Captain William Kidd was born in Dundee in 1654. His father was John Kidd, who was a seaman, and his mother was Bessie Butchart. William became a sea captain and emigrated to New York where he married the twice-widowed Sarah Oort. Kidd returned to London in 1695 and sailed for the Indian Ocean to hunt for pirates and French ships. Although he had permission (a commission) from Whig members of the House of Lords to do so, the way he went about it caused a great deal of concern. Not only were a lot of his crew pirates, he attacked ships he wasn’t supposed to such as those carrying pilgrims returning from Mecca to India. Unfortunately for him, his capture of the ship Quedagh Merchant, even though she was flying the French flag and therefore a legitimate target, offended the Grand Mughal, one of the Indian rulers. Kidd then took his ship, the  Adventure Galley, to Ste. Marie, a pirate base just off the coast of Madagascar where he openly associated with other pirates. Due to complaints raised by the Mughal concerning Kidd, orders were given out in 1698 to seize him and put him on trial. Although Kidd had trodden an extremely fine line between privateering (capturing ships with government permission) and piracy, his fate was sealed because he had also murdered his gunner William Moore by hitting him over the head with a bucket. Kidd was tried before the high court of Admiralty and sentenced to death for piracy and murder. He was executed at Wapping on 23rd May 1701. This had to be done twice as the rope broke on the first attempt.

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