Captured by Pirates

A list of captives redeemed east of Argiers, by His Majesties Bounty, and at His Sole Charge, in the Months of December and January 1674/5, by Sir John Narborough, Mr Brisbatie and Mr Martin His Majesties Consul at Argiers.”

(Source: London Gazette, Thursday, February 24, 1676; Issue 1072, from the Burney-Gale Archive)

Listing those men who had been captured by Barbary pirates who were subsequently  ransomed from the North African city state Algiers in 1675 including, to my astonishment, the last but one in roughly two hundred names, one Robert Pomery.

A huge problem along the south coast in the 17th Century, was the number of Barbary or Salee pirates who  prayed on our ships.  For  years they had  spirited away ships and cargos but in  August 1625 they came ashore.

Corsairs raided Mount’s Bay in Cornwall & captured 60 men, women & children& took them into slavery.

In 1626 St Keverne was repeatedly attacked, & boats out of Looe, Penzance, Mousehole & other Cornish ports were boarded, their crews taken captive & the empty ships left to drift. Around 60 Barbary men-of-war prowled the Devon and Cornish coasts & attacks became an almost daily occurrence. 

Those kidnapped were taken to the slave markets of the Ottoman Empire to be bought as labourers or concubines,
or pressed into service as  galleys slaves manning the oars. 

 
These Moorish pirates  had a base on Lundy Island of all places - picking off ships as they approached Bristol and well as raiding around the coast .
Many attempts to stop them were made, by the navy's of various countries, but it was not until an attack by the British and Dutch in 1816 , in which more than 4,000 Christian slaves were liberated , that the power of the Barbary pirates was broken.