Hezekiah Frith
Hezekiah Frith | |
---|---|
A portrait of Hezekiah Frith. | |
Born | 1763 Bermuda |
Died | 1848 Bermuda |
Nationality | English |
Height | 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) |
Children | Hezekiah Frith Jr. |
Piratical career | |
Type | Privateer |
Allegiance | Great Britain |
Years active | 1790s–1810s |
Rank | Captain |
Base of operations | Bermuda |
Later work | Ship owner/ Slave Owner |
Hezekiah Frith, Sr. (1763–1848) was an 18th-century British ship owner, slave trader and privateer. One of the richest men in Bermuda during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he built the Spithead House in Warwick, Bermuda.[1]
Life
Born in Bermuda, he was one of seven children born to Captain William Frith and Sarah Lee. As a successful shipowner during the 1780s and 1790s, he became engaged in privateering and smuggling, from which he reportedly made his fortune.[2] In August 1796 he slipped into the French port of Cap Français at San Domingo during the night and stole away a captured British transport ship.[3]
Participating in a number of privateering expeditions with the Royal Navy, he is supposed to have hoarded treasure from at least two captured ships in the store he operated next to the Spithead House on Granaway Deep; he supposedly used the water tank at Spithead to smuggle captured goods and other valuable items before filing claim at the Customs House. He apparently has multiple accounts of robbery of ships from Jamaica. Frith is also claimed to have rescued (or kidnapped) a Frenchwoman, whom he kept there as a mistress: both are said to haunt the house, according to local lore. The house would later be owned successively by dramatist Eugene O'Neill, Sir Noël Coward[1][4] and Charlie Chaplin and his wife Oona O'Neill (Lady Chaplin).[5]
The Granaway home on Harbour Road, which he had built for his daughter, was later bought by a family of free blacks descended from a slave named Caprice, who had originally been brought to Bermuda on a ship captured by Hezekiah Frith on one of his voyages. Adele Tucker, a well-known Bermudian educator and co-founder of Bermuda Union of Teachers, grew up in the home.[6]
He was married three times, his daughters all marrying Presbyterian ministers; his son Hezekiah Frith, Jr. became a prominent religious figure.
Descendants
Brother and sister Heather Nova and Mishka, two popular Bermudian singers and songwriters, and their uncle, Michael K. Frith, are descendants of Frith.[7]
Slavery
Frith was a slave trader. He used both enslaved people and free men to crew his ships. As a privateer he would recover stolen British slave ships in order to sell the captives himself.[8]
References
- ^ a b Forbes, Keith Archibald (20 May 2008). "Bermuda's Warwick Parish". Bermuda-online.org.
- ^ Bowen, Croswell. The Curse of the Misbegotten: A Tale of the House of O'Neill. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. (pg. 159)
- ^ Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association (21 May 2008). "Competitive Sailing: Bermuda's Shared Maritime Heritage". Boda.bm. Archived from the original on 27 June 2007.
- ^ Gorham, Laura (2003). "Art Scene: Bookish Bermuda". ExperienceBermuda.com. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
- ^ "Ports: King's Wharf". CruiseCritic.com. 1995.
- ^ "Adele Evelina Johnson Tucker". BermudaBiographies.bm. 2007. Archived from the original on 15 November 2009.
- ^ Jones, Rosemary. Moon Bermuda. Emeryville, California: Avelon Travel Publishing, 2006 (p. 65); ISBN 1-56691-902-9
- ^ Zuill, William S. The Story of Bermuda and Her People. New York: Macmillan, 1973. (pg.108)
Further reading
- Kennedy, Jean de Chantal. Biography of a Colonial Town, Hamilton, Bermuda, 1790–1897. Hamilton: Bermuda Books, 1961.
- Kennedy, Jean de Chantal. Frith of Bermuda, Gentleman Privateer: a biography of Hezekiah Frith, 1763–1848. Hamilton: Bermuda Books, 1964.
- Wilkinson, Henry Campbell. Bermuda from Sail to Steam: The History of the Island from 1784 to 1901. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
External links
- WhoBegatWho.com – Hezekiah Frith
- RootsWeb: Frith-L Archives, Frith, Capt. Hezekiah
- v
- t
- e
- Albanian piracy
- Anglo-Turkish piracy
- Baltic Slavic pirates
- Barbary pirates (corsairs)
- Brethren of the Coast
- Buccaneers
- Cilician pirates
- Child pirate
- Cossack pirates
- Filibusters
- French corsairs
- Jewish pirates
- Moro pirates
- Narentines
- Privateers
- River pirate
- Sea Beggars
- Sea Dogs
- Sindhi corsairs
- Timber pirate
- Ushkuyniks
- Uskoks
- Vikings
- Victual Brothers
- Wokou
- Women in piracy
Atlantic World | |
---|---|
Indian Ocean | |
Other waters | |
Pirate havens and bases |
- Adventure Galley
- Ambrose Light
- Fancy
- Flying Dutchman
- Ganj-i-Sawai
- Queen Anne's Revenge
- Quedagh Merchant
- Marquis of Havana
- My Revenge
- Royal Fortune
- Saladin
- Whydah Gally
- York
- 1582 Cagayan battles
- 1985 Lahad Datu ambush
- Action of 9 November 1822
- Action of 28 October 2007
- Action of 11 November 2008
- Action of 9 April 2009
- Action of 23 March 2010
- Action of 1 April 2010
- Action of 5 April 2010
- Anti-piracy in the Aegean
- Antelope incident
- Anti-piracy in the West Indies
- Attack on Veracruz
- Balanguingui Expedition
- Battle of Boca Teacapan
- Battle of Cape Fear River
- Battle of Cape Lopez
- Battle of Doro Passage
- Battle of Mandab Strait
- Battle of Manila
- Battle off Minicoy Island
- Battle off Mukah
- Battle of Nam Quan
- Battle of New Orleans
- Battle of Ocracoke Inlet
- Battle of Pianosa
- Battle of the Leotung
- Battle of the Tiger's Mouth
- Battle of Tonkin River
- Battle of Ty-ho Bay
- Battle of Tysami
- Beluga Nomination incident
- Blockade of Charleston (Vane)
- Chepo Expedition
- Capture of the Ambrose Light
- Capture of John "Calico Jack" Rackham
- Capture of the schooner Bravo
- Capture of the schooner Fancy
- Capture of the sloop Anne
- Carré d'As IV incident
- Dai Hong Dan incident
- Falklands Expedition
- Great Lakes Patrol
- Irene incident
- Jiajing wokou raids
- Maersk Alabama hijacking
- MT Zafirah hijacking
- MT Orkim Harmony hijacking
- MV Moscow University hijacking
- North Star affair
- Operation Enduring Freedom – HOA
- Operation Atalanta
- Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden
- Operation Dawn 8: Gulf of Aden
- Operation Ocean Shield
- Persian Gulf Campaign
- Pirate attacks in Borneo
- Quest incident
- Raid on Cartagena
- Sack of Baltimore
- Sack of Campeche
- Salvador Pirates
- Slave raid of Suðuroy
- Turkish Abductions
- African slave trade
- African Slave Trade Patrol
- Amistad Incident
- Atlantic slave trade
- Barbary slave trade
- Blockade of Africa
- Capture of the Veloz Passagera
- Capture of the brig Brillante
- Indian Ocean slave trade
- Trans-Saharan slave trade
popular
culture
Fictional pirates |
|
---|---|
Novels |
|
Tropes | |
Miscellaneous |
Lists | |
---|---|
Categories |
|
- Piracy portal
- Category