John Nutt (before 1600 – after 1632) was an English pirate. He was one of the more notorious

brigands Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.Oxford English Dictionary second edition, 1989. "Brigand.2" first recorded usa ...

of his time, raiding the coast of southern Canada and western England for over three years before his capture by Sir John Eliot in 1623. His arrest and conviction caused a scandal in the English court, after Nutt paid Eliot £500 in exchange for a

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...

, and was eventually released by Secretary of State George Calvert.

Biography

Born in Lympstone, near Exmouth in Devon, England, John Nutt arrived in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

as a gunner on a

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

ship around 1620. He decided to settle in the area permanently and moved his family to live in Torbay, Newfoundland and Labrador. He soon organized a small crew with whom he seized a small French fishing boat as well as two other French ships (another account claims the ships were English and Flemish) during the summer of 1621 before returning to the western coast of England. He continued using unemployed sailors, particularly those conscripted to press gangs, and actually lured away a significant number from the Royal Navy paying regular wages and commissions. He also offered his services to protect French and English settlements including the Colony of Avalon then under the leadership of George Calvert. He continued raiding shipping both in the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

and the Irish Sea for over three years, often avoiding attempts to apprehend him, before he requested a royal pardon from John Eliot, the Vice Admiral of Devon. Eliot agreed in exchange for a £500 bond, however he was arrested by Eliot and imprisoned once back in England. Tried and convicted for piracy, Nutt was about to be hanged when George Calvert, then Secretary of State, intervened on his behalf having been a friend and associate of his while Nutt and his family were living in the

Avalon Colony The Province of Avalon was the area around the English settlement of Ferryland in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in the 17th century, which upon the success of the colony grew to include the land held by Sir William Vaughan and a ...

. Nutt was given his pardon and also granted £100 in compensation while Eliot, for his betrayal, was charged with

malfeasance in office Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a just cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election. Malfeasance in office contrasts with "misfeasance in office", which is the commission of a ''lawful'' act, done in an officia ...

and imprisoned.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Biography

References

External links

Further reading