Richard Shipton

Richard Shipton (died 1726?; last name occasionally spelled Skipton) was a pirate active in the Caribbean, best known for sailing alongside Edward Low and Francis Spriggs. In 1723, Shipton was elected captain of Merry Christmas, They placed Low and his supporters in a small French sloop they'd taken near Martinique and set them adrift. Shipton was then elected captain of Merry Christmas. They put into a small island to careen, where Shipton burned Merry Christmas and transferred to the captured sloop Royal Fortune. After Spriggs and Shipton took several more vessels near Belize, Shipton transferred to the newly rearmed prize ship York.

HMS Diamond, under commander James Windham, had heard rumours about Spriggs and Shipton's piracies and sailed to Belize to investigate. Drawing them out, Diamond fought both pirates in a desperate but inconclusive action in August 1724. The pair sailed north, taking ships off South Carolina before returning to the Bay of Honduras. Here Shipton took another vessel, John and Mary, forcing its crew to follow him back to Roatán. The prize crew mutinied, killing the pirates Shipton left on the prize and sailing back to Newport, Rhode Island, where they were tried and exonerated. but Shipton was forced to beach his vessel on western Cuba and flee inland with his remaining crew – thought to number only 13 men, nine white and four black. Diamond and Spence were still hunting them, and in early 1726 they found both Spriggs and Shipton ashore. The English vessels island-hopped, landing soldiers ashore who captured Shipton - found in his bed - and almost all of Spriggs' men. Shipton is presumed to have died shortly afterwards, though Spriggs may have gotten away.