" The whole Court was astonished at his address;
and after consultation, Mr. Recorder remanded the prisoner back
to the jail, to be brought up again the first day of next
session.
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The pillory appears to have been in use in Boston as lately as 1803;
for we find in the "Chronicle" of that city that in March of that year
Robert Pierpont, owner, and H.R. Story, master, of the brigantine
"Hannah," for the crime of sinking the vessel at sea, and thus
defrauding the underwriters (among whom were Joseph Taylor, Peter C.
Brooks, Thomas Amory, David Greene, and Benjamin Bussey), were
convicted before the Supreme Judicial Court, and the following
sentence imposed: "That they should stand one hour in the Pillory in
State Street on two several days, be confined in Prison for the term
of two years, and pay Costs of Prosecution." Considering the magnitude
of the crime, this was a light sentence. An underwriter in the
"Chronicle" says: "It is a transaction exceeding in infamy all that
has hitherto appeared in the commerce of our country.
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