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John Clark dying words

2 December 2025

THE LAST SPEECH And Dying Words, of John Clark, condemned for Piracy, and executed at Leith, December 14, 1720. I confess that I was upon the Island of Providence when Governor Rogers came with the King’s Pardon to the Pirates that were there; and that I was one of those who was a pirating before I came into the Buck-Sloop. And it is no less true, that when we came out with the Buck, we intended to carry on a lawful Trade, but were prevented by the Insurrection of the old Offenders, who took the Sloop away from the men that came from England in it, of whom Roger Hughes was one. It is a great Trouble to me to think of the Suffering of this Man and others that are condemned to die. For alas I was at the Taking of them out of their respective Ships, and forcing them, much against their Wills, to go along with us in a very wicked Course of Life. I go out of this World with a heavy Heart, when I think how innocently these Poor Men must suffer. If all those who are taken by Pirates are condemned to die, a great many of the King’s good Subjects will suffer unjustly. I cannot go out of this World at any Peace of Mind without declaring publicly, that I think they are much wronged and unjustly condemned. Sentence might as well have passed upon the Doctor and others whom I were long enraged by the wicked Courses. But as for the poor Men, they were compelled by us and others from their respective Ships, and never did any of the Things they were accused of, but as they were forced at the Working of the Ship, which they could not avoid, and which they did for fear of Death at the Moment. It is no Wonder that they complied, seeing that to refuse it was to them immediate Death, and that to preserve our Lives was as much as—As I am a dying Man, I have told you nothing but the Truth. Further I am bound in Conscience to inform you, that those poor Men who are now condemned, ran great Times within the Hazard of their Lives, endeavouring to make their Escape from us; and I declare, on the Word of a dying Man, that I persuaded Capt. Robert not to kill them, as they would either have died by his Hand, or at least been set ashore on some desolate Island.

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