Paulsgrave Williams

Paulsgrave Williams (active 1716-1723, first name occasionally Paul, Palsgrave, or Palgrave) was a pirate who sailed the Caribbean, American eastern seaboard, and off West Africa. He is best known for sailing alongside Samuel Bellamy.

Bellamy intended to loot the wrecks of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet, reportedly to impress the family of Mary Hallett, whose Cape Cod family disapproved of her marrying a poor sailor. In Boston he befriended 40-ish Newport silversmith Paulsgrave Williams whose age, wife and children, and well-to-do lineage made him an unlikely pirate. Together in early 1716 they traveled to the Caribbean with a few dozen treasure-hunters and searched the wrecks unsuccessfully. Despairing, they traded their canoes for small periaguas and turned to piracy.

They were driven off from a captured sloop by the approach of several ships. The approaching ships were not Royal Navy or privateers; they were fellow pirates led by Henry Jennings, James Carnegie, and Leigh Ashworth. They hid in nearby marshes to observe Jennings’ fleet before hailing them. Joining forces, they captured a French ship that happened into the area. Jennings took his group to chase another ship, leaving Bellamy and Williams to loot the French ship, which they promptly did and sailed away before Jennings could return.

Soon they met with Benjamin Hornigold. Impressed with Bellamy and Williams – and no fan of Jennings - Hornigold took them in and joined forces with them alongside Olivier Levasseur’s ship Postillion. While successful, Hornigold’s crew resented his reluctance to attack English ships. They voted him out of command in Spring, electing Bellamy as Captain of Hornigold’s ship Marianne, and placing Hornigold and a few supporters in a captured sloop to make their way back to New Providence. Bellamy appointed Williams as his quartermaster and sailed with Levasseur for several months. Williams and Bellamy continued to operate out of Nassau through 1716. Near the Virgin Islands in December 1716 they captured two ships, Pearl and Sultana. Bellamy transferred to the Sultana, giving Williams the Marianne and letting Pearl go free with all the sailors who refused to take up piracy.

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