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)
Tuesday the 15th December, 1761, was fixed upon for the execution of
these criminals; but it appears that some difficulty was experienced in
carrying the sentence into effect. For a long time no carpenter could be
found to make the gallows, and the sheriff looked out for a tree proper
for the purpose, and the execution must have been performed on it, had
not the uncle of the young lady, and some other gentlemen, made the
gallows, and put it up. The sheriff was afterwards obliged to take a
party of soldiers, and force a smith to take off the prisoners' bolts,
otherwise he must have been obliged, contrary to law, to execute them
with their bolts on. The time for the execution having arrived,
M'Naughton, attended by his fellow prisoner, walked to the place of
execution, but, being weak of his wounds, was supported between two men.
The former was dressed in a white flannel waistcoat trimmed with black
buttons and holes, a diaper night-cap tied with a black riband, white
stockings, mourning-buckles, and a crape tied on his arm. He desired the
executioner to be speedy; and the fellow pointing to the ladder, he
mounted with great spirit. The moment he was tied up he jumped from it
with such vehemence as snapped the rope, and he fell to the ground, but
without dislocating his neck, or doing himself much injury. When they
had raised him on his legs again, he soon recovered his senses; and the
executioner borrowing the rope from Dunlap, and fixing it round
M'Naughton's neck, he went up the ladder a second time, and tying the
rope himself to the gallows, he jumped from it again with the same
force, and appeared dead in a minute.
The spectators, who saw him drop when the rope broke, looked upon it as
some contrivance for his escape, which they favoured all they could by
running away from the place, and leaving it open.
Dunlap was afterwards turned off in the usual manner, in sight of the
dangling body of his accomplice and master.
JOHN SMITH AND ROBERT MAYNE.
EXECUTED FOR A MUTINY ON BOARD THE KING GEORGE.
On the trial of these men, with five more of the crew, it appeared that
disputes arose on board the King George, a fine privateer, of thirty-two
guns and two hundred men, commanded by Captain Reed, and cruising
against the enemies of the country, concerning some prize wine, which
was stowed in the hold, some of the crew insisting on its being hoisted
up to be used for the whole ship's company. This would have been
attended, in their situation, with both difficulty and danger, and was
consequently opposed by Captain Reed and his officers; and being
disappointed, a factious discontented set endeavoured to corrupt the
remainder, and soon gained over so formidable a party, that they
determined to seize the ship, and turn pirates in the Indian seas. In
order to effect this, off Cape Ortugal, the mutineers demanded the keys
of the arm-chests, and on the refusal of their request, they drove the
captain and officers into the cabin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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