Chapter I: Part 1

CELEBRATED
NAVAL AND MILITARY
TRIALS.

BY PETER BURKE,

=Serjeant-at-Law.=

AUTHOR OF “CELEBRATED TRIALS CONNECTED WITH THE ARISTOCRACY,” AND OF
“THE ROMANCE OF THE FORUM.”

LONDON:

WM. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W.

1866.

=To his friend,=

JAMES HOLBERT WILSON,

WHOSE TASTES ARE SO CONGENIAL WITH HIS OWN,

THE AUTHOR,

WITH MUCH PLEASANT REMEMBRANCE,

INSCRIBES THIS VOLUME.

3, SERJEANT’S INN,
_Christmas, 1865_.

CONTENTS.

PAGE Admiral Benbow and his Treacherous Captains 1 Captain Kidd, a Pirate with a Royal Commission 21 Soldiers and Civilians in the time of William III. 49 The Trial of Admiral Byng 60 The Trial of Lord George Sackville 93 The Dockyard Incendiary, Jack the Painter 118 The Trial of Admiral Keppel 158 The Mutiny of the “Bounty” 200 The Mutiny at the Nore 229 The Trial of Governor Wall 264 The Trial of Colonel Despard 307 The Court-Martial on Vice-Admiral Calder 349 Trial of General Sir Robert Wilson and others for the Escape of Lavallette 376

CELEBRATED TRIALS,

CONNECTED WITH THE ARMY AND NAVY.

ADMIRAL BENBOW AND HIS TREACHEROUS CAPTAINS.

There was, before the time of Rodney and Nelson, no name more popular among the sailors of the British navy than that of Admiral Benbow. He had been a sailor himself, and he was, while living, the sailors’ idol; and since his death his memory has been held in much reverence by the Jack Tars of that and every succeeding age. The thorough sagacity, honesty, and gallantry he displayed in his many daring ventures had taken, too, with the general public: and “old Benbow,” as he was familiarly called (though really never an old man) was looked on as the model of a rough and real British seaman, suited for all weather and all war. He and his deeds have been the subject of many a naval song[1] and story, and his likeness was formerly a common sign for public houses throughout the country. Moreover, to this day, the portraits of the admiral in the town hall of Shrewsbury, and in Greenwich Hospital, and his stalwart visage still to be seen, here and there, in front of some rural inn; and more than all that, the many yarns about him, show that even amid the greater glories of Keppel and Duncan, Rodney and Nelson, old Benbow is not forgotten. Admiral Benbow, though he had to make his own way, came, according to his biographers, from a branch of an ancient and honourable line,—the Benbows of Newport, in the county of Salop; but, singular to say, much obscurity hangs about his immediate parentage. In the Civil War his family of Benbow was Cavalier, and sacrificed life and property in bravely sustaining the royal cause. Colonel Thomas Benbow and Colonel John Benbow, generally understood to be,—the former uncle, and the latter father, of the admiral, were, it is related, both men of estate, and both officers in the army of Charles I. They were in the military service of the crown prior to the murder of the king, and afterwards fought at Worcester, and were made prisoners at or shortly after that engagement. Much discrepancy occurs as to the exact result of their capture. The usual biographies we find of Admiral Benbow will have it that the elder, Colonel Thomas Benbow, was shot at Shrewsbury on the 15th, 17th, or 19th of October, 1651, and that Colonel John Benbow made his escape. I, however, on referring to the State Trials, find that a _Captain_ John Benbow (he may have never been colonel, or his promotion of colonel might be looked on as illegal in the eyes of the Commonwealth) was tried on the 1st of October, 1651, by a Roundhead court-martial, and had the honour of having, on that occasion, two important fellow prisoners, viz., the brave royalist, Sir Timothy Fetherstonhaugh, and the illustrious Earl of Derby. The earl and Sir Timothy were sentenced to be beheaded,—the one on the 15th of October, 1651, at Bolton; and the other on the 22nd of the same month at Chester; and Captain John Benbow was sentenced to be shot at Shrewsbury on the 15th of the same month. The earl and Fetherstonhaugh, as every one knows, died pursuant to their sentences; but I find no statement, in the State Trials at least, that John Benbow was actually executed. Could it be, if this account is to be sustained, that Colonel Thomas Benbow was shot by sentence of some previous court-martial, and that John escaped from the judgment to be put in force at Shrewsbury? However, whether from that judgment or not, escape he must have done, if the following story refer to him, which, however, is doubtful. He, it is said, lived during the Commonwealth in concealment, his land being forfeited; and the Restoration found him poor and broken down, and glad to accept a small ordnance post in the Tower of London. Here he was, when his death is reported to have occurred in a very affecting way. It happened that a little before the breaking out of the first Dutch war, King Charles II. came to the Tower to examine the magazines, and his majesty there cast his eye on the colonel, whose appearance had become venerable by a fine head of grey hair. The king, whose memory was as quick as his eye, knew him at first sight, and immediately came up and embraced him. “My old friend, Colonel Benbow,” said he, “what do you here?” “I have,” returned the colonel, “a place of fourscore pounds a year, in which I serve your majesty as cheerfully as if it brought me in four thousand.” “Alas!” said the king, “Is that all that could be found for an old friend at Worcester? Colonel Legge, bring this gentleman to me to-morrow, and I will provide for him and his family as it becomes me.” But, short as the time was, the colonel did not live to receive, or so much as to claim, the effects of this gracious promise; for the sense of the king’s gratitude and goodness so overcame his spirits, that, sitting down on a bench, he there breathed his last, before the king was well out of the Tower.[2] John Benbow, the future admiral, was fifteen years of age,[3] and was in the merchant service at the time this Colonel Benbow’s demise thus happened. One thing is certain, that the king’s good-natured interview resulted in no benefit to young Benbow; but he found a better friend in his own industry and ability, which raised him to be owner and commander of the _Benbow_ frigate, one of the most considerable vessels then employed in the Mediterranean trade. Captain Benbow had grown into high esteem with the merchants of the Royal Exchange as a brave, active, and skilful seaman, when the following singular incident led to his passing into the royal navy.

In the year 1686, Captain Benbow, in his own vessel, the _Benbow_ frigate, was attacked in his passage to Cadiz by a Moorish corsair, from that notorious nest of pirates, Salee. Captain Benbow defended himself, though very unequal in the number of men, with the utmost bravery, till at last the Moors boarded him; but were quickly beat out of his ship again with the loss of thirteen men, whose heads Captain Benbow ordered to be cut off, and thrown into a tub of brine. When he arrived at Cadiz he went ashore, and directed a negro servant to follow him, with the Moors’ heads in a sack. He had scarcely landed before the officers of the revenue inquired of his servant what he had in his sack. The captain answered, salt provisions for his own use. That may be, answered the officers; but we must insist on seeing them. Captain Benbow alleged that he was no stranger there; that he did not use to run goods, and pretended to take it very ill that he was suspected. The officers told him that the magistrates were sitting not far off, and that if they were satisfied with his word, his servant might carry the provisions where he pleased; but that otherwise it was not in their power to grant such dispensation.

The captain consented to the proposal, and away they marched to the custom-house, Captain Benbow in the front, his man in the centre, and the officers in the rear. The magistrates, when he came before them, treated Captain Benbow with great civility; told him they were sorry to make a point of such a trifle, but that since he had refused to show the contents of his sack to their officers, the nature of their employments obliged them to demand a sight of them; and that, as they doubted not they were salt provisions, the showing them could be of no great consequence one way or other. “I told you,” says the captain sternly, “they were salt provisions for my own use. Cæsar, throw them down upon the table; and, gentlemen, if you like them, they are at your service.” The Spaniards were astounded at the sight of the Moors’ heads, and no less astonished at the account of the captain’s adventure, who, with so small a force, had been able to defeat such a number of barbarians. They sent an account of the whole matter to the court of Madrid, and Charles II., then king of Spain, was so much pleased with it, that he would needs see the English captain, who made a journey to court, where he was received with great testimonies of respect, and not only when departing received a handsome present, but his Catholic Majesty was also pleased to write a letter in his behalf to King James II., a naval monarch, well able to appreciate the captain’s daring; and so it proved, for the English king, upon the captain’s return, gave him a ship, which was his introduction to the Royal navy.[4] There he speedily won high distinction, but as his career is matter of history, I pass over his several daring cruises, his effective convoys, his bombardment of St. Maloes, his fire-ships, and his bold attack on Calais, where he was wounded, and his other numerous acts of gallantry. He became an admiral in 1694, and in 1700 King William III., it is said, to mark his approbation, granted him an honourable augmentation to his arms, “by adding to the three bent bows which he and his family already bore as many arrows.”[5] On the approach of the war of the Succession, King William wanted a commander for his West India fleet, but hesitated summoning Benbow, as he had already worked him so hard. Some other officers sent for seemed not to like undertaking the heavy duty proposed, upon which the king is reported to have said, “I will not have these beaux, but must get a beau of another sort, honest Benbow.” The admiral accordingly arrived, and when the king excused himself for exacting what he thought too much, Benbow said, “he knew no difference of climates, and, for his part, he thought no officer had a right to choose his station, that he himself should be, at all times, ready to go to any part of the world to which his majesty thought proper to send him.”

Benbow sailed with the fleet to the West Indies; he there did all he could to carry out the object of his government to force the Spanish colonies not to recognise Philip V., Louis XIV.’s grandson, as king of Spain; and the moment he received official information of war being declared, May, 4, 1702, against France, he prepared, with his usual daring, to attack with a far inferior force the squadron under the command of the French admiral, Du Casse. This brought on the affair, which redounded so to his own honour and to the disgrace of the captains under him. Mr. C. J. Yonge, in his recent able “History of the British Navy,” to which I shall have to refer more than once in this volume, gives the following clear and spirited account of the memorable engagement:—

“In the autum of 1701 Benbow had been sent to the Antilles, where it was known that the French admiral, Du Casse, was also cruising. Benbow was a resolute and skilful officer, but a man of a somewhat rough and stern temper, which had excited a feeling of insubordination and hostility against him in the breasts of some of his officers. Though peace still subsisted when he quitted England, his instructions were warlike; and he had acted on them, making prizes of several Spanish ships, and in no respect keeping secret his intention to treat the French in the same manner, if opportunity should offer. In the spring of 1702 certain information reached him that the French were preparing greatly to increase their force in the neighbourhood; and at the beginning of August he learnt that Du Casse, with four ships of the line, and one large frigate, were off Carthagena, making arrangements with the Spaniards to cripple our trade in that quarter. His own force consisted of two ships of the line, one ship of fifty-four guns, and four large frigates.[6] With these he at once sailed in quest of the Frenchman; and, on the 19th of August, he found him proceeding under easy sail at no great distance from the South American shore. Benbow at once made the signal for battle, but, as the French squadron, though not positively fleeing from the combat, held on its course, without taking any measures to bring it on; little was done that evening, beyond exchanging one or two broadsides. The next five days are amongst the most discreditable in our naval history. During the night of the 19th, Benbow, in his own ship, the _Breda_, of seventy guns, had kept as close to the enemy as the darkness would allow; and so correct had been his judgment of their course, that at daybreak, on the 20th, he found himself close to them; but of all his squadron, but one frigate, the _Ruby_, Captain George Walton (on such a day of cowardice, or treachery, or both, his name deserves honourable mention), was at hand to support him; the rest had already contrived to fall several miles astern. Still, as the enemy continued on their way, Benbow, with this single comrade, pursued them as vigorously as he could, firing whenever they seemed within gunshot, and signalling with peremptory orders to the rest of the ships to join him. The next day the French, seeing his almost isolated state, halted to fight. The _Ruby_ behaved most gallantly, and engaged one of the ships of the line, but was soon disabled by her antagonist’s heavier fire, and might have been taken, had it not been for the resolute manner in which the _Breda_ first supported, and then protected her. While this conflict was proceeding, the _Defiance_, 64, Captain Kirby, was unable to avoid coming close to the enemy, but she refused to fire a single shot. The _Windsor_, 48, Captain Constable, behaved equally ill; and the next day the _Greenwich_, 54, Captain Wade, behaved even worse, keeping five leagues from the admiral, who, from the crippled state of the _Ruby_, was in greater need of support than ever. On the 23rd Benbow engaged the whole of the enemy’s ships single handed; he even took a small vessel, called the _Anne_, a British galley, which Du Casse had captured on his way out. At last, Captain Vincent, of the _Falmouth_, 48, began to feel something like shame at the part which he had been enacting, and came to his assistance. The next day Benbow, now supported by the _Falmouth_, was still continuing the fight with unabated resolution, when a chain-shot struck him on the leg. In spite of all the agony of this mortal wound (for such it proved to be) his spirit was as resolute as ever. He was borne below, but he soon ordered himself to be again carried on deck, where he still gave his orders with an unaltered countenance. ‘I am sorry, sir,’ said Fogg, his captain, ‘to see you in this state.’ ‘I am sorry too,’ said the brave old man; ‘but I would rather have lost both my legs than have seen this disgrace brought on the British flag.’ Presently he was addressed in a different spirit. Captain Kirby had the audacity to come on board the _Breda_, and tell him, ‘that he had better desist; the French were very strong, and, from what had passed, he might see that he could make nothing of it.’ In truth he could make nothing of it: he had, indeed, reduced the ship with which he had been most closely engaged to a wreck; but he had not escaped severe injury to his own masts and rigging. The whole French squadron were now in full flight, and he soon became convinced of the impossibility of keeping up any further pursuit of them with the slightest prospect of success. He returned for Jamaica, while Du Casse made his way to Carthagena, thankful for his escape, and well aware to what circumstances he owed it.”

The French admiral was a man of spirit, and fully acknowledged the heroism of Benbow and the rascality of the officers under him. He wrote a letter to Admiral Benbow, of which the following is a translation:—

“CARTHAGENA, _August, 1702_.

“Sir,—I had little hopes on Monday last but to have supped in your
cabin, yet it pleased God to order it otherwise. As for those cowardly
captains who deserted you, hang them up: for by —— they deserve it.

“DU CASSE.”

The original letter has been preserved by Admiral Benbow’s family.

Admiral Benbow, after being thus cheated, as it were, out of victory, returned to Jamaica, where he arrived with his squadron, very weak from a fever brought on by his wounds, and was soon after joined by Rear-Admiral Whetstone, with the ships under his command.

As soon as he conveniently could, Admiral Benbow issued a commission to Rear-Admiral Whetstone, and to several captains, to hold a court-martial for the trial of the several offenders. On the 6th of October, 1702, the court sat at Port Royal, when Captain Richard Kirby, of the _Defiance_, was brought upon his trial. He was accused of cowardice, breach of orders, and neglect of duty, which crimes were proved upon oath by Admiral Benbow himself, ten commission and eleven warrant officers; by whose evidence it appeared that the Admiral boarded Du Casse in person three times, and received a large wound in his face, and another in his arm, before his leg was shot off: that Kirby, after two or three broadsides, kept always out of gunshot, and by his behaviour created such a fear of his desertion, as greatly discouraged the English in the engagement: that he kept two or three miles astern all the second day, though commanded again and again to keep his station: that the third day he did not fire a gun, though he saw the admiral in the deepest distress, having two or three French men-of-war upon him at a time: and that he threatened to kill his boatswain for repeating the admiral’s command to fire. He had very little to say for himself, and therefore was most deservedly sentenced to be shot.

The same day, Captain John Constable, of the _Windsor_, was tried; his own officers vindicated him from cowardice, but the rest of the charge being clearly proved, he was sentenced to be cashiered, and to be imprisoned during Her Majesty’s (Queen Anne’s) pleasure. The next day, Captain Cooper Wade was tried, and the charge being fully proved by sixteen commission and warrant officers on board his own ship, as also, that he was drunk during the whole time of the engagement, he, making little or no defence, had the same sentence with Kirby. As for Captain Hudson, he died a few days before his trial should have come on, and thereby avoided dying as Kirby and Wade died, for his case was exactly the same as theirs.

Upon the 12th, came on the trials of Captain Samuel Vincent, commander of the _Falmouth_, and Captain Christopher Fogg, who was captain of the admiral’s own ship, the _Breda_, for signing, at the persuasion of Captain Kirby, a paper containing an obligation on themselves not to fight the French. The fact was clear, and the captains themselves did not dispute it. All they offered was in extenuation of their offence, and amounted only to this, that they were apprehensive Kirby would have deserted to the enemy, and they took this step to prevent it. But this tale would have hardly passed on the court-martial, if Admiral Benbow himself had not given some weight to their excuses, by declaring, that however they might be criminal in subscribing that paper, yet they certainly behaved themselves very gallantly in the fight. For the sake of discipline, the court, however, thought fit to suspend them; and yet, to favour the captains, the judgment was given with a proviso that entirely took off its edge, viz., that it should not commence till the pleasure of his Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark, the then Lord High Admiral, should be known. The prince dealt too leniently with them, for he sent orders for their being employed again.

The two chief offenders, however, Kirby and Wade, underwent the penalty their atrocious conduct had so richly merited. They were, in the spring of 1703, sent from Jamaica, onboard Her Majesty’s ship, the _Bristol_, and they arrived at Plymouth on the 16th of April, where (as in all the western ports), there lay a death warrant for their immediate execution, in order to prevent any applications in their favour; and not being, as having disgraced their country, permitted to land on English ground, they were accordingly shot on board the ship that brought them home, showing at their death such courage and constancy of mind, as made it evident that their behaviour in the engagement arose not from any natural cowardice, but from a corrupt and malignant hostility towards their gallant commander. Let us now return to Benbow himself. He lingered near a month after the trials; for the court sat on the 6th of October, and it was on the 4th of November, 1702, that his true and valiant spirit fled. He showed the soul of a perfect British seaman to the very last. He was all along extremely sensible of his danger, and never entertained any flattering hopes of recovery. Yet, while he calmly and religiously prepared for death, he, during his illness, never ceased to perform his duty as an English admiral, with the same firmness he had shown during the engagement, giving all the necessary orders for protecting the trade that could have been expected from him, if he had been in full health. In the letters he wrote home to his wife, he displayed anxiety for the interest of the nation, quite as great as, if not greater, than for his private fortune, or the concerns of his family. Queen Anne, who had succeeded King William on the 8th of March, 1702, deeply mourned the loss of the admiral, and ever expressed the greatest regard for his memory. The admiral’s sister had, in his lifetime, presented his picture to the Corporation of Shrewsbury, who caused it to be hung up in their town-hall, where it still remains, in lasting testimony of the affectionate remembrance in which the men of his county held his worth and patriotism.

Admiral Benbow, by Martha his wife, left behind him a family of two sons and two daughters, but his sons dying without issue, his two surviving daughters became co-heiresses. Of these, the elder, Martha, born in 1679, was the wife, first of Thomas Stringer, and secondly of Samuel Robinson, and died in 1719; and the younger, Catherine, born in 1687, was the wife of Paul Calton, Esq., of Deptford, and of Milton, near Abingdon, Berks, and Hampstead, Middlesex. John Benbow, the admiral’s elder son, was a seaman of some note in his day, in consequence of his strange adventures when second mate on board the _Degrave_, East Indiaman, 52 guns. That vessel was shipwrecked off the coast of Madagascar, and Captain Young, who commanded the vessel, Mr. Buchan, and others with them, endeavoured to make terms with the negro inhabitants of the island, by forcibly carrying off their king and queen. In this daring attempt they nearly succeeded, and some of them, including Benbow, got out of the clutches of the pursuing savages; after this, Benbow, unable to quit the island, remained some years among the negroes, living after their manner, and on friendly terms with them. He eventually returned to England on board a Dutch vessel, and, dying in 1708, was interred in the vault of St. Nicholas Church, Deptford. His brother, William Benbow, a great collector of epitaphs, and at one time a clerk in the Navy Office, died in 1729, and was buried in the same place. Confiscation and outlawry for their loyalty in the time of the Commonwealth did much to scatter the worthy family to which Admiral Benbow belonged; and the connections of it now extant are not many. A grand-niece of the admiral, Mary, was married to Herbert Haselden, Esq., of the White House, county of Hereford, the head and representative of an old Herefordshire family, and was great-grandmother of the present representative, Herbert Howorth Wood, Esq., of the White House, near the city of Hereford. Of the kindred of Admiral Benbow, was also the late John Benbow, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn, M.P. for Dudley, whose two sons are the present Colonel Clifton Benbow, of Bath, and John Henry Benbow, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn.

Some accounts will have it that the remains of Admiral Benbow were brought from Jamaica, and deposited in the cemetery of St. Nicholas Church, Deptford; but that was not so, and no doubt the mistake has arisen from his having rented from Evelyn, the author of “Sylva,” his house, Sayes Court, Deptford; and from the fact of his two sons being interred at St. Nicholas, Deptford. The admiral was buried in Jamaica, and a monument was erected over him, which, according to one statement, a hurricane since swept away.[7] Few visible marks, indeed, remain of this brave admiral, beyond his portraits at Shrewsbury and in Greenwich Hospital, and on inn signs, and beyond a descendant here and there, still living, of his race. In my anxiety to clear up the doubts that hang around the parentage and immediate kindred of the admiral, I, while putting this article together, went down to St. Nicholas Church, Deptford, and after viewing, in that handsome and interesting edifice, the stone tablet with the almost effaced inscription (the arms are unfortunately quite effaced) over the vault where lie the admiral’s two sons, I wandered, with a friend who accompanied me, to the neighbouring Sayes Court, once the property of Evelyn, and let by him to Admiral Benbow, and to a still greater individual, the Czar Peter, when a workman in Deptford dockyard. We reached the place through a hideous labyrinth of streets, reeking with poverty, wretchedness, and dirt. “Alas! if Evelyn saw his favourite mansion and garden now,” was the thought that struck us both. Evelyn once wrote, “I let my house, Sayes Court, near Deptford, on the 1st June, 1696, for three years, to Vice Admiral Benbow, condition to keep up the garden;” and on the 18th of the following January he further wrote: “I have let my house to Captain Benbow, and have the mortification of seeing every day much of my former labours and expense there impairing for want of a more polite tenant.” Evelyn must have got the admiral out before the end of his term, for in January, 1698, he had the Czar for a tenant, whom, while there, the king, William III., came to visit, after having furnished the house for him. The Czar proved even a more careless and less cleanly occupier than the admiral. But to look at Sayes Court now! The free and easy way of living, common to the rough seaman, and the rude northern potentate, could not, in wildest mood, have contemplated such a condition. It has gradually sunk from bad to worse; it has been a workhouse, and has become too decayed and confined for even that. It is now attached to the dockyard as a kind of police station and place for paying off the men. The large hall, used for the latter purpose, was no doubt the scene of many a jovial night spent by the admiral, and his successor, the Czar. What remains of Evelyn’s garden is now a wilderness of weed and rank grass, hemmed in by a dingy wall that shuts out some of the filthiest dwellings imaginable. The avenue of hovels through which we passed from this ruined abode of former greatness, bore the name of Czar Street,—a last, lingering memento of the imperial visit. The illustrious Czar was so great a man, that he could nowhere set his foot without leaving an imprint behind. A monument to him is not needed; but it would have been pleasing to have found in Deptford some memorial carved in brass or stone of our gallant Benbow. Yet, after all, it matters not much, while the British public, ever mindful of greatness in the British navy, permits no oblivion to rest on his personal worth, his achievements, and his fame.

CAPTAIN KIDD, A PIRATE WITH A ROYAL COMMISSION.

Captain William Kidd, the hero of, as it may be called, this political and nautical romance, was born in the town of Greenock, in Scotland, and bred up for a seaman’s life. Having quitted his native country, he resided at New York, where he became owner of a small vessel, with which he traded among the pirates, and thus obtained a thorough knowledge of their haunts, and could give a better account of them than any other person whatever. He was a man not particularly remarkable for courage, but very avaricious. He could never resist the tempting influence of the rapid profits made by pirates, and to this was owing his connection with them. While in their company, he used to converse and act as they did; yet at other times he would make singular professions of honesty, and intimate how easy a matter it would be to extirpate sea robbers, and prevent their future depredations. His frequent remarks on this subject engaged the notice of several considerable planters in the state of New York, who, forming a more favourable opinion of him than his true character would warrant, procured him the patronage with which he was afterwards honoured. For a series of years complaints had been made of the piracies committed in the West Indies, which had been greatly encouraged by some of the inhabitants of North America, on account of the advantage they derived from purchasing effects thus fraudulently obtained. This coming to the knowledge of King William III., he, in the year 1695, bestowed the government of New England and New York on his devoted follower, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellamont, an Irish noble of distinguished character and abilities, who immediately began to consider of the most effectual method to redress the evils complained of, and consulted with Colonel Levingston, a gentleman who had great property in New York, on the most feasible steps to obviate the evils so long complained of. At this juncture Captain Kidd, having made money at New York, was sailing pompously about in a sloop of his own. The colonel fixed on him as the very man needed, and mentioned him to Lord Bellamont as a bold and daring personage, fit to be employed against the pirates, especially as he was perfectly acquainted with the places they resorted to. The plan met with the fullest approbation of his lordship, who reported the affair to King William, and recommended it to the notice of the Board of Admiralty. Yet such were then the hurry and confusion of public affairs in that troubled reign, that, though the design was approved of, no steps were taken towards carrying it into execution. Accordingly, Colonel Levingston made application to Lord Bellamont, that as the affair would not well admit of delay, it was worthy of being undertaken by some private persons of rank and distinction, and carried into execution at their own expense, notwithstanding State encouragement was denied it. His lordship acceded to the project, and, after some difficulties, the Lord Chancellor Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Romney, the Earl of Orford, and some other high persons, with Colonel Levingston and our gallant Captain Kidd himself, agreed to raise £6,000 for the expense of the voyage; and the colonel and the captain were to have a fifth of the profits of the whole undertaking. Matters being so far adjusted, a royal commission in the usual form was granted to Captain Kidd, to take and seize pirates, and bring them to justice; but though a second commission was added, there was, beyond the general direction not to molest the king’s friends, and to bring ships taken to legal trial, no special clause or proviso to restrain his conduct, or regulate the mode of his proceeding. Kidd was known to Lord Bellamont, and another gentleman presented him to Lord Romney. With regard to the rest of the parties concerned, he was wholly unacquainted with them; and so ill was this affair conducted, that he had no private instructions how to act, but received his sailing orders from Lord Bellamont, the purport of which was, that he should act agreeably to the letter of his commission. Behold Kidd now a great man bearing the commission of the bellicose monarch of the Revolution, and with powers unbounded to crush all piracy and robbery on the sea.

A ship was purchased and equipped in the port of London; it received the name, which this affair made so known, of the _Adventure Galley_. In this vessel Captain Kidd crossed the Atlantic, and then towards the close of the year 1695 sailed from New York and made prize of a French ship. Thence he went on to Madeira islands, to Bonavista, and St. Jago, and to Madagascar, acting fairly enough at first; but the sight of so many rich and defenceless merchant ships he met on his way was too strong for him. He could not resist the temptation, and lo! he, the authorised destroyer of pirates, turns pirate himself, and becomes a sea robber with a royal commission. He prowled at the entrance of the Red Sea, and, sailing to Calicut, he began a fearful career of crime by taking a ship of one hundred and fifty tons burthen, which he carried to Madagascar, and disposed of there. Having sold this prize he again put to sea, and at the expiration of five weeks fell upon and seized the _Quedagh Merchant_, a ship of four hundred tons burthen, the master of which was an Englishman, named Wright, who had two Dutch mates on board, and a French gunner; but the crew consisted of Moors, natives of Africa, and were about ninety in number. Kidd carried this ship to St. Mary’s, near Madagascar, where he burnt the _Adventure Galley_, belonging to his owners, and divided the lading of the _Quedagh Merchant_ with his crew, taking forty shares to himself. He and his crew then went on board the _Quedagh Merchant_, and sailed for the West Indies. It is uncertain whether the inhabitants of the West India islands knew that Kidd was a pirate; but he was refused refreshments at Anguilla and St. Thomas’s, and therefore sailed to Mona, between Porto Rico and Hispaniola, where, through the management of an Englishman, named Bolton, he obtained a supply of provisions from Curaçoa. He now bought a sloop of Bolton, in which he stowed great part of his ill-gotten effects, and left the _Quedagh Merchant_, with eighteen of the ship’s company, in Bolton’s care. While at St. Mary’s, ninety men of Kidd’s crew left him, and went on board the _Mocca Merchant_, an East India ship, which had just then commenced pirate. Kidd sailed in the sloop, and touched at several places, where he disposed of a great part of his cargo, and then steered for Boston, in New England. In the interim Bolton sold the _Quedagh Merchant_ to the Spaniards, and immediately sailed as a passenger in a ship for Boston, where he arrived a considerable time before Kidd, and gave to Lord Bellamont information of what had happened. Kidd, therefore, on his arrival, was seized by order of his lordship, when all he had to urge in his defence was, that he thought the _Quedagh Merchant_ a lawful prize, as she was manned with Moors, though there was no kind of proof that this vessel had committed any act of piracy. Upon this, the Earl of Bellamont immediately despatched an account to England of the circumstances that had arisen, and requested that a ship might be sent for Kidd, who had committed several other notorious acts of piracy. News in those days travelled slowly, but one may conceive the excitement that arose in England when it became at length known that an adventure in which the Lord Chancellor and other high men of the State were shareholders, was being piratically carried on to the terror and ruin of the peaceful merchant ships afloat, and the unoffending inhabitants of coasts not at war with us. A perfect storm burst out against the Government. “Was this to be the system of the king who had dethroned the Stuarts in the name of justice to persons and protection to property?” cried the Jacobites. “A strange revolution and for little purpose,” thought the less ardent of the Whigs. Even the ultra followers of King William stood aghast.

The Government met the uproar boldly, honestly, and determinedly. Somers, who held the Great Seal so worthily, did not flinch for an instant. It was resolved to treat Kidd as a common culprit, and to subject him to a full and open trial, in which every particular would come out. Meanwhile an inquiry was called for in the House of Commons, and it was there moved, that “The letters patent, granted to Richard Earl of Bellamont and others, of all goods taken from pirates, were dishonourable to the king, against the law of nations, contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm, an invasion of property, and destructive to commerce.” After a long and stormy debate, the motion was negatived by a majority of 13—the ayes being 185, the noes 198. In the Lords, Lord Somers and the Earl of Orford refuted victoriously the charge insinuated against them of giving countenance to pirates, and showed that the Earl of Bellamont was as innocent as they were. A motion was, however, carried in the Commons to address his majesty, that “Kidd might not be tried till the next session of Parliament, and that the Earl of Bellamont might be directed to send home all examinations and other papers relative to the affair.” The king complied with the request. As soon as Kidd arrived in England, he was sent for, and examined at the bar of the House of Commons, with a view to fix part of his guilt on the parties who had been concerned in sending him on the expedition, but nothing arose to criminate any of those distinguished persons. Kidd, who was actually in a state of semi-intoxication when he came to the bar of the House, made there a very contemptible appearance, on which a member, who had been one of the most earnest to have him examined, violently exclaimed, “This fellow, I thought he had been only a knave, but unfortunately he happens to be also a fool.”

The trials of Kidd and his companions came on at the Old Bailey in May, 1701. The proceedings were very lengthy, and consisted of several distinct trials; the first was for murder against Kidd alone, the other trials were for various acts of piracy committed by him and different members of his crew. Kidd was found guilty in every case, and his men mostly so in the trials in which they were included.

The charge of murder against Kidd was evidently brought to secure his being capitally convicted, in case there might be acquittals on the charges of piracy; however, the act itself was a very brutal one. The victim of Kidd’s violence was William Moor, a gunner of his crew, whom Kidd, after he had become a pirate, happened, when on board, in a moment of anger to call “a dog.” “If I am a dog,” retorted Moor, “you have made me so; yes, you have made me so; you have brought me to ruin and many more.” Kidd, stung to madness by the reproach, seized a wooden bucket hooped with iron, and struck Moor on the head with it. The blow was fatal: the unfortunate creature was carried to the gun-room and died the next day. On this charge, the jury found Kidd guilty of murder; and then came on the chief trial, which interested all England, viz., that of Kidd and nine of his crew, Nicholas Churchill, James Howe, Robert Lamley, William Jenkins, Gabriel Loff, Hugh Parrot, Richard Barlicorn, Alexander Owens, and Darby Mullins, for piracy and robbery on a ship called the _Quedagh Merchant_.

There was a great judicial array on the Bench: the Judges were Sir Edward Ward, Lord Chief Baron; Sir John Turton and Sir Henry Gould, Judges of the Court of King’s Bench; Sir John Powell, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas: and Dr. Oxenden, Judge of the Admiralty. The Solicitor-General, Sir John Hawles; Dr. Newton, Advocate for the Admiralty; Mr. Cowper, M.P. (afterwards the great Lord Chancellor Cowper); Mr. Coniers, and Mr. Knapp conducted the prosecution. Dr. Oldish, Mr. Nixon, and Mr. Moxon were momentarily allowed to intervene for Kidd and others; but this was only by indulgence, the barbarous custom being then in full force of not allowing counsel for prisoners charged with felony to act at all, unless on some admitted question of law that might arise. However, for those times, the trial was pretty fairly conducted, and bears a strong contrast to the judicial investigations before the Revolution, and indeed to some that had occurred immediately after.

As the speech of Dr. Newton, the counsel for the Admiralty, gave a full summary of the whole of the affair, I extract from the State Trials his address to the jury. He spoke as follows:—

“My lord and gentlemen,—The prisoner at the bar, Captain William Kidd, late commander of the _Adventure Galley_, and nine other mariners in the same vessel, stand indicted for feloniously and piratically assaulting and taking a ship, called the _Quedagh Merchant_, on the high sea, near Cutsheen, in the East Indies, about the 30th of January, in the ninth year of his majesty’s reign: the ship was considerable for its force and bulk, being above four hundred tons, and more considerable for its lading, having on board to the value of many thousand pounds.

“This Captain Kidd, who thus acted the pirate himself, went from England in April, 1696, with a commission, dated the 26th of January preceding, to take and seize pirates in the Indian seas, which were very much and very dangerously infested by them, to the great hazard and loss and ruin of the merchant.

“The ship carried thirty guns, and there were on board about eighty men; but the Captain being come from New York, in July, 1696, pretending, as indeed it was designed he should, and he had undertaken to make that design good, that he was going to Madagascar (which was the known and common receptacle of the pirates in those seas) to take pirates, and free the seas from those disturbers of the commerce of mankind; so many came into him, being invited by articles publicly set up by him in that place, that his number quickly increased to one hundred and fifty-five men; a force sufficient, if he had meant well, to have made him useful to the public; and to prove as mischievous, if his designs were otherwise: and what those were will quickly appear.

“After calling in at several places for provisions, and, among others, at Madagascar, in July, 1697, he sailed to Bob’s Key, a small island at the entrance of the Red Sea, and a convenient station for the observing what vessels went from thence to the Indies; and now, instead of taking pirates, he becomes one himself, and the greatest and worst of all. He stayed three weeks, in expectation of the Mocca fleet, to make his benefit and his fortune out of it; for, whatever he had before pretended, that was his real design, and now so possessed his mind, that he could not refrain from declaring, and that often to his men, that now he should make his voyage, and ballast his ship with gold and silver. After long expectation the fleet, on the 14th of August, to the number of fourteen, came by; he fell in with the middle of them, fired several guns at them; but finding they had an English and a Dutch convoy, that design happily failed of the wished-for success.

“This disappointment, however, did not discourage him, but that he proceeded on for the coast of Malabar, where he knew the trade was considerable, and hoped his advantage would be proportionable in the disturbing it; and there accordingly, for several months, he committed many great piracies and robberies, taking the ships and goods of the Indians and others at sea, Moors and Christians, and torturing cruelly their persons, to discover if anything had escaped his hands; burning their houses, and killing after a barbarous manner the natives on the shores, equally cruel, dreaded and hated both on the land and at sea.

“These criminal attempts and actions had rendered his name (to the disgrace and the prejudice of the English nation) too well known, and deservedly detested, in those remote parts of the world; and he was now looked upon as an arch-pirate, and the common enemy of mankind; and accordingly two Portuguese men-of-war went out in pursuit of him, and one met with him and fought him for several hours, but Kidd’s fortune reserved him for another manner of trial.

“Amongst the great number of vessels he took on that coast was the ship he stands indicted for, the _Quedagh Merchant_, being then on a trading voyage from Bengal to Surat, the commander English (Captain Wright), the owners Armenian merchants, and others. He had taken Moors before, but Moors and Christians are all alike to pirates; they distinguish not nations nor religions. Those on board the vessels offered 30,000 rupees for her ransom, but the ship was too considerable to be parted with even for so great a sum, so Kidd sold goods out of her on the neighbouring coast to the value of £10,000 or £12,000, out of which he took whatever he could pretend to for ammunition and provisions, with forty shares for himself, and the remainder was disposed of amongst the crew, and particularly those who are here indicted with him, who accompanied him, who assisted him throughout all his piracies, and who now, too, share the spoils and the guilt with him.

“With this ship and another, and the remainder of the goods not sold on the coast, he sailed once more for Madagascar, where he arrived in the beginning of May, 1698, and there again what was left on board was divided according to the same proportions, and amongst the same persons as before, each mariner having about three bales to his share.

“It is not to be omitted that, at his return to Madagascar, there came on board to him some persons from the ship the _Resolution_, formerly the _Mocca_ frigate (for the piratically seizing of which vessel there have been formerly trials and convictions in this place), of which Captain Culliford, a notorious pirate, now in custody, and against whom two bills have been found for piracy by the grand jury, was the commander. They at first seem to have been afraid of Kidd, but without any grounds, as his former actions had demonstrated, and the sequel showed. They, who were hardened pirates, and long inured to villanies, could scarce think that any man could so betray the trust and confidence the public had placed in him, and said they thought he came to take and hang them: but Captain Kidd assured them that he had no such design, and that rather his soul should be lost than do them any harm; bid them not be afraid, and swore he would be true to them; and here, indeed, he did not break his word. This was his way of being true to his trust, and making good the end of his commission, in acting with the greatest treachery and the greatest falseness that ever man did; and to make all that has been represented of him true, Captain Kidd and Captain Culliford went on board, treated and presented each other; and, instead of taking Culliford, as it was his duty to have done, and his force was sufficient to have performed it, he gave him money and ammunition, two great guns and shot, and other necessaries to fit him out to sea, that he might be better able to take and seize other innocent persons.

“His own ship he now left, and went on board the _Quedagh Merchant_; several of his men then went from him, but not as prisoners. They were all along well-wishers and assistants to him, fought for him, divided the plunder with him, and are now come to be tried with him.

“This, gentlemen, is the crime he is indicted for—piracy; the growing trouble, disturbance, and mischief of the trading world and the peaceable part of mankind, the scandal and reproach of the European nations and the Christian name (I wish I could not say that the Kidds and the Averys had not made it more particularly so among the English), amongst Mahometans and Pagans in the extremest parts of the earth, which turns not only to the disadvantage of the immediate sufferers, but of all such as traffic in those countries, whether companies or single merchants, who are to suffer for the misfortunes of others, with whom, it may be, they have no dealings, and for the villanies of such, whom they and all mankind equally and justly detest and abhor.

“This is the person that stands indicted at that bar, than whom no one in this age has done more mischief, in this worst kind of mischief; or has occasioned greater confusion and disorder, attended with all the circumstances of cruelty and falsehood, and a complication of all manner of ill.

“If, therefore, these facts should be proved upon him, you will then, gentlemen, in finding him guilty, do justice to the injured world, the English nation (our common country), whose interest and welfare so much depend on the increase and security of trade; and, lastly, to yourselves, whom the law has made judges of the fact.”

The evidence bore out this statement, and indeed the prisoners had no defence on the facts (beyond Kidd’s urging falsely that the _Quedagh Merchant_ sailed under a French pass), but three of them—Howe, Churchill, and Mullins—put forward a plea that they were entitled to the king’s pardon, as they had surrendered themselves on a proclamation of the king’s gracious pardon to such pirates, except Kidd, as gave themselves up. They had certainly so surrendered themselves, but the crown lawyers objected that they had not surrendered to the actual commissioners appointed to carry out the proclamation. Mr. Moxon for the prisoner Churchill thus put the point:—

“My lord, about the year 1698, there was a special commission given to four persons, and they were to proceed in their voyage to the Indies, and they carried a great number of proclamations, that all the pirates in such and such places should surrender themselves. Now they came to St. Helena with them, and Captain Warren was sent to St. Mary’s, and he was to deliver some of these proclamations there, and the commissioner had then the ambassador to the Great Mogul on board, and this Captain Warren these proclamations. Warren comes and delivers the proclamations out, and, among the rest the prisoner at the bar having notice of this, he goes to the governor, and confesses he had been a pirate, and desired them to take notice that he surrendered himself; and we have the governor of St. Mary’s here to give an account of this matter.”

_Lord Chief Baron Ward._—“The proclamation says, They must surrender themselves to such and such persons by name: see if it be so. [Then the proclamation was read again.] Here are several qualifications mentioned; you must bring yourselves under them, if you would have the benefit of it.”

_Dr. Newton._—“Let them show that they surrendered themselves to the persons they were to surrender to.”

_Mr. Moxon._—“My lord, we will prove we gave notice within the time, by this paper.”

_Solicitor-General_ (Sir John Hawles).—“There is no time mentioned in it. [The affidavit was read.] Charles Hally, gent., maketh oath, that in the year 1698, there being notice of his majesty’s gracious pardon to such pirates as should surrender themselves, James Howe, Nicholas Churchill, and Darby Mullins, in May, 1699, did surrender themselves to Jeremiah Bass, governor of St. Mary’s, and he did admit them to bail.”