Amateur historian claims Jones may have helped pirates after 1695 attack — Asharq Al-Awsat
In the United States, amateur historian James Bailey said that colonial documents may indicate that Thomas Jones helped the pirate Henry Every and his crew after their 1695 attack on the Indian ship Ganj-i-Sawai. Jones was the man after whom Jones Beach State Park on Long Island was named. Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
The researcher’s version
Bailey studied colonial documents, including testimony from Every’s associates. According to his version, Jones was brought in as a person who was to help the pirates avoid prosecution after they seized gold and silver worth tens of millions of dollars.
The attack on the royal Indian ship took place in the Red Sea. According to the Associated Press, the pirates tortured, killed and raped people aboard, causing international outrage and what is considered the first worldwide manhunt. Some participants in the attack were detained and executed, but Every and many of his associates disappeared without a trace.
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Mention of a barrel of money
Bailey also cites a 1698 record by Richard Coote, the governor of colonial New York. Describing anti-piracy measures, the governor noted that a barrel of money had been transported from the city to Long Island, to Jones’s house. Jones himself, whom Coote called a former pirate, testified that he knew nothing about it.
After serving in the English military, Jones worked as a privateer — a seafarer authorized by the English Crown to attack enemy merchant ships during wartime. Meaghan Schulman, a researcher of 17th-century piracy, noted that privateers lost this status after a conflict ended, while those who continued maritime attacks were called pirates.
Richard Blakemore, a professor of maritime history at the University of Reading, cautioned that Bailey’s conclusions should not be considered final, in particular because Thomas Jones was a common name. At the same time, historian Kevin McDonald believes that Jones’s possible links to Every may point to the role of piracy in building the fortunes of some influential families in the northeastern American colonies.
