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.