William Kidd

Scotland’s most famous pirate was of course nothing of the sort… merely a law-abiding privateer who was unjustly vilified and falsely persecuted and murdered by the English gentry! Kidd’s fame springs largely from the sensational circumstances of his trial and subsequent execution.

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Kidd spend many years in both Caribbean waters and the oceans favoured by those returning heavily laden from the Indies, and there is no dispute that he carried warrants to engage and take those who defied the power of the English Crown. However, there is also no doubt, that plunder was his main aim and his exuberance in pursuing this may have taken him into the realms of piracy and that some of his ill-gotten gains may have been at the cost of wealthy English merchants, titled gentlemen and those government officers aiding the English King in steering his royal path.

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Having discovered that warrants were published in his name, he tried to hide in the American colonies but was ‘kidnapped’ and returned to England for trial where he was found guilty on all charges (murder and five counts of piracy), mainly on evidence, provided by his erstwhile piratical colleagues who had plea bargained life pardons. He was hanged on 23 May 1701, at ‘Execution Dock’, Wapping, in London. But during the execution, the hangman’s rope broke, and Kidd became the only pirate to be hanged twice. To ensure the message was received by others who might think to cross his enemies, his body was gibbeted over the River Thames at Tilbury Point for three years.