Owen Fitzpen (also known as Owen Phippen) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
merchant taken captive by
Barbary pirates and sold into slavery. He later mounted a heroic escape and is memorialised on a plaque placed in St. Mary's Church at
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
,
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Childhood
Owen Fitzpen was born at
Weymouth or
Melcombe Regis
Melcombe Regis is an area of Weymouth in Dorset, England.
Situated on the north shore of Weymouth Harbour and originally part of the waste of Radipole, it seems only to have developed as a significant settlement and seaport in the 13th centu ...
,
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
, in 1582, during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
. He was the son of Robert Fitzpen (1555–1589) and Cecily Jordon (born 1559). With the English victory over the
Spanish Armada in 1588, England became the major naval power in the world and, as a result, her merchant trade thrived.
With the death of his father when Owen was 7 years old, it was natural that he, the eldest son and second child of the family, would take to the newly found opportunities in seafaring and merchant trade and he attained a high degree of success in the business. His sister Cecily, only two years his senior, worked with the mother to hold the family together, by then consisting of his brothers Robert, age 6, David, age 4 and George, age 2.
Career at sea
While it is not known at what age Fitzpen became an apprentice seaman, it is known that he left home not many years after his father's death and worked his way up quickly in the business. He was married to Annie Coinie on 3 July 1603 in a wedding ceremony said to be lavish for his time and reflective of the status of a young merchant seaman.
His family benefited from his wealth, George becoming first Master of the
Truro Grammar School (1621–1635) and then a
Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
at St. Mary's Church in the same town, where he served for the next 26 years. David went to America and settled at
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham ( ) is a town in metropolitan Greater Boston on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, t ...
, where he became an ancestor of several veterans of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
through which the
Daughters of the American Revolution trace their ancestry.
Capture
The most famous chapter in Owen's life, however, began when he was taken captive by Turkish pirates on 24 March 1620, while on a trading voyage in the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
. More than likely, these were Barbary pirates, as historical accounts of the time considered any of the Muslims in the Mediterranean region to be Turks.
For seven years, Owen and a number of other Christian captives served as slaves to the Turks near present-day
Algiers. Their chance for freedom finally came when Owen and 10 other Christian captives (Dutch and French) were herded aboard a corsair with 65 Turks to set sail for their next assignment. Owen and the 10 other captives fought against the Turks for three hours and suffered five of their number slain before the surviving Turks surrendered the ship. Owen and his crew sailed the ship to
Cartagena,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, where news of the mutiny reached the King.
Owen was summoned to
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
where the king offered him a captain's position and great favor if he would convert to Catholicism. Owen respectfully declined, sold the ship for 6,000
pounds sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...
and made his way back to England, where he settled near his brother George in Cornwall. Owen died at the village of
Lamorran on 17 March 1636 at age 54. George had the memorial put in
St. Mary's Church shortly thereafter.
Plaque inscription
The plaque reads as follows (original errors in spelling included):
"The old record says Owen Phippen who most Valiantly freed himself from the Turks - This relates to his rescuing himself and companions after seven years bondage on board an Algerine Corsair, the history of which exploit is engraved upon a monument or tablet erected in his memory by his brother George, in St. Mary's church whiled he was settle over it. This church is a handsome Gothic structure built during the reign of Henry VIII on the north side of the chancel of which is a monumental inscription.
"Glory to God in the Highest). . .to the pious and well - deserved memory of Owen Fitzpen alias Phippen, who travelled over many parts of the world and on 24 mar, 1620 was taken by the Turkes and made Captive in Algier. He projected Sundy plots for his libertie and on 17 June 1627 with 10 other Christian captives, Dutch and French (persivaded by his counsel and courage) he began a cruel fight with sixty-five Turkes in their own ship - which lasted three howers in which five of his company were slain yet God made him conquer and so he brought the ship in Cartagene being of 400 tons and 22 ord. The king sent for his to Madrid to see him - was offered a captaines place and a Kings favor if he would turn Papists, which he refused. He sold all for 6000 L returned to England, and died at Lamorran 17 Mar 1636. Melcomb in Dorset was his place of birth. Age 54 and here lies Earth in Earth."
A copy of the inscription can be seen in Lysons' ''Magna Britannia'', Vol. III, Cornwall, p. 312; in
Hitchins' ''Cornwall'', Vol. II, p. 648, and in Orchard's ''Epitaphs''.
Legacy
It is not known when the family name was changed from the old English form Fitzpen to Phippen, but it is generally believed this was done by his brother David to coincide with the move of his family to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. A number of David's descendants fought in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
Owen and his wife, Annie, had at least three children born in Ireland before Owen's capture, one son of whom changed the spelling of the family name to
Thigpen, yet a third variation. His grandson, James Thigpen, would be the first of his direct descendants to settle in America, this time to
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
. Thigpen's descendants would include two famous athletes, former
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
player
Yancey Thigpen
Yancey Dirk Thigpen (born August 15, 1969) is a former professional American football wide receiver who played for the San Diego Chargers (1991), the Pittsburgh Steelers (1992–1997), and the Tennessee Oilers/Titans (1998–2000). Before hi ...
(through slaveholders of the same name) and former
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
pitcher
Bobby Thigpen
Robert Thomas "Bobby" Thigpen (born July 17, 1963) is a former relief pitcher in Major League Baseball. He is noted for setting the major league record of 57 saves during the season, which has since been broken by former Los Angeles Angels of An ...
.
Owen is also a first cousin (many times removed) of three U.S. presidents through his paternal grandfather:
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
,
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
and
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
.
See also
*
List of slaves
Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people.
The following is a ...
References
External links
Descendants of the Jordans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzpen, Owen
1582 births
1636 deaths
People from Weymouth, Dorset
People from Lamorran and Merther
17th-century English merchants
Burials in Cornwall
Slaves in the Ottoman Empire
17th-century slaves
Slaves from the Kingdom of England
Slavery in Algeria
17th-century memoirists