The special commission was opened on the 23rd of June, when eight of the Judges went in procession from Sergeants’ Inn, to the Town Hall of St. Margaret’s Hill, and Lord Chief Justice Lee delivered a charge to the grand jury. The trials did not, however, commence before the 15th of July, 1746, when seventeen prisoners, including David Morgan, were placed at the bar, though his trial did not, after all, take place until the 18th. It is stated that “the time, place, or circumstances were not varied in any of the indictments, except Counsellor Morgan’s, who was indicted for having been in arms in Derby on the 5th of December, and adhering to the King’s enemies.” {23a} David Morgan had been too bold and prominent an actor in the Rebellion to render it in any degree difficult for the government to procure decisive evidence of his complicity; and, though he made a lengthened and ingenious defence, the united testimony of several credible witnesses insured his conviction. After the breaking up of the court, all those that were found guilty received notice that sentence of death would be passed upon them on Tuesday, the 22nd of July, and were required to be prepared on that day with any plea they might have to urge in arrest of judgment. Many objections were accordingly raised on behalf of the prisoners, but were over-ruled by the court; and Lord Chief Justice Lee then proceeded to pass sentence on the whole of the prisoners, seventeen in number, the last of whom was David Morgan, in a lengthy address, and concluded by sentencing them, in the barbarous terms prescribed by the law of high treason, “to be drawn to the place of execution, and when they are come there, they must be severally hanged by the neck, but not till they be dead, for they must be cut down alive; then their bowels must be taken out, and burnt before their faces; then their heads must be severed from their bodies, and their bodies severally divided into four quarters, and these must be at the King’s disposal.” {23b} At two o’clock, on the 29th of the same month, an order arrived at the gaol for the execution, on the next day, of Francis Towneley, George Fletcher, Thomas Chadwick, James Dawson, Thomas Deacon, John Berwick, Andrew Syddal, and David Morgan; and when it was intimated to them that they were to die on the following morning; “they seemed not at all shocked, but rather cheerful, only saying ‘God’s will be done.’ They went to rest at the usual hour, and slept soundly; but first took leave of their friends.” {24a} Among those who carne to take a sad farewell of one of the unhappy men, was Mrs. Morgan. During the whole period of her husband’s imprisonment she had attended on him with remarkable devotion, and, to use the words of a contemporary writer, by no means favourable to the unfortunate Jacobites, “had behaved with all the love and tenderness becoming an affectionate wife.” {24b}