Pirates, Privateers, and Rhode Island Smuggling
 -  The English Navy description of New England may have been Right!

From 1650  until 1700, it could truly be said that piracy was an important industry in Rhode Island.  Pirates fitted out in Rhode Island.  Pirates obtained commissions as "privateer" that allowed them to bring captured ships in and have them legally declared property of the pirates.  Rhode Islanders signed up as pirate crew members.  Rhode Island was a refuge for pirates between voyages.

John Hore is particularly associated with Rhode Island admiralty law.  In 1694, under a privateer's commission issued by English authority in Jamaica, Hore captured a fine French ship.  Hore brought the prize back to Rhode Island.  But there was at that time no Admiralty Court in Rhode Island.  Rhode Island thought it a fine idea to encourage attacks against the French, so Rhode Island, in response to Capt. Hore's petition, established an Admiralty Court.   The new Admiralty Court duly declared the ship and her cargo legally that of Capt. Hore.

Hore renamed his new ship the John and Rebecca, and in 1695 fitted her out as a "privateer" and sailed off to the Red Sea and the East Indies to be a pirate in that area.

Another example was the Pelican, which was brought in as a prize sized from the French.  It was duly condemned and then refitted with 16 guns, some pateraras (which fired stones) and a crew of 100.   Rhode Island Governor Walter Clares issued a customs commission  to have the ship go to Jamaica.   The ship captain, Colly,  appointed the Deputy Collector of Customs, Gardiner, the legal attorney to take care of  business for them. Gardiner admitted that several of the original sailors who wanted to go back to Jamaica refused to sail with Colly because his destination was not Jamaica.  Apparently many persons knew that  Capt Colly and his crew intended  "to cruise on the Moors, not intending to Pirate among the Europeans, but honestly and quietly to rob what Moors fell in their way.  Capt Colly cruised off to Madagascar and proceeded to do the usual rob, pillage and burn of settlements on islands near Madagascar.

The trials of Robert Munday and George Cutler illustrated how the legal system of Rhode Island was used as a refuge for pirates (It was the equivalent of today's "money laundering".)  In 1698, Munday and Cutler were arrested for piracy and having a large sum on money in their possession which they had brought along with various East Indies commodities in their ship Fowy.   They were immediately let out on bail, awaiting a trial.   The rules of the trial were that if no one showed up to claim the cash and goods, the prisoners were acquitted.  On March 28, 1999, Cutler was tried before the Court of General Tryalls at Newport on the charge of piracy.  No one offered any proof against him. Questioned where he had got the money, Cutler said it got it in various places, included being willed some of it by a resident of Madagascar.  The jury acquitted. 

[A few months later, as one of the wealthy persons of the town of Newport,  Cutler joined with Thomas Pine and others in signing a petition for the assignment of an Anglican minister to Newport, thus becoming one of the founder of Trinity Church.]

Usually, if a trial was not expected to clear the person accused of piracy, the prisoners took advantage of a wonderfully negligent succession of sheriffs and jailers.  E.g., William Downs escaped from Jail in April 1698, when the Under Sheriff let him out to "ease himself".  No sheriff or under sheriff was ever tried for any crime or negligence.

A pirate bring seized cargo ashore in Rhode Island was not paying custom taxes to England.  To the English this was smuggling, avoiding payment of taxes.  To the Rhode Islanders, this was simply part of everyday commerce, to pay pirates for goods.

By 1695, English officials were not only criticizing Rhode Island for failing to observe the customs laws, but also for serving as a base for pirates.  That year, the Earl of Bellomont financed an expedition by Captain Kidd against pirates "from New England, Rode Island, New York, and other parts in America".  (But as we know Captain Kidd seemed to find piracy an attractive proposition and turned to it himself.). 

By August of 1697, the English Board of Trade was referring to Rhode Island and Connecticut as "having become a great recepticle for pirates"   By December 1698 the Board recommended to the King the issuance of a writ of quo warranto for removal of the Rhode Island charter.   The commission to investigate the situation to recommend further on the issuance of quo warranto, reported 25 paragraphs of irregularities.  Among these were the issuance by Deputy Governor Green of commissions to persons who thereupon committed piracy in the seas of India and the "coutenancing and harbouring of pirates".  This shocked the Rohde Island government sufficiently that it promised to try to reform.

It may not have been so much the pressure from England that did in fact cause a reformation of the general attitude of Rhode Island.  Rhode Island by 1700 was itself the base for increasing numbers of merchant ships, and these ships were distressingly likely to become pirate prizes.  The Rhode Island attitude and actions gradually became one of intolerance to pirates based outside of Rhode Island (but not of Rhode Island colonists who went out of Rhode Island harbors on apparent pirate missions).

See the fine description of pirates in Rhode Island by Alexander Hawes, Off Soundings: Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island (at the section "Pirates and Piracies")