In 1718, the trial of Stede Bonnet, known as the 'Gentleman Pirate,' became a landmark moment in English admiralty law. Bonnet was a wealthy landholder in Barbados who suffered a midlife crisis and abandoned his gentlemanly life to purchase a vessel named the Revenge. Unlike typical pirates who elected their captains, Bonnet paid his crew out of pocket.
However, his lack of naval expertise led him to ally with Edward Teach, famously known as Blackbeard, who temporarily usurped Bonnet's command. Following King George I's Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates, Bonnet sought a pardon from Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina. Eden granted the pardon and issued a privateering commission allowing Bonnet to target Spanish vessels under the pseudonym Captain Thomas.
However, when Bonnet resumed raiding merchant ships—claiming he was forced into action by his rebellious crew—he crossed back into piracy. Captured at the Battle of Cape Fear River by Colonel William Rhett, Bonnet was tried in Charleston, South Carolina, presided over by Vice-Admiralty Judge Nicholas Trott. The trial explicitly tested the legal boundaries between legitimate privateer commissions and unlawful piracy.
Under Vice-Admiralty jurisdiction, Trott ruled that privateering letters of marque required strict adherence to sovereign state orders. Bonnet's defense—arguing he was absent from the deck during his crew's illegal seizures—failed. Judge Trott emphasized that a privateer who knowingly plunders friendly vessels forfeits all legal protection, converting their commission into treasonous piracy.
Bonnet was found guilty and hanged in December 1718, cementing the principle that sovereign commissions could not serve as cover for indiscriminate maritime robbery.