Career
One of the richest men in Bermuda during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he built the Spithead House in Warwick, Bermuda. Born in Bermuda, he was one of seven children born to Captain William Frith and Sarah Lee. As a successful shipowner during the 1780s and 90s, he became engaged in privateering and smuggling, from which he reportedly made his fortune.
As was normal practise in Bermuda, he often mixed slaves and free men in his crews.
In August 1796 he slipped into the French port of Cap Français at San Domingo during the night and stole away a captured British transport ship. His colourful piratical career may very likely be exaggerated.
Participating in a number of privateering expeditions with the Royal Navy, he is supposed to have hoarded treasure from at least two captured ships in the store he operated next to the Spithead House. He supposedly used the water tank at Spithead to smuggle captured goods and other valuable items before filing claim at the Customs House.
Frith is also claimed to have rescued (or kidnapped) a Frenchwoman, whom he kept there as a mistress: both are said to haunt the house, according to local lore.
The house would later be owned successively by dramatist Eugene O"Neill, Sir Noël Coward and Charlie Chaplin.