KIDD, William, American pirate: b. prob ably Greenock, Scotland, about the middle of the 17th century, executed London, 24 May 1701. He appears to have followed the sea from his youth, and about 1695 was known as one of the boldest and most successful ship masters that sailed from New York. At this time the depredations of pirates upon British commerce had become so extensive that a com pany was organized in England, in which Wil liam III and several noblemen were sharehold ers, to fit out an armed vessel for the purpose of suppressing the practice, as well as of deriv ing a profit from recaptures. Kidd, who had obtained some experience as captain of a pri vateer against the French, received a commis sion signed by the king, and directed to "the trusty and well beloved Captain Kidd, com mander of the ship Adventure Galley)) a ves sel of 30 guns. Sailing from Plymouth, Eng land, in April 1696, he cruised off the Amer ican coast for some months, occasionally enter ing New York, and finally sailed for the East Indies and the east coast of Africa. Upon his way he resolved to turn pirate, and finding his crew not averse to the project, forthwith com menced a career of plunder and outrage among the shipping which frequented the coasts of Malabar and Madagascar, returning in 1698 with a large store of booty to New York. He took the precaution to bury a portion of his treasure on Gardiner's Island at the east end of Long Island, and subsequently went to Bos ton, where he boldly made his appearance in the streets, not doubting that under his com mission he could clear himself from any charge of piracy. Such, however, had been the scandal
which the report of Kidd's depredations had caused in England, that the Earl of Beilamont, governor of Massachusetts and New York, and one of the shareholders in the enterprise, caused him promptly to be arrested and con veyed to England for trial. The charge of piracy was difficult to prove; but having been arraigned for killing one of his crew, named Moore, in an altercation, he was convicted after a grossly unfair trial, and hanged at Exe cution dock. His name and deeds have been interwoven into popular romance, and form the subject of the well-known ballad commencing: uMy name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed," many of the incidents of which, how ever, are apocryphal. The treasures he had left, consisting of 738 ounces of gold, 847 ounces of silver, and several bags of silver ornaments and precious stones, were secured by Bellamont. But according to popular belief this inconsiderable amount constituted but a tithe of all he had collected, and down to the present time the shores of Long Island Sound and various parts of the banks of the Hudson River continue occasionally to be explored in the hope of discovering the abandoned wealth of the great pirate.