Background
William Kidd, the son of a Calvinist minister, was born in Dundee, Scotland about 1645.
William Kidd, the son of a Calvinist minister, was born in Dundee, Scotland about 1645.
By 1690 Kidd had established himself as a ship-owner and sea-captain in New York. With the outbreak of war between France and England, following the accession of William of Orange, the English colonies were harassed by French privateers. Kidd had brought his ship into the king's service and was sent by General Codrington to join Captain Thomas Hewetson, with whom he fought in two engagements against the French; Hewetson later testified that Kidd was a "mighty man" in the West Indies. He had also rendered the colony useful services during the insurrection of Leisler and Milborne so that the Provincial Council, on April 18, 1691, appointed a committee to inform the House of Representatives of his many good services and to consider a suitable reward; on May 14 they voted him the sum of £150.
On May 25 Captains Kidd and Walkington were dispatched in pursuit of the French; later in the year the colony of Massachusetts commissioned Kidd to chase an enemy privateer from the coast. The East India Company in 1695 petitioned William III to send a man-of-war against the pirates in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, but, because of the war with France, none was available. The King determined that the necessary ship might be fitted out as a private undertaking and at the same time appointed Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, governor of New England (commissioned 1697), with special instructions to suppress piracy. In London Bellomont consulted Robert Livingston, prominent in New York affairs, about the undertaking against the pirates. Livingston then met Kidd who had been in London since August 1695, when he had given evidence before the Lords of Trade in a colonial election case, and introduced him to Bellomont. Articles of agreement were signed on October 10. Bellomont agreed to raise four-fifths of the necessary £6, 000 and to secure the necessary royal authorization; he was to receive four-fifths of the net profits, and if there were none was to be reimbursed to the amount of the original sum. Livingston agreed to post several bonds and Kidd accepted command of the expedition. In raising his share Bellomont secured as partners Edmund Harrison, Sir John Somers, the Earls of Orford and Romney, and the Duke of Shrewsbury; the names of the latter four were carefully concealed from public knowledge.
By the end of November Kidd had disposed of his brigantine, the Antegoa, and had secured the Adventure Galley, of 287 tons and thirty-four guns, which was launched in December. After several delays he sailed from Plymouth April 23, 1696, for New York. During the voyage Kidd captured a small French vessel; from this prize he secured £350, used in buying supplies. In New York he was forced to complete his crew; "many flockt to him from all parts, men of desperate fortunes and necessitous in expectation of getting vast treasure 'twill not be in Kidd's power to govern such a hord of men under no pay".
He sailed from New York on September 6, 1696, and by the middle of December was rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Kidd had told Bellomont that "he knew the pyrats hants so well, that he could sail directly to 'em", but now he avoided the eastern coast of Madagascar, infested by pirates, and headed for the western coast. By February he had reached the Comoro Islands, where one-third of his crew died of cholera and the Adventure Galley began to leak. It was almost a year since they had left London and not a penny had been earned, for the agreement was: no prizes, no pay, for either Kidd or his crew. It was now that Kidd, threatened by a mutinous crew, crossed the line of demarcation between a privateer and a pirate and determined to plunder the ships that he had been sent to protect. He unsuccessfully attacked the Mocha fleet in August, but did succeed in taking several small ships during September. His refusal to attack a Dutch ship the following month provoked a small mutiny, which later resulted in Kidd's striking one of his gunners with a bucket. From that injury the gunner died and Kidd definitely was embarked upon a career of crime.
On January 30, 1698, Kidd captured his richest prize, the Quedagh Merchant, an Armenian merchantman of between 400 and 500 tons, and sailed with her to Madagascar, where he arrived in May. Kidd then scuttled his own unseaworthy ship and took the Quedagh Merchant. He divided the booty among his crew, some of whom deserted to join Culliford, a notorious pirate. Kidd met and entered into friendly relations with both Culliford and Kelly, the very pirates that he had been sent to apprehend. In September 1698 he sailed from Madagascar, his ship richly laden with loot; at the end of April 1699 he anchored off Anguilla, in the West Indies, and discovered that he and his crew had been proclaimed pirates. From the time that Kidd had first sailed from London the depredations of the pirates upon English shipping had increased, and in August 1698 news came to London that Kidd had himself turned pirate. This caused wild rumors and a storm of protest against the lords who had subscribed funds for the enterprise. A general alarm was broadcast and a squadron sent in pursuit of Kidd. He determined to return to New England; he left the Quedagh Merchant at Hispaniola and sailed in the Antonio, which he had recently purchased.
Early in June he anchored in Oyster Bay and sent for Emmot, an old lawyer friend, through whom he communicated with Bellomont. He protested his innocence and offered to surrender himself if granted a pardon; after long negotiations Bellomont "wheedled" him into coming ashore by the promise of a pardon. Kidd landed in Boston July 2 and the following day appeared before Bellomont and the council; after several opportunities and several failures to produce a satisfactory record of his voyage he was imprisoned. He and his men were later shipped to London as prisoners. Kidd was privately examined by the Board of Admiralty on April 14, 1700, and was then sent to Newgate. The House of Commons, fearing the successful intervention of the powerful lords who had underwritten the expedition, had insisted that he should not be tried before the next session of Parliament. He languished in Newgate until March 27, 1701, before he was brought into the House of Commons and examined. Had he given evidence against the lords who had contributed to the venture, he might have been pardoned, but he proclaimed his innocence, was truculent, and, some accounts add, drunk. It was voted that he be given an ordinary trial.
On May 8 he was tried for the murder of William Moore, his gunner. The judge was patient and scrupulously fair; Kidd was found guilty upon clear and weighty evidence. The other indictments charged him with piracy against five separate vessels; in respect to two of these, Kidd said that he had been deprived of French passes which he had taken from them at the moment of capture. This was true; the prosecution concealed them and denied their existence, but, had they been produced, they could not have cleared him. This concealing of evidence was regrettable, but did not result in a miscarriage of justice. The evidence against Kidd was eloquent and abundant and he was found guilty in the three trials for piracy.
When, on May 9, he was sentenced to be hanged, Kidd replied: "My Lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part I am the innocentest person of them all". During the next two weeks the Reverend Paul Lorrain exhorted him to repentance and confession, but Kidd was adamant. On May 23 he was led to the gallows at Execution Dock, saw Darby Mullins hanged, and then, having addressed the crowd, was himself turned off. The rope broke and Kidd fell to the ground with the halter around his neck. He was finally hanged from a tree, for the gallows had broken down. His property and effects, forfeited to the Crown, brought only £6, 471. The value of the jewels, gold, and goods recovered by the authorities was near £10, 000. Contemporary opinion was satisfied that the Quedagh Merchant had been seized by Boulton and his crew, and the cargo, consisting mostly of perishable bale goods and valued at between £40, 000 and £50, 000, sold. But with time there came new stories of hidden treasure, of jewels and pieces-of-eight--all to the undoing of innumerable and sanguine seekers of fortune.
In 1691 Kidd married Sarah Oort, the widow of John Oort, a sea-captain. She was the daughter of Captain Samuel Bradley, a man of property, and had first married William Cox, who died and left her his estate. Kidd and his wife owned considerable property in New York, including a large, luxurious home at what is now the corner of Pearl and Hanover streets, and a country estate at Haarlem. Kidd's wife after his death married a Christopher Rousby; Kidd's daughter had died before his trial and his only son was killed in a battle near Sterling in 1715.
