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The High Court of Admiralty

The English court whose judge was a civilian appointed by patent and whose Admiralty Sessions, sitting under royal commission at the Old Bailey, tried, condemned and hanged pirates of the golden age; after the Piracy Act 1698 such trials could also be held in vice-admiralty courts in the colonies, and the court lasted until 1875.

To1875Also writtenHigh Court of Admiralty; the Court of Admiralty; the Admiralty court; Admiralty Sessions; HCA

Not the Board of Admiralty

The court and the Board of Admiralty both descend from the office of Lord High Admiral, and the Board was itself loosely called the Admiralty, but the Board was the executive body that administered the Royal Navy. The court is the subject here.1

The statute

A pirate seized in distant waters had to be shipped home for trial. The Piracy Act 1698, titled "An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Piracy," ended that. It authorised vice-admiralty courts to try, condemn and punish pirates in any of the King's islands, plantations, colonies, dominions, forts or factories, before a panel of at least seven commissioners drawn from named categories including merchants, planters and naval officers. The statute carries both the 1698 and the 1700 label: the session was styled 1698 to 1699, and several of its clauses, among them those on accessories, take effect from 29 September 1700.2

The shift from metropolitan to colonial trial transformed the suppression of piracy in the very years, roughly 1716 to 1726, when the golden-age outbreak was crushed.5

Who sat, and where

The judge was a civilian, appointed by patent from the small civil-law fraternity of Doctors' Commons, which supplied the proctors and advocates. Sir Charles Hedges held the office in the 1690s. Criminal business did not run through him alone. An Admiralty Sessions sat under a commission naming a panel, commonly at the Old Bailey, the Admiralty judge among common-law judges and other commissioners, with a jury to return the verdict. The Marshal held custody and carried out sentence; condemned pirates were kept in the Marshalsea and hanged at Execution Dock at Wapping, inside the low-water mark.

The machinery in operation

William Kidd was tried at the Admiralty Sessions held by royal commission at the Old Bailey on 8 and 9 May 1701, on six indictments, one for the murder of his gunner and five for piracy, and was hanged at Execution Dock on 23 May 1701 with Darby Mullins of his crew and possibly two more, the count being open on the execution record. The Admiralty judge sat with his commissioners, the indictments were framed as offences on the high seas, a jury returned the verdict, and sentence was passed to be carried out on the foreshore.3

The archive it left

The court's papers are at The National Archives at Kew in the HCA series: examinations and depositions taken from suspected pirates and witnesses, indictments, session minutes and warrants. The oyer and terminer records and the examinations of pirates for 1721 to 1725 are among the densest surviving evidence for who the golden-age pirates were and how they were condemned.4

The court lasted until 1875, when the Judicature reforms folded it into the High Court of Justice.

What the sources cannot yet give is the bench. The succession of Admiralty judges across 1690 to 1725, and the membership of individual piracy commissions, are unsettled. The patent rolls, the Privy Council registers and the session papers themselves would give both, and none of them has been consulted.

What the evidence does not settle

Judges of the High Court of Admiralty

  • Succession of Admiralty judges from 1690 to 1725 incomplete

Membership of oyer and terminer commissions

  • Membership of individual oyer and terminer commissions unestablished

Admiralty Sessions procedure

  • How far Admiralty Sessions mixed civil and common law unclear

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 High Court of Admiralty, a court of law, is distinct from the Board of Admiralty, the executive body that administered the Royal Navy and was itself loosely called the Admiralty; the two descend from the same office of Lord High Admiral but were institutionally separate. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Research project publication: MarineLives, "Introduction to the High Court of Admiralty," marinelives.org, accessed 2026
  2. The Piracy Act 1698, titled "An Act for the more effectuall Suppression of Piracy," ended the requirement to ship pirates home for trial by authorising vice-admiralty courts to try, condemn and punish them in any of the King's islands, plantations, colonies, dominions, forts or factories before a panel of at least seven commissioners drawn from named categories including merchants, planters and naval officers; the Act carries both the 1698 and the 1700 label because the parliamentary session was styled 1698 to 1699, and several of its clauses, among them those on accessories, take effect from 29 September 1700. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute text: "William III, 1698 to 9: An Act for the more effectuall Suppression of Piracy," Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7, pp. 590 to 594, British History Online, for the text and the seven-commissioner provision. The two labels refer to the same statute
  3. William Kidd was tried at the Admiralty Sessions held by royal commission at the Old Bailey on 8 and 9 May 1701, on six indictments, one for the murder of his gunner William Moore and five for piracy, and was found guilty on all six and executed at Execution Dock at Wapping on 23 May 1701 together with Darby Mullins of his crew and possibly two more, the number hanged with him being open between one and three, the proceedings being printed at the time and showing the Admiralty judge and commissioners, the indictments framed as offences on the high seas, the jury, the verdict and the sentence. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed contemporary trial: "The Arraignment, Tryal, and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, for Murther and Piracy, Upon Six several Indictments... at the Admiralty-Sessions, held by His Majesty's Commission at the Old-Baily, on... the 8th and 9th of May, 1701... executed at Execution-Dock, May the 23rd," London, 1701; Library of Congress item 18011064
  4. The court's own records survive at The National Archives, Kew, in the HCA series, comprising examinations and depositions taken from suspected pirates and witnesses, indictments, session minutes and warrants, of which the oyer and terminer records and the examinations of pirates for 1721 to 1725 are a principal primary source for golden-age piracy trials. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archival series descriptions: The National Archives (UK), "High Court of Admiralty: Oyer and Terminer Records," series description, Discovery record C8599; "Examinations of pirates and other criminals, 1721-1725," description of HCA material, Adam Matthew Digital, Life at Sea
  5. The shift from metropolitan to colonial trial after the Piracy Act transformed the suppression of piracy, allowing swift proceedings at Boston, Nassau, Charleston, Jamaica, the Cape Coast, Newport and elsewhere in the very years, roughly 1716 to 1726, when the golden-age outbreak was crushed. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Statute text and secondary study: "William III, 1698-9: An Act for the more effectuall Suppression of Piracy," Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7, pp. 590-594, British History Online; CrimeReads, "Turning the Tide Against Piracy in America," crimereads.com, accessed 2026