Thomas Hawkins (died 1690) was a pirate briefly active off

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. He was known for sailing with

Thomas Pound Thomas Pound (also spelled Thomas Pounds and Thomas Ponnd; died 1703) was an English Royal Navy officer who turned pirate and was briefly active in the coastal waters of New England during 1689. Caught and convicted of piracy, his crimes were fo ...

History

Thomas Pound collected a group of sailors in August 1689 and hired Thomas Hawkins to transport them to

Nantasket Nantasket Beach is a beach in the town of Hull, Massachusetts. It is part of the Nantasket Beach Reservation, administered by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The shore has fine, light gray sand and is one of the busiest bea ...

. En route Pound asked Hawkins to divert his fishing vessel to pick up a few more sailors. Once aboard they brandished arms and Pound announced that he intended to take up piracy, ostensibly to sail against the French in the West Indies. Hawkins willingly joined them. They soon captured the

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

''Mary'', transferring to it and releasing their prisoners aboard Hawkins’ smaller ship. A ship crewed by militia members from Salem and Marblehead searched for Hawkins and Pound but missed them. Near

Casco Bay, Maine Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland sits along its south ...

they took aboard soldiers from nearby

Fort Loyal Fort Loyal was a British settler refuge and colonial outpost built in 1678 at Falmouth (present-day Portland, Maine) in Casco Bay. It was destroyed in 1690 by Abenaki and French forces at the Battle of Fort Loyal. The fort was rebuilt in 1742 and r ...

, who deserted to join the pirates. They stole arms and a cannon when they slipped out in the night. Off

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

they captured the

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

''Good Speed'', again transferring to the larger ship and releasing their prisoners. Again a militia sloop was sent to search for them, again without success. Hawkins and Pound looted the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

''Merrimack'' near

Martha’s Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the sm ...

before a storm forced the ''Good Speed'' as far south as Virginia. Sailing back to Tarpaulin Cove, Hawkins went ashore and fled the pirates. In a letter he wrote, “by God thay kant hang me for what has bin don for no blood has bin shed.” He tried to secure passage back to Boston aboard a whaling ship but was recognized; the ship’s captain, James Loper, agreed to take Hawkins but instead turned him in to the authorities immediately after arriving in Boston. Pound meanwhile looted several more ships before he was attacked by Captain Samuel Pease aboard the ''Mary'' (the same ketch Pound and Hawkins had captured and released) in early October 1689. Pease’s men exchanged small arms fire with Pound and his pirates for a time until Pound was hit and badly wounded and most of his crew were injured or killed. Pease himself was hit and later died, the only casualty of Pound and Hawkins’ piracy. Hawkins and Pound were tried together in January 1690; both were found guilty and sentenced to hang. Fellow pirate

William Coward William Coward (1657?–1725) was an English physician, controversial writer, and poet. He is now remembered for his sceptical writings on the soul, which Parliament condemned as blasphemous and ordered to be burned in his presence. Life He wa ...

was tried at the same time, though his crimes were unrelated. The presiding judge was

Samuel Sewall Samuel Sewall (; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling ...

, later famed for presiding over the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...

; in jail Hawkins was imprisoned alongside “Mary Glover the Irish Catholic witch,” and

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...

prayed with the condemned. Hawkins had influential friends and relatives who arranged a reprieve for him, and there was evidence that Pound may have forced Hawkins to remain with them. They were both sent back to England aboard the frigate ''HMS Rose''. On the way they were attacked by a French

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

. Hawkins and Pound fought bravely to defend the ''Rose'' against the French. Hawkins was killed during the battle, while Pound survived and was pardoned for his piracies, eventually rising to command a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

ship of his own.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Thomas 17th-century pirates Year of birth missing People of colonial Massachusetts English pirates 1690 deaths

History

See also

References