Before his arrival, he heard he had been proclaimed a pirate, so he deputed a friend to approach Lord Bellamont on his behalf. The Quedah Merchant was disposed of, and his plunder placed in a safe place. By assurance, and by a valuable present to Lady Bellamont, he thought he could face matters out. Bellamont appears to have been puzzled at first how to treat him. He was unwilling to believe all that was said. At the end of three weeks he made up his mind and arrested Kidd. For eight months he lay in Boston gaol, and was then sent to London for trial, remaining in Newgate for more than a year. Eleven of his crew were also arrested, two of them being admitted as King's witnesses.
In the interval the storm against the Whig ministers had gathered strength, and articles of impeachment against Somers, Orford, and others were being prepared by the House of Commons. On the 27th March, 1701, Kidd was brought to the House to be examined, but he said nothing to inculpate any of the owners of the Adventure, so a resolution was passed that he should be proceeded against according to law.
On the 8th and 9th May he was brought up for trial at the Old Bailey. The first indictment against him was for the murder of Moore, the gunner of the Adventure. There had been a quarrel in which Moore accused Kidd of having ruined them all, on which Kidd called him a 'lousy dog'; to which Moore replied in a rage, that if he was a dog it was Kidd who had made him one. At this Kidd hurled a bucket at him and fractured his skull. The jury found him guilty. He was then tried, together with nine of his crew, for the taking of the Quedah Merchant. His line of defence was that it was sailing under a French pass, and therefore a lawful prize, but he evaded actually saying so. He declared that Lord Bellamont had some French passes of ships he had taken, but would not produce them. That Kidd had captured some ships under French passes, and that the passes were in Bellamont's hands, is extremely probable; but it is incredible that a French pass for the Quedah Merchant was in Bellamont's hands, and that he held it back. He had been accused of complicity in Kidd's piracies, and threatened with impeachment. Every consideration of private and political interest alike prompted him to clear himself of the charge, and confound those who accused the leading men of his party as well as himself.
Kidd tried to get the witnesses, some of them favourable to him, to say they had seen the French pass, but all they could say was that they had heard him declare there was one. The adverse witnesses deposed that he had feigned to believe that the French gunner of the Quedah Merchant was the captain, though they all knew he was not. When asked, "Captain Kidd, can you make it appear there was a French pass aboard the Quedah Merchant?" he replied, "My lord, these men say they heard several say so." One of the Armenian owners was in court, but he did not examine him; nor could he say why he had not had the ship properly condemned, like the French ship taken between Plymouth and New York. His only reply was that he was not at the sharing of the goods, and knew nothing of it. For his attack on the Mocha fleet he offered no explanation.
He was found guilty, and was then tried for the captures of a Moorish ship (Parker's), a Moorish ketch, and a Portuguese ship. Culliford and two others were next tried for taking a ship called the Great Mahomet. Three of Kidd's crew were acquitted, the rest of the prisoners were found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. Culliford was respited, having made his submission to Warren. Three of Kidd's crew had hard measure dealt to them. They had made their submission under the King's proclamation, but not to one of the commissioners appointed for the purpose, so their submission went for nothing. On the 12th May, Kidd, with six of his crew and two of Culliford's, was hanged at Execution Dock, the common place of execution for pirates.
It is impossible to follow Kidd's career, and to study his trial, without coming to the conclusion that he deserved his fate. There is no sign that he was sacrificed to political expediency. Directly the House of Commons failed to bring home the responsibility for Kidd's piracies to the leaders of the Whig party, he ceased to be of any importance for political purposes. The charge of complicity with him was only one of ten charges against Orford, one of fourteen against Somers. The court is said to have dealt hardly with him, but courts of justice were not very tender to any criminals in those days, and the jury did not hesitate to acquit three of those tried with him. Criminals were not allowed the aid of counsel, except on a point of law. Kidd did raise a legal point, and was allowed the aid of a counsel to argue it. His intention was clear from the day he left New York. The four pirates named in his commission were then on the American coast; he made no effort to look for them, but steered at once for the Cape. If he could not control his crew, he could have invoked Warren's help; instead of which he stole away in the night. His threats to the Sidney at Johanna, his attack, after three weeks' waiting, on the Mocha fleet, his detention of Parker, to say nothing of his dealings with Culliford, can only be interpreted in one way. During his whole cruise he never put into Surat, Bombay, or Goa, but cruised like any other pirate.
The legend of his buried treasure has survived to our own day, owing to the fact that he had buried some of his booty before putting himself in Bellamont's hands; but the record of his trial shows that, beyond what was obtained from the Quedah Merchant, his plunder consisted mostly of merchandise. That some of his ill-gotten gains were recovered at the time seems clear from an Act of Parliament passed in 1705, enabling the Crown to "dispose of the effects of William Kidd, a notorious pirate, to the use of Greenwich Hospital"; which institution received accordingly 6472-1.
The scandal caused by Kidd's piratical doings under a commission from the Crown, the political use made of it in Parliament, and the legend of a vast hoard of buried treasure, have conferred on him a celebrity not justified by his exploits. As he appears in the Company's records, he showed none of the picturesque daredevilry that distinguished many of the sea rovers whose names are less known. No desperate adventure or hard-fought action stand to his credit. Wherever we get a glimpse of his character it shows nothing but mean, calculating cunning; and to the end he posed as the simple, innocent man who was shamefully misjudged. His crew were always discontented and ready to desert. He had none of the lavish open-handedness that made the fraternity welcome in so many ports. Every, Teach, England, and a dozen others in his place, would have thrown the commission to the winds, and sailed the seas under the red flag. Kidd's ruling idea appears to have been that he could hoodwink the world as to his doings under cover of his commission: so that when he heard of the charges against him he believed he could disarm his accusers by sheer impudence. At his trial he attempted to lay all the blame on his crew, and vowed he was 'the innocentest person of them all,' and all the witnesses were perjured. Whatever touch of misdirected heroism was to be found in any pirate, it was certainly not to be found in Kidd. He was altogether a contemptible rascal, and had no claims to be a popular hero.
Though Littleton's squadron captured no pirate ships, its presence till the autumn of 1700 had a salutary effect.[4] Some made their submission, and the number who continued to ply their trade was greatly reduced. Many of them were glad to leave a calling that had now become hazardous, in which they had been unwillingly forced to join, while the renewal of the war in Europe furnished a more legitimate outlet for the most turbulent spirits, in the shape of privateering.
North, after making his submission to Littleton, thought better of it, seeing the date of grace had expired, and refused to leave Madagascar. There he remained for several years, fighting and subduing the natives round St. Mary's, till he was finally killed by them. His comrades 'continued the war' for seven years till they had completely subdued the country round.