Charles Laughton
Capt. William Kidd
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Learn about the life and career of William Kidd, also known as Captain Kidd, who was a Scottish privateer commissioned by the English Crown to hunt pirates and French ships in the Indian Ocean. Find out how he became a notorious pirate, was arrested, tried and executed in London, and inspired many fictional works.
Aug 6, 2024 · Learn about William Kidd, a 17th-century privateer and pirate who became a legend in English literature. Find out his early career, his piracy adventures, his trial and execution, and the myths of his buried treasure.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Privateering in The Caribbean
- The Indian Ocean Expedition
- Pirate Or Privateer?
- Arrest
- Captain Kidd’s Treasure
- Arrest & Trial
- The Captain Kidd of Fiction
Few details of William Kidd’s early life are known with any certainty. He was born c. 1645, the son of a Presbyterian minister. Traditionally, his birth town is given as Greenock in western Scotland. Kidd first began privateering in 1689 when he operated on the eastern coast of North America and the Caribbean. Privateering was the legitimate captur...
Kidd settled in the Manhattan area of New York where, in May 1691, he married the wealthy widow Sarah Oort, raised two daughters, and perhaps earned a living as a respectable merchant with a bit of small-scale privateering on the side. Around 1695, he decided to try and find backing in London for more lucrative privateering expeditions further afie...
Into 1698, a few small vessels were then plundered, and then the big prize Kidd had been hoping for finally crossed his bow. This was the 400-ton Quedah Merchant, which was under lease to the Indian government but carrying a pass from the French East India Company. Kidd captured the ship on 30 January 1698 off the coast of India near Cochin (now Ko...
Captain Kidd sailed across the Atlantic to Anguilla in the Caribbean in April 1699, where he learnt that although there was indeed a general pardon out for pirates, all British colonial governors had been issued with a demand to arrest Kidd on sight. Kidd tried to find refuge on the Danish-controlled island of Saint Thomas but was refused entry. Hi...
It may be that before he landed in Boston, Kidd had taken the precaution of burying his ill-gotten loot, with New Jersey, Long Island, and the neighbouring Gardiners Island all being possible locations. Kidd did indeed bury some of his treasure, and these locations were, under pressure, revealed to the Boston authorities. Kidd was also obliged to l...
Captain Kidd first had to endure almost a year in the terrible Newgate Prison in London before his ultimate fate was decided. Opponents of the government tried to get Kidd to reveal who his anonymous backers were and so he was twice called before Parliament in March 1701. However, the investors, the Admiralty, and the government, all keen to disgui...
Captain Kidd became the victim of character assassination in posthumous fictional works. Certainly no saint and indeed guilty of piracy, Kidd’s career was greatly exaggerated, beginning with the rumours sent out by the squabbling political parties in England during his trial. There was a very popular ballad, Captain Kidd’s Farewell, which circulate...
- Mark Cartwright
Apr 2, 2014 · William Kidd is one of the most famous pirates in history, remembered for his execution for piracy on the Indian Ocean.
May 8, 2019 · Learn about the life and adventures of William Kidd, a Scottish ship's captain who became a pirate and was hanged in 1701. Find out how he captured a treasure ship, lost his backers, and faced a sensational trial in England.
Jun 24, 2015 · News broke on May 7th, 2015 that the long-lost treasure of the notorious pirate, Captain William Kidd, had been found off the coast of Madagascar in the form of a silver bar. This is not the...
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Learn about the life and fate of Captain William Kidd, a Scottish privateer who became a pirate and was executed in 1701. Find out how he sailed the Indian Ocean, fought with pirates, and buried his treasure.
