Out of the other ship they forced Charles Ivemay, a seaman, and also Edward Cheeseman, the carpenter, to fill the place of their former carpenter, Fern, who had been killed by Phillips. It was while Filmore, the young man from Wenham, was rowing Cheeseman from one ship to the other, that he told him of his condition on board the pirate vessel and how few voluntary pirates there were on board and proposed that they join with others in capturing the sloop. More came of this later.
The very last of March, the schooner “Good-Will,” of Marblehead, was taken, Benjamin Chadwell, master, and on April 1st, a fishing schooner, William Lancy, master, fell into their hands off Cape Sable. Lancy was detained on board the “Revenge” and while there saw nine different vessels taken, including a Cape Ann sloop commanded by Capt. John Salter. On board Captain Lancy’s schooner was a seaman named David Yaw who afterwards deposed that when the pirates came on board one of them, John Baptis, a Frenchman, “damn’d him and kicked him in his legs and pointed to his Boots, which was a sign as this deponent understood it that he wanted his Boots, and he accordingly pulled them off and Baptis took them.”[164]
Among the vessels taken about this time, most of them while Captain Lancy was on board, were those commanded by the following masters, viz.:—Joshua Elwell, Samuel Elwell, Mr. Combs, Mr. Lansly, James Babson, Edward Freeman, Mr. Start, Obadiah Beal, Erick Erickson, Benjamin Wheeler and Dependence Ellery. The latter captain gave Phillips a long chase and when he came up with him about night, the poor man was dragged aboard the “Revenge” and made to dance about the deck until he could hardly stand.
It was on April 14th that Captain Haraden’s sloop was taken and three days later Phillips was dead. Of the men who had sailed with him from Newfoundland less than eight months before all had met a violent death except William White and he reached the gaol in Boston on May 3d and was brought to a speedy trial.[165]
The Court of Admiralty for the trial of the pirates was held May 12th, 1724 and the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, William Dummer, sat as President. John Filmore, the son of the Wenham farmer, and Edward Cheeseman, the carpenter of the London-bound ship, who had been so active in the capture of the pirates, were brought to trial first and “Articles of Piracy, Robbery and Felony exhibited” against them, by the King’s attorney. Skipper Haraden testified as to the details of his capture by Phillips and to the exciting events on the day when Phillips was killed. Everything indicated that both men had been forced and the activity they had shown in attacking the voluntary pirates was all in their favor so the court room was cleared and a unanimous verdict of “not guilty” was declared.
In the afternoon, the Court sat again and William Phillips, Isaac Larsen, the Indian, Henry Giles, “the artist,” Charles Ivemay, John Bootman, John Combs and Henry Payne were brought to the bar. The men were accused of assisting in the capture and plunder of the vessels taken since the previous October and John Masters, formerly mate of the sloop “Content,” and William Lancy, the master of a fishing schooner, both of whom had testified at the morning session, were placed on the witness stand. Filmore and Cheeseman also gave particular accounts of occurrences on board the pirate vessel. It was agreed that Larsen had hold of Captain Phillips’ arm when Haraden struck him on the head with the adz and that during the seven months while on board “he was generally set at the helm to steer the vessel” and Filmore said that he never saw him guilty of piracy “except that they now and then obliged him to take a shirt or a pair of stockings when almost naked.”
William Phillips, who had lost a leg, addressed the court and attempted to justify his conduct on board the pirate vessel. He said that he had been forced out of the sloop “Glasgow” and had signed the Articles under compulsion, but the Court “by a plurality of voices” found him guilty and the rest of the accused, not guilty, by unanimous voice.
William White, one of the original five who seized the sloop “Revenge” at Newfoundland, and John Archer, “otherwise called John Rose Archer,” who claimed to have served with “Black Beard” on the Carolina coast, and William Taylor, were brought to trial the next day. Filmore was the principal witness against them. He had been in the harbor of St. Peters at the time that Mr. Minott’s sloop had been taken by Phillips and the others and not long after had been captured by them. White had told him that he had been in drink at the time he entered into his piratical design and was afterwards sorry. As for William Taylor,—“he was very Great with Phillips and Nutt, being admitted into the Cabin upon any Consultation they had together.” All three were found guilty.
The two Frenchmen, John Baptis and Peter Taffery, also escaped the gallows for it was shown that they had been active at the rising against the pirates and with the others had fallen on James Sparks, the gunner, and killed him and thrown the body overboard. Haraden also testified in their favor.
On Tuesday, June 2, 1724, John Rose Archer, aged about twenty-seven years, and William White, aged twenty-two years, were executed at the ferryway in Boston leading to Charlestown, “where were a multitude of spectators. At one end of the Gallows was their own dark Flag, in the middle of which an Anatomy, and at one side of it a Dart in the Heart, with drops of Blood proceeding from it; and on the other side an Hour-glass, the sight dismal.... After their death they were in Boats conveyed down to an Island, where the Quarter Master was hung up in Irons, to be a spectacle, and so a Warning to others.”[166]