The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
By the Scottish law, not only was she released by the execution from the
consequences of the crime of which she had been found guilty, but from
the bonds of matrimony also; but her husband having by this time
returned from sea, he was publicly re-married to his old wife, within a
few days after she had been hanged. A suit was subsequently brought by
the Lord Advocate against the sheriff for omitting to perform his
office; but as it turned out that the escape of the convict was not
owing to any neglect on his part, but to some peculiar formation of the
neck of the woman, the prosecution was abandoned.
The date of this transaction was the month of November, 1728; and the
subject of this most remarkable escape was living in the year 1753, when
it is due to her to state that she still persisted in her declarations
of innocence.
JOHN GOW AND OTHERS.
EXECUTED FOR PIRACY.
The principal in this list of offenders was named John Gow, and was a
native of one of the Orkney Islands. Having chosen a seafaring life, he
was appointed second mate of a vessel going to Santa Cruz. Some
complaints having been made before the vessel quitted port, of the
insufficiency of the provisions given to the men, the captain took
little notice of them; and it was not until he had quitted the shore
some days, that he learned, too late, the mistake of which he had been
guilty. The feelings of discontent which had been already exhibited were
soon fanned into a flame, and at length it became necessary for the
captain, chief mate, and surgeon to arm themselves. Gow, whose duties as
second mate also included those of gunner, was ordered to clean the
small-arms necessary for this purpose; but being a party to a
conspiracy, which existed among his shipmates to seize the vessel, he
communicated the order to his fellows, and it was determined to put
their project into execution forthwith. Between nine and ten o'clock at
night, the signal was given, and the conspirators going to the cabins of
the chief mate, surgeon, and supercargo, cut their throats while they
were asleep. The captain ran on deck to ascertain the cause of a noise
which he heard, and was immediately seized, and, although he made a
desperate resistance, was despatched in as short a time as his
unfortunate brother officers had been. The bodies of the murdered men
were then thrown overboard, and Gow was selected as the new captain.
Assembling his associates on deck, their determination to commence
pirates was soon formed; and some of the seamen who had hesitated to
become parties to the diabolical murders of their officers, were forced
to join the crew in their piratical proceedings on pain of death. A
fellow named Williams, of a most brutal disposition, was chosen as
lieutenant; and the name of the vessel, which had been the George
Galley, was changed to the more bloody one of Revenge. Having mounted
several guns, they steered towards Spain and Portugal, in expectation of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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