Eric Cobham and Maria Lindsey

Eric Cobham (c. 1700 – 1760 or after) a pirate in the early eighteenth century who with his wife, Maria Lindsey, practiced piracy in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from their base in Newfoundland.

Eric had an attack of conscience after her death, confessed his sins to a priest, and requested the true story of his life be published.

Later, he met Maria Lindsay at Plymouth, and brought her on board his ship, sailing to Newfoundland, where the couple assumed a career in piracy.

A fictional, romantic novel based on described events in pirate literature about Eric Cobham and Maria Lindsay exists.

[4] However, in a book, Buccaneers and Marooners of America, published in 1891, editor Howard Pyle mentions Cobham in passing as if his exploits were already well known to the public at large and details Cobham's attack on a Spanish ship in the Bay of Biscay wherein all persons of Spanish origin (approximately 20) aboard the seized vessel were sewn into the mainsail and thrown into the sea.