The Archives

Evidence

Speculative

An inference, not a finding. 15 of the 3046 claims in the Archives. All claims, with filters.

  1. The story that Every returned home and died poor after being cheated of his diamonds is legend, derived from van Broeck (1709) and Johnson's General History, Vol. 1 (1724); no primary death record exists.
    Secondary and literary accountsJohnson, General History, Vol. 1 (1724), 'not being worth as much as would buy him a coffin'; the 1709 van Broeck pamphlet is fiction. Always flagged as legendOn: Henry Every
  2. The fourteen wives story has no documentary support; even a single North Carolina marriage lacks any contemporary record.
    Early secondary source and later traditionFourteen wives derive solely from Johnson, General History, Vol. 1 (1724), and are Speculative; a single NC marriage, later attached to a 'Mary Ormond' from nineteenth-century family lore, is held at Possible with the name not documentedOn: Edward Thache (Blackbeard)
  3. No period document records Rackham's birth. The frequently printed "26 December 1682, London" has no documentary basis and should not be repeated as fact.
    Documented absenceTargeted searching surfaced only fandom pagesOn: John Rackham
  4. The skull over crossed swords design attributed to Rackham has no period source and first appears in Hans Leip's Bordbuch des Satans of 1959; that Rackham flew it is speculative.
    Modern scholarshipHans Leip, Bordbuch des Satans (1959), as the first appearance of the design; the 1721 trial print, which describes no such flagOn: John Rackham
  5. The story that Every married a daughter or granddaughter of the Great Mogul and founded a pirate kingdom is a later fiction carried by the pamphlet literature and not by the documents of the taking.
    Period narrativeA General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), the chapter Of Captain Avery (library file gut40580_johnson_general_history.txt, lines 1506-1509)On: Henry Every and the Ganj-i-Sawai (1695)
  6. Johnson gives no destination for the rocks on which Hornigold's ship was lost.
    Period narrativeA General History of the Pyrates (vol 1), Gutenberg ebook 40580On: Benjamin Hornigold
  7. Johnson relates that Lewis tore out a handful of his hair and cast it up with 'Good Devil take this till I come', after which his ship sailed faster, and that he said the devil had told him in the cabin that he would be murdered that night.
    Period narrativeA General History of the Pyrates, Vol. II, the chapter 'Of Captain Lewis. And his Crew'On: Captain Lewis
  8. No victim, deponent or trial witness in the papers read for this record describes a flag of any Moody at all.
    Documented absenceThe silence of the Cape Corso trial evidence and the depositions enclosed in CSP Colonial vol. 30, item 797On: Christopher Moody
  9. The birth name Jean-David Nau, conventionally given by modern writers, is carried by no source read for this record, Exquemelin supplying only the forename Francis and the byname Lolonois and no surname at all.
    Period narrativeExquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690On: Francois l'Olonnais
  10. The romance with Maria, or Goody, Hallett of Eastham is Cape Cod folklore with no contemporary documentary proof, its developed literary form traceable to Elizabeth Reynard's The Narrow Land of 1934.
    Modern scholarshipBlack Sam Bellamy, The Pirate Who Fought Smart (New England Historical Society); The Wreck of the Whydah off Cape Cod, Historical Journal (Winter 2006); Reynard's book itself was not readOn: Samuel Bellamy
  11. Green's guilt of piracy and murder is not established and is rejected by the weight of the evidence.
    Trial pamphlet and biographical dictionaryThe Tryal of Captain Thomas Green and his Crew, pursued before the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty of Scotland and the Assessors appointed by the Lords of Privy Council, at the instance of Mr. Alexander Higgins Advocat, Procurator-fiscal, for Piracy, Robbery and Murder (Edinburgh, printed by the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, 1705, published by authority); with Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 23, Green, Thomas (d.1705), pp. 60 to 61On: Thomas Green
  12. Alexander Hamilton's reported opinion, in his New Account of the East Indies, that Green deserved hanging for other crimes whether or not he was innocent of Drummond's murder is uncorroborated and is discounted by the Dictionary of National Biography that relays it.
    Biographical dictionaryDictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 23, Green, Thomas (d.1705), pp. 60 to 61On: Thomas Green
  13. A local-history tradition identifies the pirate with the William Howard who bought Ocracoke Island in 1759 and reputedly died aged about 108; no document links the two men, and the genealogist Dora Padgett argued that this Howard cannot be placed on the coast before the 1740s and was born about 1700, too young to have been Blackbeard's quartermaster in 1718.
    Local-history articleIsland centenarian and a pirate shared a name, maybe more (November 2021); William Howard (Ocracoke Island Journal, July 2019)On: William Howard
  14. No wreck or archaeological remains of the ship have been identified, and the suggestion that she lies in Nassau harbour rests on undated clay pipes and an argument from likelihood.
    Public historyEric Wiberg, 'Sunk in Nassau harbour: The Fancy and the Pilot Boat'On: Fancy
  15. The pirates boasted the ship carried three million pounds sterling in gold and silver; this is a brag recorded by a frightened master, not a treasure record
    Colonial state paperAccount of Richard Burgess, master of the Maryland Merchant of Bristol (CSP Colonial, Vol. 17, no. 711)On: Providence galley