If I were to mention the name Captain Blood to you, I would guess many of you would think I’d either made it up or I was referring to some comic book hero. Having said that, I’m sure some of you will be familiar with the 1935 movie of that name, starring Errol Flynn and the novel that preceded it. It was an epic tale of wrongful conviction, blood-curdling piracy on the high seas and an inevitable romance.
What is probably less well known is that the novel was loosely based on a real person, a man who wasn’t a pirate, although his name really was Blood.
Thomas Blood was born in County Clare, Ireland, sometime around the year 1618. He came from a well-to-do family, his father was a blacksmith who owned several large tracts of land and his grandfather had been a member of the Irish Parliament. He was educated in England and married a girl called Maria Holcroft, the daughter of a prosperous gentleman, when he was just 20.
