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The Trial and Hanging of Stede Bonnet (1718)

The capture of Major Stede Bonnet by Colonel William Rhett's South Carolina expedition at the Cape Fear River on 26 to 27 September 1718, his escape and recapture at Charles Town, his trial for piracy before Judge Nicholas Trott in the provincial Court of Vice-Admiralty in November 1718, and his hanging at White Point on 10 December 1718, a month after about twenty-nine of his crew were hanged on the same ground.

Also writtenThe Trial of Stede Bonnet; The Hanging of Stede Bonnet; The Charles Town trials of Bonnet's company, 1718; The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates (London, 1719); The trial of the gentleman pirate

Two forces met in the shallows of the Cape Fear River on 27 September 1718 and neither of them could move. Both had grounded on the falling tide, within musket shot of one another, and they shot across the mud for five or six hours while they waited on the water. The tide floated Colonel William Rhett's sloops first. Stede Bonnet surrendered. Seventy-four days later he was hanged at White Point in Charles Town, and the legal sequence between the two reached London in print as "The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates".1

The town is Charles Town here, spelled Charles-Town in the period. Charleston is the name it took in 1783.

The man who bought his own ship

Bonnet was a Barbados landowner with an estate and a militia commission who turned pirate in 1717, fitting out a sloop, the Revenge, at his own expense. That is what makes him strange: he bought his ship instead of seizing one. No document explains why a propertied planter did it. The 1724 General History attributed to Captain Charles Johnson offers domestic unhappiness and a disordered mind; that is tradition, not record.

For about a year his fortunes ran alongside Edward Thache's. The two sailed in company, and at one point Bonnet gave up command of his own vessel. He took the King's pardon under the Act of Grace from Governor Charles Eden at Bath, then went back to sea as Captain Thomas in the sloop renamed Royal James. Two prizes of that summer, the Francis and the Fortune, became the vessels named in his indictment.

The expedition out of Charles Town

South Carolina fitted out its own answer. The province had been blockaded by Thache in late May and its trade was still being taken. Governor Robert Johnson authorised an expedition and Colonel William Rhett took it out, sailing from Charles Town in September with two sloops, the Henry and the Sea Nymph, each of about eight guns, and volunteers and militia put at roughly 130 men. Bonnet had put into the Cape Fear River, apparently to careen and refit, which gave Rhett a target that would stay put.2

The battle on the sandbars

Rhett found the Royal James in the estuary with two prizes alongside. The action of 26 and 27 September is called the Battle of Cape Fear River, or the Battle of the Sandbars. Manoeuvring in the shoals at low water, all three vessels ran aground within range of each other, unable to close and unable to withdraw. The returning tide lifted Rhett's heavier force first, and Bonnet's men, facing being boarded, forced a surrender out of him on terms that amounted to unconditional submission, with a reported hope of clemency.1

The casualties are unsettled, and they fell mainly on Rhett's two sloops. The Governor and Council, writing on 21 October 1718, reported eight killed and fourteen wounded aboard Colonel Rhett's own vessel and two killed and six wounded aboard Captain Hall's, four of the wounded having died since: ten killed outright and twenty wounded. The printed narrative of 1724 gives instead ten killed and fourteen wounded aboard the Henry and two killed and four wounded aboard the Sea Nymph, twelve killed and eighteen wounded in all, and puts the pirates' loss at seven killed and five wounded, two of them dying soon after. The figures of fourteen dead and twenty wounded often attributed to the Governor and Council are an aggregation of their numbers rather than their wording.3

Out of the marshal's house

Rhett brought the prisoners in at the beginning of October. The town gaol was inadequate, so Bonnet was kept under guard in the town marshal's house, apart from the common crew, with his boatswain and sailing master. On or about 24 October he got out, reportedly in disguise and with help from sympathisers, and went off by water with the sailing master, named in the sources as Herriot. Rhett ran the pair down on or near Sullivan's Island. Herriot was killed in the taking, and Bonnet went back into custody.4

Trott's court

The Court of Vice-Admiralty of the province sat at Charles Town under Nicholas Trott, chief justice of South Carolina. The crew went first. Their sessions opened on 28 October 1718 and ran by adjournments to 12 November, and the bulk of the company was condemned. About twenty-nine of the men were hanged at White Point on 8 November, a month ahead of their commander. A few were acquitted or spared.5

Bonnet was arraigned separately, on about 10 November, on two counts of piracy laid in respect of the sloop Francis and the sloop Fortune. He was convicted about two days later, and Trott sentenced him to hang. The sentencing speech survives at length in the 1719 print: scripture-laden, unhurried and merciless. The print is a good deal fuller than the Jamaica proceedings of 1720.6

White Point, 10 December 1718

Some weeks passed between sentence and execution. Bonnet is reported to have petitioned Governor Johnson for mercy and to have drawn some sympathy in the town on account of his rank and evident distress, and the reprieves postponed the hanging without cancelling it. He was hanged at White Point, the tip of the Charles Town peninsula that later became the Battery, on 10 December 1718. Tradition has his body buried with his crew in the marsh below the high water mark; the library account that carries the tradition doubts it.7

Thache was dead by then, killed at Ocracoke on 22 November, between the hanging of Bonnet's crew and the hanging of Bonnet. The same season had the pardon drawing men off the account and Woodes Rogers re-establishing royal government at Nassau. A province had fitted out its own sloops, tried the prisoners in public and hanged them in numbers, and the print carried that to London. Colonial government would enforce without waiting on the Royal Navy, and the seaboard piracy of the Nassau years was in decisive retreat from that season.

What belongs to Blackbeard

Herriot, Bonnet's sailing master, swore in this prosecution to what had happened at the grounding at Topsail Inlet. The wreck is no part of this case.

The gentleman pirate

Most of the colour attached to Bonnet comes out of one book. "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates" (1724), attributed to Captain Charles Johnson, supplies the seasickness, the unfitness for command, the walking of the deck in his nightgown and the reasons for going to sea. Johnson mixes a reliable outline with invented detail and dialogue. Television has gone further again. Strip that away and what is left is narrower: a Barbadian landowner, a real if inept career tangled up with Thache's, a defeat in the Cape Fear shallows, a trial before Trott and a rope at White Point.

What the sources cannot yet give is the line-by-line detail behind the numbers. The 1719 print has not been read page by page, so the count hanged on 8 November and the internal dates of Bonnet's arraignment and sentence stand as about rather than fixed; the death warrants to the provost marshal and any surviving journal of the court would settle them. The Cape Fear casualties want a contemporary report from Rhett in the Colonial Office series at Kew, and Bonnet's life before 1717 would need the Barbados land and militia records. The two counts given above cannot both be right, and neither is settled until Rhett's own report is read.

What the evidence does not settle

Crew hangings

  • Exact number of crew hanged on 8 November uncertainLikely

Bonnet's trial dates

  • Arraignment date about 10 November is approximateLikely

Cape Fear casualties

  • Casualty figures for the Cape Fear action divergeDisputed

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Stede Bonnet was defeated and captured at the mouth of the Cape Fear River on 26 to 27 September 1718 by a South Carolina expedition under Colonel William Rhett, in an action called the Battle of Cape Fear River or the Battle of the Sandbars, in which all three fighting vessels grounded on the falling tide and exchanged small arms fire for about five to six hours until the returning tide floated Rhett's heavier force first and Bonnet surrendered. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library; "The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates" (London, 1719)
  2. The expedition that took Bonnet was a provincial counter-piracy operation authorised by Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina and led by Colonel William Rhett, who sailed from Charles Town in September 1718 with two sloops, the Henry and the Sea Nymph, each mounting about eight guns, and a force of provincial volunteers and militia given in the sources as about 130 men; Bonnet had put into the Cape Fear River, apparently to careen and refit. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Secondary sources: Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library
  3. Casualties in the Cape Fear action fell mainly on Rhett's two sloops, and the two accounts differ. The Governor and Council of South Carolina, writing on 21 October 1718, reported that "Wee had killed on board Collo. Rhett eight men and fourteen wounded, of which four are since dead, and on board Capt. Hall, two killed and six wounded", that is ten killed outright, twenty wounded, and four of the wounded dead by the time of writing. The printed narrative of 1724 gives instead "killed in this Action, on Board the Henry, ten Men, and fourteen wounded; on Board the Sea Nymph, two killed and four wounded", that is twelve killed and eighteen wounded, and puts the pirates' loss lower, at "seven killed and five wounded, two of which died soon after of their Wounds". The figures of fourteen dead and twenty wounded sometimes attributed to the Governor and Council are an aggregation of their numbers rather than their wording. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Official correspondence and printed narrative: Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Town, 21 October 1718, item 730 in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 30, 1717-1718, ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1930), pp. 359-381 at page 367 (C.O. 5, 1265. No. 121; and 5, 1293. pp. 173-175), read on British History Online; and Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (London, 1724), chapter IV, Of Major Stede Bonnet and His Crew
  4. Held under guard in the town marshal's house at Charles Town because the town gaol was inadequate, Bonnet escaped on or about 24 October 1718, reportedly in disguise and with the help of sympathisers, in company with his sailing master Herriot; Rhett pursued and the pair were recaptured on or near Sullivan's Island, Herriot being killed in the taking and Bonnet returned to custody. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library; "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates" (1724), attributed to Captain Charles Johnson, for the escape narrative only
  5. The bulk of Bonnet's crew were tried before the South Carolina Court of Vice-Admiralty at Charles Town in sessions that opened on 28 October 1718 and continued by adjournments to 12 November 1718, and about twenty-nine of them were hanged at White Point on 8 November 1718, roughly a month ahead of their commander; a small number were acquitted or otherwise spared. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Trial pamphlet and secondary sources: Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library; "The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates" (London, 1719)
  6. Bonnet was arraigned separately before Nicholas Trott, chief justice of South Carolina and presiding judge of the provincial Court of Vice-Admiralty, on about 10 November 1718, on two counts of piracy laid in respect of the sloop Francis and the sloop Fortune; he was convicted about 12 November 1718 and sentenced by Trott to death by hanging, the sentencing charge being preserved at length in the printed proceedings. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Trial pamphlet: "The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates" (London, 1719), proceedings of the South Carolina Court of Vice-Admiralty, prosecution by attorney general Richard Allein, charge by Judge Nicholas Trott
  7. Stede Bonnet was hanged at White Point in Charles Town on 10 December 1718; tradition holds that his body was buried with those of his executed crew in the marsh below the high water mark, a tradition the cited library account itself doubts. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet and secondary sources: "The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates" (London, 1719); Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library