.11,12

Fletcher's commission

The second commission came from Fletcher at New York, and outlived Tew as a scandal. Bellomont, sent out to inspect his predecessor's dealings, reported that Tew came back from the East Indies with great riches and, though a man of infamous character, "was received and caressed by Governor Fletcher", dined and supped with him often, appeared with him publicly in his coach, and traded gold watches with him. The commission was "signed by Colonel Fletcher and countersigned by his private secretary, Daniel Honan". Dann swore that the Amity was fitted out at New York.13

The paperwork is worse than the dinners. Tew, Glover and Hore, Bellomont found, "received commissions from him when they had no ship within the Government of New York", and were allowed to raise men in the city "with the open design of being bound to the Red Sea". The security taken for Tew was signed by Coates, "a notorious pirate", by "John Feny (a Popish tailor of this city and a beggar)", and by Honan, who kept the bonds and who, about three months before Bellomont landed, "blotted out his name and tore off his seal from them".14,15,16

The crown's grant of pirates' goods recites the commission that empowered William Kidd of the Adventure Galley to take "the said Thomas Too, John Ireland, Tho Wake, and William Maze, and all other Pirates". Too is not Tew, and no document makes them one man.17

The second voyage

About the middle of 1695 the Amity fell in with Henry Every's confederacy at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the captains agreed that Every should command. Dann swore that the sloop fell astern and never came up with the ships that took the great prizes. The taking of the Ganj-i-Sawai made nothing for Tew. Later accounts hand him a share of it; he had none.18

He was killed in 1695 by a great shot from a Moorish ship. Other tellings name the ship, put the action in September and add the disembowelling scene; no surviving account of his death carries any of the three.19

The sloop kept working. Under John Yarland and then Captain Bobbington, her crew took the Charming Mary, Richard Glover master, at Mauratan on Madagascar that December, and gave Glover the sloop to carry his men home. That taking is sometimes laid at Tew's door; he was months dead. No court ever tried him.20,21

The articles and the motto

The articles and the motto everyone quotes belong to a standalone chapter of A General History of the Pyrates. Tew comes into the book proper as a digression inside the Avery and Madagascar material, which carries the first voyage and stops there: no death, no articles, no motto.22

Nothing read here gives Tew a birthplace, a parent or a date of birth, and no baptismal record was opened to look for one. The document that would settle most is the one nobody here has seen: Fletcher's commission, with its bond, which the calendared abstract mentions without dating. The New York colonial documents and the fuller Bellomont enclosures were found and left unread, and so was Randolph's own report of the money landed in Rhode Island. Nothing above rests on any of them.23,24

What the evidence does not settle

Origins

  • Birthplace, parentage and birth date in the parish registers

Fletcher's commission

  • The date of Fletcher's commission

Money landed in Rhode Island

  • The amount of money landed in Rhode Island is unknown

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. Thomas Tew, commander of the sloop Amity, is named in the sworn examination of John Dann (1696), the depositions of Adam Baldridge (1699) and Samuel Perkins, and the Earl of Bellomont's despatch of 18 May 1698, and those four documents carry between them the vessel, the two voyages, the New York commission and the death. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Depositions and calendared state papers: Examination of John Dann of Rochester, mariner, printed as document 63 in J. F. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (C.O. 323:2, no. 25 IV); Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68 (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II); Deposition of Samuel Perkins, document 65; Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698)
  2. The name is attested consistently as "Thomas Tew" by Dann and Baldridge, as "Captain Tew" by Perkins and Bellomont, and in full by Charles Johnson. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Depositions and calendared state papers: Examination of John Dann, document 63 in Jameson; Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68; Deposition of Samuel Perkins, document 65; Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16; A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  3. No surname spelling variant, forename variant, nickname or motto attached to Tew was found in the documents read for this record, and "the Rhode Island pirate" is a modern description rather than a period alias. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Depositions and calendared state papers: Examination of John Dann, document 63 in Jameson; Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68; Deposition of Samuel Perkins, document 65; Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16; A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  4. Adam Baldridge, who supplied and traded with the crew at St Mary's, describes the Amity as a sloop of seventy tons, eight guns and sixty men, most of her belonging to Bermuda. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, printed as document 68 in Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II)
  5. Tew's career comprises two distinct Red Sea voyages, a first begun under a Bermuda commission that brought him back to St Mary's in October 1693 and to Rhode Island in 1694, and a second begun at New York under a commission from Governor Benjamin Fletcher, running from 1694 to 1695, on which he was killed. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Depositions and calendared state papers: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68 in Jameson; Examination of John Dann, document 63; Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16; A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  6. Two independent sources tie Tew to Bermuda: Johnson says the first commission came "from the then Governor of Bermudas", and Baldridge has the sloop belonging mostly to that island. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative and sworn deposition: A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew); Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68 in Jameson
  7. That the Bermuda commission held by Tew and George Dew was for a voyage to Gambia to attack the French factory at Goree rests on Charles Johnson alone. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  8. Baldridge's journal entries fix three dates for the sloop at St Mary's, in on 19 October 1693, out on 23 December 1693, and in again on 11 December 1695 without Tew, and Johnson supplies no dates at all. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, printed as document 68 in Jameson (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II)
  9. On the first voyage, before October 1693, the Amity boarded and took a large richly laden Moorish ship in the Red Sea bound from the Indies to Arabia with about three hundred soldiers aboard. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative and sworn deposition: A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew), for the detail; Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68 in Jameson, for the fact of a Moorish Red Sea prize
  10. Johnson alone reports that the prisoners told of five further rich ships which Tew "would have attacked" but that he was over-ruled by the quartermaster and others, and the attack did not take place. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  11. The value of the first-voyage prize is contested: Baldridge reports twelve hundred pounds a man as the crew reported it, Johnson says it is said his men shared "near three thousand Pounds a Piece", and Edward Randolph is relayed at second hand as reporting about ten thousand pounds carried into Rhode Island, none of the three resting on an account of the division. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Sworn deposition, period narrative and editorial apparatus: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68 in Jameson; A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew); Editorial notes to Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period (footnote 16 to document 63)
  12. After the first Red Sea voyage Tew went to Rhode Island and, in Johnson's phrase, "made his Peace" there. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  13. Bellomont reported that Tew, on his return from the East Indies with great riches, "was received and caressed by Governor Fletcher", "dined and supped often with him, and appeared with him publicly in his coach", and exchanged presents with him including gold watches, and that the commission Fletcher then gave him was "signed by Colonel Fletcher and countersigned by his private secretary, Daniel Honan", while Dann records only that the Amity was fitted out at New York. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698); Examination of John Dann, document 63 in Jameson
  14. Bellomont reported that Tew, Glover and Hore "received commissions from him when they had no ship within the Government of New York", and were permitted to raise men in the city "with the open design of being bound to the Red Sea". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698), calendar page 225
  15. The bond given for Tew's commission was signed by Coates, "a notorious pirate", by "John Feny (a Popish tailor of this city and a beggar)" and by Daniel Honan himself. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698), calendar page 227
  16. The bonds were left in Daniel Honan's custody, and about three months before Bellomont's arrival Honan "blotted out his name and tore off his seal from them". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698), calendar page 227
  17. The letters patent granting pirates' goods recite a commission empowering Captain William Kidd of the Adventure Galley to seize "the said Thomas Too, John Ireland, Tho Wake, and William Maze, and all other Pirates", and neither that instrument nor anything else read for this record identifies Thomas Too with Thomas Tew. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship printing a crown instrument: Copy of Grant of Pirates' Goods, Appendix A.1 in C. N. Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London, 1911)
  18. About the middle of 1695 the Amity joined Henry Every's squadron at the entrance to the Red Sea and the captains agreed that Every should command, but during the chase of the Mughal fleet the sloop, on Dann's account, fell astern and never came up with the ships that took the great prizes, so no share in them is recorded to Tew. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn examination: Examination of John Dann of Rochester, mariner, printed as document 63 in Jameson (C.O. 323:2, no. 25 IV)
  19. Tew was killed on the second voyage in 1695 by a great shot from a Moorish ship, and neither the name of the ship nor the month was found in the documents read for this record. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, printed as document 68 in Jameson (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II); Editorial notes to Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period (footnote 16 to document 63)
  20. The taking of the Charming Mary, Richard Glover master, at Mauratan on Madagascar in December 1695, Glover being given the sloop to carry him and his men home, was the act of the Amity's crew under John Yarland and then Captain Bobbington after Tew's death, not of Tew. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, printed as document 68 in Jameson (C.O. 5:1042, no. 30 II)
  21. No court adjudicated Tew's guilt in any source read for this record, and the word proven can attach to none of his acts. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Sworn deposition and period narrative: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68 in Jameson; A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  22. A General History of the Pyrates as read for this record carries only a first-voyage digression on Tew inside the Avery and Madagascar material, with no standalone chapter and no death account, and the articles, the motto and the disembowelling detail commonly attributed to Tew appear in none of the documents read. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew), Gutenberg ebook 40580; Examination of John Dann, document 63 in Jameson; Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68
  23. No parish, baptismal or family record of Tew's birthplace, parentage or date of birth was located for this record, and his origins are unestablished. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Documented absence: Examination of John Dann, document 63 in Jameson; Deposition of Adam Baldridge, document 68; Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16; A General History of the Pyrates (the digression on Captain Thomas Tew)
  24. The Fletcher commission and its bond, the New York colonial documents and the fuller Bellomont enclosures, and Edward Randolph's own report of the riches carried into Rhode Island were all located but not read for this record, and the calendar abstract that stands in for the commission gives it no date. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers and editorial apparatus: Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, entry 473, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698); Editorial notes to Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period (footnote 16 to document 63)