Amateur historian ties Jones Beach namesake to pirate Henry Every's heist
James Bailey's reading of colonial documents suggests Thomas Jones helped Capt. Henry Every's crew escape justice after the 1695 Ganj-i-Sawai raid.
What to know
- Amateur historian James Bailey says colonial documents implicate Thomas Jones, namesake of Jones Beach, in helping pirate Capt. Henry Every's crew escape after the 1695 Ganj-i-Sawai heist.
- Evidence includes depositions suggesting Jones acted as a 'wheelman' and a 1698 letter from New York's governor calling Jones 'formerly a pirate.'
- The claims build on rumors about Jones dating back centuries, which a 1906 family history dismissed as slander; Bailey hopes to publish his research formally.
- The story is carried almost entirely by AP wire copy republished across multiple outlets, with no independent verification yet from other historians beyond author John Hanc's comments.
“People were disposed to cast slurs upon his memory, either for mischievousness, or a spirit of malice”
Thomas Floyd-Jones, Descendant of Thomas Jones, family historian · Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) ↗ · Nov 1
James Bailey Amateur historian and researcherThomas Jones Colonial-era New York landowner, namesake of Jones BeachHenry Every English pirate captain, "King of the Pirates"Richard Coote New York colonial governor (1698)John Hanc Author of "Jones Beach: An Illustrated History"
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Bailey's new research implicates Jones Beach namesake in Every's escape
Bailey says colonial documents, including depositions from Every's associates, show Thomas Jones served as a 'wheelman' helping the pirate crew evade capture before Jones became a wealthy Long Island whaling proprietor; he hopes to publish the findings, which historian John Hanc says fill in a long-rumored gap in Jones's biography.
“Nobody knew that he was actually a major player in arguably the biggest heist in the history of piracy.”
— James Bailey -
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Bailey unearths coins linked to pirate Henry Every — James Bailey made headlines after finding ancient coins believed to be connected to Capt. Henry Every, the starting point for his continued research into the pirate's fate.
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Jones descendant dismisses pirate rumors as 'slander' — A family history published by Thomas Floyd-Jones, one of Thomas Jones's descendants, rejected the long-circulating pirate tales as fiction.
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New York's colonial governor investigates Thomas Jones over piracy ties — Gov. Richard Coote, tasked by the British crown with suppressing piracy, wrote that a 'barrel of money' traveled from New York City to Jones's Long Island house, and described Jones as 'formerly a pirate'; Jones denied knowledge of the barrel.
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Henry Every's crew raids the Ganj-i-Sawai in the Red Sea — Capt. Henry Every led a pirate crew that attacked a royal Indian treasure ship, torturing, killing and raping those aboard and stealing tens of millions of dollars' worth of gold and silver, triggering what is considered the first worldwide manhunt.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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5 outlets Amateur historian’s look into murderous pirate finds New York beach namesake may have helped
first by Orlando Sentinel, 9d ago · also Baltimore Sun, Mercury News, Philadelphia Inquirer, AP News
and 1 smaller piece