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.

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Anti-Slavery Politics in the Legend of "Goody" Hallett, "Witch of Wellfleet!"

The legend of “Maria” Hallet appears to have first begun in 1934 with a reprise in 1937 from Josef Berger, who wrote the 1930's classic Cape Cod Pilot.  On pages 193-197, he regales the story of the "simple Eastham farm girl" of Cape Cod - and supposed wife of legendary pirate Samuel Bellamy - whose fate was linked with the wreck of Bellamy's Whydah. 

Her name was said to be "Goody" Hallett. This has since been a legend concerning the Golden Age pirate from Devon, England, who captured the most prizes of any Caribbean pirate before the legendary Bartholomew Roberts six years after him. 

But where did this legend come from? It certainly was not as old as Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates.. coming up on 300 years! Halletts had been well-known and respected mariners in Massachusetts for more than a century – never even associated with maritime disaster until Elizabeth Reynard’s 1934 publication, The Narrow Land: Folk Chronicles of Old Cape Cod (1934). This legend has persisted to the present day. Indeed, in 1977, the Boston Herald published - on Halloween day, of course - the add below:

Boston Herald, 30 Oct 1777

This is almost certainly legend. It should be said that "Goody" or Mary or Maria Hallett has never been identified. No court records of her jailing or arrest have ever been found. Certainly, no bloody contract with Satan has ever appeared in print. And, no Cape Cod Hallett girl has ever been associated with "scuttling ships" off the Massachusetts coast.

Indeed, why make such pejorative slurs against a 15-year-old girl named "Goody" or Mary Hallett, the alleged “Witch of Wellfleet?” I thought only narcissistic, misogynistic, and pedantic jerks like Donald J. Trump were prone to abuse young women, either in bathrooms, or - like the 16-year-old Swedish climate-change activist girl - on his Twitter account - even as his statuesque Slavic model wife yells at Democrat witnesses to stop mentioning her young son, Barron Trump in hearings! Did such tribal politics also come into play with young Miss Hallett? 

Did she even exist for that matter?

Prior to 1935, the only similar reference – at least in Massuchesetts newspapers – was a shipping record for the vessel “Water Witch, of Wellfleet” in 1846. Furthermore, many vessels have carried "Witch" in their name. There have been as many as 2,899 newspaper references for both “witch” and “Cape Cod” together between 1716 and 1935, so the fairly recent Witch Trials of Salem in 1692 and the frequent devastating nor'easters probably left a lasting mark upon local Cape Cod maritime history. 

There was also Elizabeth Reynard’s other story about one Capt. Sylvanus of Cape Cod who blamed his oversleeping and allowing his sails to be ripped away in a storm upon the “Truro Hag” or witch – a woman in Truro who had sold him some milk – having drugged him by poisoning the milk! Truro is only a few miles north of both Wellfleet and Eastham), by the way. 

Another legend may have been influenced in 1851 by the wreck of Water Witch of Salem on those same shores. In fact, maritime disasters were so common in Massachusetts that 19^th century newspapers carried a “Disasters” column in their shipping section! 

Culturally, associating witches or other such ominous supernatural phenomenon with disasters has been quite common in maritime folklore and disasters on Cape Cod were indeed frequent. Marine insurance company rates of the 19^th century reflected Cape Cod’s shores as literally crawling with such “witches”  causing disasters to occur against their profit margins!

Still, why make the “witch” reference to a 15-year-old “Goody” Hallett girl (note that the term “Goody” made a timely cultural reference to the 1692 Witch Trials)? Was this simply a cultural recollection from 1692 - an attempt to demean the Hallett family as such a disaster? 

There may have been a coincident political reason to demean the Halletts of Cape Cod as possessing of some... “evil!” And, in this case, there was plenty of evidence... hanging in a Massachusetts train depot shortly before the Civil War!

A well-known Anti-Masonic (later Whig) politician Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1848-1852 and US District Attorney for Massachusetts between 1853-57, appointed by President Franklin Pierce - and native of Cape Cod – named Benjamin Franklin Hallett suffered political derision as a “soldier of fortune,” a betrayer of “every party and faction,” and a “flaming, intolerant, persecuting, temperance (anti-alcohol) man, and called loudly upon all the friends of temperance” before his death in 1862. Long-time researcher of Hallet, Roberto Poli, tells that:

Hallet was a staunch abolitionist, and a militant protector of minorities such as the native Mashpee Indians of Cape Cod, whom he defended in court in 1833 against 'whites' stealing their property in their own land... The various slanderous epithets with which he was labeled come from an episode that drew great attention, both from the public and the press - the trial of Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave escaped from the estate of Charles F. Suttle in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1854, and arrested in Boston. The trial became one of the most controversial episodes involving slavery in the years leading to the Civil War. As an abolitionist, Hallett openly despised everything the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 stood for; as a man of law, he was forced to use “reasonable force or restraint as may be necessary under the circumstances of the case” (Fugitive Slave Law, 1850; Section 6) to return fugitives to the claimants. Predictably, northern Democrats, fiercely opposed to slavery, heavily criticized him. He was described as a political machine, and was accused of turning his back to the cause. (added 2-1-2020)

Aside from his nominal abolitionism, Hallett was seen in Massachusetts as often sided politically with Southern Whigs (ancestors of slavery proponents known as Southern Democrats) in the nationalist and anti-immigrant Know-Nothing party. He incurred northern wrath for this distinctly un-Massachusettian political position. 

Stauffer Miller, author of Cape Cod and the Civil War, mentioned that during one slave trial in Boston, an unknown Cape Cod party felt that Boston (but Cape Cod-born) politician Benjamin F. Hallett “was too allied with Southern interests and suspended his effigy at the West Barnstable Depot. A note pinned to the effigy, dressed in a black coat, fancy pants and black hat, read, ‘Benj. F. Hallett, Attorney General for Southern Kidnappers. Cape Cod disowns the traitor to liberty.’ Attached to the coattail was a copy of the Barnstabie Patriot, with this message: ‘We would have hung the editor of this paper along with him but for want of time.’ Hallett never saw the effigy, as it had been removed when his train stopped at West Barnstable.” 

Even for a "hardcore abolitionist," B. F. Hallet suffered terribly from this political misunderstanding, re: perceived sympathy for slavery, conservative slavers, or Southern Democrats, as Roberto Poli writes:

It's not difficult to see why Hallett would be completely character-assassinated simply for being forced to apply the law [- return a slave to his owner]. The Burns [Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave escaped from the estate of Charles F. Suttle in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1854, and arrested in Boston] case was at the very early stages of his position as US DA, and once riots began on the streets of Boston (thousands of people gathered in front of the courthouse, shouting, spitting at and insulting the guards), Hallett's fate was sealed. He received specific directives via telegraph from the White House to increase the number of guards protecting the courthouse and Burns himself as he left the building, which was of course interpreted as an affront to liberty and dignity. At the end of the trial, thousands of people marched in protest on the streets; business owners hang black drapes outside their shops. Hallett was insulted publicly, and even assaulted in front of his home.

It may be that Massachusettians – particularly in Cape Cod - were notably relieved by his death in 1862 as he left a foul memory of their political opposition to - and hatred of - the South's peculiar institution of slavery. For their descendants today, Benjamin Hallett remained a disgusting reminder of tribal politics that precipitated the Civil War. This probably remained with his former constituents for decades, especially when white-supremacist resurgence flared once again in the early 20th century. 

The resulting political recollections possibly gave rise to the legend of Goody or Maria Hallet, the “Witch of Wellfleet” – a posthumous way of damning Benjamin Hallett and his family forever and chastising them for ever giving birth to such a contemptible slavery-loving politician! 

A Hallett girl, like Eve with an apple, a truly evil “Witch of Wellfleet” may then have slithered upon the pages of Elizabeth Reynard’s Chronicles of Old Cape Cod in 1934.

References:

Elizabeth Reynard, The Narrow Land: Folk Chronicles of Old Cape Cod (1934), reprint (Boston: Houghton-Mifflen, 1968); Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph (Gloucester, MA), Jul 25, 1846, 4; National Aegis (Worcester, MA), Sep 30, 1840, 2; Nantucket Inquirer (Nantucket, MA), Aug 29, 1840, 3; Boston Shipping List, May 24, 1851, 1; Stauffer Miller, Cape Cod and the Civil War: The Raised Right Arm (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010); Email interviews with Roberto Poli.

Blackbeard in Philadelphia?

Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World attempts to right the wrongs of many past historians and authors, amateur and professional. One of those wrongs is warping the conservative war veteran Edward "Blackbeard" Thache into a virtual comic character, notorious and villainous, a "swaggering merciless brute," as Hugh Rankin called him, based upon simply the acts - as assumed by everyone but Thache, I might add - of the last two years of his life. But, in doing so, we tend to hide from our past and our true natures as citizens of a true "Pirate Nation."

Hiding from ourselves created modern America and destroyed the reputations of gentlemen like Edward Thache. Especially by the latter nineteenth century, a lot of our rhetoric was aimed against our former heroes – privateers and pirates - misunderstood founders of what "Capt. Charles Johnson" or Jacobite newspaper publisher Nathaniel Mist referred to as the "Commonwealth of Pyrates," or America. Still, holding pirates closely to our breasts, turn-of-the-century claims of a local origin for Blackbeard, in the United States, as opposed to Jamaica, appear greatly embellished – ahistorical, but sometimes directly covert.

Why? It seems that, in the latter nineteenth century, once the United States began to assert its own dominance and identity apart from England, Blackbeard became less of an historical figure and more of an ephemeral abstract object, about whom anything could be spoken or invented.

America "adopted" Blackbeard the Pirate! We liked the pirate... and probably his methods!

These literary inventions first appeared in 1844 in a book on Philadelphia – not his actual home of Jamaica – a book relying strongly on hearsay that incurred much damage to Edward Thache’s reputation, while also popularizing him as a local villain – perhaps to avoid the inevitable comparison to capitalists of the era, whose own methods were not so dissimilar.

John F. Watson, in writing the Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in 1844, first claimed Blackbeard to be a member of a family in North America rather than Jamaica in the West Indies. Watson pulled his information from an informant who told him that he knew the family and that “Captain Drummond was a half-crazed man, under high excitements, by his losses and imprisonment by the French.”  This account gave great detail about being a privateersman out of Liverpool (not Bristol?) – even mentioned a doctor who served with him. Drummond supposedly had been the wild son of Gov. William Drummond, first governor of North Carolina, and was later executed by the governor of Virginia, which invited speculation upon local politics as a factor. Watson’s early work planted a seed: that Blackbeard was not from Bristol or Jamaica, but Virginia and/or North Carolina.

This seed grew through the years, with ex-Confederate Thomas T. Upshur’s twilight-year genealogical theories of an Accomack County, Virginia family of Teaches. It continued through many local theories to Robert E. Lee’s mid-twentieth-century version, until the present day with other local North Carolina-biased work. They all repeated and enhanced the demonized version of Johnson’s “villainous” Blackbeard while also oddly claiming him as one of their own. But, why? Why did demonization of pirates become so popular at this time as opposed to earlier? Was it simply entertainment to the masses or was it more broad – cultural in context? And, why love the demon so much?

Still, Philadelphia held the first and most "supportable" fascination over Blackbeard and it has spawned many a "midnight theory" of notoriety by centuries of authors. Thache and his semi-pirate acquaintance Stede Bonnet visited the Delaware Capes around October - November 1717. A local Pennsylvania councilman named James Logan, and/or his fellow councilman Jonathan Dickinson, apparently remembered Edward Thache when he was the mate of a brigantine from Jamaica who had recently visited their port. Logan wrote about his experience in his peculiar early eighteenth-century literary style:

Some of our Mastrs. Say, they knew almost every man aboard, most of them having been lately in this River [-] their Comandr. is one Teach who was here a Mate from Jamca. [Jamaica], about 2 yrs. agoe...

Note this phrase "Mate from Jamca." The Boston News-Letter, Thursday, Nov 11, 1717, Boston, MA, Issue: 708, on page 2 shows:

Note here the phrase "formerly Sail'd Mate out of this Port." It sounds similar to the James Logan quote above and I believe it was bastardized from his letter. The intent was probably "sailed mate of a Jamaican brigantine out of this port." Newspapers of the day were notoriously unreliable in this respect. But, that does not stop the many authors who would dearly love to have the notorious and villainous comic character as "one of their own."

It's my opinion that Blackbeard never lived in Philadelphia or on the American mainland - in any part of the current United States. He visited that port of Philadelphia about the year 1715 while serving as a "Mate" on a Jamaican brigantine, certainly. He may have remained for a few weeks, maybe a month, as he and the crew exchanged cargoes. This was routine for most mariners and their vessels. But, then he sailed back to his home in Jamaica.

I apologize to all Americans for dashing their "piratish" hopes!

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

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/programmes/p06s6zfx

You can hear it at https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_bristol

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

Exciting new detail, including information from French and English depositions, appears in a new book, Sailing East: West-Indian Pirates in Madagascar, now available!

Find further details at baylusbrooks.com
Author's Bookstore
Author's Amazon.com  page