Kidd, ‘Captain’ William (c. 1645-1701)

Scottish pirate. He spent his youth privateering for the British against the French off the North American coast, and in 1695 was given a royal commission to suppress piracy in the Indian Ocean. Instead, he joined a group of pirates in Madagascar. In 1699, on his way to Boston, Massachusetts, he was arrested, taken to England, and hanged.

His execution marked the end of some 200 years of semi-official condoning of piracy by the British government.