FOOTNOTES
[110] American Weekly Mercury, Mar. 14, 1723.
[111] American Weekly Mercury, May 2, 1723.
[112] New England Courant, June 17, 1723.
[113] New England Courant, June 17, 1723 (postscript).
[114] Boston News-Letter, June 27, 1723.
[115] American Weekly Mercury, June 27, 1723.
[116] American Weekly Mercury, Aug. 8, 1723.
[117] This vessel was captured by Captain Lowther who was there about the same time as Captain Low.
[118] American Weekly Mercury, Oct. 4, 1723.
[119] Boston News-Letter, July 18, 1723.
[120] In point of fact the “Greyhound” reached Newport, R. I. early in July and the “Sea Horse” arrived in Boston on July 13th.
[121] Johnson, “History of the Pirates,” London, 1726.
[122] Johnson, “History of the Pirates,” London, 1762.
[123] Boston News-Letter, Oct. 18, 1723.
[124] Boston News-Letter, Oct. 8, 1724.
[125] Boston News-Letter, May 7, 1724.
[126] Boston News-Letter, Mar. 27, 1724.
[127] New England Courant, Apr. 30, 1726.
[128] Boston News-Letter, Oct. 15, 1724.
CHAPTER XIII
The Strange Adventures of Philip Ashton
On Friday, June 15, 1722, a number of the vessels of the fishing fleet hailing from Massachusetts Bay, were at anchor at Port Roseway near what is now Shelburne, Nova Scotia. It was the custom of these God-fearing fishermen, when possible, to come into some harbor not too remote from their fishing grounds and there to spend the Sabbath. On this occasion thirteen schooners and shallops were lying peacefully at anchor when a strange brigantine hove in sight and soon found an anchorage near them. She seemed to be an inward bound vessel from the West Indies and little attention was paid to her at first, even when a boat put off from her side with four men in it. When this boat’s crew reached the side of the nearest fisherman, the men climbed boldly on board and drawing pistols and cutlasses demanded a surrender.
The brigantine turned out to be the “Rebecca,” owned in Boston, but recently captured and then commanded by Capt. Edward Low, the Boston man who had become a pirate and whose bloody excesses were becoming more notorious every day. One by one the fishermen surrendered and were pillaged.[129] On Tuesday, the 19th, Low decided to take for his “privateer,” the new schooner “Mary,” owned by Joseph Dolliber of Marblehead. He fitted her with ten guns, renamed her the “Fancy,” and went aboard with a crew of fifty men, including eight whom he forced from among the fishermen. The forced men were Philip Ashton and Nicholas Merritt, masters; Joseph Libbie, one of Ashton’s crew; Lawrence Fabens, one of the crew of the schooner “Rebeckah,” all of Marblehead, and four other men belonging to Piscataqua and the Isles of Shoals, all nimble young men, about twenty years of age and unmarried. Low shipped the prisoners he designed to send home, on board his late brigantine, the “Rebecca,” of Boston, which he and his consort Lowther had taken May 28th, and gave her to her former master, Capt. James Flucker, with orders to take them to Boston. On their arrival the news was duly published in the Boston News-Letter of July 2d, with the customary advertisement as to the forcing, but in order to make the matter doubly sure, a further advertisement, in more legal form, appeared in the News-Letter, of July 9th, viz:—
“Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England, Essex, ss. Anno Regni Regis Georgij nunc Magna Britaniæ, &c. Octavo.
“The Depositions of Thomas Trefry late Master of the Scooner Mary; Robert Gilford Master of the Shallop Elizabeth; and John Collyer, one of the Crew belonging to the Scooner Samuel, William Nichols Master, all of Marblehead in the County of Essex, Fisher men, Testify and say, That as they were upon their lawfull Imployment nigh Cape Sables, on or about the 14th, 15th and 16th Days of June last past, they were taken Prisoners by Captain Edward Low a Pirate then Commander of the Brigantine [Rebecca] but since removed himself into the before named Scooner Mary, which they took from the Deponent Trefry; and besides these Deponents they took several other Fishing Vessels, viz.: Nicholas Merrit Master of the Shallop Jane, Philip Ashton Master of the Scooner Milton, Joseph Libby one of said Ashton’s Crew, Lawrence Phabens one of the Crew belonging to the Scooner Rebeckah, Thomas Salter Commander, all these four Men, to wit, Nicholas Merrit, Philip Ashton, Joseph Libbey, and Lawrence Phabens, being Young Nimble Men of about Twenty Years of Age, the Pirates kept them by Force and would not let them go tho’ they pleaded as much as they dare to, yet nothing would avail, so as they wept like Children; yet notwithstanding they forceably Carried them away to the great Grief and Sorrow of the aforenamed four Young Men, as well as these Deponents; and when any of these Deponents mentioned any thing in favour of the said four Young Men, the Quarter Master of the Pirate Publickly Declared, They would carry them, and let them send to New England and Publish it if they pleased. The Deponants further say, That the said Pirates constrained four more Fisher men belonging to Piscataqua, and the Isle of Sholes to go with them against their wills also.
“Salem, July the
3d 1722.
Thomas Trefry,
John Collyer,
Robert Gilford.
Essex, ss. Salem, July the 3d, 1722.
“Then Thomas Trefry, John Collyer and Robert Gilford the Three Deponants above named personally Appearing made Oath to the Truth of the foregoing Deposition taken ad Perpetuam rei memoriam.
{Josiah Wolcot Justices of the Peace
“Coram Nobis {Stephen Sewall Quorum Unis
“A True Copy of the Original, and as of Record appears. Examin’d per Stephen Sewall, Regist.”
—Boston News-Letter, July 9, 1722.
Philip Ashton served, unwillingly, with Low in the schooner “Fancy,” in the “Rose Pink,” alias “Frigate,” and again in the “Fancy,” with Low’s late quartermaster, Francis Farrington Spriggs. In the spring of 1723, Low went to the island of Roatan, in the Bay of Honduras, to clean and refit his fleet. Roatan lies in the latitude of 16° 31’ and is about thirty miles long. On March 9, 1723, while there, Ashton went ashore with the cooper and others for water and managed to escape and after five days Low and Spriggs sailed away without him. Ashton remained alone on the island, except for three days, until June, 1724, when he was joined by eighteen Bay men, seeking shelter from the Spaniards, who took him with them to the Island of Barbarat. Ashton then made several hunting trips to the island of Bonaco and in the spring of 1725 was found there by Captain Dove, the master of a Salem brigantine, who came in over the shoals for water. They sailed for Salem on March 31st, and Ashton arrived home May, 1725, having been absent almost three years. The New England Courant announced his return soon after as follows:—
“Boston, May 10. We hear from Salem, that a Vessel arrived there from the Bay [of Honduras] has brought a Man who was taken by Low the Pirate some Years since, and ran away from him when he went ashore at a Maroon Island to take in Water, where he had been above two Years, when some of this Vessel’s Company going on Shore brought him off.”
Shortly after Ashton’s return to Marblehead, Roads, the historian of Marblehead, says the next Sunday, which would have been the day after his return, the Rev. John Barnard, pastor of the First Church, preached a sermon on “God’s Ability to Save His People from All Danger,” using for his text Daniel III, 17.[130]
Philip Ashton[131] and his parents were present and the sermon closed with a personal address to him.
Public interest having been aroused in the local Robinson Crusoe, who, indeed, had gone Alexander Selkirk one better, having landed on an uninhabited island wearing only a frock, trousers and cap, without a shirt or shoes, stockings, knife or other iron instrument, or any means of making a fire, and who had lived there nine months without fire or cooked food, there was naturally a demand for an account of his adventures. This was met by Mr. Barnard, who, on Aug. 3d, 1725, writing from Marblehead, says:—
“The great Reason why this Narrative, which has been so long wished for, has no sooner appeared, is because Mr. Ashton has necessarily been so absent, that I have not been able to get the opportunity of Conferring with him, more than two or three times, about the Remarkable Occurrences he has met with; and having no leisure himself to write, I have taken the Minutes of all from his own Mouth, and after I had put them together, I have improved the first vacant Hour, I could, to Read it over distinctly to him, that he might Correct the Errors, that might arise from my misunderstanding his Report. Thus corrected, he has set his Hand to it as his own History.
“I have added to a short Account of Mr. Nicholas Merritt, (who was taken at the same time with Mr. Ashton), the manner of his Escape from the Pirates, and the hard usage he met with upon it, till his return to his own Country; which I had from his own Mouth, all tending to the same end and purpose.”
The narrative was soon published under the following title:—
“Ashton’s Memorial. / An / History / of the / Strange Adventures, / and / Signal Deliverances, / of / Mr. Philip Ashton, / Who, after he had made his Escape from the Pirates, liv’d alone on a Desolate / Island for about Sixteen Months, &c. / With A Short Account of Mr. Nicholas Merritt, / who was taken at the same time. / To which is added / A Sermon on Dan. 3. 17. / By John Barnard V. D. M. / We should not trust in our selves, but in God; / —who delivered us from so great a Death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver us. / 11. Cor. 9. 10. / Boston, N. E. Printed for Samuel Gerrish, at his Shop in Corn-Hill, 1725.”
An edition was also published in London the next year and reprints in whole or in part have been made at Portland, Me., in 1810; Edinburgh, 1815; Boston, 1850; and Marblehead in 1910.
This interesting recital of the veritable experiences of a New England man on board notorious pirate vessels, together with other adventures that fall to the lot of but few men, is here reprinted as a document of great value in corroborating many of the statements appearing elsewhere in this volume in chapters devoted to the exploits of Low, Lowther and Spriggs.
Ashton’s Memorial.
AN
HISTORY
OF THE
Strange Adventures,
AND
Signal Deliverances,
OF
Mr. Philip Ashton,
Who, after he had made his Escape from the Pirates, liv’d alone on a Desolate Island for about Sixteen Months, &c.
WITH
A short Account of Mr. Nicholas Merritt, who was taken at the same time.
To which is added
A SERMON on Dan. 3. 17.
By John Barnard, V. D. M.
——We should not trust in our selves, but in God; ——who delivered us from so great a Death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver us.
II. Cor. I. 9, 10.
BOSTON, N. E. Printed for Samuel Gerrish, at his Shop in Corn-Hill, 1725.