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: