James Browne | |
---|---|
Died | 1677 Jamaica |
Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
Nationality | Scottish |
Occupation | Pirate |
Known for | His hasty execution and its effect on colonial Jamaican government |
Piratical career | |
Base of operations | Caribbean |
James Browne (died 1677) was a Scottish pirate and privateer active in the Caribbean. He is best known for his hasty execution and its effect on colonial Jamaican government.
Jamaican officials had been working to curb rampant privateering in the region since the tenure of Lieutenant Governor (and former buccaneer) Henry Morgan. To the dismay of English lords eager to find allies in Europe, privateers would regularly abuse their legal commissions to attack shipping of all nations. [1]
Using a privateering commission from Governor D’Ogeron of French Tortuga, [2] Browne sailed from Jamaica in October 1676 with a multi-national crew. [3] Early in 1677 he captured the Dutch West Indies Company slaving ship Golden Sun off Cartagena, killing several of its officers and crew. [4] That May he reappeared in Jamaica trying to sell slaves to local plantations. Governor Vaughn dispatched a frigate to collect most of the slaves from the planters who had purchased them illicitly. He then wrote to the Governor of Dutch Curacao to warn him of Browne's piracy. [3]
The Jamaican Assembly had passed an act in April 1677 forbidding English subjects from serving foreign governments, and shortly after passed a similar act pardoning all privateers who surrendered within a year. [5] Browne and his crew turned themselves in soon afterwards. Upon inspection, his privateering commission from Tortuga was found to be expired: Governor D’Ogeron had been dead for over a year. They were tried and convicted for piracy. The crew were pardoned but Browne was sentenced to be hanged in July. [3] Browne twice petitioned the Jamaica Assembly for a reprieve so that he could be set free under the terms of the "Act of Privateers". The Assembly tried to intervene for him but Vaughn ordered Brown executed immediately. [1] He argued that setting Browne free would set a bad precedent ("hindering the sentence of execution will be of evil example and bad consequence"); the Assembly countered that “if this execution take place all our privateers which are out may think this Act a snare and possibly make those already in go out again.” [6] The Assembly's Chief Justice Samuel Long and Speaker (and future governor) William Beeston ordered Browne's execution delayed, but Browne had been hanged only minutes earlier: “Half-an-hour after, the Marshal came with an order signed by the Speaker to observe the Chief Justice's writ of habeas corpus.” [6]
Vaughn was incensed with Long and Beeston and dissolved the Jamaican Assembly. He charged both with a series of insubordinations over the Browne privateering affair and sent them back to England to answer for their crimes. [6] English officials not only supported Long and Beeston instead of Vaughn, but removed him from power and installed the Earl of Carlisle as governor in his place. [7]
After going through three governors in two years, it took until mid-1679 for Jamaica to repay the Dutch West India Company for the loss of slaves to Browne's piracy, and then only when the Lords of Trade and Plantations forced Carlisle to do so. [6] The following year (1680) Carlisle levied the same charges against Justice Long that Vaughn had, still holding him accountable for the "disorderly" manner in which he had handled Browne's trial. [6]
Buccaneers were a kind of privateer or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688, during a time when governments in the Caribbean area were not strong enough to suppress them.
Sir Henry Morgan was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he and those under his command raided settlements and shipping ports on the Spanish Main, becoming wealthy as they did so. With the prize money and loot from the raids, Morgan purchased three large sugar plantations on Jamaica.
Tortuga Island is a Caribbean island that forms part of Haiti, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola. It constitutes the commune of Île de la Tortue in the Port-de-Paix arrondissement of the Nord-Ouest department of Haiti.
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
John Morris was an English buccaneer active in the Caribbean during the 1660s and early-1670s. His son, John Morris the Younger, held a command of his own ship during his father's later expeditions against Portobelo and Maracaibo. John Morris the Younger was one of the commanders killed in an explosion during a party on board Henry Morgan's flagship in 1670.
"Red Legs" Greaves was allegedly a Scottish buccaneer active in the Caribbean and the West Indies during the 1670s. His nickname came from the term Redlegs used to refer to the class of poor whites who lived on colonial Barbados.
Captain John Coxon, sometimes referred to as John Coxen, was a late-seventeenth-century buccaneer who terrorized the Spanish Main. Coxon was one of the most famous of the Brethren of the Coast, a loose consortium of pirates and privateers. Coxon lived during the Buccaneering Age of Piracy.
Edward Mansvelt or Mansfield was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and buccaneer who, at one time, was acknowledged as an informal chieftain of the "Brethren of the Coast". He was the first to organise large scale raids against Spanish settlements, tactics which would be utilised to attack Spanish strongholds by later buccaneers in future years, and held considerable influence in Tortuga and Port Royal. He was widely considered one of the finest buccaneers of his day and, following his death, his position was assumed by his protégé and vice-admiral, Henry Morgan.
The Capture of Fort Rocher took place on 9 February 1654, during the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659). Equipped with one siege battery, a Spanish expedition of 700 troops attacked the buccaneer stronghold of Tortuga, capturing the Fort de Rocher and 500 prisoners including 330 buccaneers and goods valued at approximately 160,000 pieces-of-eight. The Spanish burned the colony to the ground and slaughtered its inhabitants, leaving behind a fort manned by 150 soldiers. They possessed the island for about eighteen months, but on the approach of the expedition under Penn and Venables were ordered by the Conde de Peñalva, Governor of Santo Domingo, to demolish the fortifications, bury the artillery and other arms, and retire to his aid in Hispaniola.
Sir William Beeston was an English political and legal figure, lieutenant-governor of Jamaica.
Jelles de Lecat was a Dutch pirate and buccaneer who sailed for and against both the English and Spanish. He served with Henry Morgan and was often called "Yellahs," "Yallahs," or “Captain Yellows.”
Jacob Evertson was a Dutch buccaneer and pirate active in the Caribbean. He escaped Henry Morgan and sailed with Jan Willems for several years.
Philip Fitzgerald was an Irish pirate and privateer who served the Spanish in the Caribbean.
Jonathan Barnet was an English privateer in the Caribbean, best known for capturing pirates Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read. The Assembly of the Colony of Jamaica gave him a financial reward, and a large estate in the parish of St James worked by African slaves.
Francis Witherborn was an English buccaneer, privateer, and pirate active in the Caribbean. He is best known for his brief association with Henry Morgan.
George Spurre was an English pirate and buccaneer. He is best known for sacking Campeche and for joining a large buccaneer force which captured Veracruz.
Edward Neville was an English buccaneer and pirate. He is best known for joining George Spurre to raid Spanish Campeche.
Peter Johnson was a Dutch pirate active in the Caribbean. He is best known for the circumstances surrounding his trial.
The Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates was a royal proclamation issued by George I of Great Britain on 5 September 1717. It promised a pardon for acts of piracy committed before the following 5 January to those pirates who surrendered themselves to the correct authority before a deadline. Originally, the surrender had to occur on or before 5 September 1718; this was later extended by a second proclamation to 1 July 1719.
Acts of grace, in the context of piracy, were state proclamations offering pardons for acts of piracy. General pardons for piracy were offered on numerous occasions and by multiple states, for instance by the Kingdom of England and its successor, the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the 17th and 18th centuries.