The Kidd affair

William Kidd went to sea in 1696 with a royal commission, a purpose-built ship and the money of some of the most powerful men in England. Five years later he was hanged at Execution Dock and his body hung in chains on the Thames. This trail follows the paper: the articles that made the venture, the ship, the voyage, the killing of a gunner, the prize that became the charge, the months at Madagascar, the chest lodged on Gardiners Island, the arrest at Boston, the two French passes the jury never saw, and the two days at the Old Bailey.

1. 1 Event The Kidd Privateering Venture Formed (1695) Start with the syndicate: who put up the money, what the Articles of 10 October 1695 promised, and why the names behind it mattered later.
2. 2 Ship Adventure Galley The ship was built for the job, sail and oar together; notice how little of her specification the record can fix.
3. 3 Event Kidd Departs England (1696) The departure, the men pressed out of her at the Nore, and the re-manning at New York on no purchase, no pay: the terms that shaped everything after.
4. 4 Event The Killing of William Moore (1697) An iron-bound bucket, a gunner dead the next day, and the first of six indictments.
5. 5 Ship Quedagh Merchant The prize herself: who owned her, what she carried and under whose colours she sailed.
6. 6 Event The Capture of the Quedagh Merchant (1698) The taking off Cochin on 30 January 1698, and the French pass that became the central count.
7. 7 Event Kidd and Culliford at Madagascar (1698) Months in the harbour at Sainte-Marie, the crew that went over to Culliford, and what the Crown made of it.
8. 8 Place Gardiners Island A chest lodged by permission, inventoried and recovered within weeks: the best documented pirate cache the Archive knows, and no treasure map.
9. 9 Event Kidd Arrested at Boston (1699) The negotiated surrender at Boston and the promise that brought him in; read what was promised against what followed.
10. 10 Source The French Passes The two passes: what they were, where they went, and why their absence from the courtroom matters.
11. 11 Place The Old Bailey The room itself, and how an Admiralty sessions sat inside it.
12. 12 Event Trial of William Kidd Two days in May 1701, six indictments, and the order the trials were taken in.
13. 13 Place Execution Dock Why the gallows stood between the tidemarks, and what that said about jurisdiction.
14. 14 Event The Execution of William Kidd (1701) The first rope broke. Read the whole day, and then what became of the body and the forfeited effects.