{{Short description|17th-century French buccaneer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox pirate | honorific_prefix = | name = Jean Hamlin | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | baptised = | disappeared_date = | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | residence = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Pirate | years_active = 1682-1684 | era = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = Often associated with St. Thomas's pirate-friendly Governor Adolph Esmit | 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 = John/Jean, Hamlin/Hamyln, Pierre Egron | type = | allegiance = | serviceyears = | base of operations = Caribbean and off the coast of Africa | rank = | commands = ''Trompeuse'', ''La Nouvelle Trompeuse'' | battles = | wealth = | laterwork = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }}
'''Jean Hamlin''' (died 1696, real name likely '''Pierre Egron''') was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He was often associated with St. Thomas's pirate-friendly Governor Adolph Esmit.
==History==
Hamlin began his career in 1682, sailing from Jamaica in a small sloop loaded with 120 men, which took a frigate they renamed ''La Trompeuse'' (The Trickster),<ref name="Pirates of the Americas">{{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=17 August 2017|language=en}}</ref>{{efn|Buccaneer Michiel Andrieszoon was active off South America in the same time period; his ships ''Le Tigre'' and ''La Mutine'' were occasionally confused for Hamlin's ''Trompeuse''.}} which itself had changed hands between a number of pirates.<ref name="Blood and Silver">{{cite book|last1=Lane|first1=Kris E.|title=Blood and Silver: A History of Piracy in the Caribbean and Central America|date=1999|publisher=Signal Books|location=Oxford UK|isbn=9781902669014|pages=128–129|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FeDivv4UsEC|accessdate=17 August 2017|language=en}}</ref> Given command of the prize, he quickly looted eighteen Jamaican ships, causing Jamaica's Governor Thomas Lynch to send two ships after him. The first missed him; the second, HMS ''Guernsey'', found Hamlin but was outpaced by the freshly careened ''Trompeuse'', which "sailed three feet to his one."<ref name="Pirates of the Americas" /> Lynch recruited retired pirate turned pirate-hunter John Coxon to bring in Hamlin, but he was unsuccessful.<ref name="Blood and Silver" /> Lynch then tried hiring buccaneer Jan "Yankey" Willems, who refused even to look for Hamlin.<ref name=Little/>
Aware that Lynch was actively seeking his capture, Hamlin left his hideout at Île-à-Vache and sailed to St. Thomas where he was sheltered by Danish Governor Adolph Esmit.<ref name="Blood and Silver" /> Early in 1683 he began attacking English ships near Hispaniola (letting a French ship go free), returning to St. Thomas where Esmit helped him sell off his plunder.<ref name="NGS Interview">{{cite web|title=Pirate in the Caribbean (interview with historian Charles Consolvo)|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.org/news/pirate-caribbean/|website=National Geographic Society|publisher=National Geographic Society|accessdate=17 August 2017|language=en|date=1 June 2011}}</ref> Hamlin did not try to hide behind a privateering commission: off St. Thomas a French warship confronted him and asked, "how she dared fire at ships flying French colours? The pirate answered that he was a robber."<ref name="CSP-Fortescue">{{cite book |last1=Fortescue |first1=J. W. |title=Calendar of State Papers. Colonial Series. America and the West Indies 1681 - 1685 |date=1898 |publisher=International Government Document |location=London |pages=519-521 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_great-britain-public-record-america-and-the-west-indies_1681-1685/page/521/mode/1up |access-date=11 April 2026 |language=English}}</ref>
Hamlin sailed for Sierra Leone off the African coast in May, capturing seventeen Dutch and English vessels.<ref name="Blood and Silver" /> Some of his crew split off under a Captain Morgan, taking a prize ship with them. Hamlin returned to St. Thomas with a fortune described as "a very large chest of gold-dust, 150 piggs {{efn|Ingots.}} of silver, 200 bags of coined money, besides plate, jewels, elephant's teeth [and] other valuable goods and commodities."<ref name=Little>{{cite book|last=Little|first=Benerson|title=The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate life on the Spanish Main, 1674{{ndash}}1688|publisher=Potomac Books|location=Washington, DC|year=2007|page=256|isbn=9781612343617}}</ref> He had reportedly been very cruel to the crews of captured ships during his African voyages, leading Nevis' Governor William Stapleton to call him "John Hamlin, the arch murderer and torturer."<ref name="NGS Interview" />
The English found him at St Thomas in late 1683 and HMS ''Francis'' attacked. They were fired on not only by the 32-gun ''Trompeuse'' but by the Danish fort, which infuriated the English.<ref name="Ringrose">{{cite book|last1=Ringrose|first1=Basil|title=A Buccaneer's Atlas: Basil Ringrose's South Sea Waggoner : a Sea Atlas and Sailing Directions of the Pacific Coast of the Americas, 1682|date=1992|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley CA|isbn=9780520054103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zi0G3nwOxNIC|accessdate=17 August 2017|language=en}}</ref> Finally the English captured and burned ''Trompeuse'', which exploded and set fire to another vessel left in the harbor.<ref name="Ringrose" />{{efn|This was the ''Trinity'', formerly ''Santissima Trinidad'', which had been abandoned by pirate and buccaneer Bartholomew Sharp in 1681.}} Hamlin escaped and Esmit protected him at Charlotte Amalie yet again. Hamlin formed a new crew late in 1684 for his ship ''La Nouvelle Trompeuse'' (The New Trickster),<ref name="Blood and Silver" />{{efn|Some sources say the new ship was named ''La Résolution''.}} which had been fitted out in New England.<ref name=Little/> Esmit was removed from his post by exasperated Danish officials in October 1684, so Hamlin left for his old refuge at Île-à-Vache, and then to Brazil.<ref name="Blood and Silver" /> There are few records of his subsequent activities, though almost fifty of his former crew signed aboard the ships of buccaneer Jacob Evertson and privateer Jan Willems, who had previously refused to hunt down Hamlin.<ref name=Little/> After Willems and Evertson died in early 1688, their remaining crew (some of them formerly Hamlin's) sailed with Captain Peterson.<ref name="CSP">{{cite book|last1=Fortescue|first1=J.W.|title=America and West Indies: August 1688 {{!}} British History Online|date=1899|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|pages=576–593|edition=Vol 12|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol12/pp576-593|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}}</ref> Hamlin may have sailed with Francois Le Sage for a time. Afterward he reportedly married on St. Thomas in 1688 and lived there until his death in 1696.<ref name="Diable Volant">{{cite web |last1=Laprise |first1=Raynald |title=Dictionnaire des flibustiers H |url=https://diable-volant.github.io/flibuste/figurehead/H.html |website=diable-volant.github.io |access-date=11 April 2026}}</ref>
The original ''Trompeuse'' which burned at St. Thomas was reportedly found by divers in 1990 but its authenticity is disputed.<ref name="NGS Interview" /> Legends persist that Hamlin's loot – "treasure room was full of silver … over 24,000 pounds there" – is still aboard.<ref name="NGS Interview" />
==In popular culture==
The TV show ''Caribbean Pirate Treasure'' Season 1 Episode 3 aired on 20 August 2017. Philippe Cousteau Jr., the grandson of Jacques Cousteau, visits a group of local doctors who claim to have found the location of the ''Trompeuse''. Cousteau even gains permission to film on the wreck site.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190225044807/https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/caribbean-pirate-treasure/episodes/st-thomas-the-greatest-pirate-story-never-told ''Caribbean Pirate Treasure'' Season 1 Episode 7]</ref>
==See also== *Henry Morgan, famed buccaneer who had used Île-à-Vache as a base and hideout before Hamlin.
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{pirates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamlin, Jean}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:French pirates Category:17th-century pirates Category:Caribbean pirates