[5] Baltic lands.
THE CAMELION.
50. Agreement to Commit Piracy. June 30, 1683.[1]
June the 30th day, 1683. Articles of Agreement between us abord of the Camillion,[2] Nich. Clough Comander, that wee are to dispose of all the goods thatt are abord amongst us, every man are to have his full due and right share only the Commander is to have two shares and a half a share for the Ship and home[3] the Captain please to take for the Master under him is to have a share and a half. Now Gentlemen these are to satisfy you, as for the Doctor a Share and half, and these are our Articles that wee do all stand to as well as on[4] and all.
These are to satisfy you thatt our intent is to trade with the Spaniards, medling nor make no resistances with no nation that wee do fall with all upon the Sea. Now Gentlemen these are to give you notice that if any one do make any Resistances against us one any factery[5] hereafter shall bee severely punish according to the fact that hee hath comitted and as you are all here at present you have taken your corporall oath upon the holy Evangelists to stand one by the other as long as life shall last.
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John Hallamore. the mark of Thomas Dickson. Robert Cockram. the marke of X Jo. Darvell. the marke of X Arthur Davis. the marke of X Jno. Morrine. John Renals the mark of Robert Dousin. Nicho. Clough. Samll. Haynsworth. Daniell Kelly. William Heath. John Griffin. |
Henery Michelson. Albert Lasen. the mark of Symon Webson. William Strother. Edwa. Dove. John Watkins. Edward Starkey. the mark of George Paddisson. John Copping.[6] the mark of HL Henry Lewin. |
[1] This very curious document (for one does not expect to find pirates agreeing in writing to pursue a course of piracy) is found embedded in one of the indictments in the case of the Camelion, in vol. I. of the wills in the office of the surrogate, New York City, pp. 312-313 of the modern copy. Its presence among wills requires a word of explanation. The governor of a royal colony was usually chancellor, ordinary, and vice-admiral, and as such might preside in the courts of chancery, probate, and admiralty—courts whose common bond was that their jurisprudence was derived from the civil (or Roman) law, and not from the common law. Most of his judicial action was in testamentary cases. It was therefore not unnatural that the few admiralty cases and cases of piracy tried in these early days should be recorded in the same volume as the wills, though distinguished by the simple process of turning the book end for end and recording them at the back. In this case the record begins with our [document 51]; but the present document, copied into one of the indictments, is earlier in date. The substance of another pirates' agreement (Roberts's company, 1720, see [doc. no. 117]) is given in Charles Johnson, General History of the Pyrates, second ed., pp. 230-232; another (Phillips's company, 1727, see [doc. no. 120] and [note 10]), ibid., verbatim, pp. 397-398.
[2] The Camelion had in 1682 sailed for the Royal African Company to the slave-mart of Old Calabar on the west coast of Africa, thence with a cargo of negroes to Barbados, thence to Montserrat and Nevis, thence in June, 1683, to London with a cargo. Off Nevis, June 29, the crew took possession of the ship, then made this agreement on the 30th, sold part of the cargo at the Dutch island of Curaçao, and brought the vessel to Sandy Hook. For their trial, see the next document.
[3] Whom.