Amateur Historian Finds Jones Beach's Colonial Namesake May Have Helped a Notorious Pirate Escape

Amateur historian James Bailey uncovered colonial-era documents suggesting that Thomas Jones, the Long Island landowner who gave Jones Beach State Park its name, played a role in helping the notorious pirate Captain Henry Every escape justice after what Bailey calls "arguably the biggest heist in the history of piracy." In 1695, Every's crew attacked the Ganj-i-Sawai, a royal Indian treasure ship in the Red Sea, stealing tens of millions in gold and silver and sparking what historians consider the first worldwide manhunt for a criminal. According to Bailey's research, Jones served as a "wheelman," helping the pirates evade colonial authorities. Jones later reinvented himself as a prosperous whaling-operation owner along Long Island's barrier beach. New York's colonial governor investigated Jones years later; a 1698 report noted that a "barrel of money" had travelled from the city to Long Island and reached Jones's residence, though Jones denied knowledge of it. Experts note that Jones had earlier served as a privateer — a crown-authorised raider — before the line between privateering and piracy potentially blurred. The discovery casts a darker shadow over a name that millions of beachgoers encounter each summer.