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A34228 The Confession and execution of the eight prisoners suffering at Tyburn on Wednesday the 30th of August, 1676 viz. [bracket] Tho. Moore, Charles Godfry ... giving a full and satisfactory account of their crimes ... : published for a warning to all that read it ... 1676 (1676) Wing C5746; ESTC R39384 2,556 9

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THE CONFESSION AND EXECUTION Of the Eight Prisoners suffering at TYBURN On Wednesday the 30th of August 1676. VIZ. Tho. Moore Charles Godfry Roger Withers Richard Cooke Matth. Walkenden Martha Harman John Evans and James Parker Giving a full and satisfactory Account of their Crimes Behaviours Discourses in Prison and last Words as neer as could be taken at the place of Execution Published for a Warning to all that read it to avoid the like wicked Courses which brought these poor people to this shameful End With Allowance Roger L'Estrange 1676. London Printed for D. M. 1676. The Confession last Speeches and Execution of the Prisoners at Tyburn on the 30th of Aug. 1676. AT the S●ssions held for London and Middlesex August the 23 c. 1676 there were in all Sixteen persons Condemned to be hang'd for several great and notorious Crimes And though for the most part they were persons that all-along both at their Apprehension Imprisonment and Tryals carried and behaved themselves with too much Confidence yet when Sentence of death came to be pronounced upon them which was done in a most pathetick Oration and a Gravity suiting the solemness of the occasion by that worthy person whose Charge it was it could not but much affect the hearts of all present to hear the sad Cries and doleful Lamentations which these miserable Wretches made begging and importuning the Court for mercy when their own repeated offences had excluded it and left room for nothing but Judgment Yet so great has been the Clemency of his gracious Majesty the Fountain of all Terrestrial Mercy as well as of Justice that Eight of these desperate Malefactors were Reprieved from death the other Eight that suffered their Names and Offences were as followes Thomas Moore and James Parker convicted for stealing the Goods of a person of Quality at Cue in Surrey and though they were here only indicted for Felony because they were taken with the Goods by one that knew them to be Thieves in Aldersgate-street the same day the Fact was done yet it appeared to the Court to be a Burglary too in the said County of Surrey These Two upon their first apprehension were put into Bridewel and sent aboard a Ship by their consent whence they run away and being retaken on a new score were now found guilty the latter of them was transported for the like Tricks about five years ago and by trifling now with the Court before he would plead forced them to commit him to the Press where before he would recant his obstinacy he was very much bruised so that without further Execution 't was much doubted whether he would have survived Charles Godfry and Roger Withers were convicted for stealing Goods to the value of Ten pounds which likewise appeared to the Court to be a Burglary in Hartfordshire Richard Cooke and Matthew Walkenden were condemned for Burglary They were both old Offenders had several times had the mercy of the Court but it seems would by no warning be reclaimed from their vitious Courses The next we may justly call a matchless piece of Female Impudence A young woman named Martha Harman was condemned for breaking open a house at Islington a Crime rarely if ever attempted by that Sex She had four times before been tryed before the Court for several Offences but now could not obtain further indulgence Laesa toties misericordia fit furor The last we are to mention was the youngest in years not above Fifteen by name John Evans He was convicted for breaking open a house and several other Indictments against him to which he pleaded guilty within the benefit of the Clergy but that Plea in his Case was vain for he had received that Legal favour in his hand several Sessions ago All these were visited in Goal by several able and godly Ministers whose Charity to their perishing Souls led them to come to them in the Dungeon besides the dayly pains of the Ordinary who very diligently performed his Christian duty on this occasion The Ignorance they had been bred in the ill Courses they had all their lives time followed whereby the custom of sinning had taken away the sense of it rendred them very hard and difficult to be wrought upon or p●eked into any degree of Contrition by the most earnest or searching Discourses or Perswasions that could be used to them for a long time their minds being more taken up with flettering hopes and vain endeavours to prolong their lives in this world than to prepare and fit them for an eternal life in the next But that omnipotent wisdome which of old was pleased to afford by miracle plentiful water out of a dry and barren Rock did now graciously vouchsafe at last to mollifie some of their obdurate hearts into a deep due and melting sense of their miserable state The Ministers as Embassaders sent from the glorious Court of Heaven with Offers of Peace and Pardon to these desperate and forlorn wretches were not wanting to represent to them their miserable Condition by nature aggravated and increased by a numberless number of actual Transgressions not onely against the light of their Consciences and dictates of humane Reason and common Right but also against several political Indulgences and Warnings from their own former dangers and others miserable fates Some of them appeared to be very sensibly touched with these grave and seasonable Admonitious and to cast back a repentant Eye on their former miscarriages with endeavours to improve those few remaining minutes of their lives to obtain pardon for their past Offences Oh! how welcome would a few of those days they had formerly spent in vanity been now to these poor wretches that they might have had sufficient time and opportunity to bewail their past miscarriages and get some assurance of future happiness being now to lanch out into the Ocean of Eternity Most of them were very full and open breasted in their acknowledgments that they had violated both the Laws of God of man and Dictates of their own Consciences in unjustly invading the proprieties of other men And what is very remarkable they confessed that what they died for was the least of their Transgressions against the Laws of God having otherwise by multiplied Offences justly provoked the Divine Vengeance against themselves On the Tuesday there were at once four Ministers attending them in Spiritual Instructions and Prayer for several hours together the effect of which was That several of the dying men seemed intirely convinced of their desperate Estate and in that Agony to intreat with the greatest earnestness in the world the Prayers of all good people When they were brought to the place of Execution whither they were attended besides the people with several Ministers few of them spoke any thing considerable onely one or two declared the Original of their ruine to be disobedience to their Masters and particularly neglecting their duties on Sabbath-days at the places of publick Worship the temptations of leud Women and idleness in their lawful Callings from which they were debauch'd by ill and extravagant Company of and from all which they seriously and in the words of dying men desired all that heard them to beware and refrain And so suffered according to their Sentence And may their lamentable Examples warn all others that saw the same or shall here read it truly related deter them from those wicked Facts and Courses which brought these unhappy Wretches to this sad deplorable and ignominious End FINIS