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Execution Dock

The usual place for the execution of pirates, on the Thames at Wapping east of the City of London, where the men condemned at the English Admiralty sessions were hanged, among them Henry Every's crew in November 1696 and William Kidd in May 1701.

Also writtenExecution-Dock (the spelling in the 1696 print of the trials of Every's men); Execution Dock, Wapping in the East (the form in Arnold Wright's Annesley of Surat and His Times)

Execution Dock was the usual place for the execution of pirates. Six of Henry Every's men were condemned in 1696, and Edward Forseith and the rest were executed there on Wednesday 25 November. Whether Joseph Dawson, who had confessed, went to the gallows with them is unsettled. The sentence as printed names Forseith and the rest and stops there, while the count carried elsewhere is five hanged and Dawson reprieved.5,16

The Act of 1698 put the death of a man attainted on the president's warrant to a provost marshal, in such place "upon the Sea or within the ebbing or Flowing thereof" as the court appointed.12

Richard West reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 20 June 1720 that piracy was a capital crime only by the civil law, the rule of proceeding in the Admiralty courts, and that the common law did not touch it. No man could be condemned to death under that law unless he confessed, or unless witnesses who had seen him do the thing swore to it. Offenders escaped.7,8

The statute of 28 Henry VIII, as West gave it, sent murders and robberies done by pirates on the high seas, or anywhere the Admiral pretended jurisdiction, to be tried in whatever county of the realm the King's commission named, as though the offence had been done on land. A man convicted died without benefit of clergy and forfeited his lands and goods.9,10

The sessions that tried Every's men in 1696 sat at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, for the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England. The condemned crossed London in procession from Newgate or the Marshalsea. An officer of the Admiralty rode at the head of it, the Marshal or his deputy, carrying a silver oar-mace that stood for the authority of the court.11,2

The parish

The bills for the ship Blessing, signed in May 1671, went to a shipwright, a brewer and an apothecary in Wapping. Others went to a ropemaker and a cooper in Shadwell, a boatmaker in Ratcliffe, a fishmonger at the Hermitage and a ship chandler in Tower Street. Wapping in the East lies on the left bank of the Thames, east of the City of London. The gallows went up on its foreshore between the high and low watermarks, where no ship berthed and the tide reached the ground the men died on.13,6,1

An account of the buccaneers that an English publisher brought out had come to him from the hands of some of the buccaneers themselves at Wapping. He and others thought it fit to print at that time. A shipmate of William Dampier's in the South Seas, a seaman bred who could neither write nor read, had learnt to dance in the music-houses about Wapping.14,15

The days

William Kidd had been tried at an Admiralty sessions at the Old Bailey on 8 and 9 May 1701. Two printed accounts of the dying words of the men executed with him came from the same press, and one of them is signed by Paul Lorrain, who is taken to have been the Ordinary of Newgate, and dated the day itself, Friday 23 May. He had left Kidd to go a little before him to the place of execution, and found, when Kidd was brought to it, that he was "inflamed with drink".3,17,18,19

The rope broke. Kidd fell to the ground and was taken up alive, with the opportunity, as Lorrain had it, to "consider more of that Eternity he was launching into". He spoke from the top of the ladder, the scaffold by then broken down and Lorrain halfway up it, as close to him as he could get, and warned all mariners of ships and others "to have a care of themselves, and take warning from him".20,21,22

Walter Kennedy was executed here on 19 July 1721. A General History of the Pyrates has him "steering his Course towards Execution Dock". John Massey came before a court of admiralty at the Old Bailey on 5 July 1723, was found guilty and received sentence of death, and was executed three weeks after at the dock.23,24,25

After the tide

Kidd's body was put in chains and gibbeted on the shore near Tilbury Fort, in the lower reaches of the river. At the dock the body was chained at the low-water mark and left until three high tides had washed over it. That was a practice of Admiralty executions generally, and it fell out of use somewhere between about 1786 and 1814.26,4

Two things about the place are still open. Where the gallows actually stood has never been fixed, and the eighteenth-century surveys of Wapping, with the parish books, would put it on a map. How many men died there is unsettled as well. A count would have to be made from the session papers and the marshal's accounts in the High Court of Admiralty series at Kew, which also hold the warrants that sent each body to the tide or to a gibbet downriver.

What the evidence does not settle

Site of the gallows

  • The gallows stood between Wapping Old Stairs and Wapping Dock Stairs
  • The gallows stood at the foot of Brewhouse Lane

The three tides custom

  • The three tides custom ended sometime between about 1786 and 1814Possible

Other pirates executed at Wapping

  • Every's crew were hanged at Execution Dock in 1696Very likely

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. Execution Dock was a fixed place of public execution, not a berth for ships, on the north bank of the River Thames at Wapping, immediately east of the City of London, where the condemned of the High Court of Admiralty were hanged at or about the low-water mark; the gallows stood between the high and low watermarks on the foreshore, so that the tide reached the site, a placement that expressed the Admiralty's jurisdiction over crimes committed at sea, below the low-water mark and beyond the ordinary common-law counties. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Museum object record: Royal Museums Greenwich, "A Pirate hanged at Execution Dock," RMGC object 247376, rmg.co.uk, accessed 2026; and Richard Clark, "Hanged at Execution Dock 1735 to 1830," capitalpunishmentuk.org, accessed 2026, for the site at Wapping, the placement of the gallows between the high and low watermarks, and the Admiralty jurisdiction over crimes below the low-water mark (all Confirmed)
  2. Execution Dock was the appointed place where death sentences of the High Court of Admiralty were carried out for offences within that court's cognisance, including piracy, murder on the high seas and mutiny resulting in death, and a hanging there was a staged public ritual: the condemned were brought in procession from prison, commonly Newgate or the Marshalsea, across London to Wapping, led by an officer of the Admiralty, the Marshal or his deputy on horseback, bearing a silver oar-mace that represented the authority of the Court of Admiralty. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Museum object record: Royal Museums Greenwich, "A Pirate hanged at Execution Dock," RMGC object 247376, rmg.co.uk, accessed 2026; and Richard Clark, "Hanged at Execution Dock 1735 to 1830," capitalpunishmentuk.org, accessed 2026, for the offences within Admiralty cognisance, the procession from Newgate or the Marshalsea, the Marshal of the Admiralty or his deputy on horseback, and the silver oar-mace as the symbol of the court's authority (all Confirmed)
  3. William Kidd, who sailed under commission, was tried at an Admiralty sessions held under royal commission at the Old Bailey on 8 and 9 May 1701. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial account: The Arraignment, Tryal, and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, for Murther and Piracy, Upon Six several Indictments, printed for J. Nutt, London, 1701, whose title page names the Admiralty sessions held by His Majesty's commission at the Old Bailey on Thursday the 8th and Friday the 9th of May 1701, for the venue and the two days of the sessions (Confirmed); the same printed account is reproduced and cited on this Archive's record of the trial at /events/kidd-trial-1701/. Kidd's birthplace, probably Scotland (Probable), and the tradition that he was drunk at the gallows (Possible) are hedged elsewhere on the site and are not carried here
  4. The custom associated with the site, that a body was chained to a stake at the low-water mark and left until three high tides had at least partially washed over it, is well attested as a practice of Admiralty executions generally, pirates included, and it fell out of use in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, on dates given variously between about 1786 and 1814. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Secondary account and museum object record: Richard Clark, "Hanged at Execution Dock 1735-1830," capitalpunishmentuk.org, accessed 2026, and Royal Museums Greenwich, "A Pirate hanged at Execution Dock," RMGC object 247376, rmg.co.uk, accessed 2026, for the chaining at the low-water mark, the three high tides, the qualification that the practice applied to Admiralty executions generally, and the end of the custom between about 1786 and 1814 (Probable). The terminal date is imprecise and would need contemporary reports to fix it; no consulted account fixes the year
  5. Execution Dock was the usual place for the execution of pirates. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial report: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes, at the Admiralty Sessions begun at the Old-Baily on the 29th of October, 1696 (London, printed for John Everingham, 1696), the closing note after the judgment.
  6. Execution Dock stood at Wapping in the East, on the left bank of the Thames. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times: the true story of the mythical Wesley fortune (London: Andrew Melrose, 1918), the footnote to the chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 194 to 196.
  7. Richard West reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 20 June 1720 that piracy was a capital crime only by the civil law, which was the rule of proceeding in the Admiralty courts, and was not cognisable at all by the common law. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32, item 117, 20 June 1720, Mr. West to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Report upon the Admiralty Jurisdiction and Piracies in the Plantations.
  8. West reported on 20 June 1720 that under the civil law no man could be condemned to death unless he confessed his crime or was convicted by witnesses who saw him commit the fact, by which means many offenders escaped punishment. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32, item 117, 20 June 1720, Mr. West to the Council of Trade and Plantations.
  9. West's account of the earlier law, given to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 20 June 1720, is that the statute 28 Henry VIII c. 15 sent murders and robberies committed by pirates on the high seas, or where the Admiral pretended jurisdiction, to be tried in such counties within the realm as the King's commission limited, in like manner as if the offences had been done at land. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32, item 117, 20 June 1720, Mr. West to the Council of Trade and Plantations, which paraphrases the statute rather than quoting it; the Act of 28 Henry VIII is not read behind him.
  10. West's account of the same statute is that a man convicted suffered death without benefit of clergy and forfeited his lands and goods, as in cases of felonies and murders done at land. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 32, item 117, 20 June 1720, Mr. West to the Council of Trade and Plantations, which paraphrases the statute rather than quoting it; the Act of 28 Henry VIII is not read behind him.
  11. The sessions that tried Henry Every's men in 1696 were held for the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, in the suburbs of the City of London. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial report: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes, at the Admiralty Sessions begun at the Old-Baily on the 29th of October, 1696 (London, printed for John Everingham, 1696), the session heading printed at the head of the proceedings.
  12. The Act for the more effectual suppression of piracy of 1698 required that persons attainted by the courts of admiralty it commissioned be put to death in such place upon the sea, or within the ebbing or flowing thereof, as the president or the major part of the court appointed by warrant to a provost marshal. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7, pp. 590-594, William III, 1698-9, An Act for the more effectuall Suppressions of Piracy (chapter VII), section V.
  13. The bills for the ship Blessing, signed 25 May 1671, included payments to a shipwright, a brewer and an apothecary in Wapping, to a ropemaker and a cooper in Shadwell, to a boatmaker in Ratcliffe, to a fishmonger at the Hermitage and to a ship chandler in Tower Street. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 7, item 541, 25 May 1671, List of bills for the ship Blessing (Shaftesbury Papers, Section IX, Bundle 48, No. 74).
  14. The English publisher of the buccaneer narratives states that an account he printed had been received from the hands of some of the buccaneers themselves at Wapping, and that he and others thought it fit to publish at that time. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed preface: Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, Bucaniers of America (London, 1684), the publisher's preface to the reader.
  15. Dampier writes of one of his shipmates in the South Seas that he was a seaman bred, could neither write nor read, and had formerly learnt to dance in the music-houses about Wapping. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter on Mindanao.
  16. Six of Henry Every's men were condemned in 1696 and Edward Forseith and the rest were executed on Wednesday 25 November 1696 at Execution Dock; the sentence as printed does not say whether Joseph Dawson, who had confessed, was among those executed, and the reading carried elsewhere is that five hanged and Dawson was reprieved. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Printed trial report: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes, at the Admiralty Sessions begun at the Old-Baily on the 29th of October, 1696 (London, printed for John Everingham, 1696), the judgment and the closing note after it; the reprieve of Dawson follows the reading carried on this Archive's record of the trials.
  17. One of the two printed accounts of the last dying words of Kidd and the pirates executed with him, both from the same printer, is signed by Paul Lorrain and dated the day of the execution, Friday 23 May 1701; which of the two is the earlier is not settled. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship printing a period sheet: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London: William Heinemann, 1911), the chapter on Kidd's end, quoting the account signed by Paul Lorrain.
  18. Dalton identifies the Ordinary of Newgate at the time of Kidd's execution as the Reverend Paul Lorrain, on his own account and not from any 1701 document that names the Ordinary. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London: William Heinemann, 1911), the chapter on Kidd's end.
  19. Lorrain's account records that he left Kidd to go a little before him to the place of execution, and found when Kidd was brought thither that he was inflamed with drink. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship printing a period sheet: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London: William Heinemann, 1911), the chapter on Kidd's end, quoting the account signed by Paul Lorrain and dated 23 May 1701.
  20. Lorrain's account records that the rope by which Kidd was tied broke, so that falling to the ground he was taken up alive, and by this means had opportunity to consider more of that Eternity he was launching into. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship printing a period sheet: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London: William Heinemann, 1911), the chapter on Kidd's end, quoting the account signed by Paul Lorrain.
  21. Lorrain's account records that Kidd spoke from the top of the ladder, the scaffold being by then broken down, with Lorrain halfway on the ladder and as close to him as he could be. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship printing a period sheet: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London: William Heinemann, 1911), the chapter on Kidd's end, quoting the account signed by Paul Lorrain.
  22. Lorrain's account records that Kidd warned all mariners of ships and others to have a care of themselves, and take warning from him. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship printing a period sheet: Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London: William Heinemann, 1911), the chapter on Kidd's end, quoting the account signed by Paul Lorrain.
  23. Walter Kennedy was executed on 19 July 1721 at Execution Dock. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Volume I, chapter IX, Of Captain Bartho. Roberts.
  24. A General History of the Pyrates, leaving Roberts and the remains of his crew for a page or two in order to follow Kennedy, reckons Kennedy from that time as steering his course towards Execution Dock. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Volume I, chapter IX, Of Captain Bartho. Roberts.
  25. John Massey was brought to his trial on 5 July 1723 at a Court of Admiralty held at the Old Bailey, was found guilty and received sentence of death, and was executed three weeks after at Execution Dock. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), Volume I, chapter XII, Of Capt. George Lowther and his Crew.
  26. Kidd's body was placed in chains and gibbeted on the shore near Tilbury Fort, in the lower reaches of the Thames. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (1923), the chapter on William Kidd, the Reputed Pirate, p. 83.