For eight months he lay in Boston gaol, and was then sent to London for trial, remaining in Newgate for more than a year.

Eleven of his crew were also arrested, two of them being admitted as King's witnesses.
In the interval the storm against the Whig ministers had gathered strength, and articles of impeachment against Somers, Orford, and others were being prepared by the House of Commons.

On the 27th March, 1701, Kidd was brought to the House to be examined, but he said nothing to inculpate any of the owners of the _Adventure_, so a resolution was passed that he should be proceeded against according to law.
On the 8th and 9th May he was brought up for trial at the Old Bailey.

The first indictment against him was for the murder of Moore, the gunner of the _Adventure_.

There had been a quarrel in which Moore accused Kidd of having ruined them all, on which Kidd called him a 'lousy dog'; to which Moore replied in a rage, that if he was a dog it was Kidd who had made him one.