Pirate Bones Could Be In That Box, Author Says

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                                      Pirate bones could be in that box, author says



                        State rejects request for DNA test on 18th-century remains from Bath





 
JERRY ALLEGOOD
- Correspondent
NewObserver.com
May. 15, 2009
WASHINGTON,
N.C.

-- A Raleigh author is attempting to reopen the 274-year-old estate of a Beaufort County man he thinks was once a member of Blackbeard's pirate crew -- and whose bones may be stored in a box in Raleigh.

Kevin P. Duffus, a writer and filmmaker, says he needs access to the estate of Edward Salter, a landowner and merchant who died in 1735, to help confirm that the state has Salter's remains. With the backing of some of Salter's descendants, Duffus is seeking to have DNA testing done on bones that the state Office of State Archaeology recovered from a gravesite in Bath 23 years ago.

If the bones are Salter's, not only could they be given a proper burial, Duffus says, but they could help prove that at least one of Blackbeard's pirates was not executed in Williamsburg, Va., as popular history says. Duffus contends that Salter was a barrel maker who was forced to join the pirate's crew after being hijacked aboard a ship.

 But state officials opposed Duffus' petition to be named executor of Salter's estate, saying "mere speculation" about the identity of the remains does not justify reopening the estate. State officials said the state archaeologist is required by law to preserve human remains in state custody.

Last week, Martin Paramore, Beaufort County's Clerk of Court, sided with the state, dismissing Duffus' request. Paramore ruled that if the remains are those of Salter, then his next of kin have the authority over them.

Duffus says he will appeal. He says opening the estate and appointing an executor would help him and Salter's descendants press the state for the DNA testing needed to determine whether it indeed has his bones.

Brian Blount of Springfield, Mo., Salter's great-grandson times seven, and Blount's aunt, Joan Bass, testified at the hearing in support of Duffus' petition. Blount said the state had not responded to the family's efforts to identify the bones and have them properly buried.

Duffus said he and supporters want to work with the state and will establish a fund to pay for the DNA analysis, which he said would cost about $1,200.

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State archaeologist Steve Claggett said the state tried to determine the identity of the remains after they were discovered at a waterfront site near Bath Creek. "There was considerable publicity at the time," Claggett said.

Claggett agrees that historical research indicates that the remains could be those of Salter, the landowner and merchant. The basic aim of DNA testing, he said, is to identify ancestors, and this would not shed any light on whether Salter was the pirate.

He said several samples of DNA would need to be tested for a proper analysis.

Claggett said the state did not have the money to do the testing on the remains, which he estimated would cost several thousand dollars.

The remains were discovered in a crypt along Bath Creek during construction of a bulkhead by a phosphate mining company. According to Duffus, Edward Salter owned the land when he died.

An anthropologist at Wake Forest University concluded that the remains belonged to a man of European heritage who had performed repetitive manual labor during his lifetime using his right arm and shoulder. Archaeologists also determined that the construction of the crypt was typical of early-18th century methods and materials.

Research by Duffus and others indicated that cooper Edward Salter first appeared in the records of Bath when he purchased two lots in the town in October 1721. Additional property deeds and records reflect Salter's success as a cooper, merchant and planter. Over the next decade he purchased more than 4,000 acres of land, including a plantation and house on the west bank of Bath Creek.

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A pirates' captive



According to an official deposition held in the British Archives, a cooper named Edward Salter was forced into piracy aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge by Blackbeard on Dec. 5, 1717, near Puerto Rico. According to a warrant issued by George I, king of Great Britain, a common sailor named Edward Salter was among six men suspected of being members of Blackbeard's pirate crew and arrested in Bath in November 1718.

Traditional historical accounts have claimed that the men, along with nine wounded survivors of the fight between Lt. Robert Maynard of the British Royal Navy and Blackbeard at Ocracoke Inlet, were taken to Williamsburg for trial. Popular history has it that 13 of the 15 men, including Edward Salter, were convicted and executed.

However, there exists no official record that proves Edward Salter was executed. According to Duffus, three other names that appear in previously published historical accounts as having been hanged at Williamsburg also appear in Bath records following their reported executions: James Robins, John Martin and Joseph Brooks Jr.

Duffus described his contentions in a book published last year. He also claimed that Blackbeard was actually Edward Beard, the son of a Beaufort County landowner.

He said he and Salter's descendants hope to bury the remains.

"We don't believe he is at rest today," he said.



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