after their arrival, the mayor (who was supposed to have aided in the evidence) was assaulted in the town, because he would not tell what the soldiers came for ; the soldiers were therefore called out, and several ar rests made of parties, who were conveyed to the Marshalsea. At the Admiralty Sessions, holden on Oct. 30, 1769, Thomas Phillips, elder and younger, William and George Phillips, Mark Chatfield, Robert Webb, Thomas and Samuel Ailsbury, James and Richard Hyde, William Geary, alias Justice, alias George Wood, Thomas Knight, and William Wenham, were indicted for the piracy of the Three Sisters, and capitally convicted ; and of these Thomas Ailsbury, William Geary, William Wenham, and Richard Hyde were hung, at Execution Dock, Nov. 27. "
"So great was the panic occasioned by these arrests, that a shopkeeper, reported to be worth £10,000, absconded on information of having bought goods of the smugglers. "
It may, however, be mentioned that about the commencement of the present century the Government connived at smuggling, and in this way :-If a smuggler was caught by a man-of-war, and would give. information of the state of the French harbours, ships, & c. , he would be allowed to depart ; and, moreover, the captain would give him a written certificate of his having rendered important service to the country, so that, if again caught, he was let go " scot free."
