The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication

by Cornelius Neale Dalton

Mr. Thomas Cooper gave evidence to the like effect. Being asked by Kidd to tell the Lord Chief Baron Ward, what he knew of him in the West Indies, he replied: “I was on board the Lyon; and this Captain Kidd brought his ship from a place that belonged to the Dutch and brought her into the King’s service at the beginning of the war, about ten years ago; and we fought Monsieur Du Cass a whole day, and I thank God we got the better of it. And Captain Kidd behaved himself very well in the face of his enemies.”

Two points should be noted in Colonel Hewson’s evidence. First, that he knew that Kidd, years before there was any thought of sending him out to suppress piracy in the eastern seas, had not only done good service for England in the war against France, but had also refused to join his crew in “pirateering,” with the result that they had seized his ship. Secondly, that Kidd had told him before he started on his last unlucky expedition, that he was drawn into the business by an intimation on the part of Bellamont, that there were great men in it, and by the threat that if he did not go, his brigantine would be stopped in the river. That there were great men in the business, far greater men than Bellamont, is indisputable. That great men in those days were wont to use their great power more arbitrarily than they dare to do now-a-days is also indisputable. That Kidd was more or less coerced into embarking in their business by the fear that they might stop his brigantine in the river if he refused to go, cannot, in view of the statement which he made to Colonel Hewson before starting, be reasonably regarded as improbable.

To return to the narrative of the Person of Quality, who was not likely to lay stress on these points. “His Majesty,” he says, “was made acquainted with the proposal by the Earl of Bellamont, and was pleased to consult the Admiralty. But the war employing all the King’s ships which were in a condition of service, and the great want of seamen (notwithstanding the press and all other means used), together with the remoteness of the voyage, and the uncertainty of meeting the pirates or taking them if they were found, occasioned after some deliberation the laying aside of the project as impracticable at that time.” In other words, the Admiralty officials, realizing the difficulty of the task, declined to take any part in it, and pleaded inability.

The pertinacious Livingstone, as might have been expected, was not to be staved off in this fashion; and before long he hit upon a new project. “He did propose to the Earl, that if persons of consideration might be induced to join in the expense of buying and fitting out a proper ship, he had such an opinion of Kidd’s capacity and good meaning, and so great a desire that some stop might be put to these practices that he would be one of the undertakers” (incurring little risk so long as he stood in with persons of sufficient consideration); “and that he and Kidd would be at one-fifth part of the charge. The Earl thought himself obliged in duty to make this second overture known to His Majesty, who was pleased to approve highly of the design, because” (note the reason) “nothing of that nature was to be effected in any other way. He did also declare, as an encouragement to such an undertaking, that the persons with whom the Earl should engage to be at the expense of the voyage should have a grant of what Kidd should take from the pirates, so far as it might belong to him, except some part, which he would reserve for himself chiefly to show that he was a partner in the undertaking.”

So far, therefore, as appears from the narrative of this Person of Quality, who is the only witness of these confidential communications, whose evidence is now available. The original suggestion of Kidd, who unlike the majority of his fellow Colonists was opposed to piracy in the East or elsewhere, was that if he was sent out on board of a King’s ship, with officers and men of the King’s navy, he would indicate to them the places to which the pirates were wont to resort, and thus enable the King’s sailors to seize them. The Admiralty doubted the feasibility of this plan, even if they had had the necessary means at the moment to carry it out. The disastrous suggestion that Kidd should be sent out in command of a ship, provided at the expense of persons of consideration, and manned by a scratch crew of undisciplined men, emanated from Livingstone, and was assented to by the King as a pis-aller. At the worst the King could not lose a farthing by it. If it succeeded, he would not only gain his object, but pocket a substantial share of the plunder. The adventurers might pocket more, but they would run some risk of parting with their money and getting no return for it. What would happen to Kidd, if he failed, appears to have been no concern to any of them.

The King’s approval of the adventure having been obtained, the next thing to be done was to find the necessary persons of consideration, willing to put their money in it. Six thousand pounds only were required, of which Livingstone and Kidd each contributed six hundred. The remainder was at once advanced by four of the most powerful men in England at that time, leading men in the King’s Whig Ministry, Somers the Lord Chancellor; the Earl of Orford, the First Lord of the Admiralty; and the two Secretaries of State, the Earl of Romney and the Duke of Shrewsbury. Great men indeed were now in the business, and it was too late for Kidd to back out of it. So far Livingstone had succeeded, probably beyond his wildest hopes.

But although these great men were quite willing to risk their moneys in this adventure, they were by no means keen that their names should appear in connection with it. In the grant[1] made to the adventurers by the King of the pirates’ goods and wares to be taken by Kidd, it was expressly stated that his ship, the Adventure Galley, had been, with the King’s knowledge and royal encouragement, fitted out to sea at the great and sole charge of the Earl of Bellamont and Sir Edmund Harrison, and four obscure personages, Samuel Newton, John Rowley, George Watson, and Thomas Reynolds, not one of whom had advanced a penny of their own upon it; and it was to these persons, and not to Livingstone, Kidd, or the four King’s ministers that the grant purported to be made on the ground that the King was “graciously inclined that so chargeable an undertaking tending to such good and laudable ends should have meet and proper encouragement.” As a quid pro quo for this highly improper grant, the legality of which was afterwards very seriously called in question in Parliament, the grantees by an indenture of even date therewith agreed to well and truly account for and deliver to the use of His Majesty one full clear tenth part of any vessels, merchandise, moneys, goods, and wares that might be captured by Kidd.

Two Commissions were granted to Kidd himself, the one, letters of marque in ordinary form, empowering him to capture French ships, and the other, a special Commission authorizing him to apprehend, seize, and take four persons designated by name as pirates, Thomas Too, John Ireland, Thomas Wake, and William Maze alias Mace (none of whom were found by him in the course of his wanderings), and also any other pirates, freebooters, and sea rovers, whom he might be fortunate enough to catch, together with their ships, merchandise, goods, and wares. How he was to satisfy himself that any persons whom he might come across were pirates, unless he caught them in the act of piracy, and what the consequences to himself would be, if he had the misfortune by mistake to kill persons whom he suspected to be pirates, but of whose piracy he had no legal proof, or if by any equally likely mischance he neglected to seize persons who were pirates, but whom he could not prove to be such, does not appear from any of the verbose legal documents drawn up on this occasion. What is clear from them[2] amongst other things is this, that they imposed on his men conditions which were likely to be and in the event proved to be very unpalatable to them. The most important of these was that if they took no prizes, the crew were to have no pay. Another condition was that if the prize moneys were insufficient to meet the full amount advanced by the four great men, the deficiency was to be made good by Kidd and Livingstone, both of whom were substantial men. In the event of the prize moneys amounting to one hundred thousand pounds, the Adventure Galley, which turned out to be a leaky old vessel, was to become the property of Kidd. The great men therefore ran very little pecuniary risk, and obviously hoped to make enormous gains from the enterprise. But for this expectation it is highly improbable that any of them would have embarked in the adventure.

It is, of course, very difficult at this distance of time to determine with any certainty what amount of blame attaches to the several personages concerned in this unfortunate business. Very grave suspicion attaches to some of them. One thing, however, is reasonably certain, that no candid person who will now take the trouble to look into the case carefully, can come to any other conclusion than that the balance of evidence is distinctly in favour of poor Kidd; and that he was fully justified in the reply which he made to Lord Chief Baron Ward, when called upon to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon him. “My lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the innocentest person of them all.”