On March 16, the Mattapoisett Museum with support from the Mattapoisett Cultural Council hosted Dr. Daphne Geanacopoulos, historian and author of “The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd.”
Geanacopoulos brought to light a woman who has not been forgotten but more likely overshadowed by her husband William Kidd. She was dubbed a female pirate, but her truth is much more complex. Now Geanacopoulos takes her readers on Sarah’s journey through high-seas booty hunting with her privateer turned pirate husband, to struggling widow four times over and a member of New York’s early high-society circles.
Sarah’s life is the stuff legends are made of. Yet documentation or even casual mention of this high-status woman was hard to uncover, Geanacopoulos explained. “There aren’t any images of Sarah.” What is known is drawn from her marriages for the most part. There would be four husbands with William Kidd clearly the most notorious.
Sarah’s family name was Bradley. She came from England at a young age and as was the custom at that time, married by the age of 15 to the wealthy New York merchant William Cox. Upon his passing, she married her second husband, John Oort, a Dutch merchant who suffered an untimely and somewhat suspicious death, clearing the way for our fine lady to marry Kidd, presumably this time for love a mere two days after Oort had died. “They were the power couple of their day,” explained Geanacopoulos.
They married in 1691 when Kidd returned from plundering trips throughout the Caribbean. To give us a stunning idea of what constituted normal in the 1600s, the Kidds’ wedding day included watching a public hanging.
As for Sarah, she had already reestablished herself and her children into a position of financial comfort so marrying for money this time wasn’t a necessary evil. But we don’t know for sure. What Geanacopoulos deduces for us in her extensively researched pages is that Sarah was primarily a survivor, a woman whose options for financial security lay in the hands of a patriarchal society. Men had the money, thus the power.
At this point in their story, Captain Kidd was a privateer not to be confused with a pirate. A privateer’s job description could be simply put as a legal pirate. Privateers were business owners with investors who raided enemy ships for their cargo, splitting the booty with the sovereigns, investors and shipmates. The Oxford Dictionary defines a privateer as, “an armed ship owned, offered by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war, especially in the capture of enemy merchant shipping.”
Geanacopoulos explained the privateers, unlike pirates, served as an auxiliary unit of the English Navy. In contrast, pirates operated under “articles,” structured as a democratic society with the right to vote on such matters related to postemployment benefits and sharing in the wealth of goods secured from marine raids.
Kidd, while receiving a commission from the King of England to hunt French enemy ships for their cargo, was not successful. Yet there is the legend of Kidd’s buried treasure. Legend it remains, as he told no one of its whereabouts with the possible exception of Sarah.
To secure finances, Kidd turned to pirating with Sarah on board his ship. They would be captured and arrested. It is unclear what punishment, if any, Sarah suffered, but Kidd would eventually be executed (1701) and his body put on public display for several years as a warning to others. Sarah would live another 40 years.
Sarah’s fourth marriage after Kidd’s hanging produced more children and a comfortable existence. As a woman living at a time when being female generally meant someone owned your body and your soul, Sarah found a way to thrive.
Geanacopoulos imagines her death bed as once filled with soft pillows, a feather mattress and expensive linens, material goods she sought throughout her life. Sarah died in 1744 from what is believed to be diphtheria. If she knew the treasure’s location, she was unable to articulate the secret as disease robbed her ability to speak clearly. She took that bit of history with her to the grave. The Kidds’ treasure has never been found.
To learn more, visit masshist.org/events/pirates-wife-remarkable-true-story-sarah-kidd.
By Marilou Newell