FOOTNOTES
[96] American Weekly Mercury, Feb. 6, 1722.
[97] New England Courant, Aug. 6, 1722.
[98] Boston Gazette, Sept. 9, 1723.
[99] Boston News-Letter, Aug. 8, 1723.
[100] Boston News-Letter, Aug. 22, 1723.
CHAPTER X
Ned Low of Boston and how he became a Pirate Captain
There was living in Boston in the year 1719, a young man who went by the name of Ned Low. He was a ship-rigger by trade and as shipbuilding in Boston was brisk about that time, Low’s services were in demand. He was born in Westminster, England, and such meagre biographical information as is now available shows that he could neither read nor write and that as a boy he ran wild in the streets of his native parish. He seems to have begun his career early as a petty thief and gamester among the boys of his neighborhood and later to have spent much time among the hangers-on about the House of Commons which was near his home. Strong and fearless, he was always ready to attack any one who might catch him cheating or attempt to relieve him of his ill-gotten gains. It is said that one of his brothers, at the age of seven, was carried about in a basket on the back of a porter, in crowded streets, where he would snatch off hats and wigs and conceal them in his basket,—a profitable occupation for his family, it seems; and as he grew too large for the basket trick, he became a pickpocket and petty thief and in time, a housebreaker. According to the “Newgate Calendar,” he ended his days on a scaffold at Tyburn in company with others of his stripe.
Ned Low was more fortunate for when old enough he went to sea with a brother and during the next three or four years visited many of the larger seaports, at last reaching Boston, in New England, where his fancy was caught by the pretty face of Eliza Marble, a girl of a good family, and after a time they were married,[101] Ned meanwhile having found regular work as a ship-rigger. His wife became a member of the Second Church in 1718 and a son and daughter were baptized there.
The couple had a daughter Elizabeth, born in the winter of 1719, and shortly after the young mother died, no doubt to the great sorrow of Low, for in after life probably the only redeeming traits in his character, were a love for his young daughter (the son having died in infancy) and his refusal to force married men to join his pirate crew. In lucid intervals between revelling and fighting Low is said to have frequently expressed great affection for the young child[102] he had left in Boston, and mere mention of her would often bring tears to his eyes. Philip Ashton, a Marblehead fisherman whom Low captured and forced and who afterwards escaped after many adventures, has preserved in his “Narrative,” much curious information concerning Low, including instances of this vein of sentiment so strangely associated in a brutal nature.