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William Kidd was born the son of a
minister at a time when Britain was being
run by the Lord Protector ‘Oliver
Cromwell’.
Cromwell’s parliamentarian army
(roundheads) had defeated the armies of
King Charles I Stewart (cavaliers) in the
English civil war and taken control of
the country.
William Kid began his life at sea
around the time of Oliver
Cromwell’s death in 1658. Charles
II had returned from exile in Europe and
regained the British throne for the
Stewart's in 1660. The following 25 years
of Charles II reign saw William Kidd
establish himself as a sea captain and
ship owner.
By his late forties, he had married a
wealthy New York widow and owned property
in the exclusive Wall Street area of New
York.
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At that time, the east coast of
North America was plagued by
pirates that reeked havoc amongst
cargo shipping. The authorities of
New York and Massachusetts
regularly called on Captain
Kidd’s services to rid the
coast of pirates.
With the death of Charles II in
1685, James II ascended the English
throne and tried to enforce the
catholic religion on England.
With England having been mainly
Protestant since the reign of Henry
VIII 1509 - 1547, the
parliamentarians set off another
uprising that resulted in James II
fleeing to France and the
protestants William III (of Orange)
& Mary II take the throne of
England.
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That time made the ever explosive
relationship between protestant England
and catholic France even more volatile.
In 1695, Captain Kidd received a royal
commission to hunt down pirates that were
attacking ships of the East India Company
in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
This company was vital to Britain as
trade between Britain and India was
crucial to Britain’s ever
increasing economy. An understanding had
also been attained that any French ships
he encountered could be plundered with
their cargos used to fund himself and his
men.
Captain Kidd and his 34 big gun ship
Adventure departed New York with a crew
of cut throats and ex-pirates bound for
the Indian Ocean. Within a few months,
Kidd’s intentions of hunting down
pirate ships in the area had changed as
he began concentrating more on capturing
cargo ships for their booty, even some
East India ships, the ones he was hired
to protect.
His most successful capture was a
large American ship leased to the Indian
Government called the Quedah Merchant.
That ship held a cargo worth over
£30,000, more than £30 million
in today’s money.
With the aging Adventure starting to
break up, Kidd loaded all his treasures
onto the Quedah Merchant and set off for
North America. After arriving in the
Caribbean, Kidd heard the British had
branded him a pirate and were keen to see
him return to England to stand trial. He
disposed of his two now sought after
ships and acquired the sloop Saint
Antonio for his return to New York.
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Kidd hoped his influential
friends in America could help clear
him of any charges and blame the
acts of piracy on his crew.
However, his friends in New York
had him returned to England to
stand trial.
His trial began May 8th 1701,
and by the following day, had been
found guilty of murder and multiple
piracies. The documents stating
that he had been hired by the
British Government had conveniently
disappeared before the trial
commenced.
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Kidd was hanged on May 23rd. His body
was then covered in tar and hung at
Tilbury Point (River Thames) as a warning
to all other would be pirates.
Captain Kidd tried to escape the
gallows by offering to return much of his
treasures that he claimed was buried in
various locations. Since his death over
300 years ago, the search for his hidden
treasures has continued.
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