Blackbeard and Queen Anne’s Revenge

Hardly anything is known about Blackbeard’s younger years. Many historians theorise that he died between the ages of 35 to 40, and his date of death was the 22nd November 1718. Hence, he must have been born in around 1680. Whilst he goes by the moniker of ‘Blackbeard,’ and several records claim his real name was Edward Teach, many other renditions of his name actually exist in other records. He has also been referred to as Edward Thatch, Thach, Thache, Thack, Tack, Theach and Thatche. An early source even claims his surname was Drummond, which is obviously unlike any of the other spellings, however, a lack of documentation to support this theory makes this highly unlikely, and it’s possible this ‘Drummond’ was confused with Teach by whoever recorded said source. What is important to remember is that pirates habitually used fabricated names to avoid damaging the reputation of their family names, so it’s actually possible that Blackbeard’s true name will never be known.

A common theory deduces that Teach may have been a sailor aboard privateer ships during Queen Anne’s War, before settling on New Providence; a Bahamian island and a base of Captain Benjamin Hornigold. Teach would eventually join Hornigold’s crew in around 1716. Before this, however, it’s likely Blackbeard was raised in Bristol. The rise of Britain’s American colonies in the 17^th-century, and the subsequent expansion of the slave trade across the Atlantic meant that Bristol was a vitally important international sea-port. Unlike many pirates, Blackbeard was believed to have been literate. After his death, he was found in possession of a letter addressed to him by the Chief Justice and Secretary of the Province of Carolina, Tobias Knight. This piece of evidence led Robert Lee, the author of ‘Blackbeard the Pirate,’ to speculate that Edward Teach could have been born into a rather affluent and well-respected family. Teach may therefore have arrived in the Caribbean in the closing years of the 17^th-Century, perhaps on a merchant vessel or even a slave ship. An 18^th-Century author, Charles Johnson, claimed that Teach was a sailor operating from Jamaica during the War of the Spanish Succession. Johnson wrote ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.’ There is however, no record of a captain who went by this name, but he said that Blackbeard “often distinguished himself for his uncommon boldness and personal courage.” In keeping with most of his life, though, the time at which Teach became a pirate is unknown.