George Raynor

George Raynor (1665–1743)) was a pirate and privateer active in the Red Sea. As a pirate he captained the Batchelor’s Delight (or Loyal Jamaica). He story is often conflated with that of Josiah Raynor, an unrelated pirate active in the same time period and in the same areas.

Biography

In 1687 Raynor married Sarah Higby in Lyme CT. Ostensibly sailing as a privateer against the French, Raynor had been elected captain of the Loyal Jamaica (later renamed Bachelor's Delight) in 1690.

He put in at Adam Baldridge’s pirate trading post near Madagascar in late 1691 after capturing a Moorish ship, along with William Cotter. He and his crew may have captured one last ship before ending their voyage, taking a vessel belonging to Carolina plantation owner Jonathan Amory. Raynor ran the ship aground; its guns were seized for use by Charles Town. Absolved of piracy by 1692, he and the crew settled locally. Records show him recognized as a merchant, having been indemnified against accusations stemming from his pirate days. Raynor purchased a series of properties on Kiawah Island. His daughter married the son of former Carolina governor James Moore, and together with some of Moore's other children, eventually moved to Cape Fear.

References to Raynor after he left the Carolinas generally refer to Josiah Raynor, not George. At least one source (Jameson After selling his Long Island property he settled in Connecticut.

According to one account, in 1683 near Guinea, privateer John Cook captured a Dutch merchantman which he named Batchelor’s Delight, which itself had been the Portsmouth when captured by Dutch privateers from its English owners. Also aboard was Thomas Pinckney, who later joined Raynor's crew. They sailed around South America raiding Spanish shipping and towns in concert with Charles Swan's Cygnet and others. Shortly afterwards the 14-gun, 80-man Batchelor’s Delight was sold to its former crew; some sources claim that Raynor had now become Captain of the Batchelor’s Delight, returning to the Indian Ocean to sail against Portuguese and English shipping.

Other sources show the Batchelor's Delight in the hands of former crewman (and associate of Cook's) James Kelley ("James Gilliam") after Raynor's departure; Kelley continued his piracy in the Indian Ocean before he was captured by Moorish pirates in 1692.

2021 research by French historian Raynald Laprise has shown that Loyal Jamaica was a prize captured from the French by English privateers (of which Raynor was a crewmember) operating from Jamaica. It was sold to English merchants but the crew mutinied and elected Raynor as captain. They sailed to the Indian Ocean and took prizes, during which the ship was called Bachelor's Delight; James Kelley may have been captain for part of this period. They returned to Carolina, scuttled the ship at Sewee Bay, and took a pardon while paying the ship's original owners for its loss.