Richard Hyde, III - Not Richard “the Pirate” Hyde

Lisa Roach Writes:

Managers of Richard “The Pirate” Hyde III:

This Richard Hyde cannot be the pirate Hyde based on the references in the NC Genealogical Society article - Richard the supposed pirate was living in the Chickasaw Nation in 1766 and died there in 1794, so a man who died in 1719 is not the same person. Please read:
Many have claimed that Richard Hyde (bef.1678-1719), or his father Richard Hyde (1647-1710) was a pirate with Blackbeard (who died in 1718) and that he was a licensed Indian trader. For this proposition, they quote from Adair’s History of the American Indians. Adair does not mention Richard Hyde. The passage reads – "The Muskohge lately clipt off the ears of two white men for supposed adultery. One had been a disciple of Black Beard, the pirate; and the other … was deputed by the whimsical war-governor of Georgia, to awe the traders of his despotic power." Other sources quote from a work that appeared in the North Carolina Genealogical Journal by R. A. Colbert. Colbert cites Adair and another work by Don Martini for the notion of a Richard Hyde the pirate. While R. A. Colbert does not assign birth or death dates to this supposed Hyde pirate, he does claim that Richard and his family lived on the Roanoke River in Northampton County, North Carolina, and operated a ferry at Hyde Island , which has led many to the belief that the pirate was Richard Hyde who was born in Surry County, Virginia, about 1678 or his father.
When we examine the Adair reference, we discover that the "disciple of Black Beard" mentioned by Adair cannot be the Richard Hyde who died in 1719, since his travelling companion was a deputy of the Georgia governor. The Georgia colony was created in 1732 and was governed by a group of trustees, including James Oglethorpe, who is regarded as Georgia’s first governor although he did not hold that title. So the tale told by Adair obviously occurred sometime after 1732 and more likely later as Adair did not arrive until 1735 and began living mostly among the Chickasaw in 1744.
Further, the Martini reference cited by R. A. Colbert does not claim that Richard (1678-1719) was the pirate. Martini lists Richard Hyde as a "hireling" of trader James Colbert and describes Richard Hide as follows: "Richard Hide, described as a former member of Blackbeard’s crew, died at Oldtown in the Chickasaw Nation about 1794." Martini's source for the man named Richard Hyde seems to be from the List of Traders and Packhorsemen in the Chickasaw Nation January 22d, 1766 in the records of the Colonial Office. The source for Martini's claim that Richard was "described as a former member of Blackbeard's crew" is still under investigation but may have been Adair's work.
From all of these records, we can deduce that Richard the supposed pirate was a packhorseman and not a licensed trader and that he was living and working in the Chickasaw Nation in 1766 and died there in 1794 at Oldtown. It is unlikely that such a person could have been an actual member of Blackbeard's crew unless he was a child or teenager when he was on the crew and lived well into his 90s.
If you want to read about a known Hyde pirate and whose story may be the origin of the Hyde Pirate Legend – see the story of Daniel Hyde in Dow, G. Francis., Edmonds, J. Henry. (1923). The pirates of the New England coast, 1630-1730. Salem, Mass.: Marine Research Society. Avail. on HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015032860093&view=....
Sources:

• Adair, J. The history of the American Indians: particularly those nations adjoining to the Missisippi [sic], East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia, containing an account of their origin, language, manners, religious and civil customs, laws, form of government, punishments, conduct in war and domestic life, their habits, diet, agriculture, manufactures, diseases and method of cure, and other particulars, sufficient to render it ... with a new map of the country referred to in the history. London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly .p144. Available on HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=aeu.ark:/13960/t0ft9d00g&amp....
• Colbert, R.A., James Logan Colbert of the Chickasaws, the Man and the Myth, The North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, Vol XX, No.2, May 1994, pp82-95.
• Martini, D. 'The Indian Chiefs of the Southwest: A Guide, 1750-1861', p. 93, c. 1991, out of print, check Worldcat for library locations.
• Jackson, Edwin L. "James Oglethorpe 1696-1785," The New Georgia Encyclopedia https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/ja.... Accessed 14 July 2022.
• Public Record Office, Colonial Office, Class 5, Number 67, (on binding "Plantations General") Digital image at https://www.okhistory.org/research/digital/foremantrans/foreman.lon... original record pg 85, pg 52 of the transcription, Oklahoma Historical Society website, accessed 17 Sept 2022.
• Oldtown in the Chickasaw Nation was near present day Tupelo, Mississippi. Cooke, Stephen R. "The Chickasaw Villages" https://www.thechickasawvillages.com/decades1760_1770.html. Accessed 14 July 2022.