John Coad, One of the Sufferers - the primary account of a "Godfearing Carpenter": 1685 defector rebel, slave in Jamaica, and an inspiration for "Robinson Crusoe"

This is amazing stuff - John Coad, the "Godfearing carpenter" of Stoford in Somerset, was recruited as a soldier in King James II's army, but in June 1685 he defected to the Duke of Monmouth, was captured, was sentenced to be sent to Jamaica as a plantation slave, was freed at the Glorious Revolution and eventually returned to England in 1690.

His surviving manuscript of his life was published in 1849, entitled A Memorandum of the Wonderful Providences of God to a Poor Unworthy Creature: During the Time of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion and to the Revolution in 1688.

Coad was one of over 800 men who were shipped off to the Caribbean plantations as slaves; and who were plausibly the inspiration for their fellow Monmouth 'rebel' Daniel Defoe for his world famous novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) - a link recognised by Tom Paulin in his 2001 essay in the London Review of Books, entitled 'Fugitive Crusoe' (subscription required).

• 1849 printed edition of the original manuscript is online here
• A account of the Coad family from 1870 is online here, in Rambles, Roamings and Recollections by John Trotandot
• His son, Rev Thomas Coad, was a Presbyterian minister in England (1740 letter online here)