by Annalou Mack

Created on: October 06, 2008   Last Updated: October 08, 2008

Suppose for a second that Captain John Avery didn't die in England, but died in Delaware, USA. There was a Captain John Avery of Delaware and for many years it was supposed that he was The Arch Pirate. That assumption has been written up in family trees for years supposing that Captain John Avery and The Arch Pirate were one and the same. In looking closely at the dates of the two people it can easily be determined that the Delaware Avery could not have been the pirate. Captain John Avery of Delaware was born in August 1632 in Wapping, England, the son of Mathew and Anna Avery, while John/Henry Avery was born in Plymouth, England in 1653 or 1665, whichever source you believe.

There were similarities in their lives which may have aided in the misconception. The Delaware Avery did take to the sea as had his father, Mathew, a professional mariner. The source for John's title Captain was not his maritime occupation, that title was received when he was appointed Captain of the Foot Company of Militia in the county of Whorekill (now Sussex) County, Delaware. This, no doubt, is the reason for the assumption that John Avery of Delaware was the notorious Captain John Avery the pirate. It is well known that the famous pirate was at the height of his piracy in the mid 1690s more than a decade after Captain John Avery's death occurred on November 16, 1682 as recorded in Sussex County, Delaware. So it's time to lay that rumor to rest.

Not much is known about the early life of the real pirate except that he began working on ships as a youth. After becoming a mate on a merchant ship he was involved in a mutiny and the crew elected him captain. His life as a pirate did not last long. His biggest coup was to seize a ship of the Great Mogul containing a rich treasure and the daughter of the Mogul making the pirate a very wealthy man.

An Oak Island researcher believes that Avery teamed up with Captain Kidd and that much of Avery's treasure is stored on Oak Island, Nova Scotia along with that of Captain Kidd. The subterranean tunnels on Oak Island have been explored and, so far, no treasure has been found. Still the tales continue to be told.

Anyway, Avery disappeared in the late 1690s and nothing is known of where or how he died or what became of his loot. One story was told that he was cheated out of his fortune and died destitute in Bideford, England. So far there has been nothing found to substantiate that story.

Much has been written about the exploits of Captain Avery, including a play by Charles Johnson, called "The Successful Pyrate," "The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery," "The King of the Pirates, being an account of the famous enterprises of Captain Avary," by Daniel Defoe and in 1983 a novel by George MacDonald Fraser, "the Pyrates."

Probably the only other pirate that has gained more notoriety than Avery is Captain Kidd. For some reason there is a mystic surrounding the lives of the pirates which romanticizes them. Think how popular the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies have been.

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