The Behaviour, last speeches, confessions, and execution of the prisoners that suffered at Tyburn on Fryday the 7th of March, 1678/9 viz. Thomas Coxe and Charles Smith who were drawn thither on a hurdle for treason, Mary Augur, for murther, and Anne Atkins for a burglary ... : with a true account of their carriage and discourses to Mr. Ordinary and others, both in prison and at the place of execution.

The Behaviour, last Speeches, Con∣fessions, and Execution of the Prisoners that Suffered at Tyburn on Fryday the 7th of March, 1678/9.

AT the last Sessions there were in all Nine persons received sentence of Death; Three men and Six women. (Not Six men and Three women, as a false and surreptitious Pamphlet, prin∣ted with the Letters D. M. did lately mention; which also said, there was Fourteen to be Trans∣ported: and several other notorious Untruths al∣most in every Line.) Of these unhappy Criminals one was respited for the present from Execution, being found by a Jury of Matrons to be quick with Childe: three other women and one man, the nature of whose Offences and Conversation had rendred them fitter Objects of Royal Mercy, ob∣tain'd the favour of his Majesties gratious Reprieve after Judgment.

The other Four came now to suffer; their Names and Crimes being as follows.

Thomas Coxe and Charles Smith, each of them found guilty of Treason on several Indictments, both for Coyning and Counterfeiting, and also for Clipping of Money.

Mary Augur, for Murthering her Bastard Child; and Anne Atkins, for a Burglary, whose Husband, for the like Offence, was Executed but the very last Sessions, and she then turn'd out of Newgate on the account of her Poverty, having several Chil∣dren; but was no sooner at liberty, but she fell to her old wickedness; and 'tis believ'd seduc'd a person, now Condemn'd with her, but Reprieved, into this Burglary, for which she suffered. So dif∣ficult it is for people, when they are once come to make a Trade of sin, to forsake it, though they have the saddest and most near related Warnings in the world to reclaim them.

Coxe, in the hearing of the Ordinary, prayed very pathetically for himself; and being askt con∣cerning what hopes he had of a future happy E∣state, he declared, That the fear of Death was much abated, and as he trusted on a sound and firm foundation, because his sorrow for sin was more for offending God, and grieving his Holy Spirit, than for the dread either of that momentary Punishment he was justly to suffer here, or even for the fear of Hell and wrath to come. Adding, that if he were to live, he resolv'd and hoped in God's strength that he should never run into such Extravagances as he had formerly been guilty of.

For he did not onely freely acknowledge the Crime for which he was Condemned, but said, there was scarce any Immorality or Sin (except Murther) which in the debauch'd Course of his Life he had not stain'd and polluted his Soul with.

The Ordinary urg'd, that his Coyning counter∣feit Money, was not onely a great Crime against the Kings Majesty, but an abuse to the whole Na∣tion, especially the poor, whose wants could not be supplyed if they offered such bad Money in buy∣ing; so that the ill influence and consequences of his sin in this kind, would survive when he was dead, and the fraud he had knowingly put upon others, must needs in the loss or deceit, circulate to the prejudice of many innocent people. He replyed, that for that very consideration, his penitent grief was so much the greater; and being told, that he could not repent sincerely, if he made not restitu∣tion to his power, to such whom he had defrauded, He professed he would do all he could possibly on that account, by making distribution as far as able to the poor, because he knew not whom he had wronged in particular, nor how to send to any such. He expressed much grief, that he had omitted to observe the Lords day, and that he went not to the publick Worship; as also, that he neglected to pray Morning and Evening, for which remisness, he con∣ceived the Lord justly left him to the temptations of bad Company, and in particular to be acquaint∣ed

with a person, who drew him to the crime of Coyning, which he closed with, on a lewd princi∣ple, not being content with an honest Trade, viz. a Gun-smith, which he well subsisted by, being a single Man, but made hast to snatch at unlawful gain, that he might be at higher expences to grati∣fie his Lusts, which he the rather acknowledged, that it might be a warning to all others.

Smith, the other Goyner of false Money, was well educated, and it grieved him that he had not answered those good Instructions which his Parents gave him. He was put forth in Apprentiship to a Chandler, after he came to his own disposal, he lost the government of himself, for he profan'd the Lords day, which he said was occasioned by neg∣lecting to repair to Gods publick Service, because he thought out of the pride of his heart, that his cloaths were not fine enough, so natural it is for one sin to beget another.

He bewail'd himself as a great sinner, and in par∣ticular very much lamented the Crime for which he was Condemned, which he said he ingaged in, out of a covetous disposition, but made not so much gain by it as some others; and that he had a resolution to desist from that wicked practise, not because it answered not his expectation of profit, but rather for the regret and trouble which he had in his Conscience concerning proceeding in it. He said that bad acquaintance first inticed him into it, and that he was justly by God left to the temptati∣on,

since he had neglected daily to guard himself by Prayer. He wisht he had took the meanest law∣ful imployments, rather than so hainously transgre∣sed against the Kings Majesty, and the Law of the Nation. But the Lord he said was righteous, in discovering his Crime, because he had lived se∣curely in committing other sins; for had he not been apprehended as he was, there was provided for him an honest and creditable imployment. But (said he) the Lord is just in cutting me off in the prime of my years, that I might not proceed in a course of Iniquity; and if his Divine Majesty shall be gratiously pleased to sanctifie this stroke of death on my body, to bring me thereby to Re∣pentance, I shall not dread to drink of that bit∣ter cup, as believing the Lord will order it to my eternal happiness.——He praid for himself very well in the Ordinaries hearing, and being questioned what hopes he had of Salvation, and on what foun∣dation the same were grounded, he made such judi∣cious answers, in a distinct difference of true Faith and Repentance from the false, as the Ordinary was well satisfied with the same, and doth verily be∣lieve, that his endeavours with him were blessed, to bring him as a Convert to God.

As for Mary Augur, she was very weak in bo∣dy, not able to come on the Lords day in the af∣ternoon into the Chappel; but the Ordinary seve∣ral times attended her in her Chamber, and gave her many serious Exhortations: but her condition,

&c. very much obstructed the good effects he hoped for from such his pains, so that we can give little farther account of her.

The other Woman wept bitterly, and very often, and seemed to be penitent for her sins, not deny∣ing the Crime for which he suffered, but seemed to have been bred up in a loose course of life, and very ignorant of the Mysteries of Religion, but the Ordinary took considerable pains to instruct her therein, and it is charitably hoped God might bless his endeavours towards her.

FINIS.