[126] Plays written by the late Ingenious Mrs. Behn, London, 1724, iv. 110-112.
[127] Postlethwayt’s Dictionary of Commerce, 3d ed., London, 1766, vol. ii. fol. 4 M, 2 recto, col. 1.
[128] Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, ii. 312. Professor James Butler, in an excellent paper on “British Convicts shipped to American Colonies,” American Historical Review, ii. 12-33, suggests that Johnson’s impression may have been derived from his long connection with the Gentleman’s Magazine, wherein the lists of felons, reprieved from the gallows and sent to America were regularly published.
[129] Whitmore, The Cavalier Dismounted, p. 17.
[130] Pike, History of Crime in England, ii. 447.
[131] American Historical Review, ii. 25.
[132] Penny Cyclopædia, xxv. 138.
[133] Report of Royal Historical MSS. Commission, xiii. 605.
[134] The only specific mention which Professor Butler has been able to find of a criminal sent to New England is that of Elizabeth Canning, who was sent out for seven years under penalty of death if she returned to England during that time. She was brought to Connecticut in 1754, married John Treat two years afterward, and died in Wethersfield in 1773. American Historical Review, ii. 32.
[135] Massachusetts Acts and Resolves, i. 452; ii. 245.