Introduction
Colonel William Rhett (4 September 1666 – 12 January 1723) was a British-born plantation owner in the Province of Carolina in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He arrived in America in 1694, accompanied by his wife Sarah. Rhett quickly became a prominent rice farmer and member of the South Carolina Assembly.
Rhett was colonel of the Provincial militia, receiver-general of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, surveyor, and comptroller of customs for Carolina and the Bahama Islands. He was also an active merchant captain, sailing the vessel Providence between the Carolinas and the Bahamas. In April 1699 the Providence was attacked by Dutch pirate Hendrick van Hoven (alias Captain Hyne or Hind):
- "...about the latter end of April last, one Capt. Hind, a notorious pirate and sea-rover, having lately got into a brigantine with a mixt company of Dutch, French and other people, came up with an English-built ship mounted with two and twenty guns called the Providence galley, under the command of Capt. William Rhett of Carolina, who made a very generous defence, but was outdone and taken by the said Pirate."
In 1706, Rhett commanded a flotilla which fought off a Franco-Spanish attack on Charles Town. In 1716 he provided two vessels to be fitted out as pirate hunters - the Henry and the Sea Nymph, each with eight guns and a crew of between 60 and 70 men. Rhett assumed the position of captain of this small flotilla and led it to victory in the 1718 Battle of Cape Fear River, capturing the infamous Stede Bonnet, the so-called "gentleman pirate." Bonnet escaped from jail with the help of local merchant and fellow pirate Richard Tookerman; he made it as far as Sullivan's Island before Rhett again captured him.
Rhett's house in Charleston, completed in 1716, still stands in its original location at 54 Hasell St., Charleston, South Carolina. It has been restored and is now privately owned.
A descendant was Robert Rhett.
Popular culture
- William Rhett is a minor character in Tim Powers' novel On Stranger Tides.
- Lars Arentz-Hansen plays William Rhett in the Starz TV series Black Sails.