Biography of John Phillips:
John Phillips (1690? – 1724) was an English carpenter and pirate who raided the Caribbean and North American coastline in 1723-1724. He was a ruthless captain, greatly feared by his enemies and his men alike, and he might have done much more damage with more men and better ships. He was eventually killed when prisoners on board his ship rose up and mutinied.
John Phillips becomes a Pirate:
Little is known of Phillips' family or early life. He was trained as a carpenter in England and sailed for Newfoundland probably sometime in 1722. His ship was taken by pirates led by Captain Thomas Anstis and Phillips accepted the post of carpenter on board Anstis' ship. He sailed with the pirates for a time, until the company broke up, at which point he and some others returned to England. He had not been there long, however, before he heard that some of Anstis' pirates were in a nearby jail. Fearing that they would give the authorities his identity, he hastily booked passage to America again, intending to go pirate at the first opportunity.
Phillips' First Command and Pirate Code:
Once in Newfoundland, Phillips found work in the fisheries, but plotted to capture a ship. On the night of August 29, 1723, he and four others captured a small ship in the harbor and set off. Even though there were only five of them, they wrote up articles and signed them, swearing upon a hatchet because they did not have a bible. The articles described division of loot, punishments for transgressions and compensation for those who lost a limb while in service. Before they left the Newfoundland area, they captured several ships, most of them fishermen: some of the sailors were made to join the company.
Raiding the Caribbean:
They went to the Caribbean around October and began looking for prey. They managed to take a much larger and better armed French ship, as well as a number of small prizes. Once, they took a small snow (a type of ship) and four of the men were detailed to sail it, but these men, led by a carpenter named Fern, decided to try and make a run for it: Phillips recaptured them and all four were either killed during the fight or executed later. Episodes like this one made Phillips greatly feared by his own men. Much of his crew had been unwillingly forced to join with him: this would eventually be his downfall.
Off North America:
With the milder weather of spring, the pirates headed north to raid the English shipping lanes. They took several prizes and made several of the men on board join their crew: among these was a young carpenter named Edward Cheeseman. The pirates continued north and raided the waters off of Newfoundland, where the numerous islands, bays and harbors made it nearly impossible to track them down. Here they also found some more crewmates, many of them willing, as working conditions were harsh. At one point, they captured a schooner: when Phillips found it was owned by a Mr. Minors of Newfoundland, he ordered it returned as Minors had also been the owner of the first ship he had stolen some months before, saying “We have done him injury enough already.”
Mutiny Brewing:
Meanwhile, Phillips’ ship was crewed by a number of pirates who had been forced into service and a conspiracy was brewing. They took a ship captained by a man named Andrew Harradine, who they took prisoner. Cheeseman the carpenter, by then a leader of those who wanted to take over the ship, brought Harradine into the conspiracy. The mutineers had to find the right moment to attack.
Death of Pirate John Phillips:
On April 18, 1724, the mutineers struck. They were greatly afraid of the powerful first mate, John Nutt. Cheeseman left his tools on deck and walked over to Nutt, making small talk. When the signal was given, Cheeseman grabbed Nutt and threw him overboard. The prisoners quickly killed the gunner and the boatswain and when Captain Phillips came above deck, either Harradine or Cheeseman (accounts vary) killed him with a carpentry tool. John Rose Archer, the quartermaster, was spared so that he could provide evidence at trial.
The Trial of the Pirates:
The new masters of the ship set sail for Boston, where they arrived on May third. On May 12, a trial was held. Cheeseman, Harradine and eleven others were honorably acquitted. Archer and three others were found guilty. On June second, Archer and William White were hanged in Boston for piracy. Both left rambling letters of apology in which they blamed drink and blasphemy for their going pirate: Archer also blamed shipmasters for working sailors too hard: "I could wish that Masters of Vessels would not use their men with so much Severity, as many of them do, which exposes us to great Temptations."
Legacy of Captain John Phillips:
Phillips was good at piracy: he managed to capture over 30 ships in a period of only eight months. Fortunately for his victims, his men hated him and he was constantly pressured to find new crewmates. If he had lasted longer, he might have attracted a following, like Blackbeard, or amassed a fleet like Bart Roberts. In the long run, his inability to find a loyal crew doomed him to a fate as a small-time pirate.
Phillips is primarily important to modern pirate historians for two reasons: first, because his articles were recorded intact by Captain Charles Johnson and because an account of one of the captives, John Fillmore, has survived, giving a close-up look at life on board a pirate ship of the time.
Source:
Defoe, Daniel. (Captain Charles Johnson) A General History of the Pyrates. Edited by Manuel Schonhorn. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1972/1999.
