Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/7

OF

TEACH or THATCH, EDWARD (d. 1718), pirate, commonly known as Blackbeard, is said to have been a native of Bristol, to have gone out to the West Indies during the war of the Spanish succession, and to have been then employed as a privateer or buccaneer. When the peace came in 1713 the privateers virtually refused to recognise it, and in large numbers turned pirates. Vast numbers of seamen joined them, and, while keeping up a pretence of warring against the French or Spaniards, plundered all that came in their way with absolute impartiality. Thatch was one of the earliest to play the role of pirate. He is first heard of in 1716, and in 1717 was in command of a sloop cruising in company with one Benjamin Hornigold. Among other prizes was a large French Guinea ship, which Thatch took command of and fitted as a ship of war mounting 40 guns, naming her Queen Anne's Revenge. On the arrival of [q. v.] as governor of the Bahamas, Hornigold went in and accepted the king's mercy; but Thatch continued his cruise through the West India Islands, along the Spanish Main, then north along the coast of Carolina and Virginia, making many prizes, and rendering his name terrible. He sent one Richards, whom he had placed in command of a tender, with a party of men up to Charlestown to demand a medicine-chest properly fitted. If it was not given he would put his prisoners to death. While one of the prisoners presented this demand, Richards and his fellows swaggered through the town, spreading such terror that the magistrates did not venture to refuse the medicine-chest. Then the pirates went northwards; but on or about 10 June 1718, attempting to go into a creek in North Carolina known as Topsail Inlet, the Queen Anne's Revenge struck on the bar and became a total wreck. Of three sloops in company, one was also wrecked on the bar. Thatch and his men escaped in the other two. They seem to have then quarrelled; many of the men were put on shore and dispersed; some found their way into Virginia and were hanged; the sloops separated, and Thatch, with some twenty or thirty men, went to Bath-town in North Carolina to surrender to the king's proclamation.

It appears that he found allies in the governor, one Eden, and his secretary, Tobias Knight, who was also collector of the province. He brought in some prizes, which his friends condemned in due form. He met at sea two French ships, one laden, the other in ballast. He put all the Frenchmen into the empty ship, brought in the full one, and made affidavit that he had found her deserted at sea not a soul on board. The story was accepted. Eden got sixty hogs-heads of sugar as his share, Knight got twenty, and the ship, said to be in danger of sinking and so blocking the river, was taken outside and burnt, for fear that she might be recognised. Thatch meanwhile led a rollicking life, spending his money freely on shore, but compelling the planters to supply his wants, and levying heavy toll on all the vessels that came up the river or went down. As it was useless to apply to Eden for redress, the sufferers were at last driven to send their complaint to Colonel [q. v.], lieutenant-governor of Virginia, who referred the matter to Captain George Gordon of the Pearl, and Ellis Brand of the Lyme, two frigates then lying in James River for the protection of the trade against pirates. Gordon and Brand had