The three men who were executed were William Forrest, Alexander Wilson, and John Smith. As for Major Shapleigh; he was fined five hundred pounds, which amount was afterwards abated to three hundred pounds because of "his estate not being able to beare it."
The extraordinary circumstances of this case probably induced the General Court to draw up the law that was enacted on October 15, 1673. By it piracy became punishable by death according to the local laws. Before then a kind of common law was in force in the Colony based upon Biblical law as construed by the leading ministers. Of course the laws of England were theoretically respected, but Massachusetts, in the wilderness, separated from England by three thousand miles of stormy water, in practice actually governed herself and made her own laws.
In 1675, the Court of Assistants found John Rhoade and certain Dutchmen guilty of piracy on the Maine coast and they were sentenced to be hanged "presently after the lecture." Just then, King Philip went on the warpath and all else, for the time, was forgotten in the fearful danger of the emergency. Before long the condemned men were released, some without conditions and others were banished from the Colony. It is fair to say, however, that politics and commercial greed were sadly mixed in this trial.
A bloody fight occurred at Tarpaulin Cove, near Woods Hole, in October, 1689, between a pirate sloop and a vessel sent out from Boston in pursuit. The pirate was taken and after trial the leader, Capt. Thomas Pound, late pilot of the King's frigate Rose, then at anchor in the harbor, Thomas Hawkins, a well-connected citizen of Boston, Thomas Johnston of Boston, "a limping privateer," and one Eleazer Buck, were sentenced to be hanged. When they were on the gallows Governor Bradstreet reprieved all save Johnston—"Which gave great disgust to the People; I fear it was ill done," wrote Judge Sewall. The same day one William Coward was hanged for piracy committed on the ketch Elinor, while at anchor at Nantasket Road.
The capture in Boston in 1699, of William Kidd, Joseph Bradish, born in Cambridge; Tee Wetherly, James Gillam, and other men concerned with the Madagascar pirates, created much excitement, but these men were tried in England and gibbetted at Hope Point on the Thames.
In June, 1704, a trial for piracy was held in the Old State House, and the testimony and proceedings were afterwards published. Captain John Quelch had sailed from Marblehead, the previous year, in command of a brigantine commissioned as a privateer. Instead of proceeding against the French off Newfoundland he had sailed south and on the coast of Brazil had captured and plundered several Portuguese vessels. While he was absent, a treaty of peace between England and Portugal had been signed and when Quelch returned to Marblehead harbor he learned that he had piratically taken various vessels belonging to subjects of "Her Majesty's good Allie," the King of Portugal. His arrest and trial followed and with six of his ship's company he was sentenced to be hanged on a gallows set up between high- and low-water mark off a point of land just below Copp's hill. The condemned were guarded by forty musketeers and the constables of the town and were preceded by the Provost Marshal and his officers. Great crowds gathered to see the execution. Judge Sewall in his diary comments on the great number of people on Broughton's hill, as Copp's hill was called at that time.
"But when I came to see how the River was cover'd with People, I was amazed: Some say there were 100 Boats. 150 Boats and Canoes, saith Cousin Moodey of York. Mr. Cotton Mather came with Capt. Quelch and six others for Execution from the Prison to Scarlet's Wharf, and from thence in the Boat to the place of Execution about midway between Hanson's [sic] point and Broughton's Warehouse. When the scaffold was hoisted to a due height, the seven Malefactors went up: Mr. Mather pray'd for them standing upon the Boat. Ropes were all fasten'd to the Gallows (save King, who was Repriev'd). When the scaffold was let to sink, there was such a Screech of the Women that my wife heard it sitting in our Entry next the Orchard, and was much surprised at it; yet the wind was sou-west. Our house is a full mile from the place."
Capt. Samuel Bellamy, in the pirate ship Whydah, was wrecked on Cape Cod near Wellfleet, the spring of 1717, and 142 men were drowned. Six pirates who reached shore were tried in Boston and sentenced to be hanged "at Charlestown Ferry within the flux and reflux of the Sea." After the condemned were removed from the courtroom the ministers of the town took them in hand and "bestowed all possible 'Instructions upon the Condemned Criminals; often Pray'd with them; often Preached to them; often Examined them; and Exhorted them; and presented them with Books of Piety.'" At the place of execution, Baker and Hoof appeared penitent and the latter joined with Van Vorst in singing a Dutch psalm. John Brown, on the contrary, broke out into furious expressions with many oaths and then fell to reading prayers, "not very pertinently chosen," remarks the Rev. Cotton Mather. He then made a short speech, at which many in the assembled crowd trembled, in which he advised sailors to beware of wicked living and if they fell into the hands of pirates, to have a care what countries they came into. Then the scaffold fell and six twitching bodies, outlined against the sky, ended the spectacle.
In 1724 the head of Capt. John Phillips, the pirate, was brought into Boston in pickle. He had been killed by "forced men" who had risen and taken the pirate ship. Only two of his company lived to reach Boston for trial and execution, and one of them, John Rose Archer, the quartermaster, was sentenced to be "hung up in Irons, to be a spectacle, and so a Warning to others." The gibbet was erected on Bird Island which was located about half-way between Governor's Island and East Boston. In the Marshal's bill for expenses in connection with the execution appears the following item:
"To Expenses for Victuals and Drink for the Sherifs, Officers and Constables after the Executions att Mrs. Mary Gilberts her Bill £3.15.8."