Accordingly the “Adventure Galley,” a vessel of 30 guns and 275 tons, was privately fitted out, and the command given to Captain Kidd, who received the king’s commission to arrest and bring to trial all pirates, and a commission of reprisals against the French. Kidd sailed from Plymouth in May 1696 for New York, where he filled up his crew, and in 1697 reached Madagascar, the pirates’ principal rendezvous. He made no effort whatever to hunt them down. On the contrary he associated himself with a notorious pirate named Culliford. The fact would seem to be that Kidd meant only to capture French ships. When he found none he captured native trading vessels, under pretence that they were provided with French passes and were fair prize, and he plundered on the coast of Malabar. During 1698–1699 complaints reached the British government as to the character of his proceedings. Lord Bellomont was instructed to apprehend him if he should return to America. Kidd deserted the “Adventure” in Madagascar, and sailed for America in one of his prizes, the “Quedah Merchant,” which he also left in the West Indies. He reached New England in a small sloop with several of his crew and wrote to Bellomont, professing his ability to justify himself and sending the governor booty. He was arrested in July 1699, was sent to England and tried, first for the murder of one of his crew, and then with others for piracy. He was found guilty on both charges, and hanged at Execution Dock, London, on the 23rd of May 1701. The evidence against him was that of two members of his crew, the surgeon and a sailor who turned king’s evidence, but no other witnesses could be got in such circumstances, as the judge told him when he protested. “Captain Kidd’s Treasure” has been sought by various expeditions and about £14,000 was recovered from Kidd’s ship and from Gardiner’s Island (off the E. end of Long Island); but its magnitude was palpably exaggerated. He left a wife and child at New York. The so-called ballad about him is a poor imitation of the authentic chant of Admiral Benbow.
Much has been written about Kidd, less because of the intrinsic interest of his career than because the agreement made with him by Bellomont was the subject of violent political controversy. The best popular account is in An Historical Sketch of Robin Hood and Captain Kidd by W. W. Campbell (New York, 1853), in which the essential documents are quoted. But see Pirate.
KIDDERMINSTER, a market town and municipal and parliamentary
borough of Worcestershire, England, 13512 m. N.W. by
W. from London and 15 m. N. of Worcester by the Great
Western railway, on the river Stour and the Staffordshire and
Worcestershire canal. Pop. (1901), 24,692. The parish church
of All Saints, well placed above the river, is a fine Early English
and Decorated building, with Perpendicular additions. Of other
buildings the principal are the town hall (1876), the corporation
buildings, and the school of science and art and free library.
There is a free grammar school founded in 1637. A public
recreation ground, Brinton Park, was opened in 1887. Richard
Baxter, who was elected by the townsfolk as their minister in
1641, was instrumental in saving the town from a reputation
of ignorance and depravity caused by the laxity of their clergy.
He is commemorated by a statue, as is Sir Rowland Hill, the
introducer of penny postage, who was born here in 1795.
Kidderminster is chiefly celebrated for its carpets. The permanency
of colour by which they are distinguished is attributed
to the properties of the water of the Stour, which is impregnated
with iron and fuller’s earth. Worsted spinning and dyeing are
also carried on, and there are iron foundries, tinplate works,
breweries, malthouses, &c. The parliamentary borough returns
one member. The town is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen
and 18 councillors. Area, 1214 acres.
In 736 lands upon the river Stour, called Stour in Usmere, which have been identified with the site of Kidderminster (Chideminstre), were given to Earl Cyneberght by King Æthelbald to found a monastery. If this monastery was ever built, it was afterwards annexed to the church of Worcester, and the lands on the Stour formed part of the gift of Coenwulf, king of the Mercians, to Deneberht, bishop of Worcester, but were exchanged with the same king in 816 for other property. At the Domesday Survey, Kidderminster was still in the hands of the king and remained a royal manor until Henry II. granted it to Manser Biset. The poet Edmund Waller was one of the 17th century lords of the manor. The town was possibly a borough in 1187 when the men paid £4 to an aid. As a royal possession it appears to have enjoyed various privileges in the 12th century, among them the right of choosing a bailiff to collect the toll and render it to the king, and to elect six burgesses and send them to the view of frankpledge twice a year. The first charter of incorporation, granted in 1636, appointed a bailiff and 12 capital burgesses forming a common council. The town was governed under this charter until the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. Kidderminster sent two members to the parliament of 1295, but was not again represented until the privilege of sending one member was conferred by the Reform Act of 1832. The first mention of the cloth trade for which Kidderminster was formerly noted occurs in 1334, when it was enacted that no one should make woollen cloth in the borough without the bailiff’s seal. At the end of the 18th century the trade was still important, but it began to decline after the invention of machinery, probably owing to the poverty of the manufacturers. The manufacture of woollen goods was however replaced by that of carpets, introduced in 1735. At first only the “Kidderminster” carpets were made, but in 1749 a Brussels loom was set up in the town and Brussels carpets were soon produced in large quantities.
See Victoria County History: Worcestershire; J. R. Burton, A History of Kidderminster, with Short Accounts of some Neighbouring Parishes (1890).
KIDNAPPING (from kid, a slang term for a child, and nap
or nab, to steal), originally the stealing and carrying away
of children and others to serve as servants or labourers in the
American plantations; it was defined by Blackstone as the
forcible abduction or stealing away of a man, woman or child
from their own country and sending them into another. The
difference between kidnapping, abduction (q.v.) and false imprisonment
is not very great; indeed, kidnapping may be said
to be a form of assault and false imprisonment, aggravated by
the carrying of the person to some other place. The term is,
however, more commonly applied in England to the offence of
taking away children from the possession of their parents. By
the Offences against the Person Act 1861, “whosoever shall
unlawfully, by force or fraud, lead or take away or decoy or
entice away or detain any child under the age of fourteen years
with intent to deprive any parent, guardian or other person
having the lawful care or charge of such child of the possession
of such child, or with intent to steal any article upon or about
the person of such child, to whomsoever such article may belong,
and whosoever shall with any such intent receive or harbour
any such child, &c.,” shall be guilty of felony, and is liable to
penal servitude for not more than seven years, or to imprisonment
for any term not more than two years with or without
hard labour. The abduction or unlawfully taking away an
unmarried girl under sixteen out of the possession and against
the will of her father or mother, or any other person having the
lawful care or charge of her, is a misdemeanour under the same
act. The term is used in much the same sense in the United
States.
The kidnapping or forcible taking away of persons to serve at sea is treated under Impressment.
KIDNEY DISEASES.[1] (For the anatomy of the kidneys, see Urinary System.) The results of morbid processes in the kidney may be grouped under three heads: the actual lesions produced, the effects of these on the composition of the urine,
- ↑ The word “kidney” first appears in the early part of the 14th century in the form kidenei, with plural kideneiren, kideneris, kidneers, &c. It has been assumed that the second part of the word is “neer” or “near” (cf. Ger. Niere), the common dialect word for “kidney” in northern, north midland and eastern counties of England (see J. Wright, English Dialect Dictionary, 1903, s.v. Near), and that the first part represents the O.E. cwið, belly, womb; this the New English Dictionary considers improbable; there is only one doubtful instance of singular kidnere and the ordinary form ended in -ei or ey. Possibly this represents M.E. ey, plur. eyren, egg, the name being given from the resemblance in shape. The first part is uncertain.
