The Pirate who Stole Scotland: William Dampier and the Creation of the United Kingdom

Description

Economic warfare is not a new phenomenon. In the protectionist climate of the seventeenth century, trade embargoes, exclusions and boycotts were common. England was among the most active nations when it came to using economic clout to get its own way. It did so to force Scotland to accept an Act of Union: to submerge its independence within a United Kingdom governed from London. Instrumental in this attack upon the Scots was William Dampier, the principal subject of this book. He was an extraordinary man. A farmer’s son, he became the most traveled man of his generation. He was a pirate, a brute and a devious sociopath. But he was also a scientist and a talented writer who gave his readers accurate descriptions of previously unknown places, peoples, plants and animals. He was a daring explorer and an expert navigator who mapped coastlines and logged wind patterns and ocean currents. He led the first Royal Navy expedition to Australia, over 70 years before Captain Cook’s arrival. Dampier’s writing made him famous, but not rich. It allowed him to rub shoulders with the leading men of his day; scientists such as Robert Hooke, Edmund Halley and Hans Sloane, businessmen such as Sir John Houblon (first governor of the Bank of England) and William Paterson, politicians such as James Vernon and Charles Montagu (first Earl of Halifax), and Admiralty men such as Admiral Sir George Rooke and Samuel Pepys. And Dampier was in the pay of the English Government; an agent known to Queen Anne, in which capacity he engineered a financial disaster and political drubbing for Scotland. Cover Booktitle Copyright Contents Illustrations Introduction The Rose and the Thistle PART ONE A SAILOR I SHALL BE Chapter 1 Freedom of the Seas Chapter 2 Jamaica and Beyond Chapter 3 The Farmer takes a Wife Chapter 4 A Taste of the Darien Chapter 5 Rivers of Blood Chapter 6 A Year to the Day Chapter 7 Eight More Years Chapter 8 The Mystery of the Batchelors Delight Chapter 9 The Age of Exploitation Chapter 10 Raiding the Spanish Main Chapter 11 Tace is Latin for a Candle Chapter 12 Sad Reflections of a Lucky Man Chapter 13 The Man who ate Everything PART TWO THE TAKING OFSCOTLAND Chapter 14 Oranges on Sticks Chapter 15 Making a Name for Himself Chapter 16 Off to (not so) sunny Spain Chapter 17 Schemes and Schemers Chapter 18 Scotland the Brave Chapter 19 Dampier’s Deductions Chapter 20 Evidence for the Prosecution Chapter 21 An Overnight Success Chapter 22 A Travesty of Justice Chapter 23 Dash for Disaster Chapter 24 For St George and England Chapter 25 Unity from Disunity Chapter 26 Dampier’s Legacy Dates, days, spelling and sources References Bibliography Index About the Author Acknowledgements Backcover