me methods were taken as formerly; but as the
leagues by which men are united in villainy are liable to a thousand
inconveniencies which are uneasily born, and yet hard to be remedied, so
Wilson's humours being very different from that of Gilburn, they soon
began to differ about the money they acquired by plunder. At last,
coming one night very much tired and fatigued to a public-house where
Wilson was acquainted, they called for some drink to refresh themselves,
which when they had done, Gilburn was for dividing the money, himself
standing in need of linen and other necessaries. Wilson, on the other
hand, was for having a bowl of punch, and words thereupon arose to such
a height that at last they fell to fighting. This quarrel was
irreconcilable, and they absolutely parted company, though Gilburn
unfortunately pursued the same road; and having robbed a gentleman on
horseback of several yards of fine padusoy, he was shortly after
apprehended and committed to Newgate.

At first he absolutely denied the fact, but when he was convicted, and
saw no hopes of pardon, he acknowledged what had been sworn against him
by the prosecutor to be true, attended with much gravity at chapel, and
seemed to be greatly afflicted through a due sense of those many sins
which he had committed. Wilson, his companion, had a little before been
executed at Kingston, and Gilburn with all outward signs of contrition,
suffered the same death at Tyburn, at the same time with the
before-mentioned malefactor, being at the time of his death about
twenty-two years of age.

The Lives of JAMES O'BRYAN, HUGH MORRIS and ROBERT JOHNSON, Highwaymen
and Street-Robbers

Amongst the many flagrant vices of the present age, there is none more
remarkable than the strange property we see in young people to commit
the most notorious crimes, provided they may thereby furnish themselves
with money enough to support their lavish expenses in vices which in
former times were scarce heard of by lads of that age, at which our
boldest highwaymen begin to exert themselves now.

The first of these unfortunate lads, James O'Bryan, was born at Dublin,
was brought over hither young, and had a good education given him which
he had very little inclination to make a proper use of. Nothing could
persuade him to go out to a trade; on the contrary, he pretended he
would apply himself to his father's employment, which was that of a
plasterer. But as working was required, he s