CHAPTER ONE
Friends Inside
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved
In 1701, Justice Hall, or the Sessions House, was also called the Old Bailey. It was named after the street on which it was located, just off of Newgate Street and next to Newgate Prison, in the western part of London. Over the course of some forty years, William Kidd had watched the building he was now being ushered towards remodeled many times over for, as a young man, he’d apprenticed many barristers there prior to his own reign as one and his ensuing career as a seafarer; he’d seen several cases processed & trials demonstrated in its lavish chambers, cavities & halls; he’d prosecuted ones there himself. Now, however, in this one of his last toddles in life, he saw it as a witch-like creature--a mangle of hatred, fear, and desperation that grew in size with every step he took. Like a man who had seen his future, the now Captain Kidd stepped forward and considered the cycle in which he was caught for it was inside this very building that his burgeoning young career had started wherein he would soon be sentenced to death.
The Old Bailey was located about 200 yards northwest of St. Paul's Cathedral, just outside the western wall of London. Bailey Street itself follows the line of the original fortified wall, or "bailey", of the City. The location of the courthouse being close to Newgate Prison allowed prisoners to be conveniently brought to the courtroom for their trials. More generally, its position between the City of London and Westminster meant it was a suitable location for trials involving people from all over the capital--north of the river Thames.
As he entered the courtroom, now bustling with the murmur of the Members of the Admiralty, the Jury clothed in full military dress, the Court Recorders, and, of course, the audience, Kidd noticed the basic design of the courtroom and how it had remained the same since last he was here as a Prosecutor for the Crown. It was arranged so as to emphasize the conflict between the accused and the rest of the court. The accused stood at 'the bar', where he was now heading, directly facing the witness box, where prosecution and defense witnesses testified. The judges, sans the Chief Lord Baron, were seated on the other side of the room. A mirrored reflector was placed above the bar in order to reflect light from the windows onto the faces of the accused—seven in total, already seated and awaiting their Captain.
William knew how the court used this apparently decorative feature of the courtroom: This mirror allowed the court to examine the facial expressions of the accused and form impressions of their testimony’s validity. He looked up above the Judges platform to see the sounding board placed over their heads so as to amplify their voices.
The Jurors sat on the sides of the courtroom to both the left and the right of the accused. Seated at a table below and next to where the judges sat were clerks & barristers--all of whom were assembled to hear the verdict in the summary court martial of Captain William Kidd, once privateer--now pirate, and seven of his shipmates.
A surprising feature was that the ground floor of the building, where the courtroom was located, was open to the weather; Doric columns held up the upper stories. The walls had been left out in order to increase the supply of fresh air to reduce the risk that prisoners suffering from gaol fever (typhus) would infect others in the court. As William was ascending the stunning staircase coated with carpet toward the courtroom, he noticed the stately dining room for the Justices where he waltzed with his wife some three years ago.
Inside the courtroom, there was a bench for judges with a short silver oar adorning it at the far end, and, on both sides, partitioned spaces for jurors and balconies for court officers and privileged observers. Other spectators crowded into the yard. This trial had attracted a mixed audience of London's more and less respectable inhabitants. The convicted Captain noticed a few members of what had remained of his crew randomly scattered about the balconies. They were obviously attending at great risk in order to devise strategies for defending themselves should they find themselves this very predicament.
William Kidd was a striking man who once resembled the iconoclastic European noblemen of the era but now looked like a heavy-set & rough-hewn Spanish bullfighter with unusually deepened facial features. A thick mustache and heavy, slanted eyebrows had seized his face. Ironically, up until several months ago, he was a devout devotee to the new science of hygiene and would encourage his crew to keep a shaven face in order to ward off disease. As he sat down, the seven looked to him for some guidance to which he was not responsive. He had locked eyes with one member of the spectators—a portly and placid Lord Bellomont, the Governor of the State of New York, who was disguised and seated amongst the noblemen. He was the one--the man that got what he wanted. It was his duplicity that had placed Kidd and the seven crewmen where they now found themselves. The end was unavoidable and nothing could be done to prevent it: The trial was merely spectacle and circumstance. Decisions had been made long ago.
Lord Chief Baron Sir Edward Ward, the president of this trial, entered Old Bailey’s courtroom. The crowd quickly sounded out. Everyone was at his or her feet…everyone, but Kidd. The Bailiff, a bald and stout Sergeant-at-Arms commanded: “All rise!” Kidd did so, slowly.
“Twelve good men and true has stood together and heard your evidence,” the Bailiff continued, directly addressing the defendants.
“How wilt thou be tried?” whispered Lord Chief Baron Ward.
“By God and my country,” the defendants replied in unison—sans Kidd. “God send thee a good deliverance,” said Ward.
After a considerable pause, Dr. George Oxenden, once apprentice to William Kidd and now Chief Council for the Crown, with a determined & incisively defiant stare, rose and addressed the defendants. “What hast though to say for thyself why though shouldst not die according to Law?” The seven, malnourished and tawdry, could not muster an utterance in defense of themselves. They had always depended on their Captain’s aid in times of needed discourse.
From his seat, Kidd sneered at Oxenden and cleared his throat.
“The sense, George, of my present condition and the thought of having been imposed on by such as seek by my destruction thereby to fulfill their ambitious desires makes us incapable of expressing ourselves in those terms we ought!” said Kidd and then smiled.
Dr. Oxenden felt goaded. He insistently darted across the floor and, infuriated, whispered into Kidd’s ear “Man! You hold the life of this vile entourage in your hands. You waste their existence with your dignity?”
“I have nothing to say, but that I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people,” answered Kidd and paused. He looked about the audience.
“Justice?” he queried, now addressing the entire courthouse, “Such is a credit to your justice as be the same morality I have been sentenced to!” he shouted into the silence that seemed to have beset the entire land.
Dr. Oxenden returned to his desk with a look of utter distaste, lifted a parchment from it, & read.
“Very well. Nichlos Churchill, James Howe, Darby Mullins, Abeel Owen, Hugh Parrot, Gabriel Loffe, William Jenkins, Robert Lamley & Richard Barleycorne,” continued the internally nervous public prosecutor as each of the seven rose with the calling of his name. “As be the consensus of this Royal Admiralty and by the condolences of your Captain Kidd that you be taken from the Place where you are, and be carried to the Place from whence you came, and from thence to the Place of Execution, and there be severally hanged by your necks until you be dead. And the Lord have mercy on your souls,”
Amen, thought the Captain.
________________________________________
Hurled back into his dank dungeon in Newgate prison, Kidd grit his teeth in an attempt to manage his temper. Helpless & devoid of hope, he glared at the portly & obese guard standing dangerously close to his cell’s bars who fiercely smiled back with a hollow glower. The Captain had been given a few moments to rest before he was lead to the gallows pole. The guard chortled and slowly sauntered about the area. The neighboring inmates struggled to peak through their dungeons’ bars. Across Kidd’s damp and soggy cell, an inmate played with his pet rat and exchanged a look with whom he now knew to be a doomed man. He and the Captain gazed at one another.
The sound of footsteps crept into the prison: Six guards and a chanting priest were now approaching Kidd’s cell; the gatekeeper opened the rusty cage with a large and clunky circle of keys and the gaurds proceeded to escort the condemned to what would surely be his end.
As he was skirted off, Kidd maintained eye contact with the rat loving inmate he was locked on: The two were inexplicably connected. The inmate excruciatingly withheld his last salutation for a man he’d come to have great respect for throughout the last several weeks. No one could know their connection--no one, but the Captain’s wife. As Kidd exited the dungeon, the inmate returned straight away to his rat that had, now, escaped behind a small crate.
The ominous wind blew gently outside of Newgate as Kidd was marched out, once again. The accompanying bloc ushered him to the gallows, which were set at the edge of Execution Dock. When a man was going to his death from Newgate Prison, he would be taken to Execution Dock while a crowd of ordinary people would follow the cart carrying the condemned man and his coffin to the gallows.
_______________________________________
The crowds formed around the gallows; the hanging was quite a public event. Despite the fact that public executions were meant to deter crime by displaying the horrible punishment for it, they actually allowed for further crime, such as pick-pocketing and rioting. Kidd had recognized the contradictive atmosphere and could sense the very same realization growing in those awaiting this exhibition. He knew, however, that no amount of penitence or illumination would deter the crowd from getting what they wanted—someone to charge for the ripe demise and degradation they’d been witness to for nearly two hundred years since the Reconstruction.
Kidd looked at a nearby gull, soaring & cawing about just off to his left, as the rope was set around his neck. He’d seen her before. The heads of his crewmates had already been set and covered by the executioner’s bag. The silent viewers and the on-looking sailors emanated a feeling of regret as Captain Kidd’s head was covered, finally.
All that was heard was the flapping of flags before the sudden and menacing action of the eight men being hanged sparked a great cheer & celebration amidst the brazen crowd. Nonetheless, several amongst the crowd stood and stared at the limp bodies of these men that set out to protect the economy of Mother England & ended hanging over waters, strapped down like mummies so they could not extend messages prior to their deaths nor frighten the citizens with their convulsive flares. Yes--the execution would be the topic of dialogue across old Brittany for, tonight, a threat was purged and a scapegoat counterbalanced.
CHAPTER TWO
Chapters:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22, 23, 24, 25, Epilogue
Friends Inside
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved
In 1701, Justice Hall, or the Sessions House, was also called the Old Bailey. It was named after the street on which it was located, just off of Newgate Street and next to Newgate Prison, in the western part of London. Over the course of some forty years, William Kidd had watched the building he was now being ushered towards remodeled many times over for, as a young man, he’d apprenticed many barristers there prior to his own reign as one and his ensuing career as a seafarer; he’d seen several cases processed & trials demonstrated in its lavish chambers, cavities & halls; he’d prosecuted ones there himself. Now, however, in this one of his last toddles in life, he saw it as a witch-like creature--a mangle of hatred, fear, and desperation that grew in size with every step he took. Like a man who had seen his future, the now Captain Kidd stepped forward and considered the cycle in which he was caught for it was inside this very building that his burgeoning young career had started wherein he would soon be sentenced to death.
The Old Bailey was located about 200 yards northwest of St. Paul's Cathedral, just outside the western wall of London. Bailey Street itself follows the line of the original fortified wall, or "bailey", of the City. The location of the courthouse being close to Newgate Prison allowed prisoners to be conveniently brought to the courtroom for their trials. More generally, its position between the City of London and Westminster meant it was a suitable location for trials involving people from all over the capital--north of the river Thames.
As he entered the courtroom, now bustling with the murmur of the Members of the Admiralty, the Jury clothed in full military dress, the Court Recorders, and, of course, the audience, Kidd noticed the basic design of the courtroom and how it had remained the same since last he was here as a Prosecutor for the Crown. It was arranged so as to emphasize the conflict between the accused and the rest of the court. The accused stood at 'the bar', where he was now heading, directly facing the witness box, where prosecution and defense witnesses testified. The judges, sans the Chief Lord Baron, were seated on the other side of the room. A mirrored reflector was placed above the bar in order to reflect light from the windows onto the faces of the accused—seven in total, already seated and awaiting their Captain.
William knew how the court used this apparently decorative feature of the courtroom: This mirror allowed the court to examine the facial expressions of the accused and form impressions of their testimony’s validity. He looked up above the Judges platform to see the sounding board placed over their heads so as to amplify their voices.
The Jurors sat on the sides of the courtroom to both the left and the right of the accused. Seated at a table below and next to where the judges sat were clerks & barristers--all of whom were assembled to hear the verdict in the summary court martial of Captain William Kidd, once privateer--now pirate, and seven of his shipmates.
A surprising feature was that the ground floor of the building, where the courtroom was located, was open to the weather; Doric columns held up the upper stories. The walls had been left out in order to increase the supply of fresh air to reduce the risk that prisoners suffering from gaol fever (typhus) would infect others in the court. As William was ascending the stunning staircase coated with carpet toward the courtroom, he noticed the stately dining room for the Justices where he waltzed with his wife some three years ago.
Inside the courtroom, there was a bench for judges with a short silver oar adorning it at the far end, and, on both sides, partitioned spaces for jurors and balconies for court officers and privileged observers. Other spectators crowded into the yard. This trial had attracted a mixed audience of London's more and less respectable inhabitants. The convicted Captain noticed a few members of what had remained of his crew randomly scattered about the balconies. They were obviously attending at great risk in order to devise strategies for defending themselves should they find themselves this very predicament.
William Kidd was a striking man who once resembled the iconoclastic European noblemen of the era but now looked like a heavy-set & rough-hewn Spanish bullfighter with unusually deepened facial features. A thick mustache and heavy, slanted eyebrows had seized his face. Ironically, up until several months ago, he was a devout devotee to the new science of hygiene and would encourage his crew to keep a shaven face in order to ward off disease. As he sat down, the seven looked to him for some guidance to which he was not responsive. He had locked eyes with one member of the spectators—a portly and placid Lord Bellomont, the Governor of the State of New York, who was disguised and seated amongst the noblemen. He was the one--the man that got what he wanted. It was his duplicity that had placed Kidd and the seven crewmen where they now found themselves. The end was unavoidable and nothing could be done to prevent it: The trial was merely spectacle and circumstance. Decisions had been made long ago.
Lord Chief Baron Sir Edward Ward, the president of this trial, entered Old Bailey’s courtroom. The crowd quickly sounded out. Everyone was at his or her feet…everyone, but Kidd. The Bailiff, a bald and stout Sergeant-at-Arms commanded: “All rise!” Kidd did so, slowly.
“Twelve good men and true has stood together and heard your evidence,” the Bailiff continued, directly addressing the defendants.
“How wilt thou be tried?” whispered Lord Chief Baron Ward.
“By God and my country,” the defendants replied in unison—sans Kidd. “God send thee a good deliverance,” said Ward.
After a considerable pause, Dr. George Oxenden, once apprentice to William Kidd and now Chief Council for the Crown, with a determined & incisively defiant stare, rose and addressed the defendants. “What hast though to say for thyself why though shouldst not die according to Law?” The seven, malnourished and tawdry, could not muster an utterance in defense of themselves. They had always depended on their Captain’s aid in times of needed discourse.
From his seat, Kidd sneered at Oxenden and cleared his throat.
“The sense, George, of my present condition and the thought of having been imposed on by such as seek by my destruction thereby to fulfill their ambitious desires makes us incapable of expressing ourselves in those terms we ought!” said Kidd and then smiled.
Dr. Oxenden felt goaded. He insistently darted across the floor and, infuriated, whispered into Kidd’s ear “Man! You hold the life of this vile entourage in your hands. You waste their existence with your dignity?”
“I have nothing to say, but that I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people,” answered Kidd and paused. He looked about the audience.
“Justice?” he queried, now addressing the entire courthouse, “Such is a credit to your justice as be the same morality I have been sentenced to!” he shouted into the silence that seemed to have beset the entire land.
Dr. Oxenden returned to his desk with a look of utter distaste, lifted a parchment from it, & read.
“Very well. Nichlos Churchill, James Howe, Darby Mullins, Abeel Owen, Hugh Parrot, Gabriel Loffe, William Jenkins, Robert Lamley & Richard Barleycorne,” continued the internally nervous public prosecutor as each of the seven rose with the calling of his name. “As be the consensus of this Royal Admiralty and by the condolences of your Captain Kidd that you be taken from the Place where you are, and be carried to the Place from whence you came, and from thence to the Place of Execution, and there be severally hanged by your necks until you be dead. And the Lord have mercy on your souls,”
Amen, thought the Captain.
________________________________________
Hurled back into his dank dungeon in Newgate prison, Kidd grit his teeth in an attempt to manage his temper. Helpless & devoid of hope, he glared at the portly & obese guard standing dangerously close to his cell’s bars who fiercely smiled back with a hollow glower. The Captain had been given a few moments to rest before he was lead to the gallows pole. The guard chortled and slowly sauntered about the area. The neighboring inmates struggled to peak through their dungeons’ bars. Across Kidd’s damp and soggy cell, an inmate played with his pet rat and exchanged a look with whom he now knew to be a doomed man. He and the Captain gazed at one another.
The sound of footsteps crept into the prison: Six guards and a chanting priest were now approaching Kidd’s cell; the gatekeeper opened the rusty cage with a large and clunky circle of keys and the gaurds proceeded to escort the condemned to what would surely be his end.
As he was skirted off, Kidd maintained eye contact with the rat loving inmate he was locked on: The two were inexplicably connected. The inmate excruciatingly withheld his last salutation for a man he’d come to have great respect for throughout the last several weeks. No one could know their connection--no one, but the Captain’s wife. As Kidd exited the dungeon, the inmate returned straight away to his rat that had, now, escaped behind a small crate.
The ominous wind blew gently outside of Newgate as Kidd was marched out, once again. The accompanying bloc ushered him to the gallows, which were set at the edge of Execution Dock. When a man was going to his death from Newgate Prison, he would be taken to Execution Dock while a crowd of ordinary people would follow the cart carrying the condemned man and his coffin to the gallows.
_______________________________________
The crowds formed around the gallows; the hanging was quite a public event. Despite the fact that public executions were meant to deter crime by displaying the horrible punishment for it, they actually allowed for further crime, such as pick-pocketing and rioting. Kidd had recognized the contradictive atmosphere and could sense the very same realization growing in those awaiting this exhibition. He knew, however, that no amount of penitence or illumination would deter the crowd from getting what they wanted—someone to charge for the ripe demise and degradation they’d been witness to for nearly two hundred years since the Reconstruction.
Kidd looked at a nearby gull, soaring & cawing about just off to his left, as the rope was set around his neck. He’d seen her before. The heads of his crewmates had already been set and covered by the executioner’s bag. The silent viewers and the on-looking sailors emanated a feeling of regret as Captain Kidd’s head was covered, finally.
All that was heard was the flapping of flags before the sudden and menacing action of the eight men being hanged sparked a great cheer & celebration amidst the brazen crowd. Nonetheless, several amongst the crowd stood and stared at the limp bodies of these men that set out to protect the economy of Mother England & ended hanging over waters, strapped down like mummies so they could not extend messages prior to their deaths nor frighten the citizens with their convulsive flares. Yes--the execution would be the topic of dialogue across old Brittany for, tonight, a threat was purged and a scapegoat counterbalanced.
CHAPTER TWO
Chapters:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22, 23, 24, 25, Epilogue
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