uding from office all persons who had not resided for three years in
Virginia, were repealed by the king.

John Teach, a pirate, commonly called Blackbeard, in the year 1718
established his rendezvous at the mouth of Pamlico River, in North
Carolina. He surrendered himself to Governor Eden, (who was suspected of
being in collusion with him,) and took the oath of allegiance, in order
to avail himself of a proclamation of pardon offered by the king.
Wasting the fruits of sea-robbery in gambling and debauchery, Blackbeard
again embarked in piracy; and having captured and brought in a valuable
cargo, the Carolinians gave notice of it to the government of Virginia.
Spotswood and the assembly immediately proclaimed a large reward for his
apprehension, and Lieutenant Maynard, attached to a ship-of-war
stationed in the Chesapeake Bay, was sent with two small vessels and a
chosen crew in quest of him. An action ensued in Pamlico Bay on the 21st
of November, 1718. Blackbeard, it is said, had posted one of his men
with a lighted match over the powder-magazine, to prevent a capture by
blowing up his vessel, but if so, this order failed to be executed.
Blackbeard, surrounded by the slain, and bleeding from his wounds, in
the act of cocking a pistol, fell on the bloody deck and expired. His
surviving comrades surrendered, and Maynard returned with his prisoners
to James River, with Blackbeard's head hanging from the bowsprit. The
captured pirates were tried in the admiralty court at Williamsburg,
March, 1718, and thirteen of them were hung. Benjamin Franklin, then an
apprentice in a printing-office, composed a ballad on the death of
Teach, which was sung through the streets of Boston.[397:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[394:A] Extracts from Journal of the Council of Virginia, sitting as the
upper house of assembly, preserved in the office of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, in _S. Lit. Messr._, xvii. 585.

[395:A] Privileges and Claims.

[397:A] Grahame's Col. Hist. U. S., ii. 56, citing Williamson's Hist. of
N. C. See, also, A General History of the Pyrates, published at London,
(1726,) and "Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers," by C.
Macfarlane.

CHAPTER LIII.

1718-1739.

Complaints against Spotswood--The Governor and the Council--
Dissension between Spotswood and the Assembly--Convocation of
the Clergy--Controversy between Blair and Spotswood--Clergy
address the Bishop of London--The Clergy side wi