{{Short description|Privateer who operated out of New England}} {{about||the British baronet|Sir Thomas Penyston, 1st Baronet}} {{Infobox pirate | honorific_prefix = Captain | name = Thomas Penniston | 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 = 1706 | death_place = Caribbean Sea | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | residence = | nationality = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Privateer | years_active = 1704-1706 | era = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = Defending New York against Captain Davy during Queen Anne's War. | 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 = New York | rank = | commands = ''Setty'' | battles = | wealth = | laterwork = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Thomas Penniston'''<ref>First name also Tom, last name occasionally Pennistone or Peniston.</ref> (fl. 1704-1706) was a privateer who operated out of New England. He was known for sailing alongside Adrian Claver and Regnier Tongrelow during Queen Anne's War. Penniston commanded the sloop ''Setty'' and sailed with Claver in 1704 against the French privateer Captain Davy. In early 1705 he operated against Spanish vessels off Venezuela and took at least one prize. In December 1705 Penniston sailed with Tongrelow and Nathaniel Burches for the West Indies to attack a French convoy. In early 1706 the ''Setty'' engaged an 18-gun vessel and a 24-gun vessel simultaneously and was badly damaged, she was lost with all hands whilst trying to sail to Jamaica.
==History==
The first records of Penniston’s privateering are from July 1704 when French privateer Captain Davy captured ships off the Capes of Delaware. Adrian Claver in his ship ''Castel del Rey'' was sent to catch Davy but failed; upon his return, Claver set out again after Davy, this time with Penniston alongside in the sloop ''Setty''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Marley|first1=David|title=Pirates of the Americas|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara CA|isbn=9781598842012|page=562|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bU6ML_VnXTwC|accessdate=8 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> They returned in August, still unsuccessful, and Davy moved on to menace ships off Tarpaulin Cove.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History Box {{!}}Newspaper Correspondence 1704-1708 Part I|url=http://thehistorybox.com/ny_city/nycity_communication_news_pt_I_article00380.htm|website=thehistorybox.com|accessdate=8 November 2017}}</ref> Claver and Penniston sailed together again in early 1705, this time against the Spanish, cruising off Venezuela before returning in August with a Spanish prize ship taken near Havana.<ref name="A Van Tuyl Chronicle">{{cite book|last1=Groenendijk|first1=R. L. Van Tuyl and J. N. A.|title=A Van Tuyl Chronicle: 650 Years in the History of a Dutch-American Family|date=1996|publisher=Rory Van Tuyl|location=Decorah IA|pages=128–129|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K49YAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=5 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> thumb|left|A late 19th-century depiction of the lieutenant killed during the riot Penniston was in port the following month to sell off a captured prize ship of his own full of wine and brandy. While ashore, his sailors met up with the crew of fellow privateer Captain Gincks’ ship ''Dragon'' and began a drunken riot. They beat several men, harassed the local sheriff, and killed a lieutenant who happened into the fracas.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Rufus Rockwell|title=New York: Old & New|date=1902|publisher=J.B. Lippincott|location=Philadelphia|page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkoldnewit01wilsgoog/page/n145 132]|url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkoldnewit01wilsgoog|accessdate=8 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> Soldiers from the local Royal Navy ship arrived to quell the riot and arrest the perpetrators; the lieutenant’s killer was tried and hanged.<ref name="Harper's">{{cite book|last1=Alden|first1=Henry Mills|last2=Allen|first2=Frederick Lewis|last3=Hartman|first3=Lee Foster|last4=Wells|first4=Thomas Bucklin|title=Harper's|date=1895|publisher=Harper's Magazine Foundation|location=New York|pages=335–339|edition=Volume 90|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4GEwAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=5 November 2017|language=en}}</ref>
Claver’s ''Castel del Rey'' was now under the command of Otto Van Tuyl. Penniston’s ''Setty'' and Regnier Tongrelow’s ''New York Galley'' along with Van Tuyl and their tender (captained by Nat Burches) left for the West Indies in December 1705, though Van Tuyl was killed when his ship was wrecked leaving New York harbor.<ref name="A Van Tuyl Chronicle" /> The others used Barbados and Bermuda as bases to raid the Caribbean. Penniston sent back a series of captured prize ships before he and Tongrelow combined to take several vessels from a French convoy near Petit-Goave.<ref name="Harper's" />
Tongrelow searched for a large Spanish vessel which Burches had forced ashore, and shortly afterward Penniston engaged a group of French vessels. He was known for fearlessly attacking groups of targets,<ref name="SHIPS AND SHIPPING OF OLD NEW YORK">{{cite book|last1=Manhattan Company|first1=Bank of the|title=SHIPS AND SHIPPING OF OLD NEW YORK|date=1915|publisher=Walton Advertising and Printing Company|location=New York|page=27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rsayeuf-SHcC|accessdate=5 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> and engaged an 18-gun vessel and a 24-gun vessel simultaneously.<ref name="Harper's" /> After the ''Setty'' was badly mauled, with several sailors killed and Penniston having lost an arm, they were forced to retreat.<ref name="In The Days Of The Tall Ships">{{cite book|last1=Fletcher|first1=R. A.|title=In The Days Of The Tall Ships|date=2013|publisher=Read Books Ltd|location=Worcestershire UK|isbn=9781473383456|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ol9CgAAQBAJ|accessdate=5 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> Penniston tried to make it to port in Jamaica but the heavily damaged ''Setty'' sank en route and was lost with all hands.<ref name="A Van Tuyl Chronicle" />
It was more than 10 years later in 1717 that his heirs were finally granted “the quantity of fifty ounces of Plate aforesaid, for Sloop hire and Service done by Capt. Penniston in an Expedition against some ffrench Privateers.”<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lincoln|first1=Charles Zebina|title=The Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution, Including the Charters to the Duke of York, the Commissions and Instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York and the Acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775 Inclusive|date=1894|publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.|location=Clark NJ|isbn=9781584775966|page=958|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48NTtYhfwlEC|accessdate=8 November 2017|language=en}}</ref>
==See also== *War of Spanish Succession – the European conflict which spilled into the Americas as “Queen Anne’s War,” occasioning a rise in privateering commissions.
==References== {{reflist}}
{{pirates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penniston, Thomas}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:1706 deaths Category:Privateers from the Thirteen Colonies