Edward Spragge

Sir Edward Spragge (name also written as Spragg or Sprague) (circa 1620 – 21 August 1673) was an Irish admiral of the Royal Navy. He was a fiery, brilliantly accomplished seaman who fought in many great actions after the restoration of King Charles II in 1660.

Spragge was son of Lichfield Spragge of Roscommon, Ireland, by his wife Mary Legge (sister of William Legge), and grandson of John Spragge, who came to Ireland in the Elizabethan period. His father was killed in about 1645 during the Civil War when Royalist Governor of Roscommon.

Edward Spragge is said to have been a slave in Algiers before serving in the English Civil War from 1648 in Prince Rupert's royalist naval squadron. He remained loyal to the Stuarts after the war. When the royalist fleet had been dispersed in 1651, he began to work for the Dutch as a privateer in the First Anglo-Dutch War, which explains why some of his later colleagues had mixed feelings about him. He was very popular with the common sailors though because of his ebullient character; as Samuel Pepys put it, "he was a merry man, singing a pleasant song pleasantly". After 1653, he became a pirate associating himself with the Flemish Collaert family, a group of Dunkirkers that after the French conquest of Dunkirk in 1646, had likewise been forced to seek employment elsewhere. Spragge married Clara, daughter of the famous privateer Jacob Collaert, the Governor of Dunkirk. He often clashed with Commonwealth vessels when employed by the Spanish as a privateer in the Anglo-Spanish War (1654).

After the English Restoration, Spragge was pardoned by Charles II and rewarded for his loyalty by being made captain of HMS Drake. Whenever Charles had need to send an envoy to the Spanish Netherlands, he often employed Spragge because of his good contacts there.

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