John Coxon

Captain John Coxon, sometimes referred to as John Coxen, was a late-seventeenth-century buccaneer who terrorized the Spanish Main. Coxon was one of the most famous of the Brethren of the Coast, a loose consortium of pirates and privateers. Coxon lived during the Buccaneering Age of Piracy. Coxon's ship, a vessel of eighty tons that carried eight guns and a crew of ninety-seven men, is lost to date, with no traces of its name anywhere. John Coxon as a pirate Very little is known about Coxon's early life. The act that brought Coxon to public notice was his surprising and plundering the Spanish town of Santa Marta in the Caribbean. Coxon was held responsible for abducting the governor and the bishop of Santa Marta to Jamaica. Capture of Santa Marta John Coxon took part in a raid in June 1677 where he and his crew sacked the town, taking the Governor and Bishop as prisoners for ransom. Soon after, the three warships of Armada de Barlovento advanced upon them with 500 soldiers, forcing them to retreat to Port Royal. Coxon entered the port on 28 July 1677, with the Bishop Dr. Lucas Fernandez y Piedrahita and a Spanish friar and presented them to Lord Vaughan, the colony's Governor. English officers attempted to acquire the prisoner from the pirates only to be met with a ship of drunkards who were impossible to cooperate with. Governor Vaughan ordered that the French sailors depart and advised Coxon that it was illegal for him to serve under different nations. The French sailors left bitterly with their prisoners, releasing Bishop Fernandez y Piedrahita to the Spanish in Cartagena.