Portal:Piracy/Selected biography/9

Henry Every (also Avery or Avary) is thought to have been born somewhere between c. 1653 and c. 1659 in Plymouth, England, or the surrounding area. He disappeared from all records after 1696 and may have died in 1699. He was an English pirate/marooner whose aliases included John Avary, Long Ben, and Benjamin Bridgeman. He is most famous for being one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and also for being the perpetrator of the most profitable pirate raid in history.

During his career, the media in England portrayed Every as a notorious criminal, but he was a popular hero, and a sort of maritime Robin Hood as he exemplified the working class idea that rebellion and piracy were acceptable ways to fight back against unfair captains and societies. Every’s story inspired many other men to take up piracy, including the infamous Captain Kidd. Every's life inspired a number of accounts including The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery (c. 1709); a 1712 play, The Successful Pyrate by Charles Johnson, which was thought to be a pen name for Daniel Defoe; and a 1724 book by Daniel Defoe, The king of the pirates, being an account of the famous enterprises of Captain Avary. His career inspired, very loosely, that of Captain Ben Avery, the hero of George MacDonald Fraser's 1983 spoof novel The Pyrates.