William Wright (privateer)

Last updated

William Wright (fl. 1675-1682) was an English privateer in French service and later buccaneer who raided Spanish towns in the late 17th century.

Contents

History

Little is known of William Wright before he settled in French Hispaniola in the mid-1670s. Accepting a French commission of war from the French Governor in 1675 he later raided the Spanish colony of Segovia (present day Nicaragua) with several other privateers. [1]

Sailing to the San Blas Islands in 1679 he recruited several sailors before traveling to the Mosquito Coast encountering an old friend named John Gret. Returning to the San Blas Islands, Gret negotiated on Wright's behalf to form an alliance with the local natives. However, despite this alliance the privateers, led by Jean Bernanos, were defeated after an attempted attack on the Spanish town of Chepo several weeks later. [2]

Soon after the raid Wright left Petit Goâve with Captain Thomas Paine sailing the Spanish Main from Cartagena to Caracas capturing a ship escorted by the Spanish Armada de Barlovento. [3]

In May 1680, while at Isla Blanca, Wright and Paine joined French buccaneer Captain Michel de Grammont later capturing La Guayra seaport in Caracas before being driven off by the Spanish defenders in July. Shortly afterwards he paired with buccaneer Jacob Evertson, antagonizing the Dutch off Curacao. [1]

In May of the following year Wright commanded a small barque of four guns with a crew of forty men. Joined by eight other privateers, in addition to fifty English South Sea buccaneers, Wright sailed from the San Blas Islands intending to raid a Spanish city, most likely the city of Cartago in Costa Rica, however many of the privateers missed the rendezvous at San Andrés Island. [3] Wright continued on capturing a Spanish tartane which he gave to thirty of the English South Seas sailors who had refused to sail under the French privateer whom they had sailed from San Blas Island. [2]

Wright, with French Captains Archembeau and Toccart, sailed to Corn Island and then to Bluefield's River where he left the French privateers. Arriving in Bocas del Toro several weeks later Wright joined with Dutch Captain Yankey Willems, who himself had no commission, and departed with Yanky from Boca del Toro in September sailing south along Colombia where Yanky captured a Spanish merchant ship carrying sugar and tobacco. Wright receiving Yanky's barque, as Yanky kept the merchant ship, burned his own ship and sold the Spanish tartane he had taken near Cartago to one of the Jamaican traders on board. [3] At Curaçao they attempted to sell the Spanish cargo but were forced to leave by the Dutch Governor. They continued to sail to the Isla Aves and Islas Roques where they remained until February 1682. Returning to Islas Roques later in 1682, Wright parted from Willems, where he and his crew divided their loot and dispersed. Wright may have returned to his home in French Hispaniola. [3] William Dampier, who had been sailing as a member of Wrights's and Willems' crew, left with John Cook and others to return to Virginia before returning to buccaneering. [4]

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buccaneer</span> Privateers or free sailors during the 17th and 18th centuries

Buccaneers were a kind of privateers 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 were not strong enough and did not consistently attempt to suppress them.

This timeline of the history of piracy in the 1680s is a chronological list of key events involving pirates between 1680 and 1689.

John Clipperton was an English privateer who fought against the Spanish in the 18th century. He was involved in two buccaneering expeditions to the South Pacific—the first led by William Dampier in 1703, and the second under his own command in 1719. He used Clipperton Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean as a base for his raids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Searle</span>

Robert Searle was one of the earliest and most active of the English buccaneers on Jamaica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel de Grammont</span> French buccaneer

Michel de Grammont was a French privateer. He was born in Paris, Kingdom of France and was lost at sea in the north-east Caribbean, April 1686. His privateer career lasted from around 1670 to 1686 during which he commanded the flagship Hardi. He primarily attacked Spanish holdings in Maracaibo, Gibraltar, Trujillo, La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, Cumana and Veracruz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartholomew Sharp</span> 17th century English buccaneer

Bartholomew Sharp was an English buccaneer and privateer. His career of piracy lasted seven years (1675–1682). In the Caribbean he took several ships, and raided the Gulf of Honduras and Portobelo. He took command of an expedition into the Pacific and spent months raiding settlements on the Pacific Coast of South America including La Serena which he torched in 1680. His flagship, taken at Panama, was the Trinity.

Thomas Paine (1632–1715) was a colonial American privateer who, during the late 17th century, raided several Spanish settlements. He participated in a raid with Jan Willems, looting Rio de la Hacha in 1680 as well as driving the French out of Block Island. In June of the same year, Paine joined forces with Michel de Grammont and a captain named Wright at Blanquilla Island. Together with 50 men they successfully raided the town of Cumana although it was defended by 2,000 Spanish soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurens de Graaf</span> Dutch pirate

Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf was a Dutch pirate, mercenary, and naval officer in the service of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the late 17th and early 18th century.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Davis (buccaneer)</span> English buccaneer

Edward Davis or Davies was an English buccaneer active in the Caribbean during the 1680s and would lead successful raids against Leon and Panama in 1685, the latter considered one of the last major buccaneer raids against a Spanish stronghold. Much of his career was later recorded by writer William Dampier in A New Voyage Round the World (1697).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Wafer</span> Welsh privateer

Lionel Wafer (1640–1705) was a Welsh explorer, buccaneer and privateer.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Mansvelt</span> 17th-century Dutch privateer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre le Picard</span>

Pierre le Picard (1624–1690?) was a 17th-century French buccaneer. He was both an officer to l'Olonnais as well as Sir Henry Morgan, most notably taking part in his raids at Maracaibo and Panama, and may have been one of the first buccaneers to raid shipping on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

Jan Willems, also known as Janke or Yankey Willems, was a 17th-century Dutch buccaneer. Based out of Petit-Goâve, Willems participated in a number of expeditions against the Spanish during the early to mid-1680s with other well-known privateers including Michiel Andrieszoon, Thomas Paine, Laurens de Graaf, Nicholas van Hoorn and Michel de Grammont.

Josiah Raynor (1665–1743) was a pirate active in the Red Sea. Before he was briefly a pirate captain, he was a sailor on the Batchelor’s Delight on which he sailed alongside William Dampier.

Jean Hamlin was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He was often associated with St. Thomas's pirate-friendly Governor Adolph Esmit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Cooke (pirate)</span>

Edmund Cooke was a merchant captain, buccaneer, and pirate. He is best known for sailing against the Spanish alongside Bartholomew Sharp, John Coxon, Basil Ringrose, Lionel Wafer, and other famous buccaneers. Cooke's flag was red-and-yellow striped and featured a hand holding a sword.

John Read was an English buccaneer, privateer, and pirate active from South America to the East Indies to the Indian Ocean.

John Cook was an English buccaneer, privateer, and pirate.

References

  1. 1 2 Laprise, Raynald. "Les flibustiers de l'Amérique (1648-1688)". La Diable Volant. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 Dampier, William (1703). A New Voyage Round the World. London: Printed for James Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul Churchyard. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Marley, David (2010). Pirates of the Americas. Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN   9781598842012 . Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Rogoziński, Jan (1997). The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates. New York: Wordsworth Reference. ISBN   9781853263842 . Retrieved 11 July 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.