1717–1718 Acts of Grace
[3] 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.
[15] 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.
[19] 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.
[27] For several months, piracy in the West Indies – particularly around Jamaica – had been such a problem for the merchants and masters of ships of Bristol that they petitioned the king for its suppression.
Following receipt of this petition, in May 1717, Secretary of State Joseph Addison asked the Council of Trade and Plantations to recommend to the king how best to achieve this.
[28] Having consulted merchants and other interested parties, the council agreed that the issue was urgent, replying that "the whole trade from Great Britain to those parts" was "in imminent danger of being lost".
[30] In August 1717, soon-to-be Governor of Jamaica Nicholas Lawes advocated both royal clemency and an increased presence of warships to reduce the number of pirates and protect Jamaican trade.
[31] The pirates themselves threatened to attack Bermuda and (according to Lieutenant-Governor Bennett) "make a new Madagascar of it" if they were not offered a pardon, communicating this through the masters of captured ships.
[34] On 9 December, the council also recommended a further extension of the date, hoping to dissuade pirates from entering Spanish service during the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
[42][43] The arrival of Bennett's son with copies of the proclamation caused the pirates there to divide into two factions, depending on whether they planned to accept the pardon.
[44][46][47] Those rejecting the pardon supported fortifying the island, as did those wishing to secure their plunder, but when a general council was called, no action was agreed on.
[44] Pearse produced a list of their names: Having already returned to piracy and attacked the crew of the Phoenix,[59] on 4 April, Vane left New Providence on the recaptured Lark.
[62] On 24 July 1718, the new Governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers, arrived off Hog Island (near Nassau),[63] along with a series of vessels which included three Royal Navy warships.
[76] Indeed, that October saw the departure of three sloops, which two days later experienced a mutiny led by pardoned pirates John Auger, Phineas Bunce and Dennis McCarthy.
That month, he wrote of his doubts that most remaining pirates would surrender, stating that reducing their numbers would be difficult without a greater presence of naval vessels under a governor's control.
[85] From March to July, Bennett's worsening predicament was repeatedly relayed to Secretary of State James Craggs by the Council of Trade and Plantations,[86][87] which also blamed the fact that surrendered pirates were returning to piracy on governors' lack of any power to pardon without a commission.
[61] A year later, shortly after news of the War of the Quadruple Alliance arrived in New Providence,[78] pirates from the Bahamas surrendered to Bennett in April 1719 and received the king's pardon.
[93] Around early June, near Beaufort, North Carolina, Blackbeard allowed Stede Bonnet to sail to Bath to be pardoned by Governor Charles Eden.
[102] From February to March 1718, Commander in Chief of Jamaica Peter Heywood reported that a considerable number of pirates had surrendered, including Hornigold.
[108] Governors Robert Hunter (of New York) and Samuel Shute (of Massachusetts and New Hampshire) each wrote of the proclamation's ineffectiveness in June 1718.
[109][110] In Virginia, due to fears that former pirates would return to piracy, a proclamation was issued that July to restrict their carrying arms or assembling in large numbers.
[111] Commissions to pardon pirates arrived in New England by that September,[112] in Barbados by October,[113] in the Leeward Islands by November,[114] in Virginia by December 1718,[39] and in Nova Scotia by March 1719.
[115] In December 1718, Secretary of State James Craggs warned governors against illegally receiving bribes in exchange for accepting pirates' surrender.
