and was tried for his offence in returning before the time was expired;
and the fact being clear he was at once convicted.

Under sentence of death, he seemed to deplore nothing so much as the
unkindness of his wife, who would not so much as afford him one visit,
when he had hazarded, and even sacrificed his life to visit her. He
confessed that he had been guilty of that crime for which he had
formerly been transported, but denied that he lived in such a course of
wickedness and debauchery as most malefactors do. On the contrary, he
said he was heartily sorry for his sins, and hoped that God would accept
his imperfect repentance.

William Simpson was a young man of very good parents in Gloucestershire,
who had taken care to educate him carefully, both in the knowledge of
letters and of true religion, and they then put him out apprentice to a
tailor; but not liking that employment, he did not follow it, but lived
with a relation of his who was a great farmer in the country. There, it
seems, he stole a black gelding to the value of ten pounds, for which he
was quickly apprehended and committed to prison, and upon very full
evidence convicted. The unhappy youth said that nothing but idleness and
an aversion to any employment were the causes of his committing an act
of such a nature, so contrary to the principles in which he had been
instructed, and to which he was not tempted by ill-company, or driven to
by any straits. Under sentence of death he behaved with great modesty,
penitence and civility, was desirous of being instructed and did
everything that could be expected from a man in his miserable condition.

Robert Oliver, _alias_ William Johnson, was born of parents of tolerable
circumstances in Yorkshire, they bred him at school, and afterwards
bound him apprentice to a tallow-chandler. After he was out of his time,
he got somehow or other into the service of Mrs. North, where he robbed
one Joseph Heppworth of seven-and-forty guineas. As soon as he had done
it, he went to Moorgate and gave two-and-twenty of them for a horse,
upon which he rode down into his own country, where he exchanged it for
another horse, getting four guineas to boot. But the person who had lost
the money being indefatigable, and imagining that he might have gone
down into his own country, followed him thither, and after some time
seized him and got him confined in Beverley gaol. But it seems he found
a way to make his escape from thence, and so