John Bear

John Philip Bear, last name also spelled Beare, was a 17th-century English pirate active in the Caribbean who also served with the Spanish and French.

Biography Privateer for the English Bear was granted a privateering commission in September 1684 by Governor William Stapleton of Nevis, which he used to attack Spanish ships despite the commission only giving him leave to attack Indians and pirates. The Dutch Governor of Curacao in January 1685 ordered Bear tried for capturing a Spanish ship while the Dutch were at peace with Spain, which Bear avoided. However, in April 1686 Bear led a raid on Tortola, capturing slaves and abusing Dutch and English prisoners. As a result, the Dutch abandoned Tortola's fledgling colony.

Stapleton confirmed Bear's capture of the Spanish ship La Soldad in October; Bear claimed he had been searching for the ship that assaulted Tortola when La Soldad attacked him. Molesworth was not fooled: "The nobleman's daughter is a strumpet that he used to carry with him in man's apparel, and is the daughter of a rum-punch-woman of Port Royal". Bear apparently had kept his soon-to-be wife aboard his ship, dressed in men's clothes. Under Spanish colors he sailed as a guarda costa privateer, patrolling from Havana and Puerto Rico.

While Bear still engaged in some legitimate commerce (called "a man of good repute and an ancient trader to Jamaica"), by early 1688 he was capturing, looting, and releasing ships regularly, taking three in January alone from his 400 ton, 30-gun Golden Fleece.

Molesworth dispatched HMS Guernsey "to demand the surrender of the pirate Bear, or failing that, to seek him out and destroy him", though the Spanish would not give him up.

Turn to France After England allied with Spain thanks to King William's War, Bear continued to hunt English ships, having sailed to Petit Goave to take a French commission from the Comte de Blenac. In French service he turned against his former Spanish sponsors, joining with Jean-Baptiste du Casse for a time, then sailing to France where he received a fresh commission before returning to the Caribbean and sacking Caracas.