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The Capture of the Quedagh Merchant (1698)

The taking of the Surat freighter Quedagh Merchant by William Kidd on 30 January 1698, about ten leagues from Cochin on the Malabar coast, under a French pass that became the central count of the indictment on which he was hanged in 1701.

Also writtenThe taking of the Quedagh Merchant, 30 January 1698; The capture of the Cara Merchant; The Quedagh Merchant indictment, Old Bailey, 9 May 1701; The taking of the Adventure Prize

The indictment lays it plainly: on 30 January in the ninth year of William III, about ten leagues from Cutsheen, William Kidd and nine of his company took "a certain merchant ship, called the Quedagh Merchant". Cutsheen is Cochin, on the Malabar coast; the regnal year should make it 30 January 1698 new style. Kidd's narrative, written at Boston, says "about the first day of February following".1

The decoy and the pass

Kidd described the method: "upon the same coast, under French Colours with a designe to decoy, met a Bengali merchantman belonging to Surat". With the prize's officer aboard he "caused the English Colours to be hoysted", at which the man said "You are all English", then "Here is a good prize", and handed over the French pass. He was a Frenchman of the French factory at Surat. Kidd's narrative makes him gunner of the ship, come aboard as master; the surgeon Robert Bradinham has him disclaim the captaincy for the gunner's place; Duncan Campbell's report of what Kidd said at sea makes him the pilot. He is nowhere named.2

A ship of four nations

An Englishman named Wright is said to have had the command of the prize. The complement is given four ways: two Dutch mates and the French gunner in three of the four, Hugh Parrot giving two or three Dutchmen and no Frenchman; six or eight Armenians and about ninety Moors in William Jenkins's deposition; Parrot put the Armenians and Moors together at about sixty or seventy.3

The French pass shows why so many nations stood on one deck. Francois Martin issued it for the Royal Company of France in favour of Coja Quanesse and Coja Jacob, "Armenian; Nacodas, of the ship Cara Merchant", the vessel "which the Armenian merchant Agapiris Kalender has freighted in Surate from Cohergy". Nationality of hull, of master, of crew and of cargo were four different questions, and Kidd's commission turned on only one of them, the hull.4

Whose ship she was, the trial never settled. Dr Newton told the jury "her owners were Armenian merchants". Parrot deposed that "she belonged wholly to the Moors". The Calendar of State Papers styles her "the Moorish ship the Cara Merchant". The pass names Cohergy Nannabaye as her owner and the Armenians as her freighters.5

The ransom and the vote

The Armenians aboard offered to buy her back. Coji Baba, the Armenian merchant who negotiated for the ship, was afterwards Kidd's most persistent claimant. Bradinham and the seaman Joseph Palmer both put the offer at 20,000 rupees, which by Bradinham's account Kidd refused as "but a small parcel of money" against a cargo "worth a great deal more"; Dr Newton, opening for the Crown, gave 30,000. Both are carried.6

Four or five days later Kidd put the ship to his company. Jenkins deposed that he "proposed to them to return the ship to those from whom they had taken her or sell her to them". The company refused. They carried her to Ile Sainte-Marie (St Mary's) in Madagascar, landed the bale goods and shared them, Kidd taking forty shares. Palmer conceded the episode, then undercut it: "there was not a quarter of the men concerned in it". Kidd pleaded that vote to the end: "you all voted against it".7

The sharing was the act that mattered at law. A lawful prize had to be brought in, inventoried and condemned, so the King and the commission's owners had their proportions. Lord Chief Baron Ward put that to the jury: "here was nothing of that done, but the money and goods that were taken were shared". Justice Powell had given the other half: a commission taken "for a colour that he may be a pirate" would "be bad indeed". Ninety-seven men deserted to Robert Culliford, the leaking Adventure Galley was burned, and Kidd sailed on in the prize, renamed the Adventure Prize.

The passes that never reached the prisoner

Two French passes reached the Earl of Bellomont at Boston on 13 June 1699 and went on to the Council of Trade and Plantations, one calendared 14 January 1698. They went into the Admiralty's custody, not to Kidd, who refused to plead until they were produced: "My justification depends on them." On 16 April 1701 the Commons ordered his papers delivered to the Secretary of the Admiralty. On 9 May, at the second of the four Old Bailey trials, Kidd and six of his men were convicted on this indictment, the three servants Robert Lamley, Richard Barlicorn and William Jenkins acquitted. Kidd hanged on 23 May.8

Their custody between 1699 and 1701 is undocumented. The 1930 Notable British Trials editor calls the withholding "a blot on the fair name of British justice"; Ralph D. Paine, who printed the pass in 1911, held that it was kept back because "it had been determined that Kidd should be found guilty as a necessary scapegoat"; a popular account blames the Secretary of State James Vernon and the junto, unsupported by any cited document.

One prize and the Whig junto

The capture detonated in London because four of the greatest Whigs in the kingdom stood behind the syndicate of 1695. A proclamation of 8 December 1698 offered pardon to eastern pirates, "excepting Henry Every alias Bridgman, and William Kidd". Every for the Ganj-i-Sawai and Kidd were the captures the Crown would not forgive. On 16 March 1700 the Commons addressed the King that Kidd not be tried or pardoned until the next session. On 27 March 1701 Coji Baba petitioned and stood at the bar of the House; Kidd, examined the same day, is reported to have denied everything. The Kidd grant became one of fourteen impeachment articles against Somers, acquitted that June.

The end of the ship

Warned at Anguilla in April 1699 that he was a proclaimed pirate, Kidd left the Adventure Prize at Hispaniola with Henry Bolton, a merchant of Antigua, and went north to his arrest at Boston. Nicholas Evertse reported her on fire near Hispaniola on 29 June 1699, and Bellomont inferred she was burned by Kidd's orders, "that the ship might not be an evidence against him". In 2007 a wreck with twenty-six cannon off Isla Catalina in the Dominican Republic was identified by Indiana University archaeologists as Kidd's lost ship.

What the sources cannot yet give is the original of the pass, known here only through Paine's translation and the Calendar's description, which disagree over whether it was dated 14 or 16 January 1698; nor can they settle who owned the ship, whether restitution was ever paid, or the names of the ninety or so Moorish and lascar seamen who were most of her company. Captain Wright's forename is not in the trial text or the depositions, and the identification of the Isla Catalina wreck is the excavating project's own.

What the evidence does not settle

Ownership of the Quedagh Merchant

  • The ship's true ownership remains genuinely unresolvedConfirmed

Custody of the passes, 1699 to 1701

  • Who held the passes before May 1701 is unprovenVery likely

Forename of Captain Wright

  • Captain Wright's forename may or may not be JohnUnverified

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. The indictment lays the taking on 30 January in the ninth year of William III, about ten leagues from Cutsheen (Cochin) on the Malabar coast, of "a certain merchant ship, called the Quedagh Merchant", a regnal year which should make the date 30 January 1698 new style, while Kidd's own narrative says "about the first day of February following". Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Trial pamphlet and period narrative: The indictment of William Kidd and nine others for piracy and robbery on the Quedagh Merchant, 1701, printed in full in Graham Brooks (ed.), The Trial of Captain Kidd, Notable British Trials, 1930; Kidd's narrative delivered at Boston, July 1699
  2. Kidd approached under French colours as a decoy and hoisted English colours only after the prize's officer was aboard, that officer being a Frenchman of the French factory at Surat and gunner of the ship, who said "Here is a good prize" and handed over the French pass; his office is given as master, gunner and pilot by different witnesses, and he is nowhere named. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative and trial pamphlet: Narrative of the voyage of Captain William Kidd, written in his own hand at Boston, July 1699; evidence of Robert Bradinham and the report of Duncan Campbell, in The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (1701) and the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, volume 17, item 680
  3. The prize was commanded by an Englishman named Wright, attested independently in a Boston deposition, in Robert Bradinham's trial evidence and in Dr Newton's opening for the Crown, while the forename John appears only in modern accounts and in neither the trial text nor the depositions; her complement is given four ways, three of the four having two Dutch mates and the French gunner, Hugh Parrot giving two or three Dutchmen and no Frenchman, with six or eight Armenians and a Moorish and lascar majority whom no source names. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Trial pamphlet and Admiralty depositions: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (1701), via Graham Brooks (ed.), Notable British Trials, 1930; examinations of William Jenkins, Richard Barlycorn, Robert Lamley and Hugh Parrot taken at Boston before the Earl of Bellomont and Council, July 1699
  4. The French pass was issued by Francois Martin for the Royal Company of France in favour of Coja Quanesse and Coja Jacob, "Armenian; Nacodas, of the ship Cara Merchant", the vessel "which the Armenian merchant Agapiris Kalender has freighted in Surate from Cohergy", so that the nationality of hull, of master, of crew and of cargo were four different questions, of which Kidd's commission turned on the hull alone. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period document in translation: French pass or safe conduct issued by Francois Martin, dated January 1698, Public Record Office, consulted through the facsimile and translation printed in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911)
  5. The ownership of the Quedagh Merchant is not settled by the record and is carried unresolved: Dr Newton told the jury "her owners were Armenian merchants", Hugh Parrot deposed that "she belonged wholly to the Moors", the Calendar of State Papers styles her "the Moorish ship the Cara Merchant", and the French pass names Cohergy Nannabaye as her owner and the Armenians as her freighters, which the research takes as settling the ownership while the trial's own witnesses did not. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet, Admiralty deposition, state paper and French pass: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (1701); deposition of Hugh Parrot, Boston, July 1699; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 17, 1699, item 680; the French pass in Paine's translation
  6. The Armenians aboard offered to ransom the ship, Robert Bradinham and Joseph Palmer both putting the offer at 20,000 rupees, which by Bradinham's account Kidd refused as "but a small parcel of money" against a cargo "worth a great deal more", while Dr Newton opened for the Crown at 30,000 rupees; both figures are carried. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (1701), evidence of Robert Bradinham and Joseph Palmer and the opening of Dr Newton, via Graham Brooks (ed.), Notable British Trials, 1930
  7. Four or five days after the taking Kidd proposed to his company that the ship be returned to those from whom she had been taken or sold back to them, the company refused, and she was carried to St Mary's in Madagascar where the bale goods were landed and shared, Kidd taking forty shares; Joseph Palmer conceded the episode at trial and undercut it, saying "there was not a quarter of the men concerned in it". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Admiralty depositions and trial pamphlet: Examination of William Jenkins taken at Boston before the Earl of Bellomont and Council, July 1699, calendared at Calendar of State Papers Colonial volume 17 item 680; evidence of Joseph Palmer in The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (1701)
  8. Two French passes reached the Earl of Bellomont at Boston on 13 June 1699 and were forwarded to the Council of Trade and Plantations, one calendared with the date 14 January 1698, but they never reached Kidd, who refused to plead until they were produced and told the court "My justification depends on them"; on 16 April 1701 the Commons ordered his papers delivered to the Secretary of the Admiralty, and on 9 May 1701 Kidd and six of his men were convicted on this indictment while the three servants Robert Lamley, Richard Barlicorn and William Jenkins were acquitted. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. State paper, Journal of the House of Commons and trial pamphlet: Governor the Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 26 July 1699, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 17, 1699, item 680 with enclosures; Journals of the House of Commons, volume xiii, minute of 16 April 1701; The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd (1701), via Graham Brooks (ed.), Notable British Trials, 1930