Blackbeard

by Craig Cabell

  While this political wrangling continued it was evident to Spotswood that the need to capture Blackbeard was growing all the more urgent. Having the pirate in chains would go a long way to stopping some of the mud-slinging. Spotswood was not one to sit around wringing his hands, and the letter he wrote in December 1718 to the Council of Trade and Plantations set out his defence before a political attack was communicated to England and a vote of no confidence taken. He then goes on to write:

  Without examining the truth of any one of these Articles, the Address containing the general charge was first put to the vote, and carryed by the suffrages of 22 against 14 that opposed it, there being then no less than 15 Members absent, who would have been of the latter opinion. Having thus obtained their Address to pass, the Speaker was immediately commanded to sign three fair copys, which were brought in ready drawn for that purpose; and then they proceeded to consider the Articles, but upon hearing the falsehood of many of them exposed, those who readily voted for the Address upon the faith of their leaders, began to be startled and would not so easily give in to what they found could not be proved, and so put off the debate till next day, when eight of the Articles were entirely struck out as groundless, and the rest which are intended to support their charge so much altered from the first draught, that those who opposed the Address consented to let them pass purely to expose the weakness and malice of my accusers.202

  He concluded his letter by saying:

  When your Lordships shall be pleased to consider the first of the Burgesses Articles I hope you will be pleased to entertain a more favourable opinion of Virginia than to believe that the persons concerned in that unintelligible composition, are the wisest or most learned of its legislators; but though I ought to quarrel with my accusers’ understandings, I may be allowed with justice to expose their dishonesty.203

  If Spotswood was able to instigate the defeat of Blackbeard it would boost his political career and certainly cement his place in history. It would also convince their Lordships at the Council of Trade and Plantations of his good intent and his ability to control the colony and defend it against any threats, thus ensuring its continued prosperity and security. If the expedition to attack Blackbeard worked, then Spotswood would become safe in his political career and go down in history as the man behind the downfall of one of the most fearsome pirates of the era.

  If Blackbeard was either arrested, convicted and hanged for his crimes, or killed during a battle, Spotswood could use this victorious action to dismiss the council members who were a thorn in his side – namely Blair and Ludwell. However, if the expedition to capture or kill the pirate failed and Blackbeard won or got away, Spotswood could use the political unrest as part of his defence, claiming that it failed because his political opponents held him back and prevented him from fully implementing the plan.

  Yet, the political wrangling continued:

  Mr Byrd thought fitt soon to withdraw to England, carrying with him all the books of the Revenue (if he ever kept any) and has continued there ever since, ready on all occasions to do me ill offices, instead of returning to clear himself of those frauds which have been discovered in his management during his being Receiver General.204

  Spotswood’s political enemies were quite capable of answering back with their own firepower and wrote to the King:

  We lay before your Majesty several attempts of the Lieutenant Governor towards the subversion to the Constitution of our Government the depriving us of our ancient rights and privileges and many hardships which he dayly exercises upon your Majestys good subjects ... we have desired to appear in behalf of your oppressed subjects of this Colony being deprived of any other means whereby to make known to your Majesty our just grievances by our remote situation, which misfortune we find greatly increased by being governed by a Lieutenant Governor while the Governor in chief resides in Great Britain.205

  They raised the issue of the Governor’s official residence. As we have seen earlier, Spotswood had moved into this grand mansion before it was finished. For him, it was a symbol of the grace, splendour and wealth that Virginia enjoyed over its neighbouring colonies – a symbol of her prosperity:

  That he [Spotswood] hath by a misconstruction of our laws as much as in him lay perverted many of them particularly that for settling ye titles and bounds of lands, which makes it a condition of the patents, that they are to forfeit them if they fail three years of paying their quit rents, which he hath endeavoured to extend to lands granted before that law which have no such condition in their patent or grant. His construction of the law for finishing of the Governor’s House, whereby he lavishes away the country’s money contrary to the intent of the law.206

  There were fourteen grievances that accompanied the letter to the King from Spotswood’s accusers. Due to the length of time it took for letters to cross the ocean by ship, these accusations would not be seen by London until after the Blackbeard affair was over.

  Politics aside, there were other pressing reasons for Spotswood putting together an expedition to go after Blackbeard, and chief among these was the adverse effect the pirate’s actions were having on trade. In the early eighteenth century, piracy was so rife that virtually every vessel at one point or another ran the risk of being attacked by pirates and some ships would be attacked several times during the same voyage. Up until 1718 this had been concentrated in the Bahamas and the Caribbean where it didn’t really affect Spotswood.

  Now it was on his doorstep and that was an entirely different matter. Virginia trade was suffering at the hands of the pirates and that meant that Spotswood’s wealth, reputation and political future were at risk. Although he was entitled to a percentage of the trade in Virginia, Spotswood was dedicated to the colony and did not want to lose the power, influence and prestige that it enjoyed on the American continent. The last thing he wanted was for the pirates to ‘gather strength in the neighbourhood of so valuable a trade as that of this Colony’.207

  There was another key factor that made the hunt for Blackbeard urgent – war with Spain was looming. The international political situation was growing worse, and tensions between England and Spain were building which could be seen in the skirmishes between Spanish and English ships. Spotswood knew that the two Royal Navy warships moored on the banks of the James River in Virginia could be called away at any time to be pressed into the war. He also knew that he could lose control of his land-based militia as they could be also subsumed into the war effort:

  I am to acquaint you, that on Tuesday the 16th inst. a great Council was held at St James’s, where H.M. signed a Declaration of War against Spain, and ordered that the same should be published the next day by the Heralds at Arms...208

  However, fortune smiled on Alexander Spotswood when William Howard, Blackbeard’s former quartermaster on the Queen Anne’s Revenge arrived in Williamsburg. The pirates abandoned at Topsail Inlet spread out across the colonies, some heading as far as Pennsylvania and using Virginia as a key route. Many of them were seeking pardons.209 However, there is no record of Spotswood ever issuing a pardon to a pirate, which meant that pirates ending up in Virginia may not have been as welcome as they might have believed.

  So it was the case with William Howard. He was recognised either by someone who had been trading with pirates or by someone who had fallen victim to the pirates and would be quite content to see any of them in jail or, even better, hung.

  According to Spotswood, Howard had the sum of £50 and the two slaves we mentioned in earlier chapters. While £50 in today’s money isn’t much, back in the eighteenth century it amounted to a vast sum. For a sailor to have this amount of money meant that he was likely a pirate and had either stolen the money or sold stolen goods. We can assume that his wealth caught the gaze of the local inhabitants, who notified the authorities. Spotswood had him arrested immediately.210

  Putting Howard on trial would give Spotswood the opportunity of sending a key message to those pirates who had not yet taken the pardon. Howard was
a crucial member of Blackbeard’s crew – a quartermaster was always close to the captain, in both confidence and hierarchy. With Howard now under arrest, Spotswood had the chance to gain information about Blackbeard’s activities and possible locations. He set to work on building a case.

  As in many things with Spotswood this trial was not an easy one, for Howard had managed to obtain legal assistance from one of Virginia’s chief lawyers and lodged a complaint against the Justice of the Peace who’d signed his warrant for arrest, and against the captain and lieutenant on the warship on which he was incarcerated. Howard’s claim for damages amounted to £500. As far as Spotswood was concerned this was ‘extraordinary behaviour’ for a pirate. The governor was furious.

  Offenders, whether they were pirates or robbers or whatever, were usually considered guilty before they went to trial where they had the opportunity to prove their innocence, and the audacity of such a criminal trying to sue for damages was staggering to Spotswood. Within the government he could find few to uphold his view, which may have been down to the fact that so many key people were part of the campaign against him.211

  He had to proceed with a quick trial or let the man go free, which would have been a disaster for his political career. Indeed, he would have had to pay the damages from public funds which would have added to his downfall. He encountered a great deal of opposition from within the Council itself, as he expressed in his letter of defence to the Council of Trade and Plantations when he claimed to be alone in the fight to rid the region of piracy:

  ... but found a strong opposition from some of the Council against trying him [Howard] ... Besides the favour shown to Tache’s Quarter Master in advising him to sue for his liberty and for his piratical effects; some of the same gang [Blackbeard’s abandoned pirate crew] having passed through this countrey in their way to Pensilvania, and contrary to my Proclamation assembling in great numbers with their arms, and endeavouring to debauch some sailors out of the merchant ships to join them, the Officers of the Government could find none to assist in the disarming and suppressing that gang.212

  The trial of Howard and the ultimate capture or death of Blackbeard were urgent and essential. If Blackbeard managed to build a pirate haven at Ocracoke it would be a catastrophe for Virginia. Trade would drop dramatically, as would their prosperity. The Council was ranged against Spotswood. Something had to be done. If he could bring down Blackbeard it would show that regardless of the pirate’s fearsome reputation and strength, he was a man and so could die like a man.

  During his trial Howard was questioned about his piratical actions as well as those of Blackbeard. Through this and other snippets of intelligence an accurate picture began to emerge:

  That Tach with divers of his crew kept together in North Carolina went out at pleasure committing robberys on this coast and had lately brought in a ship laden with sugar and cocoa, which they pretended they found as a wreck at sea without men or papers, that they had landed the cargo at a remote inlet in that Province and set the ship on fire to prevent discovery to whom she belonged.213

  The case against William Howard shows that Spotswood had most of the information he needed to convict the former quartermaster. He would have had depositions from captains and crew of ships plundered by the pirate that would have provided the glue to convict Howard.

  Howard was formally accused of being involved in the theft of cargoes from twelve vessels and other acts. Some of these attacks took place before 5 January 1718 and could be wiped off the slate under the conditions of the King’s Pardon, but others took place after this date which meant that Howard and Blackbeard were ineligible for the pardon. This meant that the pardon given to Blackbeard by Governor Eden was void. The trial was brief and for Spotswood was politically vital. Howard was found guilty and convicted of piracy. He was sentenced to be hung.

  Spotswood now set his sights on Blackbeard.

  Chapter 14

  Battle Plan

  We must plan for freedom, and not only for security,

  if for no other reason than that only freedom

  can make security secure.

  The Open Society and its Enemies, Sir Karl Popper

  Spotswood was taking an enormous risk. Given the level of political unrest he was facing, the hunt and capture, or death, of Blackbeard was both urgent and dangerous; largely because he was overstepping the mark, something he’d done before and been successful, so why not again?

  Blackbeard was in North Carolina and as such was protected by the laws of the colony and by Governor Eden. Even today, American state police forces have trouble chasing felons across state lines because they have no jurisdiction beyond their own state. This was even more pronounced in colonial days where each of the colonies was virtually an entity unto itself. At the time, each governor reported directly to the Council of Trade and Plantations in England. Any armed incursion into one colony by another was seen as an invasion unless the colony being invaded had asked for assistance. If any attack against Blackbeard actually worked, then Spotswood would go down in history as the man who defeated the notorious pirate, but if it failed, that didn’t bear thinking about.

  In his proclamation authorising the destruction of pirates who threatened his colony, he refers to boundaries for such an action, writing:

  It is amongst other things enacted, that all and every person or persons, who, from and after the fourteenth day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighteen, and before the fourteenth day of November, which shall be in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Nineteen, shall take any pyrate or pyrates, on the sea or land, or in case of resistance, shall kill any such pyrate or pyrates, between the degrees of thirty four and thirty nine Northern latitude ...214

  The latitudes refer to the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, and while Spotswood had every right to specify the coast of his own colony, he had no right to include the coast of a neighbouring colony. There is no record of Spotswood ever having contacted Governor Eden for permission to send an armed expedition into his colony.215

  To ensure everyone reading the proclamation understood exactly what he was saying, Spotswood spelt it out in even plainer language: ‘... and within one hundred leagues of ... Virginia, or within the Provinces of Virginia, or North Carolina ...’216

  Interestingly, this proclamation was issued two days after the battle that took the pirate’s life. It’s likely that Spotswood would have heard of the outcome through messengers dispatched after the fighting was over and so felt safe enough to issue the proclamation. By doing this he was taking responsibility for the successful operation himself: making the expedition official on the one hand, and telling his critics on the other that he had given permission.

  Of course, he could have played it safe and not issued the proclamation at all, or at least issued it but not provided latitude references or mentioned the provinces by name. That way he could have turned to his critics and said he had merely authorised the hunt for the pirate but not for the hunt to take place in the territorial waters of another colony, but Spotswood was not a man to play it safe.

  At the time there were just over 100 vessels in service with the Royal Navy and Spotswood was lucky enough to have direct access to two of them, while both South and North Carolina had none they could call on. Despite the scourge of piracy affecting the whole of the Atlantic seaboard, the entire coast from the Caribbean to New England was patrolled by just nine warships; less than 10 per cent of the Royal Navy’s entire strength.

  Spotswood summoned Captains Brand and Gordon to his residence just outside Williamsburg; the hammering and pounding by the workmen coming from somewhere deep inside the mansion reverberated through the house. Over port they listened as Spotswood laid out the plan for the expedition to get Blackbeard. Remember Brand commanded HMS Lyme and Gordon commanded HMS Pearl. Since their dispatch to Virginia, neither had seen much action. That was about to change.

  Spotswood was operating on the very fri
nges of his authority. As we have seen, he had authority over military affairs within his colony but he had none over the actions of the Royal Navy warships or their crews. The two captains could easily have listened to his plan, thanked him for the port and said no to his proposal and there would be nothing Spotswood could have done. However, their role was to protect the valuable Virginian trade routes from anyone who threatened them, especially pirates. While they were largely there in a defensive role, both men knew the expedition fitted the requirements of their role in the colony and that it would send a resolute message to other pirates operating in the area. They didn’t hesitate; they said yes.

  Since Eden didn’t seem to be taking a firm stance against the pirate, and according to Spotswood was probably colluding with him, Spotswood sent his spies into the neighbouring colony to gather information. Blackbeard made no secret of where he was living and with the help of Governor Eden he was very likely mixing with high society between his voyages. His considerable wealth, which the King’s Pardon had allowed him to retain, would have made his movements very difficult to conceal, and everywhere the pirate captain went, Spotswood’s spies would report back to their Governor. Unlike today when information is immediate, it would have taken days for information to get back to Spotswood, either carried by a rider on horseback, a stage coach or a coastal vessel. Nevertheless, the information coming in enabled Spotswood and the two captains to work out Blackbeard’s most likely location at any given time. The choices were his residence near Bath Town and Ocracoke Island, where his sloop was moored.