This introduction was written by Richard Rutherford-Moore
©2002
INTRODUCTION
John Vincent is held to have been executed
in Nottingham before 1730 but the circumstances of his execution
render all accounts of the hanging suspect : it is well-known
that the surgeon who had undertaken to acquire the body after
the execution was disappointed in receiving only an informer,
rendered unconscious by an unknown felon and reputedly substituted
for the infamous pirate in the general panic before, during
and after the hanging of Vincent on the unique charge of piracy
and highway robbery. Though both collusion and conspiracy
on the part of certain authorities and constables was alleged
at the time, no proof of this has since been laid before any
Court or Magistrate, leaving us with a tantalizing mystery
as to what really happened to Vincent as he is mentioned vaguely
in only one book from the period, published in 1734 (see later).
Only one copy of the original manuscript is known (1). The
manuscript papers re-found during building refurbishment may
now throw more light on the subject of Jack Vincent as they
were written by - or perhaps dictated to - Hoyle by a man
who may have served as gunner on board Vincent’s ship,
Avenger. Though the manuscript is incomplete with the remaining
papers suffering from water damage and partly eaten by vermin,
the manuscript does offer support for previous assumptions
about a notorious character who held a seemingly charmed existence
who even after betrayal and capture during his execution as
a criminal seems to have simply vanished into thin air.
Did Jack Vincent cheat death and leave
these shores to return to his old haunts? Did he resume a
career as a pirate or did he put aside his sword and pistols
to settle and live out his life as a respectable person, funded
by the considerable plunder he reputedly amassed as a thief,
in a unique precedent being the only man recorded as being
condemned in court as both a pirate and a ‘highwayman’?
When all we have to deal with are folk-tales, myths, legends
and local traditions it is to be expected that more studious
historians will cast doubt on any claim unsupported by historical
evidence. It may well be that the final pages in the biography
of ‘Black Jack’ Vincent are out there somewhere
just waiting to be discovered ; but a valuable addition to
the mystery was found in papers found in a box in an old house
in Nottinghamshire in 1998. Belonging to The Reverend Thomas
Hoyle, the papers concerned his record of a family member
who by circumstances had been transported to The West Indies
as punishment but had later escaped and turned to crime in
order to subsist, he and his son both becoming members of
the fraternity of pirates operating in the Indian Ocean and
Caribbean Sea during what was later termed by historians as
‘The Golden Age of Piracy’.
If you wish to read more please follow
the links below to the special page for
Captain Jack Vincent of the Avenger at the site of The Sea
Thieves Pirate Association.
Captain
Jack Vincent
Pirate and Highwayman
~
Contents on said page all written
by Richard Rutherford-Moore;
From the manuscript of Parson Thomas
Hoyle concerning William Spry nee Moore dated circa 1740 ;
being an account and attempted reconstruction compiled and
edited from the manuscript found in Nottingham.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Part One - 1685 - 1703
Part Two - 1703 - 1720
Part Three - 1721 – 1727
Chapter 2
Part Four - ‘Captain Jack Vincent’
1715 - 1728
Appendix 1 - The Capture, Trial &
Execution of Jack Vincent
Appendix 2 - Chronology of Jack Vincent
Appendix 3 - “The Devil’s
Cruise”
Appendix 4 - The History of the Avenger
Suggested Further Reading
