Bermuda

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. Bermuda's golden-age significance is material and maritime rather than that of a haven: an isolated archipelago, it lay athwart the homeward track from the Caribbean and the American colonies to Europe and supplied the favoured hull, crews on both sides of the account and prizes, without ever becoming a pirate base comparable to New Providence. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Modern scholarship: Michael J. Jarvis, In the Eye of All Trade, 2010, and The Pirates Part I: The Amnesty, The Bermudian Magazine, for the colony's maritime role, for the position athwart the homeward track by which shipping passed within reach by necessity, and for the contrast with New Providence (Probable)
2. Bermuda was held by the Somers Isles Company under a charter of King James I dated 29 June 1615, and passed to Crown government when the Company's charter was declared forfeited to the Crown by a judgment on a writ of quo warranto in Hilary term 35 and 36 Charles II, that is early in 1684. The removal of the Company's shipbuilding licence, the rescinding of a building ban in 1687 and the fleet return of about 1700 attributed to Edward Randolph, Surveyor of the British colonies, are not carried here, no catalogued document for them having been read. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Charter and colonial council records in a printed documentary collection: J. H. Lefroy, Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515-1685, vol. I (London, 1877), read in the Internet Archive copy: the charter is printed there with the editor's note that "The following copy of the Charter of James I., dated June 29, 1615, agrees verbatim with the original, formerly in the State Paper Office"; and, on the Bermuda Minutes of Council running from December 11, 1676, to February 1689, that these "include the period of the transfer of the government from the Bermuda Company to the Crown; but there is no direct or formal record of that event to be found, except a portion of a law document in Latin, bearing date Hilary term 35 and 36, Charles II., which appears to be the judgment of the court at Westminster in the Quo Warranto, by which the charter of the Company was declared to be forfeited to the Crown"
3. Thomas Tew commanded the Amity, a sloop of 70 tons, 8 guns and about 60 men which belonged mostly to Bermuda. Having taken a Moorish ship in the Red Sea, he lay at St Mary's off Madagascar in October 1693, the plunder running about 1,200 pounds a man, and sailed from there for America on 23 December 1693; he afterwards went out under a privateering commission from Governor Fletcher of New York, and was killed by a great shot from a Moor's ship, the Amity returning to St Mary's without a captain on 11 December 1695. The Bermuda commission from lieutenant governor Isaac Richier, its date of 1691 or December 1692 and its reported fee of 300 pounds, the sailing from Bermuda with George Dew against the French factory in the Gambia, the reported yield of about 100,000 pounds and the fourteenfold repayment of the Bermudian owners are not carried here, no document for them having been read. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Deposition printed in a documentary collection: Deposition of Adam Baldridge, 5 May 1699, printed as document no. 68 in J. F. Jameson, ed., Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (New York, 1923): "October 19, 1693. Arrived the ship Amity, Captain Thomas Tew Commander, Burden 70 Tons, 8 Guns, 60 men, haveing taken a Ship in the Red Seas that did belong to the Moors, as the men did report, they took as much money in her as made the whole share run 1200 l. a man... the Sloop belonged most of her to Bermudas. Captain Tew set saile from St. Maries December the 23d 1693, bound for America" and "December 11th 1695. Arrived the Sloop Amity, haveing no Captain, her former Captain Thomas Tew being killed by a great Shott from a Moors ship, John Yarland master, Burden seventy Ton, 8 Guns, as before described, and about 60 men"; for the New York commission, Jameson's note to document no. 63, "He had gone out with a privateering commission from Governor Fletcher of New York"
4. Bermudian shipping was prey as well as tool: the Earl of Bellomont, writing from Boston to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 23 April 1700, relayed the report of John Trimingham, master of a brigantine come from the Bay of Campeche to New York, that he had seen three Bermuda sloops taken by a pirate. The pirate later writers name as Lewis Ferdinando, the nine captures credited to him in 1700 and the letter absolving the forced man Briggs are not carried here, no document for them having been read. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. State papers: Governor the Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 23 April 1700, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 18, 1700, ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1910), no. 354, at pp. 195-196, read on British History Online: "John Trimingham, master of a brigantine that's come from the Bay of Campechi to New York, says he saw three Bermuda sloops taken by a pyrat"
5. At a Council held at Philadelphia on 22 July 1718 before Sir William Keith, lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, twelve mariners who had escaped from pirates gave a narrative through Richard Appleton. They had sailed from Jamaica about five months before in a wrecking sloop under Captain Pinkethman, who died outward bound; at Walker's Key and the Biminis they worked wrecks in company with a second sloop under a Captain Greenway; on 24 May 1718, at Greenway's instigation, the crew mutinied, took the sloop and all the arms, and in a day or two put Captain Tempest and ten or twelve men aboard the other sloop. They then went by the Florida wrecks and a little to the southward of Charles Town in South Carolina to the latitude of Bermuda, forcing two men out of a Maryland sloop and keeping a Bermuda sloop as consort; and on Sunday 6 July 1718, while Greenway and his officers were aboard a Liverpool prize, they retook the sloop, black sailors aboard hoisting the sails and one of them shooting a pirate through the belly with a pistol. The Board held that it did not appear that these men had been guilty of any piracy. The record therefore names Pinkethman and records black sailors in the fight, so the wreck-salvage account and the Keith record are of one episode and not two. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Colonial council minutes: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, Council held at Philadelphia, 22 July 1718, in Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, vol. III (Philadelphia: Jo. Severns & Co., 1852), pp. 50-52, read in the Internet Archive copy: "they Called in at Providence at the same time that his majesties ship Phoenix was there... & proceeded to Walkers Key, where in Company with another Sloop, Capt Greenway, they workt upon a wreck almost three weeks"; "by Greenways Instigacon, upon the Twenty fFourth of May Last they mutiny'd, took possession of this Sloop & all the arms"; "Richard Appleton being armed, seized the Helm, sent John Robinson down to Secure the Stores & order'd the Negroes to hoist the sails, upon which one of the Pyrates took up a musket & snapt it twice at the sd. Richard, then fired but missing, he Club'd the peice & wounded Richard on the head, upon which One [of t]h[e] N[e]goes shot the Pirate with a Pistol through the belly, & another wounded him in the Thigh", the last of these lines damaged in the scan and the bracketed letters supplied; and "it was the unanimous opinion of this Board, That it did not appear that these men had been Guilty of any piracy"
6. Bermuda's port geography in the golden age ran through Castle Roads, the channel passing between the King's Castle on Castle Island and Southampton Fort, into Castle Harbour, and through the channel of St George's, guarded by Smith's Fort and Paget's Fort, into St George's Harbour; the seventeenth-century shipping records show Castle Harbour entered by almost all the large ships, with the small ones passing from it into St George's Harbour. Governor Richard Moore, who reached the islands in July 1612, built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts, among them the King's Castle, from which two shots turned away two Spanish ships that attempted the entrance in 1614. The dredging of the passage north of Paget Island for steamers is a modern work and no period source for it is carried here. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narratives and colonial records in a printed documentary collection: J. H. Lefroy, Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515-1685, vol. I (London, 1877), read in the Internet Archive copy. For the forts, the narrative printed there at p. 73: "he built and laid the foundation of eight or nine Forts, called the Kings Castle, Charles Fort, Pembrookes Fort, Smiths Fort, Pagits Fort, Gates Fort, Warwicks Castle, Saint Katherines Fort, &c." For the Spanish attempt, at p. 75: "there came two Spanish ships, sounding with their boat, which attempted to come in; but from the Kings Castle Master More made but two shot, which caused them presently depart", which Lefroy's chronology of notices dates 1614. For the channels, the account of the finished works at Captain Butler's departure in October 1622: "In Charles Fort two; in Southampton Fort five; betwixt which and the castle passeth the channell into the Harbour, secured by three and twenty peeces of good artillery to play upon it... The Channell of Saint Georges is guarded by Smiths Fort, and Pagits Fort, in which is eleven peece of ordnance." For the use of the two harbours, Lefroy's note on the shipping records: "the evidence they afford of the use of Castle Harbour, which was entered by almost all the large ships, and from which we frequently find the small ones passing into the harbour of St. George's"