It appeared likewise by the evidence of CaptainJo.Trahern,Tho.Castel, and others, who had been taken by the pirates, and thence had opportunities of observing the prisoner’s conduct, that he seemed thoroughly satisfied with that way of life, and was particularly intimate with Roberts; they often scoffing at the mention of a man-of-war, and saying, if they should meet with any of the turnip-man’s ships, they would blow up and go to h—l all together. Yet setting aside these silly freaks to recommend himself, his laziness had got him many enemies; even Roberts told him, on the complaint of a wounded man, whom he had refused to dress, that he was a double rogue to be there a second time, and threatened to cut his ears off.
The evidence further assured the court, from Captain Thomas Tarlton, that the prisoner was taken out of his brother’s ship, some months before, a first time, and being forward to oblige his new company, had presently asked for the pirates’ boat to fetch the medicine-chest away, when the wind and current proving too hard to contend with, he was drove on shore at Cape Montzerado.
The prisoner called for William Darling and Samuel Morwel (acquitted), and Nicholas Butler.
William Darling deposed, the first time the prisoner fell into their hands Roberts mistook him forJo.Tarlton, the master, and being informed it was the surgeon who came to represent him (then indisposed) he presently swore he should be his messmate, to which Wilson replied, he hoped not, he had a wife and child, which the other laughed at; and that he had been two days on board before he went in that boat, which was drove on shore at Cape Montzerado. And at his second coming, in theElizabeth, he heard Roberts order he should be brought on board in the first boat.
Samuel Morwel says that he has heard him bewail his condition while on board the pirate, and desired one Thomas to use his interest with Roberts for a discharge, saying, his employ and the little fortune he had left at home would, he hoped, exempt him the further trouble of seeking his bread at sea.
Nicholas Butler, who had remained with the pirates about forty-eight hours, when they took the French ships at Whydah, deposes that in this space the prisoner addressed him in the French language several times, deploring the wretchedness and ill-fortune of being confined in such company.
The prisoner, desiring liberty of two or three questions, asked whether or no he had not expostulated with Roberts, for a reason of his obliging surgeons to sign their Articles, when heretofore they did not; whether he had not expressed himself glad of having formerly escaped from them; whether he had not said, at taking the ships in Whydah road, that he could like the sport, were it lawful; and whether if he had not told him, should the Company discharge any surgeon, that he would insist on it as his turn? The deponent answered yes to every question separately; and farther, that he believes Scudamore had not seen Wilson when he first came and found him out of theElizabeth.
He added in his own defence, that, being surgeon with one John Tarlton, of Liverpool, he was met a first time on this coast of Guinea by Roberts the pirate, who, after a day or two, told him, to his sorrow, that he was to stay there, and ordered him to fetch his chest (not medicines, as asserted), which opportunity he took to make his escape; for the boat’s crew happening to consist of five French and one Englishman, all as willing as himself, they agreed to push the boat on shore and trust themselves with the negroes of Cape Montzerado. Hazardous, not only in respect of the dangerous seas that run there, but the inhumanity of the natives, who sometimes take a liking to human carcases. Here he remained five months, till Thomas Tarlton, brother to his captain, chanced to put into the road for trade, to whom he represented his hardships and starving condition; but was, in an unchristian manner, both refused a release of this captivity, or so much as a small supply of biscuit and salt meat, because, as he said, he had been among the pirates. A little time after this the master of a French ship paid a ransom for him and took him off; but, by reason of a nasty leprous indisposition he had contracted by hard and bad living, was, to his great misfortune, set ashore at Sestos again, when Captain Sharp met him and generously procured his release in the manner himself has related, and for which he stands infinitely obliged. That ill-luck threw him a second time into the pirates’ hands, in this shipElizabeth, where he met Thomas Tarlton, and thoughtlessly used some reproaches of him for his severe treatment at Montzerado; but protests without design his words should have had so bad a consequence; for Roberts took upon him, as a dispenser of justice, the correction of Mr. Tarlton, beating him unmercifully; and, he hopes it will be believed, contrary to any intention of his it should so happen, because, as a stranger, he might be supposed to have no influence, and believes there were some other motives for it. He cannot remember he expressed himself glad to see Roberts this second time, or that he dropped those expressions about Comry, as are sworn; but if immaturity of judgment had occasioned him to slip rash and inadvertent words, or that he had paid any undue compliments to Roberts, it was to ingratiate himself, as every prisoner did, for a more civil treatment, and in particular to procure his discharge, which he had been promised, and was afraid would have been revoked, if such a person as Comry did not remain there to supply his room; and of this, he said, all the gentlemen (meaning the pirates) could witness for him.
He urged also his youth in excuse for his rashness. The first time he had been with them (only a month in all), and that in no military employ; but in particular the service he had done in discovering the design the pirates had to rise in their passage on board theSwallow. Guilty.
But execution respited till the King’s pleasure be known, because the commander of theSwallowhad declared the first notice he received of this design of the pirates to rise was from him.
Benjamin Jeffreys.
By the depositions of Glasby and Lillburn (acquitted) against this prisoner, it appeared that his drunkenness was what at first detained him from going away in his proper ship, theNormangalley; and next morning, for having been abusive in his drink, saying to the pirates there was not a man amongst them, he received for a welcome six lashes from every person in the ship, which disordered him for some weeks, but on recovery was made boatswain’s mate; the serving of which, or any office on board a pirate, is at their own option (though elected), because others are glad to accept what brings an additional share in prize.
The deponents further say that at Sierra Leone every man had more especially the means of escaping, and that this prisoner, in particular, neglected it, and came off from that place after the ship was under sail and going out of the river.
The prisoner, in his defence, protests he was at first forced, and that the office of boatswain’s mate was imposed on him, and what he would have been glad tohave relinquished. That the barbarous whipping he had received from the pirates at first was for telling them that none who could get their bread in an honest way would go on such an account. And he had certainly taken the opportunity which presented at Sierra Leone of ridding himself from so distasteful a life, if there had not been three or four of the old pirates on shore at the same time who, he imagined, must know of him, and would doubtless have served him the same, if not worse, than they since had done William Williams, who, for such a design, being delivered up by the treacherous natives, had received two lashes through the whole ship’s company.
The Court observed the excuses of these pirates about want of means to escape, was oftentimes as poor and evasive as their pleas of being forced at first; for here, at Sierra Leone, every man had his liberty on shore, and, it was evident, might have kept it, if he, or they, had so pleased. And such are further culpable, who having been introduced into the society by such uncivil methods as whipping, or beating, neglect less likely means of regaining liberty; it shows strong inclinations to dishonesty, and they stand inexcusably. Guilty.
Jo.Mansfield.
It was proved against this prisoner, by Captain Trahern and George Fenn, that he was one of those volunteers who was at the attack and robbery of the Company’s ship called theKing Solomon. That he bullied well among them who dared not make any reply, but was very easy with his friends, who knew him; for Moody on this occasion took a large glass from him, and threatened to blow his brains out (a favourite phrase with these pirates) if he muttered at it.
From others acquitted it likewise appeared that he was at first a volunteer among them, from an island called Dominico, in the West Indies, and had, to recommend himself, told them he was a deserter from theRoseman-of-war, and, before that, had been on the highway; he was always drunk, they said, and so bad at the time they met with theSwallow, that he knew nothing of the action, but came up vapouring with his cutlass, after theFortunehad struck her colours, to know who would go on board the prize; and it was some time before they could persuade him into the truth of their condition.
He could say little in defence of himself, acknowledged this latter part of drunkenness; a vice, he says, that had too great a share in ensnaring him into this course of life, and had been a greater motive with him than gold. Guilty.
William Davis.
William Allen deposed he knew this prisoner at Sierra Leone, belonging to theAnngalley; that he had a quarrel with, and beat, the mate of that ship, for which, as he said, being afraid to return to his duty, he consorted to the idle customs and ways of living among the negroes, from whom he received a wife, and ungratefully sold her one evening for some punch to quench his thirst. After this, having put himself under the protection of Mr. Plunket, governor there for the Royal African Company, the relations and friends of the woman applied to him for redress, who immediately surrendered the prisoner, and told them he did not care if they took his head off; but the negroes wisely judging it would not fetch so good a price, they sold him in his turn again to Seignior Jessee, a Christian black, and native of that place, who expected and agreed for two years’ service from him, on consideration of what he had disbursed for the redemption of the woman. But long before the expiration of this time Roberts came into Sierra Leone river, where the prisoner, as Seignior Jessee assured the deponent, entered a volunteer with them.
The deponent further corroborates this part of the evidence, in that he being obliged to call at Cape Mount, in his passage down hither, met there with two deserters from Roberts’s ship, who assured him of the same, and that the pirates did design to turn Davis away the next opportunity as an idle, good-for-nothing fellow.
From Glasby and Lillburn it was evident, that every pirate, while they stayed at Sierra Leone, went on shore at discretion. That Roberts had often assured Mr. Glynn and other traders at that place, that he would force nobody; and, in short, there was no occasion for it; in particular, the prisoner’s row-mate went away, and thinks he might have done the same if he had pleased.
The prisoner alleged his having been detained against his will, and says that, returning with elephants’ teeth for Sierra Leone, the pirates’ boat pursued and brought him on board, where he was kept on account of his understanding the pilotage and navigation of that river.
It was obvious to the court, not only how frivolous excuses of constraint and force were among these people, at their first commencing pirates, but also it was plain to them, from these two deserters, met at Cape Mount, and the discretional manner they lived in at Sierra Leone, through how little difficulty several of them did, and others might have escaped afterwards, if they could but have obtained their own consents for it. Guilty.
This is the substance of the trials of Roberts’s crew, which may suffice for others that occur in this book. The foregoing lists show, by a * before the names, who were condemned; those names with a + were referred for trial to the Marshalsea, and all the rest were acquitted.
The following pirates were executed, according to their sentence, without the gates of Cape Corso Castle, within the flood-marks, viz.:—William Magnes, 35, Minehead; Richard Hardy, 25, Wales; David Simpson, 36, North Berwick; Christopher Moody, 28; Thomas Sutton, 23, Berwick; Valentine Ashplant, 32, Minories; Peter de Vine, 42, Stepney; William Philips, 29, Lower Shadwell; Philip Bill, 27, St. Thomas’s; William Main, 28; William Mackintosh, 21, Canterbury; William Williams, 40, near Plymouth; Robert Haws, 31, Yarmouth; William Petty, 30, Deptford; John Jaynson, 22, near Lancaster; Marcus Johnson, 21, Smyrna; Robert Crow, 44, Isle of Man; Michael Maer, 41, Ghent; Daniel Harding, 26, Groomsbury in Somersetshire; William Fernon, 22, Somersetshire;Jo.More, 19, Meer, in Wiltshire; Abraham Harper, 23, Bristol;Jo.Parker, 22, Winfred, in Dorsetshire;Jo.Philips, 28, Jersey; James Clement, 20, Bristol; Peter Scudamore, 35, Wales; James Skyrm, 44, Somersetshire; John Walden, 24, Whitby;Jo.Stephenson, 40, Orkneys;Jo.Mansfield, 30, Bristol; Israel Hynde, 30, Aberdeen; Peter Lesley, 21, Exeter; Charles Bunce, 26, Other St. Mary’s, Devonshire; Robert Birtson, 30, Cornwall; Richard Harris, 45, Sadbury, in Devonshire; Joseph Nositer, 26 (speechless at execution); William Williams, 30, Holland; Agge Jacobson, 30, Bristol; Benjamin Jeffreys, 21, Topsham; Cuthbert Goss, 21, Plymouth; John Jessup, 20, Plymouth; Edward Watts, 22, Dunmore; Thomas Giles, 26, Minehead; William Wood, 27, York; Thomas Armstrong, 34, London (executed on board theWeymouth); Robert Johnson, 32, at Whydah; George Smith, 25, Wales; William Watts, 23, Ireland; James Philips, 35, Antegoa; John Coleman, 24, Wales; Robert Hays, 20, Liverpool; William Davis, 23, Wales.
The remainder of the pirates, whose names are undermentioned, upon their humble petition to the court, had their sentence changed from death to seven years’ servitude, conformable to our sentence of transportation. The petition is as follows:—
“To the Honourable the President and Judges of the Court of Admiralty, for trying of pirates, sitting at Cape Corso Castle, the 20th day of April, 1722.“The humble petition of Thomas How, Samuel Fletcher, &c.“Humbly showeth—“That your petitioners being unhappily, and unwarily drawn into that wretched and detestable crime of piracy, for which they now stand justly condemned, they most humbly pray the clemency of the court, in the mitigation of their sentence, that they may be permitted to serve the Royal African Company of England, in this country for seven years, in such a manner as the court shall think proper; that by their just punishment, being made sensible of the error of their former ways, they will for the future become faithful subjects, good servants, and useful in their stations, if it please the Almighty to prolong their lives.“And your petitioners, as in duty, &c.”The resolution of the court was—“That the petitioners have leave by this Court of Admiralty, to interchange indentures with the Captain-General of the Gold Coast, for the Royal African Company, for seven years’ servitude, at any of the Royal African Company’s settlements in Africa, in such manner as he, the said Captain-General, shall think proper.“On Thursday, the 26th day of April, the indentures being all drawn out, according to the grant made to the petitioners, by the court held on Friday the 20th of this instant, each prisoner was sent for up, signed, sealed and exchanged them in the presence of—CaptainMungo Heardman, President,James Phipps, Esq.,Mr.Edward Hyde,Mr.Charles Fanshaw, andMr.John Atkins, Registrar.”@
“To the Honourable the President and Judges of the Court of Admiralty, for trying of pirates, sitting at Cape Corso Castle, the 20th day of April, 1722.
“The humble petition of Thomas How, Samuel Fletcher, &c.
“Humbly showeth—
“That your petitioners being unhappily, and unwarily drawn into that wretched and detestable crime of piracy, for which they now stand justly condemned, they most humbly pray the clemency of the court, in the mitigation of their sentence, that they may be permitted to serve the Royal African Company of England, in this country for seven years, in such a manner as the court shall think proper; that by their just punishment, being made sensible of the error of their former ways, they will for the future become faithful subjects, good servants, and useful in their stations, if it please the Almighty to prolong their lives.
“And your petitioners, as in duty, &c.”
The resolution of the court was—
“That the petitioners have leave by this Court of Admiralty, to interchange indentures with the Captain-General of the Gold Coast, for the Royal African Company, for seven years’ servitude, at any of the Royal African Company’s settlements in Africa, in such manner as he, the said Captain-General, shall think proper.
“On Thursday, the 26th day of April, the indentures being all drawn out, according to the grant made to the petitioners, by the court held on Friday the 20th of this instant, each prisoner was sent for up, signed, sealed and exchanged them in the presence of—
CaptainMungo Heardman, President,James Phipps, Esq.,Mr.Edward Hyde,Mr.Charles Fanshaw, andMr.John Atkins, Registrar.”@
A Copy of the Indenture.
The Indenture of a person condemned to serve abroad, for piracy, which, upon the humble petition of the pirates therein mentioned, was most mercifully granted by his Imperial Majesty’s Commissioners and Judges appointed to hold a Court of Admiralty, for the trial of pirates, at Cape Corso Castle, in Africa, upon condition of serving seven years, and other conditions, are as follows, viz.:—
“This Indenture, made the twenty-sixth day of April, Anno Regni Regis Georgii magnæ Britanniæ, &c. Septimo, Domini Millessimo, Sepcentessimo viginti duo, between Roger Scot, late of the City of Bristol, mariner, of the one part, and the Royal African Company of England, their Captain-General and Commander-in-chief, for the time being, on the other part, witnesseth, That the said Roger Scot doth hereby covenant, and agree, to, and with, the said Royal African Company, their Captain-General, and Commander-in-chief for the time being, to serve him, or his lawful successors, in any of the Royal African Company’s settlements on the coast of Africa, from the day of the date of these presents, to the full term of seven years, from hence next ensuing, fully to be complete and ended; there to serve in such employment as the said Captain-General or his successors shall employ him, according to the custom of the country in like kind.
“In consideration whereof, the said Captain-General, and Commander-in-chief, doth covenant and agree to, and with, the said Roger Scot, to find and allow him meat, drink, apparel, and lodging, according to the custom of the country.
“In witness whereof, the parties aforesaid, to these presents, have interchangeably put their hands and seals, the day and year first above written.
“Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the presence of us, at Cape Corso Castle, in Africa, where no stamped paper was to be had.
In like manner was drawn out and exchanged the indentures of Thomas How, of Barnstaple, in the county of Devon; Samuel Fletcher, of East Smithfield, London; John Lane, of Lombard Street, London; David Littlejohn, of Bristol; John King, of Shadwell parish, London; Henry Dennis, of Bideford; Hugh Harris, of Corf Castle, Devonshire; William Taylor, of Bristol; Thomas Owen, of Bristol; John Mitchel, of Shadwell parish, London; Joshua Lee, of Liverpool; William Shuren, of Wapping parish, London; Robert Hartley, of Liverpool; John Griffin, of Blackwall, Middlesex; James Cromby, of London, Wapping; James Greenham, of Marshfield, Gloucestershire; John Horn, of St. James’s parish, London; John Jessup, of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire; David Rice, of Bristol.
But two or three of whom, I hear, are now living; two others, viz., George Wilson and Thomas Oughterlaney, were respited from execution till his Majesty’s pleasure should be known; the former died abroad, and the latter came home, and received his Majesty’s pardon; the account of the whole stands thus:—Acquitted, 74; executed, 32; respited, 2; to servitude, 20; to the Marshalsea, 17; killed in theRanger, 10; killed in theFortune, 3; died in the passage to Cape Corso, 13; died afterwards in the Castle, 4; negroes in both ships, 70: total, 276.
I am not ignorant how acceptable a relation of the behaviour and dying words of malefactors are to the generality of our countrymen, and therefore shall deliver what occurred worthy of notice in the deportment of these criminals.
The first six that were called to execution were Magnes, Moody, Simpson, 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 seized 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 seemed heedless for the present, some calling for water to drink, and others applying to the soldiers for caps; but when this gentleman pressed them for an answer, they all exclaimed against the severity of the court, and were so hardened 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 must be hanged, 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.” They walked 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, Simpson, 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 hanged.” And Hardy, when his hands were tied 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 hanged, but this way of the hands being tied 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 through their rogueries, abided with them to the last.
Samuel Fletcher, another of the pirates ordered for execution, but reprieved, seemed to have a quicker sense of his condition; for when he saw those he was allotted with go to execution, he sent a message by the Provost-Marshal to the court, to be “informed of the meaning of it, and humbly desired to know whether they designed him mercy or not? If they did, he stood infinitely obliged 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 reckoned Scudamore, Williams, Philips, Stephenson, Jeffreys, Lesly, 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 applied himself incessantly to prayer and reading the Scriptures. He seemed 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 theWeymouth(and the only one that was); there was nobody to press him to an acknowledgment 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 in lamenting and bewailing his sins in general, exhorting the spectators to an honest and good life, in which alone they could find satisfaction. In the end he desired they would join with him in singing two or three latter verses of the 140th Psalm; and that being concluded, he was, at the firing of a gun, triced up at the fore-yard-arm.
Bunce was a young man, not above twenty-six years old, but made the most pathetic speech of any at the gallows. He first declaimed against the gilded baits of Power, Liberty, and Wealth, that had ensnared him among the pirates, his inexperienced years not being able to withstand the temptation; but that the briskness he had shown, which so fatally had procured him favour amongst them, was not so much a fault in principle as the liveliness and vivacity of his nature. He was now extremely afflicted for the injuries he had done to all men, and begged their’s and God’s forgiveness, very earnestly exhorting the spectators to remember their Creator in their youth, and guard betimes, that their minds took not a wrong bias, concluding with this apt similitude, “That he stood there as a beacon upon a rock” (the gallows standing on one) “to warn erring mariners of danger.”