Proclamation being again made, that all Persons concern’d or summon’d, and required to appear at this Court, do give their due Attendance.
Ordered, That the Prisoners be brought to the Bar, which being done, they were called by their respective Names, viz. John Augur, Will. Cunningham, John Hipps, Dennis Mackarthy, George Rounsivel, Will. Dowling, Will. Lewis, Thomas Morris, George Bendall, and Will. Ling.
Ordered, That the afore-named Prisoners, now at the Bar, do all hold up their Hands.
Ordered, That the Accusation against the Prisoners be read, which was as follows.
New Providence, ss.
The Articles and Accusations against John Augur, late Master of the Sloop Mary, of Providence; William Cunningham, Gunner and Mariner, on board the Schooner, called the Batchelors Adventure; Henry White, Master, John Hipps, Boatswain and Mariner, on board the Sloop Lancaster; William Greenaway, Master, Dennis Mackarthy, Mariner, on board the Scooner, William Dowling, Mariner, on board the said Scooner; William Lewis, Mariner, on board the Sloop Mary; Tho. Morris, Mariner, on board the said Scooner; George Bendall, Mariner, on board the said Sloop Lancaster, and William Ling, Mariner, on board the said Scooner.
You the said John Augur, Will. Cunningham, John Hipps, Dennis Mackarthy, George Rounsivel, William Dowling, William Lewis, Thomas Morris, George Bendall, and William Ling, having all of you lately received the Benefit of his Majesty’s most gracious Pardon, for your former Offences and Acts of Robbery and Pyracy, and having since taken the Oaths of Allegiance to his most sacred Majesty King George, and thereupon Trust has been reposed in you the said John Augur, and in the others of you, lawful Employments been bestow’d to divert you all from your former and unlawful Courses of Life, and to enable and support you all in just and lawful Ways of Living; and you not having the Fear of God before your Eyes, nor any Regard to your Oaths of Allegiance taken to your Sovereign, nor to the Performance of Loyalty, Truth, and Justice: But, being instigated and deluded by the Devil, to return to your former unlawful evil Courses, of Robbery and Pyracy, and that you John Augur, Will. Cunningham, John Hipps, Dennis Mackarthy, George Rounsivel, Will. Dowling, Will. Lewis, Tho. Morris, Geo. Bendall, and Will. Ling, late Master and Mariners aforesaid, did on the 6th Day of October last, about Seven in that Evening, in the 5th Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, &c. plot and combine together, at a desolate Island, called Green Key, within the Jurisdiction of this Vice-Admiralty, to mutiny and feloniously and pyratically steal, take, and carry away, from the Commanders and Owners of the afore-named Vessels, the said Sloops and Cargoes, Tackle, Apparel, and Furniture, to the Value of above 900 l. current Money of these Islands, and by Force cause to be put ashore on the said desolate Island, one Mr. James Kerr, Merchant, and sundry others with him; and the said John Augur, as then Commander of one of the said Sloops, did proceed as Commander of the said Pyrates from the said Island of Green Key to Exuma, whereby, by Virtue of a Commission, directed to Captain John Cockrem and Captain Benjamin Hornigold, you the said John Augur, and the rest of your pyratical Company, were there taken and apprehended as Pyrates, and thereupon brought into this Port, to be proceeded against according to Law.
The Prisoners holding up their Hands, and the Accusation being read, all the said Prisoners were asked by the Register, Whether Guilty, or, Not Guilty; and they pleaded Not Guilty.
Ordered, That the Evidence for the King be severally sworn and examined.