Edward Jordan
was an Irish rebel, fisherman and pirate in Nova
Scotia. He was typical of the violent but short-lived pirates in
the 19th Century following the end of "Golden Age of Piracy" in
the 18th Century. Born in Carlow County, Ireland, he took part
in the Irish rebellions of 1797-98 but was pardoned and
attempted to start a new life as a fisherman in Nova Scotia. On
Sept. 13, 1809, desperate to avoid debts, he slaughtered the
crew of a merchant who came to seize the schooner he owned named
Three Sisters. However the captain, John Stairs, managed
to escape overboard to be rescued by a passing fishing schooner
and survived to spread the alarm. A few weeks later the Royal
Navy schooner HMS Cuttle captured Jordan.
Jordan was convicted of piracy and executed in
Halifax, Nova Scotia. His body was covered in tar and hanged
from chains in an iron cage called a gibbet at Black Rock Beach
in Point Pleasant as a warning to others. His gibbet joined
those of four other across the harbour on McNabs Island who had
been executed for mutiny aboard the
Brig HMS Columbine in
the same year. His skull was eventually deposited at the Nova
Scotia Museum It was recently displayed in the exhibit "Pirates:
Myth and Reality" at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in
Halifax, serving as a grim reminder of the reality of piracy.
Jordan Skull fragment: http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/events/pirates.html
1809
November 23
First Piracy Trial
On this day, Edward
Jordan was hanged in Halifax, and his tarred and chained corpse hung on
a gibbet at the entrance to Halifax Harbour. He had been convicted in
Canada's first piracy trial, of seizing a ship that was previously his
property.
— Windsor, Ontario
Star, 30 November 1999
Edward Jordan wasn't
a Haligonian, but he created a stir when he showed up in the fall of
1809. The black-bearded Irishman booked passage from Quebec to Halifax
on the schooner Three Sisters. Off Cape Canso, Jordan decided
he'd rather be captain than passenger. Aided by the ship's mate and his
wife, Jordan killed two crewmen and took over the ship. The captain,
John Stairs, escaped by grabbing a hatch cover and jumping overboard.
Stairs survived many hours in the freezing water and was picked up by a
passing American ship. A British warship found the
Three Sisters
in a Newfoundland cove and Jordan was brought to Halifax for trial.
Convicted of murder and piracy, he was hanged on November 23 near the
foot of present-day Inglis Street.
—
Halifax Mail-Star, 21 June 1999
References:
An interesting trial of Edward
Jordan and Margaret his wife who were tried at Halifax, N.S.
November 15th, 1809, for the horrid crime of piracy and murder,
committed on board the schooner Three Sisters, Captain John
Stairs, on their passage from Perce to Halifax with a particular account
of the execution of said Jordan
—
Edward Jordan
printed at 75 State Street, Boston, 1809
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jordan & Terry Curran
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