John Brown - The Pirate with the Ordinary Name

                

Part Two

On Friday evening, November 15^th, 1717, the six pirates were led to their execution. While still in jail the pirates were ministered to by Cotton Mather, of Salem with trial fame. Rev. Mather ended up ministering to many pirates, among them William Fly.

                Unfortunately, he waited to record the conversations he had with them on their way to the gallows after their execution, so his words and theirs must be taken in the light of Rev. Mather’s memory, rather than as conversations recorded as they happened.

CM: Brown, In what State, in what Frame, does thy Death, now within a few Minutes of thee, find thee.

JB: Very Bad! Very Bad!

CM: You see your self then a most miserable Sinner.

JB: Oh! Most Miserable!

CM: You have had an Heart Wonderfully hardened.

JB: Ay, and it grows harder. I don’t know what is the matter with me. I can’t but wonder at my self?

CM: There is no Help to be had, any where, but in the admirable SAVIOUR, whom I am now to point you to. Behold an Admirable SAVIOUR so calling on you, Look to me and be Saved. O Wonder call! Salvation to be had for a Look!

JB: Ay, But I can’t Look!

CM: Ah poor, sad, lost Creature, Look for help to Look! But mind; What I say unto you. Set your Heart unto these Things, They are your Life! You are to Look unto your SAVIOUR, in all his Offices, for all His Benefits, you would hope to be received by a SAVIOUR, who Receiveth Sinners.

                First, you must consider your SAVIOUR, as a Priest; and you must say to Him, O my SAVIOUR, I Rely upon thy Blood, that I may be cleansed from all my Sin!  Is this the Language of your Soul?

JB: Yes, Syr.

CM: You must Consider you SAVIOUR then also as your Prophet; and you must say unto Him; O my SAVIOUR, Teach me thy Ways; and let not a Deceived Heart be my Ruine at the last! Is this also the Language of your Soul?

JB: Yes, syr.

CM: You must now Consider your SAVIOUR as your King; and you must say unto Him; O my SAVIOUR; Enter into my Heart, Set up thy Throne there; Let thy Law be written there. Subdue all the Enmity of my Carnal Mind against GOD. Cause me to Love Him! Is this the Language of your Soul?

JB: Yes, syr.

CM: Oh! I wish it may be so. I take notice, you have your Prayer-Book with you Forms of Prayer, may be of use to those who need the Assistance. You have had such put into your Hands; and you have also had the Bible bestow’d on you, with Leafs folded unto Psalms; proper for you to turn unto Prayers. But after all, A Soul touched with a sense of your Condition, and fired with the Sight of what all are and what you want, and what our SAVIOUR is willing to do for you, will cause you to Pray, beyond what any Forms in the World can do. I am jealous, that what you read sometimes, is rather for an Amusement, than from any real and Lively Sentiment raised in you; For some of the Prayers you Read, are not pertinent unto your Condition. Friend, Make that Prayer, O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my Soul! Make that Prayer, O Lord, Gather not my Soul with Sinners!  Make that Prayer, God be merciful to me a Sinner! These are Great Prayers, though Short ones Great Prayers, when they proceed from an Heart broken before the Lord.

JB: Oh! God be merciful to me a Sinner!

CM: A Sinner. Alas, But, I pray, What more Special Sins,  Ly now as a more heavy Burden on you?

JB: Special Sins! Why, I have been guilty of all the Sins in the World! I know not where to begin. I may begin with Gaming! No, Whoring, That Led on to Gaming; and Gaming Led on to Drinking; and Drinking to Lying, and Swearing, and Cursing, & all that is bad; and so to Thieving; an so to This!

CM: Your ought no to Dy Warning of all People, against these paths of the Destroyer.

                I will say to you, but this one thing more. GOD has distinguished you from your Drowned Brethren by giving you a Space to Repent, which was denied unto them. I am Sorry you have made no Better use of it. It may be, the Space has been given, because GOD may have some of His Chosen among the Six Children of Death. God forbid, that the Space must be of no use to you, but only to aggravate you Condemnation, when you appear before Him.

                When they reached the gallows, the Minister of the City made a Prayer. The prayer concluded with a supplication “For our Sea-faring People; That they may more generally Turn and Live unto GOD; That they may not fall into the hand of Pirates; That such as are fallen into their Hands, may not fall into their Wayes.” ¹

                Once they were on the scaffold, Thomas Baker and Peter Cornelius Hoof looked “distinguishingly pentitent.”²

                But John began to behave “at such a rate,”³ that the audience was shocked. He began to use the language he had become accustomed to using while living among the pirates and sailors, and then began to read prayers, described as being “not very pertinently chosen.” ⁴

                Then he made a speech, which made everybody tremble, he advised sailors “to beware of all wicked Living, such as his own had been; especially to beware of falling into the hands of the Pirates: But if they did, and were forced to join with them, then, to have a care whom they Kept; and whom they let go and what Countries they come into.”⁵  

                Then the six pirates were hanged.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007.

 

 

ENDNOTES

 1 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

2 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007 Vol. 4, p 143.

3 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

4 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

5 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.