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Francis Spriggs (died 1725?) was a British pirate who, associated with George Lowther and Edward Low, was active in the Caribbean Sea and the Bay of Honduras during the early 1720s.
Fisherman Philip Ashton had been forced into service by Low and his new quartermaster John Russell in June 1723 but escaped the following year when Low's flotilla stopped near Roatan. In 1724 he and a few other castaways spotted an incoming vessel and hoped for rescue. When they realized the sailors were Spriggs' pirates (and afraid Spriggs might recognize him), Ashton hid, preferring to take his chances on Roatan rather than return to piracy.
Upon their arrival in the West Indies, Spriggs and his crew captured a sloop near St. Lucia, a Martinique merchantman, and a vessel with a cargo of logwood, which they tossed into the sea after carrying away as much as they could take. In early 1724, while in New England waters, Spriggs and Delight received word of the death of King George I and discussed the possibility of gaining a royal pardon within the year after sailing from Rhode Island on March 27, 1724.
Refitting their ship on a nearby island west of Roatan, Spriggs and Delight sailed for Saint Kitts with the intentions of encountering a Captain Moor of Eagle, a sloop that had earlier attacked George Lowther near Blanco.
However, they were soon met by a French man of war and forced to flee. After their escape, they captured a schooner near Bermuda and then, as they neared Saint Kitts, they captured a sloop on July 4, 1724. During this latest capture, the crew were tortured by Spriggs and his crew by hoisting the prisoners as high as the main or top sails and dropping them against the deck.
Shortly after this, a ship out of Rhode Island was captured; the pirates were riding several of the horses it had been carrying on the deck (after several accidents, however, the captives were blamed for not bringing along boots and spurs).
Briefly staying in South Carolina, Spriggs again sailed to the Bay of Honduras where he captured sixteen more vessels before fleeing from the same British warship he had previously encountered. He again managed to avoid capture, although his fleet broke up when he became separated from Shipton. It may have been around this time that Spriggs' quartermaster Philip Lyne took the prize ship Sea Nymph and left Spriggs to sail for Newfoundland. Little is known of his later career; according to newspaper accounts, he was still active in the region and, as of April 1725, had captured several more ships.
One newspaper account does suggest Spriggs was still active as late as 1726 when he was marooned on an island with Shipton and another famous pirate, Edward Low. The report comes from the Post-Boy dated June 25, 1726. The only known original of the Post-Boy newspaper still in existence is owned by Eric Bjotvedt and states, in a front-page report, that a sloop from the Bay of Honduras was taken by a Spanish vessel, but that later the Spaniards were captured and "...put on board the " Diamond Man of War, who had taken a Pyrate, commanded by one Cooper, and had a great many Prisoners on board, and was bound to Jamaica with them ... and that Lowe and Spriggs were both maroon'd, and were got among the Miskito people." According to another source, Spriggs and Shipton were still being pursued by HMS Diamond and Spence; Spriggs' men were captured alongside a sleeping Shipton, while both Spriggs and Low himself escaped again, and Cooper blew up his ship with gunpowder rather than be captured.
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