Note 2 — CASES OF JOHN ROSE ARCHER AND OTHERS.
Reading edition
"On Tuesday the 2d instant, were executed here, for Piracy, John Rose Archer, Quarter Master, aged about 27 years, and William White, aged about 22 years. After their Death they were conveyed in Boats down to an Island, where White was buried, and the Quarter Master was hung up in Irons, to be a Spectacle, and so a Warning to others." Boston Gazette, June 8, 1724. Bird Island, which has now disappeared, was a small island in Boston harbor, lying between Noddle's Island (East Boston) and Governor's Island, about a mile and a half from the town. Six days after the execution, Jeremiah Bumstead records in his diary, "My wife and Jery and Betty [a boy of 16 and a girl of 17], David Cunningham and his wife, and 6 more, went to the castle to Governors Island, and to see the piratte in Gibbits att Bird Island." N.E. Hist. Gen. Reg., XV. 202.