PIRATES]. [KIDD, Captain WILLIAM]. A Full Account of the Proceedings in Relation to Capt. Kidd. In two letters. Written by a Person of Quality to a Kinsman of the Earl of Bellomont in Ireland, 1701. Small 4to, mottled calf gilt, by Bayntun, joints ru...

PIRATES]. [KIDD, Captain WILLIAM]. A Full Account of the Proceedings in Relation to Capt. Kidd. In two letters. Written by a Person of Quality to a Kinsman of the Earl of Bellomont in Ireland, 1701. Small 4to, mottled calf gilt, by Bayntun, joints rubbed, title-page a trifle soiled, top edges cut unevenly. FIRST EDITION. Sabin 37703; Howes M 677 ("b" rating, listing it under John Mitchell as author: "Defends the Earl of Bellomont from charges of being implicated in Kidd's piracies. Ascribed also to Lord Somers and to Lord Halifax") --The Arraignment, Tryal, and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd for Murther and Piracy...At the Admiralty-Sessions...at the Old-Baily...1701. Folio, dark red half morocco, t.e.g., by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, leaves browned, some top edges cropped with loss (or partial loss) of paginations. FIRST EDITION?, Sabin 37701, Howes K120 ("b" rating); both London, together 2 vols. "Kidd...British privateer, for a time during the 1690s made his headquarters in New York, where in 1697 he was authorized by the governor [the Earl of Bellomont] to proceed against pirates. Forced (he alleged) to turn pirate to save himself from a mutinous crew, he returned home expecting to be pardoned. Instead he was sent to England under guard and hanged [on 23 May 1701]. The fact that his estate was surprisingly small created legends of buried treasure, none of which has ever been found..."--T.H. Johnson, The Oxford Companion to American History , p. 448 (2)