Talk:John Ward (pirate)

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[edit] Unreliability of primary sources ?

  • Much of the information about Ward comes from two pamphlets published about him by Andrew Barker and Nathaniel Butter. These are very unreliable sources. Andrew Barker is almost certainly a fictitious person. No record of such a person can be found and there are no other works published under that name. The pamphlet was most likely composed by someone in the print shop from which the pamphlet issued. The author may have obtained some information about Ward from those who had sailed with him, but much in the pamphlet is obviously fictitious. The same is true of the anonymous pamphlet published by Nathaniel Butter. Butter specialized in sensationalism and published Renaissance equivalents of today's supermarket weeklies. Butter's sensationalism was so notorious that Ben Jonson satirized him in his play, The Staple of the News. Some of the information in the pamphlets can be verified from other more reliable sources. The plundering of the Venetian Ship for example was reported by th English ambassador resident in Venice. Other information, however, is highly suspect. For example, Barker reports that Ward was from Kent and that he earned a living as a fisherman. He also reports that Ward was a coward and often beaten by other men in taverns. This information reflects stereotypes of pirates current in Jacobean England; it is quite likely that none of these things is true. Ward was most likely a privateer under Elizabeth who refused to give up his profession when James came to the throne and recalled all the letters of marque that had been issued by his predecessor. There are a number of privateering captains named Ward who were known to be active in the 1590s. The pirate Johnn Ward was most likely one of these. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnpiers (talk • contribs)

[edit] Any possibility...

...this dude was yet another one of the "sources" of that notorious Italian, Sabatini? 68.39.174.238 13:19, 11 July 2007 (UTC)