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PIRATES AND PROHIBITION
Excerpted from, "East Hampton History," by Jeannette Edwards Rattroy,
copyright 1953; Printed by Country Life Press, Garden City NY
Captain Kidd buried treasure on Gardiner's Island in 1699. A boulder with a bronze tablet marks the spot. It is useless, however, to dig for Kidd's treasure, for it was all dug up and turned over to the authorities long before Kidd met his undeserved death on the gallows. There is another story that Kidd also buried treasure at Montauk Point. Two small ponds at the foot of the hill on which Montauk Light stands have been called Money Ponds ever since Kidd's time. One is said to be bottomless.
Piracy was fairly common, about the time our East Hampton forebears arrived. As early as 1654 the Long Island "plantations" tried to get together for protection against robbers and pirates. Piracy was at its height in 1696, when Captain William Kidd set out from London on the "Adventure Galley." Thirty years later, when Gardiner's Island was overrun by a pirate band, the profession was beginning to wane.
News did not travel fast in those days. When plunder was brought in, it must have been pretty hard to prove where it came from. New York was a convenient place for marketing jewels and silks from the East, and a good place to spend Arabian gold. The sale of supplies to outlaw ships, in exchange for gold or jewels, brought prosperity to the then little town of New York. Naturally the Colonial authorities smiled upon it Just previous to Lord Bellomont's Governorship, there was another Royal Governor, Benjamin Fletcher, who enjoyed the friendship of really terrible, bloodthirsty pirates such as the notorious Captain Tew. Fletcher made it a regular practice to receive bribes for protecting pirates. New York became such a scandal in the eyes of the mother country that it was decided to fit out a vessel to clean up the seas.
The King himself headed a company that fitted out the "Adventure Galley" of 287 tons for this purpose. Some of the most important men in England and the colonies took shares in the vessel. Pirates were to be driven off the seas; and incidentally the vessel's captain was to be commissioned to capture any French prizes that came along, as England was at war with France. No prize, no pay.
Looking around for a man capable of leading the expedition against the pirates, the stockholders decided upon William Kidd. He was a minister's son, born in Scotland in 1645, then living in New York; a brave soldier and master mariner, of spotless reputation. Kidd's story is too long to relate here in full, but documents discovered not long ago prove beyond a doubt that he was hanged for political reasons, to save the face of his titled backers; that he was not to blame for the trouble be got into, and had actually been more of a privateer, than a pirat
At any rate, Kidd was put through the motions of a trial and hanged in London in 1701. His alleged crime was hitting an unruly sailor over the head with a bucket, causing the sailor's death. He never cut a throat or made a victim walk a plank. His name has come down through the years as a symbol of piracy. This is due to publicity. "Kidd" was an easy name to put into a rhyme. A long doggerel was made up about Captain Kidd, and sold on the streets of London at the time of his trial. The words were set to music and sung for generations. The adventures credited to Kidd were actually those of pirates in general.
His Long Island adventure was in June, 1699, just before his capture. He was on his way to Boston, where he hoped to prove his innocence of the crime of piracy. Kidd stopped at Gardiner's Island for three days. While there, he buried treasure worth about $30,000. at Cherry Harbor, a ravine between Bostwick's (Point) and the Manor House. He asked Mrs. Gardiner to have a pig roasted for him. It was done so well that he presented her with a piece of gold cloth, a small bit of which is now preserved in the East Hampton Library. That cloth came from the trousseau of the daughter of the Grand Mogul; it was on a Moorish ship captured by Kidd off the coast of Madagascar. A bag of sugar, too, was given the Gardiners by Captain Kidd. That was a great treat, sugar was hard to get and one of the few things not grown on Gardiner's Island in those days. When Kidd left the island, he promised to return for the buried treasure, and threatened John Gardiner: "If I call for it and it is gone, I will take your head, or your son's."
By that time there was no doubt in Lord Gardiner's mind that his visitor was a pirate. But there was nothing he could do about it except what he subsequently did. After Kidd's arrest, Gardiner was called upon by Lord Bellomont to deliver up the buried treasure. He took it to Boston. The inventory of those bags of gold dust, bars of silver, pieces of eight, rubies great and small, diamonds, candlesticks, porringers, and so forth is still preserved; a duplicate is in the East Hampton Library. One bit of booty, they say, remained with the Gardiners. A diamond was found, accidentally left in John Gardiner's traveling bag after his return from Boston. Mrs. Gardiner gave it to their daughter Elizabeth who married the Gardiner's Island chaplain, a Mr. Green.
Joseph Bradish was a much fiercer pirate than Captain Kidd. He appeared at the eastern end of Long Island earlier in that same year of the Captain Kidd visit to Gardiner's Island, and came very near bringing one of Southampton's first citizens, Col. Henry Pierson, to the gallows for harboring him. Bradish was a bad lot, and his crew, from the description that has come down to us, fits in with the regulation pirate tales. One was pock-marked, another squint-eyed, another "lamish of both legs," another had a "very downe looke." This Bradish, who was only 25, had started out from London in 1698 as a boatswain's mate on a voyage to Borneo and the Far East, in the "Adventure", a "hag-boat" of 350 tons and 22 guns, with a cargo worth about $400,000. in our money. Six months out from London they landed for water on an island near India. Part of the crew seized the ship, leaving the captain and other officers on shore. Bradish was elected captain. They shared up the cargo, then the ship made for Long Island.
One morning in March, 1699, Col. Pierson, who was a member of the Colonial Assembly in New York, looked out of the window at his home in Sagaponack and saw a strange ship under sail in the ocean, not far offshore. He called some neighbors. They launched a boat and went off to the ship. The captain Bradish said they were bound to Philadelphia from London, 15 months out. He asked for fresh provisions and to be taken ashore. He frankly gave his name and birthplace, but nobody here had ever heard of the "Adventure." Rev. Ebenezer White of Sagaponack, minister at Bridgehampton, being at home, joined the pirate and Col. Pierson and the three rode horseback to East Hampton, five miles away. Here they called on John Mulford, a leading citizen; and were also joined by the young East Hampton minister, Rev. Nathaniel Huntting (who later on delivered a strong sermon on piracy).
Rev. White and Col. Pierson returned with Bradish to Sagaponack. The next day Bradish brought ashore four sealed bags. Three contained money, and one jewels. He asked Col. Pierson to take care of them for him. For this he gave Pierson two small guns and a cask of powder, also one jewel, and a small bag of pieces of eight.
The ship lay off East Hampton for a few days, while Col. Pierson went with Bradish to hire three sloops, one from Southampton and two from Southold, that were to unload the ship's cargo. Meanwhile, East Hampton people began to grow suspicious. Several went on board and talked with the mate. He said they came from the Guinea Coast, but there were no Negro slaves in sight. The strangers sold some small guns to the Long Island men; but said they had orders not to open anything else.
An experienced pilot, Samuel Hand, was hired to take the ship to Gardiner's Island. The wind not being favorable, they ran over to Block Island instead. The unloading sloops met the "Adventure" there; Carter Gillum of Southold and Ebenezer Meggs of Guilford, Conn. commanded two of them. When the job was done, they fired guns into the bottom of the "Adventure" and sank her. Then the pirates scattered. There was a great hue and cry. The men were captured, but escaped. Some were recaptured, and sent to England with Kidd. Bradish was hanged.
Meanwhile, a busybody neighbor of Col. Pierson's had told of the treasure left with him. On April 27, 1699, he turned over to the authorities a great quantity of diamonds, rubies, pearls, sapphires, and turquoise. He had a hard time proving that he had been no more than indiscreet, in holding the bag for the pirate; but influential friends spoke for him, and he went free.
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