Hispaniola and Puerto Rico on the 1729 Keulen Map of the Caribbean |
John "James" Martel from A General History |
Jean Martel was a French
pirate of the early Golden Age of Piracy. He was probably born or closely related to the Martels in Hispaniola (Martels grew
sugar there since the 1550s - there is a town near Petit Goâve named “Martel”
and the family borrowed money from Spain to invest in sugar cane, making a
connection with earlier (1708) Spanish privateer Lewis Martel seem plausible).
Martel perhaps operated between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico by
fall of 1716. He took a boat of Saint Domingue with English pirates near Cape
Tiburon (Hispaniola) in late 1717 and had a sister-in-law who lived at Petit Goâve, Saint Domingue, Hispaniola, also late
in 1717. At this time, he became an informant about a pirate attack planned for Christmas 1717 on Petit Goâve
and asked not to mention his name “because it would risk his life if the
English [pirates] learned the secret of his French heritage.”
I assume that Martel had little to no accent?
I assume that Martel had little to no accent?
Remarkably, Capt, Charles
Johnson, actually polemic Jacobite journalist Nathaniel
Mist, in 1724 wrote a narrative of Martel in A General
History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, 2nd
ed. that appears almost entirely misrepresented and partly faked.
First, he refers to Martel as an Englishman from Jamaica when he is clearly French. This has caused a tremendous amount of trouble for the last 300 years because almost every fan of pirates out there takes A General History as literally as the Bible!
Just because of the word "history" in the title?
Secondly, his narrative is hard to substantiate with primary sources, with exception of the final two paragraphs which come from a letter of Gov. Walter Hamilton of Antigua, dated 1 Mar 1717. The details are identical to those in the Calendar of State Papers; however, the Calendar's account is generic - no names or identification for the pirates were given by Hamilton in his letter. Martel’s responsibility for these deeds is merely assumed by Johnson-Mist.[1]
First, he refers to Martel as an Englishman from Jamaica when he is clearly French. This has caused a tremendous amount of trouble for the last 300 years because almost every fan of pirates out there takes A General History as literally as the Bible!
Just because of the word "history" in the title?
Secondly, his narrative is hard to substantiate with primary sources, with exception of the final two paragraphs which come from a letter of Gov. Walter Hamilton of Antigua, dated 1 Mar 1717. The details are identical to those in the Calendar of State Papers; however, the Calendar's account is generic - no names or identification for the pirates were given by Hamilton in his letter. Martel’s responsibility for these deeds is merely assumed by Johnson-Mist.[1]
Capt. Charles Johnson writes on pages 64-69 of A General History that several vessels had been captured by “John Martel” of Jamaica in
mid-late 1716. Few of these references could possibly be true. Some are manufactured and it was not the first time that Johnson-Mist had attempted such bold
deception in his unreliable and polemical "history" book.
The vessels that Johnson-Mist attributes to
the “Jamaican” John Martel are: Berkley
Galley, Capt. Saunders; sloop King
Solomon; John and Martha, Capt. Wilson; an unnamed sloop and brigantine;
Ship Dolphin, 20 guns, bound for
Newfoundland; Kent, Capt. Lawton;
a small Ship and a Sloop, belonging to Barbadoes; Greyhound galley of London, Capt. Evans, from Guiney to Jamaica; a ship
of 20 guns, a sloop of eight, and three prizes, another ship of 20 Guns, a sloop
of four Guns, and another sloop. Furthermore, between September and December,
Johnson-Mist shows Martel with a sloop of 8 guns and 80 men. Later, he has a
ship of 22 guns and 100 men, plus a sloop of about 25 men. He then amassed
quite a flotilla, according to the polemical journalist. Note that the masters’
names only include surnames – no given names – a peculiar change from other
parts of his narrative (compare to the section on Blackbeard which includes Christopher
Taylor, David Herriot, and Jonathan Bernard in just the first few paragraphs). This could be from his sources, like Royal African Company (RAC) letters that seldom mention given names. Still, he misapplied these sources - real people and events used falsely to imply truth where there wasn't any.
One possibility is that the primary
sources from which Johnson-Mist drew this information may be lost to us now. That would please Johnson-Mist devotees to no end! However, that would require a massive amount of loss, an almost impossible
documentary calamity. Anyway, as the available records show, there are plenty of extant
references available – probably more still buried in the National Archives in London.
A bit of research can easily reveal these sources - and the lies.
I'm sure that Nathaniel Mist never had computers. ;)
I'm sure that Nathaniel Mist never had computers. ;)
The Greyhound galley, Capt. Evans, has been
located on Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade Database. Their voyage began 30 Aug 1716 and they could have
been intercepted by pirates in the Caribbean; but, this is doubtful. The record
shows that they began with 273 slaves and delivered 236 to Kingston, Jamaica. Johnson-Mist
declares 40 slaves stolen by Martel. Indeed, the database shows a loss of 37. Still,
the reality of the slave trade is that, even in the late eighteenth century, 15
percent of slaves died in the Middle Passage. For the Greyhound galley, that translates to 41 slaves, and an estimated
232 delivered to Kingston even when no pirates were involved. To assume that all
of the slaves would have survived and that pirates were the only reason for the loss is
unsupportable. One reason for the appearance of this voyage of the Greyhound in A General History is the story first appeared in Nathaniel Mist’s own Weekly Journal newspaper on 25 Jul 1717.[2]
Gregory O’Malley
writes in Final Passages that Capt.
Hume in HMS Scarborough captured a
pirate named Kennedy; he, with others, allegedly took the Greyhound galley of London and stole 40 slaves (again, a supposed loss by pirates and not disease). Martel could have
been a partner of Kennedy. Still, O’Malley’s reference is puzzling, for the
only citation he gives is for A General
History, a book that only declares Martel as responsible for this deed. Moreover, the only Kennedy that Johnson-Mist refers to is a later
pirate and contemporary of Bartholomew Roberts named Walter Kennedy, “executed
the 19th of July, 1721, at Execution Dock.”
No ship named
Kent can be found operating during
this period, in the slave trade database or the Calender of State Papers, the National
Archives in London, nor Naval Office
Shipping Records. The same search applied to Berkley Galley results in the discovery that Capt. Edmund
Saunders and mate Nathaniel Tucker completed their slave trading voyage to
Jamaica between June 1716 and 22 Dec 1716 without incident. Again, they lost 54
slaves of 367 to the usual disease, or 14.7 percent. Johnson-Mist may have had some familiarity with RAC reports, but still, again: no pirates in this one.
King
Solomon, Capt. Edward
Coward sailed an expensive and exceptionally horrid slave voyage, arriving 26 July 1716 at Jamaica with only
288 of the original 450, a mortality rate of 36 percent. Thirty-one percent of the complement were also children. This vessel may
indeed, have been caught by pirates after delivery, in the months of September or
October. There is no other reference to the incident, however.
John and Martha, Capt. Wilson, appears only in the Boston News-Letter (but apparently “was cast away upon Cuba” in Oct 1716 near where Capt. [Henry?] Jennings took Capt. Stone of Hamilton galley and held him for four days drinking his rum – Wilson’s crew were returned to New York 29 Oct 1716 by Capt. Stone in Hamilton galley – three of Wilson’s men joined Jennings; BNL 5 Nov 1716), which indicates that he was taken by pirates, but this pirate was Henry Jennings and not Martel.
Ship Dolphin, Capt. Hall was destroyed by a natural disaster that claimed all lives. No pirates were involved. And, it, too appeared in Mist’s newspaper on 17 Dec 1716. Mist may have been a sensationalist – a tabloid-type yellow journalist who relied on Royal African Company workers' dock rumors for his publications.
John and Martha, Capt. Wilson, appears only in the Boston News-Letter (but apparently “was cast away upon Cuba” in Oct 1716 near where Capt. [Henry?] Jennings took Capt. Stone of Hamilton galley and held him for four days drinking his rum – Wilson’s crew were returned to New York 29 Oct 1716 by Capt. Stone in Hamilton galley – three of Wilson’s men joined Jennings; BNL 5 Nov 1716), which indicates that he was taken by pirates, but this pirate was Henry Jennings and not Martel.
Ship Dolphin, Capt. Hall was destroyed by a natural disaster that claimed all lives. No pirates were involved. And, it, too appeared in Mist’s newspaper on 17 Dec 1716. Mist may have been a sensationalist – a tabloid-type yellow journalist who relied on Royal African Company workers' dock rumors for his publications.
Furthermore, in
A General History, Johnson-Mist
regarded “John” Martel as an Englishman - a Jamaican - while two primary sources clearly identify
him as a Frenchman: an American newspaper article (see below), to which he has
proved time and again abundant access, and a letter titled “Activity of pirates
at Saint Domingue,” 21 Jan 1717 [AN Marine B1 29f], today in the Centre des archives d’autre mers in Aix en Provence, France. These records
declare Martel operating in November with 135 men (no mention of the number of
vessels he had). Also, Anglican Church records show that no Martels were either born, married, or buried on Jamaica until 1789.
Still,
Johnson-Mist was haphazard in his use of the records he had – even manipulative
at times. Most likely, Johnson-Mist manufactured this data, as he had for Stede
Bonnet from Samuel Bellamy’s work off Virginia in April 1717. He might then have appended the
information from Gov. Hamilton about Capt. Hume and HMS Scarborough.
Even the
“Port of Cavena” mentioned by Johnson-Mist in his Martel narrative as being on Cuba is not a real place. It appears to
evolve from “Gran Caverna de Santo Tomás,” a system of caves in the Vinales
Valley – it is not, nor has it ever been, a port. A General History is full of lies and should never
be used for telling actual history!
Boston
News-Letter, Monday
November 12, 1716, 2:
Rhode Island, Novemb. 8. Arrived here Thomas Pemberton from Antigua,
Daniel Waire from Connecticut both for Boston, Ford & Whitfield from Boston
the first for New York, Col. John Cranston from New London, gives an account
that in his Passage from Philadelphia to Jamaica in August last off Portorico,
he met about the 21st of September with one Capt. John Martell a French Pyrate
of 135 Men, being most of them French, who took his Ship and Cargo, made him
and his Company Prisoners, but afterwards was so civil as to make an Exchange
in giving him his Pyrate Sloop, and otherwise was very kind to him & his
Men. He also gave him a New London Sloop to come home in, one Butels Master,
and at his Arrival he return'd her again to the right Owners.
[1] Baylus C. Brooks, Quest
for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World (Lake City:
Baylus C. Brooks, 2016), 370; Noël Deerr, History
of Sugar, Vol. 1 (Chapman and Hall, 1949), 124-125.
[2] Paul Finkelman, Encyclopedia
of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of
Frederick Douglass, Vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 2006), 125; National
Archives (London), HUTCHINSON v FOXCROFT: Ledger of copies of letters from the
Royal African company to its outposts in Succondee, Commenda and Dixcove, West
Africa, 1716, C 113/261; Gregory E. O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America,
1619-1807 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 100.
Cindy Vallar on "Quest for Blackbeard" by Baylus C. Brooks:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/baylus-c-brooks/quest-for-blackbeard-the-true-story-of-edward-thache-and-his-world/paperback/product-22849873.html
baylusbrooks.com
"While revising our understanding of pirates is one of Brooks’ goals in writing Quest for Blackbeard, he states two others. One pertains to corrupt private colonies and the need for “central government control for any progress to commence once . . . Britain dominated in America.” The second pinpoints an epicenter for the dawning of the Golden Age of Piracy: the July 1715 hurricane that resulted in the catastrophic wreck of eleven of Spain’s treasure ships. The information he puts forth in this narrative masterfully supports these goals."http://www.cindyvallar.com/Brooks.html#quest
http://www.lulu.com/shop/baylus-c-brooks/quest-for-blackbeard-the-true-story-of-edward-thache-and-his-world/paperback/product-22849873.html
baylusbrooks.com