Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/324

282 count-book of my great uncle, Mr. Henry Davies, following receipt:

"1st July 1735. Received of Mr. Henry Davies, towards the taking of Henry Rogers, two pounds two shillings, per Francis Arthur."

A print of Rogers was soon after published with the following legend:

"Henry Rogers lived at a village called Skewis. He was so ignorant of the reason as well as of the power of the law, that when a decree in Chancery went against him, he resisted all remonstrances, and fortified his house, making loopholes for his muskets, through which he shot two men of the posse comitatus who attended the Under-sheriff. A little after he shot one Hitchens, as he was passing the high road on his private business. He also fired through the window and killed one Toby, and would not suffer his body to be taken away to be buried for some days. At length the neighbouring justices of the peace assisted the constables, and procured an aid of some soldiers, one of whom he killed, and afterwards made his escape; but at Salisbury, on his way towards London, he was apprehended and brought down to Cornwall, when at the assizes in August 1735 five bills of indictment were found againt him by the grand jury for the five murders aforesaid; to save the court time he was tried only on three of them, and found guilty of every one, before Lord Chief Justice Hardwick. As he lay in gaol after his conviction, the Under-sheriff coming in, he attempted to seize his sword, with a resolution to kill him; swearing he should die easy if he could succeed in that design. He was attended by several clergymen; but they could make no impression on his brutal stupidity, and he died at the gallows without any remorse."