Oct 02, 2012 - Sale 2287

Sale 2287 - Lot 409

Price Realized: $ 20,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
SHIPPING OFF ON CAPTAIN KIDD'S INFAMOUS VOYAGE (PIRATES.) Bond issued to a sailor departing on William Kidd's Adventure Galley. Partly-printed Document Signed with Jacob Horn's mark, and by Elias Boudinot and others as witnesses. One page, 12 1/4 x 8 inches, with integral blank; minor wear, small hole affecting one letter of manuscript; intact wax seal near Horn's mark. New York, 20 August 1696
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Additional Details

In December 1695, William Kidd was given a privateering commission by Lord Bellemont, Governor of New York. His mission was to hunt pirates. Kidd set forth from London on a ship called the Adventure Galley, and soon arrived in New York to recruit sailors. A New Yorker on the scene later recalled: "Many flockt to him from all parts, men of desperate fortunes and necessities in expectation of getting vast treasure . . . a great part of them are of this province." Over the next two years, Kidd and his crew exceeded the bounds of their commission, attacking ships of several nations. Kidd burned the Adventure Galley off Madagascar in 1698 and returned to New York with a small remnant of his crew. He was tried on several counts of piracy and was hung in 1701.
One of Kidd's "desperate" crew was a sailor named Jacob Horn of Flushing, NY. This is a bond from Jacob Horn to Thomas Clark. Horn was obligated to pay £50 to Clarke "at the return of himself or Adventure Gally, Wm Kidd commander (which shall first happen) unto this or any other port belonging to his majestie." If this was not done, he or his heirs would then owe Clark £100. Apparently, this was Clark's security for a loan to Horn, possibly to support Horn's family while he was away at sea. Clark was an associate of Kidd's, having bought a parcel of Manhattan land from him in 1693 (see Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan, page IV:349), and having allegedly helped Kidd later stow treasure on Gardiner's Island before his trial. This document is published in Philip Horne's The Horne Family of Bloomingdale-Road (1974), which also notes "We have no evidence to indicate Jacob Horne returned from his ill-fated voyage" (page 2).
Pirates aside, the printed form itself is a very early New York imprint, with the first words being "Know all Men, by these presents, That." The first known New York imprints were in 1693. This form was probably printed between 1693 and very early 1695, as it refers to "their Majesties Reign." Queen Mary II died in late December 1694, ending the joint reign. This copy is emended to read "his Majesties reign." ESTC lists only one other copy of this form, which was used in June 1695.