Kidd, William

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Kidd, William

c. 1645

Greenock, Scotland

May 23, 1701

Newgate, England

Privateer turned pirate

"My Lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part I am the innocentest person of them all. . . . "

William Kidd

William Kidd (known as "Captain Kidd") was one of most famous pirates (a person who robs ships or plunders the land from the sea) in history. Before becoming a great plunderer (a person who steals by force) of the seas, he was a respectable colonial American citizen. In 1695 he was hired by English investors as a privateer (a sailor on a privately owned ship that is authorized by a government to attack and capture enemy vessels) to rid the seas of pirates. During the expedition, however, Kidd began attacking the very ships he was supposed to protect. After murdering one of his own crew members, Kidd was eventually tried and hanged in England in 1701. The value of the treasure of his biggest prize, the Quedagh Merchant, has become one of the famous myths about "Captain Kidd."

Hired to lead expedition

William Kidd, was born in Greenock, Scotland, around 1645 and was believed to be the son of a Calvinist (Calvinists placed strong emphasis on the supreme power of God, the sinfulness of mankind, and the doctrine of predestination, which states that all human events are controlled by God) minister. Before becoming a pirate, he was a resident of Boston, Massachusetts, an established shipowner in New York City, and the commander of a trading vessel in the West Indies. He also served in the war between England and France that took place after William of Orange (King William III) succeeded to the British throne. For his services, Kidd received a reward of 150 pounds (monetary units of the United Kingdom) from the House of Commons in 1691. Soon afterwards, he married Sarah Oort, who was the daughter of Captain Samuel Bradley and the widow of sea captain John Oort. The Kidds owned a great deal of property in New York, including a luxurious home and a country estate.

Blackbeard the pirate

Blackbeard was another infamous English pirate. Although he was not a contemporary of William Kidd, his career began under similar circumstances. Blackbeard (whose real name was probably Edward Teach) was hired as a privateer during the War of Spanish Succession (1701–14; a conflict involving Britain, the Netherlands, and the Hapsburgs of Austria against France and Spain). After the war he became a pirate and was notoriously cruel. He had headquarters in the Bahamas and the Carolinas. Between 1716 and 1718 Blackbeard plundered ships and coastal settlements in the West Indies and along the east coast of North America. Blackbeard acquired some protection by sharing his treasure with the governor of North Carolina. However, in 1718 he was killed by a British force from Virginia. Like Kidd, Blackbeard became a legendary figure.

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In 1695 the East India Company asked William III to send ships to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to defeat pirates that were attacking their company ships. Because the war with France was still in progress, there were no English ships available. As a result, the king decided to hire a privateer. During the same year, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, was appointed governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The king gave him the task of suppressing piracy (robbery on the high seas). Bellomont then consulted with Robert Livingston, a prominent New Yorker businessman. Livingston in turn met Kidd, who was in London at the time, and they began planning the expedition to the Indian Ocean. It was decided that Bellomont and a group of investors would pay for most of the trip and receive most of the profits. Kidd and Livingston were to pay the rest. Kidd then signed a contract to become commander of the expedition.

Becomes a pirate

On April 23, 1696, Kidd and several crew members left Plymouth, England, and sailed for New York on board the Adventure Galley. In New York, he picked up more crew members, so his ship now had 155 men on board. Leaving New York on September 16, 1696, Kidd sailed around the Cape of Good Hope by December, en route to Madagascar. He claimed he knew where to find pirates in Madagascar, which was their favorite hiding place. For some unspecified reason, however, he avoided the east coast where the pirates usually hid and instead sailed for the west coast. Kidd encountered problems when he reached the Comoro Islands in February. His crew was dying of cholera (a disease marked by severe gastrointestinal problems), the ship began to leak, and he had yet to capture any pirates.

At this point the crew threatened mutiny (rebellion). As a result, Kidd decided to become a pirate and to plunder the very ships he was sent to protect. Anxious to make money, his crew went along with his decision. He staged an unsuccessful attack in August, then managed to capture some ships a month later. But when he refused to attack a Dutch ship, a small mutiny took place. During the chaos Kidd killed William Moore, one of his gunners, by hitting him with a bucket. After this incident, there was no turning back for Kidd. Now a full-fledged pirate, he captured the Quedagh Merchant on January 30, 1698. Kidd then left the Adventure behind and, with a crew of fellow pirates, sailed on his newly acquired ship. Ironically, he even befriended pirates named Culliford and Kelly, whom he was supposed to apprehend.

Women pirates

At least two women—Anne Bonney and Mary Read—are known to have been pirates. Bonney was the illegitimate daughter of an Irish attorney. She frequented the waterfront in Charleston, South Carolina, wearing men's clothing. In 1719 she eloped with James Bonney to the Bahamas, where she fell in love with a pirate named Calico Jack Rackham. He offered to buy a divorce from her husband. When James Bonney refused, Anne Bonney and Rackham seized a Dutch ship (the crew members supposedly were ignorant of her gender). Aboard the ship was Mary Read, who was disguised as a male sailor.

Mary Read was born in England and joined the Royal Navy when she was fourteen. She served her country with distinction during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). After the war Read signed to serve on the Dutch ship. When the vessel was captured by Rackham and Bonney, Read joined their crew. Bonney soon discovered Read's identity and the two became friends. When Read fell in love with a crew member she made her gender public. Then her lover quarreled with a shipmate and the two men went ashore to settle their differences. An experienced swordswoman, Read insisted on taking her lover's place and killed her opponent in a struggle.

In 1720 the ship was captured by the Royal Navy. The entire crew, including Bonney and Read, were sentenced to hang. Asked whether the condemned had anything to say, Bonney and Read reportedly shouted, "Milord, we plead our bellies!"—both women were pregnant. Since British law forbade the execution of pregnant women, their sentences were commuted (changed) to imprisonment. Bonney is said to have delivered her baby and escaped, never to be seen again. Read died of fever while being held in captivity.

Tried as a pirate

By 1698 rumors had reached England that Kidd himself was a pirate. Leaving Madagascar in September 1698, Kidd arrived in the West Indies in April 1699. It was then that he discovered English authorities knew about his criminal activities. When Kidd received this news, he left the Quedagh Merchant in Hispaniola (an island in the Caribbean Sea) and sailed for New England on board the Antonio. After anchoring in Oyster Bay (an inlet of Long Island Sound) he proclaimed his innocence to Bellomont. Bellomont arrested Kidd, however, and took the pirate to Boston. On July 2, Kidd appeared before the council and was thrown into jail. Later Kidd and his men were sent to London as prisoners.

After being examined by the British Board of Admiralty on April 14, 1700, Kidd was sent to the prison at Newgate. He waited there for over a year, until he was examined by the House of Commons on March 27, 1701. On May 8, he went to trial and was found guilty of the murder of Moore, as well as for the plundering of six ships. In his own defense, Kidd argued that two of the ships had French passes and were therefore captured legally. He also claimed that the passes were taken from him and concealed. Although Kidd pleaded his innocence, he was sentenced to death. On May 23, 1701, Kidd was hanged.

Myths about buried treasure

Like most pirates, Kidd's story is full of both fact and fiction. For instance, it is a fact that his fortune, which was transferred to the Crown (the royal government) after his execution, only amounted to 6,471 pounds. There is a great deal of fiction, however, about the size of the fortune on the Quedagh Merchant. After discovering that he was being sought as a pirate in 1698, Kidd left the large ship at Hispaniola and sailed to Boston on the Antonio. English authorities, however, were very anxious to know exactly where the Quedagh Merchant was located because it was believed to contain a fortune worth 70,000 pounds. Kidd brought some of the fortune back with him on the Antonio, but he gave no information about the remainder. As a result, many stories arose about where the treasure was buried and how much it was worth. Over the years, as treasure hunters tried and failed to find it, its worth became greatly exaggerated.