John Graham (pirate)

John Graham (fl. 1683-1686, last name also Grayham) was an English pirate active off New England and the African coast.

John Graham
NationalityEnglish
OccupationPirate
Years active1683-1686
Piratical career
Base of operationsNew England and the African coast

History

A merchant captain operating out of Port Royal, Jamaica in June 1683 reported being captured by Graham, and traveled to Boston to deliver a deposition against him.[1] Jamaican Governor Thomas Lynch wrote a year later that Graham was not from Jamaica but was “chief pirate” among the locals.[2]

“Doctor John Graham” was recorded as a ship’s doctor aboard a vessel which left Jamaica in 1684 on a trading and privateering mission. Graham led a mutiny, marooning the previous commander and turning the ship to piracy.[3] A captured sailor reported, “Thence they sailed for Virginia and New England, thence to the Guinea Coast (Gambia), and back to Carolina, where she was wrecked.”[4] They had taken several ships off Sierra Leone,[5] possibly under a different captain,[4] possibly under Graham.[3]

After arriving back off the American coast, Graham was captured and jailed in Nantucket.[6] He escaped with the help of some Cape Cod locals.[7] Connecticut and Rhode Island officials put out alerts and warned officers to be ready to arrest him.[8]

Later in 1685 merchant Captain John Prentice put into New London, Connecticut, where a sloop under Captain Veale anchored by his ship. Onshore he observed Veale and his cargo master trying to buy cannons.[9] Another merchant captain recognized Veale as a pirate who’d attacked him off Virginia and alerted the authorities, causing Veale to sail away.[10] Prentice set sail a few days later, noticing Veale’s sloop alongside a 14-man shallop,[11] which he saw was commanded by Graham.[11] They pursued Prentice, exchanging cannon fire until Prentice was able to escape under cover of a thunderstorm. He sailed to Boston, where Graham’s reputation preceded him, and informed officials that Graham and Veale were nearby.[12] Boston authorities sent out a privateer barque under Samson Waters to arrest them,[13] but the pirates had made a getaway toward Cape Ann.[11]

In 1686 Graham and Veale were still sailing in concert, cruising off New England. Samson Waters was again commissioned by Massacuhsetts to hunt them down, again unsuccessfully.[6]

See also
  • Thomas Pound, another pirate out of Boston who was active around New England just a few years after Graham and Veale.

References
  1. "acadianroots: Abraham Boudreau". acadianroots. 6 March 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  2. Fortescue, J.W. (1898). America and West Indies: June 1684 | British History Online. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 645–664. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  3. Cordingly, David (2013). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. New York: Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307763075. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  4. Fortescue, J.W. (1899). America and West Indies: June 1685 | British History Online. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 47–61. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  5. Kup, Alexander Peter (1961). A History of Sierra Leone, 1400-1787. London: CUP Archive. p. 53. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  6. Radune, Richard A. (2005). Pequot Plantation: The Story of an Early Colonial Settlement. Branford CT: Research in Time Publications. pp. 245–247. ISBN 9780976434108. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  7. Smith-Johnson, Robin (2016). Legends & Lore of Cape Cod. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625856753. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  8. Trumbull, J. Hammond (1859). The public records of the colony of Connecticut [1636-1776] ...: transcribed and published, (in accordance with a resolution of the general assembly) ... Hartford CT: Brown & Parsons. pp. 154–155. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  9. "Pirates Slip into Massachusetts Bay". Footnotes Since the Wilderness. 7 July 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  10. Little, Benerson (2007). The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674-1688. Dulles VA: Potomac Books, Inc. ISBN 9781612343617. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  11. Marley, David (2010). Pirates of the Americas. Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 154, 392–393. ISBN 9781598842012. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  12. Dow, George Francis; Edmonds, John Henry (2012). The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730. New York: Courier Corporation. pp. 27–29. ISBN 9780486138145. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  13. Savage, James; Farmer, John; Dexter, Orrando Perry (1862). A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (S-Z ed.). Boston: Little, Brown. p. 345. Retrieved 24 August 2017.


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