Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth centuryGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth century
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
Dissensions now arose in the ship's company. Gow had a certain amount
of sense and courage, but his lieutenant was a brutal ruffian, often
blinded by passion, and continually fermenting discord. At last he
attempted to shoot Gow, but his pistol missed fire, and he was wounded
himself by two of the pirates. He sprang down to the powder-room and
threatened to blow up the ship, but he was secured, and put on board
a vessel which had been ransacked and set free, the commander of it
being desired to hand the pirate over to the first king's ship he
met, to be dealt with according to his crimes. After this the pirates
steered north for the Orkneys, of which Gow was a native, and after
a safe passage anchored in a bay of one of the islands. While lying
there one of his crew, who had been forced into joining them, escaped
to Kirkwall, where he gave information to a magistrate, and the sheriff
issued a precept to the constables and others to seize _The Revenge_.
Soon afterwards ten more of the crew, also unwilling members of it,
laid hands on the long-boat, and reaching the mainland of Scotland,
coasted along it as far as Leith, whence they made their way to
Edinburgh, and were imprisoned as pirates. Gow meanwhile, careless
of danger, lingered in the Orkneys, plundering and ransacking the
dwelling-houses to provide himself with provisions, and carrying off
plate, linen, and all valuables on which they could lay hands.
Arriving at an island named Calf Sound, Gow planned the robbery of
an old schoolmate, a Mr. Fea, whom he sought to entrap. But Mr. Fea
turned the tables upon him. Inviting Gow and several of the crew to
an entertainment on shore, while they were carousing Mr. Fea made
his servants seize the pirates' boat, and then entering by different
doors, fell upon the pirates themselves, and made all prisoners. The
rest, twenty-eight in number, who were still afloat, were also captured
by various artifices, and the whole, under orders of the Lord Chief
Justice, were despatched to the Thames in H. M. S. _Greyhound_, for
trial at the Admiralty Court. They were committed to the Marshalsea,
thence to Newgate, and arraigned at the Old Bailey, where Gow refused
to plead, and was sentenced to be pressed to death. He pretended that
he wished to save an estate for a relation; but when all preparations
for carrying out the sentence were completed, he begged to be allowed
to plead, and "the judge being informed, humanely granted his request."
Gow and six others were eventually hanged at Execution Dock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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