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Baylus_Brooks

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  1. Review:

    A truly groundbreaking Book!
    By Mark Martinez on July 16, 2017

    Baylus C. Brooks' Quest for Blackbeard I believe will help to usher in a sea change in the field of piracy in the 18th century West Indies. A highly sourced and entirely readable work, Quest presents a much needed critique of Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 book "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates" which has served as the principal source used by researchers since the time of its writing in defining the character and exploits of the famous pirate.

    Brooks helps to reinforce the emerging theory among researchers that the Captain Johnson who wrote "A General History" was actually the 18th-century Jacobite printer and journalist, Nathaniel Mist. Mist's reputation is best understood by examining his "Weekly Journal" which was the most vocal and extreme resistance newspaper to emerge in opposition to the Hanoverian Whig takeover of the British parliament in 1715. Brooks explains how Mist, under the Johnson pseudonym, wrote "a General History" largely as an exploitation and/or propaganda narrative designed to appeal to the unique political sensibilities of his readers. As such, it has been wrong for researchers to use it blindly, as it has been, to define who Blackbeard was and how he should be understood in history.

    In this regard, Brooks has done groundbreaking work in uncovering the true origins of Blackbeard. Unlike the image painted by Mist of a vulgar and brutal monster of low birth, Brooks has discovered through records he has brought to light found in St Catherine's Parish registries of Jamaica and Jamaican deed books as well as through genealogies compiled from wills kept by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in England that Blackbeard, whose given name was Edward Thache, was actually from a minor aristocratic family who was not far removed from high level players in the political circles of his time - principally among them, the Lechmeres of Hanley Castle in Worcestershire who supported the 1st Whig Junto and who were, through marriage, connected to the Winthrops of Connecticut. Brooks has discovered that Thache began his career, surprisingly, as a well-respected mariner serving in the British Royal Navy aboard the HMS Windsor.

    Put simply, Brooks has made a compelling case that Thache was perhaps more privateer than pirate, at least in his early days, with sympathies more aligned with the ousted Stewarts than with the ascendant Hanovers. These alignments appear to have led him onto the wrong side of history. It can be argued that he may have gotten caught in his own emerging reputation fostered by his own press along with the unstable politics of his age, a combination that led him into an outlaw career that he perhaps couldn't escape.

    In all respects, Quest is a groundbreaking book. It offers much food for thought no matter what opinions the reader holds on the subject and, at a minimum, presents much newly discovered source material that makes the light of day for the first time in this work. These documents, by themselves, make the book worth purchasing. The well-conceived conclusions Brooks draws makes it invaluable. In all respects Quest for Blackbeard is well worth the read for all who are interested in the subject.

  2. The printers for Quest for Blackbeard are offering a 25% discount on print versions till Christmas plus whatever the revolving weekly discounts are, as listed on their home page http://www.lulu.com/home. Quest is available also in ebook/Kindle format and is the most updated version. Go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks to order. This is quite a savings!

    Author site: http://baylusbrooks.com

    #blackbeard #pirates #history #maritime

    Ad map books 1.jpg

  3. I am compiling transcriptions of pirate-related documents and making them available on my website at http://baylusbrooks.com in the "Pirate Library" section under "Reference Shelf." I find that reading such primary sources gives me a rich understanding of life in the Golden Age.. far and beyond what the popular and error-filled A General History can provide. These documents I have split between depositions, trials, papers, and letters. It is totally free... enjoy!

  4. Might I suggest that if you can't find what you want to be true, that it may not be true. I'm not one for the egalitarian aspect, but I certainly do not believe that pirates were predominantly bloodthirsty criminals. They were primarily businessmen. Profit was the main goal for the majority... not serial murder and torture, like Edward Low.

  5. 1. Herriot and Pell were already immune from prosecution, as long as their testimony was enough to convict their fellows then on trial they had no need to invent stuff. Blackbeard's motives for the loss of the QAR had no bearing either on their own fate or the fate of their fellows.

    2. Testimony indicates that BB deliberately stranded men at Beaufort. The game was far from 'up', as both BB's and Bonnet's continued piracy shows. If BB had wanted to continue his piracy with a powerful fleet, the remaining sloops and the available hands to man them would have rendered him still one of the most powerful pirates in the region even without the QAR. The fact that BB took only one sloop with 40 hands and 60 slaves, most of whom were most likely subsequently sold, suggests that BB himself wanted to downsize his operation. Whether that decision came before or after the loss of the QAR is, of course, open to speculation, but his actions do not speak of a man who regretted the loss of his flagship.

    3. The article you cite does not say (at least from p. 15 onwards) that the archaeology shows the wreck was accidental. What it does say is that the QAR may have drawn as much as 12 feet, the nearest available chart shows 17 feet of water in the channel. and there is no evidence of malfunction or other extenuating circumstances which would make an accident likely.

    1. Herriot might have been mad and he may have been coerced to damn Thache. There are way too many possibilities here... suppose the authorities discovered his lies. Suppose he crewmates felt brtrayed.

    2. I'm saying that Thache gave up after the wreck... the crew went off to do whatever. The only evidence is for 20 crew and a handful of slaves. Howard left for Va with two. The crew split them up most likely...

    3. Regardless of how you interpret it, archaeologists generally go higher than 50/50 on it being an accident. This might be statistical "babble" to you, but the math is sound. Do you believe that all non-primary sources are a 50/50 shot? If so, then the formula applies.

  6. 1. immunity from prosecution

    2. they left... the game was up... Capt. Brand's informant told him weeks after that 90 had already left for points northward and Thache was talking about sticking around, boasting about marrying (in the future) in Bath... and the informant said that there was a dispute among the pirates (Thache and Bonnet?).

    3. http://baylusbrooks.com/QAR-R-09-02.pdf starts on page 15. More evidence to prove that it was an accident rather than intentional. Intent requires proof and Herriot and Pell both got immunity from prosecution by saying what the authorities wanted them to. That's not really proof... you might say that it's 50/50. ;)

    Besides Herriot tried to escape anyway... that discredits his testimony. Let's not forget that Herriot had also just lost his ship Adventure. Was he mad?

  7. I also meant to add earlier, for the edification of anyone else reading this thread, that the archaeology of the QAR does not in any way prove that she was wrecked by accident. The Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, who regularly dives on the QAR and has done more or less since her discovery, is on record with his opinion that Herriot was telling the truth about BB's treachery, and he is both better qualified and better placed to say what the archaeology does or does not prove than I.

    If you're referring to David Moore, yes. But, there are quite a few more archaeologists working there who do not agree with him. In fact, I think he is alone on that opinion.

  8. Thanks, Swashbuckler!

    I'll check out Maria Fusaro's book. Owing to this and similar arguments, I feel that we can't view pirates in 1715 quite like Rediker's William Fly in 1726. By that time, administrative opposition had worked against piracy in general and it had become a sea-bound independent guerrilla operation that probably did not reflect the pre-Rogers Bahamas Islands-Jamaica-Bermuda-Carolina operation. Everything went to hell, in other words. ;)

  9. Ed,

    I never said that I couldn't be wrong. Just that my theory is better than most. The fitting scenario around the facts increases its probability.

    As for the comparison to gravity.. no. That was an example to illustrate how the preponderance of circumstantial evidence (the scenario again) added to the facts can bolster any case. It was not a direct comparison. I did not expect it to be taken so literally.

    As I said before, I will do my utmost to find that birth certificate for you, but would you settle for Lucretia bailing him out of jail? lol

  10. When these facts are taken independently, I would agree. No single source can ever be more than 50/50. Given that logic, the chances that a dropped ball will go down is 50/50. When it happens a lot, though... well?

    BTW, the Joseph Brooks from the Currituck area have been of long interest to me because they may relate to a branch of Brooks that we used to think were related. Many years ago, a DNA bomb went off that split these guys from us. It, too, is a circumstantial case, but it was fascinating to have some possible pirates in the cupboard, even if for only a short while.

    As for my case, it's good enough to encourage me to spend more money on getting to Jamaica, not just on beer. Like I said, there's a buttload of records that nobody has even looked at yet. I have to see those records... candy for the historian. ;)

  11. Ed, "Your whole theory hinges on Leslie being accurate." Does it, really? The actual records of Edward Thache are not suggestive, in the very least?

    My objective is to show these records. That is it. I have done that and I knew the consequences would be severe. I wrote an article attempting to interpret them. I do not have money riding on this theory. Writers and historians do not make fortunes. Others do... and have invested a great deal in it. I did not write a 27-page rebuttal. But, this thread is obviously no longer helpful.

    Somewhere, there's a beer with my name on it... thy name is Yeung-Ling! ;)

  12. Why would your Jamaican Blackbeard, Edward Thache, Jr., whose family you purport to have owned a large sugar plantation with slaves (even though you have provided no evidence of this “plantation”), then go to great trouble to capture slaves east of the Windward Islands in November 1717 from the French slave ship Concorde? And then why, at great risk, and by avoiding numerous opportunities to safely surrender to various colonial governors—including South Carolina’s Governor Johnson—did Edward Thache, Jr., of Jamaica, deliver those slaves to diminutive Bath, North Carolina, which is quite a far distance from the sea requiring navigation around dangerous shoals and serpentine sand reefs. And why did your Jamaican Blackbeard take those slaves to what was then a colonial backwater community well-documented to be economically depressed and with residents possessing little or no hard currency to purchase those slaves, especially when the pirates passed up other ports where those slaves would have fetched much higher prices?

    You assume that Thache meant to wreck his ship (QAR) in Beaufort Inlet and remain in NC. Your entire theory rests upon the supposition that Thache did not intend to continue pirating and that he did not stop in NC merely to careen his vessel... that this successful pirate intended to stay in this economically-depressed backwater. The evidence from my analysis of the Bonnet trial and from the archaeology, however, dispute this. http://bcbrooks.blogspot.com/2015/07/guilty-or-innocent-depositions-of.html

    BTW, the Thache deeds, wills and their slaves, Jim, Mary, Lucretia, Sabina, and more... provide substantial proof that the Thaches owned a plantation in Spanish Town.

    Are you saying that Thache cared for his supposed NC Beard family more than his own wealth? Careful, you may get flogged (pun intended) for this... ;)

  13. I'm not asking you to believe anything except that Leslie could be an honest writer, using all of the sources that he has. The only section that he used that does NOT appear in any previous article is the section about Spanish Town and the parents. Where did that come from? It could have been personal experience, from an informant, maybe invented. But, there is certainly no reason to accuse Leslie of lying, simply because he does what any good journalist has ever done... and give all the information that he has available to him.

    "It's quite possible that Leslie is right about Blackbeard's parents, but it can't be relied on." Yes, but it need not be completely dismissed, either. That's MY point. Combined with other evidence, it begins to build a circumstantial case that increases the chances of success. In light of other evidence, maybe Leslie DID NOT LIE. As I said, gravity is still a theory, too. But, drop a ball and it usually falls down. All of these independent, circumstantial pieces eventually add up to some kind of evidence and cannot be dismissed when viewed together. You give my theory a 50/50 chance? Really? With all the evidence in the past leading to pirates in general focusing on Jamaica? Jennings, Barrow, Thache, Ashworth, Barnet, Parr, and so many of the 18th century's wealthy pirates have families on Jamaica. Buccaneers of the 17th century originally focused on Jamaica, almost since the day it was captured from the Spanish. Port Royal has become the quintessential home port of pirates and all the writers of the time knew this... including Leslie, but he chose the landlocked (not a port) capital of "Spanish Town." And, now, we have proof that an Edward Thache is from Jamaica, specifically Spanish Town (at least since boyhood)? And you still say it's 50/50? Come on... really? I still trust that gravity works, even though there is no grand unified theory yet to explain it. The chances are far better than 50% and you know it. They are certainly better than North Carolina.

    One thing I have noticed is a strong desire NOT to notice these things... to maintain the status quo and, in Blackbeard's case, to maintain the mystery. Isn't that what's happening here? We may be in danger of losing the mystery of our most iconic pirate.

  14. This is the paragraph in question. I have colored different sections according to what I believe comes from different sources that Leslie compiled into this single paragraph. The first one I think is Johnson, but it's very general. The second one is the mystery shopper on Jamaica. The third one may be Johnson again. And the last section I believe comes from the Weekly Packet of 11 April 1719. It could be also Weekly Journal of the same date or other sources in BNL as well, March 2, 1719. They all say pretty much the same thing.

    At this time, the famous Edward Teach,

    commonly known by the Name of Black—

    beard, infested the American Seas. He was

    one of a most bloody Disposition, and cruel

    to Brutality. His Name became a Terror ;

    and some Governors being remiss in pursuing

    him, he almost put a Stop to the Trade of

    several of the Northern Colonies. He was

    born in Jamaica, of very creditable Parents ;

    his Mother is alive in Spanish-Town to this

    Day, and his Brother is at present Captain

    of the Train of Artillery. He was attacked

    by a Lieutenant of a Man of War, and was

    killed, after a very obstinate and bloody Fight.

    He took a Glass, and drank Damnation to

    them that gave or asked Quarter. His

    Head was carried to Virginia, and there fixed

    on a Pole.

    The last two sections may have both come from the BNL ref.

  15. No, I think he either knew them or had a report from someone who did. He then compiled his research together and wrote a paragraph in his book that reflected all sources... just the way any of us write now. He doesn't actually have to be lying in his book. I'm just saying that he maybe got conflicting information from different sources. Hasn't that ever happened to you?

    That's the scenario that I'm following to explain his reference. That's all.

    What was it to be a "nice family" in the early 18th century? Whatever it means, Leslie compared it relative to what he read about the notorious pirate Blackbeard. I think he was just surprised by possibly conflicting data.

  16. BTW, is my calling Edward Thache Jr. "Blackbeard" in my book any different than your calling Blackbeard "Edward Beard" in yours? I understood that once you established the extent of the possible relation, you didn't have to qualify EVERY SINGLE reference that you made from then on... I just accepted that you didn't claim those refs definitively. Please afford me the same courtesy.

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