s Plea. 1690._[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2540, paper 6. The case is
reported in _Records of the Court of Assistants of Massachusetts Bay_,
I. 319-322. Coward (a sailor of H.M.S. _Rose_) and others were
indicted for a piratical attack on the ketch _Elinor_ in Nantasket
Roads, November 21, 1689. They were tried in January, 1690, and
condemned, but reprieved. See _Andros Tracts_, II. 54. The trial
occurred in the interregnum between the deposition of Governor Andros
in 1689, and the arrival of Governor Phips and inauguration of the new
charter in 1692. Therefore Coward pleads to the jurisdiction, Andros's
commission as vice-admiral being void.]

And the said Wm. Coward for plea saith that he ought not nor by Law is
obliged to make any further or other answar or plea to the Indictments
now preferred against him in this Court: for that he saith that the
Crimes for which he stands Indicted be:--The same is for Pyracy,
felony and [so forth] by him supposed to be done And Committed upon
the high seas without this Jurisdictions and not within the body of
any County within the same from Whence any Jury Cann be Lawfully
brought to have tryall thereof, That before the Statute of the 28th of
King Henry the 8th, Chapt. the 15th, all Pyraceys Felonys, etc.,
Committed upon the high seas was noe Felony whereof the Common Law
tooke any knowledg, for that it could not be tryed, being out of all
towns and Countes, but was only Punishable by the Civill Law before
the Admira[l], etc., but by the said Statute the offence is not
altered and made felony, but Left as it was before the said Statute,
vizt. felony only by the Civill Law, but giveth a mean of tryal by the
Common Law in this maner, Viz: All Treasons, felonys, Robberys,
murders and Confederacies Committed in or upon the sea or in any other
haven, rivar, creek, or place where the Admirall hath or pretends to
have power, Authority, or Jurisdiction shall be Enquired, tryed,
heard, determined, and Judged in such shires and places in the Relm as
shall be Limitted by the kings Commistion under the great Seale, in
Like forme and Condition as If any such offenses had been Committed
upon the land, to be directed to the Lord Admirall or to his Leiut.,
Deputy, or Deputys, and to three or foure such other substantiall
persons as shall be named by the Lord Chancellor of England for the
time being, etc., as [by] the said statute appeareth--

That the Crimes and offences afforesai