HENRY EVERY

King Of Pirates

Overview

Henry Every, (sometimes spelled Avery) born c1653-1659 in Devon was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid 1690s.

He was the most notorious pirate of his time earning him the reputation of ‘King of Pirates’, and the first international man hunt was launched after he carried out what was then the most profitable pirate raid in history.

Henry Every depicted on shore with the Fancy engaging another vessel.

Every’s flag as described in “A Copy of Verses” a ballad allegedly wrote by Henry Every himself.

In 1695 his ship, joining with other infamous pirate crews, attacked the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai, which was making a pilgrimage to Mecca; Every and the other pirates seized loot worth around £600,000 (over £52 million today) and escaped to New Providence, a known pirate safe haven.

While some of his crew were arrested and charged with the crime, Every’s fate is unclear. He vanished without a trace and many uncorroborated stories have been told of what happened to him. It has been suggested that he escaped and retired with his booty.

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The Legend

It is most likely that Henry Every was born 20th August 1659 in the village of Newton Ferrers as part of the Every family of Devon. This seems to be supported by witness testimonies from members of Every’s crew. One of which was William Phillips who stated that in 1696 Every was “aged about 40 years old” and that his mother lived “near Plymouth”.

It is believed that Every then became a sailor with the Royal Navy at a young age. Van Broech claims that while serving for the Royal Navy he served aboard the English fleet attacking Algiers in 1671. After this he went on to the Caribbean sea before captaining in the Bay of Cempeche onboard a log wood freighter.

Henry Every woodcut from Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (London: Midwinter, 1725)

Battle of Beachy Head (1690) by Theodore Gudin.

By his thirties he was married to Dorothy Arther who served as a Periwig seller in Ratcliffe Highway, London. A family man, Every worked hard aboard the HMS Rupert during the Nine Year War but sent most of his earnings home to his family. He later joined the HMS Albemarle as Master’s Mate before the Battle of Beachy Head against the French in 1690. This battle was a disaster for the English and a short time after in the same year, Every was discharged from the Royal Navy.

After his discharge from the Royal Navy in 1690 not much is known about Every until 1693. The first mention of since 1690 is in the journal of a Royal African Company agent named Thomas Phillips of the ship Hannibal. Phillips was on a mission on the Guinea Coast when he claimed “I have no where upon the coast met negroes so shy as here, which makes me fancy they have had tricks play’d them by such blades as Long Ben, alias Avery, who have seiz’d them and carry them away.” It’s possible to conclude from Phillip’s writings that he may have come across Avery on a number of occasions and may have known him on a more personal level.

In this same year Every had joined the Spanish Expedition consisting of four warships: Seventh Son, Dove, James, and Charles II. The Spanish Expedition’s intentions were to travel to the Spanish West Indies to trade goods, supply the Spanish with arms, and recover treasure from wrecked galleons while plundering the areas French possessions.

It’s unclear why but the ships took five months to arrive in Corunna from the River Thames, a journey that should have only taken two weeks. Malnourished and with provisions running low they lacked the official paperwork to go ashore at Corunna they were in a serious situation. For several more months they waited patiently for their monies and the paperwork which was constantly denied along with any support from their financiers. Tensions growing the crew began to buckle to the plans to mutiny to which Every was a prime catalyst for. William Phillips, a mariner on Dove claimed that Every went “up & down from ship to ship & persuaded the men to come on board him, & he would carry them where they should get money enough.”

Royal African Company logo.

On the night of 7th May, 1694 Every and approximately 25 others charged Charles II while O’Byrne; the Admiral of the fleet was ashore. With the Captain of Charles II asleep and the crew caught by surprise it was with no conflict that Every took the ship before vanishing into the night.

Once they were at a safe distance from the Spanish night watch non-conspirators were given a chance to leave. Every offered up the position of the ships Commander to Captain Gibson “If you have a mind to make one of us, we will receive you, and if you turn sober and attend to business, perhaps in time I may make you up of my Lieutenants. If not, here’s a boat, and you shall be set on shore.” Gibson declined the offer and was sent ashore with the others who didn’t want to join Every’s cause.

Every’s flag as depicted in Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.

Every receiving the three chests of Treasure on board of his ship as depicted in The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms

After the mutiny Every was unanimously elected Captain and after likely inspiring his crew with stories of Thomas Tew’s success in the Red Sea a year earlier they agreed to set sail for the Indian Ocean as pirates, renaming Charles II the Fancy.

Along their journey to the Indian Ocean Every and his crew made several stops. First at Maio robbing three ships (and recruiting nine men), then to Guinea where they robbed the local chieftain and his peoples wealth, then at Bioko to resupply. Then they captured two Danish ships near the island of Principe taking prize of their ivory and gold. They rounded the Cape of Good Hope and stopped in the pirate safe haven of St. Augustine’s Bay to resupply again before heading to Johanna from where they rested. While here they captured a passing French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruited more crew.

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The Treasure

In August 1695, Every of the Fancy was elected Admiral of a pirate flotilla consisting of the infamous Thomas Tew Captain of the Amity, Joseph Faro Captain of the Portsmouth Adventure, Richard Want Captain of the Dolphin, William Mayes Captain of the Pearl, and Thomas Wake Captain of the Susanna a plan was set in motion which would in turn cause havoc on England’s relations with India.

The pirate fleet occupying the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb waiting patiently for their target, a convoy of 25 Grand Mughal ships. Their main target being the Ganj-i-Sawai meaning “Exceeding Treasure”.

Thomas Tew depicted in Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates: Fiction, Fact & Fancy Concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main, New York, United States, and London, United Kingdom, 1921.

Engraving of Every engaging the Great Mogul’s Ship depicted in The Pirates Own Book, by Charles Ellms, 1837.

The Ganj-i-Sawai also commonly known as the Gunsway had managed to slip past the pirate flotilla in the night but the pirates didn’t take long to set chase to the Indian convoy. Dolphin proved too slow for the chase so the crew joined the Fancy and Dolphin was burned. Susanna and Amity too fell behind but the later was never to rejoin the flotilla.

The Portsmouth Adventure, Fancy, and Pearl caught up with the Fatah Muhammed of the Grand Mughal’s fleet. The pirates quickly sacked the ship taking haul of between £50,000 to £60,000 worth of treasure. They didn’t waste any time, quickly setting chase for their greatest prize, the Gunsway. Catching up only a few days later when they exchanged fire which left the Ganj-i-Sawai immobilized and severely vulnerable after a shot took out their mainmast.

The pirates boarded the ship in a fury and after a violent hand to hand battle lasting several hours the ship and what remained of the crew was theirs to do with as they saw fit. I’ll spare you the grim details but know that what was done to the crew and passangers of this ship were unthinkable.

Along with the ship was it’s sensational and unfathomable amount of treasures estimated to have been worth between £200,000 and £600,000 making it the richest ship to ever have been taken by pirates.

Depiction of Captain Every’s encounter with the Emeror’s granddaughter on the Ganj-i-Sawai from The Works of Daniel Defoe by John Ward Dunsmore (1856 – 1945).

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The Vanishing Act

Following the massive success of the Gunsway Heist the treasures were divided up among the crews and their Captains proceeded by a celebration at the Pirate safe haven of Bourbon island. While they now each had “gold enough to dazzle the eyes” Every and his crew had now become marked men. Their exploits had parliament declare them ‘Hostis humani generis’ meaning “Enemies of the human race”. The bounty on Every’s head would make for the first worldwide man hunt.

A large number of the crew decided to take their chances and remain on the island while the rest are said to have left with Every to Nassau in the Caribbean, stopping along the way at Ascension Island to stock up on provisions for the long journey ahead. It’s here where a few more of the crew decided to remain instead of going ahead to Nassau.

Portrait of Aurangzeb – The Grand Moghul.

Proclamation for apprehending Henry Every, alias Bridgeman, and sundry other pirates from 1696.

Having reached St Thomas the pirates entered the city of Nassau where they made contact with the island’s Governor, Sir Nicholas Trott to whom they declared their position as pirates and their misdeeds against the East India Company. They requested shore time in exchange for a heft sum of £860. At this point they identified their Captain as a Henry Bridgeman. Who was offering Trott their ship as a gift once the crew were unload their cargo.

Trott accepted this offer knowing that Nassau faced an impending threat from French forces to the South East and the presence of the pirate ships in the bay would likely prevent a French attack. This agreement allowed Every and his crew to come and go from the island as they pleased.

Word finally reached Nassau of the Fancy and the events that had transpired in the Indian Ocean as well as the true identity of the Fancy’s Captain, Henry Every. When Trott was questioned he denied ever knowing the true history of these pirates. Trott stripped the fancy of anything valuable and had it driven against the rocks likely to dispose of the evidence that he had been conspiring with the pirates or had knowledge of their presence in Nassau.

When a proclamation for the apprehension of Henry Every and his crew reached Nassau, Trott tipped Every off to this fact and warned him of what his actions would be in response. Trott issued a warrant for Every’s arrest and alerted the authorities of his whereabouts in order to save face and avoid suspicions that he ever colluded with the pirates. It was at this point that Every and 113 crew members vanished in the night.

Engraving by Aikmann depicts Avery selling his jewels from Howard Pyle’s “Buccaneers and Marooners of the Spanish Main – Second Paper” 1887.

Title page of ‘The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and Sparkes’ 1696.

While only 24 of the 113 person crew were ever captured and with 5 executed it is a complete mystery as to what happened to the other 89 members of the crew, Every, or the massive amounts of treasure they were hauling with them. They all appear to have disappeared without a trace. Or, did they?

With Every’s acts in the Indian Ocean and the havoc it caused to the British and Indian relations at the time he had become well known which combined with his vanishing act it was no surprise that over the years numerous stories began to circulate with varying degrees of credibility turning Every into something of a legend. The stories would range from Every dying in poverty in Devon, England to setting up a pirate utopia where he was king.

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Conclusion

The map below visually demonstrates the expanse and furosity of Every’s short two year career from the point of the Spanish Expedition leaving the Thames in London, England to his vanishing act in Nassau.

This intriguing document suggests Avery (or Henry Every) the pirate buried his treasure near the Lizard after his daring 1695 raid on ships in the Arabian sea.

With so many stories of what happened to Every after he vanished from Nassau and with Every having told his crew conflicting stories of where he would go and what he would do after the heist, the question of what happened to Every and his loot is a very complicated one which requires extensive and in-depth research.

In 2020 I stumbled across a letter in the Cornish Archives in England which referred to Henry Avery and gave directions to finding his hidden treasure as follows:

Avery The Pirate

On his return from India either landed or was shipwrecked near the Lizard where he buried three chests or boxes full of treasure in the sands of the sea shore.

“Environ trois milles a l’est du Lig. Pres trois pierres grises ou rochers dans une cove au Sud’Oest des trois pierres.”

[Translation from French to English: “About three miles east of Liz near three gray stones or rocks in a cove, South West of the three stones.”]

Mr K says: “Ces trois pierres sont couvertes with grass. (now nearly overgrown with furse & grass)

[Translation from French to English: “These three stones are covered in grass.”]

It is near where the earner of a high promontory juts out into the sea. 

He said the spring tides now come over the place. 

Chest haslar wood 2 feet long & 1 f wide in it were precious stones & bracelets, large rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topazes + diamonds.

Chest almost the same size & make as the first 120 ingots of gold, 40 thick flat pieces of gold as large as a round tobacco box with various characters on some of them, 25 bars of gold, some of which were 4 or 5 inches long.

Chest has 3,000 pieces of 8 besides Bullion not weighed but crammed in with pieces of brocades.

Overwhelmed with excitement I began to investigate the letter further and test the validity of the letter.

Over a year of research and planning later, Areas Grey put together an international team of treasure hunters and archeologists to investigate this possible lead which may solve this enduring mystery.

On this scouting expedition Areas Grey joined forces with:

Rob Jenner of the CodeBar Live Podcast

Lisa Finch of Enigma Treasure Hunts

Rob & Toni Frey of Rob Frey Explorer

& Pirate Treasure Hunter – Tyrone Leech

The team worked relentlessly investigating and fact checking every bit of information we had uncovered and in late 2022 we were convinced we were onto something big, we were even joined by Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown and its host Josh Gates. You can find Expedition Unknown’s coverage of our expedition on the Discovery Channel on June 14th 2023 – 9:00pm (EST).

Trailer for Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown starring Josh Gates airing June 14th 2023 at 9:00pm (EST) don’t miss it!.

Some of the shots taken during our expedition in Cornwall, October 2022 in search of Henry Every’s long lost treasure and the legend of the mysterious letter.

After a solid week of endless scouting and investigating the southern Cornish coastline we walked away knowing that this was just the beginning and that we were not done here yet.

The mystery of Henry Every and his missing treasure endures but we are one step closer to finding the truth. After careful review of the information we gathered on the last expedition along with the research we have conducted we believe we have identified the exact location where Henry Every would have hidden his treasure in regards to the information provided in the letter. As such, we are now gearing up for a second expedition out to the site to locate and retrieve this long lost pirate loot. This second expedition will conclusively tell us if the treasure tale is real or that of fantasy. If the treasure is found it is believed to be worth over one hundred million!

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ADAM L C

Director of Areas Grey

Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.

Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.

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