In the summer of 1718 William Howard, one time quartermaster on Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was arrested in Virginia as a "vagrant seaman."
Reflecting his (and Blackbeard's) cozy relationship with North Carolina Governor Charles Eden, Eden's "very dear friend" John Holloway, "one of the chief lawyers" of Virginia, was retained to defend William Howard.
Accused of "not having the Fear of God before his Eyes nor Regarding the Allegiancy due to his Majesty nor the Just Obedience he Ow'd to the Laws of the Land," and associating himself "with one Edward Tach and other Wicked and desolute Persons" Howard was found guilty of "Pyracy and Robbery committed by him on the High Seas" and sentenced to be hanged by the neck.
Fortunately for William Howard (and his Ocracoke descendants!) the King's "Act of Grace" arrived in the Virginia Governor's office the night before Howard's scheduled execution, and he was released.
Our current Ocracoke Newsletter is an account of Infant & Childhood Mortality on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news072113.htm.