Peter Easton

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Peter Easton (around 1570 - after 1620) was a British privateer who had his headquarters in Newfoundland , commanded his own fleet and at the beginning of the 17th century was considered one of the most successful pirates and leading corsair of his time, which gave him the nickname Archpirate ( arch-pirate) . He attacked both British and foreign, especially Spanish ships, but also French and Dutch ones. His documented pirate career lasted from 1611 to 1614.

Early years

He was born around 1570. He came from a family which, under Elizabeth I , earned merit in skirmishes against the Spanish Armada . In 1602 he was commissioned under Queen Elisabeth to act as privateer against Spanish and other ships that got in the way of the English fishing fleet off Newfoundland and fished there themselves. After James I ascended the throne in 1604, a peace agreement was reached with Spain and attacks by British privateers on Spanish ships became illegal in England. Easton continued his piracy against Spanish ships anyway, operating as far as the Mediterranean, the Azores and Guinea and selling his booty in the Caribbean . He received support from the powerful Killigrews family of Falmouth , Cornwall, and his fleet grew steadily. Reports from this period are uncertain and have come down to us, for example, from Richard Whitbourne . In 1610 he blocked the Bristol Channel and levied transit fees from merchants. They called the British Admiralty for help, which commissioned the pirate Henry Mainwaring to fight Easton, which was unsuccessful.

Time in Newfoundland from 1612

What is certain is that Easton came to Newfoundland in 1612 with ten well-equipped ships. He took his headquarters in Harbor Grace and raided port cities from Trinity Bay to Ferryland and French, English and Portuguese ships departing from Newfoundland, mostly from the fishing fleet. But mainly he used Newfoundland to overhaul his ships, replenish supplies and take on new crews. Its flagship was the Happy Adventure . In Harbor Grace he built a fort in the Bear Cove area, but the scope of the fortifications is disputed. He also had some small islands fortified (Kellys Island, Oderins Island). He squeezed his crew partly out of the attacked ships, partly from the local fishermen, but some also came voluntarily. The damage to the fishing fleet has been estimated at over £ 20,000. He is said to have captured 30 ships during a pirate voyage. In 1612 a French Basque fleet raided his fort at Harbor Grace when Easton himself was in the Caribbean. On his return he was able to intercept the French fleet and there was a sea battle off Harbor Grace Island. The French flagship, the St. Malo , ran aground. Easton lost 47 men who were likely buried in Bears Cove. During construction work in this area around the Coughlan United Church in the 21st century, a mass grave was found that is possibly the grave of the fallen sailors. Traces of wounding and clothing as well as age were compatible.

With the colonists, for example, in the colony founded in Cupids Cove (then Cuper's Cove) in today's Cupids - the first in Newfoundland and second oldest in North America after Jamestown in Virginia - under the governor Richard Guy , conflicts arose, but he judged there does no great harm. A letter from Guy dated July 1612 has survived, in which he recounts Easton's activities in Newfoundland and an encounter with Easton, who stopped his barge looking for new crew members, but then let them go. Easton traded with the residents and is said to have built a house in Ferryland as well. He captured the businessman Richard Whitbourne in Ferryland for eleven weeks in 1612 (along with six other captains) in an attempt to win him over to piracy, and only released him so that he might negotiate a royal pardon for him in England. In England, Whitbourne learned that the pardon had been granted in February 1612, but that Easton had not been reached. The British were eager to get rid of him as an enemy not to be underestimated.

On the Berber Coast 1614 and retired

A new pardon was issued in November and a Captain Roger Middleton was commissioned to deliver it to Easton, who was ambushing Spanish ships off the Berber coast in the Mediterranean at the time. Easton ran out of Newfoundland with eight ships and 500 men; according to other information, his fleet was later to have been 1,500 men strong. He attacked the Spanish treasure fleet near the Azores and was soon seen off Tunis with four galleons and rich booty. The pardon did not reach him until March 1613, so he went to Villefranche in the Duchy of Savoy , where he was welcomed with open arms by the Duke (the Duchy was a safe haven for pirates). Rumors of a fortune of two million pounds of gold had preceded him and impressed the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emanuel I , who was in financial difficulties. Easton bought a palace, opened a warehouse for his loot of luxury goods, and received the title of marquis in Savoy. In exchange for protection, Easton paid the Duke a large sum. He was around forty then, described as attractive, and married a wealthy heiress. When visiting Turin, he is said to have served the Duke as a skilled artilleryman in an attack on the Duke of Mantua. From 1620 his track is lost. He may have died in France.

He was considered an excellent sailor and navigator, a good tactician and artilleryman and as a pirate as bold and brave, but not bloodthirsty. With his fleet he was an opponent to be taken seriously even by the leading sea powers, who was never caught or captured by the pursuit fleets sent to capture him. His pirate flag was still without a skull and all black.

Legends, treasure hunt

Whitbourne's writings are an important source for his biography. There are various legends about him still alive today in Newfoundland, such as the story of Sheila na Geira and Gilbert Pike. Sheila na Geira, daughter of the chief of County Connacht, was then on an Irish ship en route to France when they were caught by a Dutch ship. Easton freed them from the Dutch. She fell in love with Lieutenant Gilbert Pike in the service of Easton and settled with him in Newfoundland at Bristol's Hope (Mosquito), where they were among the pioneers of the settlement. In 1611 they moved to Carbonear to avoid the returning Easton, who himself had his eye on Sheila na Geira. Other legends relate to buried treasures that are the objects of desire of treasure hunters in Newfoundland. They are the subject of a six-part television series Easton's treasures (2017, directed by Stafford Jenkins). A 2010 documentary by CTV W5 Pirates of Newfoundland accompanied treasure divers in Conception Bay in search of shipwrecks. They were also able to find a wreck with cannons near Port Kirwin that had been found by the Newfoundland Marine Archeological Society in the mid-1980s. The Pirates to Pilots Festival is held annually in Harbor Grace .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Excavations took place there in the 2000s under Bill Gilbert. The finds are presented in the local history museum Cupids Legacy Center .
  2. ^ Richard Whidborne: Crosses and Comforts: Being The Life and Times of Sir Richard Whitbourne, Great Auk Books, 2005
  3. ^ Richard Whitbourne, A discourse and discovery of New-found-land, Richard Whitbourne, London, 1620.
  4. ^ Robert Osborne, On the hunt for pirate 'treasure' , CTV News November 27, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Easton, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British privateer
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
DATE OF DEATH 17th century