The pirate hunter they hanged as a pirate
In 1701 they hanged Captain William Kidd twice: the first rope broke. Five years earlier he had sailed from the same river as a pirate hunter, with a commission under the King's Great Seal and some of the most powerful men in England paying for his ship.
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Sources
Sources
- The Arraignment, Tryal, and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (London: J. Nutt, 1701), with Kidd's two commissions and the proclamation of 8 December 1698; Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911), which prints the articles of agreement, Bellomont's letter of 19 June 1699, John Gardiner's narrative, the inventory, Kidd's own narrative and the photograph of the Quedagh Merchant's French pass from the Public Record Office; Graham Brooks (ed.), Trial of Captain Kidd (1930), with the grant of pirates' goods and the Commons proceedings.
Pictures
- Captain Kidd (1945, dir. Rowland V. Lee) and The Black Pirate (1926), for the legend; Sir James Thornhill (attributed), Sir Godfrey Kneller, John Baptist de Medina, Willem van de Velde the Younger, Hendrick Danckerts, John Cleveley the Elder, Canaletto, Peter Tillemans, Howard Pyle, J.L.G. Ferris, Johann Christoph Weigel, Jacob Koppmayer, Olfert Dapper, Hendrik van Schuylenburgh; maps by Grenville Collins (1693), Herman Moll (1719, 1720), John Seller (1703), Benjamin Candler and John Bonner (1722); The Pirates Own Book (1837); W.D. & H.O. Wills cigarette card (1925). The Old Bailey in 1750 (Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0); the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane (Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0); the pirate cemetery, Ile Sainte-Marie (Lemurbaby, CC BY-SA 3.0); Catalina Island (Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0); Gardiners Island (Jstuby, CC0); Tilbury Fort film (The Yorkie Journey, CC BY). Music: instrumental beds generated with Google's Lyria.