The exact date of birth for Edward Seegar (a.k.a. Edward England or Jasper Seager) is not known but is estimated around 1865 in Ireland. His early years are scarce of details other than he was part of a crew and captured by a pirate of Christopher Winter during a voyage traveling from Jamaica. Given the choice of death or joining the crew he chose the latter and was taken to Nassau, Bahamas which served as a pirate headquarters. England was a member of the expedition by Henry Jennings looking to seek fortune in the sunken Spanish treasure fleet in Florida after that signed on to sail with Charles Vane in 1718 as quartermaster. They were captured by the Royal Navy while on the ship the Lark and given a choice to accept a pardon from the king in return to persuade others to do the same.

He was not as cruel as most of the day and showed compassion at the time and described as having a beard, and a wooden leg, sporting pistols, and possibly the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's character, Long John Silver. It was on the island of Comoros hostilities broke out between England and his crew and James Macrae which ended with both parties agreeing to a truce. This was contradictory to the wishes of England's crewmates and was reason for them to remove him as acting captain by vote and they stranded him with his followers on the island of Mauritius. The arduous task of building a seaworthy vessel with limited tools and supplies was eventually completed and they made their way to another pirate port in Madagascar. His exact fate and details of his death are not known but possibly from disease or another ailment in 1720 or 1721.