dertaken with any diſhoneſt View of ſeizing or appropriating the Effects to themſelves; which prudent Advice prevail’d, and he and three more were made Priſoners, and ſecured.
The Work being done, they went about Ship, altered the Courſe from Newfoundland to Boſton, and arrived ſafe the 3d of May following, to the great Joy of that Province.
On the 12th of May, 1724, a ſpecial Court of Admiralty was held for the Tryal of theſe Pyrates, when John Filmore, Edward Cheeſeman, John Combs, Henry Giles, Charles Ivymay, John Bootman, and Henry Payne, the ſeven that confederated together for the Pyrates Deſtruction, were honourably acquitted; as alſo three French Men, John Baptis, Peter Taffery, and Iſaac Laſſen, and three Negroes, Pedro, Franciſco, and Pierro. And John Roſe Archer, the Quarter-Maſter, William White, William Taylor, and William Phillips, were condemned; the two latter were reprieved for a Year and a Day, in order to be recommended (though I don’t know for what) as Objects of his Majeſty’s Mercy. The two former were executed on the 2d of June, and dy’d very penitently, making the following Declarations at the Place of Execution, with the Aſſiſtance of two grave Divines that attended them.
The dying Declarations of John Roſe Archer and William White, on the Day of their Execution at Boſton, June 2, 1724, for the Crimes of Pyracy.
Firſt, ſeparately, of Archer.
I greatly bewail my Profanations of the Lord’s Day, and my Diſobedience to my Parents.
And my Curſing and Swearing, and my blaſpheming the Name of the glorious God.
Unto
