John Noble

9°05′51″N 81°33′29″W / 9.09750°N 81.55806°W / 9.09750; -81.55806

John Noble (d. 1574) was an Elizabethan privateer who cruised the Caribbean coast of Veragua.

Expedition

Veragua

In early June 1574, Noble, with 28 men aboard a ship of four heavy pieces and four falcons, landed at the Escudo de Veraguas Isle (12 Spanish nautical leagues from the port of Veragua). The Englishmen seem to have chosen this island for its location, as it lay in the route of all Spanish vessels bound to Veragua. Here, they cruised the coast aboard two launches, seizing many Spanish merchant frigates and barques off the Cativas headland and the Chagres River.

Capture

At some point in mid-June, Noble and company attempted to seize a Spanish merchant barque, but the latter managed to escape, whereupon they informed the governor of Veragua, Pedro Godinez Osorio, of the Englishmen's cruise. The governor immediately manned a rowing frigate with thirty harquebusiers out of Nombre de Dios. The frigate soon discovered Noble and company, firing four or five shots at them, whereupon the men crowded into a launch and made their escape. The governor gave chase right away, however, aboard a brig and a launch, eventually capturing two of the crew, drowning four, and forcing the rest to run aground near Chagres River. The marooned pirates were there apprehended by a former victim of theirs. All were convicted of piracy, and hanged (except two boys, who were served life sentences).

The galleons having left Nombre de Dios, in the direction of Veragua there appeared one morning an English corsair calling himself John Noble, who had been in that vicinity when the last fleet was here. He pillaged certain barks and frigates of the coastwise trade and began to disturb this realm. God granted that by means of the measures taken both at Nobre de Dios and also at Veragua he should be captured with all his men, twenty-eight in all. They were all killed, excepting two boys who were condemned to the galleys for life and are now serving in your majesty's galleons. The captain and two of them were hanged at Nombre de Dios, which has occasioned great joy and animated all, and the realm is entirely quiet.

— Panama, 22 Sept. 1574, Gonzalo Nuñez de la Cerda to Crown, trans. Wright.

Certainly this province is much vexed by corsairs. They never leave these ports, because only from here do the frigates get gold [...].

— Veragua, 3 April 1575, Godinez Osorio to Crown, trans. Wright.

It has been suggested that Noble may have cruised the shores of colonial Honduras in the first quarter of 1573, simultaneous to Francis Drake's or John Oxenham's cruise.