getting to London, skulked
up and down here for some time, until at last he was discovered and
committed to Newgate and at the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey was
tried and convicted for the aforesaid offence.

Under sentence he behaved himself stupidly, not seeming to have a just
concern for the offence which he had committed. He was sullen, would say
very little, did not deny the crime for which he died, but yet did not
seem to have that compunction which might have been expected from a man
in his sad condition.

At the place of execution Rogers said little; Simpson acknowledged lewd
women had been his ruin; Robert Oliver acknowledged that he had been a
vicious, unruly, young man, who had hearkened to no advice, but addicted
to nothing but the accomplishment of his vices. They were all desirous
of prayers, and after they were celebrated they submitted to their
deaths very patiently; and with pious ejaculations, they were executed
on the 21st of November, 1739, Rogers being forty years of age, Simpson
nineteen, and Oliver twenty-two.

The Life of JAMES DRUMMOND

Folly and wickedness, as it were, naturally lead men to poverty, shame
and misfortunes, but when such miseries overtake persons who lived
soberly and in all outward appearance honestly, it is apt to create
wonder at first, and afterwards to excite compassion.

The unhappy man of whom we are now speaking was the son of a sailor, who
brought him when but a boy of three years of age up to London, and then
dying, left him to the care of his mother, who was too poor to give him
any education. However, he went to sea, and being a young man ingenious
enough in himself, and very tractable in his temper, he soon became a
tolerable proficient in the practical part of navigation. This
recommended him to pretty constant business, whereby he got enough to
maintain himself and his family handsomely enough, if he had thought fit
to have employed it that way; which for a considerable space of time he
did, keeping up a very good reputation in the neighbourhood where he
lived, and serving with a fair character on board several men-of-war,
going up the Baltic with squadrons sent thither to preserve the Swedish
coast from being insulted by the Moscovites.

After his return, he served on board the fleet which destroyed that of
the Spaniards in Sicily. He was afterwards coxswain in the Admiral, when
they served in the Mediterranean, and on the coast of Spain, but co