FOOTNOTES
[42] Now the town of Wellfleet.
[43] Suffolk County Court Files, No. 2539: 1.
[44] Elsewhere written Allen Chard.
[45] John Darby probably was one of the four pirates who were killed Oct. 4, 1689, in the fight with the Colony sloop “Mary,” Captain Pease, at Tarpaulin Cove. He had a wife and four children living at Marblehead. His estate was inventoried on June 17, 1690, and his widow on July 2, 1690, married John Woodbury of Beverly.
[46] These men were Corporal John Hill, John Watkins, John Lord, William Neff, William Bennett, James Daniels, and Richard Phips.
[47] Massachusetts Archives, Vol. CVII, leaves 277-279.
[48] In Hawkins’ deposition called a brigantine.
[49] Massachusetts Archives, Vol. XXXV, leaf 10a.
[50] Captain Loper was a Portuguese whaler and oysterman who had been on the Cape since 1665.
[51] Suffolk Court Files, No. 2539: 13.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Massachusetts Archives, Vol. XXXV, leaf 31.
[54] Suffolk Court Files, No. 2539: 9.
[55] Diary of Samuel Sewall, Vol. I, p. 310.
[56] £13.6.8.
[57] Gay Transcripts, Phips (Mass. Hist. Society), Vol. I, leaf 31.
[58] In the Library of Congress collection.
[59] Charnock, Biographia Navalis, Vol. II, p. 401.
[60] £13.6.8.
CHAPTER V
Capt. William Kidd, Privateersman and Reputed Pirate
Long after sunset in the evening of June 13, 1699, there came riding over Boston Neck, a weary horseman who inquired his way to the Blue Anchor Tavern, and after a hasty supper was directed to the fine brick house of Mr. Peter Sergeant where the Governor, the Earl of Bellomont, lately arrived from New York, was lodging. It was “late at night” when he reached the house but the Governor at once received him on learning that the stranger was Joseph Emmot, a New York lawyer with important news. In the Governor’s study the lawyer announced that he had come in behalf of Capt. William Kidd, the proscribed pirate, who had sailed from New York, Sept. 5, 1696, on a privateering venture against the pirates that went out from New England and New York and made captures about the island of Madagascar and on the Arabian coast.
Captain Kidd’s appearance just at that time probably was not wholly unexpected by the Governor, as will be seen later, but his return unhappily called for an immediate decision as to what course should be pursued, for Governor Bellomont had a personal interest in the venture that had sent Kidd into the Eastern Seas. It was he who had obtained from the King the commission under which Captain Kidd sailed and he had also written the sailing orders by which Kidd was directed to “serve God in the best Manner you can” and after reaching “the Place and Station where you are to put the Powers you have in Execution: and having effected the same, you are according to Agreement, to sail directly to Boston in New England there to deliver unto me the whole of what Prizes, Treasure, Merchandizes, and other Things you shall have taken.... I pray God grant you a good success, and send us a good Meeting again,” concludes the noble Earl.
The King’s commission to Captain Kidd was issued Jan. 26, 1696, and directed him to apprehend Thomas Tew of Rhode Island, Thomas Wake and William Maze of New York, John Ireland and “all other Pirates, Free-booters, and Sea Rovers, of what Nature soever ... upon the Coasts of America or in any other Seas or Parts.” In substance it was a special commission for the capture of Captain Tew and other known pirates, added to the usual powers granted to the privateer.
Associated with Bellomont in this venture were Lord Somers, the Lord Chancellor; the Earl of Orford, the First Lord of the Admiralty; the Earl of Romney and the Duke of Shrewsbury, Secretaries of State; Robert Livingston, Esq. of New York, and Captain Kidd;[61] who had together subscribed £6000, with which to purchase and refit the ship “Adventure Galley,” 287 tons burthen, armed with thirty-four guns. Livingston and Kidd were to pay one-fifth of the cost and the remainder was to be met by the titled members of the Government in London.
The Government undoubtedly was interested in the suppression of piracy along the American coast and elsewhere, but the particular interest of Bellomont and his associates seems to have been in the “Goods, Merchandizes, Treasure and other Things which shall be taken from the said Pirates,” one-fourth part of which, by agreement, was to go to the ship’s crew. The remainder was to be divided into five parts, “whereof the said Earl is to have to his own Use, Four full parts, and the other Fifth Part is to be equally divided between the said Robert Livingston and the said Wm. Kidd.”
The agreement provided that Captain Kidd was to man the galley with a crew of one hundred men shipped under a “no purchase,[62] no pay” contract, and in case prize goods to the value of £100,000 or more were brought to Boston in New England and delivered to the Earl of Bellomont, that then the galley should become the property of Captain Kidd as a “Gratification for his Good Service therein.” If the venture was unsuccessful, all charges were to be repaid to Bellomont by Mar. 25, 1697, “the Danger of the Seas, and of the Enemy, and Mortality of the said Captain Kidd, always excepted,” and then the galley and her fittings were to become the property of Livingston and Kidd.
Nearly three years had passed since Captain Kidd had sailed from New York. In August, 1698, the East India Company had complained of piracies said to have been committed by him and four months later the Lords of Trade issued a letter urging the apprehension of “the obnoxious pirate Kidd.” In December, 1698, when a general pardon was extended to pirates who should surrender themselves, Kidd and “Long Ben” Avery, who was famous for his piracies on the Arabian coast, were excluded from the “Act of Grace.”
On May 15, 1699, however, Bellomont wrote from New York to the Lords of Trade:
“I am in hopes the several reports we have here of Captain Kidd’s being forced by his men against his will to plunder two Moorish ships may prove true, and ’tis said that neare one hundred of his men revolted from him at Madagascar and were about to kill him when he absolutely refused to turn pirate.”
Richard Coote, the first Earl of Bellomont, had been appointed Governor of New England and New York in 1695. He made his headquarters in New York and it was not until May 26, 1699, that he visited Boston. On June 1, 1699, Captain Kidd reached Delaware Bay. Did Bellomont know that he was coming and go to Boston to meet him, in accordance with their mutual agreement and also because he was afraid of the consequences if he tried to arrest him in New York as instructed by the Lords of Trade? On Dec. 6, 1700, Bellomont wrote from New York to Secretary Vernon:
“I own I wrote to Kidd to come to New York after I knew he had turned pirate. Menacing him would not bring him but rather wheedling and that way I took and after that manner got him to Boston and secured him. If I was faulty by the letter I wrote by Burgesse, I was no less so by that I sent by Cambel which brought him to Boston.”
Whatever the circumstances or coincidence, Governor Bellomont came over the road from his New York government and arrived in Boston on Friday, May 26, 1699, where he lodged with Mr. Peter Sergeant in what was afterwards known as the “Province House”—the home of the provincial governors—and here he received “late at night” on the evening of June 13th, Mr. Joseph Emmot, the New York lawyer who specialized in admiralty cases.
The Governor afterwards reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations that during that midnight conference he learned that Captain Kidd was on the coast in a sloop (Emmot would not say where) and had brought with him sixty pounds weight of gold, a hundred weight of silver and a number of bales of East India goods and that Kidd had left near the coast of Hispaniola, in a place where no one but himself could find, a great ship loaded with bale goods, saltpetre and other valuable commodities, to the value of at least £30,000. Emmot brought word that if the Governor would give Captain Kidd a pardon he would bring the sloop and treasure to Boston and afterwards go for the great ship. Emmot also delivered to Bellomont two French passes which Captain Kidd had taken on board two Moorish ships that he had captured in the seas of India, “or, as he alleges by his men against his will.”[63] These two ship’s passes were evidence that the prizes taken were lawful spoil under his commission. It was the suppression of this evidence and Captain Kidd’s inability to produce them at the time of his trial that contributed largely to his conviction and execution.
When Governor Bellomont learned of the great value of the booty brought back by Captain Kidd he probably experienced conflicting emotions. Here was plunder to the value of £40,000 or more in which he and his associates might have had a considerable interest and yet, it must slip through his fingers because it chanced that Kidd had been proscribed as a pirate on Nov. 23, 1698, at the instigation of an interfering East India Company. Bellomont’s instructions from London required that Kidd, his late associate and co-partner, should be arrested and as he had been sent to New York with a special mission to suppress piracy and unlawful trading and there seemed to be no way out by which he might now share in the loot, unless Kidd could be cleared of the charge of piracy, there was nothing for him to do but to secure Kidd and send him to London for trial in accordance with the English law. He therefore sent for Duncan Campbell, the postmaster in Boston, a bookseller, who like Captain Kidd, was a Scotchman and an old acquaintance of the captain and instructed him to go with Emmot and obtain from Kidd a statement of what had taken place during his voyage.
Campbell and Emmot sailed from Boston in a small sloop on the morning of June 17th and about three leagues from Block Island met the sloop commanded by Captain Kidd who at that time had sixteen men on board. Seemingly both captain and crew felt reasonably sure of Bellomont’s protection, but Campbell brought back word to the Governor that they had heard in the West Indies of their having been proclaimed pirates and therefore the crew would not consent to come into any port without some assurance from Bellomont that they would not be imprisoned or molested. Captain Kidd had related in much detail the occurrences of his privateering voyage and had protested with much earnestness that he had done nothing contrary to his commission and orders aside from what he was forced to do when overpowered by his men who afterwards deserted. The crew on board the sloop also solemnly protested their innocence of piracy. Kidd sent word to Bellomont that if so directed he would navigate the sloop to England and there render an account of his proceedings.[64]
Duncan Campbell returned to Boston on June 19 and reported to the Governor in writing and the same day a meeting of the Council was held at which Bellomont announced for the first time the return of Captain Kidd and presented the report just made by Postmaster Campbell. The Governor also exhibited a draft of a letter which he proposed to send to Captain Kidd and this was approved by the Council and given to Emmot with instructions to deliver it to Kidd. This letter was in substance a safe conduct and in part reads as follows:[65]
“I have advised with His Majesty’s Council, and shewed them this letter, and they are of the opinion that if your case be so clear as you (or Mr. Emmot for you) have said, that you may safely come hither, and be equipped and fitted out to go and fetch the other ship, and I make no manner of doubt but to obtain the King’s pardon for you, and for those few men you have left, who I understand have been faithful to you, and refused as well to dishonour the Commission you have from England.
“I assure you on my Word and Honour I will perform nicely what I have promised though this I declare beforehand that whatever goods and treasure you may bring hither, I will not meddle with the least bit of them; but they shall be left with such persons as the Council shall advise until I receive orders from England how they shall be disposed of.”
Captain Kidd seems to have taken Bellomont’s assurances at face value, but nevertheless he decided to get rid of most of his valuable cargo before sailing for Boston; so he set a course for Gardiner’s Island at the eastern end of Long Island, where Emmot left him and returned to New York in a small boat. Kidd lay at anchor here for several days. Three or four small sloops appeared in which chests and bales of goods were transshipped and finally Kidd sent for John Gardiner, the owner of the island, and asked him to take charge of a chest and a box containing gold dust with several bales of goods, all of which he assured him were intended for Governor Bellomont. Gardiner consented and gave him a receipt. Meanwhile Mrs. Kidd[66] and her children had come from New York, and taking on board Benjamin Bevins, a pilot, Kidd sailed around the Cape and reached Boston Harbor on Saturday, July 1st, where tide waiters were put on board the sloop and the captain and his wife found lodgings at the house of Postmaster Campbell.
The Governor was sick with the gout when Kidd reached Boston, but on Monday, July 3d, he met with the Council and Captain Kidd was sent for and questioned. He asked leave to make a detailed report in writing. The next day he was present with five of his company and was questioned further and allowed more time in which to prepare his report. On Thursday morning at nine o’clock, he was sent for again and informed the Council that his report would be ready that evening. It was at this meeting that the Governor first informed the Council that he had instructions to arrest Kidd and his men and that afternoon the warrants were issued. It chanced that the constables looking for Captain Kidd came upon him near the Sergeant house where the Governor lodged and when Kidd found that he was in danger of arrest he ran into the house with the constables after him, in the hope of finding a refuge in the Governor’s study. It was a dramatic situation and Captain Kidd at once found that Bellomont’s fair assurances of protection were worthless.
At first Kidd was confined in the house of the prison-keeper, but after a day or two he was ordered placed in the stone gaol and kept in irons. His lodgings were searched and in two sea beds were found gold dust and ingots to the value of about £1000 and a bag of silver containing money and pigs of silver. Even the household plate and clothing belonging to Mrs. Kidd were seized, though afterwards restored.
On July 26th, Governor Bellomont wrote to the Lords of Trade and Plantations giving a full account of what had taken place and asked what should be done with Kidd and other pirates then in custody. At that time a pirate could not be convicted in the Province of Massachusetts and be punished by death. The English statute provided that pirates should be tried before a High Court of Admiralty sitting in London and this made it necessary to send Kidd to England.
On Feb. 6, 1700, His Majesty’s ship “Advice” arrived in Boston harbor with orders to convey Kidd, Bradish and other pirates to England for trial. Ten days later they were safely on board and on April 8th Kidd was in England, arriving just as Parliament was proceeding in “An humble address to his Majesty to remove John, Lord Somers, Lord Chancellor of England, from his presence and counsels forever.” Lord Somers with other members of the existing Government had been associated with Bellomont in sending out Kidd and his return in irons just at that time, accused of piracy, supplied ammunition for the Opposition and made his case a political issue.
Another powerful influence was working for Kidd’s destruction. He had been denounced as a pirate by the East India Company which enjoyed a monopoly of English trade in the Indian Seas and confiscated the ships and goods of private traders as it pleased. Kidd was accused of seizing two ships belonging to the Great Mogul with whom the East India Company desired to remain on friendly terms. His defense was that the two captured ships sailed under French passes issued by the French East India Company and therefore they automatically became enemy ships and lawful prizes, when taken by him. It was upon the existence of these two French passes that his life then depended. Even his enemies admitted that their introduction as evidence at his trial would go a long way to clear him of the charge of piracy. The original documents had been turned over by him in good faith to Bellomont and in turn had been sent to the Lords of Trade. They were before the House of Commons during the examination of Kidd, but when he was brought to trial before the Court of Admiralty, they had strangely disappeared and Kidd was deprived of the very cornerstone of his defense. Political exigencies demanded that he should become a scapegoat and the life-saving passes disappeared. Strangely enough, however, they were not destroyed at the time and have recently come to light[67] in the Public Record Office, so that two centuries after Captain Kidd was ignominiously executed for piracy it becomes possible to reestablish his fame as a master mariner of good repute and a privateersman who attacked only the ships of the enemies of the King of England.
Captain Kidd remained in gaol for over a year before he was brought to trial and then not for piracy, as he had expected, “but being moved and seduced by the instigations of the Devil ... he did make an assault in and upon William Moore upon the high seas ... with a certain wooden bucket, bound with iron hoops, of the value of eight pence, giving the said William Moore ... one mortal bruise of which the aforesaid William Moore did languish and die.” William Moore had been the gunner on the “Adventure Galley,” Captain Kidd’s vessel, and during an altercation, Kidd had struck him on the right side of the head with an iron-bound bucket. He died the next day in consequence. Kidd’s defense was that Moore was the leader of a mutinous crew; but it is evident from the minutes of the trial that there was no question as to what the verdict would be. At the most he should only have been convicted of manslaughter. The jury found him guilty of murder.
Having made certain that Kidd would be hanged, the Court next ordered him brought to trial under an indictment for piracy. He asked postponement until his papers and particularly the two French passes could be obtained and submitted as evidence, but without avail. The Lord Chief Baron, in summing up the evidence even went so far as to suggest that they existed only in Kidd’s imagination. With the East India Company forcing a prosecution and the Lord Chancellor and other high officials in danger should he make damaging disclosures, it was only a question of time. Kidd hadn’t a ghost of a chance for his life.
After sentence had been pronounced, Captain Kidd said: “My Lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part I am innocentest of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons.” And he told the truth.
A FULL
ACCOUNT
OF THE
PROCEEDINGS
In Relation to
Capt. KIDD.
In two LETTERS.
Written by a Person of Quality to a Kinsman of the Earl of Bellomont in Ireland.
LONDON,
Printed and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. MDCCI.
On May 23, 1721, he was hanged at Execution Dock, on the Thames water front at Wapping, after which his body was placed in chains and gibbetted on the shore near Tilbury Fort, in the lower reaches of the river.
Captain Kidd as he is recalled today is a composite type. All the pirates who have frequented the New England coast have become blended into one and that one—Captain Kidd. A credulous public even denies him his own name and sings of Robert Kidd in the famous ballad:—
My name was Robert Kidd, when I sail’d, when I sail’d,
My name was Robert Kidd, when I sail’d;
My name was Robert Kidd, God’s law I did forbid,
And so wickedly I did, when I sail’d.
I’d a Bible in my hand, when I sail’d, when I sail’d,
I’d a Bible in my hand, when I sail’d;
I’d a Bible in my hand, by my father’s great command,
But I sunk it in the sand, when I sail’d.
I murder’d William Moore, as I sail’d, as I sail’d,
I murder’d William Moore, as I sail’d;
I murder’d William Moore, and left him in his gore,
Not many leagues from shore, as I sail’d.
I’d ninety bars of gold, as I sail’d, as I sail’d,
I’d ninety bars of gold, as I sail’d;
I’d ninety bars of gold, and dollars manifold,
With riches uncontroll’d, as I sail’d.
Come all ye young and old, see me die, see me die,
Come all ye young and old, see me die;
Come all ye young and old, you’re welcome to my gold,
For by it I’ve lost my soul, and must die.