THE author of a new book has challenged dramatic legends about marauding Barbary pirates from North Africa tearing through coastal towns in Cornwall in the past. 

Respected historian Dr Todd Gray has dismissed as ‘myth’ the claims that corsairs made shore landings to kidnap people at Fowey, Looe, Penzance and Padstow. 

Such folklore stories say that the pirates and their European accomplices dragged people away to be sold at slave markets in North Africa in the 17th century. 

Fowey.
Dr Todd Gray doubts that Fowey was raided by Barbary pirates. (Picture: Paul Williams)

Dr Gray says that while Muslim pirates from a region that encompassed Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya repeatedly targeted the British at sea off the Westcountry coast, stories of them raiding communities have been widely exaggerated. 

He believes the legends of coastal raids taking place in Devon and Cornwall began as rumours, linked to the fact that an estimated 4,000 Devon sailors were snatched at sea – out of a total of 20,000 from England. The disappearance of so many sailors would have generated panic that over time became ‘fact’. 

Across 18 months, Dr Gray, who is an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter, has visited a range of regional archives in the Westcountry, including those at Redruth and Plymouth, as well as the National Archive at Kew and the British Library. He examined state papers, churchwarden accounts, papers from the High Court of Admiralty and documents in county and borough collections. 

Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall is a magnet for tourists. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)
Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall has been linked to Barbary pirates. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)

Dr Gray said his research for his new book, Barbary Corsairs & Devon 1603-1649, reveals that the Westcountry’s long-held corsair history is inaccurate. 

He said: “Local records prove that while these Barbary marauders targeted the region, dramatic tales of them tearing through Westcountry coastal villages are just highly sensationalised rumours or inventions rather than historical facts. 

“Writers have spent generations exaggerating accounts of Westcountry raids, ultimately distorting them beyond recognition from the source material.”