Philadelphia: Popular Pirate Destination, Part 1

An 1861 article from the Philadelphia Ledger announced that three coffins containing the remains of pirates hanged in 1800 for stealing cargo were found on Windmill Island (a now non-existent island in the Delaware River which had extended from Race Street to South Street) by some workers loading coal in the area. “The coffins were in an excellent state of preservation, and the skeletons within them were perfect, with the exception of two of them being without the skulls.”¹

Pirates not only walked the streets of Philadelphia, they also played a significant role in the city’s history, particularly in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1699, four of Captain Kidd’s crew members were arrested and tried in Philadelphia. Around the same time, the pirate Henry Avery frequented the city. One of his men married the daughter of Pennsylvania’s Acting Governor William Markham and another entrusted his money to Governor Markham’s safekeeping when he was imprisoned in Philadelphia. Blackbeard reportedly stayed at an inn located at Second and High (now Market) Streets in Philadelphia during his visits from 1716-1718. “He is said to have made repeated visits to Philadelphia, and to have been countenanced and abetted by men in respectable repute.”²