An iconic New York figure was likely a major player in a murderous pirate’s escape

A clue in old records

Historian Bailey says documents, including depositions from Every’s associates, suggest Thomas Jones helped the pirates escape after they seized tens of millions of dollars in gold and silver. Bailey described Jones as a possible “wheelman,” a person who helped them evade authorities.

The crew is said to have tortured, killed and raped people aboard the royal ship. The attack provoked global outrage and prompted what is considered the first worldwide manhunt. Some pirates were captured and executed, while Every and many others disappeared. Bailey said generations of New Yorkers visited the beach without knowing Jones may have been a major figure in what he called one of piracy’s biggest heists.

Jones’s colonial life

In 1696, Jones’s father-in-law, wealthy New Yorker Thomas Townsend, gave Jones and his wife a substantial tract on Long Island’s south shore, property records show. Bailey says Jones built a homestead there and raised a family. A 1906 family history written by one of Jones’s descendants rejected the pirate stories as “slander” and “improbable fictions.”

A money trail to Long Island

In 1698, the governor wrote that witness depositions described a “barrel of money” traveling from the city to Long Island and ending up at Jones’s house. The governor called Jones “formerly a pirate.” Jones testified that he knew nothing about the barrel.

Meagan Schulman, a Fordham University doctoral candidate who studies 17th-century piracy, said Jones later worked as a privateer—an authorized raider of rival commercial ships during wartime. She was not involved in Bailey’s research.

Schulman said privateers could be considered pirates, though Jones may not have viewed himself that way. She grew up visiting Jones Beach.

Evidence remains uncertain

Richard Blakemore, a maritime history professor at the University of Reading who was not involved in the research, said Bailey’s findings are compelling but not conclusive. He noted that Thomas Jones was a fairly common name.

Blakemore said evidence like this has led historians to challenge the idea that pirates were social outcasts. Early British colonies, he said, were closely connected to piracy in social and economic life.