It's all anyone can talk about.
From History.com, October 26, 2026:
Once a respected pirate hunter, Captain Kidd met his end at the gallows, leaving behind rumors of a hidden fortune
On May 23, 1701, Captain William Kidd met his fate on the banks of the Thames River in London, leaving behind a controversial legacy and an ongoing search for his buried treasure. His execution was particularly gruesome: The rope broke on the first attempt, forcing the executioner to hang him a second time.
Denounced as a pirate in November 1698, Kidd surrendered himself to authorities, convinced he could prove his innocence. Instead, he was imprisoned in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for nearly a year before he was transported to London for trial. In May 1701, Kidd was convicted of multiple counts of piracy and the murder of a crewman.
Just before he died, Kidd allegedly declared, “I have nothing to say except that I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.”
Was he really a pirate? Charlie Beeker, the underwater archaeologist who discovered the wreck of Kidd’s ship, the Quedagh Merchant, in 2007, describes him as “a privateer who got caught up in politics and was hanged as a pirate, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a pirate.”
It was ultimately Kidd’s abrasive personality that brought on his downfall, explains Colin Woodard, author of The Republic of Pirates, who adds that Kidd was “really arrogant.”
The Rise of Captain KiddHere’s how Captain Kidd’s fortunes took a deadly turn and what we know about the treasure he left behind.
During his 1701 trial, Kidd stated that he was born in Dundee, Scotland. But Samuel Marquis, author of Captain Kidd: A True Story of Treasure and Betrayal and Kidd’s ninth-great grandson, believes Kidd was actually born in England around 1645 and moved to Scotland at a very early age.“Kidd probably talked with a thick Scottish brogue,” says Marquis, who believes he became a cabin boy around age 14 and set sail for the Caribbean, where he worked as a buccaneer.
Kidd arrived in New York after the English had defeated the Dutch in 1664 and renamed the city from New Amsterdam, says Woodard. Over the next few years, Kidd established himself in New York’s colonial society, making friends with rich families, including the Livingstons and Van Cortlandts, who would remain prominent in the city for generations.
On May 16, 1691, Kidd married wealthy widower[sic!] Sarah Bradley Cox Oort. By that point, Kidd’s actions in King William’s War against the French had made him a war hero, Marquis says. Between 1689 and 1695, he traveled back and forth from the Caribbean to North America as a merchant and occasional privateer, a sailor authorized to attack and seize enemy ships during wartime.
According to Woodard, Kidd wanted to use his status as a privateer to “join the elite, become rich and even get a knighthood like Sir Henry Morgan.”
Was Captain Kidd a Pirate?In late 1695, Kidd secured the backing of Lord Bellomont, who would later become royal governor of New York, Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire. Kidd was given two licenses to hunt down the increasing number of pirates and French ships. Aboard the Adventure Galley, he amassed a crew of 150 men and set sail from New York for the Indian Ocean on September 6, 1696.
“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong in the Indian Ocean,” Marquis says.In December 1696, Kidd encountered a depleted Royal Navy squadron led by Commodore Thomas Warren. When Warren requested 20 to 30 of Kidd’s crewmen, Kidd refused and left that night under cover of darkness. His sudden departure raised Warren’s suspicions that Kidd had turned against the British and was a pirate.
When Kidd finally made it to the Indian Ocean in 1697, he struggled to find any of his targets. Because English politicians had funded the voyage, the longer he went without locating pirates or French ships, the more anxious Kidd's crew grew. Dozens of his men died from disease, Marquis says. Others became so frantic that they demanded Kidd turn to piracy and attack friendly vessels.
On October 30, 1697, gunner William Moore pleaded with Kidd to attack a Dutch ship. When Kidd refused, the pair argued, and Kidd threw a bucket at Moore’s head. “It cracked his skull, and Moore died the next day,” Beeker says.
“This became problematic for Kidd because the East India Company had so many trading outposts and they’re this multinational corporation controlling India,” Woodard says.
According to Beeker, the owner of the ship threatened to sue the king of England, while the president of the East Indian Company complained to England’s justices, stating, “If we ever catch him, we expect restitution to the East India Company for all the troubles he’s caused.”....
....MUCH MORE (the treasure)
And at HistoricUK:
Captain William Kidd....MUCH MORE
Captain Kidd can be said to be the most unfortunate pirate ever to sail the high seas! For it was his bad luck to sail as a privateer/pirate just when the rules changed and the privateer/pirate became an outlaw…