Old Bailey Proceedings:
Old Bailey Proceedings: Accounts of Criminal Trials

10th September 1783

About this dataset

Currently Held: Harvard University Library

LL ref: s17830910-1




The Trials being ended, the Court adjourned to the Saturday Morning following, and then proceeded to give judgement as follows.

Received sentence of death, 33.

(Which with William Marston Rothwell < no role > This name instance is in set 196. , on whom sentence of death was passed before, see part III, and twenty-four returned transports, on whom sentence of death was passed on the Tuesday night preceding, see part II, make 58 capital convicts in the whole, who received sentence of death this session) viz.

Joseph Scott < no role > , William M'Namara < no role > , John Francis < no role > , Joseph Abrahams < no role > , Peter Williams < no role > , Thomas Tanner < no role > , Mary Parry < no role > , William Sharman < no role > , John Burton < no role > , Thomas Duckston < no role > , otherwise Duckson, Mathew Daniel < no role > , Margaret Ann Smith < no role > , otherwise Gibbs, William Blunt < no role > , John Berryman < no role > , otherwise Bennyman, John Barker < no role > , William Glanville < no role > , Robert Stewart < no role > , Thomas Sutton < no role > , John Fuller < no role > , James Neale < no role > , otherwise John Nowland, Morgan Williams < no role > , John Pilkington < no role > , John Booker < no role > , otherwise Brooker, Robert Mott < no role > , John Anderson < no role > , Thomas Smith < no role > , John Starkey < no role > , John Wright < no role > , Ann Farmer < no role > , Elizabeth Jones < no role > , Andrew Roman < no role > , Thomas Limpus < no role > This name instance is in set 2636. , and William Moore < no role > , (this last to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution.)

The several convicts were separately asked (as usual) what they had to say, why the court should not give them judgment to die according to law, when William M'Namara < no role > said, he could find no fault with the jury in bringing him in guilty, but wished to have another mode of punishment inflicted than that of publick execution, to save the credit of his family, but the Court ad- advised him not to entertain any such expectations. and John Booker < no role > , alias Brooker, said that he did not mean to impeach the verdict of the Jury, but only to inform the court, that although his prosecutor had positively sworn to him, and his horse, yet the man who actually committed the robbery, was then in the New Gaol in the Borough.

Silence being proclaimed, the Deputy Recorder addressed the several convicts in the following words.

You the several prisoners at the bar have been convicted of the offences charged in your indictments; it must give inexpressible concern to all who see or hear of so crouded a bar of criminals, to reflect that laws written in blood, and denoucing death against those who violate them, should in so many instances have lost their terror, and that after such frequent executions, and more frequent pardons, the exertions of publick justice, and of royal mercy should seem to be thrown away upon such bold offenders: The black catalogue of your crimes comprehend every species of fraud and violence, short of high treason against the King's person and government, and short of murder, which can disturb society or debase human nature: since the laws have found it necessary to place your crimes on the same footing with respect to your punishment, it would be useless to enquire how they stand with respect to your comparative guilt: you have unjustly abused the clemency of the law, and have incurred its punishment: you have not offended without notice or without example, and in defiance of the laws you have dared to draw down their vengeance upon you; whereas you ought to have reflected that opposition to the laws, instead of stopping their current serves only to increase their violence: under these circumstances I exhort you not to delay the important business of looking into yourselves, instead of into your comparative guilt, and endeavouring to obtain the pardon of the Almighty: I exhort you not to delay this business from any expectations of mercy, because it would ill become this Court to hold out to you the terms on which his Majesty thinks fit to extend his mercy, or to determine in cases peculiar to his own jurisdiction, where mercy to the individual would be cruelty to the community. You will remember that your death is a passage from one life to another, from a temporary to an eternal existence, miserable or happy, as God in his justice or mercy shall be pleased to make it: you will therefore lose no time in endeavouring to impress yourselves with a just sense of your guilt, and to make that the basis of your contrition and repentance; you will consider that human tribunals can judge only from actions, but that you will shortly appear before the tribunal of one, who sees into and who will try you by the hidden motives of the heart: you will reflect that it is not those who call upon his name but those who cultivate in themselves sit dispositions to perform his will, that are likely to obtain his mercy: reflect therefore on the threatenings he has denounced against impenitent sinners and the promises he holds out to those are penitent. Nothing remains to the Court but to pronounce the dreadful sentence of the law; the sentence of the law is, and this Court doth award and adjudge, that you be respectively hanged by the necks until you are dead, and may God Almighty have mercy on your souls!

William Moore < no role > for coining silver, who stood behind the others, was then set forwards, when Mr. Deputy Recorder thus addressed him: You was in Court when the admonitions were given to you and the rest, and I trust you will receive those admonitions in the light they were meant, and that you will endeavour to avail yourself of the conduct there recommended; your offence is such a one as the law describes to be high treason, and that draws down therefore a severe punishment; you will consider it is an offence that not only strikes at the circulation of money, but from the species of coin in which you have been particularly employed, that it strikes at the bread of the poor, at the bread of thousands who depend on what they receive, being such as will procure for them the means of subsistence: The sentence of the law is, and this Court doth award and adjudge, that you be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, and that you be there hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may God have mercy on your soul!

The following eighteen returned transports (being part of the twenty-four who received sentence of death upon the Tuesday preceeding) were then put to the bar, when his Majesty's pardon was read on the conditions after mentioned, which they severally accepted, and Mr. Deputy Recorder then addressed them in these words:

John Kellan < no role > otherwise John Herbert Keeling, Charles Keeling < no role > , William Blatherhorn < no role > , Nathaniel Collier < no role > , William Coombes < no role > , Andrew Dickson < no role > , Joseph Pentecross < no role > , George Nash < no role > , John White < no role > , Samuel Read < no role > , David Kilpack < no role > , Thomas Briant < no role > , John Birch < no role > , Richard Partridge < no role > , John Murphy < no role > , William Bradbury < no role > This name instance is in set 3070. , Charles Wilson < no role > , and John Welch < no role > This name instance is in set 1398. This set is in the group(s): GarrowsClients . , you have severally been tried this session for returning from transportation within the terms that had been ordered by your sentences, and judgment of death upon your convictions has been pronounced upon you; there is too great reason to apprehend that you John Kellan < no role > otherwise John Herbert Keeling, and that you Charles Keeling < no role > , have had a very principal share in taking this vessel out of the hands of the Captain, in arising on him and the company, and in freeing yourselves and others; and though you appeared active afterwards, in endeavouring to protect the Captain from the violence of the crew, yet there is very great reason to apprehend that was done in order to colour purposes that perhaps would not have been carried into execution without your assistance and countenance; and you Charles Keeling < no role > in particular, by the effrontery and boldness you displayed at the time sentence of death was pronounced upon you, gave the Court too much reason to think that you are a very hardened offender: The King however has thought fit to extend his mercy to you and the rest, (excepting John Murphy < no role > ) upon condition of your being severally transported to America for the term of your natural lives, and that John Murphy < no role > shall be transported to America for the term of seven years: You have been called to the bar and have accepted his Majesty's gracious pardon on these conditions: The sentence therefore of the Court is, that you John Murphy < no role > be transported for seven years, and that you, the several other prisoners at the bar, be transported to some of his Majesty's Colonies in America for the term of your natural lives; and it is necessary; peculiarly necessary in your cases, who have endeavoured to elude, so daringly to elude the sentence of the law, to inform you, that if you are found at large within this kingdom of Great Britain, you will shut out every expectation of receiving any more his Majesty's mercy.

The following Prisoners tried this session also received sentence of transportation, viz.

Transported for fourteen years. 1.

Frances Heart < no role > .

Transported for seven years. 23.

James Wallbourn < no role > , John Brown < no role > , Thomas Cooke < no role > , Martin Palmer < no role > , Joseph Crowder < no role > , Robert Haslem < no role > , Thomas Compton < no role > otherwise Coleman, Sarah Gaffe < no role > , George Liske < no role > , Joshua Harper < no role > , Elizabeth Dudgeon < no role > , Susanah Garth < no role > , Elizabeth Spencer < no role > , Ann Pantoni < no role > , Hannah Green < no role > , Richard Davis < no role > , George Wilkinson < no role > , Peter Bourne < no role > , William Briant < no role > , Thomas Popplewell < no role > , John Owen < no role > , James Mackey < no role > This name instance is in set 154. , and Michael Mackanally < no role > .

To be fined 1 s. and imprisoned twelve months in Newgate. 4.

Thomas Carter < no role > , Mary Child < no role > , Elizabeth Smith < no role > , Sophia Clarke < no role > .

To be fined 1 s. and imprisoned three months in Newgate. 3.

William Russell < no role > , Sarah Halsey < no role > , Thomas Smith < no role > , ( He is to be publickly whipped.)

To be publickly whipped and imprisoned for one calendar month in Newgate. 4.

Thomas Smith < no role > , Samuel Abrahams < no role > , William Lawton < no role > , William Winter < no role > .

To be confined to hard labour six months in the house of correction. 2.

John Allen < no role > , (he is to be publickly whipped) Margaret Carter < no role > .

To be publickly whipped. 8.

Major Partridge < no role > , Thomas Joy < no role > , Thomas Day < no role > , Thomas Redboth < no role > , Samuel Rowley < no role > , John Connolly < no role > , William Lawrence < no role > , Redmond M'Gray < no role > .

The following prisoners who had been capitally convicted at former sessions were called to the bar and received his Majesty's gracious pardon on the annexed condition, viz.

Henry Bentum alias Fentum proceedingsdefend , Joseph Eades proceedingsdefend , Francis Nicholls proceedingsdefend , Thomas Nowland proceedingsdefend , Ann Randall proceedingsdefend , John Brown proceedingsdefend , and John Harris proceedingsdefend , on condition of being transported to America for fourteen years from the time of their respective respites.

John Preston proceedingsdefend , James Cox proceedingsdefend , Charles Woollett proceedingsdefend , Thomas Barrett proceedingsdefend , Henry Marks proceedingsdefend , Hyam Levy proceedingsdefend , Robert Sideaway proceedingsdefend This name instance is in set 2658. , Mary Walker proceedingsdefend , Henry Hurford proceedingsdefend , Thomas Growder proceedingsdefend , Henry Lavell proceedingsdefend , Michael Nowland proceedingsdefend , Abraham Goosey proceedingsdefend , and John Rogers proceedingsdefend , on condition of transportation to America for life.

Benjamin Cantoser proceedingsdefend , Ann Davis proceedingsdefend , Elizabeth Barber proceedingsdefend , Elizabeth Rose proceedingsdefend , Thomas Joseph proceedingsdefend , James Thomas proceedingsdefend , Ann Taunton proceedingsdefend , William Hunt proceedingsdefend , Thomas Hinsell proceedingsdefend , William Smith proceedingsdefend , Margaret Hall proceedingsdefend This name instance is in set 310. , Ann Dean proceedingsdefend , William Phillimore proceedingsdefend , Mary otherwise Sarah Bond proceedingsdefend , Mary Dymock proceedingsdefend , George Clare proceedingsdefend , George Wood proceedingsdefend , Robert Forrester proceedingsdefend , Richard Macdale proceedingsdefend , Charles Allen proceedingsdefend , Thomas Arnold proceedingsdefend , John Deeson proceedingsdefend , Edward Parrott proceedingsdefend , William Chadborne proceedingsdefend , Thomas Ing proceedingsdefend , Benjamin Fentum proceedingsdefend , John Simfield proceedingsdefend , Ann Clarke proceedingsdefend , John Little proceedingsdefend , and Thomas Rogers proceedingsdefend , on condition of transportation to America for seven years from the time of their respective respites.

William Harper proceedingsdefend , on condition of being kept to hard labour on the River Thames for three years, and Edward Edson proceedingsdefend , and William Spong proceedingsdefend for four years.

John Jones < no role > , John Whisker < no role > , and John Perry < no role > , sentenced as former sessions to be transported to the East Indies for the seven years, were brought to the bar, and it was offered to them to have their sentence changed to transportation to America for the remainder of the term, from the date of their sentences, which Jones and Whitaker refused and Parry accepted.

John Stockton < no role > , and John Martin < no role > , sentenced at a former sessions to be transported to Africa for seven years, were brought to the bar, and it was offered to them to have their sentence changed to transportation to America for the remainder of the said term; which they refused, and said they chose to remain on their former sentences.

Peter Airey < no role > This name instance is in set 2764480. sentenced to Africa for life, was also offered the same exchange of place, which he also refused, and said he would rather go to Africa.

John Doughty < no role > , John Groome < no role > , William Wilde < no role > and Henry Barnet < no role > , sentenced to be transported to Africa, were asked the same question, and each replied No.

James Thody otherwise Ives proceedingsdefend , James Thorpe proceedingsdefend , Barnard Manning Collins proceedingsdefend , and Thomas Hughes proceedingsdefend , each capitally convicted at a former sessions, received his Majesty's pardon, on condition of being transported to America for seven years.

Thomas Richards proceedingsdefend , John Higginson proceedingsdefend , and Jacob Ringrose Atkins proceedingsdefend , each capitally condicted at a former sessions, received his Majesty's pardon, on condition of quitting this kingdom in fourteen days from the date thereof, and not to return again during their natural lives.

John Tasker < no role > , John Best < no role > , Joseph Smith < no role > , Charlottes Tucker, John Newman < no role > , and John Smith < no role > , to remain until next sessions.




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