"With Half Pikes and Drawn Swords..."

Early in the afternoon of April 29, 1697, a boat from the British frigate Arundel slipped off from John Vyall's wharf in Boston's North End and put ashore at Master Obadiah Gill's shipyard.  There, led by the lieutenant, the chief mate, and Joseph Kigging, son of the ship's captain, William Kigging, the Arundel press gang quickly and ruthlessly set about its work, attacking Gill's apprentices and forcing one of them, John Narramore, into the boat.  During the struggle, however, one of his fellow apprentices, Nathan Raynsford, managed to escape and ran for help to the nearby shipyard of Samuel Greenwood.  As Greenwood's men came rushing onto the scene, they found the Arundel boat getting ready to depart, but caught hold of the painter and forced it to stop.  Their clean get-away ruined, the lieutenant ordered his men out of the boat, and out they came, some wielding half pikes, others with swords drawn.  In the end, Narramore was rescued, but several of Gill's and Greenwood's men were wounded in the ensuing melée.

• From testimony before the Massachusetts Court of Assize, May 15, 1697

Who was this John Narramore?  It's possible that he was the son of Richard and Ann (Waters) Narramore who was born at Boston  on September 10, 1676, but he might also be the son of Thomas and Hannah Narramore who was baptized at Boston's Second Church in 1681.  The only other known record of him is a deposition he gave before the Admiralty Court in London in late 1698 concerning the ship Frederick.  In his testimony, he states that he is a shipwright, born in Boston.