Paulsgrave Williams

Paulsgrave Williams (c. 1675 – after 1723), first name occasionally Paul, Palsgrave, or Palgrave, sometimes "William Paul," was a pirate who was active 1716–1723 and sailed in the Caribbean, American eastern seaboard, and off West Africa. He is best known for sailing alongside Samuel Bellamy.

History In 1715, Williams, about 40 years old, was living in Boston with his wife and children. There he met Samuel Bellamy, who 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. Williams' family life 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 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.

They took several more ships together in the coming months, meeting former pirate John Ham to sell off some captured goods, before Levasseur went his own way. Bellamy transferred to the Whydah, giving its captain the Sultana in exchange. Now with one of the largest and best-armed ships on their side of the Atlantic, Williams and Bellamy sailed northward, pillaging ships up the American east coast. Separated by fog and storms off Virginia, they soon met up again and sailed toward Rhode Island. Bellamy granted the captured ship Anne Galley to his quartermaster Richard Noland. including Samuel Bellamy. Williams may have visited the site of the wreck before sailing back south to New Providence. Williams had a number of sailors on board whom he'd forced into piracy, including his carpenter; on the way south he had to put down a mutiny among his crew when a number of them (led by the forced sailors) rebelled. He arrived in the Bahamas at almost the same time as Noland, who had survived the storm that claimed Whydah. He sold the worn-out Marianne and along with Hornigold and many others, accepted the pardon offered by King George to all pirates who surrendered by September 1718.