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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] William Kidd Biography KIDD, William (c.1650–1701). A British navigator, the notorious Captain Kidd of piratical fame. The son of a Scottish Nonconformist minister, he was born probably at Greenock, Scotland, about 1650. He went to sea at an early age, became a trader out of New York, and in the war between England and France, in the early part of the reign of William III, commanded a commissioned vessel in the West Indies and was noted for his bravery. In 1691 the Council of New York awarded him £150 for services rendered the Colony. In 1695, upon the recommendation of Col. Robert Livingston, he was appointed by the Earl of Bellomont, Governor of the Province of New York, to assist in suppressing piracy, and received two commissions from the King, one as a privatéer against the French, and the other a roving commission to pursue and capture pirates wherever he might find them. He sailed from Plymouth, England, April, 1696, in a galley called the Adventure, carrying 30 guns and a crew of 80 men. After proceeding to New York he increased his crew to 155 men and sailed for Madeira, thence to St. Jago, Madagascar, Malabar, and the Red Sea. He had not been very successful in capturing vessels, and rumors arrived that he had turned pirate. According to evidence amassed he first took some small Moorish vessels, then fought a Portuguese man-of-war, which defeated him, and finally captured a Portuguese ship from Bengal, and an Armenian vessel, the Quedagh Merchant, with a rich cargo. At Madagascar he burned his vessel and went on board the Armenian, afterward purchasing the sloop Antonio and sailing in company. Proceeding to New York, he coasted from Delaware Bay to Block Island, corresponding with the Earl of Bellomont in the meantime. He had learned that he had been proclaimed a pirate and boldly went to Boston to know the truth, delivering up to the Governor 1111 ounces of gold, 2353 ounces of silver, 57 bags of sugar, 41 bales of goods, and 17 pieces of canvas acquired by his captures. On July 6, 1699, however, in accordance with the British proclamation, Kidd was arrested, the immediate charge against him being that of murder, he having killed a gunner on board the Adventure who had become mutinous. He was sent to England, and in April, 1700, was tried, and, although the evidence was inconclusive and the proceedings marked by injustice, was found guilty of murder and, on five separate indictments, of piracy. Kidd was allowed no counsel, and his explanations were ignored. He was condemned and hanged with several of his companions at Execution Dock, London, on May 23, 1701, protesting his innocence to the last. After Kidd's death it became rumored about that he and his crew had buried immense treasures prior to his capture, and the coast of the United States from Block Island south, and even islands in the Hudson River, have many times been searched fruitlessly for this rumored wealth. He had buried part of the Quedagh Merchant's treasure on Gardiner's Island off Montauk Point, L. I., but this was recovered by the Colonial authorities in 1699. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 215-216. |