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Gallery · Blackbeard · Room 4 of 7

The Pardon and the Relapse

Curator's note

The instrument that was supposed to end his career survives in print, dated and numbered, and it is the most precisely datable object in this Collection. He accepted it. Then he took another ship.

Printed page of The London Gazette for 1717, set in two columns of black letter and roman type, carrying a royal proclamation for suppressing pirates issued in the name of King George. The text sets out the terms on which pirates who surrender themselves may receive the King's pardon, and the rewards payable for taking those who do not.
The London Gazette, issue 5573: the proclamation for suppressing pirates, 1717 The Act of Grace as the Crown published it. Its operative terms are three: the pardon covers piracies committed before 5 January 1718; a pirate must surrender himself by 5 September 1718 to have the benefit of it; and a schedule of rewards is set out for anyone who takes a pirate who does not come in, graduated by the rank of the man taken. The London Gazette, issue 5573, the proclamation given 5 September 1717. Official record, public domain.

The reward schedule matters for what comes later in this walk, because it put a public price on the head of a man who did not come in.

He came in. Some time in late June 1718 he took the pardon from Charles Eden, governor of North Carolina, at Bath. No exact day was recorded. He settled there, and for a few weeks lived quietly in a small colonial town.

Timeline of five points, each carrying its own level of confidence. Late June 1718, the pardon at Bath from Governor Eden, Likely. After 24 August 1718, a French prize taken, with the question of whether she was burned left disputed, Likely. Autumn 1718, a vice-admiralty court condemns the prize and shares out the sugar, and Tobias Knight is accused and formally acquitted, Likely. 22 November 1718 Old Style, killed at Ocracoke in a close hand-to-hand fight, Confirmed. 24 November 1718, Virginia sets a hundred pounds on his head, two days after his death, Very likely.
From pardon to price: the five months between the mercy and the reward, each step carrying its own level of confidence. Interpretive schematic, not a chart Likely
  • Late June 1718: the pardon at Bath, from Governor Eden. Probable.
  • After 24 August 1718: a French prize taken. Whether she was burned is disputed. Probable.
  • Autumn 1718: a vice-admiralty proceeding condemns the prize and shares out her sugar. Tobias Knight is accused and formally acquitted. Probable.
  • 22 November 1718, Old Style: killed at Ocracoke. Confirmed.
  • 24 November 1718: Virginia sets a hundred pounds on his head, two days after his death. Highly probable.

The prize is the hinge. Some time after 24 August 1718 a French vessel came into his hands, and she was brought in and dealt with through a vice-admiralty proceeding that condemned her and shared out her cargo of sugar. Whether the hull was afterwards burned is disputed in the sources. Tobias Knight, the colony's secretary and customs collector, was accused of taking a share and was formally acquitted. The corruption reading is a modern argument, made principally by Lee and Woodard, not a finding of the period record.

The pardon was real and the relapse was real, and no court ever ruled on either. The instrument itself, and how the Crown used mercy as a weapon across the whole suppression, is held in The King's Pardon.

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