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Kidd Arrested at Boston (1699)

The negotiated surrender and arrest of Captain William Kidd at Boston in June and July 1699: brought in through the lawyer James Emott and the postmaster Duncan Campbell on the Earl of Bellomont's promise of a kind reception and the King's pardon, examined before the Governor and Council on 3 July, seized by a constable on Thursday 6 July, ironed and committed to the Stone Prison on 17 July, and stripped of the deposit left with John Gardiner, whose recovery produced the signed inventory of 25 July 1699 and the paper, including the two French passes, on which he was afterwards tried.

Also writtenThe seizure of Captain Kidd, Boston, 6 July 1699; Kidd's surrender to the Earl of Bellomont; The Gardiners Island recovery, 17 July 1699; The Boston inventory of Kidd's treasure, 25 July 1699

The best documented fortnight of William Kidd's life was arranged by the man who arrested him. Nearly all of it comes from one dispatch: the Earl of Bellomont, Governor of Massachusetts Bay, to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 26 July 1699, with twenty-five enclosures. Round it sit Samuel Sewall's diary, Ralph D. Paine's 1911 transcripts, and the 1930 Notable British Trials edition, which defends Bellomont.

The lawyer and the postmaster

The negotiation opened late at night on 13 June 1699, when James Emott, a lawyer of New York and Kidd's chosen ambassador, came to Bellomont at Boston. Kidd had sixty pounds weight of gold aboard, about a hundredweight of silver and seventeen bales of East India goods, and had left near Hispaniola a great ship nobody else could find; give him a pardon and he would bring in both. Emott handed over the two French passes that same night. Bellomont called him privately "a cunning Jacobite, a fast friend of Fletcher's and my avowed enemie".1

Bellomont sent an envoy of his own. On Thursday 15 June Duncan Campbell, Postmaster of Boston and "Kidd's countryman and acquaintance", went out with Emott. He met Kidd about three leagues from Block Island on 17 June, returned on 19 June with a memorial to the Governor and Council, and went out again that day with Bellomont's letter. Kidd replied from Block Island Road aboard the sloop Saint Antonio on 24 June. Campbell became his gift broker and surety, then a deponent against him; seven parcels of Kidd's gold were found in his house.2

Word and honour

The letter of 19 June went out with the Council's approval. It promised a kind reception and the King's pardon procured, and closed: "I assure you, on my Word and Honour, I will perform nicely what I have now promised." Whether that was good faith is the event's central conflict, and both readings stand. Bellomont told London the promise was "conditional, that is, provided he were as innocent as he pretended to be", and the 1930 editor calls that properly conditional. Against it sit the boasts Paine printed, that Bellomont kept Secretary Vernon's orders for the seizure secret until the day he used them, and the same editor's own footnote wondering whether the encouraging report he sent Kidd was a ruse to induce him into port.3

What went ashore at Gardiners Island

The one deposit recovered went to John Gardiner of Gardiners Island, who swore to it on 17 July. Kidd asked him to keep three enslaved children, two boys and a girl, landed two bales and another enslaved boy, and later desired him "to take ashore with him and keep for him a Chest and a box of Gold and a bundle of Quilts and four bales of Goods", the gold being "intended for my Lord". Two crewmen, Cooke and Parrat, left two bags of silver said to weigh thirty pound weight. Bellomont wrote of Kidd "having owned he had buried some gold on that island"; the sworn narrative says nothing of burial. The three children and the fourth boy were listed among the goods, and no source consulted names any of them.4

The arrest

The day Kidd came in is unsettled. The printed Calendar has Bellomont writing "he arriving here on Saturday the 8th of this month"; Paine's transcript carries no day number, his narrative gives 1 July, the 1930 edition 2 July. He came voluntarily, with his wife Sarah and their children aboard, and was examined by the Governor and Council on 3 July. On Thursday 6 July a constable took him up. Bellomont says "it happened to be by the door of my lodging and he rushed in and came running to me, the Constable after him"; Thomas Hutchinson, quoted by Paine, puts the scene in Kidd's lodgings instead. Three or four of his men got away through the officers' carelessness. His narrative reached the Council on 7 July. On 17 July the Council resolved that he "be put into the Stone Prison, be Ironed, and Company kept from him". Bellomont added sixteen pounds of iron and forty shillings a week to the sheriff.5

The search and the inventory

On the day Kidd was seized, 6 July, Bellomont heard that a man had offered thirty pounds for a sloop to Gardiners Island, and sent a messenger overland with an order in the King's name, dated 8 July 1699, which survives; Gardiner brought the parcels in on 17 July. A committee of two councillors, two merchants and the Deputy Collector found in Kidd's lodgings, in two sea beds, a bag of gold dust and ingots worth about a thousand pounds and a bag of silver. Their account of 25 July 1699, signed by Sewall, Byfield, Dummer, Hammond and Belcher, records gold at 1,111 ounces troy, silver at 2,353, jewels at 17, with 57 bags of sugar, 41 bales of merchandise and 17 pieces of canvas. Bellomont hoped for about fourteen thousand pounds once the bales were opened.6

The passes that went to London

Everything gathered at Boston travelled, the two French passes with it: from Emott to Bellomont on 13 June 1699, from Bellomont to the Admiralty, and thence to the House of Commons. On 16 March 1700 the House addressed the King that Kidd "may not be tried, discharged, or pardoned, until the next session of Parliament". On 16 April 1701 it ordered his commission and such other papers as he desired delivered to the Secretary of the Admiralty. They never reached his hands at the Old Bailey sessions. The originals are now at The National Archives in CO 5/860.7

What followed

The plan to recover the Quedagh Merchant, taken off Malabar the year before, collapsed when Kidd admitted in gaol that he had left a power of attorney with Henry Bolton at Hispaniola. Nor could the province hang him. Bellomont told London that "as the law stands in this country, if a pirate were convict, yet he cannot suffer death." A frigate was sent for the prisoners at Bellomont's request, on Sewall's editors' reading; when the Council came to vote on putting them aboard, Sewall, Townsend and Byfield were in the negative, Sewall because he knew of no power to send men out of the province. Kidd went aboard the Advice on 16 February 1699/1700, the treasure on 28 February, and with it one enslaved man and Venturo Resail, an East Indian born at Ceylon. Bellomont died at New York, on the date usually given as 5 March 1700 old style, the modern 5 March 1701, before the trial came on.8

What the sources cannot yet give is Sarah Kidd. The calendared Bellomont papers put her in the sloop and record her New York house left in a widow's charge when she went to her husband, but no committal, examination or petition in her name; the claims that she was arrested, imprisoned and never allowed to say goodbye rest on modern biography. Nor is the day Kidd came into Boston settled, nor whether Emott quoted thirty thousand pounds or three hundred thousand for the cargo left near Hispaniola.

What the evidence does not settle

Date Kidd reached Boston

  • Date Kidd reached Boston unsettled among 1, 2, 3 or 8 JulyConfirmed

Men who escaped on 6 July

  • Three or four men who escaped on 6 July unnamed

Sailing date of the Advice

  • Sailing date of the Advice unresolved between February and 10 MarchLikely

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. James Emott, a lawyer of New York acting as William Kidd's ambassador, came to the Earl of Bellomont at Boston late at night on 13 June 1699 with the offer that Kidd had sixty pounds weight of gold, about a hundredweight of silver and seventeen bales of East India goods aboard and had left a great ship near Hispaniola that nobody but himself could find, and would bring both in for a pardon; Emott delivered the two French passes that same night, and Bellomont described him privately to London as "a cunning Jacobite, a fast friend of Fletcher's and my avowed enemie". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. State paper: 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; the "cunning Jacobite" wording from the Public Record Office transcript printed in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911)
  2. Bellomont sent Duncan Campbell, Postmaster of Boston and in Bellomont's phrase "Kidd's countryman and acquaintance", out with Emott on Thursday 15 June 1699; Campbell met Kidd about three leagues from Block Island on 17 June, returned on 19 June and gave in a memorial to the Governor and Council, and was dispatched again the same day with Bellomont's letter, to which Kidd replied from Block Island Road aboard the sloop Saint Antonio on 24 June; Campbell afterwards served as Kidd's gift broker and surety and then deposed against him, and seven parcels of Kidd's gold were found in his house. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. State paper: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 17, 1699, item 680, enclosures 680.IV and 680.VI; the inventory transcript in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911)
  3. Bellomont's letter to Kidd of 19 June 1699, written in Council and approved by it, promised a kind reception and that he would procure the King's pardon and closed "I assure you, on my Word and Honour, I will perform nicely what I have now promised", while Bellomont told London the promise was "conditional, that is, provided he were as innocent as he pretended to be"; both readings of his good faith are carried, the 1930 Notable British Trials editor holding the promise properly conditional and the charge of treachery unfair, against Bellomont's own boast that he kept Secretary Vernon's orders for the seizure secret until the day he used them and that editor's footnote wondering whether the encouraging report sent to Kidd was a ruse to induce him into port. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Critical edition of the trial and state paper: Graham Brooks (ed.), The Trial of Captain Kidd, Notable British Trials, 1930, printing Bellomont's letter to Kidd of 19 June 1699; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, volume 17, item 680; the Public Record Office transcripts in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911)
  4. John Gardiner of Gardiners Island deposed on oath that Kidd asked him to keep three enslaved children, two boys and a girl, landed two bales of goods and another enslaved boy, gave him damnified muslin and Bengals for his wife, and later desired him "to take ashore with him and keep for him a Chest and a box of Gold and a bundle of Quilts and four bales of Goods", the box of gold being intended for my Lord, and that two of Kidd's crew named Cooke and Parrat left with him two bags of silver said to weigh thirty pound weight; Bellomont reported Kidd as "having owned he had buried some gold on that island", which the sworn narrative nowhere states. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Sworn narrative in transcript: Narrative of John Gardiner, sworn at Boston before the Governor and Council on 17 July 1699 and attested by Secretary Isaac Addington, transcribed in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911) and calendared as enclosure 680.XXI to Calendar of State Papers Colonial, volume 17, item 680
  5. Kidd came into Boston voluntarily with his wife Sarah and their children aboard on a day the sources do not settle, the printed Calendar reading "he arriving here on Saturday the 8th of this month" against Paine's transcript, which carries no day number, Paine's narrative giving 1 July and the 1930 edition 2 July; he was examined before the Governor and Council on 3 July, was seized by a constable on Thursday 6 July, delivered his written narrative to the Council on 7 July, and on 17 July the Council resolved "That the said Captain Kidd be put into the Stone Prison, be Ironed, and Company kept from him", Bellomont adding irons of sixteen pounds and forty shillings a week to the sheriff, while three or four of his men escaped through the carelessness of the officers appointed to seize them; Bellomont places the arrest by the door of his own lodging and Thomas Hutchinson places it in Kidd's lodgings, and both are carried. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. State paper, critical edition and period history: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, volume 17, item 680 with enclosures 680.XXIV and 680.XXV; Graham Brooks (ed.), The Trial of Captain Kidd, Notable British Trials, 1930; Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts-Bay, as quoted in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911)
  6. On hearing that a man had offered thirty pounds for a sloop to Gardiners Island, Bellomont sent a messenger overland with an order in the King's name, dated Boston 8 July 1699, requiring Gardiner to bring in everything Kidd or his crew had lodged with him; Gardiner delivered the parcels on 17 July, a committee of two gentlemen of the Council, two merchants and the Deputy Collector found in Kidd's lodgings, made up in two sea beds, a bag of gold dust and ingots worth about a thousand pounds and a bag of silver, and their account of 25 July 1699, signed by Samuel Sewall, Nathaniel Byfield, Jeremiah Dummer, Lawrence Hammond and Andrew Belcher, records gold at 1,111 ounces troy, silver at 2,353 ounces, jewels at 17 ounces, with 57 bags of sugar, 41 bales of merchandise and 17 pieces of canvas, Bellomont hoping the whole would amount to about fourteen thousand pounds once the bales were opened. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. State paper and transcript of the inventory: Bellomont to John Gardiner, Boston, 8 July 1699, and the account of treasure taken at Boston, 25 July 1699, transcribed in Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (1911); calendared as enclosures 680.VII and 680.XIX to Calendar of State Papers Colonial, volume 17, item 680
  7. The two French passes went from Emott to Bellomont on 13 June 1699, from Bellomont to the Admiralty and thence to the House of Commons, which on 16 March 1700 addressed the King that Kidd "may not be tried, discharged, or pardoned, until the next session of Parliament" and that Bellomont transmit all papers relating to him, and on 16 April 1701 ordered his commission and such other papers as he desired delivered by the Clerk of the House to the Secretary of the Admiralty; they were never put into Kidd's hands at the Old Bailey sessions of May 1701, and the originals, afterwards located among Colonial Office papers, are now at The National Archives in CO 5/860. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Journal of the House of Commons, state paper and archival catalogue: Journals of the House of Commons, volume xiii, minutes of 16 March 1700 and 16 April 1701, quoted in Graham Brooks (ed.), The Trial of Captain Kidd, Notable British Trials, 1930 and corroborated in Richard Chandler, The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons, volume 3; The National Archives, Kew, CO 5/860
  8. Kidd admitted, under pressure from two gentlemen of the Council sent to press him in the gaol, that he had left a power of attorney with Henry Bolton at Hispaniola, which caused Bellomont to abandon the charter he had agreed for recovering the Quedagh Merchant; Bellomont told London that "as the law stands in this country, if a pirate were convict, yet he cannot suffer death", the Council of Massachusetts Bay having refused the Bill to punish privateers and pirates sent from England, and Sewall recorded that on 16 February 1699/1700 Kidd, Bradish, Gillam and Witherly were sent aboard the frigate Advice on a warrant dated 13 February bearing the Governor's name only, Sewall, Townsend and Byfield having been in the negative on sending the prisoners out of the province, with the treasure shipped on 28 February 1699/1700 together with one enslaved man and Venturo Resail, an East Indian born at Ceylon. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. State paper and diary: 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; Diary of Samuel Sewall, volume II, in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, fifth series, volume VI (Boston, 1879), entries of 16 and 28 February 1699/1700 with the editors' notes