The date of his birth and the exact location of the origins of Thomas Tew is at best non-existent or conflicting accounts. The first mention of his name was in 1692 upon his landing in Bermuda to enlist as a privateer for England to serve aboard the ship Amity Venture as captain. One of the first assignments under his command were to voyage to the River Gambia to cause dismay on the vessels and plundering a factory on land owned by France. When the ship that was in alliance with him became disoriented in a storm the crew along with Dew chose instead to abandon this task and become a pirate instead. Once the decision had been voted on it was time to establish a code of conduct that all would be held to without exception. The next item on the list was where to choose for their headquarters at it was Madagascar which had been a safe place for other pirates of the era.

Tew was instrumental in establishing a coalition of buccaneers that called this place home and later was referred to as the Pirate Round which described navigating the Cape of Good Hope and plundering unwary vessels in the Indian Ocean. After this voyage which was slightly a success, he set his sights on the Red Sea a happened across a cargo ship belonging to India shared the wealth among them, and ventured to Newport in 1694. After petitioning the governor for a new letter of marque he set sail again for the open sea with the hopes of another profitable plunder with a new alliance of ships and captains of Joseph Faro and Thomas Wake, William May, and Richard Want. When they happened upon another ship like the last one, they plundered from India but as fate would have it one of the men killed in the skirmish was Tew himself.