The heinousness of the crimes of such notorious offenders may possibly excite in the reader a desire to be informed of their respective behaviour whilst under sentence of death, and at the place of execution; to satisfy which is subjoined the following authentic account, under the hands of the several clergymen who attended them alternately in gaol, and together at the place of execution:—
“The first time I went to the malefactors under condemnation, being the evening after sentence was passed upon them, I prayed with them all; viz., Carter, Tapner, Cobby, Hammond, and the Mills’s (Jackson being dead just before I went to the gaol) but many persons being present, I had no opportunity of saying any thing material, and therefore told them I would visit them early the next morning, which I did accordingly.
“After prayers, I talked with them about their unhappy condition, and the heinous crimes that brought them into it. I asked them if they desired to receive the Sacrament; they all and each of them desired that I would administer it to them; accordingly I attended them again, about ten o’clock, for that purpose; and during the whole time of my performing that office, they all behaved with great decency and devotion, especially Carter and Tapner.
“Afterwards I put the following questions to them, and desired they would be sincere in their answers as dying men; first, whether they did not acknowledge the sentence that was passed upon them to be just, and what they highly deserved? Carter, the most sensible and penitent amongst them, first answered, Yes; as did afterwards Tapner, Cobby, and Hammond; but the two Mills’s did not.
“Secondly, I asked them whether they forgave everybody; they all and each answered they forgave all the world. Tapner then owned that Edmund Richards and another were the cause of his ruin, but yet forgave them.
“Carter laid his ruin to Jackson for drawing him from his honest employment.
“John Smyth,
“Curate of St. Pancras, in Chichester.”
“Both Carter and Tapner, a few hours before their execution, confessed to me that they with several others assembled together with a design to rescue Dimer out of Chichester gaol; that the only person amongst them who had arms was Edmund Richards; but that being disappointed by a number of persons who had promised to join them from the East, their scheme was frustrated and their purpose carried no further into execution; that one Stringer[9] was at the head of this confederacy, but not present with them at the time of their assembling together.