When Quelch planned his descent on Portuguese shipping he may not have known of the treaty of amity and alliance between Great Britain and Portugal that was signed in Lisbon on May 16, 1703, and which contained the following section:—
“XVIII. Piratical ships, of whatever nation, shall not only not be permitted or received into the ports which their Portugueze and Brittanic Majesties, and the States General of the United Provinces, possess in the East Indies, but shall be deemed the common enemies of the Portugueze, the English and the Dutch.”
However that may be, Quelch was well aware that few gold mines existed in the dominions of the French King, with whom England was at war, and that the loot of French ships promised less valuable spoil than might be found in the South Atlantic. His avarice led to his undoing.
Not long after the “Charles” came to anchor in Marblehead harbor, on her return from pillaging Portuguese shipping, the crew began to disappear. Some of them went to Salem and from there found their way to Cape Ann, while others went to Rhode Island. The sudden departure of the vessel less than a year before was recalled and the fishing village became very skeptical of the story told by Captain Quelch of the recovery of great treasure from a wreck in the West Indies. The Boston News-Letter, the first newspaper published in the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, had begun publication only a short time before and the fifth number issued announced the arrival of the “Charles” in the following words:—
“Arrived at Marblehead, Capt. Quelch in the Brigantine that Capt. Plowman went out in, are said to come from New-Spain & have made a good Voyage.”—Boston News-Letter, May 15-22, 1704.
The owners of the vessel having previously learned nothing of the fortunes of their privateering venture became suspicious. Not long after her sudden departure they had concluded that she was bound for the West Indies and had written to various West India ports in the hope of obtaining some trace of the missing vessel and recovering their property, but without success. Colman and Clarke now filed a written “information” with the Secretary of the Province and the Attorney-General. This was on the twenty-third of May, the day following the publication of the news of the arrival of the “Charles,” and the Attorney-General, Paul Dudley, the son of the Governor, at once set out to capture Quelch and his crew. Judge Samuel Sewall, Acting Chief Justice of the Superior Court, who was returning from a visit to relatives in Newbury, records in his diary that he stopped that day to “Refresh at Lewis’s [in Lynn], where Mr. Paul Dudley is in egre pursuit of the Pirats. He had sent one to Boston.”
The next day, May 24th, Lieutenant-Governor Povey, acting during the temporary absence of the Governor, issued a proclamation announcing:—
“Whereas John Quelch, late Commander of the Briganteen Charles and Company to her belonging, Viz. John Lambert, John Miller, John Clifford, John Dorothy, James Parrot, Charles James, William Whiting, John Pitman, John Templeton, Benjamin Perkins, William Wiles, Richard Lawrence, Erasmus Peterson, John King, Charles King, Isaac Johnson, Nicholas Lawson, Daniel Chevalle, John Way, Thomas Farrington, Matthew Primer, Anthony Holding, William Rayner, John Quittance, John Harwood, William Jones, Denis Carter, Nicholas Richardson, James Austin, James Pattison, Joseph Hutnot, George Peirse, George Norton, Gabriel Davis, John Breck, John Carter, Paul Giddins, Nicholas Dunbar, Richard Thurbar, Daniel Chuley and others; Have lately Imported a considerable Quantity of Gold dust, and some Bar and coin’d Gold, which they are Violently Suspected to have gotten & obtained by Felony and Piracy, from some of Her Majesties Friends and Allies, and have Imported and Shared the same among themselves, without any Adjudication or Condemnation thereof, to be lawful Prize. The said Commander and some others being apprehended and in Custody, the rest are absconded and fled from Justice.”
All officers, civil and military, were commanded to apprehend the said persons and secure their treasure.
