Henry Morgan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Henry Morgan

Welsh pirate

Date of Birth: 24-Jan-1635

Place of Birth: Llanrumney, Wales, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 25-Aug-1688

Profession: pirate, filibuster

Nationality: Wales

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius


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About Henry Morgan

  • Sir Henry Morgan (Welsh: Harri Morgan, c.
  • 1635 – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica.
  • From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming wealthy as he did so.
  • With the prize money from the raids he purchased three large sugar plantations on the island. Much of Morgan's early life is unknown.
  • He was born in south Wales, but it is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how he began his career as a privateer.
  • He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the early 1660s.
  • Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica.
  • When diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, a licence to attack and seize Spanish vessels.
  • Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto Principe (now Camagüey in modern Cuba) and Porto Bello (in modern Panama).
  • In 1668 he sailed for Maracaibo and Gibraltar, both on Lake Maracaibo in modern-day Venezuela.
  • He raided both cities and stripped them of their wealth before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. In 1671 Morgan attacked Panama City, landing on the Caribbean coast and traversing the isthmus before he attacked the city, which was on the Pacific coast.
  • The battle was a rout, although the privateers profited less than in other raids.
  • To appease the Spanish, with whom the English had signed a peace treaty, Morgan was arrested and summoned to London in 1672, but was treated as a hero by the general populace and the leading figures of government and royalty including Charles II. Morgan was appointed a Knight Bachelor in November 1674 and returned to Jamaica shortly afterward to serve as the territory's Lieutenant Governor.
  • He served on the Assembly of Jamaica until 1683 and on three occasions he acted as Governor of Jamaica in the absence of the post-holder.
  • A memoir published by Alexandre Exquemelin, a former shipmate of Morgan's, accused the privateer of widespread torture and other offences; Morgan brought a libel suit against the book's English publishers and won, although the black picture Exquemelin portrayed of Morgan has affected history's view of the Welshman.
  • He died in Jamaica on 25 August 1688.
  • His life was romanticised after his death and he became the inspiration for pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres.

Read more at Wikipedia

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