Blackbeard Blackbeard Edward Teach or Edward Thatch ( – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before settling on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were
James Kelly (pirate) eventual execution on July 12, 1701. James Kelly (pirate) James Gilliam, also known as James Kelly, (died July 12, 1701) was an English pirate active in the Indian Ocean during the 1690s and was a longtime associate of Captain William Kidd. Prior to his association with Kidd, he sailed with George Raynor and Edward Davis aboard the "Batchelor's Delight." One of Kidd's earliest crew members, Gilliam was a participant in the mutiny on board the "Mocha" and the subsequent murder of Captain Edgecomb who was killed in his sleep. After taking command of the East Indiaman, Gilliam and the "Mocha",