Monthly Archives: September 2015

Blackbeard’s Capture of La Concorde or the Queen Anne’s Revenge: the French Documents

Title page from A General History of the Pyrates by Capt. Charles Johnson [Nathaniel Mist], 2nd ed., published in December 1724.

Author of A General History of the Pyrates, Capt. Charles Johnson (who we know today was Jacobite newspaper publisher Nathaniel Mist) wrote that: “In the Spring of the Year 1717, [Edward “Blackbeard”] Teach and Benjamin] Hornigold sailed from Providence, for the Main of America, and took in their Way a Billop from the Havana, with 120 Barrels of Flower, as also a Sloop from Bermuda, Thurbar Master, from whom they took only some Gallons of Wine, and then let him go; and a Ship from Madera to South-Carolina, out of which they got Plunder to a considerable Value” and following these events, that “After cleaning on the Coast of Virginia, they returned to the West-Indies, and in the Latitude of 24, made Prize of a large French Guiney Man [La Concorde, later Queen Anne’s Revenge or QAR], bound to Martinico, which by Hornigold’s Consent, Teach went aboard of as Captain, and took a Cruize in her; Hornigold returned with his Sloop to Providence, where, at the Arrival of Captain Rogers, the Governor, he surrendered to Mercy, pursuant to the King’s Proclamation.”

Woodcut images from the first two editions of A General History by Capt. Charles Johnson. The first edition claimed “Thatch” was from Jamaica, but the second edition claimed him to be a “Bristol man born” named “Teach”. The editions differed most in that Thache was paired with Stede Bonnet in the first edition, but with Benjamin Hornigold in the second. Why the variation?

Johnson/Mist wrote this passage in his second edition (December 1724), published a few months after the first (May 1724). These two editions are quite different. The first edition claimed “Thatch” was from Jamaica, but the second edition claimed him to be a “Bristol man born” named “Teach”. The editions differed most in that Thache was paired with Stede Bonnet in the first edition, but with Benjamin Hornigold in the second. Most primary sources [generally, the Boston News-Letter] tell of Thache paired with Stede Bonnet. Only one report tells that Hornigold joined them in mid-October 1717 off the Virginia capes. Did something happen in those intervening months to change Mist’s impression of Thache?Why did he suddenly make Hornigold Thache’s mentor or master?

Historian Arne Bialuschewski, researching in Jamaica, found the deposition of Henry Timberlake in which he testified as to Hornigold and Thache sailing together (presumably in separate privateer vessels as Henry Jennings, James Wills, and Samuel Liddel had done the year before) to fish Spanish wrecks on the coast of Florida. This record from Jamaica was previously unknown to us today. The eleven wrecks were part of a flotilla of Spanish treasure ships caught in a hurricane and wrecked on July 30, 1715 near Cape Canaveral. Thache, who then lived in Kingston, joined Hornigold around the latter part of 1716 – perhaps part of early 1717. This happens to be when Johnson/Mist asserts that Thache met Hornigold in his second edition. It is not known if Thache had fished the wrecks before or if he and Hornigold received privateer commissions like Jennings, et al had.

Johnson/Mist probably learned of this deposition after penning his first edition and and wrote his second edition which detailed Hornigold as Blackbeard’s master with Blackbeard starring as the eager pirate pupil. He changed significant sections of text on both Thache’s and Stede Bonnet’s chapters. 

Mist, the polemicist, wrote from the standpoint of a financially-deprived criminal biographer and may have wanted his greatest and most “notorious” pirate to be shown receiving the wisdom and training of the “great pirate master,” Benjamin Hornigold. The literary effect alluded to Eve plucking the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, unleashing evil upon the world. The bestowing of the QAR made the perfect “apple.” Johnson/Mist may have waxed more rhetorical as he revised his first edition – and as he was frequently required to post bail and pay heavy fines.

Johnson’s fantastic creation doesn’t quite meet with reality. To be mentioned in the deposition implied that Thache was a significant player (not just now, after building a “notorious” reputation, but even in December 1716, when he essentially had no reputation), an independent mariner, not merely a crewman aboard Hornigold’s ship. Furthermore, there is clear documentary evidence that Hornigold was not in command of the pirates that took La Concorde [QAR], as Johnson/Mist asserted in the second edition. The original pairing of Thache with Barbadian aristocratic pirate Stede Bonnet from the first edition seems more likely. 

Johnson/Mist must have assumed that Thache and Hornigold stayed together after December 1716, but they were probably never really “together” anyway. They can be found on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas as equals in July 1717, but there is no reason to assume that they were anything more or less before or then. 

The critical moment from which to judge the accuracy of Johnson/Mist’s narrative was the capture of La Concorde, which Johnson/Mist attributes to Hornigold and Thache as his subordinate. This occurred November 28, 1717. Recently discovered French documents, detailed by Jacques Ducoin for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources Division of Archives and History expose Johnson/Mist for a fraud. 

[Documents held in Archives départementales de Loire-Atlantiquea Nantes, les Archives nationales Paris et la section outre-mer des Archives nationales a Aix-en-Provence.] These French documents have been published as Jacques Ducoin, “Research Report in French Archives Nantes on the ship La Concorde captured by pirates in 1717,” North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources Division of Archives and History (July 2001).

The details, independent of Johnson/Mist, were recorded by depositions given to French authorities by Capt. Pierre Dosset and his crew following the incident and even some months after the incident. These depositions neither mention Hornigold by name nor do they mention a ship as large as thirty-six guns, which Hornigold allegedly captained at the time, the Ranger.

The first document to appear after the capture came from Capt. Pierre Dossett when he made his report December 10, 1717 to Mesnier, steward of the Martinique:

“… on 28 November, being 60 leagues by 14 degrees by 27 minutes of latitude north, was attacked by two English ships pirates, one 12 and the other of 8 guns armed 250 men commanded by Edouard Titche Englishman.”

Thache came directly from the Delaware Capes where, on 12 Oct 1717, he took Capt. Lindsey and then proceeded to the Virginia Capes where, on 18 Oct 1717, he and Benjamin Hornigold (in his 36-gun Ranger) worked together to take Capt. Prichard from St. Lucia. Perhaps this gave Thache the idea to head east of Martinique to capture La Concorde, or some other rich slave ships coming from the coast of Africa. Thache parted from Hornigold and sailed south from the coast of Virginia, probably traveling through the Florida Channel, north of Santo Domingo, where another pair of pirates, one with a 12-gun ship like Thache’s, captained by one “Nicholas” took a French vessel on 20 Oct 1717. It would be impossible for this to have been Thache because he could not have gone that far in only two days, so the first report of it being him was wrong. He could easily have made Martinique by 28 Nov 1717, however, to take La Concorde. NOTE: It is interesting to conjecture that Thache may have received some intelligence about the French Nantais slave ship that induced him to travel south at the same time. The documents mention how friendly the inhabitants of Santo Domingo,  St. Vincent, and the Grenadines were to the pirates. Presumably, this was a general American attitude as opposed to British. Perhaps Capt. Prichard from St. Lucia, an island in that chain, or someone on his ship told Thache about expecting a large slave shipment to Martinique. Thache then rushed to that area to take advantage of the opportunity.
  • These French documents also provide a surprisingly detailed description of the flag of a “large pirate ship” which confirms most of the flag details accepted by Blackbeard scholars today: “a black flag with a skeleton in the middle of a hand holding a dart and the other a clock.” In fact, Jean Dubois, the captain of St. Michel, taken by pirates the previous October 20th, claimed that both pirate ships flew this flag. The pirate ships he described as a “British ship of 12 guns and 135 crewmen and the second pirate boat armed with 4 guns and 35 crew,” which at first sounds like Thache & company. Captain of La Gracieuse, however, stated this pirate to be named “Nicholas.” The only detail of the “accepted” Blackbeard flag not mentioned was the heart and blood drops. Dubois also mentioned a second flag of the “same color with a figure of a man who takes another under the feet that crosses his throat” on the secondary mast.
  • Note that Clifford Beal in Quelch’s Gold: Piracy, Greed, and Betrayal in Colonial New England tells how the flag now attributed to Edward Thache, including the “three drops of blood” was once attributed to New England pirate John Quelch.  Beal states that no documentary evidence supports this and that it “appears to be an embellishment from an Edwardian-era [1901-1910] historian.”  This historian’s name is not given. Interesting indeed that this flag is described accurately in the French depositions, though without the blood detail.

  

Pirate flag usually attributed to Edward Thache. Confirmed to be the flag of the pirate “Nicholas” by a description given by the captain of a French ship taken in October 1717 before La Concorde was taken the next month. This ship was the St. Michel. The flag described in French records is shown below:

The two ships: Stede Bonnet’s 12-gun Revenge that he had built specifically to go “a-pirating” and the smaller vessel originally owned by Edward Thache or the “6-gun [with various size references]” smaller vessel described by Capt. Matthew Musson in New Providence earlier in July were apparently not the ones who plundered the St. Michael or flew the traditional “Blackbeard” flag. This record is important, for the traditional “Blackbeard” flag has never been recorded on Edward Thache’s ship… but it has on another pirates’!

Thache met Bonnet and taken command of his 12-gun Revenge the previous month of September when Bonnet may have shown up at New Providence wounded from his Spanish encounter, as researcher Colin Woodard believes. Thache had the smaller vessel prior to their partnership of then six guns, perhaps his original ship from fishing wrecks with Hornigold and taking Henry Timberlake’s Lamb, then of eight guns – maybe the one he used as a merchant-mariner living in Kingston. Either way, if the pirates who took the St. Michael had been Thache and Bonnet, the smaller ship would had to have been losing cannon quite a lot! Still, there were many pirates in the Atlantic waters at this time. The pirate using the traditionally-accepted “Blackbeard” flag did not have to be Blackbeard. It might have been “Nicholas” or even John Quelch… or even Blackbeard, assuming that the pirates were prone to excessive plagiarism.

The captain of the La Gracieuse, stated “Nicholas” to have taken him on October 20th: “the largest armed boat of 12 pieces of cannon and 140 men the small boat was armed with four guns and equipped with 30 or 35 men.” This almost is the same description as Thache and company. The French vessels mentioned captured by Thache or “Nicholas” were “namely the ship St. Jacques de Bordeaux, Captain Bergeron, a ship of [La] Rochelle called Caille, captain Haudeberd, Gracieuse de Nantes, Captain Francois Barbier.”

Two conclusions stand out from studying these documents. The first is that Benjamin Hornigold was definitely not with Edward Thache after mid-October 1717 and not present for the capture of La Concorde, or the QAR. My research has shown that he was working alone, except for Stede Bonnet riding along “studying books in his cabin” for most of the summer after mid-July when they cruised to New England. Bonnet had ill-advisedly attacked a Spanish Man-of-War near South Carolina in August and was recovering from injuries sustained that day, which gave Thache the opportunity to use his bigger and newer Barbadian-built ship. Thache apparently was happy to have the bigger ship and didn’t care what Bonnet did in the meantime. Thache briefly met with Hornigold just off the Virginia Capes in early October 1717, right before Thache began his run against the French in the Caribbean. 

Comparison Chart showing the incidence of partnership between Edward Thache and both Benjamin Hornigold and Stede Bonnet in the first two editions of A General History, by Capt. Charles Johnson. These are then compared to other primary records. It appears that Johnson/Mist may have suppressed certain newspaper reports to accommodate the information found in his second, generally most accepted edition. Johnson/Mist intentionally altered his use of primary sources for the December 1724 edition as opposed to the May 1724 one. Chart created by Baylus C. Brooks.

 

The second point is that the French documents reveal a number of French vessels of which most American pirate scholars have not previously been aware. The general belief by most American scholars (and by Johnson/Mist as well) might be that he preyed almost exclusively upon English ships, for those were the incidents most reported by the Boston News-Letter and recorded in English Admiralty documents.  Thache, however, may have preyed more upon his former enemies in Queen Anne’s War: the French and Spanish. Media bias kept Englishmen and, thus, Americans, from knowing full well the total of ships that pirates may have captured. Thache may have exemplified Hornigold’s sentiments that the pirate “Flying Gang” at the Bahamas only took foreign ships unless otherwise threatened. Thache certainly preyed on quite a few English ships, but there were many French ships listed here and we still most likely have not heard about all the Spanish and Dutch ships that were taken. How many more nations other than English? That’s the question.

This ideology/method would easily reflect my recent discovery of Thache as an old Royal Navy man, not likely to become a pirate easily. As a possible privateer from Jamaica with a “legal” commission from its governor, he merely fished castaway Spanish silver and gold on the coast of Florida after the hurricane of July 30, 1715. The arrest of Gov. Hamilton may have disrupted his income sufficiently to begin the pirate trade and reside with others at New Providence.

La Concorde was a massive fifth-rate ship carrying as many as forty guns. Few of these vessels existed in American waters at that time. The ex-Royal Navy man Thache became a serious threat when he captured that French slaver. It was famously wrecked in June 1718 in Beaufort Inlet and has been giving up its secrets for more than fifteen years now to the QAR conservation lab at East Carolina University. Artifacts are on display at Beaufort Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina. 

Edward Thache’s eventual demise at Ocracoke Inlet in North Carolina may have been politically-motivated. A Royal Navy pirate may have been quite rare and more than a little embarrassing. Furthermore, he operated in American waters where the residents generally liked their pirates. Only politically changing Whiggish (liberalizing) Britain did not. The Board of Trade sought to eradicate piracy in the Americas. It could not have been an easy task. They had to politically battle pirates of the “Golden Age” and, thus, it’s “Pirate King” Blackbeard to rid him from the British Empire’s seas… in other words, keep him out of their pockets!

Thanks to A General History, most think of Golden Age pirates as “thieves” or “murderous rogues,” without money or political power. Do we think this way because of later 18th-century politics? Apparently, they were not all like this. Golden Age pirates may have been the first American revolutionaries and Blackbeard the first Gen. George Washington! Their “revolution,” however, failed. America finally gained its independence a half century later…

I’ve been told that the only difference between a “revolution” and a “rebellion” is who wins. Obviously, Britain won this first round and they reserved the right to control its history. They may also have erased any trace that we could find of Thache’s service aboard the HMS Windsor during Queen Anne’s War, circa 1706. Still, it would be nearly impossible to catch them all, especially on Thache’s home island of Jamaica! Wouldn’t it be cool to think that they tried?

 

****************************

http://baylusbrooks.com

The July issue of North Carolina Historical Review will feature an article by Baylus C. Brooks titled ““Born in Jamaica, of Very Creditable Parents” or “A Bristol Man Born”? Excavating the Real Edward Thache, “Blackbeard the Pirate””

This publication will feature a genealogical chart of the Thache family, from Gloucestershire to Jamaica. Finally, after almost 300 years of misinterpretation, this genealogy is the documented and definitive family history of “Blackbeard the Pirate.” This heavily researched and verified chart has been enhanced and reproduced in multiple poster sizes available on Zazzle.com

Genealogical Chart of Edward Thache, aka “Blackbeard the Pirate” – Copyright 2015 Baylus C. Brooks

Keep a weather eye out for the journal article which explains the sources of these genealogical relationships. Also sight your spyglass on the book which expands upon this genealogy into his family and friends. It also explains the implications for this knowledge in relation to Blackbeard’s birth, life, and death. Edward Thache and his world can finally be accurately known!

Coming in 2016!

http://baylusbrooks.com

Henry Timberlake’s Deposition: Edward Thache and Benjamin Hornigold, Brief Partners in Crime!

Edward Thache, “Blackbeard”

Within the following is enclosed a deposition from a merchant mariner named Henry Timberlake, commander of the Brigantine Lamb. The incident involved in this deposition occurred while traveling on this fateful day in late fall 1716 from Boston to Jamaica. He was probably a resident in Virginia, the likely son of Thomas and Elizabeth Timberlake, born in 1688 in Saint Giles Cripplegate, London, the same place and only a few years later than that infamous North Carolina land pirate, Edward Moseley. He may also have been an ancestor to the famous Cherokee emissary to London in 1762, Lt. Henry Timberlake whose father died young in Virginia. You can read his memoirs: The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake: The Story of a Soldier, Adventurer, and Emissary to the Cherokees, 1756-1765. 

This deposition is quite a bit earlier. It tells of the first encounter that history has yet had with the pirates Benjamin Hornigold of Eleuthera, the Bahamas and Edward Thache of Jamaica, a.k.a. “Blackbeard the Pirate.” 

This deposition may also be one of the sources used to effect an alteration between the May 1724 edition of a famous pirate book and its December 1724 second edition – yes, just seven months later, with numerous changes in the storyline for Thache, Hornigold, and Stede Bonnet. Capt. Charles Johnson’s (a.k.a. Jacobite polemicist newspaper owner Nathaniel Mist) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates and that book’s second-edition reference to Blackbeard serving as an underling on Hornigold’s ship – until they captured La Concorde, renamed her the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and Hornigold surrendered while Thache went off on his own – is a major change from the first edition when Blackbeard was shown serving as Stede Bonnet’s underling as a foremastman on his ship. Odd, isn’t it? Thache could never cut a break with this writer, you know? The literary effect of rising from lowly depths to greatness as a “notorious” pirate probably sold more copies – Mist certainly needed the money after his legal fees had accrued of late. He had to leave England in 1728 because of all the trouble he was in.

As pirate historian Arne Bialuschewski relates, “A first-hand account reveals that, early in 1716, Thatch was in Kingston, where he joined an expedition led by Benjamin Hornigold to loot silver-laden Spanish wrecks that had sunk off the east coast of Florida.” The deposition here described follows that account in late 1716, as the pair returned from the wrecks.

Truth be told, Thache and Hornigold only sailed in consort briefly. The deposition of John Vickers described Hornigold pirating since November of 1715 and his battles with another pirate, Henry Jennings who stole a prize ship from him. Vickers never mentions Thache who may still have been on the Florida coast in his ship. Hornigold wasn’t even present for La Concorde’s capture (accomplished by Thache all by himself with Stede Bonnet reading books below deck). 

Thache served “under” neither Hornigold nor Bonnet and was actually the most experienced maritime adventurer of the three men, having served on the HMS Windsor during Queen Anne’s War. But, Johnson – I mean, Mist – got that all wrong. Still, this deposition most likely gave him the material for altering his story. He even suppressed a few records to make the Hornigold-Thache dynamic duo an historical icon of demonic piratica that would send his books flying from the shelves – at least until I screwed all that up for him with actual records. Oops!

Ok… Johnson took literary license which was not unusual by any means. Still… 😉

I go into Johnson-Mist’s fabrications in more detail in my article ” ‘Born in Jamaica of Very Creditable Parents’ or ‘A Bristol Man Born’? Excavating the Real Edward Thache, ‘Blackbeard the Pirate’ ” in the July issue of North Carolina Historical Review coming out in late August.  That article also includes the newly-discovered true family of Edward Thache living in Spanish Town, Jamaica. No, he wasn’t a Drummond. No, he wasn’t named Beard. He was actually a Thache, from the only Thache family living in the old Spanish capital of 18th-century Jamaica and he probably was actually born in Bristol, son of Capt. Edward and Elizabeth Thache, with a grandfather Rev. Thomas Thache who studied at Oxford. At least Johnson-Mist probably got “Bristol” correct… some redemption for that loosely-creative literary craftsman.

This deposition shows Hornigold and Thache sailing almost identical sloops of eight guns each, each with crews consisting of ninety men. It also involves a capture of the Lamb at a location that was well known to Thache from his days on the HMS Windsor – Cape Doña Maria on the west end of Hispaniola or Haiti today. The Windsor frequently patrolled that area of the Gulf of Gonȃve along Longane Bay and Petit Goȃve, a French base for their ships that served as convoys for Spanish treasure galleons sailing from Cartagena and Porto Bello to Spain.

In short, this deposition fits perfectly with the information that we now have for the “new” narrative introducing Blackbeard to the world as a real human being – with flaws, to be sure – but, also a man that may have made the Board of Trade nervous because of his prior service as a likely officer aboard the Windsor, not the usual pirate, to be sure!

Henry Timberlake deposition, 17 December 1716, 1B/5/3/8, 212–3 [426-7], Jamaican Archives.

henry Timberlakes       Jamaica Ss.
deposition                          henry Timberlake master of the Brigantine
called the Lamb burthen about Fforty Tons being
duley Sworn deposeth & saith as follows

That about the Sixteenth day of november last he Set Sail
on board the said Brigantine from the Port of Boston
in New England bound for this Island [Jamaica] That about the thirteenth of December instant about Eight Leagues off of Cape Donna Maria on the west end of Hispaniola about Eight a Clock
at night a Sloop mounted with Eight Guns and manned
with about ninety men as they told him called the Delight
Benjamine Hornigole Comander came up with this Depont.
fired Several Shot at him, obliged him to bring too and then
Comanded him with his Boat on board and this Deponent
and two of his men coming on board him, hornigole
told this Deponent he had taken a Spaniard with Fforty
Guns the Thursday before and a Bristol man that
Sailed from this Island the week before, but gave this
Deponent no further account of either of those Vessels
and acquainted this Deponent the week before fifteen
of his men had run away with their own Canoa and
carried forty Thousand peices of eight with them. That
hornigole Said to this Deponent, give my Service to the
Captn of the man of warr and tell him I design to have
his Ship from him if I meet him. That hornigole hoisted
out of his Boat with about a dozen hands and Boarded
this Deponents Said Brigantine, this Deponent remaining

[next page] Council minutes

on board the Sloop till about two or three of the Clock in
the morning. That hornigole’s Boat returning twice or thrice
loaden with provisions from the Brigantine this Deponent
asked them why they used him so they answered they wanted
provisions and this Deponent further Saith That in about
an hour after hornigole Boarded him Edward Thach
Comander of another Sloop, the name whereof this
Deponent knows not mounted with Eight Guns & manned
with about ninety men came alongside the said Brigantine
and Sent their Canoa with Several hands on Board her and
plundered her That the said hornigole and the said other
Sloop took from this Deponent Three Barrils of Porke,
one of Beef, two of peese, three of Markrill [fish?] five
Barrils of onions Several Dozen Caggs of oysters most
of his Cloaths and all his Ships Stores Except about
Fforty Biskets and a very Small quantity of meat just
to bring them in and threw Some of their Staves over
board. That this Deponent was cheifly loaden with Staves
and Shingles and that he was beleived the loss and his orendrs
histained by the Said Pirates might be about Sixty pounds
Jamaica mony That hornigole about three in the morning
Sent this Deponent in his own Boat on board That this Depont.
Soon after arrived in Port Royal harbour and further this
Deponent Saith that the said hornigole told him that he
understood by the Bristol Ship afore mentioned that Captn
[John?] Quarry was in Goal for being concerned in a Pyracy
with him but Said he was wrongfully accused therein
for that Quarry did not act or concerned himself and
was by him forced to be in their Company & declared
that it was him and his Crew alone that had robbed
that Spaniard. Hornigole further declared that if he
thought that him this Deponent would no So Soon
as he got into Jamaica declare and make known
that Quarry was not concerned in that Pyracy he
would not Suffer him to go from them and further
Saith not.

Henry Timberlake

Sworn this 17th of December 1716
before his Excellency Peter Heywood         Jamaica

—————————————————————————–


 Many thanks to Dianne T. Golding Frankson for retrieving this document for me!

————————————————————————

Author site:
http://baylusbrooks.com

Blackbeard’s Genealogy Poster:


http://www.zazzle.com/quest_for_blackbeard_genealogy_of_blackbeard_poster-228428311978741827

Blackbeard in French records:
http://bcbrooks.blogspot.com/2015/07/blackbeards-capture-of-la-concorde-or.html

Other publications of Baylus C. Brooks:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks

Dianne’s Genealogical Research Site:
http://www.genealogyplusjamaica.com/

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/bayluscbrooks

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quest-for-Blackbeard

https://www.facebook.com/EdwardThacheofHMSWindsor

Thache, Teach, Thatch… By Any Other Name

1 Comment

Teach, Theach, Thach, Thache, Thatch, Tach, Teech, etc, etc…

Noah Webster, Jr. (1758 – 1843)

By Any Other Name…

OK… seemed appropriate, but… I’m not sure that anyone, even a poetically-inclined William Shakespeare, can claim Blackbeard smells like a rose. Still, the quandary over this man’s name is a long-standing issue with Blackbeard’s historiography. While many, both laymen and scholars, have worried over the spelling of Capt. Charles Johnson’s most “notorious” character, Edward “Blackbeard” “Teach,” it will surprise many to discover that folks in the 18th century did not really care how their name was spelled in official documents—as long as the point was understood. This is very different from modern times. I’ve had people ask me my name, say at a doctor’s office, and when I say “Brooks,” they respond “Is that with an ‘e’?” I’m tempted, as an historian of the colonial era, to jokingly answer “Does it matter?”

Spelling did not become a matter of consistency until the mid-19th century. Blame Noah Webster (the guy in the photo). Until then, spelling was almost always one phonetic variation after another. As a professional genealogist, I often heard client after client telling me that their family’s name was spelled such and such and that the family using a slightly different variation in the census from the next county over wasn’t related to them. But, how did the census taker know how to spell your name if you probably couldn’t read or write yourself or ever cared anyway? Yeah… under-educated census officials riding in the heat of summer in the wilderness spelled it whatever way looked right to them so they could get on to the next house a few miles away. And, your family probably started spelling their own name whatever way sounded right to the first educated person who got off the farm and opened a book for the first time. So… you’re probably related to those guys next door – even if they leave off the “e”.

From my genealogical study of the Thache family, oddly enough, there was indeed some consistency in this matter— unlike most American ancestors, the Thaches were not poor as dirt and did not grow up in a wilderness. Blackbeard’s probable grandfather, Rev. Thomas Thache, attended Oxford after all! From the good reverend’s family, in the county of Gloucestershire, England (of whom I believe Capt. Edward Thache to have belonged), the spelling of the name was almost always “Thache.” [“th” pronounced like a “t” as in “Thailand” or “Thames”]

With the Thaches of Jamaica, they seemed to use “Thache” also—in the documents that I believe they wrote themselves. Other legal documents, however, where a clerk wrote it for them, that clerk invariably attempted to spell their name phonetically —once three different spellings appeared in a single document! The result? Many different spellings appear in documents, especially those written by captains, governors, mariners in their depositions, clerks on various islands, and admiralty representatives across the Atlantic—people who had no idea how to spell such an unusual name anyway. These mean absolutely nothing and the debate over them is pointless. The family themselves used “Thache” more often and so, I have adopted this spelling.

Historians like to call the practice of impressing modern ideals onto the past “Presentism.” Presentism is almost always a fallacy. Times have changed and these types of ideas and practices also changed. If Blackbeard were alive today and some clerk asked him for his name, to which he answered “Thache,” that clerk is just as likely to ask him the same surprising question that they ask me: “Is that with an ‘e’?”

Ironically, the name “Thache” or “Tache” may actually come from a French word for “hook!” I know… how appropriate, right?

Meaning of Thache or Tache:

French: either from Old French tache ‘hook’, ‘buckle’, ‘loop’; ‘distinctive mark’, possibly applied as a nickname for someone with a deformity or distinctive mark. (Taché is an adjectival form of this name.) Alternatively, it may be a habitational name from any of various places named Tâche or La Tâche, for example in Charente-Maritime and Vienne. 

Romanian: unexplained. 

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press

Alternatively, “Thatch” means:

English: occupational name for a thatcher, someone who covered roofs in straw, from an agent derivative of Middle English thach(en) ‘to thatch’ (Old English þæccan ‘to cover or roof’). 

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press

Speaking of “Thache” without an “e”:

Thachs of Perquimans County – 1729

A tax record from Perquiman’s County in 1729 lists four “Thach” men: Thomas, Spencer, Leven, and Joseph. I have done an Ancestry search for Spencer and Leven Thach/Thache/Teach/Thatch, etc. No hits. I mean… absolutely no hits (with exception of Spencer Thach in Gloucester County, Virgina just north of the Albemarle). If you’ve ever used Ancestry.com, you will understand why this is so unusual. 

Anyway, Spencers and Levens were early families of Jamaica. The idea that Blackbeard’s half-brother, Cox Thache may have been named for Thomas Cox, assemblyman from St. Catherine’s Parish gave me the idea that other Thache men may have been named similarly. Spencers also appear numerously in St. Catherine’s Parish and Levens in adjacent St. Ann’s where some of Lucretia’s in-laws may also come from. 

This idea, plus the name “Thomas,” a known half-brother of Blackbeard’s, makes me highly suspicious of these men being related to Blackbeard. Thomas may have gone there only temporarily because we know that he dies in Middlesex, England in 1748. But, what if he accompanied some of his kin to Perquiman’s before then? I have yet to find records for him much earlier than the 1740s in Middlesex. Where was he before then? Not Jamaica, as we learn from Cox’s will of 1737. He was a mariner like his Dad and half-brother Edward – in other words, a transient sort.

If Spencer or Leven Thach were born in Kingston or Port Royal where Edward and his half-brother Cox lived as adults, they may not have had their births recorded – because records from those two churches did not begin until 1722 (Port Royal’s St. Pauls sank into the harbor in 1692 from the earthquake and Kingston was founded in 1703)! 

 

Inventory of the estate of John Thach of Chowan County, 1780 – notice the names of sons Green Thach and Thomas Thach.

The family of John Thach and Mary Standin (married 1748) still inhabit the northern part of Perquiman’s and Chowan, many in the Perquiman’s County seat of Hertford. There were other Spencers, Levens, Greens (also another common Jamaican surname), and Thomases who were ancestors to these folks.

There’s also been a lot of claims of heritage to Blackbeard from descendents of these families in Perquimans, Chowan, and Hertford. Even Ellen Goode Rawlings Winslow, editor/author of the History of Perquimans County mentions the possibility in the 1930s. Few have ever really given credence to these claims, and there’s still no solid proof – yet – but these Thachs could indeed be related to the infamous pirate – no kidding!

And, please don’t ask me why they left the “e” out of their family name!! 

————————————-

Upcoming article on Blackbeard’s genealogy:
“ ‘Born in Jamaica of Very Creditable Parents’ or ‘A Bristol Man Born’? Excavating the Real Edward Thache, ‘Blackbeard the Pirate’ “ in the July issue of North Carolina Historical Review…

Available at: http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/the-north-carolina-historical-review.html

Author site:
http://baylusbrooks.com/

Author gift shop:
http://www.zazzle.com/quest4blackbeard

Other publications of Baylus C. Brooks:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks

Facebook pages:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brooks-Historical-Preservation

https://www.facebook.com/bayluscbrooks

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quest-for-Blackbeard/1474554782859931

https://www.facebook.com/EdwardThacheofHMSWindsor

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heirloom-Fountain-of-Hope/1475529162759249

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Defining-North-Carolina/1476287209337088

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dictionary-of-Pyrate-Biography/902548336485428

And, I’m the website editor-administrator for NC Maritime History Council’s website and Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/NC-Maritime-History-Council/308236152556180

Jane Teach, “Free Negro Woman” of Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston Harbor, Jamaica, ca 1870 – Kingston is across the bay

I like to imagine that the woman in the banner picture of this blog standing in the road, patiently posed in the foreground, is Jane, the African slave of a local Jamaican planter. It’s not because I’d like her to be enslaved, but because this particular slave that I imagine became the consort of Cox Thache, half-brother of Edward, also known as “Blackbeard the Pirate.” I’m a historian and I ironically write on pirates and social history!

I like to think that Jane held a measure of respect from Cox, that she was more than just a prostitute to Blackbeard’s brother – that she and the Thaches somehow endured when the sons of Capt. Edward Thache of Spanish Town, Jamaica could not.

Jane was the chattel property of William Tyndall/Tindale, a planter who lived in the lower part of St. Andrew’s Parish. This place on the south Liguanea plain became Kingston in July 1692. Kingston, early on, had become a refuge for displaced citizens of Port Royal, the famed pirate capital on the long thin peninsula, the Palisadoes, after the devastating earthquake  and tsunami of that summer. The subsequent fire of Nick Catania’s Pirate Fleet in 1703 secured the port town’s downfall and Kingston’s future, despite the thousands of deaths from mosquito-born illnesses on the St. Andrews shore.

Not far to the west of Kingston, in the midst of Port Royal’s uncertainty, Cox Thache was born 8th of July 1700 in St. Catherine’s Parish to Capt. Edward and Lucretia Thache, in the old capital of St. Jago de la Vega. This enduring city was also known as “Spanish Town” by the English after conquering Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655. Jamaica survived on the proceeds of piracy ever since, having invited the buccaneers of Tortuga to serve as a protective military force in lieu of the Royal Navy.

Still, Jamaica enjoyed a substantial and influential well-born segment of their society. Cox Thache’s parents belonged to these affluent aristocrats and was probably named for local assemblyman Thomas Cox. Assemblyman Cox argued for preserving Port Royal following the attempt to abandon that port town due to the hurricane and fire in 1703. At that point, Kingston then took Port Royal’s prominence and later became Jamaica’s capital.

Cox Thache may have been favored by Thomas Cox – perhaps an apprentice or a godson (his sister Rachel’s godfather was Dr. Thomas Stuart, also of Spanish Town who deeded Rachel a slave girl named “Sabina” when she was only a year old). Cox was favored by someone, for he never appeared on documents naming his sister and brother Thomas, nor their niece Elizabeth, about the same age as them and raised by their mother Lucretia in the Thache family home.

Elizabeth is surprisingly and most likely the daughter of Edward “Blackbeard” Thache, probably born in Kingston! That she appeared in their household as an equal probably indicates a free white status; it also indicates that Edward was likely once married there before joining the Royal Navy on the 60-gun HMS Windsor.

Cox may have apprenticed at an early age to an artilleryman and later became the captain of artillery at Fort Nugent in nearby Kingston. Capt. (later, Vice-Admiral) Edward “Old Grog” Vernon had met Cox Thache and referred to him in a letter to Charles Leslie in which he also mentioned his mother and brother “Blackbeard,” probably not long after Blackbeard’s death in Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina on 22 November 1718 and also around the time of Cox’s entry into his new captaincy.

The reason that we know of this slave woman Jane is because of the child that she bore, and the grandchild by that child, two known mixed-race descendants of the artillery captain Cox Thache. There may have been many other children that may never have appeared in christening records. Those that did only appeared at much later dates than their births, presumably for another reason, perhaps upon their sale, rather than to merely record their existence as with other residents.

Here, in Kingston, Cox met Jane – at least by 1721. The next year, she gave birth to a baby girl and Cox was posthumously named as her father a quarter of a century later. They, or perhaps he, more accurately, named the child “Lucretia,” after his own mother in Spanish Town.

The younger Lucretia was not christened by the Kingston Parish Church at birth, which most likely could have performed the ceremony since records there began in 1722. Rather, her christening occurred on 2 January 1746, when she was 24 years old, after the death of Jane’s master William Tindale in 1734 and Cox Thache’s death in 1737. At her christening, Jane was still bound to Tindale’s estate. 

 
Lucretia “Teach’s” christening record in Kingston, 2 Jan 1746

Cox’s daughter Lucretia may have had a brother – or Blackbeard, who also lived in Kingston, may have had a son – for on 24 February 1730, a “John Teach” was buried in Kingston. His age and race are not mentioned, as with other English and Huguenot residents, and he is presumed to be white:

 

Burial record of “John Teach” in Kingston, 24 Feb 1730

 

Several slaves, listed as either “Negro” or “Mulatto” were born in relation to the Thache family or the slaves that they owned. In 1731, a “mulatto” Mary “Teatch” was born in St. Catherines Parish and may have been the daughter of either Cox or his brother, mariner Thomas Thache with a slave, possibly one from the Thache estate.

Another “negro” “Lucretia Theach” of St. Catherines Parish was born ca 1706 and christened in 1753, probably the daughter of one of the Thache family’s own slaves. She, too, was named for the matriarch of the Thache family, Capt. Edward’s second wife, three-time widow Lucretia Poquet [Maverly Axtell] Thache.

Just one year after her christening, on 18 January 1747, Cox’s 25-year-old daughter Lucretia “Teach” still “belonging to the estate of William Tindall deceased” gave birth to a baby boy named “Jonathan,” the son of John Parkinson. He was christened the following 30 December 1748. The Anglican Church of Jamaica seems to have begun christening most newly-born children regardless of status at this mid-eighteenth-century stage.

Lucretia Teach's son John born 18 January 1747 & Baptised 30 December 1748
Lucretia Teach’s son John born 18 January 1747 & Baptised 30 December 1748

Cox had perhaps not known his progeny. He had returned to the family estate in Spanish Town at least by 1736 and died the next year. He made his will while on the family estate, but apparently he did not take Jane with him, for he neither listed her in his will, made no provision for her manumission, nor did he do the same for his daughter Lucretia – the girl that he named for his mother. He did leave instructions that a “Negro Man Slave Joe” be manumitted after the death of his own mother, Lucretia, perhaps to serve her needs in her advancing age. But, no mention of his daughter, her son, the possible son John Teach, or the slave woman who bore them.

This seems heartless to us in the modern day, but judging Cox Thache on this basis may be presentist. We cannot make the error of removing him and his actions from his historic context. In the eighteenth century, especially to aristocratic families, class was a strong factor in human relations and was not ignored in favor of moral argument as it is in more progressive societies today.

 

Codicil of Cox Thache’s will of 1736 in which he manumits a slave named “Joe”

What we do know is that none of the Thache men survived or had surviving male children. Edward “Blackbeard” Thache was hunted down by the Royal Navy in Ocracoke Inlet, near to his famed “Thache’s Hole,” or hiding place in 1718. His half-brother Cox passed in 1737, step-mother Lucretia in 1743, and younger half-brother mariner Thomas Thache in St. George Middlesex, England in 1748. None by the name of “Thache” remained in Jamaica afterward.

Jane may have lived a long life there in Kingston, most likely as a slave, but the newer records that we have are surprisingly not for the same Jane. We have no other sources to date concerning what happened to the mother Jane, slave of William Tindale.

Still, the younger Jane Teach, possibly a sister of Lucretia Teach also born to her father Cox (Edward died in 1718, 4 years before her birth), gained her freedom. On 10 April 1787, at the age of 65, Jane “Teache” was buried in the “Negro Burying Ground” on the west end of Kingston. She was also listed as a “free Negro woman.” This Jane had gained her freedom. She was also the last person named “Teach” or other variant to have ever lived on Jamaica!

This Jane would be almost exactly the same age as Lucretia, perhaps a sister. It’s hard to tell, the records are distressingly sparse. It is evident that her location of Kingston probably paired her to Blackbeard’s brother.

 
“Jane Teache” burial in “Negro Burying Ground” of Kingston, 10 Apr 1787

 

 

Portion of Hay’s map of Kingston (1745) showing the “Negro Burying Ground”

The Thache brothers all died young and apparently left no surviving male heirs, thus no one named “Thache.” Still, the matrilineal blood of Edward “Blackbeard” Thache and his family may still course in the veins of the Jamaicans of African descent population still alive today. The Thache women may have persevered.

Jane is perhaps patiently and quietly awaiting our departure in that banner photo… her descendants, the women, have kept the Thache family secret these many centuries and she would continue to keep the faith – only we have disturbed the seal on their remote Caribbean island time capsule, abruptly driving the truth back to the light of inquiry.  I almost feel sad for that. Still, it was almost 300 years and we just had to know!

—————————————————————————


 Read more about the family of Edward “Blackbeard” Thache and the world in which he lived in the book Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World, to be released around the early part of 2016. 


 Also, look for the recent article on Blackbeard’s family:
“ ‘Born in Jamaica of Very Creditable Parents’ or ‘A Bristol Man Born’? Excavating the Real Edward Thache, ‘Blackbeard the Pirate’ “ in the July issue of North Carolina Historical Review!

Author’s website: http://baylusbrooks.com

Get the poster of Blackbeard’s genealogy at this address:
http://www.zazzle.com/quest_for_blackbeard_genealogy_of_blackbeard_poster-228428311978741827