Canoot (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1698, real name unknown) was a French pirate active off the coast of

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. Governor William Markham of Pennsylvania described Canoot and his crew: "They are begarly rogues, and will pillage for a trifle."

History

In early 1698 John Redwood of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

was sailing out of Maryland’s

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toward

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

when he was attacked by Canoot and his pirates. They exchanged ships with Redwood, leaving him their slower vessel and taking his sloop. That September Canoot sailed to the waters off

Sussex County, Delaware Sussex County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 237,378, making it the state's second most populated county behind New Castle and ahead of Ke ...

. Residents saw the sloop but were not alarmed, thinking him "little dreaded of being an enemy or French, both which they proved." The following day he stormed the town of

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

with fifty men, plundering everything of value, including the residents’ clothes, leaving them "scarce anything in the place to cover or wear." Canoot’s pirates also stole all the town’s livestock and forced the inhabitants to help load their sloop. He then anchored offshore until he left to chase a passing ship. Canoot was equally violent to his own men, having "shott one of his owne men for some misdemeanor." This was not his first attack - “Many other crimes of similar nature were traced to Canoot and his pirate ship” - so local officials levied a tax to raise funds for coastal defense, though Canoot escaped.

References

17th-century pirates Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown French pirates {{Pirate-stub

History

See also

References