- William Jackson (pirate)
William Jackson (c. fl. 1639-1645) was an English privateer who, based in
Guanaja andRoatan [http://www.mayaparadise.com/castilloe.htm] , was in the service of theProvidence Island Company from 1639 until around 1641. During that year, he captured a Spanish slave ship at the port ofTrujillo and received a ransom of 8,000 pounds ofindigo as well as 2,000pieces-of-eight and two gold chains. Leaving the Providence Island Company, he sailed to England where he sold sugar and indigo to obtain supplies for another privateering expedition and, upon receiving a three yearletter of marque from theEarl of Warwick , he set sail commanding a fleet including such prominent privateers asSamuel Axe ,William Rous andLewis Morris in 1642. It was during this expedition that Jackson's fleet capturedJamaica in the name of Great Britain.Although Jackson's later activities are not recorded, another Captain William Jackson led a small fleet consisting of over 1,000 buccaneers from St. Kitts and Barbadoes looting and plundering throughout the
Spanish Main including looting the cities ofMaracaibo andTruxillo during 1642 and 1643.Anchoring in the harbor of present day Kingston on
March 25 , he led a party of 500 men against the nearby town of St. Jago de la Vega which he captured after heavy resistance by the town's defenders at a cost of around forty men. Threatening to burn the town, he received a ransom of 200beeves , 10,000 pounds ofcassava bread , and 7,000 pieces-of-eight. Many of the English buccaneers became with the tropical island and, during their stay, twenty three men left to live among the Spaniards.Whether the two men are one and the same is unclear by traditional accounts, however both were in the same location at roughly the same period.
Further reading
*Lane, Kris E. "Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas - 1500-1750". London: M.E. Sharp, 1998. ISBN 0-7656-0256-3
*Rogozinski, Jan. "Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend". New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X
*Vaitilingam, Adam, Polly Thomas and Polly Rodger Brown. "The Rough Guide to Jamaica". New York: Rough Guides Ltd., 2004. ISBN 1-84353-111-9External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Garden/5213/privatj.htm Pirates and Privateers]
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