ngham Mercury_ of January 19th, 1721. They are
included in the London news, and are as follow: "Yesterday the sessions
began at the Old Bailey, where several persons were brought to the bar
for highway robbery, etc. Among them were the highwaymen lately taken at
Westminster, two of whom, namely, Thomas Green, _alias_ Phillips, and
Thomas Spiggot, refusing to plead, the court proceeded to pass the
following sentence upon them: 'that the prisoner shall be,' etc. [the
usual form, as given above]. The former, on sight of the terrible
machine, desired to be carried back to the sessions house, where he
pleaded not guilty. But the other, who behaved himself very insolently
to the ordinary who was ordered to attend him, seemingly resolved to
undergo the torture. Accordingly, when they brought cords, as usual, to
tie him, he broke them three several times like a twine-thread, and told
them if they brought cables he would serve them after the same manner.
But, however, they found means to tie him to the ground, having his
limbs extended; but after, enduring the punishment for an hour, and
having three or four hundredweight put on him, he at last submitted to
plead, and was carried back, when he pleaded not guilty."

The Rev. Mr. Willette, the ordinary of the prison, in 1776, published
the "Annals of Newgate," and from these we learn further particulars of
the torture of the highwayman, Thomas Spiggot. "The chaplain found him
lying in the vault upon the bare ground, with 350 pounds weight upon his
breast, and then prayed with him, and at several times asked him why he
should hazard his soul by such obstinate kind of self-murder. But all
the answer that he made was, 'Pray for me; pray for me.' He sometimes
lay silent under the pressure as if insensible to the pain, and then
again would fetch his breath very quick and short. Several times he
complained that they had laid a cruel weight upon his face, though it
was covered with nothing but a thin cloth, which was afterwards removed
and laid more light and hollow; yet he still complained of the
prodigious weight upon his face, which might be caused by the blood
being forced up thither and pressing the veins so violently as if the
force had been externally on his face. When he had remained for
half-an-hour under this load, and fifty pounds weight more laid on,
being in all four hundred, he told those who attended him he would
plead. The weights were at once taken off, the cords cut asun