Robert Searles

Robert Searle
Piratical career
Nickname	John Davis
Type	Buccaneer
Allegiance	None
Base of operations	Jamaica
Commands	Cagway

Robert Searle (alias John Davis) was one of the earliest and most active of the English buccaneers on Jamaica.

Nothing, to date, is known of his early life. The famous buccaneer chronicler, Esquemeling, states that Searle was “born at Jamaica,” but this seems unlikely, since that island did not become an English dominion until 1655. Searle’s career as a “gentleman of fortune” was marred by frequent quarrels with Sir Thomas Modyford, royal governor of Jamaica, who usually befriended buccaneers.

Searle’s first known ship was the 60-ton, 8-gun Cagway, the largest of four Spanish merchantmen captured by Sir Christopher Myngs as he returned from his raid on Santa Marta and Tolú (Colombia) in 1659. Four years later, Searle captained the Cagway as part of Myng’s expedition against Santiago de Cuba. This force of 1,300 men and a dozen vessels sailed from Port Royal (Jamaica) on 1 October 1662 and two-and-a-half weeks later disembarked to the east of their intended target. Santiago was overrun the following day and a considerable amount of booty carried back to Jamaica.

In 1664, the political situation in Europe and the Caribbean was volatile. Constant raiding by English buccaneers had prompted repeated and vociferous protests from Madrid, delivered by the Spanish ambassador to King Charles II of England. In turn, a letter to Governor Modyford from the king stated that “His Majesty cannot sufficiently express his dissatisfaction at the daily complaints of violence and depredation” against the Spanish by the ships of Jamaica. Modyford was “again strictly commanded not only to forbid the prosecution of such violence for the future, but to inflict condign punishment upon offenders, and to have the entire restitution and satisfaction made to the sufferers.”

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