[40] He belonged in Muscongus, Maine, and had married a daughter of Richard Pearce.

[41] Massachusetts Historical Society Colls. 4th Ser., Vol. II, p. 286.

CHAPTER IV
Thomas Pound, Pilot of the King’s Frigate, who became a Pirate and Died a Gentleman

In front of the South Station in Boston, there is an intersection of wide streets known as “Dewey Square.” It is very firm ground today, but in 1689, the year in which these events took place, this space was tidewater and into it projected Bull’s wharf. On shore, near the head of the wharf, was a tavern with a swinging sign in front displaying on either side a beefy looking animal that was labelled “The Bull.” At about eleven o’clock on the night of Thursday, August 8, 1689, six men and a boy came down to the water’s edge not far from the tavern and went on board a two-masted, half-decked fishing boat, of the type known at that time as a Bermudas boat, and hoisting sails soon disappeared down the harbor in the direction of the Castle. The leader of the party was Thomas Pound, pilot of the frigate “Rose,” which had arrived at the Boston station three years before.

One of the results of the recent insurrection against the authority of Governor Andros had been the seizure of Captain George, of the “Rose,” by the townspeople, who also struck the frigate’s topmasts and brought her sails ashore. On August 3d, Governor Andros had escaped from the Castle, but had been recaptured in Rhode Island two days later and by easy stages was being brought back to Boston at the time when Thomas Pound and his party planned their expedition here described.

VIEW OF CASTLE WILLIAM, BOSTON HARBOR, ABOUT 1729, AND A MAN-OF-WAR OF THE PERIOD
From the only known copy of an engraving probably by John Harris, after a drawing by William Burgis

Thomas Hawkins, who owned the boat, had agreed with Pound to put his men ashore at Nantasket, the consideration being two shillings and six pence, but when the boat reached Long Island, about halfway to the agreed destination, Hawkins was ordered to anchor, and there they remained until early in the morning. Before daylight Pound told Hawkins that he had changed his mind about going to Nantasket and said that his party would like to go fishing. So the anchor was hauled aboard and soon the boat was sailing down the harbor. When near Lovell’s Island, the sounds of men launching a boat were heard and one of Pound’s men at once said, “There they are,” and soon after a small boat with five men in it, came alongside and boarded Hawkins’ boat. These men were armed and Pound and one of his men, Richard Griffin, a gunsmith, also had brought guns. Pound now took command and ordered the fish casks thrown overboard and then directed that an easterly course be made which soon carried the boat into deep water beyond the Brewster Islands at the entrance to the harbor. He told Hawkins that he and his men had agreed to take the first vessel they met and proceed in her to the West Indies, to prey on the French. Hawkins seems to have acquiesced willingly and thereafter to have been the sailing-master while Pound commanded the expedition.

Isaac Prince of Hull, the master of a small deck-sloop, had been out in the Bay after mackerel and with a good catch was about four or five leagues off the Brewsters, bound in, when he was hailed from Thomas Hawkins’ boat bound out. Hawkins brought his boat to the windward of the sloop and asked Captain Prince if he had any mackerel and water to spare and then bought eight penny worth of fish and was given three or four gallons of water. The curiosity of the fishermen was aroused because Hawkins was careful not to bring his boat alongside the sloop but held her by the quarter of the fisherman. The crew on the sloop also noted through the cracks in the deck or covering of the Bermudas boat, some ten or twelve men who seemed to be keeping out of sight, and abaft a man, whose body was out of sight, was seen to peer at the fishermen and then quickly draw back, so Captain Prince asked Hawkins where he was bound, and he replied to Billingsgate,[42] and when asked how he came to be so far to the northward, Hawkins replied “It’s all one to me.” The two vessels then separated, but when the fishermen reached Boston, they went at once to the Governor and reported the suspicious conduct of Hawkins, whom they said “seemed very cheerful and Merry.”[43]

When near Halfway Rock, only two or three hours after parting with the sloop, Hawkins came up with the fishing ketch “Mary,” Helling Chard,[44] master, owned by Philip English, the great Salem merchant who was accused of witchcraft three years later. The ketch was coming in from sea with a full fare of fish when Captain Hawkins hailed and after a show of arms took the vessel. Captain Chard knew Hawkins and also recognized one of his men, “a Limping privateer called Johnson.” When he reached Salem on Monday, August 12th, Chard reported that when Hawkins came on board the ketch on Friday, he pushed him away from the helm and said the ketch was his prize. Later Hawkins told him that as soon as they could take a better vessel and supply themselves with provisions, they intended to go to the West Indies and plague the French, and they expected forty more men who had enlisted to join them shortly. Hawkins’ men were supplied with firearms but had only “two gallons of powder” aboard and so few bullets that as soon as the ketch had been taken they set to work at once melting up all the lead they could find to make bullets. Saturday night Captain Chard and two of his men were set free and sent away in the Bermudas boat and Hawkins and his crew, in the ketch, steered a course to the northeast, taking with them John Darby[45] of Marblehead, who went voluntarily, and forcing a boy who could speak French, intending to use him as an interpreter. When Chard brought the news to Salem, information was sent at once to the Governor and Council and a vessel manned by the Salem and Marblehead militia was ordered out “to seeke after and surprise ye said Ketch,” but it returned to harbor without finding Pound and Hawkins.