John Hoar (died 1697, last name occasionally Hoare or Hore) was a pirate and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

active in the late 1690s in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

area.

History

Hoar and his frigate ''Dublin'' had been granted a privateering commission from Governor Sir

William Beeston William Beeston (1606? – 1682) was an English actor and theatre manager, the son and successor to the more famous Christopher Beeston. Early phase William was brought up in the theatrical world of his father; he became an actor, and also his ...

of Jamaica, and near Canada had taken a 200-ton, 14-gun French prize called ''St. Paul''. In January 1694 he convinced the Rhode Island General Assembly to convene an

Admiralty Court Admiralty courts, also known as maritime courts, are courts exercising jurisdiction over all admiralty law, maritime contracts, torts, injuries, and offenses. United Kingdom England and Wales Scotland The Scottish court's earliest records, ...

and award him the prize so he could swap vessels, renaming the ship ''John and Rebecca''. He then purchased a second privateering commission from Governor

Benjamin Fletcher Benjamin Fletcher (14 May 1640 – 28 May 1703) was colonial governor of New York from 1692 to 1697. Fletcher was known for the ''Ministry Act'' of 1693, which secured the place of Anglicans as the official religion in New York. He also built ...

of New York. Fletcher later claimed no knowledge of Hoar's piracy, despite having previously granted a commission to Hoar's own brother-in-law Richard Glover, also a privateer-turned-pirate. The ''John and Rebecca'' sailed for the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

and the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

in December 1695. It was during this voyage that

Abraham Samuel Abraham Samuel (died 1705), also known as "Deaan Tuley-Noro" or "Tolinar Rex", was a mulatto pirate of the Indian Ocean in the days of the Pirate Round in the late 1690s. He was said to be born in Martinique or Jamaica, or possibly in Anosy, Mad ...

was elected ship's quartermaster. After some navigation trouble they put in at

Adam Baldridge Adam Baldridge () was an English pirate and one of the early founders of the pirate settlements in Madagascar. History After fleeing from Jamaica to escape murder charges, Baldridge sailed to Madagascar and, by 1690, had established a base of op ...

’s pirate trading post at St. Augustine in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

until April 1696. Before leaving for the Red Sea they picked up some of the surviving crew from Thomas Wake’s ''Susanna''; Wake and a number of his crew had taken sick and died of illness a short while earlier. Hoar sailed alongside Dutch pirate

Dirk Chivers Dirk Chivers (, last name occasionally Shivers) was a Dutch pirate active in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Early career Dirk Chivers is first recorded as a crew member of the ''Portsmouth Adventure'', , under Captain Joseph Faro (or Farrell) arou ...

in the Red Sea, plundering several ships including the Bombay-bound ''Rouparelle'' and ''Calicut'' in August 1696. Hoar then parted from Chivers to stalk the Persian Gulf, where in early 1697 he captured a 300-ton Indian ship near

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

. He returned to Baldridge's settlement with the prize in February 1697, where he remained several months, trading with Baldridge and other pirates who called there. In July 1697 the natives rebelled, killing a number of pirates and their crews. Some sources point to Hoar's death during the rebellion; others say he was already dead of illness by that time, and that only his ship and a partial crew remained when the settlement was destroyed. Abraham Samuel escaped the attack and took a few shipmates with him in the decrepit ''John and Rebecca''; they wrecked shortly afterward but were taken in as guests by a native princess, and Samuel went on to found a pirate trading camp near Fort Dauphin. A few of Hoar's other crewmen made it back to New England where they were arrested in 1699 for harboring some of

William Kidd William Kidd (c. 1645 – 23 May 1701), also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish-American privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in N ...

's pirates, including James Kelly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoar, John Year of birth missing English pirates 17th-century pirates English privateers 1697 deaths Piracy in the Indian Ocean

History

See also

References