sorrow for his
numerous offences, and besought Almighty God to accept of a sincere,
though late repentance. They both of them protested that their wives had
not anything to do with their affairs, that they never advised them, nor
were so much as privy to the offences they had committed. Then both of
them suffered with much penitence and resignation, on the 24th of March,
1729, Marple being about thirty, and Cotton near twenty-five years of
age.

FOOTNOTES:

[84] See page 182.

The Life of JOHN UPTON, a Pirate; including also the history of that
sort of people, particularly the crew under Captain Cooper, in the
_Night Rambler_

No laws in any civilized nations are more severe than those against
piracy, nor are they less severely executed, and the criminals who
suffer by them are usually the least pitied, or rather the most detested
of all who come to die an ignominious death by the sentence of the Law.
Of old they were styled _hostes humani generis_, and the oldest systems
we have of particular institutions have treated them with a rigor
suitable to their offence. With respect to those who fall into the hands
of British justice, it must be remarked that they usually plead as an
excuse for what they have done their being forced into pirates' service,
and as it is well known that numbers are really forced into crimes they
detest, so the lenience of our judicators generally admit whatever
proofs are probable in such a case. But where the contrary appears, and
the acts of piracy plainly arise from the wicked dispositions of the
offenders, the Royal Mercy is less frequently extended to them than to
any other sort of criminal whatever.

As to the prisoner of whom we are to speak, John Upton was born at
Deptford, of very honest parents who gave him such an education as
fitted their station, and that in which they intended to breed him. When
grown up to be a sturdy youth, they put him out apprentice to a
waterman, with whom he served out his time faithfully, and with a good
character. Afterwards he went to sea and served for twenty-eight years
together on board a man-of-war, in the posts of either boatswain or
quartermaster. Near the place of his birth he married a woman, took a
house and lived very respectably with her during the whole course of her
life, but she dying while he was at sea, and finding at his return that
his deceased wife had run him greatly in debt, clamours coming from
every quarter, and seve