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William May

Foremast seaman of Henry Every's Fancy, acquitted of the Ganj-i-Sawai, convicted of the mutiny and hanged at Execution Dock in November 1696.

BornNot establishedDied25 November 1696, Execution DockAlso writtenWill May (1696 arraignment); W. May (1696 trial print); old May (David Creagh's testimony, 1696); Mr. May (John Dann's testimony, 1696)

Two men carry this name, and popular accounts have made them one. The first is a common seaman of Henry Every's Fancy, hanged in November 1696. The second is a captain of the Pearl, William Maze or Mace, named in a royal commission of 1695 as a pirate to be taken up. The first man is the subject of what follows. The second comes at the foot, and he is why the first gets described wrong.5

The indictment names him with his fellows as "late of London, Mariners", the formula that fixed the court's jurisdiction rather than a statement of anyone's birthplace.6

The rising at Corunna

He was one of the Charles the Second's own seamen, not a man brought over from the consort James: "W. May and I. Sparks were Seamen then on board this Ship," Lord Chief Justice Holt told the jury. He joined the plot willingly. David Creagh, who refused it, heard the carpenter point May out as safe: "this Man, and old May, and Knight, I can trust with any thing, they are true Cocks of the Game, and old Sports-men." Creagh swore the rising was 7 May 1694; the indictment lays it on the thirtieth of May in the sixth year of the reign, and the two will not reconcile.7,1

One violent act is charged to him personally. Creagh swore that when he would not join, May told him "God damn you, you deserve to be shot through the Head", and held a pistol to his head. Summing up, the Solicitor General aimed the remark at Gravet instead, and Gravet swore to no threat. Creagh swore it of himself.8

Johanna

Gravely sick, May was set ashore at Joanna in the Comoros for refreshment with one Gunning and others, and by his own account he chose to stay rather than re-embark. He lay there seven or eight weeks, kept alive by an enslaved man from Bethnal Green who had gone out in the Rochester and been taken at Guinea. Then the Fancy came back, and in Philip Middleton's words they "took in Mr. May again".9

At the taking of the Ganj-i-Sawai, worked through in the Every rooms, he was still weak. John Dann put his part in one sentence: "He could do but little then; he had his share."10

Three verdicts, not one

The sessions opened at the Old Bailey on Monday 19 October 1696, and the first jury acquitted every prisoner, a verdict Holt called in open court "a dishonour to the Justice of the Nation". The charge he was acquitted on was the Gunsway. A second jury convicted him of the mutiny on 31 October, and on 6 November of the two Danish ships and the Moorish Fateh Muhammed. The title leaf dates the sessions from the twenty-ninth of October, a misprint for the nineteenth.11,3,4,2

He was acquitted of one great Moorish prize and convicted of the other. The sentence names the crimes as done "upon the Ships and Goods of Indians, of Danes, and your own Fellow-Subjects", and the Indians there are the Fateh Muhammed.12

He pleaded sickness. Dann and Middleton both swore to it, and it was worth nothing under Holt's doctrine: staying aboard a pirate and taking a share was consent. "You had a share of the Prize; you drank an Health to the success of your Voyage." In arrest of judgment he said this and no more: "My Lord, I being a very sickly Man, never acted in all the Voyage. I have served my King and Countrey this thirty Years ... and if I must suffer, I desire to be sent into India to suffer there." He never spoke the "I am an old man" plea so often quoted from this trial.13,14

He commanded nothing. The witnesses called him "old May", a foremast hand with thirty years behind him, and the case against him was presence, words and a share. No killing was laid to him by name: Middleton swore that aboard the Gunsway "they killed several Men aboard", naming no one who did it, and that was the prize of which May was acquitted.15,16

Bath, and Execution Dock

By his own telling, and nobody else's, he came home from Virginia, was taken three miles short of Bath by the King's Messenger and examined before the Duke of Devonshire. "Edward Foreseth and the rest were Executed, on Wednesday, November the 25th 1696, at Execution-Dock, that being the usual Place for the Execution of Pirates." May is one of the rest. Five went to the rope; Joseph Dawson alone was spared.17,18,19

The other William May

The commission of 26 January 1695 that sent Captain Kidd after pirates names those he was to apprehend: "Capt. Thomas Too, John Ireland, Capt. Thomas Wake, and Capt. William Maze, or Mace". Maze or Mace. Not May. That captain is another man: William Mayes, or Mues, of the Pearl of Rhode Island, one of the consorts that fell in with Every at the mouth of the Red Sea. Later writers make him William Mayes junior of Newport, whose father kept the White Horse Tavern; no document carries that step.20,21,22

Not in the hue and cry

The proclamation of 17 July 1696 named Every and nobody else; that of 10 August named about two dozen of the crew, three of them men who stood in the dock beside him, and not him. Dann, examined on 3 August, and Middleton, swearing his affidavit on 11 November, never mentioned him. No age, no birth year, no baptism, no likeness, and the forty-eight years popular lists give him trace to no document.23,24,25

One printed pamphlet does nearly all the work here. Outside the 1696 trial nothing of him is documented, and inside it he speaks only from the dock.

What the evidence does not settle

Birth and early life

  • Livingston's birth year, baptism, parish and likeness
  • The stated age of forty eight traces to no document
  • The indictment's 'late of London' is a venue formula, not a birthplace

HCA 1/53 examination

  • Whether HCA 1/53 holds his own examination is unknown

Identity of the Pearl's captain

  • Whether Rhode Island's William Mayes was the tavern keeper

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 mutiny indictment dates the taking of the Charles the Second to 30 May 1694, a regnal-year form ('the 30th of May, in the 6th Year of the Reign'); the working date of 7 May 1694 rests on Every's declaration and Creagh's testimony, and the two dates do not reconcile. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial indictment: Printed 1696 trial record (A63217), indictment read verbatim; no '30 April' variant exists in the print; the 7 May / 30 May conflict stays logged as unresolved
  2. Days later the prisoners were recommitted and convicted at a second trial, on the Charles the Second mutiny (31 October 1696) and on the Danish and Moorish indictments (6 November 1696). Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial record: Printed 1696 trial record (A63217): 'Die Sabbati, tricesimo primo Octobris... 1696' (Saturday 31 October) and 'Friday Novemb. the 6th 1696'
  3. The Admiralty sessions that tried Henry Every's crew opened at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey on Monday 19 October 1696, acquitted all the defendants at the first trial, adjourned to Saturday 31 October, convicted them on a new indictment for conspiring to run away with the Charles the Second, and ended on 6 November 1696. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis and John Sparkes, printed for John Everingham, London 1696
  4. A London jury acquitted six of Henry Every's men on 19 October 1696 of the robbery of the Gunsway, a verdict Lord Chief Justice Holt afterwards called in open court "a dishonour to the Justice of the Nation", and a second jury at the sessions of 31 October 1696 convicted the same men for the mutiny itself, the piratical taking of the Charles the Second from Captain Charles Gibson about three leagues off A Coruna; the indictment lays that rising on 30 May 1694 where later writers give 7 May 1694, and popular accounts have Gibson drunk where Mr Justice Turton stated in court that the captain lay sick of a fever, neither conflict being resolved. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson and others, London 1696
  5. Two distinct men are conflated under the name William May: a common seaman of Henry Every's Fancy, indicted at the Old Bailey in 1696 and hanged that November, and Captain William Maze or Mace of the Pearl, named in the 1695 commission issued to William Kidd among the pirates to be apprehended. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet and commission text: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357); English Letter of Marque Against Pirates, 1695 (Kidd commission), the text naming Too, Ireland, Wake, and Capt. William Maze or Mace
  6. The 1696 indictment names him with his co-defendants as "late of London, Mariners", a formula fixing the jurisdiction of the court over the whole group rather than a statement of any defendant's birthplace or residence. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  7. May was one of the Charles the Second's own seamen and a willing party to the rising at Corunna: Lord Chief Justice Holt told the jury "W. May and I. Sparks were Seamen then on board this Ship", and David Creagh testified that the ship's carpenter named May among the men he could trust, "this Man, and old May, and Knight, I can trust with any thing, they are true Cocks of the Game, and old Sports-men". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  8. David Creagh swore that when he refused the plot May told him "God damn you, you deserve to be shot through the Head" and held a pistol to his head, while the Solicitor General's summing-up in the same print attaches the remark to Gravet and Gravet's own testimony contains no threat at all. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  9. Set ashore gravely sick at Joanna in the Comoros for refreshment with one Gunning and others, May chose to stay rather than re-embark, lay there seven or eight weeks, and was kept alive by an enslaved English-speaking man of Bethnal Green who had gone out in the ship Rochester and been taken at Guinea, until the Fancy returned and, in Philip Middleton's words, "took in Mr. May again". Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  10. At the taking of the Ganj-i-Sawai May was still weak from his illness, and John Dann's evidence of his part in it was that "He could do but little then; he had his share". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  11. May faced three separate adjudications at the 1696 sessions, which must not be collapsed into one: acquitted on the Ganj-i-Sawai indictment on Monday 19 October 1696, convicted of the Charles the Second mutiny on Saturday 31 October, and convicted on the two Danish ships and the Moorish Fateh Muhammed on Friday 6 November; the title leaf's "29th of October" is a misprint for the 19th. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  12. May was acquitted of one great Moorish prize and convicted of the other: the sentence names the crimes as committed "upon the Ships and Goods of Indians, of Danes, and your own Fellow-Subjects", the Indians of that phrase being the Fateh Muhammed, with the Ganj-i-Sawai absent from the heads of sentence altogether. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  13. May's illness was genuine and corroborated by John Dann and Philip Middleton, but under Lord Chief Justice Holt's doctrine of consent it was no defence, Holt putting it to him that "you had a share of the Prize; you drank an Health to the success of your Voyage". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  14. In arrest of judgment May said: "My Lord, I being a very sickly Man, never acted in all the Voyage. I have served my King and Countrey this thirty Years, and am very willing to serve the East-India Company where they please to command me; and desire the honourable Bench to consider my Case, and if I must suffer, I desire to be sent into India to suffer there." The print contains no "I am an old man" plea; the phrase does not occur in it. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  15. May held no command role: he was an ordinary foremast seaman, called "old May" in the testimony, and the Crown never alleged that he commanded, ordered or navigated anything, the case against him resting on presence, words and a share. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  16. The only homicide anywhere in the trial print is Philip Middleton's evidence that aboard the Ganj-i-Sawai "they killed several Men aboard", attributed to the company with no killer named and belonging to the one prize on which May was acquitted; the only violence attributed to May personally is the pistol threat to Creagh, in which nobody was hurt. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  17. May's account of coming home from Virginia, lying sick at Bristol, being taken three miles short of Bath by the King's Messenger and examined there before the Duke of Devonshire rests solely on his own uncorroborated courtroom narrative, no other witness in the print speaking to any part of it. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  18. May was sentenced to death and hanged at Execution Dock, Wapping, on Wednesday 25 November 1696, the print recording that "Edward Foreseth and the rest were Executed, on Wednesday, November the 25th 1696, at Execution-Dock, that being the usual Place for the Execution of Pirates". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357)
  19. The trial print names those executed only as "Foreseth and the rest" and records no reprieve; that five men were hanged and that Joseph Dawson, the sole guilty plea, was spared is carried by the Archive's Every records and not by this document. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357); the enumeration of the five hanged and Dawson's reprieve is carried by the Archive's Henry Every records, not by this print
  20. The commission of 26 January 1695 (Old Style 1695/6) issued to William Kidd names as pirates to be apprehended "Capt. Thomas Too, John Ireland, Capt. Thomas Wake, and Capt. William Maze, or Mace", the spelling being Maze or Mace and not May. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Commission text: English Letter of Marque Against Pirates, 1695 (Kidd commission), the text naming Too, Ireland, Wake, and Capt. William Maze or Mace
  21. The consort captain named May at the mouth of the Red Sea is a separate man from the prisoner: he is Captain William Mayes, or Mues, of the Pearl of Rhode Island. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet and sworn examinations: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357); Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents, no. 63 Examination of John Dann (3 August 1696) and no. 64 Affidavit of Philip Middleton (11 November 1696)
  22. The identification of that captain with William Mayes junior of Newport, Rhode Island, son of the White Horse Tavern keeper William Mayes senior, who commanded the brigantine Pearl on Thomas Tew's second Red Sea voyage and kept the tavern from 1702, rests on later popular and genealogical accounts and has not been tested against a document. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Popular and genealogical accounts: "The pirate who fooled Rhode Island for 16 years while running his family's inn"; "William 'The Pirate' Mayes, Jr. (c.1662-1723)", geni profile 6000000027083790932; "Newport and its Pirates: A Love/Hate Relationship"
  23. Neither manhunt proclamation names William May: the proclamation of 17 July 1696 names only Henry Every, and that of 10 August 1696 lists roughly two dozen of the crew, including three of May's co-defendants, without him. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Proclamations: By the Lords Justices of England, A Proclamation (for apprehending Henry Every alias Bridgeman), Whitehall 17 July 1696 (Wing A39488); By the Lords Justices, A Proclamation (naming Every's crew, offering pardon and reward), Whitehall 10 August 1696 (Wing A39489)
  24. The two sworn out-of-court documents of the manhunt do not name him: the Examination of John Dann of 3 August 1696 does not name William May individually, and the Affidavit of Philip Middleton of 11 November 1696 does not contain the name at all. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Depositions and examinations: The Examination of John Dann of Rochester, Mariner, 3 August 1696 (C.O. 323/2 no. 25 IV), and the Affidavit of Philip Middleton, Mariner, 11 November 1696 (C.O. 5/1257 no. 47 I), both transcribed in Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period, nos. 63 and 64
  25. No age, birth year, baptism, parish record or likeness of this William May has been located, and the age of forty-eight attached to him by popular lists is untraced to any document. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several piracies and robberies by them committed in the company of Every the grand pirate, Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey ended 6 November 1696 (A63217; Wing T2252; ESTC R38357); the age of forty-eight is asserted without citation by popular lists