Tobias Knight and the Pirates

[Sully Cross]

   Tobias Knight, government official, judge, and attorney, lived in Bath. The earliest record of Knight appears in the Colonial Records of North Carolina, where he is recognized as a member of the governing council of the colony. The records show that by 1712 Knight had married Catherine Glover, widow of former North Carolina Governor William Glover. Knight was chosen by Governor Charles Eden as Chief Justice of the Province, and served in this capacity until shortly before his death. The following year, he purchased a tract of land near Bath known as Archbell Point. This property had belonged to Landgrave Robert Daniel (one of the first to live in or near Bath) and Knight bought it from Daniel's widow. As a result of the transaction, Knight became a neighbor of Governor Eden.

 

   Blackbeard returned to Ocracoke, NC in late August 1718 with a French ship full of cargo. While his crew began unloading and storing it in tents on the beach, he set off in a small boat bearing presents for Bath. Arriving at midnight and the home of Tobias Knight, Blackbeard was welcomed inside and stayed, eyewitnesses later testified, “till about an hour before the break of day. A day later, Governor Eden granted him full salvage rights to the French ship (actually cargo from the La Toison d’Or and Rose Emelye) which Blackbeard alleged to have found abandoned at sea. Meanwhile a large parcel of sugar found itself into Knight’s barn, hiding itself under a pile of hay.

 

  After the battle of Ocracoke in November, sixteen members of Blackbeard’s crew were rounded up and brought to Williamsburg, Virginia to await trial. Blackbeard's head was given as a trophy to Virginia Governor Spotswood, who had it displayed on a tall pole in Hampton Roads, at a site now known as Blackbeard’s Point. The men waited for three months for the seemingly inevitable guilty verdict of piracy and death sentence. During this time some of the crew attempted to save their lives by turning on their deceased captain Blackbeard and becoming informants. Spotswood was in great need for information implying wrongdoing. He had intruded in North Carolina business by sending the crew to the adjoining colony to capture Blackbeard and his crew. Knight was accused of willingly dealing with Blackbeard according to the informants.

 

   Unfortunately, execution was inevitable for all but two of the accused. Samuel Odel was released because he was able to prove he was not actually part of Blackbeard’s crew. Odel was a man from Bath, NC who happened to sail to Ocracoke the night before the battle and was on board when Maynard attacked. The only fighting that occurred by Odel was out of self-defense. The other man let go was Israel Hands, the former sailing master for Blackbeard, who was pardoned. On March 12, 1719, the rest of the crew was quickly tried and found guilty without any leniency for the information provided. The exact date of the hanging of Blackbeard’s crew is unknown.

Knight's trial began on 27 May 1719 at the home of Fredrick Jones. Governor Eden (his fellow conspirator) sitting with the governing council, heard the testimony. Knight spoke for himself; and his defense "leaves no doubt that he was an attorney of not inconsiderable ability," for the governor and council "investigated the charges and . . . gravely pronounced him entirely innocent."

 

   Nevertheless, Knight resigned the office of chief justice of the colony. Shortly afterwards, Captain Ellis Brand wrote to the Lords Commissioners of Admiralty complaining that Knight and others were still assisting pirates. Knight, however, died before an investigation could be launched.

 

Sources:

Walter Clark, ed., State Records of North Carolina, vols. 23, 25 (1904, 1906).

J. Bryan Grimes, Abstracts of North Carolina Wills (1910).

Francis L. Hawks, History of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1858).

Robert E. Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate (1974).

Ursula F. Loy and Pauline M. Worthy, Washington and the Pamlico (1976).

William L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Carolina, vols. 1, 2, 4 (1886).

Butler, Lindley. Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Konstam, Angus. Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2006.

 

Photo below is Archbell Point, NC in 2023. Former home to Tobias Knight and Charles Eden

Edited May 24 by Sully Cross

[Mary Diamond]

Timely and well spoke, thank you!