Captain William Kidd
| William Kidd | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 22 January 1654 Dundee, Scotland |
| Died | 23 May 1701 (aged 47) Wapping, England |
| Piratical career | |
| Type | Pirate / Privateer |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of Scotland
|
William Kidd, also Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd (ca. 22 January 1654 – 23 May 1701) was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust.
Kidd was born in Dundee, Scotland, ca. 22 January 1654, his father, Captain John Kyd, being lost at sea. Kidd gave Greenock as his place of birth and his age as 41 in testimony under oath at the High Court of the Admiralty in October 1694 or 1695. A local society supported the Kyd family financially after the death of the father. Kidd's origins in Greenock have been dismissed by David Dobson, who found neither the name Kidd nor Kyd in baptismal records; the myth that his "father was thought to have been a Church of Scotland minister" has been discounted, insofar as there is no mention of the name in comprehensive Church of Scotland records for the period. Others still hold the contrary view.
Kidd later settled in the newly anglicized New York City, where he befriended many prominent colonial citizens, including three governors. Some published information suggests that he was a seaman's apprentice on a pirate ship during this time, before partaking in his more famous seagoing exploits.
By 1689, Kidd was a member of a French-English pirate crew sailing the Caribbean, during a voyage of which, Kidd and other crew members mutinied, ousting the captain and sailing to the British colony of Nevis. There they renamed the ship Blessed William, and Kidd became captain either as a result of election by the ship's crew, or by appointment of Christopher Codrington, governor of the island of Nevis. In any case, Captain Kidd, an experienced leader and sailor by that time and the Blessed William, became part of Codrington's small fleet assembled to defend Nevis from the French, with whom the English were at war. The governor did not pay the sailors for their defensive services, telling them instead to take their pay from the French. Kidd and his men attacked the French island of Marie-Galante, destroying its only town and looting the area, and gathering for themselves something around 2,000 pounds Sterling.
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