Captain Election and Removal

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 General History of 1724 presents the choosing of a captain as the constitutive act of a new pirate company and places it before the drawing up of articles, stating of Howell Davis's men after they had seized two sloops at Martinico that "a Counsel of War was called over a large Bowl of Punch, at which it was proposed to chuse a Commander; the Election was soon over, for it fell upon Davis by a great Majority of legal Pollers, there was no Scrutiny demanded", and giving George Lowther's company in June 1721 the same founding sequence by acclamation rather than by a poll, "They one and all came into the Measures". Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, second edition, London, printed for T. Warner, 1724, the Davis and Lowther chapters; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
2. Captain William Snelgrave, held by pirate companies at Sierra Leone in 1719 and publishing in 1734, states that "the Captain of a Pirate Ship, is chiefly chosen to fight the Vessels they may meet with" and reports Thomas Cocklyn's people saying they chose him "on account of his Brutality and Ignorance; having resolved never to have again a Gentleman-like Commander", so that the qualification for the office was fighting capacity and a company could elect a bad seaman deliberately; his text survives in an uncorrected scan whose orthography and proper names are corrupt, so its substance and not its spelling is relied on. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: William Snelgrave, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave-Trade, London, 1734, the account of his captivity
3. The one surviving contemporary statement of who was allowed to vote in a pirate company restricts the franchise to a minority of the people aboard: Thomas Davis, examined before the Governor at Boston on 6 May 1717 and printed in the appendix to the trial of Samuel Bellamy's men, stated that when the company was called together and each man was to give his vote "they would not allow the forced Men to have a Vote. There were One hundred and thirty forced Men in all, and Eighty of the Old company", against the first of the articles attributed by the 1724 General History to Bartholomew Roberts's company, which reads "Every Man has a Vote in Affairs of Moment". Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Printed trial record with pre-trial examinations: The Trials of eight persons indited for piracy, Boston, 1718, appendix of examinations taken before the Governor, 6 May 1717, Text Creation Partnership transcription N01688; A General History of the Pyrates, 1724
4. The familiar rule that a pirate captain was absolute in action and governed by the company in everything else rests on a single clause of a single sentence in the General History of 1724, which says of the captain's power that it "is absolute and uncontroulable, by their own Laws, viz. in fighting, chasing, or being chased; in all other Matters whatsoever, he is governed by a Majority", and the same book is deflationary about the office, saying that "they only permit him to be Captain, on Condition, that they may be Captain over him"; no other source located states the rule, so it stands as a well attested description rather than as a proved general practice. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, second edition, London, 1724, the Vane narrative and the account of the pirates' government
5. The removals documented for this period share three features, a vote carrying the removal, the minority that supported the deposed man leaving with him, and that party being given a vessel and stores rather than killed, as with Benjamin Hornigold and his twenty-six hands in a prize sloop; the outcome could be harsher, Edward England being on the 1724 book's account "soon abdicated or pulled out of his Government, and marooned with three more on the Island of Mauritius" and a deposition transcribed by E. T. Fox and quoted at second hand saying that he "was turned out of Comand", while Snelgrave reports William Moody's own people forcing him with twelve others into an open boat in which they were never heard of again. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative and transcribed deposition: A General History of the Pyrates, 1724; William Snelgrave, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, 1734; deposition transcribed in E. T. Fox, Pirates in Their Own Words, 2014, quoted at second hand
6. A revocable command was not in practice a short one: Bartholomew Roberts, elected after Howell Davis was killed at Principe in mid-1719, a death that later writers date to 19 June 1719 although Johnson has Roberts chosen about six weeks after being taken in June, so that the day is not settled here, held his command until HMS Swallow found him off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1721 old style, that is 1722 new style, about two years and eight months, surviving at least two splits in his squadron, and George Lowther held from 13 June 1721 until his company was surprised while careening at Blanco in early October 1723; the elapsed figures are calculated from those dates rather than stated by any source. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, 1724, the Roberts and Lowther chapters
7. A colonial piracy court treated a man's vote as consent that destroyed the plea of compulsion: at the Cape Coast Castle trial of 1722, as printed in the General History of 1724, prisoners who said that Roberts had commanded them into the boat and that the order could not be refused were answered by the president of the court that "those are still your own Acts, since done by Orders from Officers of your own Election", and asked why honestly disposed men would give their votes for such a captain and such a quartermaster; Thomas Davis, who had told the Boston examiners that he was allowed no vote, was acquitted, the printed record giving as its reasons the proof that he was forced aboard and the absence of evidence that he was accessory, so no causal connection between the two is shown. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial material and period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, 1724, the Cape Coast Castle trial section; The Trials of eight persons indited for piracy, Boston, 1718, TCP N01688