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Ile Sainte-Marie (Nosy Boraha)

A small island belonging to Madagascar, used by near a hundred English, French and Dutch, whose port held Robert Culliford's Moca frigate when William Kidd came in on 1 April 1698 and lost the greater part of his company to her, and where the Adventure Galley was lost.

Also writtenSt. Mary's (the form used throughout the Kidd examinations of 1699); Port St. Mary (in Theophilus Turner's deposition of 1699); St. Maries (in the examination of Otto van Toyle, 14 June 1699); Nosy Boraha (the second name given in Dow and Edmonds's history of the New England pirates)

St. Mary was a small island belonging to Madagascar. Theophilus Turner sailed into its port about Christmas 1698 and described it as "inhabited by negroes under the command of Edward Welch, who came from New England thither when he was a boy". It lies on the east coast and is called also Nosy Boraha.2,3

The road

Turner said there were no fortifications. Edward Welch had six guns at his house, and they had no command of the place where the shipping lay. Otto van Toyle, examined by the Lieutenant Governor of New York on 14 June 1699, said there were above 170 privateers at St. Maries who had fortified themselves there with palisades and great guns.4,5

Captain Culliford and Captain Sivers, who pretended to be a Dutchman, lived at what Turner called St. Mary's fort, and John Swann, a great consort of Culliford's, lived with him. The Moco, the ship Turner had come in, was of four hundred tons and forty guns, going by then under the name of the Resolution. Sivers had a bigger one of twenty-two guns, taken from the Turks.6,7

A ship lay on the ground in the road, said to have been brought in by Captain Kidd and reputed taken from the Moors or the Turks. The Adventure Galley was there too, in which Kidd had sailed from New York, and the ribs of another Turkish prize taken by Captain Hoare or Captain Glover.8,9

The trade of the port

On 6 May 1698 the lesser of Kidd's prizes was hauled into the careening island and there ransacked and sunk by his own men. After plundering the ships his men went four miles off to Edward Welche's house, where Kidd's chest was lodged, broke it open and took out gold and money.10,11

The company carried the Quedagh Merchant into St. Mary's and shared her there, Kidd taking forty shares; under the articles set up at New York she went into 169 parts, whole and half shares by the merit of each party. Edward Buckmaster left Kidd on 31 May 1698 and came home on the Nassau, Giles Shelley master, at a hundred pieces of eight, the common rate for the passage.12,13,14

Bellomont wrote to the Council of Trade and Plantations from Boston on 24 August 1699 that Kidd, examined before him in Council, laid the rising of the islanders and the death of the pirates at Adam Baldridge's door. Baldridge, on that account, had inveigled a great number of the islanders on board ship and sold them for slaves at the French island of Mascarine, and the islanders revenged it on the pirates by cutting their throats.15,16

April to June 1698

William Kidd came in on 1 April 1698. A pirate ship lay at anchor, the Moca frigate, Robert Culliford her commander; Culliford and his men left her and ran into the woods.17,18

What passed between the two captains here, and what the Crown made of it at the Old Bailey, has its own record.

Kidd's narrative says that 97 of his men deserted and that they fetched Culliford and his men out of the woods. His letter of 24 June 1699 says ninety-five went away from him in one day. Abel Owen the cook and Samuel Arris the steward swore to ninety. About 15 June the Mocha frigate went away, manned with about 130 men and forty guns, bound out to take all nations, and Kidd was left with thirteen.19,20,21,22

The Moors he had kept at the pumps were carried away, and the Adventure Galley sank in the harbour; William Jenkins and Hugh Parrott, examined afterwards, said she was run ashore instead, stripped of her furniture and set on fire to get her ironwork. Kidd moved into the Adventure prize and waited five months at the anchorage for a fair wind.23,24,25

His journal did not come away with him, and his own two accounts of its loss do not agree. Before the Governor and Council at Boston on 3 July 1699 he said his crew had destroyed it at St. Mary's, and asked for time to write a narrative instead; his narrative has it taken out of that same chest.26

After

Near a hundred English, French and Dutch used the island. Commodore Matthews came to St. Mary's and offered Edward England favour for what he knew of the Cassandra and for help in the pilotage; England was wary, and thought this was to "surrender at Discretion". Freebooting in those seas fell away under the English Admiralty and the East India Company's ships, and a number of the men took the French amnesty of 1721 and became colonists on Bourbon.27,29,28

Libertalia is sometimes put here. The pirate republic founded on egalitarian principles is an invention of the second volume, of 1728, of the General History of the Pyrates.1

Nearly all of this comes out of one bundle of examinations taken in America in 1699 about a single English captain. The island has three sharp months and very little either side of them. What would fill it is Baldridge's own deposition, which would give the years before Kidd came, the ships that came in and their cargoes, and the French amnesty papers of the early 1720s, which would give the numbers of men, and of enslaved people, in the bay at the end.

What the evidence does not settle

The 1697 insurrection

  • Baldridge was allegedly the occasion of the 1697 insurrection

Kidd's crew desertion to Culliford

  • Kidd's crew deserted to Culliford in June 1698Unverified

Archaeological evidence at Sainte-Marie

  • Dating of the pirate cemetery graves is unresolved

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. Libertalia, the supposed pirate republic founded on egalitarian principles in Madagascar, is a literary invention of the second volume, of 1728, of the General History of the Pyrates attributed to Captain Charles Johnson, not of the first volume of 1724, and must not be located at Sainte-Marie, or anywhere else, as history. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, attributed to Captain Charles Johnson (London, 1724), for Libertalia, cited here only to mark it as the literary invention it is, its fictional status being Confirmed
  2. Theophilus Turner deposed that about Christmas 1698 he sailed into the Port of St. Mary, a small island belonging to Madagascar, inhabited by negroes under the command of Edward Welch, who came from New England thither when he was a boy. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner, enclosed in Governor Blakiston's letter of 8 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  3. A modern history of the New England pirates places the pirate settlement on the island of St. Mary, or Nosy Boraha, on the east coast of Madagascar. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter XIX, Pirate Haunts and Cruising Grounds, printed p. 348 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 13439-13442)
  4. Theophilus Turner deposed that there were no fortifications at St. Mary's, and that the six guns Edward Welch kept at his house had no command of the place where the shipping lay. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner, enclosed in Governor Blakiston's letter of 8 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  5. Otto van Toyle, examined by the Lieutenant Governor of New York on 14 June 1699, said that there were above 170 privateers at St. Maries, who had fortified themselves there with palisades and great guns. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: August 1699, 21-25', pp. 395-412, item 740. XII, Examination of Otto van Toyle by the Lieutenant Governor of New York, 14 June 1699 (library file csp-col-v17-pp395-412.txt, line 505)
  6. Theophilus Turner deposed that Captain Culliford and Captain Sivers, who pretended to be a Dutchman, lived at the place of St. Mary's fort, and that John Swann, a great consort of Culliford's, lived with Culliford. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner, enclosed in Governor Blakiston's letter of 8 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  7. Theophilus Turner deposed that the Moco, the ship he sailed in, was a ship of 400 tons mounted with 40 guns which by then went by the name of the Resolution, and that Captain Sivers had with him at St. Mary's a bigger ship of 22 guns taken from the Turks. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  8. Theophilus Turner deposed that a ship lay on the ground at Port St. Mary's, said to have been brought in there by Captain Kidd and reputed taken from the Moors or Turks, commanded at the time of her capture by a Dutchman. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner, enclosed in Governor Blakiston's letter of 8 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  9. Theophilus Turner deposed that the Adventure galley, in which Captain Kidd sailed from New York, lay at Port St. Mary's, with the ribs of one other Turkish ship taken either by Captain Hoare or Captain Glover. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner, enclosed in Governor Blakiston's letter of 8 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  10. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that on 6 May 1698 the lesser of his prizes was hauled into the careening island at St. Mary's and there ransacked and sunk by his mutinous men. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 93)
  11. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that after plundering his ships his men went four miles off to Edward Welche's house, where his chest was lodged, broke it open and took out gold and money, his journal and many papers belonging to him and to the people of New York that fitted them out; his examination of 3 July 1699 says instead that the journal was destroyed by his crew at St. Mary's. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 93)
  12. William Jenkins of Bow, examined at Boston on 6 July 1699, stated that the company carried the Quidah Merchant into St. Mary's and there shared her, Captain Kidd having forty shares. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XI, Examination of William Jenkins of Bow, Boston, 6 July 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 68)
  13. The articles of agreement set up at New York, a copy of which was produced at Kidd's trial in 1701, divided the prize into 169 parts, of which Kidd was to have 40 shares and the rest whole shares or half shares according to the merit of each party. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Arraignment, Tryal, and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, for Murther and Piracy, upon Six Several Indictments (London, 1701), the evidence on the division of the cargo (library file kidd_trial_1701.txt, lines 3730-3732)
  14. Edward Buckmaster, examined by the Lieutenant Governor of New York on 6 June 1699, said that he left Captain Kidd on 31 May 1698 and that he and other pirates came home on the Nassau, Giles Shelley master, paying 100 pieces of eight for his passage, which was the common rate. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: August 1699, 21-25', pp. 395-412, item 740. XI, Copy of Examination of Edward Buckmaster by the Hon. John Nanfan, Lieutenant Governor, 6 June 1699 (library file csp-col-v17-pp395-412.txt, lines 497-499)
  15. Bellomont wrote to the Council of Trade and Plantations from Boston on 24 August 1699 that Kidd told him, when he examined him in Council, that Baldridge was the occasion of the insurrection of the natives in St. Mary's near Madagascar and of the death of the pirates there. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: August 1699, 21-25', pp. 395-412, item 740, Governor the Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 24 August 1699 (library file csp-col-v17-pp395-412.txt, line 417)
  16. Bellomont's letter of 24 August 1699 reports that Baldridge, having inveigled a great number of the natives on board ship, carried and sold them for slaves to a French island called Mascarine, and that the natives revenged the treachery on the pirates by cutting their throats. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: August 1699, 21-25', pp. 395-412, item 740, Governor the Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 24 August 1699 (library file csp-col-v17-pp395-412.txt, line 417)
  17. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that he arrived at St. Mary's on 1 April 1698. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 93)
  18. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that a pirate ship, the Moca frigate, lay at anchor at St. Mary's with Robert Culliford her commander, and that Culliford and his men left her at Kidd's coming in and ran into the woods. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 93)
  19. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that 97 of his men deserted and went into the Mocha frigate, and sent into the woods and brought Culliford and his men on board again. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 93)
  20. Kidd wrote in his letter of 24 June 1699 that ninety-five men went away from him in one day and went on board the Moca, Captain Robert Cullifur. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, printed p. 372, Captain Kidd to Lord Bellomont, 24 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 61)
  21. Abel Owen, cook, and Samuel Arris, steward, of the Adventure galley deposed at Boston on 4 July 1699 that ninety of the crew deserted at St. Mary's and went on board the Mocco frigate. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXIII, Depositions of Abel Owen, cook, and Samuel Arris, steward, of the Adventure galley, Boston, 4 July 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 86)
  22. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that about 15 June the Mocha frigate went away from St. Mary's, manned with about 130 men and 40 guns, bound out to take all nations, and that he was left with only 13 men. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 93)
  23. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that, the Moors he had to pump being carried away, the Adventure galley sank in the harbour at St. Mary's. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 95)
  24. Two of Kidd's crew, William Jenkins of Bow and Hugh Parrott of Plymouth, stated in their examinations that the remaining company ran the leaky Adventure galley on shore at St. Mary's, stripped her of her furniture and set her on fire to get her ironwork. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Modern scholarship printing the examinations: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London, 1911), the appendix printing the examinations of William Jenkins and Hugh Parrott (library file gutenberg-54444.txt, lines 3538-3540)
  25. Kidd's narrative of his voyage states that he and his men went on board the Adventure prize, where he was forced to stay five months for a fair wind. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 95)
  26. Kidd, examined before the Governor and Council at Boston on 3 July 1699, said that his journal had been destroyed by his crew at St. Mary's, but that if granted time he would prepare a narrative in writing; that narrative says instead that the journal was taken out of his chest at Edward Welche's house, so that his two accounts of its loss do not agree. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXIV, Examination of Capt. Kidd before the Governor and Council, 3 July 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, line 87)
  27. Theophilus Turner deposed that near a hundred English, French and Dutch used the island of St. Mary. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699 and Addenda 1621-1698), ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, Copy of deposition of Theophilus Turner, enclosed in Governor Blakiston's letter of 8 June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 92)
  28. A modern history of the New England pirates states that the vigilance of the English Admiralty and the watchfulness of the ships of the East India Company discouraged freebooting in those parts, and that in 1721, when France granted an amnesty, a number of the pirates surrendered and became colonists on the island of Bourbon. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter XIX, Pirate Haunts and Cruising Grounds, printed p. 352 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 13580-13585)
  29. Johnson's General History states that Commodore Matthews at St. Mary's would have engaged Edward England with promises of favour if he would communicate what he knew concerning the Cassandra and the rest of the pirates and assist in the pilotage, but that England was wary and thought this was to surrender at discretion. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, the chapter 'Of Capt. Edward England, And his Crew', the account of Commodore Matthews's squadron in the Indian seas (library file gut40580_johnson_general_history.txt, lines 4138-4141)