In October 1581 the Privy Council in London was informed that John Piers, a notorious pirate, had been captured in Studland Bay by Thomas Walshe. Apparently the arrest of Piers with fifteen of his company was the result of a chance encounter, though the Bay was widely known as a place much frequented by pirates and other sea rovers. Piers stood accused of piracy and murder, but his notoriety was darkened by the partnership he enjoyed with his mother, Anne, who lived at Padstow and was reputedly a witch, ‘to whome by reporte … Piers hathe conveyed all suche goodes and spoiles as he hathe wickedlie gotten at the seas’. The Privy Council acted swiftly to punish and make an example of Piers and his accomplices, instructing local officials to execute some of the pirates by hanging them around the Bay. Piers escaped from Dorchester gaol through the connivance of the keeper, but he was soon recaptured. In March 1582 he was executed. Little evidence survives for any action against his mother, other than an instruction that she was to be examined following the arrest of her son. While she had acquired a reputation for disorderly living, leading members of the community provided testimony that refuted the charge of witchcraft. She was arrested at Bodmin, during the week of the assizes, while trying to dispose of some of her son's booty. Among the crowds who flocked into town she was able to sell small items of plate and silver buttons to a silversmith from Plymouth. Arousing suspicion, she was apprehended by one of the under-sheriff's men.