Cecil Whig
May 24 2014
Infamous captain may have hidden treasures in county
By Erika Quesenbery Sturgill Special to the Whig Cecil Daily
LONDON, England — Traditionally when a convicted criminal was hanged
at London’s Execution Dock, their tale of murder, mayhem and misdeeds
ended with the springing of the trapdoor.
But not so for the man hanged on May 23, 1701. For him his fame spread
further and his name became so abundantly familiar as to be perceived
by many as mere folklore and fiction. That criminal, convicted of
murder and piracy was William Kidd, better known as the fearsome Capt.
Kidd.
The Scottish pirate Kidd was convicted of murdering William Moore
after returning from a voyage on the Indian Ocean. Born about January
22, 1645, in Dundee, Scotland, the son of Capt. John Kyd, who was lost
at sea. His fatherless family was supported by local charitable
institutions there until Kidd finally settled in the new American
colony of New York.
Although Kidd is truly one of the most notorious pirates in history,
many historians debate that he was one of the most unjustly vilified.
Despite all of the stories and legends of his misdeeds, his actual
career contained but a handful of skirmishes, followed by years of
attempting to restore his good name. Indeed, some historians project
that Kidd was but a privateer, licensed to wreak havoc on enemy ships.
His piratical exploits, however, are well documented when he was
questioned by the English Parliament at trial and sensationalized over
the decades.
It is truly difficult to extract facts from all of the legends and
fictions on Captain Kidd, but it is definitively known that in 1689 he
was a member of a French-English pirate crew on the Caribbean, where
he with other members of the crew mutinied and ousted the captain.
They renamed the ship Blessed William, Kidd became captain and the
vessel became part of a small fleet to defend the island of Nevis from
the French, with whom the English were at war. The Governor of Nevis
could not pay the sailors but offered they could “extract their pay
from the French,” or loot the French — both on land and sea — which
Kidd and his men did with wanton joy and wild success.
After these exploits, Kidd joined in the War of the Grand Alliance
with orders from New York and Massachusetts, and captured an enemy
privateer off the New England coast earning a 150-pound award. He then
wed Sarah Bradley Cox Oort in 1691, a stunning English woman in her
early 20s who had already been twice widowed. One of the wealthiest
women in New York, she brought to the marriage a massive inheritance
rumored to have been greater than all of the treasure Kidd had gained
through his sailing.
Despite being made a wealthy man through marriage, four years later on
Dec. 11, 1795, “the trusty and well-beloved Captain Kidd” was asked by
New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire to attack Thomas Tew, John
Ireland, Thomas Wake and William Maze and “all others who associated
themselves with pirates” — and the French. Kidd accepted, for refusal
would have been seen as disloyalty to the crown and born with it
social stigma. It was truly this voyage that would establish Kidd’s
reputation as a pirate handed down through history.
Some of England’s most wealthy and powerful men financed Kidd’s
mission, and gave him a letter of marque signed by King William III of
England, reserving 10 percent of the loot for the Crown. Col. Robert
Livingston contributed significantly to the voyage, and the king may
have contributed, as well. Kidd sold his ship Antiqua to raise funds
and purchased the Adventure Galley of 284-tons burden with 34 cannon,
oars and a 150-man crew personally selected by Kidd.
Though he chose the crew for the skill and loyalty, they were not
necessarily the most “worldly” and respectful. As the Adventure Galley
sailed down the Thames, Kidd failed to salute the Royal Navy yacht at
Greenwich, which was custom. The yacht thus fired a shot to force Kidd
to show his respect. Kidd’s crew, however, responded by turning around
and slapping their rumps in disdain and derision in the general
direction of the yacht. The acton resulted in many of the crew being
pressed into naval service as punishment leaving Kidd short-handed.
Nonetheless, he sailed for New York, capturing French vessels on the
way, and hauled aboard a replacement crew in New York — mostly known
hardened criminals.
And thus begins the reasoning for the 1701 execution. It was during
this voyage that Kidd killed one of his own crewmen on Oct. 30, 1697.
William Moore, Kidd’s gunner, was sharpening a chisel on deck when he
sighted a Dutch ship. Moore urged Kidd to attack the vessel, a
piratical act that would infuriate the Dutch-born King of England.
Kidd refused and called Moore a “lousy dog.” The gunner retorted, “If
I am a lousy dog, you have made me so; you have brought me to ruin and
many more.” In anger, Kidd grabbed an ironbound bucket and heaved it
at Moore’s head, fracturing his skull. Moore died the next day.
Unconcerned, Kidd continued his sail and took his greatest prize in
1698, an Armenian ship of 400 tons loaded with cloth and East Indian
merchandise, along with gold and silver. The ship had an English
captain, but was Armenian with French passes — a tenuous situation.
Kidd thought to return the loot to the captain, but his crew fought
against it and he eventually relented. This deed prompted authorities
in England to mark him as a pirate and orders were put out to “pursue
and seize Kidd for notorious piracies.”
Kidd, unaware of this, sailed for Madagascar, after renaming the
Armenian ship the Adventure Prize. Once there, most of Kidd’s crew
abandoned him for another pirate, leaving Kidd with only 13 men aboard
the Adventure Galley and prompting Kidd to head home to the Caribbean
and then New York on the Adventure Prize after burning the worm-eaten
Adventure Galley.
Kidd learned he was a wanted pirate on his way to New York and that
several English men-of-war hunted him. He abandoned the Adventure
Prize in the Caribbean Sea and sailed for New York on a sloop
depositing some of his treasure on Gardiner’s Island, and allegedly at
other spots as well. He thought the location of his hidden hordes
would spare him the gallows as a bargaining chip. Despite this, upon
reaching Boston, Kidd and his wife, Sarah, were arrested July 6, 1699.
After a year in the harsh conditions of Stone Prison, he was sent to
England brought to trial and held in the infamous Newgate Prison.
Kidd’s treasure, or treasures as it were, are rumored to pepper the
landscape of any coastline he traveled, including Maryland. One legend
tells of $65,000 in gold and jewels stashed in sea chests buried near
stately mansions. The most prominent Maryland legend pinpoints chests
concealed in the ground near a mansion built at the center of Druid
Hill Park — pretty much dead center of today’s Maryland Zoo. The
mansion once belonged to the Rogers’ family who often found treasure
seekers digging up their lawns. Indeed, the house was in danger of
collapse from all of the digging and arrests were made — but no
treasure was ever found.
Another legend states a cache of Kidd’s treasure was tucked safely
away on Deale Island on the lower shore. Another, less promoted
legend, reports Kidd had temporary holding points along the
Susquehanna River, once using the grounds of Mt. Ararat near Port
Deposit to hide his stash in full knowledge of the property owner
Richard Touchstone. The not oft repeated legend was passed down
through the Touchstone family and told, with discretion, by the late
B. Marion Touchstone, the last direct Touchstone descendant. She also
avowed Kidd may have stored treasure in Talbot’s Cave until a better
location was found and was thought to have buried a small horde on
what is now Garrett Island at the site of a long dormant volcano.
BOX: Kidd’s trial, execution and legend
Capt. Kidd did have two lawyers to defend him, but he was found guilty
of the murder of William Moore and five counts of piracy and thus
ordered hanged on May 23, 1701. During his execution, the hangman’s
rope broke, so it took two attempts to execute the captain. His body
was then gibbetted in a cage over the River Thames as a warning to
future pirates — where it remained and decayed for three gruesome
years.
A broadside song Captain Kidd’s Farewell to the Seas, or, The Famous
Pirate’s Lament was printed shortly after his execution enhancing his
legend and that of his buried treasure. The song tells of 200 bars of
gold and elements of this song are evident in works by Edgar Allan Poe
(The Gold Bug), Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker, Robert
Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and in Nelson DeMille’s Plum Island.
It also prompts modern day treasure hunts, some of which have produced
their own modern mystery shows, on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, in Long
Island (where Gardiner’s Island is located), and Charles Island,
Cockenoe Island and Thimble Islands in Connecticut.
The legend also continues in modern culture, including the 1945 film
Captain Kidd, starring Charles Laughton as Kidd portraying him as a
manipulative sociopath. Laughton would reprise the role in the comic
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd in 1952. In 1954, Anthony Dexter
and Eva Gabor starred in the film Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl. In
1986, Parker Brothers produced the board game Captain Kidd and His
Treasures. Kidd is even part of a video game called Sid Meier’s
Pirates! As one of nine other notorious pirates with whom players
compete; and the video game Assassin’s Creed III Freedom Edition has a
mission called Lost Mayan Ruins in which the player who completes the
mission earns Captain Kidd’s fabled sword, the Sawtooth Cutlass, and
can retrieve four pieces of map leading to Kidd’s fabled treasure.
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.cecildaily.com/our_cecil/article_7bcdf642-72b3-595f-9684-8fe713905f48.html