Page:History of John Gregg, and his family, of robbers and murderers.pdf/2

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HE following account, tho' as well atteſted as any hiſtorical fact can be, is almoſt incredible, for monſtrous and unparalleled barbarities; that in novels there is nothing that we ever heard of with the ſame degree of certainty that may be compared with it; or that ſhews how far a brutiſh temper, un-tamed by education and knowledge of the world, may carry a man in ſuch glaring and horrible actions.

John Gregg, was born in the county of Devon, about eight or nine miles eaſtward of the city of Exeter. His parents worked at hedging and ditching for their livelihood, and brought their ſon up to the ſame occupation. He got his daily bread in his youth, by theſe means; but being very much addicted to idleneſs, and not chuſing to be confined to any honeſt employment, he left his father and mother, and ran away into the deſart part of the country, taking with him a woman, as viciouſly inclined as himſelf, theſe two took their habitation in a Rock by the Sea-ſide on the ſhore of the county of Devon, where they lived upwards of twenty-five