William Kidd
William Kidd (1645 – 23 May 1701) was a Scottish sailor and privateer for the English Parliament. During his career as a privateer, Kidd was accused of piracy and subsequently captured and executed by hanging.
Biography
Little is known about Kidd's life before the late 17th century, though he made his first appearance in historical records in 1689, when he was listed as a captain. Following this, he was a privateer for Britain in the West Indies, of which he then made his way to New York, where he lived for several years.
In 1695, William was given a privateer's commission to hunt ships in the Indian Ocean, but he violated the commission's terms and attacked ships in the Red Sea.
In 1699, Kidd returned to the West Indies, where he discovered that he was a wanted man. He sold his ship the Quedagh Merchant in Hispaniola, and he traveled up the coast on his new vessel. Knowing that he would eventually be caught, Kidd began hiding treasure as he went. During his travels, Kidd discovered that he was being hunted by English soldiers who he concluded did not fight on the Crown's behalf, but wore rings adorned with a red cross - Templars - who were after Kidd's Shard of Eden. Kidd buried the artifact on Oak Island and wrote four letters to the most trusted members of his former crew, each containing a clue to the artifact's location.
Kidd was finally captured when he returned to his home in New York. There, he attempted to talk and bribe his way out of arrest, though it failed, leading to his hanging in London in 1701, for the charge of piracy. His execution attracted a lot of spectators, most of them hoping he would use his last words to reveal the whereabouts of some of his treasure, but he remained quiet until the very end.
Legacy
The whereabouts of William Kidd's treasure was a mystery to many. He was in possession of a Shard of Eden, which granted Kidd near invincibility from musket fire, and it was reported that he hid this Shard on Oak Island, off the southern coast of Canada.
Following this, he made a map with clues to the Shard's location and divided it into four pieces, distributing it to the most trusted of his crew members, which in turn all came into the possession of the sailor Peg Leg. The Assassin Connor would later collect all four pieces of the map and then travel to Oak Island to obtain the Shard.
Connor also believed that the other of William Kidd's treasures was located in an isolated ruin on the island of Cerros, located in the Caribbean Sea. The Assassin was able to navigate his way through the ruins, and in the end, he managed to obtain Captain Kidd's Sawtooth Cutlass, the privateer's personal weapon.
Kidd's renown was so great in the West Indies that the Assassin Mary Read took on the alias of his son, James Kidd, to become a pirate.
Trivia
- William Kidd's outfit featured several Assassin insignia, even though Kidd appeared to have no knowledge of the Assassins and Templars.