On the 24th of May, 1704, the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Povey, put out a warrant for the arrest of pirate John Quelch and his crew, who had recently returned to Marblehead, Massachusetts.
The previous year, privateer Daniel Plowman had left Marblehead with a license to attack French and Spanish ships off of Newfoundland and Arcadia, issued from the Governor of Boston. However, not long after departing Marblehead, the crew of the Charles mutinied and threw the captain overboard. They went on to instead attack Portuguese (who England was at peace with at the time) ships off the coast of Brazil instead and collected a large sum of plundered goods in the form of Brazilian sugar, hides, cloth, guns, gold dust, and coinage. According to local folklore, before returning to Marblehead, the crew buried some gold out on Star Island off the coast of New Hampshire.
They arrived back in Marblehead ten months later in mid-May of 1704. Within a week, news spread of Captain John Quelch of the Charles had arrived in port, his arrest warrant was issued, and he was captured. More than half of the crew of forty-five however evaded capture, as when they arrived back in Marblehead, they scattered with their cut of the loot. Captain Quelch and others however were transported to Boston in early June, where they would be tried for piracy; as Portuguese ships were not a valid target as per the Charles’ letter of marque, and Queen Anne and the King of Portugal had recently become allies.
(pictured is the rocky coastline of Marblehead Neck, a portion of a 1677 map of New England showing Marblehead MA in its relation to Boston [note that north is to the right hand side of the map], and the likely fictional flag of John Quelch)
