Deposition: Another La Concorde Survives a Pirate Attack!

 Deposition: *La Concorde de Nantes* (100 tons)

September 1718:

The 1st

Appearing before the King's Lieutenant General:

(Source: Rapports des capitaines à l'Amirauté de Nantes, Les Archives départementales de Loire Atlantique, B4578, 80.)

Carte de la plaine de Léogane et de ses environs Isle de St. Domingue - btv1b530651435, 1750

There appeared Jay Joys, Master and Commander of the vessel named *La Concorde de Nantes*—of a burthen of one hundred tons or thereabouts, armed with 8 cannons, and manned by a crew of 31 men (himself included)—owned by Sieur de la Vincendiere the Younger, the outfitter of the said vessel. From this said Captain, having received his oath with uplifted hand to speak the truth, we heard the following declaration: that his said vessel, having been laden with lawful merchandise for a voyage to Saint-Domingue, and having duly obtained the necessary clearances for the said voyage, departed from the lower reaches of this river on the 26th of last January to undertake the said voyage; however, adverse weather obliged him to put in at Saint-Louis, where he remained for three days. Thereafter, having departed from the said place to continue his course and proceed to Léogâne—his intended destination—and while underway, he encountered a pirate vessel which attacked the deponent; [he further declared] that the *Saint-Esprit* of this river, commanded by Captain... Bernard—who declared that he fired five cannon shots to drive them off, a maneuver that met with a favorable outcome—finally arrived safely at Léogâne on the following May 23rd. There, he fully discharged the cargo of the said vessel and reloaded it for the return voyage—partly as freight and partly on account of the said shipowner—with a total of 583 barrels, 84 quarter-casks, and tierces of *saindoux* (lard); 21 barrels (both large and standard sizes), 3 quarter-casks, and tierces, and one *ancre* of indigo; and two barrels of candied lemons. Upon completion of this loading operation on the said vessel, he departed from the said place on the following July 9th, bound for Nantes—his port of destination—where he arrived safely and without incident on the 30th of last month, accompanied by his entire crew, with the exception of one Rhe doist de Elion, who deserted the day before his departure. He has submitted to us the documents regarding the indentured servants and the buccaneer guns, dated the 2nd of last June, attached to his letter of discharge, which he has retained. This constitutes his declaration; after it was read aloud to him, he swore that it is sincere, true, and accurate, and he has signed it.

J. Joys

Brochettiere

La Gazette Pirate References - 1717-1719

p. 323:

From London on June 14, 1717

The Parliament of this country is still extended until August 16. We have heard from Jamaica that the Forbans [Pirates] who have taken a lot of the English, in the American Seas, have seized Isle of Providence, in the Gulf of Florida, after having done a lot of captures, which caused a great prejudice to the Merchants: & they make new instances to obtain aid from three Vessels of war, in order to increase the squadron which is in these countries.

p. 334:

From London, July 1st, 1717

According to the last letters of Jamaica, the Forbans [Pirates] continued their piracies; & one of their Vessels mounted with forty eight guns, had recently taken five richly loaded English Ships, which caused a great disturbance in commerce.

p. 454:

From London, September 9, 1717

... Merchants & others Interested in American Commerce, have obtained a general pardon from Roy [king], for the English Pirates who have done more than a year of damage in the country. This resolution was taken, because we saw that many were ready to accept it, & that it seemed more advantageous to pile in to bring them back by softness, than to use forces as considerable, that it would be necessary to destroy them.

p. 478-479:

From London there on September 10, 1717.

... The Negotiators obtained that the general pardon, which they requested for the Corsairs, who made many [prizes] in America, will be granted to them; & we confirm that Captain Roger, who was made Governor of the Isle of Sapience [Providence?], will wear it, in order to have it published. As this Isle served as their main retreat, it was resolved to make new fortifications there, the Fort which was there being not of great defense, and needing to be repaired. The interested in the commerce of the English Colonies of America, offered to contribute to the greater part of the expense, & to increase the armament which must be employed to oblige these Corsairs to be subjected. This resolution seems all the more necessary, because by a [vessel] recently arrived from America, we received that two of their Vessels: one of forty, the other of thirty-two guns, had taken recently several English vessels & others, on the coasts of Carolina & Virginia, & that they were to join seven or eight others in the Gulf of Florida [possibly a reference to the pirate fleet gathering at Long Island in the lower Bahamas - indicates plans to do so before the taking of La Concorde by Edward Thache].
... A ship from Virginia which arrived in Kinsale in Ireland, met on the road a Forban [Pirate] of those who run indifferently on the Vessels of all Nations, who met him on the road, by the crossing of the Grand Bank, where he had made other takes. Several New Dealers have formed an Insurance Company for Merchant Vessels, the bottom of which must be two million pounds sterling, and they will expect to receive the payments on the 17th of next month.

p. 59:

From London, January 17, 1718.

... We have heard that an English Vessel coming from Buenos Airés, with a considerable load of rich goods, had been attacked near Jamaica, where it had gone to make water, by a forban [pirate ], who had become master of it, after a long resilience in vengeance in which these Corsairs had massacred the whole crew.

p. 129:

From London, March 10, 1718.

On the 3rd of this month, the Commons examined the State of the English Colonies in America, and resolved to request the communication of the Memoirs sent to the Admiralty Commissioners, touching the Pirates who have extremely disturbed the trade in this country: number of the Ships who have been there send, and instructions given to the Commanders, to pursue them, and to destroy them.

p. 154-155:

From London, March 24, 1718

... On the 13th, they examined various clauses added to the Act for the transport of thieves: others relating to the repairs of the Port of Douvre, & on a draft Act which looks at specific regulations for the City of Bristol, in which according that he proposed, it is claimed that there are dangerous consequence clauses for the Anglican Church. Today, they heard the Advocars of the Merchants, who complain about the clauses inserted in the Act, to prevent smuggling, & claim that it gives excessive power & against the Loix, to the Customs & Excise Officers & that the penalties imposed on Ship Masters in the event of a violation are too harsh. The Act for the transport of thieves, passed after various changes, as well as that which ensures the effects of the Vessels which will be wrecked, to prevent them from being plundered. According to the latest news received from the English Colonies in America, the Corsairs, most of the English pirates, as well as had been offered Amnesty on very favorable terms, threatening them with no quartering, if they refused to to submit within the term prescribed by the proclamation published on this subject, had had no regard for it, and they continued their piracy as much as ever. They had recently taken eleven richly loaded English Vessels, and most of the Sailors and soldiers of the crews, had taken sides with these Corsairs, who thus became fortified. Those who had refused to take sides, had been knocked down on the next coasts, when they had surrendered without resistance: the others who had defended themselves, had obtained no quarter. The letters from Lisbon also note that three Corsairs of Salé, notwithstanding the three-month Treve concluded with the King of Morocco, had taken a merchant ship from Bristol: that another from this city which they had attacked, had jumped in the air, with all the crew, the fire having started there with the first cannon shots. The Pirates who are cut off in Bombay, & at Fort Saint Georges, also disturb the trade of the East Indies. The Company has obtained letters patent, to make the trial on the spot, to all those who may be caught. It has resolved to reduce to four percent the interest it paid to individuals, starting June 24, according to the old stile. The squadron of sixteen warships, two Galiotes with bombs & two Brulots designed for the Mediterranean Sea, which was at Buoy de Nore, was ordered to sail, and we still armed such a number of Vessels.

p. 185:

From Madrid, April 5, 1718.

... Some vessels have been detached, to cross on the coasts, in order to hunt down the Corsairs of Barbary [North Africa], particularly those of Salé * & some English Forbans [Pirates] who made various captures.

*The Salé Rovers, also Sale Rovers or Salle Rovers, were a dreaded band of Barbary corsairs in the 17th century. They formed the Republic of Salé on the Moroccan coast. The most famous of the rovers was Jan Janszoon, a Dutchman who had been a pirate for Holland in the Mediterranean.

p. 190-191:

From London, April 14, 1718.

... The opinions coming from the English Colonies of America, oblige to a larger armament than that which to have been resolved, to go to drive them from the Isle of Providence, where they are fortified in such a way that it it is difficult to attack them, if not with greater force, all the more since they had armed several buildings which they had taken: whether the sailors and the soldiers who were on them, had enlisted with them willingly or because they did not see no quarter given to those who have refused to do so, and thus continue their piracies with more boldness than ever. Captain Rogers, who was commanded with a warship & a few others to attack them, was ordered to postpone his enterprise, until other measures were taken, to try to reduce them.
... Three of the Pirates [see below] of America who were caught some time ago, were sentenced to death at the sessions of the Old-Baily, for having taken the Vessel Anglesey, and used it to race, after to have exposed the Captain & another Officer in a desert Isle, without letting them eat anything.

Boston News-Letter "London, April 3 [1718]" in 25 Aug 1718 issue.

From Proceeding of the Old Baily:

Tuesday, May 27. 1718.

NB. Those that enquire after, or are desirous to see the strange and unaccountable Letter lately sent to the Ordinary of Newgate, may read it (with Animadversions thereon) in the Printed Paper giving an Account of Tho. Peacock, a Pirate, executed at Wapping on Friday the 25th of April last, and Sold by J. Morphew.

p. 197:

From Madrid, April 12, 1718.

... We write from A Coruña, that four warships of the Squadron that cruises on the costes for the safety of the trade, against the Corsaires de Barbarie [Salé] and some English Forbans [Pirates], arrived there on the 3rd, & that they had brought two Vessels of Salé: one of forty, the other of forty-eight pieces of cannon: that of two hundred and eighty men of crew, the other of two hundred, which they taken at the height of Vigo [in Galicia, Spain], after a very stubborn fight of more than three hours. They also brought three prizes, two Portuguese and an English one that these Corsairs had made, across the Cape of Finisterre. Two Vessels of the same Wing, arriving on the same day in A Coruña in the evening, with two English Forbans [Pirates] that they took outside of Bilbao, where they have been cruising for a month & disturb the navigation of the Merchants. The orders have been given to cause Cadiz to take all the Corsairs who have been taken, and who number more than six hundred, in order to strengthen the Chiourmes des Galeres [slave-rowed royal galleys]. The two Vessels of Salé must be refitted, having been very damaged in combat; As they make new & good sailboats, they intend to be joined to those who make up the two Wings of nine Vessels each, so one will cross on the costes of Andalusia: the other on the costes of Galicia &: Biscay.

p. 169-170:

From Madrid, May 24, 1718.

... On the 18th, there arrived a Gentleman despatched by the Commander of the South Sea Wing, who had left Cadiz in the first days of 1717, to hunt down the Pirates, who disturbed the commerce of the Nation , & to the Foreigners, who against the old Loix [SE coast of France] of Navigation, & the defenses of their Sovereigns, negotiated on the sides of Peru and Chile. He brought letters of December 9, which learn that this Wing had chased & taken in the ports of Arica & Cobija six large Vessels & a Boat load booty or goods, the value of which was estimated at more than three million piastres. The Commandant having brought them to the port of Callao, two leagues from Lima, where he had had the goods unloaded and put in the store, and he had established an Intendant to make them sell, and receive the rights which belong to the King. As the Vessels were good & ready to serve, three of the best were given to the Prince of San Bono Viceroy of Peru, to strengthen the South Sea fleet, to chase the Corsairs, to prevent the smuggling trade, & ensure the navigation of the Spanish, & the transport of troops, ammunition, & goods, from one Province to another.

p. 306:

From Madrid, June 14, 1718.

... But we learned that the negotiation of the English to obtain Peace,
or a Treve with the King of Morocco, was broken, and that the Corsairs of Salé, had started again to run on Vaille to the merchants of the Nation, and that they had already taken some of them. The orders have been sent to Bilbao & A Coruña, to prefer the arming of some Vessels destined to increase the Wing which believe of this coast there, to give hunt to three or four Ostend Shipowners, who appeared in these seas, with the Emperor's flag, & to English Forbans [Pirates]. We are eagerly working on the construction of several Transport Vessels, and a few others. We have heard from Lisbon, that the Brazilian fleet was not far from the coast, and that two vessels had been detached, to go forward, and escort it against the Corsairs of Barbary.

Printing error on this - page 351

p. 360-361:

From London, July 18, 1718.

... Others who had been condemned to death at the Assizes, must be transported to the Colonies of America, where we sent full powers, to grant the pardon promised by a proclamation to the English Forbans [Pirates], who will come submit. Five Vessels order to go to Portsmouth, where they must be equipped, according to a certain opinion of the naval army of the Republic: it was only believed that the junction of Vessels and Galleys was made.

p. 373:

From London, August 4, 1718

... The Captain of the Ostend Vessel who had taken a loaded Vessel for Bilbao from the Dunes, seeing that he would be condemned as Pirate, promised to return it to the interested parties, provided that he was granted his freedom.

p. 394:

From London. August 11, 1718.

... We have heard from the Colonies of America that several Forbans [Pirates] have provided themselves, and that they have accepted the pardon that had promised them by the proclamation published in the country: but that there were several others who did not take pains to take advantage of this grace, but who continued their pirations, and who had made many considerable catches. Among others a Vessel [Edward Thache's QAR] which carries a black flag, with death tests[tête=head?], & three or four large Rowboats with bloody flags, had taken on the coast of Honduras, a Vessel of four hundred tons, of fifty men of crew, & of twenty-six guns, names the Cesar Protestant [Protestant Caesar]; & having looted all the goods, they had put Captain [William Wyer of Boston] & all his people on the ground, then they had set fire to it.

[Note: though perhaps generic, this reference tells of a black flag not unlike that of Samuel Bellamy, with a skull - not the type with a full skeleton, hourglass, and a spear in a bleeding heart, like that later described for Edward Low]

p. 406:

From London, August 18, 1718.

... That of America is no less so by the Forbans [Pirates], several of whom did not turn away, & who did not want to accept Amnesty, continued their course, and took several English vessels & Dutch.

p. 454-455:

From London, September 15, 1718.

... We also learn from the letters of the English Colonies of America, that the Forbans [Pirates] are starting to disturb trade more than ever: that they had made several considerable takes, and that they had led them to the Isle of Providence, where they fortified themselves in such a way, that it was necessary to send considerable forces there to reduce them. Some of those who had accepted the pardon which they had granted to them, went back to racing, which troubles trade out of this country.

p. 491:

From London there on October 6, 1718.

... We have heard from America that the Scarborough has taken a 30-gun Forban [Pirate] of 300 crew members. There are always quite a number of others, who persist in refusing the forgiveness which has been offered to them, & which are frequent catches.

p. 5:

From Lisbon, December 1, 1718

... The letters of the Bay of all Saints, state that the Count of Vimieyro who is its Governor, arrived there, after seventy-eight days of navigation, but in poor health, because he had embarked before that were fully healed of a disease which he had attacked before his departure. He met on the road a Corsair who wore the Dutch flag & who approached his Vessel, did the black flag & fired a broadside, including a gunner & a soldier who were wounded. But at the first discharge, the Corsair went ill-treated, withdrew by means of veils, & he escaped. It is believed that it can be one of the Forbans [Pirates] which made many takes on the English & other Nations in the Seas of America, because we had noticed that some carried the black flag.

p. 46:

From London, January 19, 1719.

... According to the last withdrawals from the Colonies, the Forbans [Pirates] who committed so many disorders in these countries continued their piracies notwithstanding the offers that had been made to them recently, to forgive them the past, & that of them had taken a Vessel on which were embarked several of those who had been condemned to death, obtained that their punishment would be commuted, in obligation to serve a number of years in America.

p. 70:

From London, February 2, 1719

We heard from Jamaica that the Forbans [Pirates] were continuing their races, and that the Spaniards arm several vessels, to run against the English.

p. 166-167:

From London, March 23, 1719

... The Commons continued to work on the Acts proposed & put into Committee; & on the 20th, the Lottery Act passed in their Room. She also ordered that whoever had to pay for the powder stores would be put on the net. We ask from Barbados that the Pirates of this country continue their races, and that they had taken in January a Merchant Ship from this City: another coming from Guinea, with two hundred and forty Negroes, & gold dust, another from New England is a Françoise Rowboat. They had plundered all these buildings, and they had released two, sunk one to the bottom, and took away the fourth.

p. 262:

From London, May 18, 1719.

... We heard from Lisbon that the Neptune Vessel from Porto, loaded with three hundred pipes of wine, was perished ... Interested in the Compagnie de la Mer du Sud, impatiently await news from several of their Ships, richly charged, fearing that they may have been taken by Forbans [Pirates], who are always very much in disorder, or that they may have been arrested by the Spaniards.

p. 285-286:

From London, on May 20, 1719.

... We press their departure and that of the relief destined for this country, especially since the Negotiators of the English Colonies have already lost several Vessels, some of which have been taken by Spanish Shipowners, & others by the Forbans [Pirates], who are always very hard to exterminate. It is said from Jamaica that, at the wish of Port-Royal, a Spanish shipowner from the island of Trinidad had taken the Kingston from London, whose cargo was very rich. The Frigate the Scarborough, was taken at the height of the Isle of Saint Christopher, by a Forban [Pirate], who after having cannonaded it for a long time, approached it and took it, the Captain & some Officers having been killed. A Spanish Shipowner of forty guns, took the Merchant Ship Saint George, which passed from Cork to Gibraltar & two others including one coming from New England, & the other from Cornouaille. Two other English vessels, other English vessels which preceded Lisbon, were taken by an owner of six pieces of cannon. The Commissioners for the sale of confiscated goods have recommenced the exercise of their Commission, which was suspended during the tenure of Parliament.

p. 526-527:

From London, October 19, 1719.

No news came from the squadron which had left Sainte Helene, with the troops which had assembled at the Isle of Wight; & as during a few days the wind was favorable, we thought it arrived towards the costes of Spain: but we had no opinion yet. On the 14th, the Britannia Vessel pierced with one hundred and twelve pieces of cannon, was launched in Wolwich, in the presence of a large number of people; but the Prince & Princess of Wales who had been invited, attended; point, & he must be taken to Chatam. Two or more vessels of seventy pieces of cannon are being built at Wolwich, and there are a few others on site. The Commissaries of the Admiralty assembled to deliberate on the means of ensuring navigation, which is disturbed on all coasts by the Corsairs, or by the Spanish Shipowners. We had notice from the English Colonies of the Coste de Guinée on July 1, that a Forban [Pirate] whose Nation we do not know, because he had changed their flag, had taken two Vessels which belonged to the Company of Africa; & that after having looted them & put the crews on the ground, he had taken these same Vessels, on which he had put a part of his [crew?], & that he had started to use them, to continue the race along the coasts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Blackbeard after Capture of La Concorde

A ship resembling Queen Anne's Revenge or QAR

The events following the capture of the famed French slave ship La Concorde, renamed Queen Anne's Revenge in a decidedly Jacobite tone, involving Edward "Blackbeard" Thache are quite well known. This is due to many sources of information, only a few of which were newspaper articles. These recently discovered sources often wholly contradict the traditional 1724 source for pirates - fast becoming a known polemical piece of uncited fact blended with elaborate fiction. FYI: the factual bits are to be found in other, more reliable primary sources. So.... why do we still use this heavy historical anchor weight to reality?

More importantly, there were also other primary sources not utilized by the controversial author of that 1724 historical fiction. These include depositions of eyewitnesses to some of these important events - events which include French captains, officers and officials of French ports, Stede Bonnet, David Herriot and his sloop, Adventure, Capt. Thomas Jacobs of HMS Diamond, and the various vessels that eventually composed the four-ship flotilla used to blockade the Port of Charleston!

Archaeologist David D. Moore, for the first time, presented a few of these valuable sources in his article “Captain Edward Thatch: A Brief Analysis of the Primary Source Documents Concerning the Notorious Blackbeard,” NCHR, vol. 95, no. 2 (April 2018), 156-160. Moore has spent a great deal of time analyzing these records. He also seems to have discovered more on the history of Stede Bonnet, the so-called "gentleman" pirate who, in an alleged letter to Col. Rhett, says that he was essentially coerced into piracy by that mean ol' nasty "notorious" pirate Blackbeard - once again titled by the Johnsonite Moore! Still, long before he ever met other pirates, Bonnet seems to have absconded from Barbados with Godfrey Malbone's old sloop Revenge, as the collector noted "Gone without Clearing" and after which a Royal Navy captain warned of a new pirate on the loose!

Barbados Shipping Record referred to by David D. Moore in “Captain Edward Thatch: A Brief Analysis of the Primary Source Documents Concerning the Notorious Blackbeard,” NCHR, vol. 95, no. 2 (April 2018), 156-160. It shows the moment that a 35-ton sloop Revenge absconded from Carlisle Bay, Barbados in spring 1717, "Gone without Clearing" - perhaps with a wealthy Maj. Stede Bonnet then aboard! Capt. Bartholomew Candler mentioned this in a letter to the Admiralty as well. He said the sloop then had "126 men and 6 guns."

Using all of these sources, it is now possible to reassemble the events following La Concorde's capture and the events that followed as they probably played out. Still, many of the ideologies and intents of Edward Thache can truly only be assumed. Some of the events that occurred may not have happened for the reasons that we believe - especially if influenced by other disreputable sources.

My findings in Jamaica, published in Quest for Blackeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World, that show a gentlemanly and wealthy Edward Thache - indeed with very different intentions than expected from a lowly "notorious" pirate - may not necessarily need that much "more work" as Moore asserts. Moore still clings - hopelessly, in my opinion - to "Capt. Charles Johnson's"  A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, that controversial 1724 source that more and more scholars are finding increasingly disreputable. Using this old controversial anti-American (read: anti-pirate counterfactual) rhetorical source can hamper good work. But, so many devotees are reticent to give up the fiction!

For instance, in the paragraph directly following the erroneous telling of Blackbeard's "falling in with the Scarborogh [Scarborough's own log does not confirm this] Man of War," Johnson (whose real name was Nathaniel Mist) mentions that Bonnet then had a sloop of ten guns when he met Thache, which is possible if he had added four guns since leaving Barbados. Still, the passage goes on to explain:

In his Way he met with a Pyrate Sloop of ten Guns, commanded by one Major Bonnet, lately a Gentleman of good Reputation and Estate in the Island of Barbadoes, whom he joyned; but in a few Days after, Teach, finding that Bonnet knew nothing of a maritime Life, with the Consent of his own Men, put in another Captain, one Richards, to Command Bonnet’s Sloop, and took the Major on aboard his own Ship, telling him, that as he had not been used to the Fatigues and Care of such a Post, it would be better for him to decline it, and live easy and at his Pleasure, in such a Ship as his, where he should not be obliged to perform Duty, but follow his own Inclinations.

It should be noted that Stede Bonnet, himself, attempted to regale (and sway) Col. Rhett with a slightly different version (that Bonnet letter to Col. Rhett) of these events with the following passage:

God the knower of all secrets, will lay to my charge; and must intreat you to consider that I was a prisoner on board Captain Edward Thatch, who, with several of Captain [Benjamin] Hornigold's company which he then [Aug 1716-summer 1717?] belonged to, boarded and took my sloop from me at the island of Providence, confining me with him eleven months.

Admittedly, Bonnet was allegedly pleading for his life to Col. William Rhett, the man who had captured him in the Cape Fear River - once he returned there from pirating vessels in Delaware Bay (on his own, without Thache, I might add). Bonnet, himself, in this passage, admits that he was guilty of these events - and of escaping from justice! So... maybe not all he allegedly wrote in that letter can be trusted? Also this assumes that he had, indeed, written such a letter!

Don't get me wrong... I do believe that this letter has a high chance of validity. I'm just exercising the customary caution.

Johnson goes on to explain how Benjamin Hornigold took the French slaver La Concorde (renamed Queen Anne' Revenge or QAR) and then gave it to Thache. This probably did not happen, of course, which Moore tells. French records (transcribed by Jacques Duqoin for the QAR team at East Carolina University) definitely state that Thache took the vessel himself in a 12-gun sloop (presumed to be Revenge), with the help of another sloop of eight guns (probably Thache's former vessel). So... Benjamin Hornigold did not bestow the magnificent mantel of "pirate grand pubbah" upon his not-so-pupilish "pupil" Thache with this ship... another blasting historical error of the inventive Johnson... er... Mist!

Secretary of State for the Navy - Correspondence to the arrival from Martinique 1717-1727: Feuquieres (François de Pas de Mazencourt, Marquis de), Governor General of the Windward Islands - Correspondence ◦ Mesnier (Charles) the Navy to Martinique ◦ December 10, 1717, EN ANOM COL C8A 22 F ° 438

Moore concentrated upon particular French records, from those gathered by the ECU QAR team member Jacques Duqoin, author of Barbe-Noire [Blackbeard] et le négrier La Concorde. Moore assures that Duqoin had believed these records belonged to Blackbeard, but they simply could not pertain to this particular pirate. Agreed. Moore leads into the traditional tale of Blackbeard at the Bay of Honduras at this point.

Still, other French records (which Moore did not go into, but were also transcribed by Jacques Duqoin) do refer to Blackbeard's deeds prior to his meeting others at the Bay of Honduras. These records describe the taking of other French ships: Roy Guillaume de Rochefort, Saint-Antoine de Marseilles, and his semi-military actions against the French of Petit Goave that Thache et al undertook after taking of La Concorde off Martinique, Christopher Taylor's Great Alleyne at Bequia, and the other French ships.

Thache's taking part in a 17 or 18-vessel attack on the French at Petit Goave in Saint Domingue (modern Haiti) shows much more revolutionary initiative (and singular disdain for the French) than a average pirate of the Golden Age. These attitudes may easily have evolved from Thache's higher and wealthier "gentleman" status and the long-running ubiquitous French abuse against his home of Jamaica!

One French record dated 21 Jan 1718 tells of the pirate's capture of "Concorde of Nantes charged with 500 blacks, Roy Guillaume from Rochefort and the Saint-Antoine de Marseille from Martinique to Santo Domingo. They gathered at the islands of Providence [probably Long Island in the Bahamas] to the number of 18 boats... it was said [in warning of French pirate Jean Martel (who Johnson said was an Englishman)] that they were waiting for 17 pirate ships to go and burn the Petit-Goave... in fact they were gathered in the number 18 boats at Longueland [Long Island is an island in the Bahamas that is much further south and closer to St. Domingue], one of the small islands of Providence [rather, Bahamas]... [the French assembled] 500 good men at Petit Goave, cavalry and infantry, not to mention the 3 armed ships and well-stocked batteries."  From Long Island, pirates planned to launch their anti-French attack by Christmas 1717. Then...  they did:

Jean Morange, captain of La Volante de Saint-Pierre, deposed afterward that:

Two Spanish Corsairs who had arrived in Puerto Rico prior to the expedition to the Crab Island, reported that the pirates, numbering 25 vessels [the pirate fleet had grown!], were at Cape Tibron [Tiburon - western tip of St. Domingue or Haiti], and that they had been burning the French district of Lautibonette* [l’Artibonite—at mouth of Artibonite River north of Petit Goave] at St Domingue... it was the same pirates who had taken the Concorde before [Thache, of course], and had since added forty guns they had taken from an Englishman [Christopher Taylor at Bequia?].

Map of Haiti showing locations of l’Artibonite and Petit Goave

Then, the events that Moore describes in the Bay of Honduras occurred in April-May 1718. As stated, the depositions which Moore reveals spoke more detail to these events of an allegedly "notorious" pirate - if that's how you want to interpret them. But, indeed... was that really what he was? Was he "Notorious" or "wicked" or a "villain" as Johnson-Mist describes in his heavily elaborated pages? I do not think so. Did I mention that Johnson... er.. Nathaniel Mist was a controversial Jacobite newspaper publisher who was arrested often, held in stocks once that we know of, and even nearly died in Newgate Prison? I'd suggest we take this into consideration when we evaluate his motives for writing a popular pirate "counterfactual" hit-piece a few years later!

Note that Johnson's book was first published in 1724. Only 15 years later, in 1739, Barbadian Charles Leslie, in his A New History of Jamaica, described a family quite like that which I described from the Jamaican Anglican Church records. Leslie wrote "that Blackbeard was born in Jamaica of very creditable Parents; his Mother [Lucretia Thache, died in 1743] is alive in Spanish Town to this Day, and his Brother [Cox Thache, died in 1737] is at present the Captain of the Train of Artillery." The family of Thaches that I found (Edward Thache Sr. with 2nd wife Lucretia and eldest son Edward Thache Jr.) in Jamaican Anglican Church records were living in St. Jago de la Vega, aka "Spanish Town" from about 1686-1743... and were there c1735 when Leslie visited the Jamaican capital city to research his book.

Patrick Pringle, c 1953

Later pirate author, Patrick Pringle also recognized Leslie's book in 1953 as carrying a very different impression of Blackbeard than we have attributed to Edward Thache for the last 300 years, due to Johnson's unreliable book. He asserted that "Pirates had been Maligned" in a Louisiana newspaper article about his new book, Jolly Roger: The Story of the Great Age of Piracy. Pringle, too, looked for the records that I found (through Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org), but was unable because he relied on the new local archivist (started 1950) who had to clean up quite a mess before he could do any kind of research for anyone. Of course, these records were well-kept in St. Catherine's Parish Church, just a couple of miles away from his office at the time. He just didn't look there.

Dr. Manushag N. Powell

Nathaniel Mist was not telling a history, but writing an entertaining and experimental type of "piratical counterfiction" as described by Associate Professor of English at Purdue University Dr. Manushag N. Powell - you might also had heard me mention this before. She regarded "Blackbeard, meanwhile, was popular in large part due to his sensational treatment as a theatrical, lascivious devil in A General History of the Pyrates (1724-1728)." Her treatise "The Piratical Counterfactual from Misson to Melodrama" properly explores Johnson or Mist's book as a work of fanciful historical fiction, experimenting with "a number of modes—including history and romance and, through their combination, counterfactual writing. This is more than just an interesting quirk of composition. It is radical experimentation, an extremely early and atypical example of the counterfactual mode... This is what counterfactual writing does: it plays upon readers’ willingness and even desire to invest in an alternative world in which we pretend a thing we know did not happen, did."

Really, my hat's off to Moore and other researchers like him who ply through the records for each and every clue. But, we all must exercise some measure of caution when using A General History as actual "history," as Dr. Powell suggests. We must analyze all records and the biases and intents of each and every one found before making judgements. We must analyze our own inner biases as well - tradition does not a history make! The new era of mass digitization which helped me find Blackbeard's family will reveal many more past biases and secrets heretofore unknown to historians. There are now billions of records out there of which historians have yet to analyze - genealogical and historical. These records will also help expose the art of modern genealogy as absolutely essential and worthy of an exalted place in the professional historian's toolkit!

admiralty, adventure, Africa, african, alternative facts, appalachee, arcadia, art glass, bahamas, bar harbor, Barbados, barham, baylus, baylus brooks, bbc, blackbeard, bonnet, book, boston, boston news-letter, bourbon, bristol, British, brooks, burgaw, burrington, buse, calusa, cape fear, capitalism, caribbean, carolana, carolina, castillo, charles johnson, church, cimaroon, cimarroon, clone, cnn, cocklyn, colchester, colonial, condent, confederacy, confederate, congdon, conservative, corruption, Davis, democrat, depression, document, dunn, dutch, east carolina, east indies, ecu, England, fake news, family, florida, french, gale, Gambia, genealogy, genetics, glass, grovesnor, hispaniola, historian, history, hornigold, howell davis, indians, iron gall, itchetucknee, jamaica, jersey, jesus knocking, jolly roger, kkk, la concorde, lawler, lawson, levasseur, liberal, lighthouse, lillington, lyme, lyndon, madagascar, maine, Manhattan, maritime, maroon, martel, maynard, McLaggin, mist, moore, mortar, moseley, mount desert, New York, newfoundland, newspaper, north carolina, original, painting, panama, paper, pearl, pender, pestle, phenney, philadelphia, phoenix, piracy, pirate, pirates, plantation, politics, privateer, profit, progressive, pyrate, QAR, racism, rebel, republican, rice, robert e. lee, rogers, romance, rothschild, Royal African, royal navy, Salem Towne, sawtelle, seager, seal cove, seminole, shark, Sierra Leone, slave, slavery, smithsonian, south, south carolina, southern, spanish, St. Augustine, st. helena, stained glass, staines, symonds, Taylor, teach, thache, thatch, theach, timberlake, time travel, timucua, traitor, treason, treasure, trump, victory, walker, west indies, windows, windsor, witchcraft, witches, woodard, worley, wrecking, write

-------------------------------------------------------------

Recent publicity by BBC Radio Bristol and the Smithsonian:

BLACKBEARD: 300 YEARS OF FAKE NEWS.
from BBC Radio Bristol
300 years ago on Thursday - 22 November 1718 - Bristol born Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard, the most famous pirate in the history of the world), was killed in a violent battle off the coast of North America. And after 300 years we can finally separate the truth from the myth. You can hear the whole story this Thursday at 9am in a one off BBC Radio Bristol special: BLACKBEARD: 300 YEARS OF FAKE NEWS. With new research by Baylus C. Brooks (found in Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World), narrated by Bristol born Kevin McNally - Joshamee Gibbs in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, and produced by Tom Ryan and Sheila Hannon this is a very different Blackbeard from the one in the story books...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06s6zfx


Author Spotlight

#Blackbeard #pirate #twitterstorians


Also:

Three Centuries After His Beheading, a Kinder, Gentler Blackbeard Emerges - Smithsonian Online

“The real story of Blackbeard has gone untold for centuries,” says Baylus Brooks, a Florida-based maritime historian and genealogist.

 By Andrew Lawler
smithsonian.com
November 13, 2018

Please keep up with updates on my website at baylusbrooks.com and at my Facebook pages: Baylus C. Brooks and Quest for Blackbeard.

Watch for Sailing East: West-Indian Pirates at Madagascar, now published!

Meanwhile, visit my Lulu page for already published material, including Quest for Blackbeard! You can also purchase the book at Amazon.com

 

Quest for Blackbeard is 15% OFF ALL PRINT FORMATS now at: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks

La Concorde de Nantes Captured!

Secretary of State for the Navy - Correspondence to the arrival from Martinique 1717-1727: Feuquieres (François de Pas de Mazencourt, Marquis de), Governor General of the Windward Islands ◾ Correspondence ◦ Mesnier (Charles) the Navy to Martinique ◦ 1717

December 10, 1717

EN ANOM COL C8A 22 F ° 438

Add caption

On the 7th of this month [December 1717] a ship [Mauvais Rencontre, former sloop of Edward Thache, aka "Blackbeard"], commanded by Captain Pierre Dosset of Nantes, with 246 [negroes, black women, black male female children under 13 - later totals from two trips were quoted at 171 males, 147 females, 47 boys, 9 girls, and total of 374].

Slaver captains anchored chiefly off the Guinea Coast (also called the Slave Coast) for a month to a year to trade for their cargoes of 150 to 600 persons, most of whom had been kidnapped and forced to march to the coast under wretched conditions. While at anchor and after the departure from Africa, those aboard ship were exposed to almost continuous dangers, including raids at port by hostile tribes, epidemics, attack by pirates or enemy ships, and bad weather. Although these events affected the ships’ crews as well as the enslaved, they were more devastating to the latter group, who had also to cope with physical, sexual, and psychological abuse at the hands of their captors. Despite—or perhaps in part because of—the conditions aboard ship, some Africans who survived the initial horrors of captivity revolted; male slaves were kept constantly shackled to each other or to the deck to prevent mutiny, of which 55 detailed accounts were recorded between 1699 and 1845. [Encyclopedia Britannica (online), "Middle Passage"]

Detail of a British broadside depicting the slave ship Brooks and the manner (c. 1790) in which more than 420 adults and children could be carried onboard.

 
This captain had departed from Nantes on the 12th of April last, commanding the ship La Concorde, to trade Negres on the Coste de Guynee [Guinea], where he arrived on the eighth of July [1717], and after having traded 516 pieces of Negres [455 surviving the Middle Passage], left the 2nd of October to make his return to this isle [Martinique]...

 ... but on the 28th of November last being 60 leagues from here by the 14 degrees 27 minutes of north latitude, having been attacked by two English pirate ships, one of 12, the other of 8 cannons, crewed by 250 men, commanded by Edouard Titche, was abducted by these pirates with 455 Negres who remained with him.

Disease and the hardships of the Middle Passage claimed sixteen crew and sixty-one of 516 total slaves. Depositions by Captain Pierre Dosset and Lieutenant Francois Ernaut explained the events of their capture by Thache on November 28, 1717. Ernaut testified that two pirate sloops attacked the slave ship La Concorde: one with 120 men and twelve cannon, and the other with thirty men and eight cannon. This estimate was 100 pirates shy of his captain’s. [Quest for Blackbeard, p. 363]

[Thache] carried the said Dosset with his crew to the Grenadines on the isle of Becoya [Bequia] near Grenada, except 14 men, of whom 10 were retained by force and the 4 others having taken part willingly with the said pirates.

[Thache] gave to the said Sr. Dosset the boat in which he arrived [Mauvais Rencontre - sloop of 8 guns] here the Negres and another party of Negres of which did not belong to him. He left from the said isle Becoya with part of its crew having been unable to contain them in this boat [Mauvais Rencontre] without risk of losing many, and which he goes in the same boat by means of a passport that M. [Francois de Pas] de Feuquieres [governor of Martinique/French Windward Islands] gave him, and a rolle of crew whom I [Charles Mesnier] also gave him for the said boat.

Captain Dosset pretends that these pirates gave 25 of the Negres to a small boat [son of Henri Saint Amour] of that island which they had taken and plundered and which they relieved. The said Captain Dosset will undoubtedly make his dilligences to demand the restitution of these 25 negres.

I have the honor to send herewith to the Council the declaration made by the said Captain Dosset at the Gresse de la Isle, on arriving there. The masters of boats who trade here in Grenada have reported seeing the said pirates with the said vessel La Concorde in a Bay of Isle St. Vincent. They had burned a ship there, and a ship who made their escape still on the water. These same boats have been hunted by these pirates, from whom they have escaped in favor of the calms and their oars. This will inform the Council of the necessity that the King should send to the Seas two good frigates, well armed and full of sails.

News of the king’s pardon made its rounds in the Atlantic by this time. Jacques Ducoin, who studied these records, believes that Thache considered taking the king’s pardon and was not tempting fate. This does not ring true, however. The massive pirate raid of St. Domingue was planned for late December and later events a few months away near the Bay of Honduras where he allegedly burns former pirate Capt. (Edward?) James’ ship for accepting the same pardon. Edward Thache may simply have been a Royal Navy veteran revolutionary observing a code of military honor and thus, treated his victims more fairly than would “notorious” pirates or common criminals. Thache usually allowed them enough food and rarely harmed anyone, unless they kept money from him. There may also have been a more pragmatic reason not to take all of the slaves. He also understood the amount of food and water needed to preserve them and, under the conditions, he probably had some trouble feeding his own crew already. The differences between [Stede] Bonnet and [Edward] Thache may have had little to do with the ability to feed slaves, but might have been more of a personal nature. [Quest for Blackbeard, p. 366-367]

------------------------------

Look for the new booklet for the Blackbeard 300 Tri-Centennial festivities, Murder at Ocracoke: Power and Profit in the Killing of Edward "Blackbeard" Thache, available now at Lulu Publishing!

 

Please keep up with updates on my website at baylusbrooks.com and at my Facebook pages: Baylus C. Brooks and Quest for Blackbeard.

Watch for Sailing East: West-Indian Pirates at Madagascar, coming this fall!

Meanwhile, visit my Lulu page for already published material, including Quest for Blackbeard! You can also purchase the book at Amazon.com

 

Quest for Blackbeard is 15% OFF ALL PRINT FORMATS now at: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks

#blackbeard #pirates #history #maritime