Henry Jennings

Biography

Early life

Henry Jennings was the son of John Jennings, whose mother was the daughter of Perient and Mary Trott, she was also the sister of Perient Trott and Nicholas Trott, the later was the governor of Bahamas. Author Colin Woodard describes Jennings as "an educated ship captain with a comfortable estate" on Bermuda, and he had estates on both Bermuda, a colony inextricably linked with the history of privateering, and Jamaica. the affluent neighbourhood in Smith's Parish to the immediate west of which is still known as Jennings' Land after Captain Richard Jennings (who was a member of the Council of Bermuda during and after the English Civil War).

Privateering from Jamaica Although little is known of Jennings's early life, he was first recorded as a privateer during the 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession operating from Jamaica, then governed by Lord Archibald Hamilton.

Plate Fleet raids of November 1715 On 31 July a large Spanish treasure fleet heading out from Havana,

By the time Jennings arrived in Florida in early 1716, at Palma de Ayz, possibly close to Vero Beach. stealing about £87,500 in gold and silver, equivalent to a ten-year salary.

Dividing spoils in Nassau, return to Jamaica The New Providence capital of Nassau by 1715 was the former capital of the collapsed Bahamian government. According to Connor, shortly after arriving in Nassau, Jennings took a small Spanish trading sloop from Hornigold. As Jennings had 200 "well-armed" men under his command and at least two sloops, Hornigold was unable to stop him, with some of Jennings's men moving aboard the taken sloop to relieve crowding on the others. The flotilla left for Jamaica "after a few days of revelry and the orderly distribution of the crew's portion of the prize money." or 120,000 pieces of eight,

Jennings arrived to find Bellamy sailing away, and although he fruitlessly gave chase, he gave up and returned to the St. Marie to find the valuables taken. As a reward for betraying Jennings, Hornigold gave Bellamy the Marianne, although Blackbeard had expected to be given that command himself.

Jennings was furious at the loss of the valuables on the St. Marie. He had the second of Bellamy's periaguas seized and "cut to pieces," presumably with the remainder of Bellamy's men onboard. On his third trip to the wrecks, Jennings intercepted a Spanish vessel as it returned from the salvage site, and reappeared off Port Royal with 30,000 pieces of eight he had forcibly taken from the Spanish vessel. Hamilton made it clear that Jennings would be arrested if the Bersheba entered Kingston harbor, and the sloop and the cargo impounded. Jennings and his crew chose to sail away with their cargo. Also evicted from the mainland of Jamaica, many pirates followed Jennings's example and headed for New Providence. However, Nassau eye-witness John Vickers was not referring to Jennings or other Jamaican privateers as part of the Flying Gang by the summer of 1716. In early 1718, Jennings sailed to Bermuda to turn himself in,

It is unknown what his ultimate fate was: some sources claim he retired as a wealthy plantation owner in Bermuda, some historians speculate that he was captured by the Spaniards in his later years, dying in obscurity in a New Spanish prison, and other legends have him growing old with his family in Bermuda. He is not listed on the 1727 property tax assessment of Bermuda despite the presence of other Jennings there. Various men named "Henry Jennings" populate Bermuda's history; however, the former pirate Captain Henry Jennings was likely the one killed or captured by the French or Spanish while operating as a privateer during the War of Jenkins' Ear and the War of the Austrian Succession. The Pennsylvania Gazette of July 4, 1745, reported: "They had advice in Bermuda of the loss of 7 of their sloops ... taken in different parts of the West-Indies within a few months past, commanded by the following Captains, viz., Henry Jennings..."