Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
Politics was another problem Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood had along with Blackbeard. Lt. Governor Spotswood was quite put out by the politics in Virginia concerning trade with North Carolina and other matters. The House of Burgesses of VA members had even snubbed his lavish birthday celebration for George I on May 28, 1718 to go to their own bonfire for his Majesty. They did not even want to have lunch with the Good Lt. Governor. Into Spotswood's very narrow purview came reports from what passed as the police in 1718 VA. that William Howard, Quartermaster of Blackbeard's ship Queen Anne's Revenge, had visited various Virginia seaport taverns along with his two Negro slaves. Spotswood could adapt this to his benefit as he could have misplaced the paperwork of Howard's amnesty from piracy from the September 5, 1717 Royal Proclamation, if there even was such paperwork and sweat Howard for any and all information about Blackbeard's whereabouts. Spotswood had a Justice of the Peace arrest Howard after he tracked him down. The arrest was on the trumped up charge of Howard being a vagrant seaman made after the Justice of the Peace confiscated the 50 pounds Howard had on him. Howard found however one of the best lawyers in VA at that time, John Holloway, who made sure that Howard was protected by the King's Amnesty Proclamation even after Spotswood had Howard tried and condemned to die on the gallows. Spotswood gave the information gleamed from the questioning and the trial about Blackbeard's location to Captains George Gordon and Ellis Brand of the British men-of-war, Pearl and Lyme respectively. Spotswood though still had to defend to the Crown his plan to invade the province of North Carolina at Bath Town as well as Ocracoke Inlet. Based on letters from Spotswood as researched by Robert E. Lee in Blackbeard the Pirate: A Reappraisal of His Life and Times, 1974.
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The North Carolinans could hardly put up a
blimp to request aid from Virginia's Lt. Governor in putting a stop to Blackbeard's depredations. They needed a strike to the
thorax of Blackbeard's operation. Or, at least, Alexander Spotswood needed a massive victory on his
pallet for the picture he needed to paint to fellow Virginians to silence the many critics-- like the VA House of Burgesses. The defeat of Blackbeard by Virginian forces would show just how
inept the North Carolinians under Governor Eden had been with fighting pirates. Unfortunately for Lt. Governor Spotswood, the requests from North Carolina citizens for Virginian aid were almost non-existant because of the very bad blood between the two colonies over trade and the proper way to govern. Spotswood decided a different tactic had to be used to get permission from the inhabitants to invade another colony's territory. He would use a Trojan Horse approach and have prominent North Carolinians back his play against Blackbeard by advancing their careers and bank accounts. He found such Trojans in North Carolinians Edward Moseley and Colonel Maurice Moore. Spotswood also tried to argue that the King's Court could share with Spotswood's troops in the salvage rights of whatever treasure the pirate ships might contain when captured. Especially in treasure that had been taken from North Carolina to Virginia and back. Which was only fitting as Spotswood paid for the expedition to kill and/or capture Blackbeard and his pirates out of his own pocket. Now, Spotswood's course was set to the Battle of Ocracoke Inlet.
http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.asp...AURICE%20MOORE http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.asp...arkers&sv=D-46 http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Spot...40#start_entry