Volume II
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KINGSHELL, HENRY MARSHALL, EDWARD PINK, JOHN PINK AND JAMES ANSELL 4th of December, 1723, for Murder and Deer-Stealing who carried on their depredations with such effrontery that it was found necessary to enact the law hereafter recited, in order to bring them to condign punishment; and it was not long after it was in force before it took due effect upon them. Having blackened their faces, they went in the daytime to the parks of the nobility and gentry, whence they re- peatedly stole deer, and at length murdered the Bishop of Winchester's keeper on Waltham Chase; and from the name of the place, and their blacking their faces, they obtained the name of the " Waltham Blacks." The following is the substance of the Act of Parliament on which they were convicted: " After the first day of June, 1723, any person appearing in any forest, chase, park, etc., or in any highroad, open heath, common or down, with offensive weapons, and having his face blacked, or otherwise disguised, or unlawfully and wilfully hunting, wounding, killing or stealing any red or fallow deer, or unlawfully robbing any warren, etc., or stealing any fish out of any river or pond, or (whether armed or disguised or not) breaking down the head or mound of any fishpond, whereby the fish may be lost or destroyed; or unlawfully and maliciously killing, maiming or wounding any cattle, or cutting down or otherwise destroying any trees planted in any avenue, or growing in any garden, orchard or plantation, for ornament, shelter or profit; or setting fire to any house, barn or outhouse, hovel, cock-mow or stack of corn, straw, hay or wood; or maliciously shooting at any person in any dwelling-house or other place; or knowingly sending any letter without any name, or signed with a fictitious name, demanding money, venison or other valuable thing, or forcibly rescuing any person being in custody for any of the offences before mentioned, or procuring any person by gift, or promise of money, or other reward, to join in any such unlawful act, or concealing or succouring such offenders when, by Order of Council, etc., required to surrender-shall suffer death." By a vigilant exertion of the civil power all the above- mentioned offenders were taken into custody, and it being thought prudent to bring them to trial in London, they were removed thither under a strong guard and lodged in Newgate. On the 13th of November, 1723, they were brought to their trial in the Court of King's Bench, and being convicted on the clearest evidence were found guilty. |