William Kidd was born in Scotland in 1645. there is nothing known about
his mother but his father was a minister. His first ship was the Antigua. When Captain
Kidd was a pirate hunter, he went to New York to load up on supplies. There he met Sarah
Bradley Cox Oort. Later they got married and had two daughters: Elizabeth and Sarah Kidd.
After Kidd got married, he started pirate hunting again with a new ship, the Adventure
Galley. This new ship had 70 men and 36 cannons.Life on the Adventure Galley was not easy.
There was no protection from the heat or cold. Sometimes there was no wind, so the ship
would not move for two or three days. Sometimes people got sick and died before they could
get to land. It took a long time before Captain Kidd captured his first ship. So, as far
as pirates go, he was not successful.
The belief that Kidd left a buried
treasure somewhere contributed considerably to the growth of
his legend. This belief made its contribution to literature
in Edgar Allan Poe's The Gold Bug, Washington
Irving's The Devil and Tom Walker , Robert Louis
Stevenson's Treasure Island and Nelson DeMille's
Plum Island. It also gave impetus to the never-ending
treasure hunts on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, in Suffolk
County, Long Island in New York where Gardiner's Island is
located, Charles Island in Milford, Connecticut, and in the
Thimble Islands in Connecticut.
Captain Kidd did bury a small cache of treasure on Gardiner's Island in a spot known as Cherry Tree Field; however, it was removed by Governor Bellomont and sent to England to be used as evidence against him. Kidd also visited Block Island around 1699, where he was supplied by Mrs. Mercy (Sands) Raymond, daughter of the mariner James Sands. The story has it that, for her hospitality, Mrs. Raymond was bid to hold out her apron, into which Kidd threw gold and jewels until it was full. After her husband Joshua Raymond died, Mercy removed with her family to northern New London, Connecticut (later Montville), where she bought much land. The Raymond family was thus said to have been "enriched by the apron".
There is also a mention of Kidd attacking one of the Japanese islands of the Tokara archipelago, south of Kagoshima. It is the most southern island named Takarajima. The legend says that all the pirates requested food and cattle from the inhabitants of the island. Their offer was refused and thus 23 of the pirates landed and burned alive the inhabitants in a lime cave, while after, Kidd has hidden his treasure in one of the caves, for which he has never come back due to his execution in England.
Captain Kidd did bury a small cache of treasure on Gardiner's Island in a spot known as Cherry Tree Field; however, it was removed by Governor Bellomont and sent to England to be used as evidence against him. Kidd also visited Block Island around 1699, where he was supplied by Mrs. Mercy (Sands) Raymond, daughter of the mariner James Sands. The story has it that, for her hospitality, Mrs. Raymond was bid to hold out her apron, into which Kidd threw gold and jewels until it was full. After her husband Joshua Raymond died, Mercy removed with her family to northern New London, Connecticut (later Montville), where she bought much land. The Raymond family was thus said to have been "enriched by the apron".
There is also a mention of Kidd attacking one of the Japanese islands of the Tokara archipelago, south of Kagoshima. It is the most southern island named Takarajima. The legend says that all the pirates requested food and cattle from the inhabitants of the island. Their offer was refused and thus 23 of the pirates landed and burned alive the inhabitants in a lime cave, while after, Kidd has hidden his treasure in one of the caves, for which he has never come back due to his execution in England.
