104. Account of their Execution. June 30, 1704.[1]

An Account of the Behaviour and Last Dying Speeches Of the Six Pirates, that were Executed on Charles River, Boston side, on Fryday, June 30th, 1704. Viz., Capt. John Quelch, John Lambert, Christopher Scudamore, John Miller, Erasmus Peterson and Peter Roach.

The Ministers of the Town had used more than ordinary Endeavours, to Instruct the Prisoners, and bring them to Repentance. There were Sermons Preached in their hearing, Every day,[2] And Prayers daily made with them. And they were Catachised; and they had many occasional Exhortations. And nothing was left, that could be done for their Good.

On Fryday the 20th [30th] of June 1704, Pursuant to Orders in the Dead Warrant, the aforesaid Pirates were guarded from the Prison in Boston, by Forty Musketeers, Constables of the Town, the Provost Marshal and his Officers, etc. with Two Ministers,[3] who took great pains to prepare them for the last Article of their Lives. Being allowed to walk on Foot through the Town, to Scarlets Wharff,[4] where, the Silver Oar being carried before them, they went by Water to the place of Execution, being Crowded and thronged on all sides with Multitudes of Spectators. The Ministers then Spoke to the Malefactors, to this Effect.

"We have told you often, ye[a] we have told you Weeping, That you have by Sin undone your selves; That you were born Sinners, That you have lived Sinners, That your Sins have been many and mighty, and that the Sins for which you are now to Dy are of no common aggravation. We have told you, That there is a Saviour for Sinners, and we have shewn you, how to commit your selves into His Saving and Healing Hands. We have told you, That if He Save you, He will give you an hearty Repentance for all your Sins, and we have shown you how to Express that Repentance. We have told you, What Marks of Life must be desired for your Souls, that you may Safely appear before the Judgment Seat of God. Oh! That the means used for your Good may by the Grace of God be made Effectual. We can do no more, but leave you in His Merciful Hands!"

When they were gone up upon the Stage, and Silence was Commanded, One of the Ministers Prayed, as followeth.

The Prayer made by One of the Ministers, after the Malefactors were first upon the Stage.[5] (As near as it could be taken in Writing in the great Crowd.)

"O Thou most Great and Glorious Lord! Thou art a Righteous, and a Terrible God. It is a Righteous and an Holy Law that thou hast given unto us. To break that Good Law, and Sin against thy Infinite Majesty, can be no little Evil. Thy Word is always True; and very Particular, that Word of thine which has told us and warn'd us, Evil Pursueth Sinners. We have seen it, we have seen it; We have before our Eyes a dreadful Demonstration of it. Oh! Sanctify unto us a Sight that has in it so much of the Terror of the Lord! We have Reason to Glorify the Free Grace of God, that we are not our selves the Instances. We have before us very astonishing Examples of Evil Pursuing Sinners. Here is a Number of men that have been very Great Sinners, and that are to Dy before their Time, for their being wicked overmuch. God knows the Prayers, the Pains, the Tears, and the Agonies that have been Employ'd for them. And now, the Last Thing that we have to do for them, is to pour out with Anguish of Soul our Prayer on their behalf; Our Prayer, to that God, who heareth Prayer; to that God, with whom there is Mercy and Plenteous Redemption; to that God, who is Rich in Mercy and Ready to Pardon. But how can we make our Prayer, without a Rapturous Adoration of that Free-Grace, which has distinguished us! We, even we also, have every one of us an horrible Fountain of Sin in our Souls. There are none of the Crimes committed by these Miserable Men, or by the worst of those Criminals that go down into the Pit, but we have the seeds of them, in that Original Corruption, which we brought into the World with us. If God had left us to our selves, as He justly might have done, there is not the best among us all, but what would soon have done the worst things in the World. Oh! The Free-Grace! Oh! The Free-Grace! Oh! The Riches of that Grace, which has made all the Difference! But now, we Cry mightily to Heaven, we Lift up our Cries to the God of all Grace, for the Perishing Souls which are just now going to Expire under the Stroke of Justice, before our Eyes. We Mourn, we Mourn, that upon some of them, at Least, we do unto this Minute see no better Symptomes. But, Oh! is there not yet a Room for Sovereign Grace to be display'd, in their Conversion and Salvation! They Perish, if they do not now Sincerely Turn from Sin to God, and give themselves up to the Lord Jesus Christ; They Righteously and Horribly Perish! And yet, without influences from above, they can do none of those things which must be done if they do not perish. Oh! Let us beg it of our God, that He would not be so Provoked at their Multiplied and Prodigious Impieties, and at their obstinate Hardness under means of Good formerly afforded them, as to withhold those Influences from them! We cry to thee, O God of all Grace, That thou wouldest not Suffer them to continue in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity, and in the Possession of the Devil. Oh! Knock off the Chains of Death which are upon their Souls; Oh! Snatch the prey out of the Hands of the Terrible.

"Yet once again! Once again! We bring them, and lay them before the Spirit of Grace. O Almighty Spirit of Grace, May these Poor, blind, mad Sinners become objects for the Triumphs of Grace! O Almighty Spirit of God, and of Grace, cause these poor men to see their own Sinfulness and Wretchedness! Make them willing to be Saved from such Sinfulness and Wretchedness; Discover to them the only Saviour of their Souls. Oh! Dispose them, Oh! Assist them to give the Consent of their Souls unto His Wonderful Proposals. Let them Dy, Renouncing all Dependence on any Righteousness of their own; Alas, what can they have of their own to Depend upon! As a Token and Effect of their having Accepted the Righteousness of God, Let them heartily Repent of all their Sins against thee, and Abhor and cast up every Morsel of their Iniquity. Oh! Let them not go out of the World, raging and raving against the Justice of God and Man; And whatever part of the Satanick Image is yet remaining on their Souls, Oh! Efface it! Let them now Dy in such a State and such a Frame, as may render them fit to appear before God the Judge of all. What shall we do for them? What shall plead for them?

"Great God, Grant that all the Spectators may get Good by the horrible Spectacle that is now before them! Let all the People hear and fear, and let no more any such Wickedness be done, as has produced this woful Spectacle. And let all the People beware how they go on in the Ways of Sin, and in the pathes of the Destroyer, after so Solemn Warnings; Lest thou shouldest not only leave them to the grossest Acts of Wickedness, but also give them up unto the most amazing Impenitency, when the Punishment of their Iniquity comes to be inflicted on them.

"Oh! but shall our Sea faring Tribe, on this Occasion, be in a Singular manner affected with the Warnings of God! Lord, May those of our dear Brethren be Saved from the Temptations which do so threaten them! so ruine them! Oh! let them not Abandon themselves to Profanity, to Swearing, to Cursing, to Drinking, to Leudness, to a cursed Forgetfulness of their Maker, and of the End for which He made them! Oh! Let them not be abandoned of God, unto those Courses that will hasten them to a Damnation that slumbers not. Oh! Let the men fear the Lord Exceedingly, We Pray thee! We Pray thee! Let the Condition of the Six or Seven men, whom they now see Dying for their Wickedness upon the Sea, be Sanctified unto them.

"And now, we fly, we fly to Sovereign Grace. Oh! that the Poor men, which are immediately to appear before the awful Tribunal of God, may first by Sovereign Grace have produced upon their Souls those Marks of thy Favour, without which tis a dreadful Thing to appear before that awful Tribunal. Oh! Great God, Let thy Sovereign Grace Operate on this fearful Occasion! God be Merciful to us all, for the Sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto whom with the Father and the Spirit, be ascribed the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, for ever more, Amen."

They then Severally Spoke, Viz.

I. Capt. John Quelch. The last Words he spake to One of the Ministers at his going up the Stage, were, "I am not afraid of Death, I am not afraid of the Gallows, but I am afraid of what follows; I am afraid of a Great God, and a Judgment to Come." But he afterwards seem'd to brave it out too much against that fear: also when on the Stage first he pulled off his Hat, and bowed to the Spectators, and not Concerned, nor behaving himself so much like a Dying man as some would have done. The Ministers had, in the Way to his Execution, much desired him to Glorify God at his Death, by bearing a due Testimony against the Sins that had ruined him, and for the ways of Religion which he had much neglected: yet now being called upon to speak what he had to say, it was but thus much; "Gentlemen, 'Tis but little I have to speak; What I have to say is this, I desire to be informed for what I am here. I am Condemned only upon Circumstances. I forgive all the World: So the Lord be Merciful to my Soul." When Lambert was Warning the Spectators to beware of Bad-Company, Quelch joyning, "They should also take care how they brought Money into New-England, to be Hanged for it!"

II. John Lambert. He appeared much hardened, and pleaded much on his Innocency. He desired all men to beware of Bad Company; he seem'd in a great Agony near his Execution; he called much and frequently on Christ, for Pardon of Sin, that God Almighty would Save his innocent Soul; he desired to forgive all the World; his last words were, "Lord, forgive my Soul! Oh, receive me into Eternity! blessed name of Christ receive my Soul."

III. Christopher Scudamore. He appeared very Penitent since his Condemnation, was very diligent to improve his time going to, and at the place of Execution.

IV. John Miller. He seem'd much concerned, and complained of a great Burden of Sins to answer for; Expressing often, "Lord! What shall I do to be Saved!"

V. Erasmus Peterson. He cryed of injustice done him; and said, it is very hard for so many mens Lives to be taken away for a little Gold. He often said, his Peace was made with God; and his Soul would be with God: yet extream hard to forgive those he said wronged him. He told the Executioner, he was a strong man, and Prayed to be put out of misery as soon as possible.

VI. Peter Roach. He seem'd little concerned, and said but little or nothing at all.

Francis King was also Brought to the place of Execution, but Repriev'd.

Printed for and Sold by Nicholas Boone, at his Shop near the Old Meeting-House in Boston. 1704.

Advertisement.

There is now in the Press, and will speedily be Published: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Capt. John Quelch, and others of his Company, etc. For sundry Piracies, Robberies and Murder, committed upon the Subjects of the King of Portugal, Her Majesties Allie, on the Coast of Brasil, etc. Who upon full Evidence were found Guilty, at the Court-House in Boston, on the 13th of June 1704. With the Arguments of the Queen's Council, and Council for the Prisoners, upon the Act for the more effectual Suppression of Piracy. With an account of the Ages of the several Prisoners, and the Places where they were Born. Printed for and sold by Nicholas Boone, 1704.[6]

[1] What is here reproduced, to show somewhat of the harrowing circumstances under which the pirate's career might end, is a very rare "extra" of the Boston News-Letter, found in the Massachusetts Historical Society's file of that newspaper. The case of Quelch and his associates is related in much detail by Mr. A.C. Goodell in the Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, VIII. 386-398, and in the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, III. 71-77. The pursuit of the pirates is described in Sewall's diary, with extracts from the News-Letter, in Mass. Hist. Soc., Collections, XLVI. 103-110. In August, 1703, the brigantine Charles, fitted out as a privateer to cruise against the French, was riding off Marblehead, with her captain lying too sick to take her to sea. The crew seized the ship, put it in command of Quelch, threw the captain overboard, and sailed for the coast of Brazil, where for some months they engaged in a profitable career of piracy at the expense of subjects of the King of Portugal, with whom England had just concluded a particularly close alliance. In May, 1704, they reappeared on the Massachusetts coast, landed, and dispersed, but were presently suspected, accused, proclaimed, and "rounded up", the main capture being made at the Isles of Shoals, by an armed force under Maj. Stephen Sewall, the diarist's brother. The trial, June 13, 16, 19-21, was the first held in New England under the act of Parliament 11 and 12 Will. III., ch. 7, which gave the crown authority to issue commissions for the trial of pirates by specially constituted courts, outside the realm of England. The governor, Joseph Dudley, presided. Mr. Goodell maintains that the trial was conducted illegally in important particulars. Of the six pirates named above, as executed on June 30, Lambert was a Salem man, Peterson apparently a Swede, Roach Irish, Quelch and the other two English. Judge Sewall records that "When the Scaffold was let to sink, there was such a Screech of the Women that my wife heard it sitting in our Entry next the Orchard, and was much surprised at it; yet the wind was sou-west. Our house is a full mile from the place." In 1835 the editor's grandfather saw the six pirates of the Mexican, almost the last of their profession, hanged at about the same spot. I find that Mr. Paine has printed this piece, in Buried Treasure, but I know no other that so well illustrates its particular aspect of our theme.