Blackbeard

by Craig Cabell

  Whilst these ships were in their possession they sent one of Clark’s passengers with Richards and another person master of one of their tenders to towne with a message to send them a chest of medicines which if was refused by the Government they would immediately put to death all the persons that were in their possession and burn their ships etc. and threatened to come over the barr for to burn the ships that lay before the Towne and to beat it about our ears, as the Town is at present in a very indifferent condition of making much resistance if them or any other enemy should attempt it and that we were very desirous to get them off our coast by fair means which we could not do otherwise for want of such helps as other Governments are supply’d with from the Crown, the chest of medicines was sent etc. Soon after they dismissed our people and their ships having first taken from the two vessels that were homeward bound what little money they had on board and all their provisions and from the two others the same and destroyed most of their cargoes etc. all for pure mischief sake and to keep their hands in. They made no farther stay (thanks to God) but are gone to the Northward etc. Those people are so accustomed to this easy way of living that nothing can reclaim and most of those that took up with the Proclamation are now return’d to the same employment which has rather proved an encouragement than anything else, there now being three for one there was before the Proclamation was put out.

  They are now come to such a head that there is no trading in these parts, it being almost impossible to avoid them and nothing but a considerable force can reduce them which at first might have been done at an easy charge, had the Government but rightly appraised what sort of people they generally are and how most of them that first turn’d pirates have formerly lived being such as had always sailed in these parts in privateers and lived in the Bay of Campechia they had not we believe thought that a pardon would have suppressed them that being of so near akin to their present way of living.

  The Spaniards and French are very industrious in improving their settlements in these parts and will stick at no charges to bring the Indians entirely under their Government, the latter are like to become very powerful at their settlements of Mobile in a very short time. By the care our Government takes of its Plantations one would imagine that they are of no further concern to the Government than they are an opportunity of advancing and gratifying a Courtier or a considerable party man. The neglect of this upon a sudden war with any of neighbours it’s greatly feared may prove of the utmost ill consequence to the rest it being the only barrier we have. We wish it may be thought of before it proves too late, it cannot be expected that it can ever become a place well settled under a Proprietary Government and able to defend itself or of any security to our other Plantations etc.255

  The following letter, dated 21 October 1718, was written by the Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations outlining the attack by William Rhett that culminated in the capture of Stede Bonnet:

  Lately two pirate vessels, commanded by one Vane, lay of the barr of this harbour, as they have often done, and took a ship from Guiney with negroes, and two sloops bound in, and the next day attacked four ships outward bound, but what success, he had with them wee could not be informed, however their insults, and receiving advice that we might expect the same usage from another, who was careening, and refilling in Cape Fear River, obliged the Governor. (though very unable both for want of men and money) to fit out a force to go and attack them, and accordingly two sloops, one commanded by Capt. Masters and the other by Capt. Hall, with about, 130 men were got ready with. All the dispatch we could. and Colonel William Rhett commanded the whole, who sailed southerly first, in search of Vane, but not being able to meet with, or gain intelligence of him, he steered for Cape Fear River, in which he found a sloop of 8 guns and 50 men, commanded by a Major. Stede Bonnet, and two prizes, sloops belonging to New England.

  On seeing our vessels enter the River, they endeavoured to get out, and in the chase, all the three sloops run aground on some shoals, But that commanded by Capt. Masters, in which Colonel Rhett was, lay within musket shot of the pirate, and the water falling away (it being ebb) she keel’d towards him, which exposed our men very much to their fire, for near six hours, during which time they were engaged very warmly, until the water rising sett our sloops afloat, about an hour before the pyrate, when Colonel Rhett making the signal, and they prepared to board him, which the pirate seeing, sent a white flag, and after some short time, surrendered, on Colonel Rhett’s promising he would intercede for mercy.

  We had killed on board Colonel. Rhett eight men and fourteen wounded, of which four are since dead, and on board Capt. Hall, two killed and six wounded. The said pirates are now prisoners here, and we are preparing for their tryal. This undertaking, besides that it has been a considerable expense to us, will (wee apprehend) very much irritate the pirates who infest this coast in great numbers. We become therefore humble suitors to your Lordships, that you will be pleased to lay before H.M. the great danger our trade and Colony are in from them, they having at some times blocked up our harbour for eight or ten days together, and taken all that have come in or gone out, and plundered them, where they have not thought the vessels fit for their purpose. In procuring a vessel it will be of the greatest service to the trade not only of this Colony, but of all these parts etc.

  Signed,

  Robert Johnson, A. Scene, Nicholas Trot, Though. Broughton,

  Char. Hart, Far. Younger256

  Appendix III

  Spotswood Timeline

  • 1676 – Alexander Spotswood is born in the English colony of Tangier, Morocco, to Robert and Catherine Spotswood.

  • October 1683 – Catherine Spotswood and her son Alexander move from Tangier to England.

  • 1693 – Spotswood joins the British military, beginning his career as an ensign in the Earl of Bath’s infantry regiment in Flanders.

  • August 13, 1704 – Spotswood is wounded at the Battle of Blenheim during the War of Spanish Succession.

  • July 11, 1708 – the French take Spotswood prisoner during the Battle of Oudenarde in the War of Spanish Succession. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, negotiates Spotswood’s release.

  • February 18, 1710 – Queen Anne signs Spotswood’s commission as Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia.

  • June 21, 1710 – the new Lieutenant-Governor, Alexander Spotswood, lands in Jamestown, Virginia.

  • June 23, 1710 – Spotswood publishes the Royal Commission outlining his power and authority as Governor of Virginia and assumes his post as Lieutenant-Governor.

  • 1710 – Spotswood proposes the construction of a new Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg.

  • 1710 – 1716 – Spotswood helps to rebuild the College of William and Mary, which was damaged in a fire in 1705.

  • 1710 – 1722 – Spotswood pursues the completion of the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg.

  • 1711 – 1712 – Spotswood sends the Virginia militia to the North Carolina border in response to that colony’s request for help in quelling Indian uprisings.

  • November 1713 – Spotswood introduces the Tobacco Inspection Act, which requires tobacco to be inspected before entering the European market. The Act incorporates a patronage scheme, creating forty tobacco inspectorships worth £250 a year. Spotswood will award twenty-nine of these inspectorships to sitting burgesses.

  • December 1714 – Spotswood endorses the Indian Trade Act, which gives the Virginia Indian Company a twenty-year monopoly on American Indian trade and charges the company with maintaining Fort Christanna, a settlement in southern Virginia for smaller Indian tribes.

  • 1715 – Spotswood helps construct a powder magazine in Williamsburg.

  • September 7, 1715 – Spotswood dissolves the House of Burgesses after a five-week session, calling them ‘a Set of Representatives, whom Heaven has not generally endowed with the Ordinary Qualifications requisite to Legislators’.

  • 1716 – Spotswood takes up reside
nce in the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg. Promotes expansion into the Blue Ridge Mountains when his ‘Knights of the Golden Horseshoe’ expedition crosses into the Shenandoah Valley. He and a party of about fifty gentlemen embark on the expedition; German and Scots-Irish families from Pennsylvania soon follow.

  • 1717 – in response to pressure from influential Virginia politicians, the Privy Council disallows the Tobacco Inspection Act and the Indian Trade Act, both sponsored by Spotswood.

  • November 22, 1718 – the pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, is killed in a fight with a party of soldiers and sailors, led by Robert Maynard and commissioned by Spotswood.

  • April 29, 1720 – Spotswood and the Governor’s Council end a ten-year period of tense relations by resolving ‘to act for the future as cordial friends in the administration of the government’.

  • December 1720 – the Governor’s Council awards Spotswood 86,000 acres in the newly-created Spotsylvania County.

  • 1721 – James Blair leaves on a third trip to England to lobby for the removal of an executive, this time Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Spotswood. While abroad Blair arranges for the publication of a five-volume collection of his sermons.

  • April 3, 1722 – Hugh Drysdale is appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia after the King’s ministers decide to replace Spotswood.

  • September 27, 1722 – Hugh Drysdale takes the oaths of office as Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia in Williamsburg, and with his wife Hester takes up residence in the Governor’s Palace.

  • 1724 – Spotswood sails to England to secure title to his Virginia lands and to settle taxation issues. He marries Anne Butler Brayne while in England. They will have two sons and two daughters.

  • February 1729 – Spotswood returns to Virginia with his wife Anne and his sister-in-law Dorothea Brayne.

  • 1730 – Spotswood is appointed deputy postmaster-general of North America for a ten-year term. During his tenure, he extends postal service south to Williamsburg and appoints Benjamin Franklin postmaster of Philadelphia.

  • 1739 – the British decide to use colonial troops in their military campaign against Spanish provinces in the Americas. Alexander Spotswood is appointed brigadier general and quartermaster-general of troops in America.

  • June 7, 1740 – on a trip to Annapolis, Maryland, to raise troops and consult with colonial governors in preparation for an attack on the Spanish in Cartagena, Colombia, Spotswood dies after a brief illness. His burial site is unknown.

  Notes

  1 Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (London, Conway Maritime Press, 1998), p. vii. This was originally published in 1724 as A General History of Pyrates.

  2 David Cordingly, ‘Introduction’ to Johnson’s A General History, p. x.

  3 Ibid., p. ix.

  4 David Pickering, Pirates (London, Collins Gem, 2006).

  5 Most of these letters can be found in ‘America and The West Indies’, Volume 30, Calendar State Papers, Colonial Series (CSPCS) (Kew, The National Archives).

  6 Angus Konstam, Blackbeard: America’ s Most Notorious Pirate (New York, John Wiley & Sons, 2006), p. 215.

  7 Captain Charles Johnson explains that Maynard not only led the sea assault but was also directly involved, perhaps even dealing some of the multiple wounds that the pirate suffered.

  8 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 237.

  9 Ibid.

  10 Johnson, A General History, p. 47.

  11 New Providence Island had previously been a hive of pirate activity but this changed when the new Governor, Captain Woodes Rogers arrived. His commission was approved in Council and is filed at ‘America and the West Indies’, Calendar State Papers, Colonial Series, Volume 30, Section 305.

  12 See David Cordingly’s introduction in Johnson, A General History, p. xiii.

  13 Johnson, A General History, pp. 50 – 1 referring to the most famous wife of Blackbeard, one Mary Ormond.

  14 Ibid., p. 46.

  15 See CSPCS, Volume 29, Section 635.

  16 The spelling of Edouard Titche comes from the claims of Captain Pierre Dosset, the captain of La Concorde before it was stolen by Blackbeard and renamed Queen Anne’ s Revenge, and routed through Charles Mesnier, Intendant of Martinique.

  17 Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, letter to the Council of Trade and Plantations, CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 800.

  18 According to the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the reference on this chart depicts a likely version of the name of Blackbeard.

  19 Robert E. Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate – A Reappraisal of His Life and Times (North Carolina, John F. Blair, 1974), p. 102.

  20 The letter from Tobias Knight was found on Blackbeard’s ship after the pirate captain was killed in the Battle of Ocracoke.

  21 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 4, citing Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1973, XXI, 741, ‘Teach, Edward’ along with several other documents to say that Blackbeard was a Bristol man.

  22 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 12.

  23 The history of Bristol comes from Bristol-Link online and from the Wordsworth Encyclopaedia.

  24 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 13.

  25 Graham A. Thomas, Pirate Hunter, the Life of Captain Woodes Rogers (Barnsley, Pen and Sword, 2008), p. 13.

  26 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 14, suggesting this could be the reason why Blackbeard left New Providence.

  27 See Johnson, A General History, p. 50.

  28 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 198.

  29 See Johnson, A General History, p. 199.

  30 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 157.

  31 A BBC production Blackbeard, produced by Dangerous Films, picks up on this marriage and dreadful treatment, perhaps for little more than a good bit of television drama.

  32 Most of this information comes from one source, A.B.C. Whipple’s Pirate Rascals of the Spanish Main (New York, Doubleday & Co., 1957).

  33 Hugh F. Rankin, The Pirates of Colonial North Carolina (North Carolina, N.C. State Department of Archives and History, 1963).

  34 Johnson, A General History, p. 60.

  35 This description forms part of a deposition written by Henry Bostock, dated 19 December 1717, CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298, Part III.

  36 From Johnson, A General History, p. 60.

  37 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 239.

  38 Randal Shrock, Professor of History, Earlham College, Biography of Alexander Spotswood, published on www.encyclopediavirginia.org entitled Spotswood, Alexander, 1676 – 1740.

  39 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 214.

  40 See www.encyclopediavirginia.org for details on this story of Spotswood being wounded.

  41 Alexander Spotswood, letter to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, dated 18 August (Williamsburg, Virginia Historical Society, 1710), Volume 1.

  42 Ibid.

  43 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 25 July 1713, to the Council of Trade and Plantations.

  44 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 28 July 1713, to the Council of Trade and Plantations.

  45 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 28 July 1713, to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina.

  46 Ibid.

  47 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 31 July 1713, to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina.

  48 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 29 December 1713, to the Lords Commissioners of Trade.

  49 Ibid.

  50 See the biography of Spotswood on www.encyclopediavirginia.org entitled Spotswood, Alexander, 1676 – 1740.

  51 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 27 January 1714, to the Bishop of London.

  52 Ibid.

  53 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 24 October 1715, to Mr Secretary Stanhope.

  54 See the biography of Spotswood on www.encyclopediavirginia.org entitled Spotswood, Alexander, 1676 – 1740.

  55 Spotswood, Official Letters, Volume 2, dated 27 February
1717, to the Lords of Trade.

  56 See the biography of Spotswood on www.encyclopediavirginia.org entitled Spotswood, Alexander, 1676 – 1740.

  57 Much of the information on Dick Turpin has come from the www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk website.

  58 BBC Online History web pages, account of Queen Anne.

  59 Ibid.

  60 Philip Gosse, The History of Piracy (New York, Longmans, Green & Co., 2007), p. 114.

  61 Ibid., p. 193.

  62 Some pirate crews had very detailed codes, like the crew serving Captain Bartholomew Roberts which had no less than eleven articles of agreement.

  63 Captain Kidd resorted to this deception, claiming in his statement for his defence against the charges of piracy to have raised ‘French Colours with a design to decoy’, CSPCS, Volume 17, Section 680, Part XXV.