Rachel Wall:Notorious Woman Pirate
Colonial Woman Cutthroat of Massachusetts
Several colonial women worldwide held infamous pirate distinction. New England boasts of one woman pirate, Rachel Wall.
Introduction
Rachel started out innocently enough, until she married George Wall, a fisherman and former privateer. After marriage, Rachel was employed as a maid to a Beacon Hill (Boston) employer. Her husband, however, abandoned fishing and created a group of seafaring miscreants. Whether or not he convinced Rachel to join, or out of marriage duty Rachel felt obligated to join, the fact is, she did join her husband's pirate crew.
They stole a ship out of Essex and headed for the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast. They developed their own style of pirating.
High Seas Betrayal
Daily they searched the horizon for the sight of sails. Once a ship was spotted the pirates hoisted their distress flag. Rachel beckoned for help from the approaching vessel.
When the victim vessel was close enough, the pirates boarded the unsuspecting ship, murdered the crew, then sank the ship with its corpses. One fateful day, as they were scrutinizing the horizons, a fierce storm with violent winds broke their mainmast and cast it into the ocean dragging along with it George Wall and a crew member. The remaining survivors bobbed about the sea for several days before a vessel from New York rescued them. The piracy of the survivors remained a secret, for a time.
Rachel returned to her former employ. For whatever reason, Rachel haunted the Boston docks at night and boarding the ships became a habit. She perused the decks and brazenly entered the captains' quarters. Even as the occupants slept, Rachel rumaged their rooms. From Rachel's own words:
I spied a silver watch hanging over the captain's head, which I pocketed.
Oddly enough, she was finally arrested for robbing a woman, which she claimed innocence of, however, admitting to the piracy. She claimed she did not participate in the murdering of the crews.
In total her pirate group sank 12 ships, murdered 24 sailors and appropriated about $6,000 worth of plunder for the year 1781-1782.
She was tried and hung for her participation in piracy. Her last words were:
...into the hands of the Almighty God I committ my soul, relying on his mercy...and die an unworthy member of the Presbyterian Church, in the 29th year of my age.
Rachel holds, perhaps, a couple of distinctions:
- She's the only known woman pirate of New England; and
- She was the last woman to be hung in Massachusetts.
Source
Edward Rowe Snow, Piracy, Mutiny and Murder, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York 1959,pgs. 68-76.
