Blackbeard: Exploring Edward Thatch’s Early Days

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The Firsts of Blackbeard: Exploring Edward Thatch’s Early Days as a Pirate

Posted on October 18, 2015 by David Fictum under Pirate History

Of all the pirates who sailed during the past millennium, Blackbeard’s history possesses more legends, myths, and unverified information than any other pirate. If half of the tales about his treasure proved true, his plunder’s value would rival those taken by pirates in the Red Sea in the 1690s and 1720s.[1] Unfortunately, for treasure hunters, the historical record does not produce the same rich details featured in these many legends. After the defeat of Blackbeard, otherwise known as Edward Thatch, the navy did not find dozens of chests full of valuable coins like a creative writers might imagine. Instead, the navy men found barrels sugar, cocoa, cotton, and several slaves. When sold in Virginia, the perishable commodities sold for £2247.19.4 in Virginia currency.[2] Some might propose that the navy and other people in the area missed or neglected to report Thatch’s other treasures. But, such ideas can only be conjecture since there is no evidence that Blackbeard collected an enormous fortune. The historical record often refuses to yield many of the claims made of Thatch’s story made by enthusiasts, writers, and even some historians.

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This difficulty of matching period evidence to these perceived narratives plagues Blackbeard’s early days as well as his later ones. In 2013, William Cronan in his presidential address to the annual meeting of the American Historical Association stated, “We [historians] are not allowed to argue or narrate beyond the limits of our evidence.” In the realm of Blackbeard’s history, publications from enthusiasts and historians alike stray far beyond what period documents say on a regular basis. Discussing the errors of every historian who published an account of Thatch’s career could fill its own book, but accomplish little towards bringing people closer to understanding what the historical record presents of Thatch’s history. The few known documents about Blackbeard’s early career lack information on many issues, including a definitive date for when Thatch became pirate, when he became the captain of his own crew, and what voyages he engaged in before his raid off the Virginia and Delaware Capes in the latter half of 1717. With period sources yielding few facts about this pirate, asking several questions of the historical record offers a means of understanding Thatch’s early days less hindered by centuries of old narratives and legend.

to be continued......

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Thatch and Hornigold

What was the first document to record Edward Thatch’s activities as a pirate? When did Thatch first interact with Benjamin Hornigold? What was the first document to show he commanded a pirate crew?

On December 17, 1716, the master of the brigantine Lamb, a vessel carrying a simple cargo of barrel staves and shingles, stood before Governor Peter Haywood of Jamaica and provided the earliest known account of Edward Thatch as a pirate. The brigantine’s master, Henry Timberlake, reported that he encounter two pirate vessels off western Hispaniola on the night of December 13.[3] This document did not come to the attention of historians studying Blackbeard until recently. In 2010, historian Arne Bialuschewski published a reference to this document in his article concerning Thatch’s activities off Philadelphia in 1717 and 1718.[4] Though the reference is brief, the deposition of Henry Timberlake stands as the first known reference to Edward Thatch as a pirate.

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In this account, Timberlake mentions Thatch as the captain of a pirate crew that participated in the looting of the Lamb alongside the crew of Benjamin Hornigold. The entire event began at 8’oclock in the evening when the pirate sloop Delight, under the command of Hornigold, sailed up to the Lamb, fired several warning shots, and ordered Timberlake to heave to in surrender. Timberlake obliged and followed Hornigold’s instructions to row over to the Delight with two of the Lamb’s crewmembers. While Timberlake stayed on the Delight, the pirates plundered Timberlake’s vessel. When he asked, “Why they used him,” the pirates responded, “They wanted provisions.” Timberlake reported in Jamaica the pirates plundered him of, “Three Barrills of Porke, one of Beef, two of pease, three of Mackrill[,] five Barrills of onions[,] Several Dozen Caggs of oysters, most of his [Timberlake’s] Cloaths[,] and all his Ships Stores Except about Forty Biskets and a very Small quantity of meat just to bring them in [to Jamaica].” The pirates also damaged or threw overboard £60 worth of barrel staves and shingles. After the pirates of the Delight spent an hour plundering the Lamb, Timberlake said, “Edward Thach[,] Comander of another Sloop, the name whereof this Deponent knows not[,] mounted with Eight Guns & manned with about ninety men[,] came along Side the Said Brigantine and lent their Canoa with Several hands on board her and plundered her.” Thatch’s first pirate action amounted to the simple lending of a few men and a boat to help Hornigold’s crew plundering of a vessel of some provisions.[5]

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This event marks both Thatch’s first known action as a pirate and his first known pirate command. However, this document does not tell us the amount of time he spent as a pirate before receiving his captaincy. The beginnings of Blackbeard’s career remain a mystery. With so little information, it is difficult to make an educated guess for the time it took Thatch to become a pirate captain since many variables could play into a pirate becoming a captain. Until new documentation about Thatch appears, any claims made about his beginnings before December of 1716 can only come from conjecture, with few exceptions.

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The other earliest known report that mentions Blackbeard appeared a few months after Timberlake’s deposition in Jamaica. In March of 1717, a Captain Matthew Musson found himself cast away in the Bahamas. On July 5, Musson wrote a report on what he saw there to the Council of Trade and Plantations. Among many other details, he mentioned five pirate crews used New Providence as a base for their raids on merchant ships. Musson stated that Thatch commanded one of these vessels, a sloop of six guns with a crew of about seventy men. The report also mentioned Hornigold’s presence, who commanded a sloop of ten guns and about ninety men.[6] The Musson account only provides a brief note on the presence of Thatch’s crew and little else. After this report, Blackbeard’s next documented activities came in September, leaving a six-month gap in Thatch’s history.[7] Both accounts presents two pieces of information about Thatch, that he worked with the pirate Hornigold on at least one occasion and that he commanded a sloop with six to eight guns and a crew of between seventy and ninety men. These documents also demonstrate that Thatch was a typical pirate of that time, since many of the pirates of 1716 to 1717 sailed in sloops of similar strength.[8]

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While the historical record provides only these two minor accounts for Thatch’s career for all events before September of 1717, there is one questionable account that caused many writers and historians to place Blackbeard alongside Benjamin Hornigold at many events, even though the historical record does not corroborate said claims. In 1724, a man under the pseudonym of Charles Johnson named Nathaniel Mist published the first two editions of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates.[9] In the second edition, Mist claimed that Thatch began his career as a pirate captain in late 1716 when Hornigold turned the captaincy of one of his prizes over to Thatch. The two sailed together until the capture of the French frigate La Concorde, which Thatch renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge when he made it into his flagship. After this capture, Hornigold allowed Thatch to keep the La Concorde, broke off his partnership with him, and left for the Bahamas.[10] The use of this account by historians is often at the center of many problematic descriptions of Thatch’s early career.

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Mist’s account of any pirates during this period are highly questionable. Mist’s work is not a first-hand account of pirate history. His work relied on newspaper accounts, letters, and the testimony of a few witnesses he met in England. He also engaged in factual fiction, a common activity of authors at the time where the writer mixed fiction into the facts of an event for a host of reasons, including the establishment of a more entertaining narrative. Mist made several changes and additions to his text between the several printings of his work in the 1720s. In particular, several changes occurred to Thatch’s chapter between the first and second editions of A General History of the Pyrates. Mist made minor changes such as the spelling of Blackbeard’s name from Thatch to Teach and altered his birthplace from Jamaica to Bristol. A more noteworthy change is that the references to Hornigold and Thatch working together appeared in the book’s second edition. The first edition associated Thatch’s earlier days with Stede Bonnet and claimed Thatch was one of Bonnet’s foremastmen.[11] Mist’s alteration of Blackbeard’s history appear to be attempts at correcting the early part of Thatch’s chapter. But, with its reputation for inaccuracies, especially for pirate who operated during the period of 1713 to 1717, it is inadvisable to only use Mist’s work for the history of Blackbeard or any other pirates and to check his accounts against other accounts of the events described.[12]

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This lack of accuracy in the portrayal of Thatch’s early life in A General History of the Pyrates reveals itself when comparing specific events featured in Mist’s account to the historical record. The most plausible claim made by Mist about Blackbeard’s early days is that Thatch became a captain in late 1716, considering the evidence presented in Timberlake’s deposition. However, there is no document to verify that Hornigold gave Thatch his first command. Mist also claimed Thatch sailed in consort with Hornigold in the spring of 1717 out of the Bahamas for, “the Main of America,” and captured three prizes, a vessel under a man named Billop from Havana, a sloop from Bermuda under Mr. Thurbar, and a ship sailing from Madera to South Carolina.[13] Based on the details provided, Mist appeared to gain his information from a newspaper account that came from New York on July 29, 1717 that reported on ships taken during June or July. The newspaper, besides reporting the events as occurring in the summer instead of spring, did not mention Hornigold sailing in consort with anyone. The New York account reported that Hornigold did take 120 barrels of flower from Billop’s sloop. Hornigold also took Thurbar’s vessel, but said vessel came from Jamaica instead of Bermuda and had a few gallons of rum stolen instead of wine. Finally, according to the newspaper, the pirate Paul Williams took the ship sailing from Madera to South Carolina and not Hornigold.[14] After these captures, Mist’s account completely missed any of the other captures made by Blackbeard or Hornigold from late July to early November of 1717 and jumps to the capture the La Concorde.[15]

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While evidence of Thatch’s consortship with Hornigold comes from only one early account, many other documents show that Hornigold sailed with several other pirates. Before working with Blackbeard, Hornigold sailed with Samuel Bellamy and the French pirate Labouse. In early April of 1716, Hornigold, in the sloop Benjamin of ten guns with a crew of about eighty men, captured a French sloop named the Marraine, also known as the Mary Anne. Immediately following this capture, Hornigold and his crew allowed a group of about twenty pirates in a type of boat called a periauger, headed by Samuel Bellamy and Paulsgrave Williams, to join their crew. Bellamy immediately gained the captaincy of the Marraine while Hornigold kept command of the Benjamin. The two sloops then encountered and convinced the French pirate Labouse to join them. Sometime before July, Hornigold disposed of the Benjamin, a former Spanish vessel, along with other illegal goods, to a John Perrin, who referred to the vessel as the Betty. At some point in the summer, there was a, “difference arising,” between Bellamy and Hornigold, “about takeing Prisoners; Some being for one Nation and some for another.” The pirates, possessing two sloops at the time, voted to split company, seventy-five remaining behind with Bellamy onboard the Marraine while twenty-five left with Hornigold on the other sloop. The accounts mentioning Hornigold’s career at that time do not provide an exact chronology of events, so it is unclear on what date this vote occurred, only that it happened sometime between late May and September.[16] Hornigold recovered from the Bellamy incident during the fall of 1716 and gained command of the sloop Delight of eight or ten guns and a crew of around eighty or ninety men, which he commanded when working with Thatch during the plundering of the Lamb in December.[17]

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While no known documents prove that Hornigold sailed in consort with Thatch in 1717, period sources do show that Hornigold did sail with a pirate named Napping much of that year. On April 1, Benjamin and Napping took the sloop Bennet, commanded by Captain Hickinbottem, off the coast of Puerto Bello. Hornigold swapped his sloop Adventure for the Bennet and then sailed back to Jamaica.[18] On April 4, the two pirates took a sloop belonging to Captain James at Bluefields Bay, near the western end of Jamaica. One or more of the people captured at Bluefields Bay told the pirates there was a rich Dutch ship trading on the coast of Cuba to the north.[19] Three days later, while still near Jamaica, the two pirates captured a vessel called the Revenge. Hornigold and Napping then proceeded to the southern coast of Cuba and discovered the previously mentioned rich Dutch ship sitting at anchor. The pirates attempted to attack the twenty-four-gun ship on April 12, but retreated after the forty-five-man Dutch crew repelled their assault. On the morning of April 14, Hornigold and Napping sailed away from its two-day standoff with the Dutch vessel just as the HMS Wincheslea appeared in pursuit of the two pirates.[20] During these April raids, the two pirate crews took a total of 400,000 pesos and a chest of gold belonging to the Assiento Company from their captures of the Bennet and Revenge.[21]

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By late 1717, Hornigold concluded his consortship with Napping. In June or July, the Boston News-Letter reported that Hornigold captured a sloop that recently left Havana and another from Jamaica, though the account does not mention Napping or the presence of a consort vessel. [22] It is possible the two pirates briefly parted ways and continued in consortship later in July. Captain Candler of the HMS Wincheslea reported in July that the two pirates continued to sail around Cuba in sloops with crews of about a hundred men each.[23] Three months later, their partnership ended. According to Governor Peter Heywood, Napping captured a small trader near Trinidad, a port in the center of Cuba’s southern coast, in early October. Napping told this trader that he had parted ways with Hornigold two or three days prior.[24] Hornigold surrendered and received the Royal Pardon four months later in February of 1718, along with one hundred and fourteen other pirates and three of their captains. His name appeared fifth on the list of surrendered pirates made by Captain Pearse in June of 1718.[25] Napping continued pirating without Hornigold, sailing to the waters between the African coast and Brazil by March of 1718.[26]

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Governor Heywood’s account, besides showing that Hornigold and Napping working together, demonstrates that two other claims of Hornigold sailing with Thatch in late 1717 could not have occurred. In A General History of the Pyrates, Mist claims that Blackbeard and Hornigold still sailed together and careened their vessels on the coast of Virginia sometime between the spring of 1717 and the capture of the La Concorde.[27] There is also one report in the Boston News-Letter that stated Thatch was in company with Hornigold when he captured a vessel sailing from the island of Saint Lucia to Philadelphia and another vessel from London sailing to Virginia, “in Lat. 36 and 45,” on October 18, 1717.[28] Of the many accounts to report on Thatch’s cruise off the Capes of Virginia and Delaware around October of 1717, this one Boston News-Letter report is the only one to mention Hornigold. The entry came two weeks later than the other publications of Thatch’s activity. From the standpoint of the Boston News-Letter’s other reports and other sources accounts of these same events, the report is an anomaly. Considering the Peter Heywood account from October that placed Hornigold far away from Blackbeard during his October raids, and the number of other accounts that did not report Hornigold with Thatch and Bonnet, the best conclusion to make is that Hornigold did not sail with Thatch in late 1717.[29]

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While evidence of the consortship of Hornigold and Thatch appears in only one account, two other pieces of evidences that concern both captains are not as easy to resolve. Both crews appear to have shared two notable crewmembers, William Howard and John Martin. Based on the testimony provided in the trial of John Howell, men named William Howard and John Martin both served as quartermasters in Hornigold’s crew.[30] A man named William Howard also served as a quartermaster on Blackbeard’s crew, starting from when Thatch took over command of Stede Bonnet’s sloop Revenge in September of 1717.[31] A pirate named John Martin also took the King’s pardon in the Bahamas in February of 1718. [32] Not long after this surrender, a John Martin appears in Thatch’s crew when he sailed to North Carolina, though this Martin did not stay around for Blackbeard’s last battle.[33] According to his survey of pirate numbers during this peak in pirate activity, Marcus Rediker concluded that around 4,000 pirates sailed the Atlantic between 1716 and 1726, and many crews demonstrated connections to one another through shared crewmembers or by sailing in consort with one another.[34] Thanks to the Musson and Timberlake accounts, it is possible to show that Thatch and Hornigold worked together at least once, and sailed from the same harbor at the same time. With all this evidence taken together, it is not a radical conclusion to say that the two William Howards are the same person. This is also a possibility for the two John Martins. While the crew of Hornigold and Thatch appeared to have shared some common crewmembers, determining what insights this revelation says about the relationship between the two crews is difficult.

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Thatch and Bonnet

When did Thatch first encounter Stede Bonnet? What was Thatch’s first recorded capture separate of Hornigold? When was Thatch’s first known battle?

Thatch did not appear more often in the historical record until later 1717, when he started associating with Stede Bonnet. In late August 1717, Major Stede Bonnet, a pirate captain who equipped and crewed a sloop for pirating out of his own funds from his plantation in Barbados in April of that year, sailed to the bar off Charleston, South Carolina. On August 26, in his the sloop Revenge of ten guns and about eighty men, Bonnet took two vessels, a brigantine under Captain Thomas Porter and a sloop under Captain Palmer. Bonnet let the brigantine go, but sailed Palmer’s sloop to North Carolina and used her to help careen the Revenge.[35] According to one account in the Boston Thatch did not appear more often in the historical record until later 1717, when he started associating with Stede Bonnet. In late August 1717, Major Stede Bonnet, a pirate captain who equipped and crewed a sloop for pirating out of his own funds from his plantation in Barbados in April of that year, sailed to the bar off Charleston, South Carolina. On August 26, in his the sloop Revenge of ten guns and about eighty men, Bonnet took two vessels, a brigantine under Captain Thomas Porter and a sloop under Captain Palmer. Bonnet let the brigantine go, but sailed Palmer’s sloop to North Carolina and used her to help careen the Revenge.[35] According to one account in the Boston