{{for|the member of London County Council|George Dew (politician)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox pirate | honorific_prefix = | name = George Dew | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = c. 1666 | birth_place = | baptised = | disappeared_date = | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date = {{death year and age|1703|1666}} | death_place = | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | residence = | nationality = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Pirate, privateer, and buccaneer | years_active = | era = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = Sailed alongside William Kidd and Thomas Tew | notable_works = | style = | home_town = | salary = | net_worth = | height = | weight = | television = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | criminal_charge = | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | callsign = | awards = | website = | nickname = | alias = | type = | allegiance = | serviceyears = | base of operations = | rank = | commands = ''Amy'' | battles = | wealth = | laterwork = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }}
'''George Dew''', '''George Hout''' or '''George d'Hout'''{{efn|First name occasionally Georges, last name also D'Hout, Hout, Huff, Hutt, Dhout, Doo, Dhu, Dewes, et al.}} (c. 1666–1703) was a pirate, privateer, and buccaneer. He once sailed alongside William Kidd and Thomas Tew, and his career took him from Newfoundland to the Caribbean and the coast of Africa.
== Biography == Starting as a sailor aboard slave ships bound for west Africa, Dew took part in buccaneer raids on Panama City in 1686.<ref name="Yale">{{cite web|title=Dew, George, - 1695 {{!}} Yale Indian Papers Project|url=http://yipp.yale.edu/bio/bibliography/dew-george-1695|website=yipp.yale.edu|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> Alongside Francois Grogniet and Pierre Le Picard in 1687 he sacked the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, leading the English contingent after their commander Townley had been killed off Panama.<ref name="Daily Life" /> By 1691 he had been granted a privateering commission from Bermuda to attack French shipping, which he pursued up the eastern seaboard of the American colonies, as far north as Acadia.<ref name="Yale" /> That year he and William Kidd sailed in concert, turning away a militia sloop in the Piscataqua River and menacing a nearby fort.<ref name="Marley">{{cite book|last1=Marley|first1=David|title=Pirates of the Americas|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara CA|isbn=9781598842012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bU6ML_VnXTwC|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> As a privateer he sailed alongside Thomas Griffin, using their commission as pretense to loot non-French ships. Dew and Griffin were chased by Christopher Goffe (himself a former pirate turned pirate-hunter) in the ''Swan'' out of Boston on suspicion of piracy, but their fast sloops outraced Goffe: “they could sail two feet to his one.”<ref name="Daily Life">{{cite book|last1=Marley|first1=David|title=Daily Life of Pirates|date=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara CA|isbn=9780313395635|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G4DXv4pNi8UC|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en}}</ref>
Back in Bermuda in 1693, he married and started a family but soon left to sail again.<ref name="Marley" /> When Thomas Tew sailed for Africa in his sloop ''Amity'' to attack French slave ports in Gambia in 1693, Dew joined him aboard his own sloop ''Amy''. Shortly after leaving port they were caught in a storm and separated.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jarvis|first1=Michael J.|title=In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783|date=2012|publisher=UNC Press Books|location=Chapel Hill NC|isbn=9780807895887|pages=504|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLrqCQAAQBAJ|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> Tew then ignored his commission to attack the French and sailed instead for Madagascar, pioneering the Pirate Round route. Dew's ''Amy'' lost its mast and struggled to reach Saldanha Bay in southern Africa.<ref name="Marley" /> There he was arrested by the Dutch and accused of piracy and his ship was impounded. Sent to Holland for trial, he was released for lack of evidence and filed suit against the Dutch in turn.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Theal|first1=George McCall|title=History of South Africa Under the Administration of the Dutch East India Company, 1652 to 1795|date=1897|publisher=S. Sonnenschein & Company, Limited|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/historysouthafr01theagoog/page/n409 374]|url=https://archive.org/details/historysouthafr01theagoog|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en}}</ref>
By 1695 he was back in the Caribbean aboard the brigantine ''Marigold'' attempting to sail from Barbados to Africa. With his ship again damaged by a storm, the crew refused Dew's request to sail on to Africa and he was forced to return to Barbados empty handed.<ref name="Marley" /> He returned to his family in Bermuda and in 1699 built a home now known as the Old Rectory, which still stands.<ref name="Old Rectory" /> Unknown to Dew, the Dutch in Saldanha Bay still had his old ship ''Amy'': it was stripped for parts by pirates that same year.<ref name="rootsweb" /> Dew began a law practice on Bermuda and was elected to a seat in the General Assembly before his death in 1703.<ref name="rootsweb">{{cite web|title=An Investigation into the Family of|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnalhn/robertdew.htm|website=www.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=30 July 2017}}</ref> Local legend holds that the Old Rectory is haunted by Dew's ghost, who can occasionally be heard playing a harpsichord.<ref name="Old Rectory">{{cite web|title=Old Rectory - St. George, George's Parish, Bermuda - Pirates on Waymarking.com|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMT0AN_Old_Rectory_St_George_Georges_Parish_Bermuda|website=www.waymarking.com|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Haunted Bermuda: 5 Ghosts You Might Meet on the Island|url=http://www.gotobermuda.com/list/haunted-bermuda-5-ghosts-you-might-meet-on-the-island|website=Go To Bermuda|accessdate=30 July 2017|language=en|date=2 June 2016}}</ref>
== See also == * Isthmus of Panama, which Dew and the buccaneers crossed in 1685–1686 to raid the Spanish in the Pacific.
== Notes == {{notelist}}
== References == {{reflist}}
{{pirates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dew, George}} Category:English pirates Category:17th-century pirates Category:Caribbean pirates Category:1660s births Category:1703 deaths