Blackbeard’s Lost Head opens on Blackbeard’s Point, which is a spit of land at the confluence of the Hampton River and Chesapeake Bay in Tidewater Virginia. It’s only a short sail (or motor) up the Hampton River from Blackbeard’s Point to the City of Hampton’s waterfront hotel and restaurant district.
Hampton in Blackbeard’s time was a very significant port, if not the most significant port in Virginia for traders, colonizers, and pirates. Hampton has the distinction of being the landing place for the first enslaved people from Africa to North America and then being instrumental in its destruction.
Today, Blackbeard’s Point is predominately a townhome development with a boat marina, including boat slips and a drydock area for scraping and sanding and varnishing. A popular restaurant overlooks boat slips and the Hampton River. The point has been bulkheaded, graded, and dredged to the point where nobody knows exactly where Blackbeard’s head was posted, but it was there. Passing ship logs from the early 18th century mention it time and again.
While the precise location of Blackbeard’s posted head is unknown, there is one thing that is indisputable. And that’s the location of the Herbert House built in the 1750s. And that’s because it is still there. The name is derived from the original builder and owner, Captain Thomas Herbert, a sea captain.
The Herbert House was beautifully restored just a few years ago with great fanfare and stands as the oldest house in Hampton, Virginia which is saying something, because Hampton is old. Real old. According to the city’s website, Hampton has been around since 1610, making it “the oldest English-speaking settlement in America.” I’m not sure what that means but suffice to say that Hampton has been around for a while.
Believe it or not, I grew up only 100 yards from the Herbert House and the general spot where Blackbeard’s head was put on a pike.
But the Herbert house was empty and falling apart in the 1970s when I was a kid. The marina itself wasn’t falling apart but it wasn’t for the well-heeled like it is today. All of which meant security was slack, and that meant our neighborhood gang could make it into the Herbert House undetected. I remember a secret bulkhead entry that had deteriorated to the point where skinny kids could slither into the basement. And then upstairs to the rest of the house. It was a spooky place, filled with dust covered, broken down furniture and household stuff – mostly grandma’s era. It didn’t matter that there were no muskets, swords or treasure chests, it was Blackbeard’s house as far as we were concerned. And you felt something. You really did. Even though the home was built a few years after the famous posting, we were certain that Captain Herbert had retrieved the skull and hid it somewhere in the 225-year-old house.
Visiting today, you will find an historic marker explaining the Blackbeard connection and the history of the Herbert House.
