Colonel William Rhett moved to the Province of Carolina

Province of Carolina

The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...

 in 1698. He soon became successful and gained a high rank and social status as a colonial leader. In 1706 it was Rhett who commanded a flotilla that fought off

Charles Town expedition

The Charles Town expedition was a combined French and Spanish attempt under Captain Jacques Fefebvre to capture the capital of the English Province of Carolina, Charles Town during Queen Anne's War .Organized and funded primarily by the French and launched from Havana, Cuba, the...

 a Franco-Spanish attack on Charles Town

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

. He is perhaps best known for his capture

Battle of Cape Fear River

The Battle of Cape Fear River, or the Battle of the Sandbars, was fought in September of 1718 between a British naval expedition from South Carolina against the pirate ships of Stede Bonnet...

 of the infamous Stede Bonnet

Stede Bonnet

Stede Bonnet was an early 18th-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes called "the gentleman pirate" because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his...

, the so-called "gentleman pirate", but he missed out on capturing the more notorious Blackbeard

Blackbeard

Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....

. He soon acquired a sugar plantation and in 1716 had finished work on his new house, which still stands in its original location. It has been restored and is now privately owned.

A descendant was Robert Rhett

Robert Rhett

Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr. , was a United States secessionist politician from South Carolina.-Biography:...

.