. . . More Beaufort, North Carolina History

Post Civil War Visitors to Beaufort

2011-12-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

From Whitelaw Reid's

After the War: a Southern Tour: May 1, 1865 to May 1, 1866
Chapter III-IV, Page 22-36

Published 1866

James Whitelaw Reid (1837-1912), born in Xenia, Ohio, was an American journalist who later served as editor, president and chairman of the family-owned New York Herald Tribune. Reid also served as US Ambassador to France, the Court of St. James and to Britain. He was the Republican vice presidential nominee on the losing ticket headed by incumbent President Benjamin Harrison.

After the inauguration of President Andrew Johnson, Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase (1808-1873), appointed by President Lincoln, was determined to visit the southern cities, to learn as much as possible, from actual observation, the true condition of the country. Aboard revenue cutter Wayanda, Chief Justice Chase, with orders issued by President Johnson, twenty-eight-year-old Whitelaw Reid, after an invitation and pass from the president, accompanied the party. Beaufort was the first stop on this southern journey. According to Reid, “the trip would have been begun some weeks earlier, but for the deed of horror in Ford's Theater.”

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, April 9, 1864 (Image added to illustrate Beaufort, NC about that time)

Excerpts from Reid's book:

The journey began with rough seas and sea sickness…

…Toward evening the sea calmed down, and one after another emerged on deck. The air was delightfully bracing; the moon sent its broad streams of light, shaking across the waters; the revolving light of Hatteras shone out—guide and safeguard to a hundred eyes besides our own—and so with calmest weather, and a delicious beauty of scene that no words need be vainly employed in efforts to describe, we spent half the night in watching the passage of the ship by the most dangerous part of the Atlantic coast. Next morning, at breakfast, we were steaming under the guns of Fort Macon into the harbor where Butler and Porter rendezvoused for Fort Fisher.

As a boat's crew slowly pulled some of our party through the tortuous channel by which even the lightest gigs have to approach the single landing of Beaufort, the guns of the naval force began to thunder out a salute for the Chief Justice. "How many guns does a Chief Justice receive?" inquired one, as he counted the successive discharges. “You’d a great deal better ask," reprovingly hinted the Doctor, "how many guns a Baptist minister receives!"

“Well, how many, Doctor!" “Oh, just count these up, and then you'll know!" With which church-militant suggestion, we rounded to at a crazy old wharf, climbed up a pair of rickety steps that gave the Doctor premonitions of more immersion than even he had bargained for, and stood in the town of Beaufort, North Carolina. In front of us was the Custom House—a square, one-story frame building, perched upon six or eight posts—occupied now by a Deputy Treasury Agent. A narrow strip of sand, plowed up by a few cart wheels, and flanked by shabby-looking old frame houses, extended along the water front, and constituted the main business street of a place that, however dilapidated and insignificant, must live in the history of the struggle just ended. Near the water's edge was a small turpentine distillery, the only manufacturing establishment of the place.

The landing of a boat's crew, with an officer in charge and a flag fluttering at the stern, seemed to be an event in Beaufort, and we were soon surrounded by the notabilities. A large, heavily and coarsely-built man, of unmistakable North Carolina origin, with the inevitable bilious look, ragged clothes and dirty shirt, was introduced, with no little eclat, as "the Senator from this District."

"Of what Senate?" some one inquired. "The North Caroliner Senate, Sir,"

"Umph, Rebel Senate of North Carolina," growled the Captain, sotto voce; "you make a devil of a fuss about your dignity! North Carolina Rebel Senate be hanged! A New York constable outranks you." But the Senator didn't hear; and his manner showed plainly enough that no doubts of his importance ever disturbed the serene workings of his own mind. The Clerk of the Court, the Postmaster, the doctor, the preacher and other functionaries were speedily added to the group that gathered in the sand bank called a pavement.

"How are your people feeling?" some one asked. "Oh, well, sir; we all went out unwillingly, you know," responded the legislator, fresh from the meetings of the Rebel Senate at Raleigh," and most of us are very glad to get back."

"Have you no violent Rebels yet?" "Yes, quite a good many, among the young bloods; but even they all feel as if they had been badly whipped, and want to give in." "Then they really feel themselves whipped?" "Yes, you've subjugated us at last," with a smile which showed that the politician thought it not the worst kind of a joke after all.

"And, of course, then you have only to submit to any terms the conquerors may impose?" "No, sir—oh, ah— yes, any terms that could be honorably offered to a proud, high-minded people!" The rest of the dignitaries nodded their heads approvingly at this becoming intimation of the terms the "subjugated" State could be induced to accept. It was easy to see that the old political tricks were not forgotten, and that the first inch of wrong concession would be expected to lead the way to many an ell.

"What terms do you think would be right?" The County Clerk, a functionary of near thirty years' service, took up the conversation, and promptly replied, "Let Governor Vance call together the North Caroliner Legislater. We only lacked a few votes of a Union majority in it before, and we'd be sure to have enough now." "What then?" "Why, the Legislater would, of course, repeal the ordinance of secession, and order a convention to amend the Constitution. I think that convention would accept your constitutional amendment. "

"But can you trust your Governor Vance? Did not he betray the Union party after his last election?"

"Yes, he sold us out clean and clear."

"He did nothing of the sort. North Caroliner has not got a purer patriot than Governor Vance." And so they fell to disputing among themselves.
I asked one of the party what this Legislature, if thus called together, would do with the negroes?

“Take 'em under the control of the Legislater, as free niggers always have been in this State. Let it have authority to fix their wages, and prevent vagrancy. It always got along with 'em well enough before."

“Are you not mistaken about its always having had this power?"

"What!" exclaimed the astonished functionary. “Why, I was born and raised hyar, and lived hyar all my life! Do you suppose I don't know?"

“Apparently not, sir; for you seem to be ignorant of the fact that free negroes in North Carolina were voters from the formation of the State Government down to 1835."

“It isn't so, stranger."

"Excuse me; but your own State records will show it;* and, if I must say so, he is a very ignorant citizen to be talking about ways and means of re-organization, who doesn't know so simple and recent a fact in the history of his State."

* North Carolina, by her Constitution of 1776, prescribed three bases of suffrage:
1. All Freemen twenty-one years old, who have lived in the county twelve months, and have had a freehold of fifty acres for six months, may vote for a member of the Senate. 2. All Freemen, of like age and residence, who have paid public taxes, may vote for members of the House of Commons for the county.
3. The above two classes may, if residing or owning a freehold in a town, vote for members of the House of Commons for such town: provided, they shall not already have voted for a member for the county, and vice versa.
By the Constitution, as amended in 1835, all freemen, twenty-one years of age, living twelve months in the State, and owning a freehold of fifty acres for six months, should vote, except that

"No free negro, free mulatto, or free person of mixed blood, descended from negro ancestors to the fourth generation inclusive (though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person), shall vote for members of the Senate or House of Commons."

The last clause would seem to have looked to amalgamation as a pretty steady practice, for such zealous abolition and negro-haters. Under the Constitution of 1776, free negroes, having the requisite qualifications, voted as freely as any other portion of the voting population.

The Cracker scratched his head in great bewilderment. “Well, stranger, you don't mean to say that the Government at Washington is going to make us let niggers vote?"

“I mean to say that it is at least possible."

"Well, why not have the decency to let us have a vote on it ourselves, and say whether we'll let niggers vote?"

“In other words, you mean this: Less than a generation ago you held a convention, which robbed certain classes of your citizens of rights they had enjoyed, undisputed, from the organization of your State down to that hour. Now, you propose to let the robbers hold an election to decide whether they will return the stolen property or not."

"Stranger," exclaimed another of the group, with great emphasis, "is the Government at Washington, because it has whipped us, going to make us let niggers vote?"

“Possibly it will. At any rate a strong party favors it."

"Then I wouldn't live under the Government. I'd emigrate, sir. Yes, sir, I'd leave this Government and go north!"

And the man, true to his States'-Rights training, seemed to imagine that going north was going under another Government, and spoke of it as one might speak of emigrating to China.

Meantime, the younger citizens of Beaufort (of Caucasian descent) had found better amusement than talking to the strangers in the sand bank of a street.

One of them wagered a quarter (fractional currency) that he could whip another. The party thus challenged evinced his faith in his own muscle by risking a corresponding quarter on it. The set-to was at once arranged, in the back-yard of the house in front of which we were standing, and several side bets, ranging from five to as high as fifteen cents, were speedily put up by spectators.

One of our party, who joined the crowd at the amusement, reported that half-a-dozen rounds were fought—a few "niggers" gravely looking on from the outskirts of the throng—that several eyes were blacked, and both noses bruised; that there was a fall, and a little choking and eye-gouging, and a cry of "give it up;" that then the belligerents rose and shook hands, and stakes were delivered, and the victor was being challenged to another trial, with a fresh hand, as we left the scene of combat; and so closed our first visit to a North Carolina town.

Shortly after our arrival in the harbor, the military authorities had provided a special train for us—that is to say, a train composed of a wheezy little locomotive and an old mail agent's car, with all the windows smashed out and half the seats gone. By this means we were enabled, an hour after our visit to Beaufort, to be whirling over the military railroad from the little collection of Government warehouses on the opposite side of the harbor, called Morehead City, to Newbern.

The whole way led through the exhausted turpentine forests of North-eastern North Carolina, which the turpentine growers have for many years been abandoning for the more productive forests of upper South Carolina. Here and there were swamps which Yankee drainage would soon convert into splendid corn land; and it is possible that Yankee skill might make the exhausted pineries very profitable; but, for the present, this country is not likely to present such inducements as to attract a large Northern emigration.

The poorer people seem to be quietly living in their old places. "Where the paroled rebel soldiers have returned, they have sought their former homes, and evince a very decided disposition to stay there. Throughout this region there is, as we learned, comparatively little destitution. The ocean is a near and never-failing resource; and from Newbern and Beaufort (both of which have been in our possession during the greater part of the war) supplies have gone through the lines by a sort of insensible and invisible perspiration, which it would be unkind, to the disinterested traders who follow in the wake of an army, to call smuggling.

Passing the traces of the works thrown up at the point where Burnside had his fight, we entered the remarkable city of log cabins, outside the city limits, which now really forms the most interesting part of the ancient town of Newbern…

Page 31…A dispatch from General Sherman (on his way north from Savannah, and forced by bad weather to put in at Beaufort) had reached Newbern…

Page 33-36…A heavy gale blew on the coast all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and neither General Sherman’s Captain nor our own thought it wise to venture out. Meanwhile, delegations of the Beaufort people came off in little sail-boats to visit the “Wyanda,” bring us flowers and strawberries, and talk politics. Since their last demonstrations, a few days ago, they had toned down their ideas a good deal; and the amount of their talk, stripped of its circumlocution and hesitation, was simply this: that they were very anxious to re-organize, and would submit to anything the Government might require to that end. They said less against negro suffrage than before—frankly said it would be very obnoxious to the prejudices of nearly the whole population, but added, that if Government insisted on it, they would co-operate with the negroes in re-organization “But the poor, shiftless creatures will never be able to support themselves in freedom. We’ll have half of them in poor-houses before a year!” * Nothing could overcome this rooted idea, that the negro was worthless, except under the lash. These people really believe that, in submitting to the emancipation of the slaves, they have virtually saddled themselves with an equal number of idle paupers. Naturally, they believe that to add a requirement that these paupers must share the management of public affairs with them is piling a very Pelion upon the Ossa of their misfortunes.

*And yet an official report, since published in the newspapers, shows that out of three thousand whites in Beaufort last winter, between twelve and fourteen hundred were applicants for the charity of Government rations. Out of about an equal number of negroes, less than four hundred were dependant on the Government! The secret of the disparity was, that the negroes took work when they could get it; the whites were “ladies and gentlemen,” and wouldn’t work……

My room-mate, the Doctor, appointed me a “deacon for special service”—even he had absorbed military ways of doing things from our neighbors—and I arranged for his preaching in Beaufort, Sunday morning. The people were more than glad to welcome him, and he had a big congregation, with a sprinkling of black fringe around its edges, to appreciate his really eloquent discourse; while the trees that nodded at the pulpit windows shook out strains of music, which the best-trained choristers could never execute, from the swelling throats of a whole army of mocking-birds. An old Ironsides-looking man, who had occupied an elder’s seat beside the pulpit, rose at the close, and said he little expected to have ever seen a day like this. Everybody started forward, anticipating a remonstrance against the strong Unionism and anti-slavery of the Doctor’s sermon, but instead there came a sweeping and enthusiastic indorsement of everything that had been said. He saw a better day at hand, the old man said, and rejoiced in the brightness of its coming. How many an old man, like him, may have been waiting through all these weary years for the same glad day!

At other times there were fishing parties which caught no fish, though General Sherman sent t hem over enough fine ocean trout to enable them to make a splendid show on their return; and riding parties that got no rides, but trudged through the sand on foot, to the great delectation of the artist who sketched, con amore, the figures of gentlemen struggling up a sandy hill, eyes and ears and mouth full, hands clapped on hat to secure its tenure, and coat tails manifesting strong tendencies to secede bodily, while in the distance, small and indistinct, could be perceived the ambulance that couldn’t be made to go, and underneath was written the touching inscription, “How Captain Merryman and Mr. R. accepted Mrs. W.’s invitation, and took a ride on the beach at Fort Macon.”

At last the gale subsided a little, and we got off. Another salute was fired as we steamed out; the “Wayanda” returned a single shot in acknowledgment, and all soon we were among the breakers, pitching and writhing, for and aft, starboard and larboard, diagonally crosswise and backward, up to the sky and down, till the waves poured over the deck, and the masts seemed inclined to give the flags and streamers at their tops a bath. But for some of us, at least, the seasickness was gone. Io Triumpe!

After the War: a Southern Tour: May 1, 1865 to May 1, 1866
by Whitelaw Reid ▪ Published 1866 ▪ Chapter III-IV, Pages 22-36.

Back to Beaufort - The Town and Why It's Unique

Ward-Hancock House circa 1789

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2002 Painting by Beaufort Artist Mary Warshaw

The acreage on which this house was built was first owned by Farnifold Green, followed by Robert Turner and Richard Rustull.

1733 Moseley Map noted "R Rustul" NE of Town

In 1720, Richard Rustull Sr. (1669-1761) purchased 780 acres between the North and Newport Rivers from Robert Turner, who had the patent transferred to him in 1713 by Farnifold Green. An approximate 100-acre portion of Rustull's purchase had been laid out in 1713 and named Beaufort. As required by the 1723 act of incorporation, Rustull increased the size of the town to 200 acres. In December, 1725, Richard Rustull sold the 200 acres, which included both the old and new sections of the town, to Nathaniel Taylor of Carteret Precinct for £160 sterling. (Carteret Deed Books) Rustull retained the rest of the 780 acres which he had purchased from Robert Turner five years earlier and continued to live just outside of the town. (Charles Paul, Colonial Beaufort) The acreage retained by Rustull, at that time, amounted to about 580 acres.

Land Passed Down Over the Years

Richard Rustull Sr.’s 1760 Last Will & Testament left his acreage to his grandchildren Mary and John Rustull, children of Richard Rustull Jr. who died in 1747:
"I Give, Devise, and Bequeath the Remainder and Residue of my Estate Both Reall and personall to Be Equally divided Between my two Grand Children John Rustull and Mary Kirtland. I would have the above Legacy Distributed at the Discretion of my Executors hereafter Nominated . . ."

In 1787, Mary [Rustull Kirtland] West sold 125 acres to Benjamin Cheney “…adjoining Mary West to Didrick Gibble on one side and lands of Elizabeth Tomlinson, Wm. Owens, Charles Gentry and Joshua Thorp on the other side..." (Deed Bk L, pg 89)

On September 28, 1783 Thomas Ward married Martha Gibbs in Craven County. Their son James Ward (1797-1880), who married Frances E. Tarbox, was the father of Martha Gibbs Ward Hancock, who later married Robert Hancock. By the 1790 census, Thomas Ward had moved to Carteret County.

On June 1, 1796, Benjamin Cheney sold acreage and premises to Thomas Ward "...on the south side of a small Creek called Town Creek beginning at The plan where Joseph Fulford's ditch empties itself into the run of said Creek running with said ditch S 27 W 59 poles to a poplar at the ditch side John Chadwick bounds then with said Chadwick line N 2 W 40 poles to the main road then with the road sixteen poles to the creek at the town bridge and then up the various courses of the run of said Creek to the beginning containing Fifteen acres together with all and singular premises..." (Deed Bk N pg 154) This is the only deed that actually mentions a premises or track of land including a building or buildings. Therefore, the house was most likely built between 1783 and 1796.

2002 Painting by Mary Warshaw

Thomas Ward gave the house to his granddaughter Martha Gibbs Ward after her marriage to Robert Hancock on May 2, 1854.

Laura Duncan Davis Piner (1931-2002), granddaughter of Sterling Price Hancock and Sallie Gertrude Davis, wrote, “Sterling Price Hancock was born November 7, 1861, just outside of Beaufort in the Ward-Hancock House, which was then located in Simpson Field...” (Heritage of Carteret County)

Other children born in the house to farmer Robert Hancock (1828-1864) and wife Martha G. Ward (1836-1920) were Lawrence, Sallie Christine, James Robert and Martha Gibbs Hancock.

In the 1860 census of Beaufort Township, three children had been born. Next door or nearby were James and Frances Ward, parents of Martha Gibbs Ward Hancock.

Robert Hancock died in 1864, perhaps due to his injury during the Civil War. (Mustered out on Nov 22, 1862 received a disability discharge.) By the 1870 census, Martha G. Ward Hancock had married John Fulcher. In their household were: farmer John Fulcher 42, Martha 34, Lawrence Hancock 14, Sallie Hancock 12, James R. Hancock 10, Sterling P. Hancock 8, and six-year-old Martha Hancock.

Hancock Children

Lawrence Hancock was born in 1856.

Sallie Christine Hancock was born in 1858 and died July 22, 1925 in Halifax, North Carolina. In 1879, Sallie married Charles Roberson Hassell (1848-1930) of Tyrrell County, North Carolina. Their children were: Laurence Ward Hassell (1880-1954) and Mattie Blanchard Hassell (1885-1965).

James Robert Hancock (15 March 1860-5 March 1928) married Martha Ruffin Mason (1855-1925). James, a fisherman and house carpenter, lived in Straits and Morehead City until moving back to the old home place after 1920, perhaps after the death of his wife in 1925 and the death of his brother Sterling in 1926. Laura Davis Piner wrote, “it [the Ward-Hancock] was last occupied by Sterling’s older brother James. The house was moved in the 1940s and is the property of Jack Ricks...”

Martha Gibbs “Mattie” Hancock, born in 1864, married William Malachi King in 1884.

Sterling Price Hancock (1861-1926): Born in the Ward-Hancock, in the 1880 census, Sterling Price Hancock 17 was living with his 83-year-old grandfather James Ward (most likely in the Ward-Hancock house). Others in farmer James Ward’s household were Sterling’s brother James and his sister Martha. John T. Fulcher 49, wife Martha G. 44, and six-year-old Blanch Fulcher were living next door or nearby. In 1893 Sterling opened a grocery business at 421 Front Street. Three years later he became sheriff and tax collector of Carteret County and served until 1916.

By 1900 Merchant Sterling Hancock 36 was living alone near Charles Clawson and Thomas Duncan. On November 22, 1904, Sterling married Sallie Gertrude Davis (1878-1944), daughter of James Chadwick Davis (1837-1904) and Laura Gertrude Duncan (1853-1937). From that time, Sterling and family lived at 301 Ann Street, but evidently kept the old home place.

Preservation

To save the house from demolition in the 1940s, Jack Ricks purchased and moved the house to the corner of Third Street and Ricks Drive.

In 1989 Maurice Davis bought the home and began its restoration. After his death in 1993, it was purchased by John and Virginia Costlow, who continued Davis' efforts. The Costlows preserved and converted the dwelling into a museum of early construction.

When the upkeep became too much for Ginny and John Costlow to maintain, the Beaufort Woman’s Club approached them with a plan to purchase the house and donate it to the North Carolina Maritime Museum. The Ward-Hancock was moved to the museum’s Gallants Channel Annex on March 4, 2010.

A summer 2011 field study, Early Domestic Architecture in Beaufort, North Carolina and Virginia, conducted by Carl Lounsbury, noted “A date of ‘c.1726’ is painted on a plaque on the front porch, but it was most likely constructed at a much later date, most probably in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, as the evidence suggests."

Original Location and Moves

Contemporary Aerial View

An older map showing a more accurate location of the original house (left star) on a
then much larger "Town Creek." The red star to the right shows
the house location on 3rd Street before it was moved to Gallants Channel.

Two William Bordens—Ship Builders and Colonial Leaders

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William Borden 1689-1749

William Borden was born in Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island, August 15, 1689. He was the son of Mary Walker Earle and John Borden (1640–1716) and grandson of Richard Borden (1595–1691), the emigrant.

At the Friends Meeting House in Newport, RI, July 7, 1715, William Borden married Alice Tiddeman Hull (1693–1730), daughter of William Hull Esq. of Jamestown, Rhode Island.

In Historical and Genealogical Record of the Descendants, as Far as is Known, of Richard and Joan Borden Who Settled in Portmouth, RI in 1638, published in 1899, Hattie Borden Weld recorded, "William Borden early engaged in the construction of vessels at Newport and procured his lumber and plank from Tiverton, making his home for months together at the house of his brother, Richard, about two and one-half miles south of Fall River. And the tradition in his family is that his son William was born in Tiverton. There is an entry in the old family Bible of this son, made by himself, stating that ‘he was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island.’"

Weld continued, "After some years spent in this employment, feeling more and more the necessity of a constant supply of duck for sails, he turned his attention to this also as a necessary branch of his business, and having collected what information he could on the subject, he concluded that the manufacture of duck in this country was practicable as well as desirable, and determined, if the necessary funds could be procured, to carry on the work, to commence the undertaking. The novelty of the thing itself, the wants of the shipping interest, and the credit of introducing a new branch of domestic industry and thus saving at home large sums which then were sent abroad for duck, all pressed heavily upon his mind and urged him to engage in the enterprise."

In the Colonial Records Project, NC Office of Archives & History, editor Jan-Michael Poff notes in the introduction to An Address to the Inhabitants of North Carolina by William Borden, "Seeing the scarcity of duck cloth, necessary for the manufacture of sails, William Borden became interested in its production, for which the growing of hemp was also essential. The Rhode Island Assembly was invoked for assistance and in 1721 that body enacted the first of a series of statutes designed to stimulate the growing of hemp and flax. In August of the following year Borden was granted a bounty for five years, to the exclusion of all other persons, of 20s. per bolt for every bolt of duck he should manufacture equal in quality to Holland duck; in October the period of the bounty was lengthened to ten years. Nor was this all; in 1724 he applied for and received a loan of £100 for one year to aid in financing his enterprise. In 1725 another loan of £500 for three years was granted, and in 1728 a much larger sum, £3,000, to run ten years, was also granted on condition that 150 bolts of duck be produced annually. In 1731 the exclusive bounty was renewed and the requirement to produce 150 bolts per annum waived, and in 1736 the ten-year loan was extended to 1746.

"Between the lines of this legislation one may readily infer that there were difficulties in the manufacture of duck, and such was the case. Skilled labor was scarce and raw materials were not produced in sufficient quantity. The enterprise did not prosper and in 1732 William Borden disposed of his business and removed to North Carolina."

Weld noted, "Mr. Borden settled at Core Sound on a river which he gave the name of Newport River, in remembrance of the town from which he had emigrated. Here at a point near Beaufort he formed a settlement and soon commenced building vessels for his friends and customers at the North. He soon became extensively known, both north and south, as William Borden, the ship builder. He was the pioneer in this business at the south, and employed a large number of men from Rhode Island in the winter season, lumbering and building vessels, year after year, most of them returning before the heat of summer had become oppressive. By patient, persevering industry, Mr. Borden accumulated a sufficiency for himself and family."

1798 NC Survey Map Notes Borden Mill

William Borden, Sr. actually settled his family on the west side of Harlowe Creek which flows into the north side of Newport River—known as the Mill Creek area—where they built a shipyard and sawmill. Sixteen years later, the list of taxables for the whole county numbered only 320. (1)

The first Quaker meeting in Carteret County was organized on August 1, 1733, at the home of William Borden. The meeting was to be held the first “third day,” or Tuesday, of each month for “time to come” and the Sunday prior to the meeting was set aside as the representative meeting to be held at the home of Henry Stanton. In 1736, Nicolas Briant gave the Quakers some land a few miles north of Beaufort on which they build the Core Sound Meeting House and Friends from Rhode Island sent “60 pounds Rhoadisland money” toward its construction. The Pasquotank Monthly Meeting designated Core Sound as a Monthly Meeting the same year. Henry Stanton donated two adjacent acres for pasture in 1737. (2)

William Borden was a prominent citizen in Carteret County, eventually becoming the largest land owner. He became very active in public affairs and bought a great deal of property including land on Bogue Banks. On North Carolina’s first survey map in 1798, this barrier island was noted as “Borden’s Banks.”

1798 NC Survey Map Notes "Borden's Banks"

Among the public questions of the day, Borden was keenly interested in the currency. This is the subject of his Address to the People of North Carolina. He also wrote An Address to the Burgesses of North Carolina (1746). These documents are part of The Colonial Records Project, NC Office of Archives & History. In the introduction to these online documents, Editor Jan-Michael Poff notes, "Whatever criticisms one may make of the soundness of William Borden’s plan for a sound currency, it must be conceded that he had at heart the welfare of North Carolina, that he had no sympathy with existing monetary policies, and that his remedy for the adverse trade balance was ingenious. Finally, in a day and generation when government money was greatly depreciated, the due bills issued by William Borden were widely circulated and were known as ‘Borden’s Scrip.'"

Borden was elected to the Assembly, session of February, 1746/7. When the Assembly organized he declined to take the oath required of members, and requested that his affirmation be accepted. This was refused, and he did not take his seat. He died two years later, leaving a son, William, and four daughters, Alice, Catherine, Hope and Hannah.

1863 Sketch by Herbert E. Valentine (4) - Bogue Banks was known for a while as Borden's Banks.

William Borden Jr. 1731-1799

William Borden Jr., born February 6, 1731, inherited the “dwelling house and manor plantation” with all the old patent land and 800 acres to be laid out at Harlowe Creek. Borden Sr. left many acres of land on Borden Banks to be divided among his children and grandchildren.

On July 3, 1754, William Borden Jr. (1731–1799) married widow Comfort (Lovett) Small (1731-1809) of Carteret County.

William Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps and became prominent in town, county and colonial affairs. In 1765 records show that “a good Quaker” near Beaufort distilled turpentine and made other naval stores. He also continued the family shipbuilding business—becoming a leader of that industry in Carteret County.

His Front Street Beaufort home, the WILLIAM BORDEN HOUSE circa 1768, originally only one-room deep, could have been built years earlier. According to research by historian Jean Kell, William Borden Jr. purchased lot #24 at the corner of Front and Orange Streets in 1768; this property was “next to lot #23 where my house now stands.”

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Following the writing of the Declaration of Independence, the Fifth Provincial Congress met in Halifax, North Carolina on November 12, 1776. William Borden, Jr. was selected as a delegate from Carteret County. Other delegates from Carteret County were Solomon Shepard, Brice Williams, John Easton and Thomas Chadwick. During that season the Bill of Rights was adopted—December 15, 1776.

The Order of the Day being read, the House proceeded to take under further consideration the Form of a Constitution to this State, when the same was read Paragraph by Paragraph, amended, passed, and ordered to be engrossed.
Resolved, That a fair and correct copy of the said Constitution and Bill of Rights, and signed by the President and Secretary, be transmitted to Mr James Davis, Printer of this State, with directions that he do immediately print and distribute a number of copies to each county in this State. (3)

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Original Letter - NC Archives & History

WM. BORDEN TO THE COUNCIL & GOV. CASWELL.
[From Executive Letter Book.]

October 2d, 1777

Respected friends, to Governor and Council, after kind and hearty respects to you all, be pleased to order your Commissioners of the salt works at Core's Sound, to deliver me a little salt for the use of the Company there, as they are obliged to live mostly upon fresh provisions, they cannot do without salt. It has taken considerable to serve them already, and I expect it will take a great deal more, in so doing you will greatly oblige your assured friend.

WILLIAM BORDEN

Please set a price on the salt.

Postscrip

If the Governor & Council with the Assembly should think proper to take the salt works when offered to you, as I understand it is intended to be, and shall want a man to undertake to carry it on for the public, I offer myself to serve you, in that case believing myself to be quite capable to carry them on. Living very handy and quite convenient for that purpose. To conclude.

Your assured friend,

WILLIAM BORDEN

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From April 4–17, 1782, Loyalists, with a fleet lurking around Shackelford and Borden’s Banks, “skirmished” in and around the Beaufort area and at one time threatened to destroy the town. During the Loyalist advance, William Borden’s plantation and mill were burned and his slaves taken prisoner. When driven away by the Patriots, Loyalists released whalers and other prisoners but retained Mr. Borden’s slaves.

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Delegates from Carteret County to the NC state convention to ratify the United States Constitution in Hillsborough July 21–August 4, 1788 were: William Borden, Thomas Borden Jr., William Sheppard, Willis Styron and David Wallace.

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William Borden died November 2, 1799, less than two months before the death of General George Washington. He was buried in a cemetery at Core Sound, Carteret County, NC. He left his wife Comfort Lovett (1731-1809) and six children: four sons, John, who died at age 18 years; William (1762-1843) born in Beaufort, married Ann DeLaney; Benjamin* (1764-1825) born in Beaufort, married first Nancy Wallace, and second, Rebecca Staunton; and Joseph** (1769-1825) who married Mrs Esther Wallace Easton; and two daughters, Alice (-1834) born in Beaufort, married Colonel David Ward; and Hope (1774-1850) who married Asa Hatch of Jones County, NC.

*Weld wrote, "It was this Benjamin to whom his half-free slave 'Hycen' wished to sell back the free half. Hycen was a good deal of a sailor, and hired his time from his old master, Ben, for some years, and ran on his own account a small schooner up the Neuse River as far as New Berne, then the principal town of eastern North Carolina. From the profits of this schooner venture, Hycen bought a half interest in himself, still hiring of his master the other half. Not long after Hycen became half owner of himself, his schooner was caught in a violent squall at the mouth of Neuse River, which is there a wide estuary of the ocean, and he and his assistant (who constituted his crew) came very near going to the bottom. Hycen was profoundly affected, and when he reached port tied up his schooner, and went off to see his old master. After telling of his great peril and narrow escape, he said: 'Marse Ben, I want to sell my half back--nigger property is poor property.'"

** Weld wrote, "Joseph (1769-1825) was a Quaker, and late in his life set free all of his slaves except such as were entailed to his children. These he felt he had no right to set free. So though he divided a large landed estate to his heirs, he gave them no slaves. He made out his will April 4, 1823, and that will shows the most conscientious effort to divide his property fairly and equally among his children. By said will, he divided his large landed estate to his seven sons for life, specifying the tracts each son was to take--remainder over to the children of each son in equal parts. To his own daughter he gave money and bank stock; but gave her no land.

"Joseph married in 1795 Esther, widow of Capt. John Easton. Her maiden name was Esther Wallace, and she was a daughter of David Wallace and Mary Willis. David Wallace was the son of Robert Wallace and Esther West, whom he married in the Island of Guernsey about 1700. Robert Wallace was the son of a brother of Sir James Wallace, a colonel in the British army, whose estate lay in Argyleshire, Scotland, and was confiscated by the English government on account of his opinions, and his devotion to the Presbyterian side about the reign of Jame II. Robert Wallace was a surveyor and came to Virginia with Sir George Pollock about 1700.

"Joseph was born at the residence of his father on Newport River, May 5, 1769 and married Esther Wallace June 16, 1796. Joseph had been deprived of the advantages of a good education, owing to the disturbed state of the country during the Revolutionary War. He was, however, endowed by nature with good natural abilities, and a discriminating mind, which well qualified him for the performance of the various duties of life; and his diligent attention to business and persevering energy in whatever he undertook supplied in a great measure the deficiency of his early education. He settled upon the estate his father had occupied. But in consequence of the destruction of his father's improvements by the British, he was compelled to begin life with very limited means, and, necessarily, had to endure the hardships and privations incident to a country comparatively new, and then just recovering from the ravages of war.....he died at the old mansion house January 6, 1825 and was interred by the side of his father, near the old Friends' Meeting House."

1) In 1737 John Brickell, writing in his Natural History of North-Carolina, described Beaufort as a town with a pleasant prospect, but it was “small and thinly inhabited.” Even as late as 1748, the year after the town had been captured and occupied for a brief period by a band of Spanish privateers, the list of taxables for the whole county numbered only 320. Approximately one-tenth of these lived in Beaufort which would set the number of taxables at only 32 in that year. Charles L. Paul, Colonial Beaufort 1965

2) NC Highway Historical Marker Program essay; ID: C-35, CORE SOUND MEETING, Location: NC 101 southeast of Harlowe, Carteret County

3) Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, November 12, 1776–December 23, 1776.

4) Herbert E. Valentine Collection, Special Collections Department, Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

April 1782

2011-07-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

Two weeks during the American Revolution
Account posted by J.D. Lewis at carolana.com

1798 Map . Jonathan Price . First NC Survey . NC Map Collection

On April 3rd, a group of whalers on the Shackelford Banks were resting in the sun when they saw a ship and two schooners enter Cape Harbor. A small boat was sent to the whalers and the captain of the crew told them that he was from New England. He explained that the other ships were his prizes that he had taken. He wanted to pass through Old Topsail Inlet to the port of Beaufort. The locals advised him to wait until high tide the next morning.

The next day the ships approached the bar and were guided across by the whalers, however no landing boats were launched. The townspeople sent out several boats, but none returned. Capt. Dederick Gibble went out to investigate, but he did not return either.

The mysterious ships were actually a secret expedition that had been organized by Maj. Andrew Deveaux in Charlestown, South Carolina. Deveaux had taken captured ships and loaded them with Loyalist militia to go up and down the coast foraging. His teams had raided Beaufort, South Carolina a month earlier.

Capt. William Dennis hurried to Col. John Easton's plantation. Easton had been with Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene and had only recently returned with his Carteret County Regiment of Militia. Col. Easton dispatched riders throughout the county and gathered what men he could find at home. He armed them with the guns turned over to him when his companies had disbanded.

It was dark when Col. Easton and eight men began to patrol the local shoreline. They heard the sound of approaching boats going to the mouth of Taylor's Creek. His patrol headed for a Patriot sentry that was posted there.

The officer of the mysterious landing party tried to convince the Patriot sentry that they were on the same side. Col. Easton heard the deceptive speech and yelled out for the sentry and his men to shoot. The scattered shots were returned by heavy fire from the intruders. The Loyalists retreated a half mile to the east on Carrot Island and tried to ford a creek where another Patriot sentry was already posted.

The shots from the sentry alarmed Col. Easton, and he rushed up with four men - they spotted the foraging party, and he ordered his men to fire. They wounded the commander of the Loyalist force, Maj. Isaac Stuart, in the hand. A private was mortally wounded and he died the next day. One Patriot had been slightly wounded in the thigh. The larger Loyalist force advanced and drove the Patriots back to the town battery. The battery held six 6-pounders manned by Capt. William Dennis and three men without weapons.

Two more Patriots arrived and asserted that the Loyalists were assembling behind Capt. Gibbon's house. Capt. Gibbon had mounted a pair of 4-pounders on his piazza and he would fire them off when he was drunk, which apparently was rather frequent. This day, however, they were silent. Capt. Singletary headed towards the battery, but as he reached Gibbon's house the Loyalists seized him.

Col. Easton saw this and ordered the 6-pounders in the battery to fire upon Gibbon's house. He also noticed that more boats were coming from the Loyalist ships and landing in town. He and his men were soon to be outnumbered and surrounded. At 4:30 pm, he ordered his men to withdraw a half mile from town. On the way, they captured two Loyalists loaded down with plunder. Col. Easton then set up his new post at the town bridge.

At two o'clock in the morning, Col. Enoch Ward arrived with twenty Patriots. Some women arrived and told of the Loyalists entering homes, taking furniture, smashing pieces too large to move, slitting open feather beds, grabbing women, tearing their clothes from them, and searching petticoat pockets.

On the morning of April 6th, Col. Easton ordered the Bogue Company and the White Oak Company to remain on the west side of the Newport River to prevent the enemy from destroying the public granary. Thirteen men were posted on Harker's Island to guard the storehouses and to observe the Loyalists.

A message arrived from Capt. William Bull, who was being held prisoner on board the Loyalist privateer Peacock. Bull wrote that the commander of the fleet, D. McLean, asserted that he did not want to destroy the town and that he only wished to exchange prisoners. Col. Easton replied that he would meet for an exchange. The Loyalists were unwilling to release some of the townsfolk who had been captured when they rowed out to greet the ships. Col. Easton did not agree and the negotiations failed.

More militia began arriving and they were ordered out to reconnoiter the situation. Capt. Thomas Nixon arrived with thirty horsemen. Lt. Col. James Cole Mountflorence arrived and informed Col. Easton that the enemy was moving plunder to their ships. When the Loyalists attempted to land at Harker's Island, the pre-positioned Patriot sentries drove them off.

Capt. Daniel Foot took twelve men in two boats and tried to intercept the Loyalist boats ferrying their plunder. The enemy noticed the build-up of Patriot forces and fired a 6-pound ball into the camp. The Loyalists sent a large force to the schoolhouse and set it afire, but were driven back by Col. Enoch Ward, who had just arrived with twenty more men.

During the Loyalist advance, William Borden's plantation and mill were burned and his slaves carried away. Maj. Eli West and his two companies on the west side of the North River surprised two boatloads of Loyalists who were plundering a nearby home. He took three prisoners and wounded six of the enemy, including an officer.

This prompted the Loyalists to threaten to destroy the entire town of Beaufort. Col. Easton then agreed to another discussion. During this round of negotiations, the Loyalists claimed that they were the "6th Grenadiers" of the British Regulars. Col. Easton agreed on an exchange of prisoners and he returned all the Loyalists.

However, the Loyalists did not fulfill their part of the agreement. They did not release the whalers, a number of townsmen, and the slaves belonging to William Borden. But, they did evacuate the town.

Col. Easton and some of his men returned to the battery and found three guns dismounted, one broken, and the rest spiked and filled with shot. These were cleaned out and ready for firing by the next day.

At midnight, Capt. Christopher Neale and Capt. Maston of Craven County arrived with forty men. In the morning, Capt. Daniel Foot arrived with another 50 men. As soon as day broke the battery began firing on the sloop, which was getting underway. The enemy ships returned fire and bombarded the town, but no one was injured.

Col. Easton ordered Capt. Daniel Foot and Capt. John Fulford to Shackelford Banks to prevent the Loyalists from getting any drinking water. At nine o'clock that night, the Loyalists set fire to their sloop, and destroyed a quantity of naval stores and provisions that they were unable to remove.

On April 12th, another ship and a schooner joined the Loyalist fleet at Borden's Bank. A landing party seeking water at Shackelford's Banks found the Patriots posted their earlier by Col. Easton. Capt. Fulford and Capt. Foot killed and wounded a number of the Loyalists and destroyed their water casks, and this endeavor was abandoned.

On the morning of April 13th, a group of townspeople inspected the burned remains of the enemy's sloop and they retrieved a 3-pound cannon.

On the morning of April 14th, an American sloop sailed into the harbor. The locals tried to signal the sloop and let it known that the other ships were of the enemy, but to no avail. The Loyalists captured it.

The next day, the lookout in Beaufort reported that the Loyalists were landing men on Borden's Bank to find drinking water. Col. Easton dispatched some men to intercept the watering party, but when the Loyalists saw the militiamen coming they withdrew to their ships without obtaining any water.

The townspeople were determined to destroy the Loyalist's vessels, so they constructed a few fire rafts. These were loaded with tinder, pine knots, straw, and tar. That night they set them afire and sent them on the falling tide towards the enemy vessels. The rafts slowly drifted towards the Loyalist ships but at the last minute the wind changed and they were driven onto the beach where they burned out. Even though a failure, the Loyalists had become greatly alarmed.

On April 16th, the Loyalists made preparations to sail, but the wind was against them. They remained until the next day, when they weighed anchor and sailed over the bar. The town battery fired five shots at them as they approached the inlet. When they passed over the bar, the Loyalists released the whalers and the other prisoners, but they retained Mr. Borden's slaves.

The local militia had protected the granary, the salt works, and supplies in the warehouses on Harker's Island. Upon the Loyalists' departure, Maj. Gen. Nathanael Green ordered four ships with 250 men to the area for future protection.

Known Patriot Participants

Col. John Easton - Commanding Officer

Carteret County Regiment of Militia led by Col. John Easton, Col. Enoch Ward, Lt. Col. James Cole Mountflorence, and Maj. Eli West, with five (5) known companies, led by:
- Capt. William Dennis - 7 men
- Capt. Daniel Foot - 50 men
- Capt. John Fulford
- Capt. Dederick Gibble
- Capt. Thomas Nixon - 30 horsemen

Craven County Regiment of Militia detachment of 40 men in two (2) known companies, led by:
- Capt. Christopher Neale
- Capt. Maston

Artillery - Six 6-pounders

Known British/Loyalists Participants

Capt. D. McLean - Commanding Officer

Loyalist privateer Peacock - Capt. De. McLean

Three Schooners - Unknown captains

Sloop - Unknown Captain, with a 3-pound cannon

6th Grenadiers Loyalist Militia, led by Maj. Isaac Stuart, with two (2) known companies, led by:
- Capt. Alexander Stuart
- Capt. Charles Atkins

NOTE: This post is related to Capt. Charles Biddle's Time in Beaufort 1778-1780
In that post, Biddle gives a detailed account of Gibbons' "4-pounders on his piazza."

Effort to Tie NC Shipwreck to Pirate Blackbeard Advances

2011-06-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Effort to Tie NC Shipwreck to Blackbeard Advances

After examining thousands of artifacts and digging through historical data, maritime archaeologists have a verdict: A ship off North Carolina is all but certainly the Queen Anne's Revenge.

In the fall of 1996, a private treasure-hunting company discovered a shipwreck in shallow waters a mile off the coast of this colonial fishing harbor.

Divers found a bronze bell dated 1705, an English musketoon gun barrel, and 18th century cannons and cannon balls.

North Carolina's top marine archaeologists were pretty sure the wreck was the Queen Anne's Revenge, the cannon-heavy flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard that ran aground here in 1718. But being scientists, they used buzzkill qualifiers such as "believed to be" and "consistent with" to describe the wreck.

Now, after examining thousands of artifacts and digging through historical records, those same archaeologists have finally delivered a verdict:

The ship is very likely, just about dead sure, all but certain, no doubt the Queen Anne's Revenge. Pretty much.

"It's in the right place, from the right time, with a preponderance of circumstantial evidence that has become overwhelming," said David Moore, a sturdy, bearded nautical archaeologist who has spent 15 years diving the wreck.

No one has found "the smoking blunderbuss," said Jeffrey Crow, a historian with North Carolina's Office of Archives and History. But archaeological detective work has proved that every significant artifact — from swords to gold pieces to silver boot buckles to a diamond-encrusted wine glass — is dated before the 1718 wreck. That and other compelling evidence confirm that the ship can be none other than the Queen Anne's Revenge.

The two marine archaeologists who wrote the scholarly paper that has prompted the state to seal the deal on Blackbeard's 90-foot ship said, "It was the right-sized vessel, in the right place, at the right time, and with artifacts of the right period."

Perfect! But then they had to add this downer: "And often, with archaeology, that's as good as it gets."

Mark Wilde-Ramsing, deputy state archaeologist and head of the Queen Anne's Revenge project, wrote the paper with Charles Ewen of the anthropology faculty at East Carolina University. Although he has long believed the shipwreck is Blackbeard's, Wilde-Ramsing urged caution for years as the wreck was studied.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," he said.

The shipwreck paper, to be published next spring in the scholarly journal Historical Archaeology, now provides that level of proof, he said.

The Queen Anne's Revenge was originally a French slave ship named La Concorde. Blackbeard captured the vessel in the Caribbean in 1717, renamed it and armed it with fearsome cannons and swivel guns.

Blackbeard, variously known as Edouard or Edward Teach (or Tiche or Thatch), didn't leave many clues. After his flagship ran aground on a sandbar in the spring of 1718 at what is now called Beaufort Inlet, he and his pirate crew took their sweet time unloading the ship, leaving behind virtually nothing personal or proprietary — no diary, no letter, no engraved ring.

(Blackbeard's remains are certainly not available. In November 1718, his corpse was dumped at sea and his severed head mounted on a bowsprit after sailors dispatched by Virginia's governor killed him in a showdown near Ocracoke).

As the paper's authors note: "Short of a bell with La Concorde scratched out and Queen Anne's Revenge crudely chiseled over it, what would constitute proof positive?"

How about these artifacts:

• A brass coin weight bearing the bust of Queen Anne of England, cast during her reign (1702-1714).

• A wine glass decorated with diamonds and tiny embossed crowns, made to commemorate the 1714 coronation of Queen Anne's successor, King George I.

• A French hunting sword fragment featuring a bust that closely resembles King Louis XV, who claimed the French throne in 1715.

• A French-made urethral syringe for treating venereal diseases. A control mark showed that it was made in Paris between 1707 and 1715.

These and other discoveries helped rebut a 2005 International Journal of Nautical Archaeology article that accused the state of prematurely certifying the shipwreck as Blackbeard's. The article suggested "a strong tendency towards Ruling Theory, whereby researchers seem to shape evidence to fit a preconceived identification."

That unpleasantness is long forgotten as overflow crowds have jammed the Queen Anne's Revenge exhibit that opened June 11 at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, and as media coverage has fanned public fascination with all things pirate. It didn't hurt that Hollywood's latest installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean," featuring the Queen Anne's Revenge, is a summer blockbuster.

Only half the site has been excavated, Moore said. Just last month, a 3,000-pound anchor was brought to the surface.

It'll be a long while before all the wreck's estimated 750,000 artifacts — and perhaps the absolute, definitive, clinching proof of Blackbeard's flagship — are hauled up and carefully examined, Moore said.

How long?

Moore shrugged. "I'd say another 15 years."

LA Times - David Zucchino - June 19, 2011
Beaufort, N.C.

Quick Links:
QAR Anchor Hoisted to the Surface
Slideshow of Anchor Being Raised
QAR Discovery and Time Line
Queen Anne's Revenge Website
QAR Exhibit Video
QAR Anchor Recovery Video

Wreckage May Be That of "Crissie Wright"

2011-06-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Carteret News-Times, Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Cheryl Burke

1939 Post Office Mural by Simka Simkhovitch Portrays Crissie Wright

BEAUFORT — A nonprofit marine archaeology company here thinks it may have found a legendary shipwreck off Shackleford Banks.

Rob Smith, president of Surface Interval Dive Co., based in Beaufort, said he believes his company has found the three-masted schooner Crissie Wright, which ran aground and partially sank in shallow water off Shackleford Banks on Jan. 8, 1886, near the now-vanished community of Wade’s Shore. All but one of its crew perished in the wreck.

“I’d been looking for the wreck on and off for the last 12 years,” he said Tuesday. “Then in April we found a debris field. And on our last trip on May 29 our magnetometer started singing like Ethel Merman. Our readings showed a large wreck and it’s in the right location. I’m 85 percent sure it’s Crissie Wright.”

Mr. Smith said his company discovered the wreck largely because of information about the location of the Wade’s Shore graveyard, provided by archeological consultant Dave Moore, who is also the curator of nautical archaeology at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Historical records indicate the wreck was located due south of that graveyard.

Based on that information, SIDCO researchers found the large wreck where expected, just outside a surf line, about 8 to 10 feet below the surface and buried in sand.

Mr. Smith said he plans to have a partner salvage company assist with removing sand from the site and using diagnostic equipment to help confirm the wreck’s identity. He hopes that will take place during the summer.

Mr. Moore, who has done extensive research on Crissie Wright and is in the process of completing a research paper and book on her history, said it wouldn’t surprise him if the ship were indeed the Crissie Wright.

“When you compare all of the personal accounts and wreck accounts in papers and folklore, the wreck is in a high probability area,” Mr. Moore said. “All of the accounts agree on the ship’s location.”

Based on his research, which includes numerous newspaper clippings and other historical documents, Mr. Moore said Crissie Wright was a merchant schooner that was carrying a cargo of guano from Baltimore, Md., to Savannah, Georgia. It got caught in a bad storm off Cape Lookout and was trying to reach safer harbor near Beaufort, but couldn’t make it.

The ship made it close enough to shore that the seven-man crew, which had survived the partial sinking, could be seen by a crowd gathered on the beach. But seas were too rough for fishermen to reach them, and temperatures began to drop into the single digits.

Those on shore built bonfires in preparation of receiving the crewmembers, but it wasn’t until three days later that anyone could reach the ship.

During those few days, crewmembers, soaked and freezing, attempted to climb into the rigging to avoid being swept out to sea. At least three crewmembers either fell or were swept out to sea, and the others began freezing.

By the time rescuers reached the crew, they found only one survivor – and he was barely alive. He was under the rigid bodies of three other shipmates, all of them wrapped in a sail.

The three are buried in a common grave in the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort, and the story of Crissie Wright has become famous county folklore.

The scene of the wreck was immortalized in a mural in the former Beaufort Post Office and in a county saying related to frigid temperatures: “Cold as the night Crissie Wright went ashore.”

Mr. Moore said his research shows that indeed much of the nation was in a deep freeze during those fateful days, including Eastern North Carolina.

“One account says that in New Bern they had to rescue people from a rowboat because the river had iced up around them,” Mr. Moore said. “And nearly 200 ships wrecked along the Eastern Seaboard during that storm. It was huge.”

Mr. Moore said he has also located a surviving family member of a crewman who died during the tragic event.

As for Mr. Smith, he’s excited about finding the wreck, but is cautiously optimistic that it is Crissie Wright.

“I don’t normally jump to conclusions, but I’m pretty certain it is. Even if it’s not, it’s still a major wreck discovery.”

Crissie Wright
Jim Goodwin Models

Queen Anne's Revenge

2011-06-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

N.C. Stops Equivocating: It's Blackbeard's Boat
by Jay Price - Staff Writer
Raleigh News & Observer June 11, 2011
Published in: Health/Science

New Exhibit Opens at Beaufort's Maritime Museum

The state has quietly decided that the cannon-laden shipwreck just off Fort Macon is absolutely that of Blackbeard the pirate's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, ending 15 years of official uncertainty.

No more caveats, not in news releases, scholarly presentations by state archaeologists or on museum exhibits about the ship like that which opens today at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

"We have now changed our position, and we are quite categorically saying that it's Queen Anne's Revenge," said Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary for the Office of Archives and History of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, which oversees the efforts to recover and display the remains of the ship.

After so many years of historical research and the recovery and analysis of tens of thousands of artifacts, the body of evidence was overwhelming and convincing, said Crow, who had been one of the main voices urging caution against declaring a positive identification too early.

Crow said he had believed for years that it was Queen Anne's Revenge. Professionalism as a historian, though, dictated caution, despite arguments from supporters of the recovery project that not only was the evidence good enough, but that a firm identification would make it easier to win ongoing state funding for the effort.

Piecemeal funding

From the beginning, archaeologists on the project have had to piece together funding from a hodgepodge of sources. The legislature has never regularly funded their work, despite the huge tourism potential of such an old wreck even if the ship wasn't Blackbeard's, and despite the risk that a large storm could damage the site, which had been covered by a protective blanket of sand for much of its history.

The positive identification may make it easier to get private money needed to raise the rest of the ship and artifacts by the target date of late 2013 - $100,000 for each of the next three years. But the decision wasn't about money, Crow said, it was about overwhelming evidence.

Finally tipping the scales, he said, was the acceptance of a paper flatly declaring the identity of the wreck by the respected scholarly journal "Historical Archaeology." The paper, written by Mark Wilde-Ramsing, a deputy state archaeologist and head of the Queen Anne's Revenge project, and Charles Ewen of the anthropology faculty at East Carolina University, is expected to be published later this year or early in 2012.

It cited key facts such as the location, historical accounts, dates on various artifacts and dates and places of origin that can be extrapolated from others with known makers or periods of manufacture.

"In summary, historical, archaeological, and scientific research conducted on (the wreck) provides a large body of evidence upon which to make a case - a case beyond reasonable doubt - that the site represents the remains of Blackbeard's flagship," the paper concludes.

As in murder trials, Wilde-Ramsing said, sometimes there isn't direct proof, but the body of circumstantial evidence is so overwhelming that a jury can convict without any doubt.

Della Scott-Ireton, the associate editor of the historical journal who worked with the paper, and herself a maritime archaeologist, said it was convincing.

"They've been very conservative, and I think correctly so," Scott-Ireton said. "If they came out and made this kind of assertion too early and were proven wrong, there would be huge publicity."

Past equivocations

Queen Anne's Revenge, a captured French slave ship, was part of a four-vessel pirate flotilla when it ran aground in 1718 beside the inlet leading to Beaufort and was abandoned. The wreck was found a little more than a mile off the beach in 1996 by Intersal, a private research company.

The location precisely matched historical accounts of the grounding, and the ship appeared to be the right vintage and size and was armed to an unusual degree. And from the first, the artifacts brought up fit the origins of the ship, the crew and the places it was known to have visited.

Many of the state and university researchers studying the wreckage and helping bring it ashore have privately been convinced for more than a decade that they had the right ship.

But without direct proof, such as an artifact bearing the name of the ship, and no compelling reason to rush judgment, state officials insisted that official mentions of the project use the delicate and slightly awkward qualifier "the ship believed to be" before "Queen Anne's Revenge."

The identity of the ship seemed to grow shakier, at least in the public's mind, in 2005 when three maritime archaeologists, including the former conservator for the project, published a scholarly article arguing that the state was too eager to link the ship to Blackbeard, that the proof wasn't strong enough.

The researchers on the project kept on recovering and analyzing artifacts, thousands of them, and eventually the evidence was compelling enough, Wilde-Ramsing said.

No doubt in exhibit

The certainty of Queen Anne's Revenge is evident in the new exhibit that opens today at the N.C. Maritime Museum, just a couple of miles from the wreck site.

Few pirate artifacts have ever been recovered, and even the tiny exhibit the new one replaces helped the small museum pull in more than 200,000 visitors a year. The new one, which features about 300 artifacts and displays about pirate life and the science of the recovery project, is expected to draw even more.

And for those visitors, there will be no Caveats of the Caribbean, no wavering about the origins of what they're seeing. The sign over the exhibit is as direct as a point-blank musket shot: "Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge 1718."

Quick Links:
QAR Anchor Hoisted to the Surface
Slideshow of Anchor Being Raised
QAR Discovery and Time Line
Queen Anne's Revenge Website
QAR Exhibit Video
QAR Anchor Recovery Video
LA Times June 19, 2011