John Massey (pirate)
John Massey | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1695 or earlier |
| Died | 26 July 1723 |
| Piratical career | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom, Royal African Company |
| Rank | Captain Lieutenant Engineer |
| Base of operations | Gambia |
| Commands | Bumper / Gambia Castle / Delivery |
John Massey (d. 1723) was a Royal African Company military officer. He is best known for leaving his post in Gambia along with his soldiers to sail with pirate George Lowther.
History
Earlier in his life Massey had served at the 1708 Siege of Lille during the War of Spanish Succession, and at several other land battles.[1]
Sent to garrison the RAC fort at Gambia, Massey found the post almost devoid of supplies. Merchants and victuallers charged with arranging food and water for the troops there had been pocketing the allocated funds - “making it their chief study to enrich themselves in a small time by bringing their scant money to a head without having any regard to ye Company’s interest”[2] - and sending little or no supplies to the fort, and its sickly Governor was unable to help.[3]
George Lowther, second mate of the supply ship Gambia Castle[a], took over the ship and invited Massey and his troops to join them. Faced with a life of sickness and starvation, Massey and his men agreed. Departing Gambia in June 1721, Massey initially wanted only to return to England, but Lowther convinced him to engage in piracy, upon which the crew “took oaths and entered into Articles in Writing for that purpose and prepared black Colours.”[2][b] They soon captured a brigantine from Boston, taking its supplies but leaving a few RAC goods in trade, then a French sloop, then other vessels off St. Croix and Hispaniola.[2]
Massey offered to guide his troops in raiding French settlements in the Caribbean but Lowther refused, preferring to stick to piracy at sea.[3] Increasingly dissatisfied with their arrangement, Massey and some of his troops boarded a captured schooner and left Lowther. Massey asked Governor Nicholas Lawes of Jamaica for a pardon, who directed him to London. When he arrived he penned a confession, explaining his reasons for leaving Gambia, and waited impatiently for his arrest.[2] Imprisoned at Newgate, he was tried on July 5, 1723 and found guilty of piracy despite being described as “said to be in some Measure disturb'd in his Head.”[1] Massey was hanged shortly afterwards, denied the execution by firing squad he had requested.[6]
But this was surely a rash Action, for I never design'd or intended to turn Pirate, and I am very sorry for it, and I wish it was in my Power to make Amends to the Honourable African Company for what they have lost by my Means. ... John Massey.[1]
See also
- Philip Roche - tried for piracy at the same time as Massey
Notes
- ^ The ship was renamed twice, leading to confusion in the records. It began as Bumper, which Massey called it; the RAC renamed it Gambia Castle, causing crewman Alexander Thompson to call it “Gamboa Castle;” and Lowther renamed it Delivery.[4]
- ^ Lowther's Articles are recorded in Charles Johnson's only partially reliable General History of the Pyrates but not attested elsewhere; these may have been the Articles of Lowther's offshoot Edward Low instead.[5]
References
- ^ a b c A select and impartial account of the lives, behaviour, and dying words, of the most remarkable convicts, from the year 1700, down to the present time: containing among other things the following. London: Printed by J. Applebee for J. Hodges ... and sold also by C. Corbett. 1 January 1760. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
- ^ a b c d Fox, E. T. (2014). Pirates in Their Own Words. Raleigh NC: Lulu.com. ISBN 9781291943993. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
- ^ a b Rogoziński, Jan (1997). The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates. New York: Wordsworth Reference. ISBN 9781853263842. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
- ^ Chapman, Craig S. (28 April 2025). The Resurrected Pirate: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Career of the Notorious George Lowther. Schiffer Publishing, Limited. ISBN 978-0-7643-6907-0. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
- ^ Fox, Edward Theophilus (2013). 'Piratical Schemes and Contracts': Pirate Articles and Their Society 1660-1730. Exeter UK: University of Exeter. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
- ^ Gibbs, Joseph (1 August 2016). "John Massey, George Lowther, and the taking of the Gambia Castle, 1721". International Journal of Maritime History. 28 (3): 461–479. doi:10.1177/0843871416647228. ISSN 0843-8714. Retrieved 5 June 2025.