Did Daniel Defoe “Borrow” His Greatest Adventure?

25 April 2026 marked the 307th anniversary of Daniel’s Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. London and South East England Blue Badge Tourist Guide, Raf Pittman, revisits one of the first and most influential English novels and discovers Daniel Defoe’s inspiration for this enduring story of human survival, self-reliance and resourcefulness.

Robinson Crusoe is a tale of fiction, later acknowledged by the author in his lifetime as the true-life story of Alexander Selkirk, a privateer and member of the Royal Navy. Selkirk was shipwrecked off the coast of Chile and lived (1704 -1709) on an uninhabited island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago and immortalised by Daniel Defoe in 1719. But how about the author borrowing the story from a text discovered at his publishers?

The title page of the 1719 first edition of Robinson Crusoe, published by William Taylor at “The Ship” in Paternoster Row, London. Note the attribution “Written by Himself,” a tactic used by Defoe to masquerade his fiction as a true-life autobiography. Public domain. 

Echoes of the Island through the years

From an early age I was aware of the power and mystery of ocean waves lapping on the shore accompanied by the sound of seagulls the signature tune and introduction to Desert Island Discs from the invisible BBC. It was the world of radio broadcasting delivered to listeners in the comfort of their homes on a polished oak-veneered wireless. Ours was a PYE that was at eye-level so that you could peer into the valves that illuminated the screen printed with the world’s capital cities, predating both the dial (of DJS) and the cathode ray television of my teens.

Those interviewed faced questions on how they might cope with the isolation and how they would respond to the loneliness? No toolbox washed up in the wreckage but as luck had it, the marooned could listen to their favourite music on vinyl records played on a wind-up gramophone to lift their spirits while stringing up their hammock and making home-brewed piña coladas. Crusoe we learn was very resourceful and illustrations depict him as a rugged tanned sailor on a raft who succeeds in building his own home and befriending Friday, a local islander. The rest is a tale of adventure presented by the author as his own true-life story.

The man of many names

Daniel Defoe’s family was of Flemish descent with the surname Fo or Foe that also means enemy in English and faux or fake in French, so given his circle of friends, society writers and eminent politicians, and his desire for social elevation he included the prefix ‘de’ associated with French nobility that neatly combined with the sound of “faux” to become De Foe. He played with this like a modern-day wordsmith as a transition from Foe to DFoe becoming Defoe.

In the 1690s we know he was a pamphleteer, a political spy and influencer and capitalising on his ambiguous identity he made this his brand. To his readers he could be the friend, the bringer of truth and the inside story of the foe, made more compelling since he wrote in the first person.

The title page of Henry Pitman’s A Relation of the Great Sufferings and Strange Adventures, published in 1689. Note the publisher at the bottom: John Taylor at “the Sign of the Ship” – the very same location where Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe would be published thirty years later. Public domain.

The Pitman connection

This device was widespread during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in my research I discovered a publication printed by Andrew Sowle, and entered under his name at Stationers Hall, and sold by John Tayor at the sign of The Ship in St Pauls Churchyard in 1689 with the title, “A Relation of the Great Suffering and Strange Adventures of Henry Pitman, Chyrurgion to the late Duke of Monmouth containing an Account”. There was an enormous demand for news and adventures provoked by events in public life so what better than a true adventure story and a credible one in the form of an autobiography of a country physician from Yeovil in Somerset. He had lodgings and set up as an apothecary selling his patent medicines at the sign of The Ship, the same address as his bookseller-publisher William Taylor.

The Yeovil Pitman family had links with Protestant dissenters and the two brothers were ‘persuaded’ to join the Monmouth Rebellion that for Henry the surgeon involved attending to wounded soldiers at the battle of Sedgemoor in 1685, both rebels and royalists, They were chaotic times and Pitman lost his horse. He and his brother William were amongst the 1500 arrested for treason with both appearing before Judge Jeffry’s Bloody Assizes at Wells where they were condemned to death commuted to penal servitude and transported to Barbados as slaves. Defoe also took part in the rebellion but was more fortunate, escaping with his life and freedom though he was heavily fined with the loss of his lands.

The true “Crusoe”

Henry recounts his dismay at the inhumane treatment from the English plantation owner, surviving with neither decent clothes nor enough food and how family money sent out to Barbados, allowed him to purchase a boat and to escape captivity with others, only to be later marooned on a desert island he names as Tortuga off the coast of Venezuela and since verified. Now this sounds very much like ” The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” and when you discover father and son Taylors were publishing “ At the sign of The Ship” it becomes apparent that Defoe’s Crusoe was based on a true story that he had purloined to masquerade as fiction.

From the first edition of The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, engraved by Clark & Pine, 1719. This fold-out map shows the initial shipwreck, the building of the fortified home to the encounter with Friday and the eventual rescue. Public Domain 

A literary scoop

In the absence of the concept of plagiarism It was common practice to copy others’ works and Pitman’s account was an adventure story of survival driven by faith in God and providence: of punishment for speaking out against authority; of maintaining order on a remote island without the presence of the state or a monarch. And achievable with one’s own beliefs and moral standing. It was Defoe’s lucky day with this scoop no doubt being shown Henry Pitman’s ‘Account’ at the sign of the Ship most likely by William Taylor or earlier by his father John Taylor. As a profiteer, socialite and dissenter he identified with this narrative and a message that still resonates today that justice prevails for those who persevere, work with others for the common good, and believe in God.

 

About the author

Raf is qualified to guide in London and South East England and lives in Southwark. His background is in Politics and Government where he worked for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Latin America/Americas section as a liaison officer and interpreter English/French/Spanish. He is a Professeur de Grande Ecole and taught Entrepreneurship and Luxury Brand management at business schools Inseec and ECE, Paris and London. He specialises in guided walks and lectures on Publishing & the Press, Daniel Defoe, Westminster’s political parties, Parliament and how government works; Bond Street, Mayfair and Knightsbridge: brands, retail and auctions. He is founder of the British Spanish Club in London. For more about the author please click here