Acts of grace (piracy)

[1] 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.

[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.

[8] Following continued piracy by the likes of Peter Easton,[6][9] the English government was willing in August 1611 to offer a general pardon, on condition that pirates surrender their ships and goods.

[23] Clive Senior suggests that the government had an incentive to pardon pirates, since this would keep these potentially useful seamen available in case of war.

[24] In preparation for the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Governor Thomas Modyford pardoned some 14 pirates who had been condemned to death, in order to grant privateering commissions to them.

[25] On 15 August 1671, Jamaica's new governor Thomas Lynch offered a general pardon to pirates,[26] which was rejected by Jelles de Lecat.

[37] During the Nine Years' War, Governor William Beeston requested the power to pardon pirates in order to recruit them in the defense of Jamaica, but this seems not to have been granted.

However, Randolph also wrote that pirates had apparently stopped attacking the Spanish West Indies, instead favoring the Red Sea.

[43] 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.

[44] 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.

[44] 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.

[53][54] In January 1810,[55] Black Squadron leader Guo Podai, along with 160 ships and 8000 men,[c] surrendered to the Jiaqing Emperor,[56][57] who pardoned them.