f the crime
respectively alledg'd to be committed by them as aforesaid by the
Verdict of twelve good & lawful men of our Said County and were by the
consideration of our Said Court adjudged to Suffer the Pains of Death
therefor; as to us appears of Record Execution of which said Sentence
doth still remain to be done we command you therefore that on Thursday
the Eighteenth day of September instant between the hours of one &
Five o'Clock in the day time you cause the said Phillis to be drawn
from our Goal in our County of Middlesex aforesaid (where she now is)
to the place of Execution and there be burnt to Death & also that on
the Same day between the hours of one & five of the Clock in the day
time you cause the Said Mark to be drawn from our Goal in our County
of Middlesex aforesaid (where he now is) to the place of Execution &
there be hanged up by the Neck until he be dead, & for so doing this
shall be your Sufficient Warrant--Hereof fail not; and make Return of
this writ with your doings therein into the Clerks Office of our Said
Court as soon as may be after you have Executed the Same Witness
Stephen Sewall Esqr: at Boston the sixth day of September in the
Twenty ninth Year of our reign Annoque Domini 1755--

By Order of Court

NATHANIEL HATCH _Cler_

MIDDLESEX. ss--September the 18th. 1755.

I Executed this warrant as above directed, by causing Phillis to be
burnt to Death, and Mark to be hang'd by the neck until he was dead,
between the hours of one and five a Clock of Said day--

RICHD. FOSTER _Sheriff_

* * * * *

It is worthy of observation that no such process as a formal warrant
was required for a capital execution by the laws of England. In the
King's Bench, the prisoner was committed to the custody of the marshal
at the beginning of the trial, and an award of judgment upon the
record was all the authority that that officer had for the execution.
Formerly, it was customary in courts of oyer and terminer, and of jail
delivery, to authorize the execution by a precept under the hands and
seals of three or more commissioners, of whom one, at least, should be
of the quorum; but this custom had become obsolete at the time of this
trial, and only a calendar, or abstract of the record, subscribed by
the judge, was put into the hands of the sheriff for this purpose; and
such is the practice in England, I presume, to this day.

Even Blackstone, who is so blind to many gross