Aurora History: A Pirate drops anchor in Aurora

Aurora’s early settlers were farmers and merchants. Most came overland from New England following old Native America trails and those cleared through Pennsylvania by the British and French during the French & Indian War. Others came partially by boat across Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and down river into eastern Ohio. However, there was one settler, Gregory Powers who found himself “washed ashore” on the fertile soils of Aurora.

According to the many tales shared by the early residents of Aurora, Powers was a pirate who came to Aurora with a “large cargo of gold, silver bullion, art treasure and gold cloth.” No doubt many of the stories were his own “romantic tales of pirate life.” His loud and boisterous voice was said to be “three times louder than a howling gale.” On a good day it could “carry more than a mile from the Singletary house to Slab City.”

His pirate “treasure” was enough to establish him as a wealthy landowner. “Landing” in Aurora in 1804, he was accompanied by his wife Sarah, sons Gregory, Jr., Alfred and Stephen and two “beautiful daughters, Harriet and Julia.” Powers and Sarah were married on February 3, 1783 in Connecticut. They had a total of 10 children, 4 of which died in infancy.

A pirate’s life was adventurous. Sailing the seven seas, plundering merchant ships loaded with gold on their return trips from the Americas to Europe. Eluding capture from the authorities and knowing that the gallows awaited those who were caught, they plied their trade in the anticipation of great wealth and fame. However, despite the tales, Aurora’s pirate Gregory Powers was not a “swashbuckling pirate" nor did he ever have the infamous notoriety of Blackbeard the Pirate, nor the dramatic Hollywood appeal of a Captain Jack Sparrow.

When the American Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, the United Colonies were faced with the ominous feat of going to war with the world’s most powerful army and naval force. The Royal Navy which once protected shipping with the colonies, now was determined to prevent them from navigating the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. To stand up to this formidable force, George Washington initially took command of several merchant ships fitted with cannon while individual colonies took steps to secure vessels. The Continental Congress immediately authorized the construction of 13 frigates. However, greater steps were needed to stem the stream of soldiers and supplies flowing into the colonies and British Canada. On April 3, 1776 the Congress authorized the commissioning “privateers.”

From the Journal of the American Revolution

“Privateers” were individuals or ships that engaged in maritime warfare under the authority of a sovereign nation. For centuries pirates had constantly attacked merchant ships. For their own protection countries armed their merchant ships with cannons. During hostilities, warring nations commissioned pirates to prey upon their enemy’s shipping. Letters of Marque were issued granting authority for privateers to conduct “legal piracy.” Captured ships and crews were taken as prizes. Crews would be exchanged as prisoners of war. Ships and the cargos would be sold and a percentage of the sales divided between the sovereign nation, shipowners, captains and crews. The Continental Congress issued approximately 1,700 Letters of Marque on a per-voyage basis. Eight hundred privateer vessels captured and/or destroyed 600 British ships during the Revolution. Congress used its share of the “prize money” totaling $18 million to assist in financing the war. At today’s value it would be $302 million.

Aurora’s “privateer” Gregory Powers first sailed as the boatswain on the privateer Minerva which was commissioned under a letter of marque from the Governor of Connecticut and the “Connecticut Committee of Safety for the Defence of Said Colony” on January 25, 1775. The Minerva was a Sloop-of-War that preyed on British shipping headed to supply British troops during the American Revolution. As a boatswain, Powers worked the ship’s decks as the foreman of the unlicensed crew members. Skilled in all aspects of seafaring, Powers was in charge of the planning, scheduling and assignment of the crew’s work. As a crew member on a privateer and later as captain of his own ship, he was paid for his labors and captaincy by sharing in a percentage of the “loot” that was captured preying on enemy ships.

He was born in 1738 into a wealthy family in Naples, Italy. Powers was one of 15 siblings. He was destined for a life in the priesthood, but defied his family’s plans for him by stowing away on a ship headed for the American colonies. He surfaced in Boston sometime after the Boston Tea Party in 1774 and later joined the crew of the Minerva, serving as the boatswain from April 14th through December 26th, 1775. It is not known where he went after leaving the Minerva. However, it would be safe to assume that he continued his ventures on the seas. The next mention of his career as a privateer resumes on April 16, 1782 when he was assigned as the captain of the Dolphin, a command that he had until sometime near the end of the Revolution in 1783.

There is one record of his privateering under a Letter of Marque. In the early morning hours of July 14,1782, a fleet of five American privateers, the Schammel, Hero, Dolphin, Hope and Swallow, under the command of Noah Stoddard carried out a daring raid on the British controlled town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The four ships set sail from Boston in June, 1782, with the Swallow joining the fleet at sea. Sailing north, the vessels landed at Red Head, Nova Scotia, two miles outside of town. Ninety men under the leadership of George Babcock proceeded overland to attack the settlement. The ships continued to Lunenburg for a frontal attack. The assault on the town began at 4:00 am. British Colonel John Creighton and Major D.C. Jessen led 20 Lunenburg militia in defense of the settlement.

The Americans quickly overcame the British defenders capturing Creighton in his home and later Jessen after he fled his home. A British force of 200 Hessians aboard the HMS Chatham was dispatched in relief of the town. The British were kept a bay under the threat by the Americans to set the town ablaze. To prove that it was no idle threat, Creighton’s home was burned. Meanwhile, the Americans sacked the town taking supplies and several merchants ships as prize. By 5:00 pm the fleet was on its return to Boston, taking Creighton as a prisoner. Upon return to Boston, Creighton was released without a ransom being demanded. Captain Powers was chased ashore at LaHarve River by Captain John Crymes of the H.M.S. Observer. Powers and the crew escaped ashore and Crymes took the Dolphin to Liverpool. The raid on Lunenburg was just one of many carried out by American privateers during the American Revolution designed to disrupt the flow of supplies to British troops.

His life in Aurora, must not have been as memorable as his exploits as a “pirate.” The archives of the Aurora Historical Societal has little mention of Powers as a wealthy landowner. Ownership of land is recorded in the Tax Records through the 1817 after which sometime later Powers moved to Stow. Gregory Jr. studied law under the tutelage of Judge Humphrey of Hudson. Alfred married Lois Norton of Aurora in 1822. Julia became the wife of Bohan Blair of Aurora in 1819. Harriet became the wife of John C. Singletary in 1806. Powers later moved to Stow where he died on June 12, 1833 at the age of 95. Noted for his “furious temper” and overpowering countenance, it was stated that he provided for a vault in a “double secure manner” fearing as he and his neighbors believed that on the day of his “separation, as sheep from the goats,” Satan would certainly “claim him as one of his own.”

Printed with the permission of the Aurora Historical Society which retains rights to all content and photos.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Aurora History: A Pirate drops anchor in Aurora