With the help of a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, the Library has purchased two volumes published in 1726-8 recounting the lives of a number of pirates, including two Welshmen. Howell Davis was born in Milford Haven in about 1690. He was serving as a mate on the slave ship Cadogan when it was captured by pirates in 1718. Davis joined the pirates and was made captain of the ship. After an eventful career lasting less than a year he was shot dead in an ambush on the island of Príncipe.
Six weeks earlier Howel Davis had captured the ship Princess, taking its second mate Bartholomew Roberts prisoner. Roberts was another native of Pembrokeshire, and when Davis was killed Roberts was elected captain. He had a violent and successful career, but was killed on 10th February 1722 in a battle against a Royal Navy ship, and his body, in all its pirate finery, was thrown overboard as he had previously requested.
A general history of the pyrates, from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Captain Charles Johnson includes chapters about the two Welshmen and an illustration of Bartholomew Roberts – or Black Bart - with his ships Royal Fortune and Ranger.
This purchase adds to the Library’s holdings of early publications about Welsh pirates, including the 1684 and 1704 editions of Bucaniers of America by Alexandre Exquemelin, which contains an account of the life of Henry Morgan (1635?-1688), and the 1722 edition of the periodical The political state of Great Britain, which includes a description of the battle between Black Bart's ship and the Swallow commanded by Captain Ogle, in which the famous pirate was killed, and one of the earliest descriptions of the Jolly Roger flag.
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