Robert Maynard (19 September 1684 – 4 January 1751) was a captain in the British Royal Navy. As first lieutenant of the HMS Pearl, Maynard was responsible for the killing of the pirate Blackbeard off Ocracoke, North Carolina in 1718, making him a well-known British officer.
Biography[]
Robert Maynard was born in Kent, England on 19 September 1684, and he served in the British Royal Navy, becoming a lieutenant in 1707 . In 1716, he became first lieutenant aboard the sloop HMS Pearl, and Governor Alexander Spotswood gave Maynard command of the ships Ranger and Jane in 1718 with the goal of hunting down and slaying the pirate Blackbeard. On 22 November 1718, in the Battle of Ocracoke Inlet, Maynard and David Jenkins fired off a signal to alert other British ships to the pirates' presence on Ocracoke. Maynard had Blackbeard ambushed when he boarded his ship, and Blackbeard was killed. In 1739, Maynard was promoted to commander, and he became a captain in 1740. He died in 1751, and he was buried in Great Mongeham.