Navigator; born in
Scotland, presumably in
Greenock, about 1650; entered the merchant-marine service in his youth, and distinguished himself as a privateersman against the
French in the
West Indies.
He was active against the pirates that infested the waters near New York, out of which port he sailed: and for his services the Assembly of the province gave him $750 in 1691.
In 1695 a company for the suppression of piracy by privateering was organized in
England.
Among the shareholders in the enterprise were King William III., the
Earl of
Bellomont,
Robert Livingston, of New York, and other men of wealth and influence.
One-tenth of all the booty gained by privateering was to be set aside for the
King, and the rest was to be divided among the shareholders.
A new ship, of 287 tons, was bought, and named the
Adventure galley; and at the suggestion of
Livingston, who was then in
England,
Captain Kidd was appointed her commander and admitted as a shareholder.
His commission bore the royal seal and signature.
On April 3, 1696, he sailed from
Plymouth, and arrived at New York about July 4.
With his ship well provisioned, and with a crew of 154 men and boys, he sailed for Madagascar, the chief rendezvous of the pirates who infested the
India seas.
In the course of a year or more rumors reached
England that
Kidd had turned pirate.
At length the clamor became so loud that the royal shareholder in the enterprise and his associates perceived the necessity of taking action, and an order was issued to all English colonial governors to cause the arrest of
Kidd wherever he might be found.
In the spring of 1699 he appeared in the
West Indies in a vessel loaded with treasure.
Leaving her in a bay on the coast of
Haiti in charge of his first officer and a part of the ship's company, he sailed northward with forty men in a sloop, entered
Long Island Sound, and at
Oyster Bay took on board
James Emott, a New York lawyer, and, landing him on
Rhode Island, sent him to the
Earl of
Bellomont, then at
Boston as governor of
Massachusetts, to inquire how he (
Kidd) would be received by his partner in the enterprise.
During
Emott's absence
Kidd had buried some of his treasure, which he brought with the sloop, on
Gardiner's Island.
Bellomont's answer was such that
Kidd went to
Boston, July 1, 1699, where he was arrested, sent to
England, tried on a charge of piracy and murder, found guilty, and executed, May 24, 1701, protesting his innocence.
It is admitted that his trial was grossly unfair; and it is believed that
Kidd was made a scape-goat to bear away the sins of men in high places.
Earl Bellomont sent to
Haiti for
Kidd's ship, but it had been stripped by the men in charge; but he recovered the treasure buried on
Gardiner's Island; also that which
Kidd had with him on the sloop, amounting in the aggregate to about $70,000. Ever since
Kidd's death there have been numerous attempts to discover places along the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the pirate was believed to have secreted other treasure.
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