By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
Beaufort County’s newest Superior Court judge is scheduled to play a role this month in deciding the future resting place of the remains of a man believed to have been a member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew.
A hearing has been scheduled for Monday, Nov. 30, in Beaufort County Superior Court before Superior Court Judge Wayland J. Sermons Jr. to determine whether the estate of Edward Salter, who has been dead for more than 250 years, should be opened and a Raleigh researcher be appointed executor of the estate.
In addition to being Beaufort County’s newest judge, Sermons owns a home in Bath, also believed to be the home of the man whose estate will be before the court. And until his appointment to the bench, Sermons served as the attorney for the Town of Bath.
The hearing was scheduled after Waxhaw lawyer J. Erik Groves appealed the May ruling by Beaufort County Clerk of Court Marty Paramore denying the request to reopen Salter’s estate and appoint Raleigh researcher and author Kevin P. Duffus its executor.
Groves and Assistant Attorney General Karen A. Blum, representing the state in the dispute, refused to comment on the case.
According to court documents, Duffus wants to be Salter’s executor, in part, so that genetic testing can be done by East Carolina University on the skeletal remains, which are currently housed by the Office of State Archaeology in Raleigh and which he believes to be those of Salter.
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 of the man Duffus believes to be Salter ended up in Raleigh after what was then TexasGulf asked for permission to install a bulkhead on the west bank of Bath Creek. Archeological examinations before the work was done yielded the remains.
A later forensic examination by researchers at Wake Forest University showed that the individual was right handed, with “the right ulna being more robust than the left.” The skeleton was that of a man who had “significant and pronounced strength in the arms and upper body rather than the legs,” according to court filings. Duffus has speculated that these findings are consistent with those of a man who had worked as a barrel maker.
In its filings, the state opposes Duffus’ petition, saying it has a duty to conserve the remains permanently.
Lawyers for the state argue that Duffus’ “mere speculation” about the identity of the bones is not sufficient to reopen Salter’s estate and that, if the bones prove not to be those of Salter, the state would have no means of regaining custody of them and would lose a valuable archeological asset.
The state also maintains that the Unmarked Human Burial and Human Skeletal Remains Protection Act gives the state archeologist purview over the bones and that they should be “permanently curated according to standard museum procedures after adequate skeletal analysis.”
In May, a hearing was held before Paramore to consider a motion to reopen Salter’s estate and name Duffus 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.
In October, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution asking for genetic testing of the skeletal remains and, if the tests determine the remains are those of Salter, the resolution 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.
The Washington City Council is set to adopt a similar resolution at its meeting Monday night.