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Charles Town (Charleston)

The port town of the proprietary Province of Carolina, standing in the precinct the Lords Proprietors ran from Charlestown to Goose Creek between the rivers Ashley and Cooper, blockaded from its bar in 1718 by the company Governor Robert Johnson reported to London as Teach alias Blackbeard, and the town whose Court of Vice-Admiralty sat that October and November on the pirates taken in the Royal James, who were hanged at White Point outside it.

Also writtenCharlestown (the spelling in the Lords Proprietors' letters of 1684 and 1690); Charles Towne (the spelling Governor Robert Johnson used writing from the town in 1718 and 1719); Charles-Town (the spelling in the General History of the Pyrates of 1724)

The Lords Proprietors of Carolina wrote to their governor in June 1684. Several lewd persons of various nations had got together in America and were committing piracies on the King's subjects, they told him, and they might try to use some port in Carolina where they were not known. Since a governor could not always be in Charlestown, and the town was liable to surprise by pirates as had lately happened at Providence, he was to commission a separate governor for it, answerable for its defence and able to call out the militia.3,4

The town between the rivers

Everyone told them, the Proprietors wrote in the same letter, that Charlestown was unhealthily situated and had no good water, and that all who landed there fell sick. The governor was to look out another site for the port on Cooper River. They had often recommended the building of towns to the people, they added, but in vain, and one or two villages would show its convenience.5,6

Dividing Berkeley county into election precincts on 18 October 1690, the Proprietors ran the first precinct from Charlestown to Goose Creek between the rivers Ashley and Cooper, and gave Charlestown four members out of the ten. Nobody had moved the port.7

Thomas Cutler landed there on 4 December 1698 and found the friends he had come to see rebuilding their houses after a great loss by fire.8

Guns, commissions and the bar

On 14 July 1716 Robert Daniell, the deputy governor, swore in Council that Captain Howard, Colonel William Rhett and a party carrying arms and hand grenades had come on board a sloop, broken open her hatches and begun taking out the goods. He sent for Captain Porter and the town captains, ordered the flag out at Granville's Bastion, guns loaded and the companies called to arms: about 140 men, he believed, were instantly under arms. The quarrel had nothing to do with pirates.9,10

In the same deposition Daniell swore that he had just renewed Captain Mathew Musson's commission to take pirates, Musson meaning to cruise about Cape Florida, a station, he said, now much frequented by them.11

What the province had to sell was naval stores. In the past year, the Governor and Council told London in December 1718, it had shipped off 32,000 barrels of tar, 2,643 barrels of pitch and 473 barrels of turpentine, all of them useful to the King's Navy.12

Everything the province sold went out over the bar, and Governor Robert Johnson, writing from Charles Towne on 18 June 1718 of the "unspeakable calamity" it suffered from pirates, asked the Council of Trade and Plantations for a frigate or two to cruise upon them. Twice in the nine months since he came, he wrote, they had lain off the bar taking and plundering every ship that went out or came in.13,14

The bar closed, 1718

Four sail appeared in sight of the town and took the pilot boat, Johnson reported a fortnight after, and afterwards eight or nine sail with several of the best inhabitants of the place on board. The word sent ashore was that unless he immediately sent a chest of medicines every prisoner would be put to death. He sent it, and the prisoners were set ashore almost naked, plundered of all they had. The company, he wrote, was commanded by one Teach alias Blackbeard, and the blockade is a record of its own.15,16,17

Their fears of further insults had proved too true, the Governor and Council wrote on 12 December: they had been blocked up, with several ships taken in sight of the town, and the Governor pressed ships and vessels and fitted them out, at great expense, to remove them. He went out in person, took a ship and a sloop, and killed twenty-six men, one Worley the commander among them. The letter mentions no trial; a later account has about nineteen of Worley's company condemned on 24 November.18,19,2

Colonel Rhett had gone out before that. He crossed the bar on 15 September after the pirate Vane, missed him, and stood for Cape Fear River instead; the province laid the taking of Major Stede Bonnet and his crew at Cape Fear before London on 21 October.20,21

The court at White Point

The court sat in the town itself. A Court of Vice-Admiralty was held at Charles Town on 28 October 1718 and continued by adjournments to 12 November, before Nicholas Trott. Twenty-two of the crew were hanged at White Point near the town on Saturday 8 November, a date the General History prints under the year 1711; later accounts make the number twenty-nine. Bonnet was hanged at the same place on 10 December. What was said in that courtroom belongs to the trial's own record.22,23,24,25

Six men signed the letter of 12 December. Governor Johnson's name comes first and Nicholas Trott's third.26

After the hangings

A year later the province threw off its owners. The people had, one step after another and at last with one accord, disclaimed any obedience to the Lords Proprietors, Johnson wrote from Charles Towne on 27 December 1719, and since his honour would not let him hold the government on any terms but his commission, they elected another to hold it in the King's name until the King's pleasure was known. Among the reasons the post had left him poorer he counted the extraordinary expense he had been at in suppressing several pirates.27,28,29

By the following March the town was waiting for a Spanish fleet. There were several very good ships in the place and between four and five hundred sailors, Daniel Bell wrote to a London merchant, and the people did not fear the Spaniards in the least, but the fortifications were much out of repair. Othniel Beale wrote the same week that his ship of sixteen guns had been impressed with three others of eighteen to receive the enemy as they entered the harbour, and a fireship with them.30,31

Hanging pirates did not stop the town making them. A letter out of Carolina on 24 June 1720, full of that summer's alarms, reported that a periagua full of white men had lately gone from Charles Towne, and that the supposition was they meant to turn pirates.32

Two documents would answer most of what is still loose. Governor Johnson's despatch of 21 October 1718, which first told London how Bonnet was taken, is in the South Carolina correspondence at The National Archives. The proceedings of the court were printed at London in 1719 as The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates, and only they will fix how many men were condemned that November, how many hanged, and what became of Worley's company. The town's population and its garrison are questions for the colony's censuses and militia returns.

What the evidence does not settle

Blackbeard's 1718 blockade

  • Number of ships and prizes in the blockade vary widely
  • Mr Marks as courier comes only from Johnson's account

Stede Bonnet's trial

  • Bonnet's trial opening date and full course are unclear

Richard Worley's condemned crew

  • Worley's crew, about nineteen men, condemned on 24 November 1718Possible

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. Colonel William Rhett, a leading Charles Town merchant and militia officer, entered the Cape Fear River at dusk on 26 September 1718 and after a several-hour action the next morning took Stede Bonnet's surrender; Bonnet's men were brought to Charles Town and tried before the Court of Vice-Admiralty under Chief Justice Nicholas Trott, twenty-nine crewmen of Bonnet's sloop Revenge were hanged at White Point on Saturday 8 November 1718, and Bonnet himself, having briefly escaped and been retaken, was tried before Trott and hanged at White Point on Wednesday 10 December 1718. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Library research piece resting on printed trial proceedings: Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library
  2. A separate company, the crew associated with Richard Worley and numbering about nineteen men, was condemned at Charles Town on 24 November 1718, so that the Charles Town courts sent roughly forty-nine pirates to the gallows in the closing months of 1718, one of the largest concentrated waves of pirate executions of the era, a count fixed by the surviving 1719 printed trials together with a modern reconstruction; the Governor and Council's own letter of 12 December 1718 reports instead that the Governor's expedition killed twenty-six men, Worley among them, and does not mention a trial of his company. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Signed library research resting on printed trial proceedings: Nic Butler, "The Pirate Executions of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library
  3. The Lords Proprietors of Carolina told their governor in June 1684 that several lewd persons of various nations had got together in America and were committing piracies on the King's subjects, and that they might try to use some port in Carolina where they were not known. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 1722, Lords Proprietors of Carolina to Governor Sir R. Kyrle, 3 June 1684 (library file csp_v11_pp645-664.txt, line 43)
  4. The same letter directed him, since a governor could not always be in Charlestown and the town was liable to surprise by pirates as had lately happened at Providence, to commission a regular governor for Charlestown answerable for its defence, with power to call out the militia. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 1722, Lords Proprietors of Carolina to Governor Sir R. Kyrle, 3 June 1684 (library file csp_v11_pp645-664.txt, line 43)
  5. The same letter reported that everyone told the proprietors Charlestown was unhealthily situated and had no good water, so that all who landed there fell sick, and directed the governor to search out another site for a port town on Cooper River and reserve it. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 1722, Lords Proprietors of Carolina to Governor Sir R. Kyrle, 3 June 1684 (library file csp_v11_pp645-664.txt, line 43)
  6. The same letter records that the proprietors had often recommended the building of towns to the people of Carolina but in vain, and that one or two villages would suffice to show the convenience of it. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 1722, Lords Proprietors of Carolina to Governor Sir R. Kyrle, 3 June 1684 (library file csp_v11_pp645-664.txt, line 43)
  7. When the Lords Proprietors divided Berkeley county into election precincts on 18 October 1690, the first precinct ran from Charlestown to Goose Creek between the rivers Ashley and Cooper, and Charlestown precinct returned four members of the ten. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 13 (1689-1692), item 1,119, Lords Proprietors of Carolina to the Governor and Deputies of Ashley River, 18 October 1690 (library file csp_v13_pp325-338.txt, line 116)
  8. Thomas Cutler reported that he arrived at Charlestown in Carolina on 4 December and found the friends he applied to there rebuilding their houses after a great loss by the late fire. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17 (1699), item 530A, Thomas Cutler to the Council of Trade and Plantations, June 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp283-291.txt, line 95)
  9. Robert Daniell, Deputy Governor of South Carolina, swore in Council on 14 July 1716 that Captain Howard, Colonel Rhett and a party carrying arms and hand grenades had come on board a sloop, broken open her hatches and begun taking out the goods. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), item 267, Deposition of Robert Daniell, Deputy Governor of South Carolina, sworn in Council 14 July 1716 (library file csp-col-v29-pp139-159.txt)
  10. Daniell swore in the same deposition that he sent for Captain Porter and the town captains, ordered the flag out at Granville's Bastion, guns to be loaded and the companies called to arms, and believed about 140 men were instantly under arms. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), item 267, Deposition of Robert Daniell, Deputy Governor of South Carolina, sworn in Council 14 July 1716 (library file csp-col-v29-pp139-159.txt)
  11. The same deposition opens with Daniell's renewal of Captain Mathew Musson's commission to take pirates, Musson intending to cruise about Cape Florida, which Daniell called a station now much frequented by pirates. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), item 267, Deposition of Robert Daniell, Deputy Governor of South Carolina, sworn in Council 14 July 1716 (library file csp-col-v29-pp139-159.txt)
  12. The Governor and Council of South Carolina told London on 12 December 1718 that the province had in the past year shipped off 32,000 barrels of tar, 2,643 barrels of pitch and 473 barrels of turpentine, all stores very useful for the King's Navy. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 787, Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 12 December 1718; C.O. 5, 1265. No. 119 (library file csp-col-v30-pp404-424.txt)
  13. Governor Robert Johnson wrote from Charles Towne on 18 June 1718 of the unspeakable calamity the province suffered from pirates and asked the Council of Trade and Plantations for a frigate or two to cruise upon them. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 556, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, South Carolina, 18 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt)
  14. Johnson wrote in the same letter that twice in the nine months since he came the pirates had lain off the bar of the port, taking and plundering all ships that went out or came in. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 556, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, South Carolina, 18 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt)
  15. Johnson reported in the same letter that about fourteen days before he wrote, four sail of the pirates appeared in sight of the town and took the pilot boat, and afterwards eight or nine sail with several of the best inhabitants of the place on board. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 556, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, South Carolina, 18 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt)
  16. Johnson reported in the same letter that the pirates sent him word that unless he immediately sent a chest of medicines they would put every prisoner to death, that he complied for the prisoners' sakes, and that the prisoners were plundered of all they had and sent ashore almost naked. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 556, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, South Carolina, 18 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt)
  17. Johnson reported in the same letter that the company was commanded by one Teach alias Blackbeard, with a ship of forty odd guns under him and three sloop tenders besides, above four hundred men in all. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 556, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, South Carolina, 18 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt)
  18. The Governor and Council reported on 12 December 1718 that their fears of further insults had proved too true, that they had been blocked up with several ships taken in sight of the town, and that the Governor pressed several ships and vessels and fitted them out at very great expense to remove them. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 787, Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 12 December 1718; C.O. 5, 1265. No. 119 (library file csp-col-v30-pp404-424.txt)
  19. The same letter reports that the Governor went himself in person, took a ship and a sloop and killed twenty-six men, among whom was one Worley the commander, and says nothing of any trial of that company. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 787, Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 12 December 1718; C.O. 5, 1265. No. 119 (library file csp-col-v30-pp404-424.txt)
  20. The General History records that Rhett sailed over the Charles Town bar on 15 September with two sloops, went after the pirate Vane and scoured the rivers and inlets to the southward, and on missing him tacked and stood for Cape Fear River. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Chap. IV, Of Major Stede Bonnet and his Crew (Project Gutenberg ebook 40580)
  21. The Governor and Council's letter of 12 December 1718 refers back to their letter of 21 October, which laid before the Council of Trade and Plantations the action of taking Major Stede Bonnet and his crew at Cape Fear by Colonel William Rhett. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 787, Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 12 December 1718; C.O. 5, 1265. No. 119 (library file csp-col-v30-pp404-424.txt)
  22. The heading of the Charles Town proceedings, as the General History prints it, has a Court of Vice-Admiralty held on 28 October 1718 and continued by adjournments to Wednesday 12 November before Nicholas Trott, for the trial of the pirates taken in a sloop formerly called the Revenge but afterwards the Royal James. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative reprinting the trial proceedings: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Chap. IV, Of Major Stede Bonnet and his Crew (Project Gutenberg ebook 40580)
  23. Twenty-two of Bonnet's crew were executed at White Point near Charles Town on 8 November 1718, and four of the men arraigned were acquitted. Later accounts of the trials give the number hanged as twenty-nine. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Chap. IV, Of Major Stede Bonnet and his Crew (Project Gutenberg ebook 40580)
  24. The General History dates that execution to Saturday the 8th of November and prints the year as 1711, which cannot stand with its own heading of the sessions of October and November 1718. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Chap. IV, the list of the men executed (library file gut40580_johnson_general_history.txt, lines 3252-3257)
  25. Stede Bonnet was tried on 10 November 1718, convicted on both indictments, sentenced on 12 November and executed at White Point, Charles Town, on 10 December 1718. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Chap. IV, with the Charles Town proceedings of 28 October to 12 November 1718 as the register row cites them
  26. The letter of 12 December 1718 is subscribed by six men, in the order Robert Johnson, A. Skene, Nicholas Trott, Thomas Broughton, Charles Hart and Francis Yonge. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 787, Governor and Council of South Carolina to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 12 December 1718; C.O. 5, 1265. No. 119 (library file csp-col-v30-pp404-424.txt)
  27. Governor Johnson wrote from Charles Towne on 27 December 1719 that the people had one step after another and at last with one accord disclaimed any obedience to the Lords Proprietors, and that his honour would not permit him to accept the government in any other manner than as he was commissioned. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 31 (1719-1720), item 497, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, S. Carolina, 27 December 1719 (library file csp-col-v31-pp272-292.txt)
  28. Johnson reported in the same letter that the people had elected another man, who had taken it upon him to hold the government in the King's name alone until the King's pleasure should be further known. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 31 (1719-1720), item 497, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, S. Carolina, 27 December 1719 (library file csp-col-v31-pp272-292.txt)
  29. Johnson set down in the same letter that the poor profits of the government, the extraordinary expense he was at in suppressing several pirates and the short time of his being there had left him out of pocket by holding it. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 31 (1719-1720), item 497, Governor Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Charles Towne, S. Carolina, 27 December 1719 (library file csp-col-v31-pp272-292.txt)
  30. Daniel Bell wrote from Charles Town on 4 March 1719/20, in expectation of a Spanish attack, that there were several very good ships in the place and between four and five hundred sailors, that the people did not fear the Spaniards in the least, and that the fortifications were much out of repair. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32 (1720-1721), item 9, Daniel Bell to William Wragg, merchant in London, Charles Town, 4 March 1719/20 (library file csp_v32_pp1-21.txt)
  31. Othniel Beale wrote from South Carolina on 4 March 1719/20 that his ship of sixteen guns had been impressed with three others of eighteen guns, to receive the enemy soon after they entered the harbour, with a fireship. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32 (1720-1721), item 10, Othniel Beale to Samuel Waldo, merchant, South Carolina, 4 March 1719/20 (library file csp_v32_pp1-21.txt)
  32. A letter from Carolina to Mr. Boone of 24 June 1720 reported that a periagua full of white men had lately gone from Charles Towne, which was supposed to be designed to turn pirates. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32 (1720-1721), item 125, [?] to Mr. Boone, Carolina, 24 June 1720 (library file csp_v32_pp44-60.txt)