Now a Servant, it is true, if he go voluntarily and have his Proportion, he must be accounted a Pyrate, for then he acts upon his own Account, and not by Compulsion; and these Persons, according to the Evidence, received their Part, but whether they accounted to their Masters for their Shares afterwards, is the Matter in Question, and what distinguishes them as free Agents or Men, that did go under the Compulsion of their Masters, which being left to the Consideration of the Jury, they found them Not Guilty.
Kid was tryed upon an Indictment of Murder also, viz. for killing Moor the Gunner, and found guilty of the same. Nicholas Churchill and James How pleaded the King’s Pardon, as having surrendered themselves within the Time limited in the Proclamation, and Colonel Bass, Governor of West Jersey, to whom they surrendered, being in Court, and called upon, proved the same; however, this Plea was over-ruled by the Court, because there being four Commissioners named in the Proclamation, viz. Captain Thomas Warren, Israel Hayes, Peter Delannoye, and Christopher Pollard, Esqrs; who were appointed Commissioners, and sent over on Purpose to receive the Submissions of such Pyrates as should surrender, it was adjudged no other Person was qualified to receive their Surrender, and that they could not be intitled to the Benefit of the said Proclamation, because they had not in all Circumstances complied with the Conditions of it.
Darby Mullins urg’d in his Defence, that he serv’d under the King’s Commission, and therefore could not disobey his Commander without incurring great Punishments; that whenever a Ship or Ships went out upon any Expedition under the King’s Commissioners, the Men were never allowed to call their Officers to an Account, why they did this, or, why they did that, because such a Liberty would destroy all Discipline; that if any Thing was done which was unlawful, the Officers were to answer it, for the Men did no more than their Duty in obeying Orders. He was told by the Court, that acting under the Commission justified in what was lawful, but not in what was unlawful; he answered, he stood in Need of nothing to justify him in what was lawful, but that the Case of Seamen must be very hard, if they must be brought into such Danger for obeying the Commands of their Officers, and punished for not obeying them; and if they were allowed to dispute the Orders, there could be no such Thing as Command kept up at Sea.
This seem’d to be the best Defence the Thing could bear; but his taking a Share of the Plunder, the Seamens mutinying on Board several Times, and taking upon them to controul the Captain, shewed there was no Obedience paid to the Commission; and that they acted in all Things according to the Custom of Pyrates and Free-booters, which weighing with the Jury, they brought him in guilty with the rest.
As to Capt. Kid’s Defence, he insisted much upon his own Innocence, and the Villany of his Men; he said, he went out in a laudable Employment, and had no Occasion, being then in good Circumstances, to go a Pyrating; that the Men often mutinied against him, and did as they pleas’d; that he was threatened to be shot in his Cabin, and that Ninety five left him at one Time, and set Fire to his Boat, so that he was disabled from bringing his Ship home, or the Prizes he took, to have them regularly condemn’d, which he said were taken by Virtue of a Commission under the Broad Seal, they having French Passes.—The Captain called one Col. Hewson to his Reputation, who gave him an extraordinary Character, and declared to the Court, that he had served under his Command, and been in two Engagements with him against the French, in which he fought as well as any Man he ever saw; that there were only Kid’s Ship and his own against Monsieur du Cass, who commanded a Squadron of six Sail, and they got the better of him.—But this being several Years before the Facts mentioned in the Indictment were committed, prov’d of no manner of Service to the Prisoner on his Tryal.
As to the Friendship shewn to Culliford, a notorious Pyrate, Kid deny’d, and said, he intended to have taken him, but his Men being a Parcel of Rogues and Villains refused to stand by him, and several of them ran away from his Ship to the said Pyrate.—But the Evidence being full and particular against him, he was found guilty as before mentioned.
When Kid was asked what he had to say why Sentence should not pass against him, he answered, That he had nothing to say, but that he had been sworn against by perjured wicked People. And when Sentence was pronounced, he said, My Lord, it is a very hard Sentence. For my Part, I am the innocentest Person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured Persons.
Wherefore about a Week after, Capt. Kid, Nicholas Churchill, James How, Gabriel Loff, Hugh Parrot, Abel Owen, and Darby Mullins, were executed at Execution Dock, and afterwards hung up in Chains, at some Distance from each other, down the River, where their Bodies hung exposed for many Years.