According to one source, his wife and children all greatly enjoyed the New York City social scene after Tew became rich,[3] but there is no supporting evidence for this.

He and another captain obtained a privateer's commission from the lieutenant governor of Bermuda to destroy a French factory off the coast of West Africa.

[8] He set out alongside buccaneer, privateer, and pirate George Dew aboard the sloop Amity; shortly out of port, they were separated in a storm.

[9] Not long out of Bermuda, Tew announced his intention of turning to piracy, asking the crew for their support since he could not enforce the illegal scheme without their consent.

[11] Tew reached the Red Sea and ran down a large Ghanjah dhow en route from India to the Ottoman Empire late in 1693.

Tew's pirates helped themselves to the ship's treasure, worth £100,000 (equivalent to £18,196,629 in 2023) in gold and silver alone, not counting the value of the ivory, spices, gemstones, and silk taken.

He set course back to the Cape of Good Hope, stopping[13] at Adam Baldridge's pirate settlement at St. Mary's on Madagascar to careen.

[17] They arrived at the Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea in August 1695, where Tew found several other pirates hoping to duplicate his prior success, including Henry Avery in the powerfully armed warship Fancy, fellow Rhode Island pirate captains Joseph Faro and Thomas Wake, William May, and Richard Want.

[13] Tew's burial site is unknown, but he is said to be the father of Ratsimilaho, a man who created a kingdom on the east coast of Madagascar.

[22] Tew's personal standard is often depicted as a black flag with a white arm holding a short sword.