“Thomas Mumford, Indian (not speaking good English), Abissai Folger was sworn interpereter, deposed that Thomas Powell, Joseph Libbey and Joseph Sweetser were all on board of Low the pirate, that he saw Powell have a gun when they took the vessels, but never saw him fire, he saw him go on board of a vessel once, but brought nothing from her as he saw, he see him once [shoot] a negro but never a white man. And he saw Joseph Libbey once go aboard a vessel by them taken and brought away from her one pair of stockings. And that Joseph Swetser cooked it on board with him sometime, and sometimes they made him hand the sails; once he saw said Swetser clean a gun, but not fire it, and Swetser once told him that he wanted to get ashore from among them, and said he if the Man-of-War should take them they would hang him, and in the engagement of the Man-of-War, Swetser sat unarmed in the range of the sloop’s mast, and some little time before the said engagement he asked Low to let him have his liberty and go ashore, but was refused.”
There was other testimony to much the same effect. Powell said he was taken by Lowther in the Bay of Honduras in the winter of 1721-2 and by him turned over to Low. Libbey said he was a forced man and produced a newspaper advertisement in proof. Sweetser said he was taken by Lowther about a year before and forced on board of Low. He, too, produced an advertisement to prove that he had been forced. Powell and Libbey were found guilty and Sweetser was cleared. Hazel, Bright, Fletcher, and Child and Cunningham who had been detained on board the “Greyhound” in the later pursuit of Low, were then placed on trial. By numerous witnesses it was shown that all had been active on board the “Ranger” at the time of the fight but that Fletcher was only a boy and that Child had come on board from the “Fortune,” only three or four days before the fight. Captain Welland spoke a good word for Cunningham and said that he had got him water and brought the doctor at the time he was laying bleeding below hatches for nearly three hours with a sentinel over him. John Bright was the drummer and “beat upon his drum upon the round house in the engagement.”
Thomas Hazel said he had been forced by Low about twelve months before in the Bay of Honduras. Bright said that he was a servant to one Hester in the Bay and had been taken by Low about four months before and forced away to be his drummer.
Cunningham said he had been forced about a year before from a fishing schooner and that he had tried to get away at Newfoundland but without success. Fletcher, the boy, said he had been forced by Low from on board the “Sycamore Galley,” Scot, master, at Bona Vista, because he could play a violin. There is no record of what Child had to say for himself. Fletcher and Child were found not guilty; the others were sentenced to be hanged. Cunningham and John Brown “the shortest,” were recommended “unto His Majesty, for Remission.”
While the pirates were in prison and especially in the interval between their condemnation and execution they were visited frequently by the ministers who afterwards stated in print that “while they were in Prison, most seemed willing to be advised about the affairs of their souls.”[155] John Brown prepared in writing a “warning” to young people in which he declared “it was with the greatest Reluctancy and Horror of Mind and Conscience, I was compelled to go with them ... and I can say my Heart and Mind never joined in those horrid Robberies, Conflagarations and Cruelties committed.” On the day before they were executed letters were written by many of them to relatives and Fitz-Gerald composed a poem which afterwards was printed. The following verses illustrate his poetical style:
“To mortal Men that daily live in Wickedness and Sin;
This dying Counsel I do give, hoping you will begin
To serve the Lord in Time of Youth his Precepts for to keep;
To serve him so in Spirit and Truth, that you may mercy reap.