School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

1713.

2. In 1713, Colonel Pollock was relieved of his office as Governor by the arrival of Charles Eden, with full powers from the Duke of Beaufort, who was then Palatine. Governor Eden was instructed by the Proprietors to discourage much expansion of the settlements. He became popular with a large portion of the people. He lived some years at Queen Annie's Creek, which town was called Edenton, as a compliment to him. He afterwards bought a place on Salmon Creek, in Bertie county, and dwelt there. This place is still known as "Eden House."

1715.

3. In 1715 the same Yemassee Indians who had so signally aided in the overthrow of the Tuscaroras, repeated, in South Carolina, the bloody work of their old enemies in Albemarle. They were aided by other tribes, and murdered many white people. The Indians in the Bath precinct also, taking advantage of the alarm caused by this outbreak in the southern province, raised the war cry and murdered several white people on the Pamlico plantations before they could be checked.

4. At the request of the Governor of South Carolina, Governor Eden immediately sent a strong force of both cavalry and infantry to aid the South Carolinians. Colonel Maurice Moore, who was the brother of Colonel James Moore, the late commander against the Tuscaroras, and had become a resident of Albemarle, was in command.

5. The oldest statutes of which we have copies were enacted in 1715, at the house of Captain Richard Sanderson, in Perquimans. Edward Moseley was Speaker of the House of Assembly and differed with Governor Eden in many matters of provincial policy. Through all his life as a public man he was intensely devoted to the interest of the colony; and though warmly attached to the English or Episcopal Church, was resolute in his advocacy of complete religious liberty. He formed a strong party of men, who regarded the Governor as simply the agent of the Lords Proprietors; and therefore, to be vigilantly watched and checked in any innovation upon established privileges.

6. There had been, for years, many crimes committed by pirates upon the ocean just along the North Carolina Coast. They sometimes extended their infamous practices to the sounds and rivers. One Edward Teach, who was also called "Black-Beard," was the chief of these bloody robbers. He had a fleet of armed vessels; the largest of which was called Queen Anne's Revenge. This formidable craft carried a crew of one hundred men, and forty cannon.

7. Edward Moseley and others were clamorous for the arrest and punishment of such horrid offenders against the law, and denounced Governor Eden as their accomplice. It was brought to the knowledge of Capt. Ellis Brand, who came in command of a British squadron in Hampton Roads, that Teach was to be found near Ocracoke.

8. Lieutenant Robert Maynard was ordered to go to that point and capture the outlaws. He found the pirates, who saluted him with so deadly a broadside that a large portion of the royal men were slain. Maynard unfortunately got his ship aground in the action, and his deck was terribly raked by his antagonists' fire. His case seemed well nigh hopeless, when he resorted to a stratagem. All of his men were ordered to go below, and soon the pirates saw nothing but dead men upon the deck. They hastened to board what they thought was another prize.

9. But Maynard and his men met them as they crowded upon the deck, and after a bloody struggle, captured nine men, who were the survivors of the prolonged and desperate conflict. Among these was a gigantic negro, who was on the point of blowing up the pirate vessel when arrested in his desperate purpose.