Part 2

Admiral Benbow, by Martha his wife, left behind him a family of two sons and two daughters, but his sons dying without issue, his two surviving daughters became co-heiresses. Of these, the elder, Martha, born in 1679, was the wife, first of Thomas Stringer, and secondly of Samuel Robinson, and died in 1719; and the younger, Catherine, born in 1687, was the wife of Paul Calton, Esq., of Deptford, and of Milton, near Abingdon, Berks, and Hampstead, Middlesex. John Benbow, the admiral’s elder son, was a seaman of some note in his day, in consequence of his strange adventures when second mate on board the _Degrave_, East Indiaman, 52 guns. That vessel was shipwrecked off the coast of Madagascar, and Captain Young, who commanded the vessel, Mr. Buchan, and others with them, endeavoured to make terms with the negro inhabitants of the island, by forcibly carrying off their king and queen. In this daring attempt they nearly succeeded, and some of them, including Benbow, got out of the clutches of the pursuing savages; after this, Benbow, unable to quit the island, remained some years among the negroes, living after their manner, and on friendly terms with them. He eventually returned to England on board a Dutch vessel, and, dying in 1708, was interred in the vault of St. Nicholas Church, Deptford. His brother, William Benbow, a great collector of epitaphs, and at one time a clerk in the Navy Office, died in 1729, and was buried in the same place. Confiscation and outlawry for their loyalty in the time of the Commonwealth did much to scatter the worthy family to which Admiral Benbow belonged; and the connections of it now extant are not many. A grand-niece of the admiral, Mary, was married to Herbert Haselden, Esq., of the White House, county of Hereford, the head and representative of an old Herefordshire family, and was great-grandmother of the present representative, Herbert Howorth Wood, Esq., of the White House, near the city of Hereford. Of the kindred of Admiral Benbow, was also the late John Benbow, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn, M.P. for Dudley, whose two sons are the present Colonel Clifton Benbow, of Bath, and John Henry Benbow, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn.

Some accounts will have it that the remains of Admiral Benbow were brought from Jamaica, and deposited in the cemetery of St. Nicholas Church, Deptford; but that was not so, and no doubt the mistake has arisen from his having rented from Evelyn, the author of “Sylva,” his house, Sayes Court, Deptford; and from the fact of his two sons being interred at St. Nicholas, Deptford. The admiral was buried in Jamaica, and a monument was erected over him, which, according to one statement, a hurricane since swept away.[7] Few visible marks, indeed, remain of this brave admiral, beyond his portraits at Shrewsbury and in Greenwich Hospital, and on inn signs, and beyond a descendant here and there, still living, of his race. In my anxiety to clear up the doubts that hang around the parentage and immediate kindred of the admiral, I, while putting this article together, went down to St. Nicholas Church, Deptford, and after viewing, in that handsome and interesting edifice, the stone tablet with the almost effaced inscription (the arms are unfortunately quite effaced) over the vault where lie the admiral’s two sons, I wandered, with a friend who accompanied me, to the neighbouring Sayes Court, once the property of Evelyn, and let by him to Admiral Benbow, and to a still greater individual, the Czar Peter, when a workman in Deptford dockyard. We reached the place through a hideous labyrinth of streets, reeking with poverty, wretchedness, and dirt. “Alas! if Evelyn saw his favourite mansion and garden now,” was the thought that struck us both. Evelyn once wrote, “I let my house, Sayes Court, near Deptford, on the 1st June, 1696, for three years, to Vice Admiral Benbow, condition to keep up the garden;” and on the 18th of the following January he further wrote: “I have let my house to Captain Benbow, and have the mortification of seeing every day much of my former labours and expense there impairing for want of a more polite tenant.” Evelyn must have got the admiral out before the end of his term, for in January, 1698, he had the Czar for a tenant, whom, while there, the king, William III., came to visit, after having furnished the house for him. The Czar proved even a more careless and less cleanly occupier than the admiral. But to look at Sayes Court now! The free and easy way of living, common to the rough seaman, and the rude northern potentate, could not, in wildest mood, have contemplated such a condition. It has gradually sunk from bad to worse; it has been a workhouse, and has become too decayed and confined for even that. It is now attached to the dockyard as a kind of police station and place for paying off the men. The large hall, used for the latter purpose, was no doubt the scene of many a jovial night spent by the admiral, and his successor, the Czar. What remains of Evelyn’s garden is now a wilderness of weed and rank grass, hemmed in by a dingy wall that shuts out some of the filthiest dwellings imaginable. The avenue of hovels through which we passed from this ruined abode of former greatness, bore the name of Czar Street,—a last, lingering memento of the imperial visit. The illustrious Czar was so great a man, that he could nowhere set his foot without leaving an imprint behind. A monument to him is not needed; but it would have been pleasing to have found in Deptford some memorial carved in brass or stone of our gallant Benbow. Yet, after all, it matters not much, while the British public, ever mindful of greatness in the British navy, permits no oblivion to rest on his personal worth, his achievements, and his fame.

CAPTAIN KIDD, A PIRATE WITH A ROYAL COMMISSION.

Captain William Kidd, the hero of, as it may be called, this political and nautical romance, was born in the town of Greenock, in Scotland, and bred up for a seaman’s life. Having quitted his native country, he resided at New York, where he became owner of a small vessel, with which he traded among the pirates, and thus obtained a thorough knowledge of their haunts, and could give a better account of them than any other person whatever. He was a man not particularly remarkable for courage, but very avaricious. He could never resist the tempting influence of the rapid profits made by pirates, and to this was owing his connection with them. While in their company, he used to converse and act as they did; yet at other times he would make singular professions of honesty, and intimate how easy a matter it would be to extirpate sea robbers, and prevent their future depredations. His frequent remarks on this subject engaged the notice of several considerable planters in the state of New York, who, forming a more favourable opinion of him than his true character would warrant, procured him the patronage with which he was afterwards honoured. For a series of years complaints had been made of the piracies committed in the West Indies, which had been greatly encouraged by some of the inhabitants of North America, on account of the advantage they derived from purchasing effects thus fraudulently obtained. This coming to the knowledge of King William III., he, in the year 1695, bestowed the government of New England and New York on his devoted follower, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellamont, an Irish noble of distinguished character and abilities, who immediately began to consider of the most effectual method to redress the evils complained of, and consulted with Colonel Levingston, a gentleman who had great property in New York, on the most feasible steps to obviate the evils so long complained of. At this juncture Captain Kidd, having made money at New York, was sailing pompously about in a sloop of his own. The colonel fixed on him as the very man needed, and mentioned him to Lord Bellamont as a bold and daring personage, fit to be employed against the pirates, especially as he was perfectly acquainted with the places they resorted to. The plan met with the fullest approbation of his lordship, who reported the affair to King William, and recommended it to the notice of the Board of Admiralty. Yet such were then the hurry and confusion of public affairs in that troubled reign, that, though the design was approved of, no steps were taken towards carrying it into execution. Accordingly, Colonel Levingston made application to Lord Bellamont, that as the affair would not well admit of delay, it was worthy of being undertaken by some private persons of rank and distinction, and carried into execution at their own expense, notwithstanding State encouragement was denied it. His lordship acceded to the project, and, after some difficulties, the Lord Chancellor Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Romney, the Earl of Orford, and some other high persons, with Colonel Levingston and our gallant Captain Kidd himself, agreed to raise £6,000 for the expense of the voyage; and the colonel and the captain were to have a fifth of the profits of the whole undertaking. Matters being so far adjusted, a royal commission in the usual form was granted to Captain Kidd, to take and seize pirates, and bring them to justice; but though a second commission was added, there was, beyond the general direction not to molest the king’s friends, and to bring ships taken to legal trial, no special clause or proviso to restrain his conduct, or regulate the mode of his proceeding. Kidd was known to Lord Bellamont, and another gentleman presented him to Lord Romney. With regard to the rest of the parties concerned, he was wholly unacquainted with them; and so ill was this affair conducted, that he had no private instructions how to act, but received his sailing orders from Lord Bellamont, the purport of which was, that he should act agreeably to the letter of his commission. Behold Kidd now a great man bearing the commission of the bellicose monarch of the Revolution, and with powers unbounded to crush all piracy and robbery on the sea.

A ship was purchased and equipped in the port of London; it received the name, which this affair made so known, of the _Adventure Galley_. In this vessel Captain Kidd crossed the Atlantic, and then towards the close of the year 1695 sailed from New York and made prize of a French ship. Thence he went on to Madeira islands, to Bonavista, and St. Jago, and to Madagascar, acting fairly enough at first; but the sight of so many rich and defenceless merchant ships he met on his way was too strong for him. He could not resist the temptation, and lo! he, the authorised destroyer of pirates, turns pirate himself, and becomes a sea robber with a royal commission. He prowled at the entrance of the Red Sea, and, sailing to Calicut, he began a fearful career of crime by taking a ship of one hundred and fifty tons burthen, which he carried to Madagascar, and disposed of there. Having sold this prize he again put to sea, and at the expiration of five weeks fell upon and seized the _Quedagh Merchant_, a ship of four hundred tons burthen, the master of which was an Englishman, named Wright, who had two Dutch mates on board, and a French gunner; but the crew consisted of Moors, natives of Africa, and were about ninety in number. Kidd carried this ship to St. Mary’s, near Madagascar, where he burnt the _Adventure Galley_, belonging to his owners, and divided the lading of the _Quedagh Merchant_ with his crew, taking forty shares to himself. He and his crew then went on board the _Quedagh Merchant_, and sailed for the West Indies. It is uncertain whether the inhabitants of the West India islands knew that Kidd was a pirate; but he was refused refreshments at Anguilla and St. Thomas’s, and therefore sailed to Mona, between Porto Rico and Hispaniola, where, through the management of an Englishman, named Bolton, he obtained a supply of provisions from Curaçoa. He now bought a sloop of Bolton, in which he stowed great part of his ill-gotten effects, and left the _Quedagh Merchant_, with eighteen of the ship’s company, in Bolton’s care. While at St. Mary’s, ninety men of Kidd’s crew left him, and went on board the _Mocca Merchant_, an East India ship, which had just then commenced pirate. Kidd sailed in the sloop, and touched at several places, where he disposed of a great part of his cargo, and then steered for Boston, in New England. In the interim Bolton sold the _Quedagh Merchant_ to the Spaniards, and immediately sailed as a passenger in a ship for Boston, where he arrived a considerable time before Kidd, and gave to Lord Bellamont information of what had happened. Kidd, therefore, on his arrival, was seized by order of his lordship, when all he had to urge in his defence was, that he thought the _Quedagh Merchant_ a lawful prize, as she was manned with Moors, though there was no kind of proof that this vessel had committed any act of piracy. Upon this, the Earl of Bellamont immediately despatched an account to England of the circumstances that had arisen, and requested that a ship might be sent for Kidd, who had committed several other notorious acts of piracy. News in those days travelled slowly, but one may conceive the excitement that arose in England when it became at length known that an adventure in which the Lord Chancellor and other high men of the State were shareholders, was being piratically carried on to the terror and ruin of the peaceful merchant ships afloat, and the unoffending inhabitants of coasts not at war with us. A perfect storm burst out against the Government. “Was this to be the system of the king who had dethroned the Stuarts in the name of justice to persons and protection to property?” cried the Jacobites. “A strange revolution and for little purpose,” thought the less ardent of the Whigs. Even the ultra followers of King William stood aghast.

The Government met the uproar boldly, honestly, and determinedly. Somers, who held the Great Seal so worthily, did not flinch for an instant. It was resolved to treat Kidd as a common culprit, and to subject him to a full and open trial, in which every particular would come out. Meanwhile an inquiry was called for in the House of Commons, and it was there moved, that “The letters patent, granted to Richard Earl of Bellamont and others, of all goods taken from pirates, were dishonourable to the king, against the law of nations, contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm, an invasion of property, and destructive to commerce.” After a long and stormy debate, the motion was negatived by a majority of 13—the ayes being 185, the noes 198. In the Lords, Lord Somers and the Earl of Orford refuted victoriously the charge insinuated against them of giving countenance to pirates, and showed that the Earl of Bellamont was as innocent as they were. A motion was, however, carried in the Commons to address his majesty, that “Kidd might not be tried till the next session of Parliament, and that the Earl of Bellamont might be directed to send home all examinations and other papers relative to the affair.” The king complied with the request. As soon as Kidd arrived in England, he was sent for, and examined at the bar of the House of Commons, with a view to fix part of his guilt on the parties who had been concerned in sending him on the expedition, but nothing arose to criminate any of those distinguished persons. Kidd, who was actually in a state of semi-intoxication when he came to the bar of the House, made there a very contemptible appearance, on which a member, who had been one of the most earnest to have him examined, violently exclaimed, “This fellow, I thought he had been only a knave, but unfortunately he happens to be also a fool.”

The trials of Kidd and his companions came on at the Old Bailey in May, 1701. The proceedings were very lengthy, and consisted of several distinct trials; the first was for murder against Kidd alone, the other trials were for various acts of piracy committed by him and different members of his crew. Kidd was found guilty in every case, and his men mostly so in the trials in which they were included.

The charge of murder against Kidd was evidently brought to secure his being capitally convicted, in case there might be acquittals on the charges of piracy; however, the act itself was a very brutal one. The victim of Kidd’s violence was William Moor, a gunner of his crew, whom Kidd, after he had become a pirate, happened, when on board, in a moment of anger to call “a dog.” “If I am a dog,” retorted Moor, “you have made me so; yes, you have made me so; you have brought me to ruin and many more.” Kidd, stung to madness by the reproach, seized a wooden bucket hooped with iron, and struck Moor on the head with it. The blow was fatal: the unfortunate creature was carried to the gun-room and died the next day. On this charge, the jury found Kidd guilty of murder; and then came on the chief trial, which interested all England, viz., that of Kidd and nine of his crew, Nicholas Churchill, James Howe, Robert Lamley, William Jenkins, Gabriel Loff, Hugh Parrot, Richard Barlicorn, Alexander Owens, and Darby Mullins, for piracy and robbery on a ship called the _Quedagh Merchant_.

There was a great judicial array on the Bench: the Judges were Sir Edward Ward, Lord Chief Baron; Sir John Turton and Sir Henry Gould, Judges of the Court of King’s Bench; Sir John Powell, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas: and Dr. Oxenden, Judge of the Admiralty. The Solicitor-General, Sir John Hawles; Dr. Newton, Advocate for the Admiralty; Mr. Cowper, M.P. (afterwards the great Lord Chancellor Cowper); Mr. Coniers, and Mr. Knapp conducted the prosecution. Dr. Oldish, Mr. Nixon, and Mr. Moxon were momentarily allowed to intervene for Kidd and others; but this was only by indulgence, the barbarous custom being then in full force of not allowing counsel for prisoners charged with felony to act at all, unless on some admitted question of law that might arise. However, for those times, the trial was pretty fairly conducted, and bears a strong contrast to the judicial investigations before the Revolution, and indeed to some that had occurred immediately after.

As the speech of Dr. Newton, the counsel for the Admiralty, gave a full summary of the whole of the affair, I extract from the State Trials his address to the jury. He spoke as follows:—

“My lord and gentlemen,—The prisoner at the bar, Captain William Kidd, late commander of the _Adventure Galley_, and nine other mariners in the same vessel, stand indicted for feloniously and piratically assaulting and taking a ship, called the _Quedagh Merchant_, on the high sea, near Cutsheen, in the East Indies, about the 30th of January, in the ninth year of his majesty’s reign: the ship was considerable for its force and bulk, being above four hundred tons, and more considerable for its lading, having on board to the value of many thousand pounds.

“This Captain Kidd, who thus acted the pirate himself, went from England in April, 1696, with a commission, dated the 26th of January preceding, to take and seize pirates in the Indian seas, which were very much and very dangerously infested by them, to the great hazard and loss and ruin of the merchant.

“The ship carried thirty guns, and there were on board about eighty men; but the Captain being come from New York, in July, 1696, pretending, as indeed it was designed he should, and he had undertaken to make that design good, that he was going to Madagascar (which was the known and common receptacle of the pirates in those seas) to take pirates, and free the seas from those disturbers of the commerce of mankind; so many came into him, being invited by articles publicly set up by him in that place, that his number quickly increased to one hundred and fifty-five men; a force sufficient, if he had meant well, to have made him useful to the public; and to prove as mischievous, if his designs were otherwise: and what those were will quickly appear.

“After calling in at several places for provisions, and, among others, at Madagascar, in July, 1697, he sailed to Bob’s Key, a small island at the entrance of the Red Sea, and a convenient station for the observing what vessels went from thence to the Indies; and now, instead of taking pirates, he becomes one himself, and the greatest and worst of all. He stayed three weeks, in expectation of the Mocca fleet, to make his benefit and his fortune out of it; for, whatever he had before pretended, that was his real design, and now so possessed his mind, that he could not refrain from declaring, and that often to his men, that now he should make his voyage, and ballast his ship with gold and silver. After long expectation the fleet, on the 14th of August, to the number of fourteen, came by; he fell in with the middle of them, fired several guns at them; but finding they had an English and a Dutch convoy, that design happily failed of the wished-for success.

“This disappointment, however, did not discourage him, but that he proceeded on for the coast of Malabar, where he knew the trade was considerable, and hoped his advantage would be proportionable in the disturbing it; and there accordingly, for several months, he committed many great piracies and robberies, taking the ships and goods of the Indians and others at sea, Moors and Christians, and torturing cruelly their persons, to discover if anything had escaped his hands; burning their houses, and killing after a barbarous manner the natives on the shores, equally cruel, dreaded and hated both on the land and at sea.

“These criminal attempts and actions had rendered his name (to the disgrace and the prejudice of the English nation) too well known, and deservedly detested, in those remote parts of the world; and he was now looked upon as an arch-pirate, and the common enemy of mankind; and accordingly two Portuguese men-of-war went out in pursuit of him, and one met with him and fought him for several hours, but Kidd’s fortune reserved him for another manner of trial.