Sir Henry Morgan - Early life, Loss of English support, Retirement, Trivia

Buccaneer, born in Llanrumney, S Wales, UK. Kidnapped as a child in Bristol and shipped to Barbados, he joined the buccaneers, leading many raids against the Spanish and Dutch in the West Indies and Central America. His most famous exploit was the sacking of Porto Bello and Panama (1671). Transported to London under arrest (1672) to placate the Spanish, he was subsequently knighted (1674) on the renewal of hostilities. He moved to Jamaica, where he became a wealthy planter and deputy-governor.

Early life

The eldest son of Robert Morgan, a squire of Llanrhymny in Glamorgan, Wales and his German wife, the details of Morgan's early life are sketchy. However his uncle Edward Morgan was Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica after the Restoration of Charles II of England, and Henry Morgan married his uncle's daughter, his cousin, Mary. Therefore it is more likely that he was the "Captain Morgan" who joined the fleet of Christopher Myngs in 1663 and accompanied the expedition of John Morris and Jackman when the Spanish settlements at Vildemos, Trujillo and Granada were taken.

In 1666 Morgan commanded a ship in Edward Mansfield's expedition which seized the island of Old Providence and Santa Catalina, and when Mansfield was captured and killed by the Spanish shortly afterwards, Morgan was chosen by the buccaneers as their admiral. Collecting ten ships with five hundred men, Morgan landed on the island and captured and sacked Puerto Principe, then went on to take the fortified and well-garrisoned town of Portobelo, Panama.

The governor of Panama, astonished at this daring adventure, attempted in vain to drive out the invaders, and finally Morgan consented to evacuate the place on the payment of a large ransom. These exploits had considerably exceeded the terms of Morgan's commission and had been accompanied by frightful cruelties and excesses, but the governor of Jamaica endeavoured to cover the whole under the necessity of allowing the English a free hand to attack the Spanish whenever possible. In London the Admiralty publicly claimed ignorance about this, whilst Morgan and his crew returned to their base at Port Royal, Jamaica, to celebrate.

Modyford almost immediately entrusted Morgan with another expedition against the Spaniards, and he proceeded to ravage the coast of Cuba.

Returning to Maracaibo, Morgan found three Spanish ships waiting at the inlet to the Caribbean;

The Spaniards on their side were moreover acting in the same way, and a new commission was given to Morgan, as commander-in-chief now of all the ships of war in Jamaica, to levy war on the Spaniards and destroy their ships and stores, the booty gained in the expedition being the only pay. Thus Morgan and his crew were privateers, not pirates. Accordingly, after ravaging the coasts of Cuba and the mainland, Morgan determined on an expedition to Panama.

Loss of English support

On January 18, 1671, Morgan discovered that Panama had roughly one thousand five hundred infantry and cavalry. But this has never been proven, some say that the remnants of the Spanish Infantry burned the city, after they knew victory was impossible, so Morgan could get nothing.

However, because the sack of Panama violated a peace treaty between England and Spain, Morgan was arrested and conducted to England in 1672. He was able to prove he had no knowledge of the treaty, and in 1674 Morgan was knighted before returning to Jamaica the following year to take up the post of Lieutenant Governor.

By 1681, then acting governor Morgan had fallen out of favor with the British king, who was intent on weakening the semi-autonomous Jamaican Council, and was replaced by long-time political rival Thomas Lynch.

Retirement

In 1683, Morgan was suspended from the Jamaican Council by the machinations of Governor Lynch. Morgan took steps to discredit the book and successfully brought a libel suit against the book's publisher, securing a retraction and damages of two hundred English pounds (Campbel, 2003).

When Thomas Lynch died in 1684, his friend Christopher Monck was appointed to the governorship and arranged the dismissal of Morgan's suspension from the Jamaican Council in 1688.

Morgan had lived in an opportune time for pirates.

Trivia

Sir Henry is immortalised now by Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, though it is produced in both Puerto Rico and Jamaica as well as a World Stars action figure. Peter Tosh states, "You teach the kids about the pirate Morgan, and you say he was a very good man." Amadan, an Oregon-based Irish music band told of the night of Sir Henry Morgan's death in a song titled "August 24th, 1688" on their album "Hell-Bent 4 Victory." In Survivor: Pearl Islands, one of the two tribes was named Morgan, along with Drake (after Sir Francis Drake.) In the manga/anime One Piece, there is a pirate villain called Axe-Hand Morgan, that Eiichiro Oda admitted was based on a real-life pirate. Captain Blood, a novel about piracy by Rafael Sabatini, features a character, Peter Blood, whose adventures are reportedly based on the piratical exploits of Henry Morgan. The 1942 film, The Black Swan, based on the novel of the same name by Rafael Sabatini, contains a fictionalized account of Henry Morgan after becoming the governor of Jamaica. In the video game Sid Meier's Pirates, Henry Morgan is the most notorious pirate with whom the player competes. Morgan's Revenge is the name of a popular game of chance manufactured in the USA by Channel Craft based on Sir Henry Morgan's travels and exploits: http://www.channelcraft.com/morgans.htm The pirate code from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was said to be created by the pirates Morgan and Bartholemew. "Morgan" clearly refers to Henry Morgan. The Hotel Henry Morgan, located in Roatan, the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands, bears the name of the notorious pirate.