by Craig Cabell
So who was he? He was born in the English garrison at Tangier around 1676, the son of an army surgeon who died when he was 4 years old. He came back to England with his mother in 1683 when King Charles II ordered the troops home. When William III plunged England into a nine-year war with France and Spain, Spotswood joined the Earl of Bath’s Regiment in 1693 and distinguished himself as a soldier in Flanders, becoming an infantry captain in 1698. By 1703 Spotswood was a lieutenant-colonel and was appointed to the Duke of Marlborough’s staff where once again he distinguished himself as the quartermaster-general. In 1710 he was selected as lieutenant-governor of the colony of Virginia by the 1st Earl of Orkney, George Hamilton, who was the governor but who never actually set foot in the colony.
In late 1710 Spotswood arrived in Williamsburg to take up his post, and almost from the beginning he faced strong opposition from a radical element within the colony. Indeed, for most of his twelve years in office he faced one crisis after another. Blackbeard was one such crisis and it was one that he could do something about.6
Next is Lieutenant Robert Maynard, a Royal Navy officer who led the assault against Blackbeard.7 Though he distinguished himself in the battle against Blackbeard and became a captain in the Royal Navy, he seems to have faded into obscurity. By anyone’s standards he was a hero but perhaps his star has fallen for the reasons we mentioned in the foreword – that most people prefer to read about villains rather than heroes? We will go into greater detail on Maynard later when we discuss Blackbeard’s death.
Then we have Charles Eden, Governor of North Carolina and a man whom many scholars have speculated colluded with Blackbeard. The evidence to support this is sketchy. Eden issued a Royal Pardon to the pirate and they knew each other, but the nature of their relationship is crucial in helping us find the truth about the man we call Blackbeard.
In his book, Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate, Angus Konstam states the case that Eden was not corrupt but was a little ‘foolhardy’ in his dealings with the pirate. However, there may be evidence against Eden depending on the way in which the facts are interpreted. Blackbeard was supposed to have given up piracy in Eden’s colony, where he was also eventually killed. Items were found in Eden’s possession that were taken from a ship that was possibly stolen by Blackbeard and given to Eden as gifts. We shall look into this in further detail later in the book.
Alongside Eden is Tobias Knight, the Secretary of the Colony for North Carolina. Many historians believe his involvement and collusion with Blackbeard went far deeper than Eden’s, but his guilt could never be proved despite the famous letter he wrote to the pirate just before the final battle. This guarded letter to Blackbeard is open to interpretation. For example, he ends it by saying ‘I have not the time to add save my hearty respects to you, and am your real friend.’8 Konstam suggests the letter was a warning to Blackbeard of the coming battle:
If this finds you yet in harbour I would have you make the best of your way up as soon as possible your affairs will let you. I have something more to say to you than at present I can write: the bearer will tell you the end of our Indian Warr, and Ganet can tell you in part what I have to say to you, so refer you in some measure to him.9
Whether Knight was complicit or not we will never know, as he died shortly after Blackbeard was killed and nothing was ever proved against him.
Early in Blackbeard’s career we find Benjamin Hornigold, a privateer who turned pirate and is thought to have been Blackbeard’s mentor. Both Hornigold and Blackbeard served together as privateers and it was Hornigold that first turned pirate. They served together as fellow pirates before Hornigold abandoned the pirate’s way of life and accepted the King’s Pardon. Indeed, when the new governor arrived on the island of New Providence, a pirate haven at the time and the place which both Blackbeard and Hornigold used as a base, Hornigold turned away from piracy, accepted the pardon and became pirate-hunter under the command of the newly-arrived Governor, Captain Woodes Rogers.10
Rogers, like so many other men of this time, was an ex-privateer who had been given a commission as Colonial Governor of New Providence. The difference between him and men like Hornigold and Blackbeard is that he never turned pirate. Although his role may at first appear to be superficial, it is in fact very prominent. It is more than likely that his arrival in the previously lawless New Providence may have been the trigger that encouraged Blackbeard to move northwards in search of a new base of operations; a move that eventually brought him into the path of Alexander Spotswood.11
Of course, we must also look at Johnson as a key player in the story because he documented Blackbeard’s life with considerable detail and accuracy. We don’t just use Johnson’s History as a major source; we also need to look at him as a player in the overall scheme of things. In his 1724 edition, Johnson thanks the many persons who had been taken by the pirates as well as those people who were involved in the taking for giving him detailed facts. He also drew on accounts of pirates written in the London newspapers and other journals, with the Boston News Letter being a rich source of pirate stories from America.
As with Blackbeard, no-one really knows who Johnson was. For decades historians believed that he was Daniel Defoe, the famous author of Robinson Crusoe, but that theory has recently been exploded. Cordingly states that it is likely that Johnson was an ex-privateer or even a pirate himself because of his extensive knowledge of the sea.12
So while we don’t really look into the man we know as Captain Charles Johnson, his presence permeates this book and just about every other book on Blackbeard because we know the facts in his account are largely accurate. That means Johnson’s story of Blackbeard is the closest we have to an eye-witness account and so should be believed.
The story that culminated in Blackbeard’s death was a story that only lasted a couple of years. It encompassed the east coast of North America, from the Caribbean to Delaware. As we hunt for the truth about the man and his legend these key players will help us paint a picture of the pirate and his nemesis – Spotswood.
Each lonely scene shall thee restore;
For thee the tear be duly shed:
Belov’d, till life could charm no more;
And mourn’d, till pity’s self be dead.
Cymbeline, William Shakespeare
Chapter 2
The Man and the Myth
It was his custom to invite five or six of his
brutal companions to come ashore, and
he would force her to prostitute herself
to them all, one after another, before his face.13
Captain Charles Johnson, 1724
The early life of Blackbeard is a mystery. Like many of his contemporaries, the years before he became a pirate are shrouded in the swirling mists of time.
Most historians believe he was born in Bristol, although the date of his birth is uncertain. The best guess we can make comes from pictures, drawn at the time of his death, alluding to a man in his mid-30s. This places his birth in the 1680s. Indeed, Johnson states that ‘Edward Teach was a Bristol man born but had sailed some time out of Jamaica in privateers.’14
Let’s start with the basics – the name he was born with – but that too is uncertain. While there are many different variations of it the most commonly-held version today is Edward Teach, although Edward Thatch, Edward Tach, Edward Thack and Edward Thache are also likely candidates. For example, Captain Mathew Musson – perhaps the first to encounter the pirate – wrote to the Council of Trade and Plantations, and used the spelling Thatch.15 Even Edouard Titche has appeared in a document of the era as a possible spelling.16
The principal nemesis of Blackbeard – Alexander Spotswood, who we shall look at in more detail later – clouds the issue of the correct surname. He refers to the pirate by the name of Tach, as in ‘Tach’s crew’ and in the very next sentence uses the spelling Tache, as in ‘Tache’s Quarter Master’.17
To complicate the issue even further, the first person to make a detailed ch
art of the Ocracoke area, where Blackbeard met his demise, may have known the pirate. Edward Moseley was the Surveyor General of North Carolina and made his chart of the region in 1733, some years after the battle of Ocracoke. The site of the battle, or the most likely site, is known locally as Teach’s Hole. Moseley referred to this as Thatch’s Hole.18
When Blackbeard’s former quartermaster – William Howard – was captured and brought to trial, prior to the battle that claimed the life of the pirate captain, another spelling was used: ‘That the said William Howard ... did some time in the Year of our Lord 1717 Join and Associate himself with one Edward Tach and other Wicked and desolate Persons...’ Ordinarily, we would assume that any legal documents used in a trial would use, wherever possible, the correct names of individuals mentioned during the proceedings unless, of course, the only source of information at that time was Howard himself and he did not know for sure.19
Until there is any evidence to the contrary it seems reasonable to refer to Blackbeard as Edward Teach. It is the most accepted version of his name and it appears in many of the texts available for studying Blackbeard; it is also the spelling that Johnson uses in his narrative.
Studying the early life of Teach means that we have to make some assumptions. One of the main ones is that he came from a wealthy family or a family of merchants because he had an education; that is, he could read and write. Robert E. Lee in his book Blackbeard the Pirate says this about his early life:
Apparently he was an educated man, for there is no doubt he could read and write. He corresponded with merchants, and, at the time of his death, he had a letter in his possession addressed to him by the Chief Justice and Secretary of the Province of North Carolina, Tobias Knight.
We looked at the body of his letter in the previous chapter, and whether it was meant as a warning to Teach or not, the fact is that Knight would have assumed the pirate could at least read what he had written and indeed understand it, as it was a letter that had some instructions to it. It told Teach to look to the bearer of the letter for more information. Knight began this letter with the salutation ‘My friend’, so it is reasonable to assume that Knight and Teach had met before on a few occasions and Knight would know that Teach was educated. He’d had dealings with Teach so he would know his ‘friend’ was an intelligent man who could read and write.20
Lee sites several references including the entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica stating that Teach was born in Bristol.21
Indeed, Konstam states that Blackbeard was by all accounts a ‘literate, somewhat educated’ man who would have received enough formal education to allow him to read and write.22
So we can make the assumption that he came from a family affluent enough to be able to give their son an education. Another assumption that we can make about his origins is of his ability to be fully at ease in the company of his fellow pirates as well as with the higher end of society where politicians, wealthy landowners, merchants and planters mingled. If he did have more than a basic education and came from a family used to socialising with important people, this easiness with such extremes of society makes sense. In order for him to create the myth and the legend he would need to have been intelligent and highly perceptive of people’s feelings and fears to play them as well as he did.
It is also quite likely that his family earned their living from the seafaring trade in Bristol. At the time it was a thriving port town and the second-largest town in England and much of the wealth of Bristol came from trade with the American colonies. Sugar, cocoa, and other luxury items that entered England came in through Bristol. Bristol was also heavily involved in the slave trade from which many wealthy merchants gained their fortune. So for a small boy growing up in daily view of the ships coming and going from Bristol, the temptation to look westwards towards the Atlantic Ocean and the colonies of North America must have been great indeed.23
However, there is no real evidence to suggest that Blackbeard was from Bristol. It is an assumption made by many historians because Johnson states that is where Blackbeard came from. Konstam cites the survey conducted in 1698 by the authorities in Bristol as a place where some proof could be found but no-one by the name of Thatch or Teach is mentioned or even anyone with a variation of the two names such as Tach or Tache. Yet, Konstam does put forward a convincing theory that might shed some light on whether Blackbeard may have come from Bristol.
In our previous chapter we mentioned Captain Woodes Rogers as being one of the key players in Blackbeard’s life. Indeed, the two men were roughly the same age. In 1708 Rogers embarked on a round-the-world voyage to plunder Spanish ships, leading a squadron of two small frigates. He was a privateer with money from Bristol backers behind him and Letters of Marque that gave him the authority to attack enemy vessels, primarily Spanish.
He sailed round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. One of the best-known incidents of this voyage is when Rogers put into the remote archipelago of Juan de Fernández Islands to take on wood and water and discovered the marooned Scots mariner Alexander Selkirk. This discovery and Selkirk’s description of his years of solitude on the islands formed the basis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. By the time Rogers returned in 1711 after having circumnavigated the globe, he had won wide acclaim for his exploits to which he added by publishing an exciting account of his voyage a year later.
Konstam states that Bristol was a city of just under 20,000 at that time and if both Blackbeard and Rogers came from Bristol then the possibility exists that the two men could have known each other by sight. Local legend has Blackbeard being brought up in Redcliff which is a riverfront suburb, while Rogers was brought up in the heart of the city. ‘If Blackbeard went to one of Bristol’s half dozen schools during the last decade of the seventeenth century, the two would surely have met at some stage.’24
If both men growing up in Bristol had access to the books published about round-the-world voyages by mariners of the mid- to late-seventeenth century, it is quite likely that both were lured by the adventures on the high seas. Both men were privateers, although Rogers was considerably more successful. There is a strong likelihood that the two men had heard of each other and that their paths may even have crossed at some point during their careers, prior to Blackbeard turning pirate.
Rogers arrived in New Providence as the new governor in 1718 with an objective of ridding the island of pirates once and for all. It was the main base for pirates attacking shipping in the waters of the West Indies and the southern American Atlantic coast.25
One of the key things that Rogers brought with him was an official pardon from the King to pirates who denounced their piratical ways and turned to legal trade. At the time Blackbeard was using New Providence as his headquarters. His mentor and friend Benjamin Hornigold, along with several other pirates, took up the pardon while Blackbeard didn’t, and he set sail from the Bahamas to North Carolina. Why didn’t he stay, like so many of his shipmates and friends? Could the reason be that he did not want to be seen by Rogers? If Edward Teach was not his real name and he knew Rogers, it is likely the new governor would have recognised him and also known his real name.26
Why would Blackbeard be worried about Rogers knowing him? If Blackbeard was interested in returning to England and living off the fortune he made as a pirate and Rogers knew who he really was he would be forever a hunted man, unable to return to his family and his home and live the life of a wealthy man. Ironically, Blackbeard’s decision to move up the Atlantic coast would be his undoing, all because he might not have wanted to be recognised by Rogers. Of course, this is speculation but the theory does make sense and seems logical.
However, this is not just about Blackbeard being a literate man coming from Bristol and possibly knowing Rogers. That sets the stage for what follows – his actions. If, as we suggest, he was intent on building his reputation, creating his own legend, then his actions would have to be different and outrageous in order for him to be seen as the most notorious pirate who ever sailed. On the
surface, many of his actions seem to be just whims or turn of fancy, but if we look closely at them then we believe they are calculated actions designed to create an extreme effect that would continue to build his reputation, such as maiming one of his crewmates, Israel Hands, when he pulled out his pistols under the table and fired.
An action like this would rip through the crew very quickly and instil fear and awe in all of them. Their ship would have sailed into many ports, the crew would hit the taverns and inns in those ports and the stories of Blackbeard would be told, embellished with each pint. Blackbeard would have relied on the fact that his crew would start telling stories about him and their exploits once they were ashore, along with the crews of the ships he captured and sent on their way after robbing them, which in turn would have created the legend and myth of Blackbeard as the worst and most feared pirate who ever lived.
Another myth that is part of the Blackbeard legend is that he had fourteen wives. Though there are no records of these, it is Captain Johnson who provides us with that number: ‘As it is the custom to marry here by priest, so it is there by a magistrate, and this I have been informed, made Teach’s fourteenth wife, whereof about a dozen might be still living.’27
The so-called fourteenth wife was Mary Ormond, and although Johnson doesn’t name her, other historians such as Lee have done. She was the daughter of a Bath County plantation-owner in North Carolina and was 16 when Blackbeard married her. Johnson states that the marriage ceremony was performed by the Governor of North Carolina, Charles Eden, so if this was the case, we know that Blackbeard knew Charles Eden.