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The ArchivesThemesThe End of the Golden Age

The End of the Golden Age

The suppression of large-scale Atlantic piracy in roughly 1716 to 1726 by a coordinated state programme of law, navy, pardon and exemplary justice, and the modern 'Golden Age' construct itself. The label is a late-Victorian coinage; the events are real.

Fromc. 1716To1726Also writtenThe Suppression of Piracy; The Golden Age of Piracy (the modern label); The Golden Age of Pirates (Fiske 1897)

The events were real; the name came later. Large-scale Atlantic piracy was suppressed in about a decade after the War of the Spanish Succession, put down by a coordinated state programme rather than by any single pirate death. The label under which we remember it is a construct, and a late one.

The construct

"The Golden Age of Piracy" is a modern retrospective phrase, not a period one. The earliest systematic use yet found is a chapter title: John Fiske, in Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (1897), headed Chapter XVI "The Golden Age of Pirates," opening it "The business of piracy has never thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century." The exact wording is "of Pirates," not "of Piracy." The academic historians who later fixed the phrase in place did not coin it; Fiske predates them by roughly a century, and the pirates themselves never used it at all.8,17,1

The collapse as a state project

The suppression ran on four instruments working together: legal reform, naval force, the pardon, and exemplary public justice. The pardon has its own record; the other three met the pirates who refused it.7,21,2

The legal spine was old and then sharpened. The Piracy Act of 1698 (11 William III, chapter 7) let the Crown try pirates by vice-admiralty commission overseas, before a court of at least seven commissioners, instead of shipping them home for trial. The 1726 Boston trial print states the chain on its own title page: the commission was "founded on an act ... made in the eleventh and twelfth years of the reign of King William the Third ... And made perpetual by an act of the sixth of King George." The perpetuation is credited there to 6 George I, not to the statute usually assumed. The Piracy Act of 1721 (8 George I, chapter 24) then went after the pirates' shore-side support: trading with or supplying pirates was itself made a capital crime, and a merchant mariner who failed to defend his gunned ship was to "forfeit all ... his wages ... and shall suffer six months imprisonment." The merchant marine was conscripted into the fight.10,11,12,3

Naval force supplied the ships. Station cruisers and dedicated men-of-war hunted the companies down, HMS Swallow destroying Bartholomew Roberts's company off West Africa in February 1722 being the clearest single blow.20

The pardon, the state's mercy, ran in parallel and is treated in its own record, pirate pardons. It was the carrot; the three instruments above were the stick.

Exemplary justice: the executions census

The gallows did the public work. The point of a mass hanging was to be seen, and from 1717 to 1726 the suppression ran as a sequence of set-piece trials. Six of Samuel Bellamy's crew were hanged at Boston in 1717. Eight of the relapsed pardon-holders were hanged at Nassau in December 1718 under Woodes Rogers. The largest of them came at Cape Coast Castle on the West African coast in the spring of 1722, where 52 of Roberts's crew were hanged, tried at the Cape Coast trial that closed out the Roberts pirate war. Twenty-six of Low's company, Charles Harris among them, followed at Newport on 19 July 1723.9,13,15,4

The close

The close came in a Boston courtroom in 1726. The printed record, The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy, carries the winding-down in its own subtitle: "Four of which were found guilty, and the rest acquitted." By 1726 the courts convicted only four of sixteen. William Fly, the last celebrated Golden Age pirate, was hanged in Boston on 12 July 1726 and his body carried out to be gibbeted in chains at Nix's Mate in the harbour. The theatre that had begun with six men at Boston in 1717 ended with one man at Boston nine years later.16,5

The window

The end of the Golden Age, in the narrow academic frame, is the collapse of the post-war surge across roughly 1716 to 1726. The phrase itself has always been used more broadly; the Barbary corsairs, East Asian piracy and later nineteenth-century piracy fall outside the narrow window.6

What the sources cannot yet give cleanly is the last chapter: the governor's report that the coast was finally clear. No such closing despatch is in evidence here; it would lie in the colonial papers of 1724 to 1726. The naval strand is the thinnest in digitised sources and survives largely in the Admiralty series at Kew.

What the evidence does not settle

Earliest use of Golden Age

  • Powell's 1894 use may predate Fiske's 1897 coinageUnverified

The Golden Age date window

  • The 1716 to 1726 window narrows a broader traditional phraseUnverified

Naval evidence for the suppression

  • The naval-force strand of the suppression is the least documented instrumentLikely

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. John Fiske's chapter XVI of Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (1897), "The Golden Age of Pirates", opens "The business of piracy has never thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century", read via Project Gutenberg 56033. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed book: John Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (1897), read via Project Gutenberg 56033
  2. The suppression was a coordinated state project of four instruments: legal reform, naval force, the pardon (covered by the pirate-pardons theme), and exemplary public justice. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Synthesis: Synthesis across the instruments cited on this page, each of which rests on its own primary evidence
  3. The legal instruments: the Piracy Act 1698 (11 William III c.7) let the Crown try pirates by vice-admiralty commission overseas before a court of at least seven commissioners; it was "made perpetual by an act of the sixth of King George" (per the 1726 Boston trial print's title page, flagging 6 Geo I rather than the statute usually assumed); and the Piracy Act 1721 (8 George I c.24) made trading with or supplying pirates a capital crime (s.1) and penalised merchant crews who failed to defend their ships with forfeited wages and six months imprisonment (s.6). Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statutes and printed trial record: 11 Will III c.7 and 8 Geo I c.24 (legislation.gov.uk); the 6 Geo I perpetuation from the 1726 Tryals title page
  4. Of the four mass hangings of 1717 to 1723 in the executions census, Boston (six), Nassau (eight), Cape Coast Castle (fifty-two) and Newport (twenty-six), Cape Coast Castle's was the largest, and at Newport on 19 July 1723 Charles Harris, commander of Low's consort, hanged with his company. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Printed records: The 1723 Cape Coast trial record (52 executed); the Nassau trial of December 1718 (eight hanged); the Boston trials of the Whydah survivors (six hanged, 1717); Tryals of Thirty-Six Persons for Piracy (Newport, 1723) and Cotton Mather, Useful Remarks (1723), for the twenty-six at Newport
  5. The closing anchor is the 1726 Boston trial: The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy, whose subtitle records "Four of which were found guilty, and the rest acquitted." William Fly, the last celebrated Golden Age pirate, was hanged at Boston on 12 July 1726 and gibbeted in chains at Nix's Mate in the harbour. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial record: The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy (Boston, 1726), Evans N02376 / OTA
  6. The Archive adopts 1716 to 1726 as the working frame for the end of the Golden Age, the collapse of the post-war surge, while acknowledging the phrase has always been used more broadly. The narrowing to an Atlantic and Indian Ocean frame of 1716 to 1726 is a deliberate editorial choice. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Historiography (editorial framing): adopted frame per the THM050 definition
  7. The end of the Golden Age of piracy in roughly 1716 to 1726 was a deliberate, coordinated state project of four instruments working together, the pardon (the Act of Grace), naval force, the reformed piracy law and exemplary public justice at the gallows, and not an organic fading of the trade nor the consequence of any single pirate's death. The pardon was the carrot; the navy, the statutes and the vice-admiralty gallows were the stick. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Interpretive synthesis: Editorial synthesis of the two royal proclamations (London Gazette 5573 and 5706), the Piracy Acts of 1698 and 1721, and the executions record from Boston 1717 to Boston 1726
  8. The "Golden Age of Piracy" is a retrospective label, not a period term. The earliest systematic use yet found is a chapter title: John Fiske headed Chapter XVI of Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (1897) "The Golden Age of Pirates" (the wording is "of Pirates", not "of Piracy"). An earlier casual use is attributed to the journalist George Powell in 1894. The pirates themselves never used the phrase. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Secondary works: John Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (1897), chapter XVI title; earlier use attributed to George Powell, 1894
  9. The suppression arc is bracketed by printed exemplary-justice records nine years apart, from six of Bellamy's crew hanged at Boston in November 1717 to William Fly and his associates at Boston in July 1726, with the Cape Coast Castle trial of spring 1722 (fifty-two of Roberts's crew hanged) the largest single event. The census is carried by surviving printed trial records, while the naval and pardon-administration strands survive mainly as unread Admiralty and Colonial Office manuscripts at Kew; the Collection is object-rich at the executions and honestly object-scarce at the pardon rolls and the naval hunt. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Interpretive characterisation: Editorial reading of the printed trial records against the undigitised Admiralty and Colonial Office manuscript layer at The National Archives, Kew
  10. The Piracy Act 1698 (11 William III, chapter 7), "An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Piracy", authorised the Crown to try piracy overseas by Vice-Admiralty commission courts of at least seven persons rather than transporting the accused to England, and made those who aid, abet, receive or conceal pirates liable to the same capital punishment as principals. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: An Act for the More Effectuall Suppression of Piracy, 11 and 12 William III c. 7 (the Piracy Act 1698), Statutes of the Realm VII, pp. 590 to 594
  11. The 1698 Piracy Act was continued and made perpetual; the 1726 Boston trial commission's own title page credits the perpetuation to "an act of the sixth of King George" (6 George I). The Transportation Act 1717 (4 George I, chapter 11) carried a piracy-suppression section, but the exact interlocking of that section with the perpetuating act is not settled from the statute text, so the copy does not assert that 4 George I chapter 11 made the 1698 Act perpetual. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Printed commission title page: Title page of The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy (Boston, 1726), citing "an act of the sixth of King George"
  12. The Piracy Act 1721 (8 George I, chapter 24), "An Act for the more effectual suppressing of Piracy": section 1 made it piracy, felony and robbery to trade with, supply, fit out vessels for, or consult and correspond with known pirates; section 6 provided that a commander, officer or mariner of a gunned merchant ship who fails to defend it against pirate attack forfeits all his wages, cannot recover them in any court, and suffers six months imprisonment. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Piracy Act 1721 (8 George I c.24), sections 1 and 6
  13. The executions census of the suppression runs from Boston (November 1717, six of Bellamy's crew) through Nassau (December 1718, eight hanged), Charleston (1718, Bonnet and crew), Cape Coast Castle (spring 1722, fifty-two of Roberts's crew, the largest single event), Newport, Rhode Island (19 July 1723, twenty-six of Low's Ranger crew, the count fixed by the printed Tryals and Mather's sermon) to Boston (12 July 1726, William Fly and associates). Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Composite of printed trial records: The surviving printed trial records for Boston 1717, Nassau 1718, Cape Coast Castle 1722, Newport 1723 and Boston 1726
  14. Survivors of Samuel Bellamy's company, taken from the consort Mary Anne rather than from the Whydah herself, whose only two survivors were not among them, were tried at a Court of Admiralty in Boston in October 1717; six were convicted and hanged at Charlestown Ferry, Boston, on 15 November 1717 (Van Vorst, Brown, Baker, Quintor, Hoof and Shuan). Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial record: The printed record of the Boston Court of Admiralty, 1717 (executions 15 November 1717)
  15. Of Bartholomew Roberts's captured crew, fifty-four were condemned and fifty-two were hanged at Cape Coast Castle in the spring of 1722; the printed record also gives seventy-four acquitted and twenty sentenced to servitude. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial record: A Full and Exact Account of the Tryal of all the Pyrates (London, 1723)
  16. The last major exemplary trial is the 1726 Boston Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy (special Court of Admiralty, 4 July 1726): only four of sixteen were convicted (William Fly, Samuel Cole, Henry Greenvill and George Condick, who was recommended for a reprieve). Fly, the last celebrated Golden Age pirate captain, was hanged on 12 July 1726 at the Charles River and his body hung in chains at Nix's Mate. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial record: The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy (Boston, 1726)
  17. Fiske's golden age was the seventeenth century, his chapter opening "The business of piracy has never thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century", an era broader than the modern Atlantic frame the phrase now carries. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Secondary work: John Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (1897), chapter XVI
  18. The earliest known casual literary use of a "golden age" of piracy is attributed to the English journalist George Powell in 1894, reviewing Charles Leslie's history of Jamaica; Powell's original text has not been read, so the attribution rests on a later carrier. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Attributed literary use: Use attributed to George Powell, 1894 (original text unseen)
  19. Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates (1724) is at once a near-contemporary source for the suppression and the principal myth-maker of the age's supposed coherence; where it is the sole carrier of a claim, the Archive caps that claim at Possible and frames it as tradition, not record. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Near-contemporary work: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724)
  20. The naval-force strand of the suppression is the least documented of the four instruments in reachable sources: HMS Swallow's destruction of Roberts's company in February 1722 is the one well-evidenced naval action, while station-ship deployment lists and the underlying Admiralty records survive mainly at Kew and are not digitised. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Naval records (largely undigitised): Admiralty (ADM) records, The National Archives, largely undigitised; the Swallow action carried by the London Gazette, issue 6091
  21. The suppression of Atlantic piracy in about 1716 to 1726 was carried by four instruments: the reformed piracy law (the Acts of 1698, 1717 and 1721), naval force (station ships and dedicated cruisers), the pardon (the 1717 to 1719 Acts of Grace) and exemplary mass justice (the vice-admiralty trials and hangings). The four-instrument model is an interpretive synthesis; each component rests on its own evidence. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Interpretive synthesis: Editorial synthesis of the statutes, the naval record, the proclamations and the executions census