Samuel Bellamy

He was born in Devon in1689 and his mother died soon afterwards.  

He became a sailor in his teens, sailed to Jamaica and probably saw combat there as a privateer.  He sailed under Captain Jennings on the sloop Barsheba, based at Port Royal in Jamaica. Samuel Bellamy in 1715 travelled to Cape Cod, on the American Massachusetts coastline. After the war he was a captain of a pirate fleet in 1716 and in two years he captured more than 50 ships. He sailed in the sloop Postillion with Captain Leboose, with Benjamin Hornigold in the sloop Mary Anne. Bellamy later became captain of the Mary Anne. In the West Indies he took the Sultana, an English man-of-war, and then the St. Michael. 

He ranged on the eastern seaboard and became a successful pirate plundering the Spanish treasure fleets off Florida as they followed the Gulf stream back to Europe. The Spanish fleets met in Havana, Cuba, for the return home. These huge galleons were loaded with Gold doubloons from Mexico and Silver pieces of eight from the silver mines of Peru. 

In 1717, in the Caribbean, he took a slaver, the Whydah. He sailed north and following this, he could not resist popping into Wellfleet, Mass, near Cape Cod to see his girlfriend. It became caught in a storm raging along the coast and sank with all hands but two. It is now being recovered by salvage experts.  

Witheridge 

Sir Thomas Stukley (1525-1578) had inherited some of the wild mannerisms of his father King Henry VIII. Being illegitimate, he had been brought up on a remote estate far removed from the Court in London. He nevertheless came to the attention of the court by his piratical activities, off the North Devon coast.  

These incidents embarrassed his half sister Queen Elizabeth, who decided to get rid of him once and for all by giving him a fleet of ships and appointing him Governor of

Florida on the other side of the dangerous Atlantic Ocean. 

Unfortunately for her he did not complete the voyage and ended up in Plymouth, making a further nuisance of himself by plundering French vessels and joining the Spanish in a vain attempt to invade England via Ireland, which failed.  

He was to die by the sword, as befitting a pirate at the hands of the Moors, when he was trapped in a skirmish off north Africa. This time he was on the losing side and had his head chopped off. Descendants of the family still reside in the manor.  

Bideford and Barnstaple 

Henry Every was born in 1665 near Plymouth, the son of a slave trader with Jamaica. In 1671 he witnessed the bombing of Algiers by the Royal Navy. Avery began his career at sea by serving as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. In 1694 as firstmate, he sailed from Bristol in the Charles, under the command of a drunken captain, part of the fleet of ships led by Sir James Houblon, and destined to attack Spanish colonies.  While waiting 4 months in La Coruña, during which time the crew was not paid, the morale of the crew plummeted. Becoming disgusted with the situation. Avery plotted with several crewman of the Charles to steal the ship to go seek their own fortune.
On May 7, 1694, while the captain was drunk. Avery & his fellow mutineers took over the Charles. They renamed it the "Fancy" and set sail. After much success off the Guinea coast and in the West Indies they sailed to the pirate haven of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and then to the Red Sea. They met up with some American pirates led by Thos. Tew of Rhode Island and formed a formidable squadron wreaking havoc amongst the Pilgrim fleets returning from Mecca to Surat (the English protectorate).

Tew is killed in the first action where they seize £40,000 of gold and jewels from "The Futteh Mahmood." They then take the heavily armed 80 gun flagship" Gunj Suwai ", belonging to the Grand Mogul, Aurumgzebe himself, with his own daughter aboard, protected by 400 soldiers armed with matchlock guns.  

They retired to the island of Bourbon near Madagascar to share out the treasure of £1,000 each and split up, as the Royal Navy is after them, with direct orders from London. In 1696 he was at Boston, where he bribed the governor to allow him and his crew to land and dispose of their plunder. 

Every returned to the North Devon coastline under the cover of darkness under the assumed name of Benjamin Bridgman (known as Long Ben). He was stripped of his fortune of uncut diamonds by greedy Bristol merchants, who tracked him down & threatened to expose him. He died in poverty in 1696 and is buried in Bideford Church.   

John Rilesden, born 1560, active 1587-1596 

Owned the Prudence and robbed vessels off Spain in 1587. In 1595 he was active in the Caribbean, all working for a London syndicate.