Two Depositions Relating to the Capture of La Concorde by Edward Thache - the Vessel Renamed Queen Anne's Revenge

 

Presumed to resemble La Concorde or Queen Anne's Revenge

APPENDIX VI: April 27, 1718. The Concorde of Names taken and plundered by pirates. ADLA 5 4578 P 56v&s. (3 photocopied sheets).

Nantes Concorde. plundered and taken by the pirates.

From April 27 (1718). 

Appeared the sieur François Ernaud, former lieutenant on the ship named La Concorde de Nantes from this port of 200 tons or thereabouts. Said vessel commanded by Pierre Dosset, first captain and which had Charles Baudin as second captain. Said ship armed with 16 guns and 75 crew, belonging to Mr. René Montaudouin and others and of which says Mr. Ernaud the oath taken, he promised and swore to tell the truth.

He told us that his said ship had been loaded with the goods permitted for the coast of Guinea and other French ships and that his said captain took all the expeditions necessary to accomplish their said voyage.

Carte de l'Eveshe de Nantes, 1695

Location of Groix

He left from the bottom of this river [Loire] on March 24, 1717 and by bad weather they were forced to release under Groix [see map to left] on the 28th of the said month where they anchored around 8 o'clock in the evening and on the 29th following around 9 o'clock in the morning the heavy weather compelled them to slip out their cable at the end and abandon their second anchor weighing about 14 to 1500 pounds and the said cable 12 to 13 inches thick, brand new, never having wetted and 120 fathoms in length. They were thrown onto the Banc des Ecarts where the aforesaid vessel touched with three strokes of its heel. 

From there they headed out to sea and came to anchor on the island of Houëdic [Ile d'Hoëdic on map below], on the 29th, where they anchored their large anchor and their brand new 12 to 13 inch cable. On the 30th of the said month they were forced to return to anchor in Mindin. Then what by the diligence they did they covered the cable and anchor above that they had spun under Groix. At Mindin [map below] they repaired there a new cable of 12 to 13 inches from theirs which was damaged. They took food and refreshments to replace those they had consumed. Then they sailed from the said Mindin on the following April 12.

On the 24th of the said month, the named Jean Morel, Provençal sailor [died] without being able to save him...

On June 6, they arrived at Mesurade [Cape Mesurado, aka Cape Montserrado - a headland on the coast of Liberia] to get wood and water from where they left on the 18th of the said month to go to Judah [Whydah or Ouidah] where they anchored on July 8 and at which place they traded and loaded on the said ship the number of 516 heads of blacks of all sexes and ages and fourteen ounces of powdered gold.

Plan of Cape Mesurado on Coast of Modern Liberia

Ouidah, Whydah, or Judah on Gold Coast of Africa

After which they left the said place on the 9th day of October following to go to Martinique and the French islands of America.

Map by Baylus C. Brooks

The following November 28, finding themselves 30 or 40 leagues from Martinique, in the latitude of 14° 30' North, they encountered around 8 o'clock in the morning in foggy weather two pirate boats, one of which was armed with 12 guns and equipped with 120 men of crew and the other armed with 8 guns and equipped with 30 men. The declarant said he had at that time 16 men dead of disease including the one who had drowned and in addition 36 men of their said crew sick with scurvy and blood flow so that they were only 21 men to do the maneuver and steer said vessel. So much so that the said two pirate boats having fired two volleys of cannon and musketry at them and shouted at them to put their boat in the sea. The said captain and officers and members of the crew seeing themselves unable to defend themselves from the said pirates , there came on board the said pirates who took them to Bicoya, Grenadine Islands where the declarant and all the other members of his crew were searched and visited and pillaged and taken from them the elite of their cargo and put the remainder on said Island ashore.

And by the declaration of a servant of his crew who declared to the said pirates that his captain and his officers had gold dust. Seeing this, the said pirates threatened the declarant and his crew to cut off their necks if they did not return the said gold powder. However, as the said waiter belonging to Mr. Martin, clerk on the said ship had declared to them. Which said waiter was named Louis Arrot de Nantes aged 15 or so who voluntarily surrendered with them. This obliged the declarant jointly with the others to deliver to them the said gold powder which everyone had a little in his without understanding the one that was freight and seized all the clothes and clothes having stripped them as well as their said ship with all its guns and gear that said pirates have retained Declares further that the said pirates have retained by force ten men of their crew, namely:

Charles Duval, native of Port-Louis, pilot.

Jean Dubois, Gascon, major surgeon.

Marc Bourgneuf, second surgeon, from Rochelle.

Claude Deshaies, 3rd surgeon.

Esprit Perrin, Master Carpenter, native of Pellerin.

René Duval, 2nd carpenter, native of Nantes.

Jean Puloin, caulker.

Guillaume Creuzet, sailor, native of Brest.

Georges Bardeau, 2nd cook.

Jean Jacques, gunsmith

Moreover a negro who was a trumpet passenger and married at Saint-Malo whose name the declarant does not know further said that four of their said crew, including the waiter mentioned above, voluntarily surrendered to the pirates, to to know:

Nicolas Pommeraye, from Saint-Malo, skipper.

François Derouet from La Rochelle, sailor.

Joseph Mortepan known as La Mornaje, volunteer, from Saint-Père en Retz.

After which the said pirates gave the declarer and the rest of his crew, both sick and healthy, one of their boats to take them to Martinique with the blacks whom the pirates abandoned on the said Ile Bicoya where thirty-two whites and two hundred and forty-six blacks embarked in their boat to pass them to La Martinique where the declarant arrived the following October 7th. Having put the blacks on the ground and given orders for their subsistence and guard. He returned from Martinique on the tenth of this month to the said island of Bicoya to take back there the rest of the blacks that the pirates had abandoned there and where they arrived on the 13th of the said month and at which place they still unloaded in the said pirate boat twelve whites and fifty two blacks to return with the others to La Martinique where they arrived on ... the said month when the captain of the said ship La Concorde, by order of justice, dismissed and paid all his crew from the said blacks. Said more than the boat that the robbers had given them, the justice of Martinique seized it and had it sold at auction for the sum of three thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds or approximately, the justice of which seized until ownership of said boat is claimed by someone.

Said said boat was of Bermudian construction, port of 40 tons or thereabouts. 

After which the declarant entered as a passenger together with Pierre Sagory, second pilot, and Pierre Perré, cooper on the ship the Saint-Esprit de Canada which passed them to La Rochelle where they disembarked on the 5th of the present month and we has requested, wishing to have this declaration verified by the above-named gentlemen On the said vessel Concorde whom he has summoned and to whom, having read this declaration.

The number of 15 men, not including the drowned man above Pierre Fortier, 2nd lieutenant, native of Audierne, who died on the crossing[:] 

Joseph Dupuy, des Sables, ensign,

Louis Despiose. pilot,

Jean Coupard, cooper,

Pierre Perron, rooster,

François Nestier, baker,

Jacques Carré, sailor,

Pierre Lemoyne, cooper

Guillaume Guillonet, sailor.

Francois Lombard, bosun [bossman, a ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew]

Jacques Gauthier, sailor.

Peter Lambert,

Jacques Bosseau

Fleury. ...

René Roulet, cook. 

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APPENDIX VII: April 27, 1718. Verification La Concorde. ADLA B 4578 f° 90v & s.. (2 photocopied sheets).

Verification and addition of the declaration of Ernaut lieutenant for La Concorde looted and taken by pirates.

Appeared the Sieur Pierre Dosset of Nantes, former master and commander of the ship named La Concorde de Nantes, of the port of 200 tons or approximately, armed with 14 guns and equipped with 72 men all included by the Sieur René Montaudouin, bourgeois and owner of that vessel.

From which said captain the oath taken with a raised hand he swore to tell the truth and to which after having read to him the declaration made by Mr. François Ernaud, his first lieutenant on his said ship La Concorde dated April 27, he recognized this sincere and true.

He only wishes to add that when he had the misfortune to be captured by the pirate ships mentioned in the above dated statement, the declarant said he had then on board the number of 455 heads of blacks of all sexes and ages, 61 blacks having died during the crossing Which together make 516 heads that he had in the said place of Judah.

Said to have ordered Charles Baudin, his second lieutenant on the said vessel, to take five pounds of gold powder from Mr. Turgot, lieutenant on the vessel Le Ruby de Saint-Malo, which the said Bardieu handed over to him declaring and that the said gold powder was taken and looted by the pirates together with thirteen pounds six ounces belonging half and half to the Dosset and Martin sirs and friends.

In addition fourteen ounces belonging to the cargo of the said ship and another eight ounces belonging to Pierre Sagory, 2nd pilot, plus three ounces belonging to Mr. Moret for 3 ounces of brandy he had entrusted to him, plus two ounces belonging to Pierre Fauquéres, first ensign on the said ship that he had found in his trunk after his death, while making the inventory and sale of his clothes, the said death preceding the said actions of the pirates.

Said further that the said pirates would have embarked sixty blacks in the boat of Henri St Amour which was found in La Grenade stranded on the quay. Which declaring to him declared to send fifteen blacks that he claimed in Martinique having recognized them by the mark of the ship. All of which blacks joined together have produced according to the account provided by the declarant to his citizens and shipowners the sum of one hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and sixty five pounds ten sols.

In addition said to have received only the sum of 3600 pounds for the sale of the pirate boat which was sold at auction by the Ministry of Justice whatever it is by the declaration of Mr. Ernaud. that it had been sold 3950 pounds having been reduced by judicial authority by the sum of 350 pounds for a cable purchased by court order from Mr. Estyefore, merchant in Saint-Pierre de La Martinique. In addition, he was found for the sum of 737 pounds of cocoa, and for 62 pounds of casks and a copper cauldron sold for 212 pounds, plus 600 pounds for two negroes who had been stolen from them by Spaniards and who declared her recovered. All the sums joined are that of one hundred and nineteen thousand and twenty-six livres ten sols. Out of which sum he was compelled to pay 8926 livres 17 sols for commission, and besides for wages of the crew eleven thousand three hundred and ninety eight livres, ten sols and for other expenses made by him declaring the sum of 7554 livres. Said furthermore to have left the net from the said boat in hard cash in the hands of Mr. Georges Prevost, merchant in Martinique, who granted a receipt to the declarant in the event of a claim from the said boat.

This is the declaration which he read to him, he swore to be sincere, persisted in it and signed

DOSSET

In margins:

The 61 negroes sold in Grenada produced 12,200 pounds, that of the number of blacks who were brought to Martinique, there are 56 exhausted (?) at 125 pounds each The total of blacks .... Claimed se rises to 376, of which six belong to the officers of the said vessel and 20 who died en route from Bicoya and to Martinique during the sale. 350 blacks remain which have been sold Deduct from 455 There is a loss of 105 blacks since the capture of the said vessel.

DOSSET 

Ancestry of Pirate Henry Jennings

Would it surprise you to know that pirate Henry Jennings is part of a wealthy family of Bermuda and grandnephew of Perient Trott whose other grandchild, Vice-admiralty Judge Nicholas Trott of South Carolina, tried and hanged Stede Bonnet and other pirates for piracy?

The Jennings are also founding fathers of the modern United States, with connections to the grandfather of President George Washington! 

Presenting the surprising genealogy of Henry Jennings:

The original immigrant to Bermuda was Richard Jennings, his will - as listed in Early Wills of Bermuda: 1629 - 1835 by Clara F. E. Hollis Hallett shows:

Capt. Richard Jennings' purchased - mostly from Capt. William Sayles - the maximum amount of land possible for residents on the tiny island of Bermuda: 250 acres.

Richard Jennings may have plotted to take over the government of Bermuda, yet in three years had become a member of the Bermudan Council. He also sold land there to a “Mr. Carter” in England that, in 1656, belonged to Capt. Lawrence Washington, “High Sheriff of Virginia” and great-grandfather of later U.S. president George Washington. The survey of 1663 includes part of his 250 acres of land (the most allowed in tiny Bermuda) in ten properties:

Capt. Jennings' two sons, Richard II and John inherited that property about 1669: Richard II in Smith's Tribe and John in Southampton Tribe.

Bermuda by J. Blaeu. 1647-49

The pirate Henry Jennings descends from John Jennings and Sarah Richards in Southampton Tribe. As the Early Wills of Bermuda shows:

John's will - written in 1684 and probated in 1688 - and compared to information from his father's will, shows that his brother Richard Jennings II had likely married Mary White, the sister of Anthony White. Richard Jennings II captained Charles Gally, cut logwood at the Bay of Campeche, and lost his vessel to pirate Francis Fernando in 1707. The interesting part is that Henry Jennings was later one of ten Jamaican privateers that included this same Francis Fernando!

In 1700, Richard Jennings II made a call at Charles Town, South Carolina and left this notation about his father's will of 1690, including his mother's remarriage to Robert Hall of Bermuda:

Richard Jennings' Will info from South Carolina Probate Records in 1700

John married a Trott, daughter of Perient and Mary Trott and sister of Perient Trott (brother also of Samuel and Nicholas Trott - the later governor of the Bahamas who traded with pirate Henry Avery). John Jennings' only male child was John.

John Jennings, son of John also appears in Early Wills of Bermuda:

 Here, we first see Henry appear, along with brothers Daniel, Richard, and Benjamin and sisters Mary and Sarah. John made this will in 1733 and died in 1740, so was very much alive when his son Henry had gone to the new town of Kingston in Jamaica:

Christian Lilly's Survey of Kingston, Jamaica in 1703

Henry Jennings had purchased two lots in Kingston. He was listed innocuously in shipping records as a mariner involved in “trade.”

British engineer Christian Lilly made a plan (shown above) of the new town of Kingston which included names of subscribers for town lots. “H Jennings” appears twice: one lot on the east side of Orange Street and another on the lower part of King’s. 

As master of Seaflower in 1710, he collected logwood from the Bay of Campeach – like his cousin Richard Jennings III in Charles Gally - and traded slaves on a minor scale to Jamaica. 

Henry was one of many “sugar drovers,” one who had been recorded losing a sloop Diamond, of four guns, in Jamaica in January 1712.  

Colin Woodard found him in “Bathsheba” of Jamaica in Boston’s customs records on July 7, 1715, just a few weeks before the hurricane that year. 

Henry Jennings in Shipping Records of Jamaica

Henry Jennings in Massachusetts Shipping Records of 1715 - located by Colin Woodard and also shows Henry Timberlake - later taken by Edward "Blackbeard" Thache and Benjamin Hornigold in Delight, late 1716.

In only a few months, perhaps influenced by his “Sea Dog” heroes, Henry Jennings became an American pirate legend. Captain John Balchen, of HMS Diamond, wrote to Admiralty Secretary Burchet from Jamaica on the 13th of May, 1716, describing Henry Jennings’ official commission from “Lord Hamilton… for suppressing of piracys.”  Balchen said Jennings sought to capitalize upon the spilled Spanish treasure, not take pirates. Jennings and Wills, guided by their heroes, greed, and holding little regard for the Spanish even in peacetime, stole recovered treasure directly from their salvage base camp on the Florida shore, rather than simply fishing the wrecks in English waters - the more legal route. Trouble was that most of the treasure was on the La Florida or Spanish coast! Jennings would gather together another fleet to go after – not just wrecks – but foreign vessels that he possibly learned about from the Cuban Deputy-governor del Valle’s letter to Hamilton. 

It seems that hunting foreign treasures was about all the English had the desire to do in the West Indies!

By early 1718, Henry returned to his old home place in Bermuda after his short, blatantly illegal run as a pirate. There, he may have contented himself with the family’s smuggling and slave business. Gov. Bennett, who may have been glad to have him back in local business, wrote to the Board, specifically mentioning “Capt. Henry Jennings one of them (who left off that way of liveing [piracy] some months since) has arrived here who with seven others [who] have surrendred themselves.”

Shortly afterward, a Henry Jennings was found sailing in March 1719 from Jamaica to Philadelphia. The next year, the wealthy maritime warrior operated again as a privateer from Bermuda in the next war with Spain, carrying three prize vessels into New York with cargos of “Snuff, Sugar, Oyle Soap, and European Goods.” In 1723, he was captured by another pirate named “Evans” and held prisoner until a quarrel broke out among the pirate crew. Jennings and other “forced men” retook the ship and sailed it back to Bermuda. The Jennings family operated as merchants, slavers, smugglers, and privateers, making their usual runs to Philadelphia, Jamaica, and New York, yet faded from the shipping records by the 1730s. 

Capt. Richard Jennings III of the Somers Islands and a few other captains named Jennings operated sparsely in Bermudan traffic for the following decades. In 1742, as the aging owner of Henry Jennings & Company of Bermuda, this Henry dabbled in the earliest family business, transporting slaves from Africa to the West Indies in the ironically-named Friendship. While likely pirate and mariner Henry Jennings died before 17th of December 1750, a younger “Capt. Henry Jennings” of sloop Ranger, a vessel owned by “Richard Downing Jennings and Henry Jennings of Bermuda” also traded to Philadelphia in 1767.  

The Jennings’ family businesses of smuggling, piracy, and slavery in America – Johnson’s “Commonwealth of Pyrates” – probably continued right up to the American Revolution and beyond. They may even have shared runs with the smuggling Hancocks of Revolutionary-era Boston. 

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Most of the genealogy is new research of mine, but the latter detailed part was adopted from the 2020 E-edition of Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World. 

 

 

Spotswood's Failed Attempt to Steal Spanish Treasure!

 

Three views of Mammon, Greed, or John Milton's "Devil of Covetousness" It's quite obvious how "Mammon's" appearance changed through time from the 18th century until now - from a little-feared miserly old man to finally corrupting into the actual Devil himself! The beast of Mammon matured after the United States confidently became a nation.

Americans are absolutely obsessed with and covetous of property. But, why? Have Americans always been greedy, or was this a learned behavior?  Property had special meaning to the population of a land-starved island nation like Great Britain - America's motherland. Property became the basis for the freehold, franchise, or the right to vote - actual political power over others. As the British Isles filled with people, this power became a premium and localized in the hands of only a few. It's estimated that, in the eighteenth century, only 3% of the population of Great Britain had the right to vote - a right so absolutely cherished by Americans today - a right then solely dependent on property ownership. 

How did that change - specifically for America - as opposed to Great Britain - and a new nation of Mammon-worshiping property-owners evolving from that land-starved island nation? 

LAND! Pure power - glorious dirt that glittered like silver or gold treasure! America was thought by Europeans to be virtually unlimited in land. It was a dream or utopia to all Europeans, but especially to island-dwelling Protestant Englishmen.

Only one problem: that vast unlimited land - that access to ultimate power - was already possessed by Catholic Spain. This was an annoying fact to not only previously (before the Spanish Armada failure of 1588) power-starved Englishmen, but also the Native American or Indians who had first lost their land to the Catholics the century before! 

Of course, Indians lost more than just land - their remarkably tolerant Creator also suffered great discrimination and abuse by all Christians! Indians might find solace in the fact that Christians just as often abused each other - it seems that Protestants and Catholics rarely got along and appeared to truly worship no god at all, but greed itself - treasure, or Mammon, the "Devil of Covetousness!"

How was the land-starved Englishman to obtain a piece of Spanish America? For the English in 1663/5, it was merely an act of claiming Spain's territory - yeah, just saying, or writing on paper that they owned it!

 

Clearly, actual possession meant having to steal it, as the Spanish had done to the technologically less-advantageous Indians and created the piratical land "beyond the lines of amity" in the first place!

Owing to the fact that the Atlantic Ocean most obviously blocked their way, theft on the water, or piracy and marine raids were the chosen methods of the greedy Englishman to relieve Spain of its stolen property - to possess it for themselves, not to return it to its rightful owners, of course.

Of course, the idea of "property" evolved a bit in this martial Mammon-loving American atmosphere into more than just land - thanks to sugar or "White Gold." Slaves - the engine of sugar wealth - also became precious objects to be possessed. Specie, of course, was always valuable, as the non-imaginary measure of value itself. That the United States inherited Mammon's capitalism from its early piratical English forebears reveals itself in the American "dollar" named and valued after the Spanish "piece of eight" dollar. The older generation of American today may remember referring to a quarter dollar as "two bits" or 1/4 of "eight bits" or the traditional division of Spanish "piece of eight" coins into eight parts or "bits."

But, stealing Spain's wealth - silver and gold cobs, or Spanish dollars and jewels - while it resulted in little enduring power, it still provided immediate benefits of instant wealth, the quick and gratuitous path to Mammon! Not to mention that it would deliver further blows to the Catholics! British citizens of means invested regularly in privateer and wreck-fishing enterprises to steal Spain's treasure. 

One Spanish wreck in the late 17th century afforded a small group of five English investors - including the king himself - a chance to make virtual fortunes... enough for one of them to build a new mansion in Kent! This was only one Spanish treasure ship!

On July 30, 1715, a hurricane crossed through the Windward Isles and slammed directly into La Florida at precisely the same moment that Spain's long-held-up treasure fleet, consisting of eleven treasure galleons with three years worth of the income for Seville aboard, passed through the straits of Florida on their way home. Eleven treasure ships were blown against the shallow shores, spilling 14 million pesos worth in silver alone... not to mention whatever value the gold and jewels might add to this golden siren's lusty song!

Mariners from all across the Atlantic community jumped to the altar to worship Mammon - or covet some treasure for themselves.

One of those men by the name of Josiah Forbes, mariner of Philadelphia, made a fateful provisioning call at Virginia on his way back from the Florida wrecks. The acting governor of Virginia - of gentlemanly stature - even royal, owing to his family connections to the ruling King George I - was Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood. 

Spotswood, perhaps for the first time, glimpsed the massive proceeds possible from the wrecks in Forbes' hull and, of course, held him on suspicion of piracy - if for no other reason than to keep him in Virginia. He later wrote - attempting to formalize his decision to hold his prisoner - that Forbes had  since been discovered to have been imprisoned by the Spanish and having escaped them before sailing for Virginia. There you have it! Forbes was already a criminal to their "friends" the Spanish!

Despite all the warnings - and being possessed by Mammon - the corrupt idea probably leapt from Spotswood's greedy brain that he might get some of that treasure for himself! And... of course (tongue firmly planted in cheek), to further the national goals of Great Britain - God Bless the King!

There had also been rumors of much competition - a great many mariners of every sort collecting on the island of New Providence to fish the very same wrecks. They also raided vessels who had already fished the wrecks and took their treasure - I mean, why do the dangerous job of diving when you didn't have to? Not to put too fine a point on it, but many upstanding gentlemen lost many a good slave that way...

Another thing that Spotswood must have considered: How long would the treasure hold out with that many people fishing it up from the sea floor? Spotswood had to act quickly if he would benefit from this golden opportunity...

Still, the acting chief of Virginia was far too genteel and could not fish the treasure himself. So, he chose another man - a partner of sorts - to take care of the dirty business for him. 

Capt. Harry Beverly, styled - after 1720 - of "New-lands," or the newest lands of his 32,000 acres, or his plantation in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, would build a vessel and sail for such a king's ransom in Spotswood's stead.

Beverly was a man of means - son of Major Robert Beverly - an original immigrant in 1663 (coincidentally, when Carolina first claimed Spain's New World territory). Harry was then a first generation American born to the gentlemanly immigrant Beverly family of Beverly, Yorkshire. The Beverlys became founding fathers in Virginia, along with other allied families such as Carters, Armisteads, Churchills, and Fairfax. They became ancestors of great statesmen and presidents of the United States!

There would be many investors in this venture as well as Spotswood - all rich and some, just as wealthy as Spotswood. Indeed, Beverly's entire family had hoped for a piece of the coveted Spanish wealth as evidenced by his step-sister Elizabeth Churchill's notation in her will of 1716 "if Mr. Harry Beverley brings back any money or other returns from the wrecks, her share should go to certain of her grandchildren." The "other returns" may have referred to silver and gold plate or jewels. All treasure was most welcome. 

The Beverly's were already quite wealthy - Harry himself, of course, owning as many as 32,000 acres of land at the time of his death. So, the expected immense fortune in specie only sparked a side-diversion for these early wealthy Americans - they did not need the money. But, adventure was in the offing! For Beverly, this expedition would resemble an international playboy's fancy, if you will. 

Beverly needed help building his vessel and engaged his step-brother Walter Keeble - less than ten years apart in age and likely close for most of their 30 something years, as of 1716. Together, according to CO 137/12, they had a square-sterned sloop constructed on the Piankatank River, on the south side of their then Middlesex County residence. Spotswood armed this sloop Virgin with eight cannon from his own colonial stores, obviously anticipating trouble in those Spanish waters. 

Sloops offshore at Virginia

Spotswood would have to be politically delicate. The English and Spanish were then at peace. The War of the Spanish Succession or Queen Anne's War had just ended in 1714. The original claim of Carolina in 1663/5 would take time to actualize. Any theft from the Spanish had to be covert, so as not to begin another international incident - not right away, at any rate. The war had been a long one and the king undoubtedly did not want to start again so soon. They must at least pretend to honor the treaty while getting whatever they could of the treasure. 

On 15th of June 1716, Lt. Gov. Spotswood commissioned Beverly's Virgin and gave him instructions... these instructions (in CO 5/1317), of course, mention the source of the treasure first:

Whereas I have Received Information that divers Ships Richly Laden having been cast away in the Channel of Bahama & other...

The all-capitalized part about "Ships Richly Laden" I'm sure never went unnoticed. And, then, his wording proceeded to his competitors:

... and that under pretence of fishing for the Said Wreck'd Goods, divers persons as well his Majesties Subjects as others have Assembled themselves with their Vessells armed and equipped in Warlike manner, commiting depredations & other Acts of Hostility, upon the Spaniards & other Nations in Amity with His Majesty [at peace; Treaty of Utrecht] and that the Said persons have also taken possession of the Island of Providence, and intend to  Strengthen themselves there under a Governor of their own choosing...

Oh, Spotswood's words made him appear quite concerned about their Spanish neighbors! Well, he was a royal official who should at least appear to be doing his duty!

As to Bahamian pirates - or, his challengers for the treasure - the literately loquacious Spotswood never made any pretense about his disgust for these wannabee usurpers of authority and "low-life" commoners in his lengthy diatribes. Annoying for such a refined gentleman as he, these "ne'er do wells" occupying New Providence and fishing his wrecks were a nuisance to all - and a threat to all legitimate attempts to steal/fish the treasure!

On 23rd June, Beverley departed from Virginia. According to Spotswood in his complaint to the Board of Trade, Beverly's voyage did not go well from the start:

... two days after he left the Capes of Virginia he mett with a strong wind at South West, which carry'd him into the latitude of 28d. 40m. and longitude of 6 degrees [east - approx. longitude of Bermuda] from the said Capes, where on 5th July he found himself close by a ship and a sloop, which proved to be a Spanish man of war called the St. Juan Baptista, commanded by Don Joseph Rocher de la Pena...

... The man of war fired three shots at Beverley's sloop (which had the English colours flying on board) and then ordered him to come on board, where (without ever looking into his papers or so much as asking for them) only demanding from whence he came, he was made prisoner and his boats crew confined apart. The men of the Spanish ship immediately went on board his sloop, beat and stript all the men[,] broke open their chests, plundered and carry'd off all the cargo, and brought the men [as] prisoners on board the man of war, where they were forced naked as they were to work as the Spaniards ordered them, except Beverley himself, and Mr. Peter Whiting and George [Keeble] his officers.

On the 30th they arrived at Porto Rico, where the Spaniards sold most of the goods belonging to Beverley's sloop, and then on 11th May, they came to St. Domingo.

At both which places Beverley[,] conscious of his honest intentions, desired a trial but was denyed, untill they should arrive at La Vera Crux, whither the Spanish Commander declared he intended to carry his prisoners. It appears also by the letters from Beverley that he had sent divers letters to the Governour of St. Domingo, setting forth his case, and praying for a tryal, but no answer was returned, neither was Beverley or any of his men suffered to go on shoar or permitted to speak to anyone at either of these places, and since 14th Aug. Beverley nor any of his men have been heard of.

Spotswood seemed to scream out to his fellow Englishmen, "Oh, the horror!"

Apparently, Rocher and the Mexican government never believed Beverly's protestations of innocence. Only six months before, Jamaica's anti-pirate privateer Henry Jennings simply walked onto the beaches of the Spanish territory of La Florida - at St. Sebastian Inlet, even below the 29th parallel or the southern limits of the Carolina "claim" - and stole all the treasure already recovered by their salvers and spiking their cannon as they left - for good measure. This was clearly an act of war - it appeared that Jennings was not so worried about restarting the just-ended conflict and again violating the treaty! 

This fact never seemed to cross Spotswood's or Beverly's mind... that the Spanish were already pissed and would take action against any English vessel they might! The Spanish could have opted to declare the treaty null and void after Jennings' Christmas 1715 raid of their treasure - on their own land! What made the Englishmen so sure that the Spanish would just let them take what they wanted and then shake hands - maybe tip back a few mugs of Sangria - with Beverly?

After all, the English pirates and terrorists in Campeche, Mexico had just been expelled from Laguna de Terminos by the Barlovento Squadron out of Vera Cruz that summer, too! By 1716, the Spanish had had quite enough loss from these Englishmen!

Maybe Spotswood hoped that Beverly would just not get caught stealing Spanish property - or treasure. Might it be that Spotswood and Beverly simply took the chance of missing Rocher or any other Spanish Man-of-War that might be out there in the wide-open seas. Beverly was possibly secretly ordered by Spotswood to just take what he could and hightail it back to Virginia. The "official commission" of going after Bahamian pirates might have been simply a ruse to avoid later legalities if caught. We'll likely never know since Beverly never even made it to New Providence before he was captured!

===== update: 3-24-2021 ==============================

In CO 137/12, a letter from Beverley's crew dated December 9, 1716, a few months after arriving at Vera Cruz tells that Beverly intended to go the Bahamas after more treasure from the Spanish wrecks, since they "in hopes to find a Wreck there, having found three Saylors Chests on the Shore among these Islands." Beverley's crew later opted for a piece of the action, as opposed to monthly wages, hoping that the chests were full of treasure. The Spanish undoubtedly suspected Beverly and crew of another operation similar to Jenning's. Still, Beverley, in his next letter of March 6th, 1717, suggests that Lt. Gov. Spotswood's intel of the sea chests ashore at New Providence came to him in May 1716 - the month before commissioning Beverly and Virgin. Therefore, it's likely that Spotswood wanted to collect that Spanish money - not to help the Spanish with their pirate problem. 

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Virginia "privateer" Capt. Harry Beverly eventually made it back to his base of Virginia... but, only after the Spanish had thoroughly satiated their anger at Henry Jennings, Harry Beverly, Alexander Spotswood, or any other Protestant heretic thief that might have hoped to steal from them. They ruined the English plans of Spotswood, sold their merchandise, and condemned Virgin. What's more, Rocher and his Barlovento Squadron from Vera Cruz, Mexico most likely captured these annoying English criminals often! Many wreck-fishing vessels must have been condemned at La Vera Cruz.

Jamaican Gov. Lord Archibald Hamilton attempted the same trickery against the Spanish with his ten-privateer fleet in winter of 1715 - to "hunt pirates" - following the wreck of the Spanish fleet in the hurricane earlier that summer. The result was that Henry Jennings - one of those privateers - outright violated the treaty and invaded Spanish La Florida, angering Spain and causing a backlash against English aggression.

I rather think the Spanish had every right to imprison these English terrorists - if one believes in the traditional real (in the sense of property) precept of ownership being 9/10ths equal to possession. 

Some Americans today might disagree with me on anachronistic terms because today, we merely view the victims here as Spanish and Catholic and know that the English successfully stole their property - now, Americans own La Florida!

But, aren't those Americans thieves and racists? Just like the Spanish before them? And we grew up in a nation of piratical Mammon worshipers, so our angry anti-Catholic, anti-Spanish opinions might be skewed by race, greed and the capitalistic profit motive.  

A General History of the Pyrates perhaps said it best when it called America a "Commonwealth of Pyrates!"

I agree. America is the quintessential nation built by greed, Mammon - the commonwealth, the land "beyond the lines of amity!" To the victor go the spoils! 

Only now - after gaining possession of Spain's property - American thieves and racists claim to be democratic and pretend to respect each others' opinions.