KIDD, WILLIAM, known as ROBERT KIDD; b. England about 1650; was 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 1695 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 privateer against the French and the other a roving commission to pursue and capture pirates wherever he might find them. He sailed from Plymouth, Eng., April, 1696, in a galley called the Adrentare, carrying thirty guns and a crew of -eighty men. After proceeding to New York he captured a French ship, divided the booty, and increased his crew to 155 men, when he disobeyed his orders to cruise on the Amer ican coast by sailing for Madeira, thence to St. Jago. Madagascar, Malabar, and the Red sea. He had not been very successful in capturing vessels, and he now turned pirate and attacked whatever he met that promised booty. 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 with a rich cargo. At Madagascar he burned his vessel and went on board the Armenian, the Quedagli .31er
,chant, afterward purchasing the sloop Antonio and sailing in company. By this time he had been proclaimed a pirate by the English, who had dispatched a man-of-war in search •of him. Proceeding -to New York he coasted from Delaware bay to Block island, cor •.responding with the earl of Bellomont in the mean time, and finally delivered up to the in Boston the treasure which he had acquired by his captures, including 1111 ounces of gold, 2,353 ounces of silver, 57 bags of sugar, 41 bales of goods, and 17 pieces •of canvas. On July 6, 1699, Kidd was arrested, the immediate charge against him being that of murder, he having killed a gunner on board the Adrenture who had become mutinous. He was sent home to England, and in April, 1700, was tried and found guilty of murder and on five separate indictments for piracy. -He was condemned and -executed. After Kidd's death it became rumored about that he and his crew had buried immense treasures prior to his capture, and the coast from Block island s., and even islands in the Hudson river, have been many times searched for this rumored wealth, of which no portion has yet been discovered.