A noted pirate, born of Covenanting parents at Greenock; went to sea early, and served in privateering expeditions with distinction; appointed to the command of a privateer about 1696, and commissioned to suppress the pirates of the Indian Ocean, he went to Madagascar, and there started piracy himself; entering Boston harbour in 1700 he was arrested, sent to London, tried on a charge of piracy and murder, and executed in 1701.