Hezekiah Frith
{{Short description|Bermudan shipowner, privateer and slave trader (1763–1848)}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox pirate
|name = Hezekiah Frith
|birth_date = 1763
|death_date = 1848
|image = Hezekiah_FRITH.jpg
|caption = Portrait of Frith
|nickname =
|type = Privateer
|birth_place = Bermuda
|death_place = Bermuda
|allegiance = British Empire
|serviceyears = 1790s–1810s
|base of operations = Bermuda
|rank = Captain
|children = Hezekiah Frith Jr.
|nationality = British
}}
Hezekiah Frith, Sr. (1763 – 1848) was an Bermudan shipowner, privateer and slave trader. One of the richest men in Bermuda during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he built the Spithead House in Warwick, Bermuda.{{cite web |url=http://www.bermuda-online.org/seewark.htm |title=Bermuda's Warwick Parish |author=Forbes, Keith Archibald |date=20 May 2008 |publisher=Bermuda-online.org }}
Life
File:"Spithead" - 18th Century Bermudian home of Hezekiah Frith and 20th Century home of Eugene O'Neill.jpg and Oona O'Neill.]]
Born in Bermuda, he was one of seven children born to Captain William Frith and Sarah Lee. As a successful shipowner during the 1780s and 1790s, he became engaged in privateering and smuggling, from which he reportedly made his fortune.Bowen, Croswell. The Curse of the Misbegotten: A Tale of the House of O'Neill. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. (pg. 159) In August 1796 he slipped into the French port of Cap Français at San Domingo during the night and stole away a captured British transport ship.{{cite web|url=http://www.boda.bm/pages/boda_heritage.htm |title=Competitive Sailing: Bermuda's Shared Maritime Heritage |author=Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association |date=21 May 2008 |publisher=Boda.bm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627222926/http://www.boda.bm/pages/boda_heritage.htm |archivedate=27 June 2007 |url-status=dead }}
Participating in a number of privateering expeditions with the Royal Navy, he is supposed to have hoarded treasure from at least two captured ships in the store he operated next to the Spithead House on Granaway Deep; he supposedly used the water tank at Spithead to smuggle captured goods and other valuable items before filing claim at the Customs House. He apparently has multiple accounts of robbery of ships from Jamaica. Frith is also claimed to have rescued (or kidnapped) a Frenchwoman, whom he kept there as a mistress: both are said to haunt the house, according to local lore. The house would later be owned successively by dramatist Eugene O'Neill, Sir Noël Coward{{cite web |url=http://www.experiencebermuda.com/art/ |title=Art Scene: Bookish Bermuda |author=Gorham, Laura |year=2003 |publisher=ExperienceBermuda.com |access-date=23 May 2008 |archive-date=3 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603110616/http://www.experiencebermuda.com/art/ |url-status=dead }} and Charlie Chaplin and his wife Oona O'Neill (Lady Chaplin).{{cite web |url=http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=130 |title=Ports: King's Wharf |year=1995 |publisher=CruiseCritic.com }}
The Granaway home on Harbour Road, which he had built for his daughter, was later bought by a family of free blacks descended from a slave named Caprice, who had originally been brought to Bermuda on a ship captured by Hezekiah Frith on one of his voyages. Adele Tucker, a well-known Bermudian educator and co-founder of Bermuda Union of Teachers, grew up in the home.{{cite web|url=http://www.bermudabiographies.bm/Bios/bio-adeletucker.html |title=Adele Evelina Johnson Tucker |year=2007 |publisher=BermudaBiographies.bm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091115200349/http://bermudabiographies.bm/Bios/bio-adeletucker.html |archivedate=15 November 2009 |url-status=dead }}
He was married three times, his daughters all marrying Presbyterian ministers; his son Hezekiah Frith, Jr. became a prominent religious figure.
Descendants
Brother and sister Heather Nova and Mishka, two popular Bermudian singers and songwriters, and their uncle, Michael K. Frith, are descendants of Frith.Jones, Rosemary. Moon Bermuda. Emeryville, California: Avelon Travel Publishing, 2006 (p. 65); {{ISBN|1-56691-902-9}}
Slavery
Frith was a slave trader. He used both slaves and free men to crew his ships. As a privateer he recaptured several British slave ships and sold the captives himself.Zuill, William S. The Story of Bermuda and Her People. New York: Macmillan, 1973. (pg.108)
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Kennedy, Jean de Chantal. Biography of a Colonial Town, Hamilton, Bermuda, 1790–1897. Hamilton: Bermuda Books, 1961.
- Kennedy, Jean de Chantal. Frith of Bermuda, Gentleman Privateer: a biography of Hezekiah Frith, 1763–1848. Hamilton: Bermuda Books, 1964.
- Wilkinson, Henry Campbell. Bermuda from Sail to Steam: The History of the Island from 1784 to 1901. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
External links
- [http://whobegatwhom.co.uk/ind4116.html WhoBegatWho.com – Hezekiah Frith]
- [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FRITH/2001-01/0978406327 RootsWeb: Frith-L Archives, Frith, Capt. Hezekiah]
{{Pirates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frith, Nathaniel}}
Category:18th-century British slave traders
Category:Bermudian businesspeople