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Captain Kidd is hanged
A privateer turned pirate is tried in London
William Kidd was commissioned to hunt pirates, but he was accused of piracy himself, and tried and executed in London in 1701. Some historians think his trial was unfair.
Kidd was a Scottish-born sea captain living in New York when, in 1695-96, he obtained a royal commission for a privateering voyage against French shipping and pirates in the Indian Ocean. Backers included prominent Whig politicians and the Earl of Bellomont, governor of New York and New England.
On the voyage he seized the Quedagh Merchant, an Indian vessel carrying a French pass, and he killed his gunner William Moore in a quarrel. Kidd claimed the prize was lawful, but his crew had turned to plundering, and when he returned to the Americas in 1699 he was arrested on Bellomont's orders and sent to London.
At trial in May 1701 he was convicted of piracy and of murdering Moore. Some historians call it a show trial: his backers wanted distance from him, and papers that might have supported his claim, including the French passes, had been lost.
Kidd was hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping. Accounts say the rope broke on the first attempt and a second was used. His body was tarred and displayed in a cage on the Thames as a warning to sailors.