Elizabeth Shirland
The story of Elizabeth Shirland first appeared some
years ago, and my attention was first brought to its presence on a pirate
website called Swashbuckler's Cove which has since closed down.
In short, the story of Elizabeth Shirland went
something like this: Elizabeth Shirland was born in Devon in the 16th century,
and was one of those most intrepid women who sailed to the New World as part of
the expedition to found the colony of Roanoke set up by Sir Walter Raleigh. The
colonists faced terrible hardships, not only from the Virginia climate but from
the local hostile indians. When supply ships eventually arrived, having been
delayed by the threat of the Spanish Armada, they found the fledgling colony
deserted, with signs of the colonists having left in a great hurry. The only
clue was the "mysterious" word Croatan carved into a tree.
Elizabeth Shirland, among others, was captured by
Indians and somehow managed to survive amongst them until such time as she was
rescued by a passing Spanish ship, having stabbed an Indian guard with his own
knife. Somehow or other she got back to England (if memory serves she was
rescued by Sir Francis Drake) after serving as a sailor aboard an English ship
(dressed as a man of course), got married in York, got bored and went off
sailing again, only this time she went a pirating instead. So fearsome was she
that she earned the moniker "Cutlass Liz", and she was renowned for
using her male crew members for sexual gratification. Sometimes she would stab
her men with her cutlass (I forget why). Eventually, in 1604, after having
taken more Spanish gold than Drake she was betrayed to the Spaniards who caught
her in her cabin, unsurprisingly having sex with the male mariner who had
betrayed her. She was dragged naked from her cabin and killed, but not before
stabbing her double-crossing gallant with a dagger hidden about her person
(ouch!).
The Truth
The verifiable truth of Shirland's life is rather
more prosaic. Unlike many of the so-called female pirate to be found on the web
Shirland did actually exist. She was born in 1577 in Ottery St. Mary, near
Exeter in Devon, around 1595 she was married to Robert Adams, in Devon, and she
gave birth to her only son somethime thereafter, in Devon. No mention of York
then, no evidence she ever went to York and strong evidence she wasn't married
there.
OK, so maybe just that part of the story is wrong?
Perhaps the rest of it is true? The list of settlers who sailed to Roanoke in
1587 is readily available. There is no Shirland on it. There are one or two
Elizabeths, but since Shirland wasn't married until 1595 they cannot be her
using a married name - plus she would have been only ten years old at the time.
The only sensible conclusion is that she did not travel to Roanoke. If she did
not travel to Roanoke then she cannot possibly have been captured by Indians.
Out of interest, there is nothing mysterious about the word Croatan
either. Croatan was a nearby island inhabited by friendly indians. By carving
the name of that island into a tree the colonists were simply indicating their
intention to travel there so that future supply ships would know where to find
them. However, since Shirland was never at Roanoke that has no bearing on her
story anyway.
"Cutlass Liz" is a very unlikely
sobriquet for an Elizabethan pirate. Although the word Cutlass was known and
used it was not the most widespread term for that kind of sword. Cutlass Liz is
not impossible, but Falchion Liz or Hangar Liz would be more likely. Neither
particularly was "Liz" used much in that period - I've yet to find a
single instance - it's a much more modern term. "Bess" was the normal
diminutive form of Elizabeth at that time. So, "Coutelace Bess"
maybe, but probably not; it's just not how Elizabethan nick-names were usually
formed and has more in common with the 20th century (machine-gun Kelly for
example) than the 16th.
The real evidence against Shirland's having been a
notable female pirate though is the fact that everything that is known about
her for sure points to her having led a quiet dull life in Devon as the wife of
Robert Adams, giving birth to one son and staying at home fulfilling her family
duties - a home there is no evidence she ever left. One must wonder why, with
so much "information" about her available, and since she was so
successful, we have not heard of her before. Grace O'Malley for example was a
genuine 16th century female pirate, and she is famous. Bonny and Read led no
more interesting lives than Shirland is supposed to have, and they are famous.
Sir Francis Drake took less Spanish gold than Shirland did, and he is VERY
famous. So why have we never heard of Shirland until recently?
The truth is that Shirland existed, she is a
genuine historical character, but there is no evidence that she ever went to
sea at all, she was certainly not ever a successful pirate, and most of the
details of her story can be positively disproven. I suspect that whoever wrote
the fiction originally use Shirland, the details of whose life can be found on
many genealogical websites, to add a bit of realism to their story.
I contacted the owner of Swashbuckler's Cove to
enquire whether there were any sources I had overlooked and was told that
Shirland's biography on those pages had been written by a third party who had
not provided any source material. I sent a copy of my evidence, which the owner
was kind enough to publish on the Elizabeth Shirland page. Since that time,
biographies of Shirland on other pages have been modified, but it seems the web
community is still prepared neither to admit that Shirland was never a pirate
or to come up with any evidence whatsoever that she was, so until such time as
someone is able to we must conclude that Shirland was nothing more than a loyal
house wife and mother (an adventure in itself!).
For one of the new revised, but still untrue biographies, visit Privateer Dragon's Island