Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Part 34

[Footnote 14: But John Ruggles, master's mate of the _Primrose_ of Boston, testified that, drinking in a public house at Charles Town, Nevis, with William Cheesers and William Daniel, he heard the former say that Bolton had got 16,000 by Captain Kidd. _Cal. St. P. Col._, 1699, p. 416.]

This is the full that presents to my Memory in Answer to their Lord'ps Demands February 4th, 1700.

HEN. BOLTON.

_87. William Kidd to the Speaker of the House of Commons (Robert Harley). April (?), 1701._[1]

[Footnote 1: From the ma.n.u.scripts of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck Abbey. The Historical Ma.n.u.scripts Commission's calendar of those archives, IV. 16, wrongly gives this pet.i.tion the same date as the next doc.u.ment, May 12, 1701. This pet.i.tion was written before the trials, which occurred on May 8 and 9, but after Kidd's appearances before the House of Commons, which occurred on Mar. 27 and 31; _Commons Journal_, XIII. 441, 463. Kidd, Gillam, Bradish, Witherley, and 28 other pirates, mostly members of Kidd's crew, were shipped from Boston soon after March 6, 1700 (eight months after his arrest), on the _Advice_ frigate, and arrived in the Downs Apr. 11, the day on which King William brought to an end, by prorogation, the session of Parliament. In that session, chiefly as a means of attacking Somers, the lord chancellor, a party in the House of Commons had a.s.sailed the grant of letters patent under which Kidd's enterprise had been undertaken (Dec. 6, 1699). They were outvoted, but on Mar. 16, 1700, a vote was pa.s.sed for addressing the king that Kidd should not be tried, discharged, or pardoned till the next session of Parliament. The Admiralty concurred, May 2. The new Parliament came together Feb. 6, 1701; Harley was chosen speaker Feb. 11; the impeachment of Somers and Orford, in which the contract with Kidd was made the basis of one article, was voted Apr. 14.]

_May it please Y'r Hon'r_

The long Imprisonment I have undergone, or the tryall I am to undergoe, are not soe great an affliction to me, as my not being able to give your Hon'ble House of Commons such satisfaction as was Expected from me. I hope I have not offended against the Law, but if I have, It was the fault of others who knew better, and made me the Tool of their Ambition and Avarice, and who now perhaps think it their Interest that I should be removed out of the world.

I did not seek the Commission I undertook, but was partly Cajold, and partly menac'd into it by the Lord Bellomont, and one Robert Livingston of New York, who was the projector, promoter, and Chief Manager of that designe, and who only can give your House a satisfactory account of all the Transactions of my Owners. He was the man admitted into their Closets, and received their private Instructions, which he kept in his own hands, and who encouraged me in their names to doe more than I ever did, and to act without regard to my Commission. I would not Exceed my Authority, and took noe other ships than such as had French pa.s.ses, which I brought with me to New England, and relyed upon for my Justification. But my Lord Bellomont seized upon them together with my Cargoe, and tho he promised to send them into England, yet has he detained part of the effects, kept these pa.s.ses wholly from me, and has stript me of all the Defence I have to make, which is such Barbarous, as well as dishonorable usage, as I hope Your Hon'ble House will not let an Englishman suffer, how unfortunate soever his Circ.u.mstances are; but will intercede with his Maj'ty to defer my tryall till I can have those pa.s.ses, and that Livingston may be brought under Your Examination, and Confronted by me.[2]

[Footnote 2: Whether the presence of the French pa.s.ses at the trial for piracy would have brought about Kidd's acquittal may be doubted, courts of justice being what they were; at all events Kidd, though he clamored for them from the day of his arrival in the Downs (_Portland MSS._, VIII. 78) till the day he was sentenced, was never able to recover them. The admiralty court refused to consider them. "Where are they?" said the Lord Chief Baron Ward. Kidd's counsel could only reply, "We cannot yet tell whether they are in the Admiralty-Office, or whether Mr. Jodrell [clerk of the House of Commons] hath them".

_State Trials_, V. 290. In point of fact the House of Commons, which had had all the papers before it for examination, had on Apr. 16, on information that Kidd desired the use of his papers at his trial, ordered the clerk to deliver them to the secretary of the Admiralty.

_Commons Journal_, XIII. 379, 380, 496.--A photographic facsimile of the pa.s.s of the _Cara_ (_Quedah_) _Merchant_ is in Paine, _Book of Buried Treasure_, at p. 104.]

I cannot be so unjust to my selfe, as to plead to an Indictment till the French pa.s.ses are restored to me, unlesse I would be accessary to my own destruction,[3] for though I can make proof that the ships I took had such pa.s.ses, I am advised by Council, that It will little avail me without producing the pa.s.ses themselves. I was in great Consternation when I was before that great a.s.sembly, Your Hon'ble House, which with the disadvantages of a mean Capacity, want of Education, and a Spirit Cramped by Long Confinem't, made me Uncapable of representing my Case; and I have therefore presumed to send your Honor a short and true state of It, which I humbly beg Your Honors perusall, and Communication of to the House, if you think it worthy their Notice.[4]

[Footnote 3: So when first arraigned, he tried to avoid pleading (_ibid._, 287), but he was tried first for the murder of William Moore, on which the pa.s.ses had no bearing. William Moore was an insubordinate gunner; after an altercation, Kidd hit him on the head with a bucket, and he died. It was probably manslaughter, but the jury sustained the indictment for murder. After being condemned for murder, Kidd was tried (unfairly in several particulars) and condemned for piracy.]

[Footnote 4: Not doc. no. 88, I judge, but more probably the "Protest"

printed in _Portland MSS._, VIII. 78-80, a statement of Kidd's case which he had drawn up at Boston and on arrival in the Downs had sent to Orford.]

I humbly crave leave to acquaint Your Honor that I was not privy to my being sent for up to Your House the second time, nor to the paper lately printed in my name[5] (both which may justly give Offence to the House) but I owe the first to a Coffeeman in the Court of Wards who designed to make a shew of me, for his profit; and the latter was done by one Newy a prisoner in Newgate to get money for his support, at the hazard of my safety.

[Footnote 5: I cannot identify this paper (probably a broadside), but the ingenious Newy was doubtless the author of _Captain Charles Newy's Case, impartially laid open: or a ... Narrative of the Clandestine Proceedings aginst_ (sic) _him, as it was hatched ... and ... carried on by Mrs. M. Newey, widdow_ (London, 1700), a pamphlet which I have not seen, but of which there is a copy in the British Museum.]

I humbly beg the Compa.s.sion and protection of the Hon'ble House of Commons, and Your Honors intercession with them on behalfe of

Your Honors

Most Dutifull and Distressed Serv't

WM. KIDD.

_88. William Kidd to Robert Harley [?]. May 12, 1701._[1]

[Footnote 1: From the ma.n.u.scripts of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck Abbey. See doc. no. 87, and notes. The trials had taken place on May 8 and 9, and Kidd was now under sentence. He was hanged at Wapping on the sh.o.r.e of the Thames, May 23, 1701. The precept, or order for his execution, at Wapping "infra fluxum et refluxum maris" (_i.e._, between high-water and low-water mark, according to admiralty custom), is quoted in Marsden, _Law and Custom of the Sea_ (Navy Records Society), II. 263.]

_S'r_

The Sence of my present Condition (being under Condemnation) and the thoughts of haveing bene imposed on by such as seek't my destruction therby to fulfill their ambitious desieres makes me uncapable of Expressing my selfe in those terms as I ought, therefore doe most humbly pray that you will be pleased to represent to the Hon'bl.

house of Commons that in my late proceedings in the Indies I have Lodged goods and Tresure to the value of one hundred thousand pounds[2] which I desiere the Government may have the benefitt of, in order thereto I shall desiere no manner of liberty but to be kept prisonner on board such shipp as may be appointed for that purpose, and only give the necessary directions, and in case I faile therein I desiere no favour but to be forthwith Executed acording to my Sentance. if y'r honbl. house will please to order a Committee to come to me I doubt not but to give such satisfaction as may obtaine mercy, most Humbly submitting to the wisdom of your great a.s.sembly I am

S'r Y'r Unfortunate humble servant

WM. KIDD

NEW GATE 12th May 1701

[Footnote 2: His first figure, as quoted by Bellomont in doc. no. 77, was 30,000.]

_89. Captain Kid's Farewel to the Seas; or, the Famous Pirate's Lament. 1701._[1]

[Footnote 1: Of this ballad, contemporary with Kidd's execution, there is a unique copy in the famous collection of pamphlets belonging to the Earl of Crawford, from which it is reprinted in Professor Firth's _Naval Songs and Ballads_, pp. 134-37, published by the Navy Records Society. By oral transmission it had wide currency in New England.

There are bits of it in Palfrey, _New England_, IV. 185, and in Watson's _Annals of Philadelphia_, ed. 1830, p. 464; and the editor remembers hearing his Salem grandmother sing parts of it. Professor George L. Kittredge says that the Harvard College Library has a broadside of this American version, printed in Boston about 1810-1820, which, with some differences in the order of stanzas, is printed in Dr. E.E. Hale's _New England History in Ballads_, pp. 40-46. The original version, which we print, purports to be written between sentence and execution, May 9-23, 1701, and follows closely the chief incidents brought out in the trials, and in the doc.u.ments which precede.]

To the Tune of _Coming down_.

My name is Captain Kid, who has sail' [who has sail'd], My name is Captain Kid, who has sail'd; My name is Captain Kid.

What the laws did still forbid Unluckily I did while I sail'd [while I sailed, etc.].

Upon the ocean wide, when I sail'd, etc., Upon the ocean wide, when I sail'd, Upon the ocean wide I robbed on every side, With most ambitious pride, when I sail'd.

My faults I will display while I sail'd, etc., My faults I will display while I sail'd; My faults I will display, Committed day by day [_A line lost._]

Many long leagues from sh.o.r.e when I sail'd, etc., Many long leagues from sh.o.r.e when I sail'd, Many long leagues from sh.o.r.e I murdered William More, And laid him in his gore, when I sail'd,

Because a word he spoke when I sail'd, etc., Because a word he spoke when I sail'd, Because a word he spoke, I with a bucket broke His scull at one sad stroke, while I sail'd.[2]

I struck with a good will when I sail'd, etc., I struck with a good will when I sail'd; I struck with a good will, And did a gunner kill As being cruel still when I sail'd.

A Quida merchant[3] then while I sail'd, etc., A Quida merchant then while I sail'd, A Quida merchant then I robbed of hundreds ten, a.s.sisted by my men, while I sailed.

A banker's ship of France,[4] while I sailed, etc., A banker's ship of France, while I sailed, A banker's ship of France Before us did advance: I seized her by chance, while I sailed.

Full fourteen ships I see when I sailed, etc., Full fourteen ships I see when I sailed; Full fourteen ships I see, Merchants of high degree; They were too hard for me when I sailed.[5]

We steered from sound to sound while we sailed, We steered from sound to sound while we sailed; We steered from sound to sound, A Moorish ship we found; Her men we stript and bound while we sailed.

Upon the ocean seas while we sailed, etc., Upon the ocean seas while we sailed, Upon the ocean seas A warlike Portuguese In sport did us displease, while we sailed.

At famous Malabar when we sailed, etc., At famous Malabar when we sailed, At famous Malabar We went ash.o.r.e, each tar, And robbed the natives there, when we sailed.

Then after this we chased, while we sailed, Then after this we chased, while we sailed, Then after this we chased A rich Armenian, graced With wealth, which we embraced, while we sailed.

Many Moorish ships we took while we sailed, Many Moorish ships we took while we sailed, Many Moorish ships we took; We did still for plunder look; All conscience we forsook while we sailed.

I, Captain Cullifoord, while I sailed, etc., I, Captain Cullifoord, while I sailed, I, Captain Cullifoord, Did many merchants board, Which did much wealth afford, while we sailed.

Two hundred bars of gold, while we sail'd, etc., Two hundred bars of gold, while we sailed, Two hundred bars of gold And rix dollars manifold We seized uncontrolled, while we sailed.

_St. John_, a ship of fame,[6] when we sailed, etc., _St. John_, a ship of fame, when we sailed, _St. John_, a ship of fame, We plundered when she came, With more that I could name, when we sailed.