Kidd
Kidd names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Kidd William, a noted pirate
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
William, a noted pirate. He was born at Greenock, Scotland, date unknown. He was known as a brave and adventurous shipmaster, sailing between British ports and the ports of the American colonies. Pirates infested the sea. The losses of ships and goods were enormous. The British government looked about for some one to put an end to these robberies on the high seas. In 1696 a royal commission was issued to "our trusty and well beloved Captain Kidd, commander of the ship Adventure Galley." His ship was well equipped and carried thirty guns and a strong crew armed to the teeth. Kidd had no sooner set sail from Plymouth than it occurred to him to turn pirate himself. Finding his crew agreeable he cruised along the American coast for a time, then sailed for eastern Africa and the East Indies, frequenting the coast of Madagascar, where he continued a course of outrage and plunder for two years. In 1698 he returned to New York and buried a part of his treasure on Gardiner Island, near the eastern shore of Long Island . Supposing his career unknown, he anchored at Boston and swaggered through the streets after the manner of a man who proposes to have a good time for once. The English governor of Boston had an inkling of his misdeeds, however, and sent him to England in irons. In the absence of specific proof of piracy he was hanged on general principles. His deeds attracted attention. His fate aroused sympathy. A somewhat distorted account of his life took the form of a popular ballad, "My Name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed," etc. Governor Bellamont of Massachusetts caused the cache on Gardiner's Island to be opened. He secured 738 ounces of gold and 847 ounces of silver. This small amount did not satisfy the popular imagination. Fishermen about Long Island Sound and the mouth of Hudson River still cling to the idea that an immense treasure waits for the finder. Schoolboys steal away and dig for Captain Kidd's treasure. Edgar Allen Poe has made use of the Captain Kidd treasure trove in his story of the Gold Bug.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM, an American pirate; born probably in Greenock, Scotland. He is supposed to have been the son of a worthy Covenanting minister. The lad went early to sea, saw much hard service privateering against the French, and gained a high reputation for stubborn courage, and in 1691 a reward of $900 from the council of New York City. At this time the American colonies were supposed to be nests of pirates who_infested the Indian Ocean, are those the India and Coote, Earl of Bellomont, was sent Bellomont, radiatus out by William III. as governor of New 8 govern York and Massachusetts with special inetts with s structions to suppress the pest. A ship the pest. of 30 guns was fitted out by a private ernment d out by company in London and given to Kidd the World and given of Ukraine to act against the French and cap- French ture pirates. In January, 1697, he square anuary, reached Madagascar, the chief rendezcountry. the chie vous of the pirates, but ere long reports noted but ere lon reached England that Captain Kidd was cattle t Captain playing the game of pirate himself. inces. of pirate After a two years' cruise he returned to uise he re the West Indies, and a few months later dustries a few mon had the temerity to go to Boston. He go to Bos KIEFF was arrested and sent to England, where to Englan of the he was tried for piracy, found guilty, and racy, foun and hanged at Execution Dock, London, portant; ation Dock May 24, 1701. He had buried a store of ad buried tradition treasure on Gardiner's Island, off Long Christian era. s Island, Island, which was seized, amounting with ed, amoun capital what was found elsewhere to $70,000. where to S remained
Kidd BENJAMIN, an English sociologist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BENJAMIN, an English sociologist; born in 1858. He entered the inland-revenue service of Great Britain in 1877. He wrote "Social Evolution" (1894); "The Control of the Tropics" (1898); "Individualism and After" (1908); "The Two Principal Laws of Sociology" (1909). Died in 1916.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's said in 1910 that Kidd, lacking specific proof of piracy, "was hanged on general principles" ar more literally than it knew: historians now treat his 1701 trial as a political sacrifice, since the French passes he seized from captured ships — his defence that the captures were lawful — were not produced at his trial, and turned up much later among English state papers. The buried cache Collier's valued in 1921 at $70,000 remains the only treasure ever recovered; the Long Island digging Aiton's described has produced nothing in the century since. In 2007 divers identified the wreck of the Quedagh Merchant, the prize that ruined him, in shallow water off Catalina Island, Dominican Republic, and it is now protected as an underwater preserve. Benjamin Kidd, whose "Social Evolution" (1894) was a bestseller in its day, is now read only as a specimen of late-Victorian social Darwinism and imperial thinking.
Written for this edition, 2026.