Edward England-Famous Pirate
Captain England has its own chapter in The General History of the Robbery and Murder of the Most Notorious Pirates, compiled in the 1720s. It is written that the book belongs to Captain Charles Johnson, but this is perhaps a pseudonym of Daniel Defoe. (Scientists are still debating whether Charles Johnson, though a wholly unknown pirate expert, may have been a real person.) As with many other pirates, though there are fictional additions to factual information laboriously gathered from sources such as General History, court records, official documents, and letters of the period. It is also an invaluable resource on England's career.
Edward England's real name was probably Jasper Seager (or Seegar). Like many pirates of the period, England had to join a pirate crew after the ship he served was seized. England was an officer in a Jamaican sloop when he was picked up by Christopher Winter in the pirate haven of New Providence in the Bahamas.
After the successful attacks of Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas since 1717, against pirates in his bunkers in New Providence (now Nassau), England crossed the Atlantic to pursue his piracy elsewhere. Several merchant ships were captured off the coast of the Azores, Cape Verde Islands and West Africa.
In 1718, England forced Howell Davis of Welsh, chief aide on a slave ship, to become a pirate, a dishonest man when he captured Bristol Cadogan. Cadogan's captain was killed, and Davis was given command of the slaver, despite England's refusal to formally sign his ship's clauses and become part of the pirate crew. Impressed by Davis' courage, England allowed him to set sail. Davis was captured in Barbados. Davis managed to escape from prison and went on a spree that ended with his death on Principe Island in 1719, continuing his career as a piracy on both sides of the Atlantic.
Edward England was known to fly a now-classic version of the Jolly Roger pirate flag with a white human skull on a black background above the crossbones. Hoisted before an attack to encourage immediate surrender, England would often fly other flags simultaneously, such as the red flag (to indicate no pity) and the Union Jack (Flag of the United Kingdom).
In early 1719 England seized the sloop called the Pearl and repaired it again to make it faster and more maneuverable, thus abandoning his own sloop, seizing it after capture, in the typical pirate process of continually increasing ship size. The ship's superstructures were destroyed and renamed Royal James. In 1719 the Royal James was used to good effect, taking at least 12 awards off the coast of West Africa, including the 12 gun Bentworth of Bristol. All of these awards are cataloged by Johnson/Defoe by name, crew power and firepower.
In 1720, England was on the rise again after capturing a ship off Madagascar and therefore abandoned the Royal James. He named this new ship the Fancy, and although smaller than the least armed navy ships of the era, it had 34 guns, which is impressive for a pirate ship. England's crew of about 180 were reportedly made up of Europeans, Native Americans, and black Africans, with Africans being captured on ships or slaves escaping their extremely difficult lives on a colonial plantation.
In July-August 1720, Fancy and Victory (still commanded by Taylor) were severely tested in an encounter with a British East India Company ship Cassandra near Johanna Island (now Anjouan in the Comoros group) in the Indian Ocean. The latter was alongside two other merchant ships, but these left Cassandra's captain, James McRae, to face both Fancy and Victory with the combined firepower of 64 guns.
Captain England had won the prize despite causing significant damage to two of his ships and losing more than 90 men.
While some pirate captains were dismissed for being too harsh with the captives and their own crews, Edward England was dismissed by his men for being a little too soft on the prisoners. After England was thought to have let McRae escape, the pirate captain's men decided that this was the last straw, and they voted, along with three other men, to leave him behind on Mauritius.
As with any exile, England was given a pistol, some powder and just a barrel of water so that he could shoot himself when things got really tough. But Mauritius was not (and still isn't) an uninhabited island, and enterprising England managed to find food, buy and build a small boat or raft, and go to the pirate paradise in Madagascar. England's ultimate fate is uncertain, but she died in the poverty and obscurity that was the fate of many pirates from 1720 onwards, as the Royal Navy significantly increased its presence in the region and the seas were made safer for merchant shipping.
