Pardons under Elizabeth I Mary Wolverston was pardoned by
Elizabeth I.
Thomas Brooke was pardoned for piracy following the intercession of his sister-in-law (his brother being
Baron Cobham) and his brother-in-law the
Earl of Salisbury.
Pardons under James I With the end of the
first Anglo-Spanish war under
James I, and the corresponding end to English privateering in 1603, English sailors resorted to piracy. In 1611, Captain Richard Bishop became one of the first notable pirates to be pardoned, having surrendered partly due to qualms about attacking English ships. He was allowed to keep his plunder. Having retired in the
pirate haven of Leamcon near
Schull,
Munster, in 1617 he was accused of plotting with pirates. Captain Thomas Tompkins also received a pardon around 1610. Following continued piracy by the likes of
Peter Easton, the English government was willing in August 1611 to offer a general pardon, on condition that pirates surrender their ships and goods. With pirates threatening to accept offers of pardon from
Tuscany and
Savoy, in 1612 the
privy council of James I offered pirates a general pardon, also allowing them to keep their loot. At least 12 pirate crews surrendered to the general pardon, including John Jennings and the crew of Captain Baughe (who apparently sued successfully to keep his loot following its confiscation), though a large portion of Baughe's crew would shortly return to piracy, and Easton instead accepted a Savoyard offer in 1613. Captain Roger Middleton, who sailed first to Ireland then to
Mehdya to deliver the pardon, extracted bribes from pirates in exchange for their pardon, and encouraged pirates to delay their surrender in order to continue piracy. The lack of competing pirates in
Ireland due to the general pardon saw
Henry Mainwaring become notorious in 1613 as leader of a pirate fleet. He would receive offers from Tuscany, Savoy,
Tunis and
Spain of a pardon should he surrender; however, consistent with his not attacking English ships, in June 1616 he instead accepted an English offer of pardon for himself and his crew, having sought one since the previous year (as too had
Lording Barry). Also in 1616, Thomas Tucker (who sailed with Easton) received an English pardon. In 1623,
John Nutt was arrested by Sir
John Eliot, having been tricked into negotiating the purchase of an expired offer of pardon. Due to Nutt's connection with
Secretary of State George Calvert, he was pardoned following this arrest. Holmes' fleet achieved a temporary reduction in piracy, but the number of pirates had increased again by 1693.
Edward Randolph wrote in 1696 that King
Charles II of Spain had agreed to fund an expedition to suppress pirates in the
Spanish West Indies (who had been active around 20 years before Randolph's report). This expedition would have been assigned to Holmes (after a proclamation was issued allowing him to procure pardons for those who surrendered) and would have included five or seven of the King of England's
frigates, but never went ahead because the King of Spain never paid for it. However, Randolph also wrote that pirates had apparently stopped attacking the Spanish West Indies, instead favoring the
Red Sea.
1698 proclamation In a 1696 report by Surveyor-General of Customs in the American colonies Edward Randolph, pardons were recommended (among other methods) as a way to reduce piracy. A specific suggestion was to pardon and recruit one of
Thomas Tew's men as a source of intelligence regarding pirates. With the end of the
Nine Years' War in 1697, the Royal Navy could increase its anti-piracy efforts. On 8 December 1698, William III issued a proclamation offering pardons to pirates east of the
Cape of Good Hope who surrendered to
Captain Thomas Warren.
Henry Every and
William Kidd were specifically exempted from receiving this pardon, in Kidd's case due to his connections with prominent
Whig statesmen. By the time that Warren arrived at Madagascar's
Île Sainte-Marie on 29 January 1699, the Act of Grace had expired. By promising to extend the deadline for surrender, Warren obtained the surrender of
Robert Culliford and
Dirk Chivers, among others; however, these pirates were taken to trial and all except Culliford (who testified against
Samuel Burgess) were hanged. Others in Madagascar, including
Nathaniel North, avoided surrendering to Warren. The fact that pirates such as
Joseph Bradish and those in Kidd's company were not offered amnesty by the authorities contributed to scepticism regarding acts of grace, including among the crew of
Bartholomew Roberts more than two decades later.
1717 & 1718 proclamations ==Elsewhere==