GILLAM, Captain James, alias Kelly.
A notorious pirate. When serving on board the East Indiaman Mocha, he led a mutiny, and with his own hands murdered the commander, Captain Edgecomb, in his sleep. He came back to America with Captain Kidd, and was hiding, under the name of Kelly, when caught in 1699 at Charleston, opposite Boston, by the Governor of Massachusetts, who described him as "the most impudent, hardened villain I ever saw." It was said that Gillam had entered the service of the Mogul, turned Mohammedan, and been circumcised. To settle this last point, the prisoner was examined by a surgeon and a Jew, who both declared, on oath, that it was so.
GILLS, John.
One of Captain Teach's crew. Hanged in Virginia in 1718.
GLASBY, Harry.
Sailed as mate in the Samuel, of London (Captain Cary), which was taken in 1720 by Roberts, who made Glasby master on board the Royal Fortune.
Tried for piracy on the Guinea Coast in April and acquitted. Evidence was brought at his trial to show that Glasby was forced to serve with the pirates, for, being a "sea-artist" or sail-master, he was most useful to them. Twice he tried to escape in the West Indies, on one occasion being tried with two others by a drunken jury of pirates. The other deserters were shot, but Glasby was saved by one of his judges threatening to shoot anyone who made any attempt on him. Glasby befriended other prisoners and gave away his share of the plunder to them. When the Royal Fortune was taken by the Swallow, several of the most desperate pirates, particularly one James Philips, took lighted matches with which to ignite the powder magazine and blow up the ship. Glasby prevented this by placing trusted sentinels below.
GODEKINS, Master.
This notorious Hanseatic pirate, with another called Stertebeker, did fearful damage to English and other merchant shipping in the North Sea in the latter part of the fourteenth century.
On June 1st, 1395, he seized an English ship laden with salt fish off the coast of Denmark, her value being reckoned at £170. The master and crew of twenty-five men they slew, the only mariner saved being a boy, whom the pirates took with them to Wismar.