Edmund Gilbert< no role > , for the murder of his apprentice, a charity boy; Edward Ryan< no role > , for stealing a silver tankard, the property of Dorothy Udall< no role > ; Samuel Keep< no role > , for stealing eleven sheep and a ram, the property of Ann Carter< no role > ; George Norton< no role > , for stealing one hundred yards of woollen cloth, the property of William Bray< no role > ; Stephen Parson< no role > , for stealing a silver chocolate pot, a pair of silver snuffers, a pair of silver tea tongs, and a silver stock-buckle, the goods of Sir Simeon Stuart< no role > ; Mary Cut and Come again< no role > This name instance is in set 3487. , for assaulting and robbing Elizabeth Turner< no role > ; Lettice Lynn< no role > , for breaking and entering the dwelling house of Matthew Wood< no role > ; and Esther Fowler< no role > , for stealing various goods the property of Philip Shirley< no role > .

While under sentence of death, they were duly attended by the Ordinary, who endeavoured constantly to insinuate into them his grave and pious admonitions, informing them of the danger of going out of the world in the state of hardened and unrepenting sinners; he set before their eyes the most gracious goodness of the Almighty, in pardoning those which repent, and of his justice in punishing those who neglected his mercy. He remarked to them, that all the evils now attending their unhappy state were entirely owing to idleness; that had they applied themselves to honest labor, they would have acquired more with safety and reputation, than could possibly be got by robbery; that industry would have made them a credit to themselves and families, and an honour to their country, and brought with it peace, prosperity and happiness both here and hereafter; he convinced them of the necessity of keeping strictly to the rule of doing to others as they would be done unto, because none of them would have chosen to have been robbed themselves; that the robbing of one another was the destruction of human society, and that as they behaved in that respect like wild beasts, so it was only owing to the lenity of the government that they were not treated accordingly, and rooted off the face of the earth, they and their posterity; that by trying them in form and giving them time to repent, the government treated them with a tenderness, which their established wickedness could in no sense lay claim to; and having a just regard to their future welfare, they were only punished here, as an example to deter others, and that they might by just and pious exhortations be induced to work out their own salvation, more especially as they could not hope any more to pursue the vanities and follies of this world. As to Edmund Gilbert< no role > in particular, it was represented to him, how heinous and wicked his crime was; he was reminded of the punishment of Cain for the murder of his brother Abel: it was intimated to him how wicked a thing murder was in its own nature, as it tended to the destruction of society, but how much worse in proportion as the means used were cruel and unparallel'd, that it behooved him in a more particular manner to repent, as his crimes in the eye of heaven were greater than those of his fellow sufferers. He seemed to listen with attention, but it did not appear that exhortations had any great effect on him. He, as the others, duly attended chapel and behaved with decency, but neither of them appeared to be duly struck with a just sense of their respective crimes, though sometimes, when reflecting on their miserable condition, especially Mary Cut and Come again< no role > This name instance is in set 3487. , and Lettice Lynn< no role > , they wept bitterly.

Tuesday, the 28th of May , report was made to the Lords of the Regency, of the above mentioned malefactors, when Esther Fowler< no role > received his Majesty's most gracious reprieve, and the remaining seven were ordered for execution.

1. Edmund Gilbert< no role > , of the Hamlet of Bethnal Green in the County of Middlesex , was indicted for feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, assaulting, beating and wounding Thomas Salter< no role > his apprentice with a stick of the value of one penny, as also with beating and whipping him with hard twisted cords, and thereby mortifying him in so barbarous and cruel a manner, as to occasion his death, contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, and of the form of the statute in such case made and provided.