In like manner was Drawn Out and exchanged the Indentures Of
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Thomas How of Barnstable, in the county of Devon.
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Samuel Fletcher Samuel Fletcher of East Smithfield, London.
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John Lane of Lombard Street, London.
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David Littlejohn of Bristol.
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John King of Shadwell Parish, London.
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Henry Dennis of Biddiford.
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Hugh Harris of Corf Castle, Devonshire.
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William Taylor of Bristol.
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Thomas Owen of Bristol.
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John Mitchell of Shadwell Parish, London.
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Joshua Lee of Liverpool.
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William Shurin of Wapping Parish, London.
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Robert Hartley of Liverpool.
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John Griffin of Blackwall, Middlesex.
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James Cromby of London, Wapping.
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James Greenham of Marshfield, Gloucestershire.
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John Horn of St. James’ Parish, London.
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John Jessup of Wisbich, Cambridgeshire.
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David Rice of Bristol.
None of which, I hear, are now living, two others, viz. George Wilson and Thomas Oughterlauney, were respited from execution, till His Majesty’s pleasure should be known; the former dy’d abroad, and the latter came home, and received His Majesty’s pardon; the account of the whole stands thus,
|
Acquitted, |
74 |
|
|
Executed, |
52 |
|
|
Respited, |
2 |
|
|
To Servitude |
20 |
|
|
To the Marshalsea |
17 |
|
| Kill’d | in the Ranger, | 10 |
| in the Fortune, | 3 | |
| Dy’d | in the passage to Cape Corso, | 15 |
| afterwards in the Castle, | 4 | |
| Negroes in both Ships, | 70 | |
| Total, | 276 | |
I am not ignorant how acceptable the behaviour and dying words of malefactors are to the generality of our countrymen, and therefore shall deliver what occurr’d, worthy of notice, in the behaviour of these criminals.
The first six that were called to execution, were Magnes, Moody, Sympson, Sutton, Ashplant, and Hardy; all of them old standers and notorious offenders: when they were brought out of the hold, on the parade, in order to break off their fetters, and fit the halters; none of them, it was observed, appeared the least dejected, unless Sutton, who spoke faint, but it was rather imputed to a flux that had seiz’d him two or three days before, than fear. A gentleman, who was surgeon of the ship, was so charitable at this time, to offer himself in the room of an ordinary, and represented to them, as well as he was able, the heinousness of their sin, and necessity which lay on them of repentance; one particular part of which ought to be, acknowledging the justice they had met with. They seem’d heedless for the present, some calling for water to drink, and others applying to the soldiers for caps, but when this gentleman press’d them for an answer, they all exclaim’d against the severity of the court, and were so harden’d, as to curse, and wish the same justice might overtake all the members of it, as had been dealt to them. They were poor rogues, they said, and so hang’d, while others, no less guilty in another way, escaped.
When he endeavoured to compose their minds, exhorting them to die in charity with all the world, and would have diverted them from such vain discourse, by asking them their country, age, and the like; some of them answered, “What was that to him, they suffered the law, and should give no account but to God;” walking to the gallows without a tear, in token of sorrow for their past offences, or showing as much concern as a man would express at travelling a bad road; nay, Sympson, at seeing a woman that he knew, said, “he had lain with that b—h three times, and now she was come to see him hang’d.” And Hardy, when his hands were ty’d behind him, (which happened from their not being acquainted with the way of bringing malefactors to execution,) observed, “that he had seen many a man hang’d, but this way of the hands being ty’d behind them, he was a stranger to, and never saw before in his life.” I mention these two little instances, to show how stupid and thoughtless they were of their end, and that the same abandoned and reprobate temper that had carried them thro’ their rogueries, abided with them to the last.
Samuel Fletcher, another of the pirates ordered for execution, but reprieved, seem’d to have a quicker sense of his condition; for when he saw those he was allotted with gone to execution, he sent a message by the provost marshal to the court, to be “inform’d of the meaning of it, and humbly desir’d to know whether they design’d him mercy, or not? If they did, he stood infinitely oblig’d to them, and thought the whole service of his life an incompetent return for so great a favour; but that if he was to suffer, the sooner the better, he said, that he might be out of his pain.”
There were others of these pirates the reverse of this, and though destitute of ministers, or fit persons to represent their sins, and assist them with spiritual advice, were yet always employing their time to good purposes, and behaved with a great deal of seeming devotion and penitence; among these may be reckon’d Scudamore, Williams, Philips, Stephenson, Jefferys, Lesley, Harper, Armstrong, Bunce, and others.
Scudamore too lately discerned the folly and wickedness of the enterprise, that had chiefly brought him under sentence of death, from which, seeing there was no hopes of escaping, he petitioned for two or three days reprieve, which was granted; and for that time apply’d himself incessantly to prayer, and reading the scriptures, seem’d to have a deep sense of his sins, of this in particular, and desired, at the gallows, they would have patience with him, to sing the first part of the Thirty-First Psalm; which he did by himself throughout.
Armstrong, having been a deserter from His Majesty’s service, was executed on board the Weymouth, (and the only one that was;) there was nobody to press him to an acknowledgement of the crime he died for, nor of sorrowing in particular for it, which would have been exemplary, and made suitable impressions on seamen; so that his last hour was spent
