Walter Kennedy ( – 21 July 1721) was an English pirate who served as a crew member under

Howell Davis Howell Davis (ca. 1690 – 19 June 1719), also known as Hywel and/or Davies, was a Welsh pirate. His piratical career lasted just 11 months, from 11 July 1718 to 19 June 1719, when he was ambushed and killed. His ships were the ''Cadogan'', ' ...

and

Bartholomew Roberts ) , type=Pirate , birth_place = Casnewydd Bach, near Puncheston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Kingdom of England , death_place = At sea off of Cape Lopez, Gabon , allegiance= , serviceyears=1719–1722 , base of operations= Off the coast of the Americas ...

Early life

Walter Kennedy was born in 1695 at a place called Pelican Stairs in

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

, London.Hayward, Arthur L., ''Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals'' Possibly one or both of his parents were of Irish descent due to the fact that Bartholomew Roberts considered him to be Irish. Born to a poor family, Kennedy was illiterate and was known to have a bad temper. He was a burglar and pickpocket in London. Later he became an apprentice to his father, who was an anchor smith; he carried out house-breaking in his spare time. His apprenticeship however, came to an end with the death of his father, and he decided to go to sea. He served in the

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 ...

during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

, where he heard tales of pirates from

Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming wea ...

Henry Every Henry Every, also known as Henry Avery (20 August 1659after 1696), sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid-1690s. He probably used several aliases ...

, and dreamed of becoming a pirate himself. He was a crew member on the

sloop-of-war In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

''Buck'', part of the fleet that

Woodes Rogers Woodes Rogers ( 1679 – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain, privateer, Atlantic slave trade, slave trader and, from 1718, the first List of colonial heads of the Bahamas, Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of ...

took to the

Republic of Pirates The Republic of Pirates was the base and stronghold of a loose confederacy run by privateers-turned-pirates in Nassau on New Providence island in the Bahamas during the Golden Age of Piracy for about eleven years from 1706 until 1718. While it ...

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

in 1718 to suppress piracy there. Woodes sent the ''Buck'' to

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

with a letter for the Spanish governor assuring that official that he was not a pirate, but was in Nassau to suppress piracy. Some recently pardoned pirates were added to the crew of the ''Buck'', and before it reached Havana they, along with some of the original crew, including Kennedy, mutinied, killing the captain, Jonathan Bass, and other crew members who did not join the mutiny.

, another mutineer, was elected captain. Kennedy was with Davis on the island of Principe when his party was ambushed by the Portuguese. He was the only member of the shore party to escape back to the ship alive. With Davis dead,

was elected as his successor. Roberts and forty of the crew chased a possible prize in a captured sloop off the coast of Surinam. Walter_Kennedy_Pirate_Flag

Captaincy

Kennedy was left in charge of Roberts' ship, the ''Royal Rover'', and a large part of its crew. He took advantage of this to abandon Roberts and proclaim himself captain. Under his leadership, the crew decided to give up piracy and to set sail for Ireland. However, Kennedy had no knowledge of navigation. When the crew found out, they threatened to throw him overboard, but did not carry the threat out since Kennedy was a man of great personal courage. Though his original destination was Ireland, Kennedy's poor navigation skills led them to land on the north-west coast of Scotland instead. The crew passed themselves off as shipwrecked mariners, but owing to their drinking and rioting in each village they came to, the whole countryside was soon roused.Gosse, Philip, ''The Pirates' Who's Who: Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers'' Seventeen of the crew were arrested near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and put on trial for piracy; nine of them were hanged. Kennedy slipped away and reached Ireland. Having soon spent all his ill-gotten gains in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, he came to

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

where he is said to have kept a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

. When one of his prostitutes accused him of theft, he was sent to

Bridewell Prison Bridewell Palace in London was built as a residence of King Henry VIII and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. Given to the City of London Corporation by his son King Edward VI for use as an orphanage and place of correc ...

, where he was denounced as a pirate by the mate of a ship he had taken. Kennedy was transferred to the

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, in ...

prison and put on trial for piracy. He was hanged at Execution Dock on 21 July 1721.

Notes

References

*Cordingly, David. (1995) ''Life Among the Pirates'' Abacus. *Woodard, Colin. (2007) ''The Republic of Pirates.'' Harcourt. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Walter 1690s births 1721 deaths 17th-century English people 18th-century English people 17th-century Irish people 18th-century Irish people People executed by the Kingdom of Great Britain 18th-century pirates 18th-century Royal Navy personnel British burglars British military personnel of the War of the Spanish Succession British mutineers English brothel owners and madams English people of Irish descent British pirates Executed Irish people Irish people executed abroad Irish pirates People executed by England and Wales by hanging People executed for piracy People from Wapping Pickpockets Inmates of the Marshalsea