By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
An alleged pirate’s remains may be one step closer to returning to Beaufort County following action Monday night by the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners.
The commissioners voted unanimously to approve a resolution asking for genetic testing of the skeletal remains of a man believed to be Edward Salter, a Bath man who has been dead for more than 250 years. If the tests determine the remains are those of Salter, the resolution also seeks “the prompt and respectful return” of the remains from the N.C. Office of State Archeology to Beaufort County so they can be buried in the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Bath.
Meanwhile, Beaufort County economic development advocates hope to meet with N.C. Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle within the next 30 days to ask that the remains be turned over to East Carolina University’s Department of Anthropology for testing.
Tom Thompson, executive director of the Beaufort County Economic Development Commission, said transferring control of the remains from the state represents a moral issue as well as an economic development one for Beaufort County.
“The man asked for a decent burial,” said Thompson. “Whoever he is, the man deserves to be buried somewhere other than in a box in the Office of State Archeology.”
If the remains do turn out to be those of Salter and if he is buried in Bath, that would reinforce Beaufort County’s claim to Blackbeard and benefit local tourism, Thompson said.
“His would be the only grave of a known pirate anywhere in the world,” he said.
Citing colonial records and early deed conveyances, researcher and author Kevin P. Duffus believes that this same Edward Salter, a barrel maker who died in 1735, may have been a member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew who escaped the noose and returned to settle in Bath. Salter went on to become a warden of St. Thomas Parish and an assemblyman representing Beaufort County in 1731.
The bones ended up in Raleigh after what was then TexasGulf (now PCS Phosphate) asked for permission to install a bulkhead on the west bank of Bath Creek. Archeological examinations before the work was done yielded the remains. The state has argued that its only duty is to conserve the remains permanently.
In May, a hearing was held in Beaufort County Superior Court to consider a motion to reopen Salter’s estate and name Kevin P. Duffus, a Raleigh researcher and author, executor of the estate. Two of Salter’s descendants came from Missouri for the hearing to back Duffus’ motion but the petition was later denied.