There is a commonly held belief that Thomas Tew, the pirate/ privateer
who died in 1695, flew a flag showing a hand holding a cutlass (see
image on my website- link below).  I am dubious about this but need to
know the source for this piece of misinformation.
Please note that I do not want an answer on the history of pirate
flags, only a specific answer to the question "What was the source of
the common belief that Thomas Tew flew a pirate flag consisting of a
hand and sword?".

I have posted some background information on Thomas Tew at
http://www.redflag.co.uk/thomtew.htm and there is plenty available
elsewhere on the web.

Narty --

David Cordingly's "Under the Black Flag" (1995) says in his chapter
"In Action Under the Pirate Flag" that:

"It is notable that most of the flags were red or red with stripes.
The hand and sword device used by Edmund Cook later appears on the
pirate flags of Thomas Tew and Christopher Moody, and is among several
symbols shown on an eighteenth-century illustration of the Barbary
corsairs' flags. "

Note that there's no footnote indicating the origin of his
information.  But Cordingly was a curator and head of exhibitions at
the National Maritime Museum, in Greenwich, England.  I'd recommend
writing him c/o his publisher Random House, as you've assembled quite
a bit of detail about Tew on your own website.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Thanks Omnivorous-ga for your most helpful comment.  I shall follow up that lead.