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Roberts scalp.

The Punishment formerly inflicted on those who REFUSED PLEADING to an Indictmen

Account of WILLIAM SPIGGOT and THOMAS PHILLIPS, who were hanged for robbing on the Highway.

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AT the feffions held at the Old-Bailey in the

month of January, 1720, William Spiggot and Thomas Phillips were indicted for committing several robberies on the highway; but they refused to plead, unless the effects taken from them when they were apprehended were returned: but this being directly contrary to an act of the 4th and 5th year of king William and queen Mary, entitled," An act for encouraging the appre"hending of highwaymen," the court informed them, that their demand could not be complied with.

Still, however, they refused to plead, and no arguments could convince them of the abfurdity of fuch an obftinate procedure: on which the court ordered, that the judgment ordained by law. in such cases, should be read; which is to the following purpose:

"That the prisoner fhall be fent to the prison " from whence he came, and put into a mean "room, stopped from the light, and fhall there "be laid on the bare ground, without any litter, "straw, or other covering, and without any gar"ment about him, except fomething to hide his "privy members.-He fhall lie upon his back, " his head fhall be covered, and his feet fhall be "bare. One of his arms fhall be drawn with a "cord to one fide of the room, and the other "arm to the other fide; and his legs fhall be "ferved in the like manner. Then there fhall be "laid upon his body as much iron or ftone as he "can bear, and more. And the first day after he

" fhall

"shall have three morfels of barley bread, with

out any drink; and the fecond day, he fhall be "allowed to drink as much as he can, at three ર times, of the water that is next the prifon-door, except running water, without any bread; and this fhall be his diet till he dies: and he, against "whom this judgment fhall be given, forfeits his goods to the King

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The reading of his fentence producing no effect, they were ordered back to Newgate, there to be preffed to death: but when they came into the prefs-room, Phillips begged to be taken back to plead, a favour that was granted, though it might have been denied to him: but Spiggot was put under the prefs, where he continued half an hour with three hundred and fifty pounds weight on his body, but, on the addition of fifty pounds more, he likewife begged to plead.

In confequence hereof they were brought back and again indicted, when the evidence being clear and positive against them, they were convicted, received fentence of death, and were executed at Tyburn on the 8th of February, 1723.

WILLIAM SPIGGOT, who was about twentyfeven years of age when he suffered, was a native of Hereford, but coming to London, he apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker. He was a married man, and had three children living at the time of his fatal exit. He and Phillips were hanged for robbing Charles Sybbald on Finchley Common, and were convicted convicted principally on the

* By an act paffed in 1772, it is determined that perfons refufing to plead, fhall be deemed guilty, as if convicted by a jury: an alteration that does honour to modern times.

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evidence of Jofeph Linfey, a clergyman of abandoned character, who had been of their party. One Burroughs, a lunatic, who had efcaped from Bedlam, was likewise concerned with them, but afterwards publicly fpoke of the affair, which occafioned their being taken into cuftody; and when it was known that Burroughs was difordered in his mind, he was fent back to Bedlam.

THOMAS PHILLIPS, aged thirty-three years, was a native of Bristol, totally uneducated, and being sent to fea when very young, he ferved under Lord Torrington*, when he attacked and took the Spanish fleet in the Mediteranean Sea, near the harbour of Cadiz.

Phillips returning to England, became acquainted with Spiggot and Lindfey, in company with whom he committed a great number of robberies on the highway. Phillips once boasted that he and Spiggot robbed above an hundred paffengers one night, whom they obliged to come out of different waggons, and having bound them, placed them by each other on the fide of the road: but this story is too abfurd to be believed.

While under fentence of death Phillips behaved in the most hardened and abandoned manner; he paid no regard to any thing that the minifter faid to him, and fwore or fung fongs while the other prifoners were engaged in acts of devotion; and towards the clofe of his life, when his companions became more ferious, he grew ftill more wicked; and yet, when at the place of execution, he faid, "he did not fear to die, for he "was in no doubt of going to Heaven."

*The father of the late unfortunate Admiral Byng. VOL. I. K k

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