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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Livingston, Robert, 1654-1728 Indenture between Livingston, William Kidd and Richard Blackham re: privateering

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03107.00239 Author/Creator: Livingston, Robert, 1654-1728 Place Written: s.l. Type: Manuscript document signed Date: 1696/02/07 Pagination: 1p. : docket : Height: 24.3 cm, Width: 18.3 cm Order a Copy

Indenture for one-fifteenth of the share of "goods m[er]chandizes or . . . other thiungs of value" amassed by Captain Kidd and his crew of the Adventure Galley, in their privateering efforts in the Red Sea. Detailed to seek the pirates who preyed upon ships from "new England R[h]ode Island, New Yorke & Elsewhere", Kidd and his crew were promised pay only upon the capture of a pirate ship. Blackham is offered a full refund in the event that Kidd fails in his charge.

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