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<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="852" public="1" featured="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd" uri="https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/852?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-04-12T15:32:20+10:00">
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          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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                <text>English Execution Ballads</text>
              </elementText>
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    <name>Execution Ballad</name>
    <description/>
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      <element elementId="5">
        <name>Transcription</name>
        <description>Transcription of ballad lyrics</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3846">
            <text>You Sinners all, both young and old&#13;
attend to what I write,&#13;
And hy to Heart while you have Time,&#13;
this sad and doleful Sight.&#13;
Behold, I say, two Sinful Men,&#13;
who for their wicked Crimes,&#13;
Are hast'ning to the Gallows Tree&#13;
to Die before their Times,&#13;
Who being wicked overmuch,&#13;
can't live not half their Days,&#13;
This is the Portion of all such&#13;
as follow sinful Ways.&#13;
Behold poor Ormsby now in Chains;&#13;
with sad, and heavy Heart,&#13;
Approaching to the Place where he&#13;
will have his Just Desert.&#13;
No hope of Favour can he have,&#13;
from any human Hand,&#13;
The Blood which he has spilt must be&#13;
purged from off the Land.&#13;
Yet if   he in Sincerity&#13;
to God his Pray'r does make,&#13;
He may find Mercy at his Hand,&#13;
for Jesus Christ his sake.&#13;
And we the  Pleasure have to see&#13;
him mourning for his Sin.&#13;
Lamenting all the crooked Ways &#13;
that he has walked in.&#13;
He does lament his Drunkenness,&#13;
and every other Sin,&#13;
And keeping evil Comopany,&#13;
which has his ruin been.&#13;
His hasty Temper he bewails, &#13;
and cruel Passion,&#13;
In which he did the Fact that proves&#13;
his own Destruction.&#13;
Behold poor Cushing coming next, &#13;
just in his youthful Prime,&#13;
Whose Life is forfeited also,&#13;
by his most heinous Crime.&#13;
And tho' his Crime is short of that&#13;
for which Ormsby must die,&#13;
Yet by the Law 'tis Death for those &#13;
guilty of Burglary.&#13;
Oh! that all Thieves would Warning take,&#13;
by his most tragick End,&#13;
And would now without more Delay&#13;
their Lives and Actions mend.&#13;
For what great Profit does he gain &#13;
who Robs without Controul,&#13;
And wallows for a while in Wealth,&#13;
yet loses his own Soul?&#13;
He thought (no doubt) the darksom Night&#13;
would have conceal'd his Crime.&#13;
But it was brought to open Light&#13;
within a little Time.&#13;
By which we all may plainly see&#13;
there is no Place upon&#13;
This spacious Earth where Sinners may&#13;
hide their Transgression.&#13;
Oh! may the Fate of this young Man &#13;
scarce turn'd of Twenty Three,&#13;
A Warning prove to all our Youth,&#13;
of high and low Degree.&#13;
And let this Warning loud and shrill&#13;
be heard by ev'ry one,&#13;
O do no more such Wickedness&#13;
as has of late been done.&#13;
Lament and wail his woful Caase,&#13;
 and by him Warning take;&#13;
A Sight I think enough to make &#13;
a Heart of Stone to ake.&#13;
&#13;
Epitaph upon John Ormsby.&#13;
Here lies (hard by an ignominious Tree)&#13;
The Body of unhappy John Ormsby;&#13;
Who dy'd for murd'ring of poor Thomas Bell,&#13;
A Pris'ner with him in the common Goal.&#13;
Somme sudden Frenzy surely seiz'd they Brain,&#13;
Or this poor harmless Man had ne're been slain.&#13;
Madness indeed, thus to assault a Friend,&#13;
Who ne're in all his Life did thee offend;&#13;
And leave him helpless welt'ring in his Gore,&#13;
Almost depriv'd of Life upon the Floor:&#13;
And not content with this most horrid Deed,&#13;
Thou didst assault another Man with Speed,&#13;
And hadst most surely kill'd him on the Spot,&#13;
With that uncommon Weapon, a Quart Pot,&#13;
(Which had dispatch'd poor Bell but just before,&#13;
Who then lay bleeding on the Prison Floor)&#13;
Had not the Keeper come i'th'Nick of Time,&#13;
And sav'd thee from a second bloody Crime.&#13;
&#13;
On Matthew Cushing&#13;
Here lies the Body of young Matthew Cushing,&#13;
Whose Crimes cannot be mention'd without blushing:&#13;
He by the Province Law was doom'd to die,&#13;
For the detested Crime of Burglary.&#13;
He broke open the House of Joseph Cook,&#13;
A Shoe-Maker in Town, and from him took&#13;
Some wearing CLoaths, and two Gowns from his Wife,&#13;
For which alas! he pays them with his Life.&#13;
Oh! may their Deaths a Warning be to all,&#13;
Inclin'd to Theft or Murder, great and small.&#13;
&#13;
Good People all I you beseech&#13;
To buy the Verse as well as SPEECH.&#13;
&#13;
Sold at the Heart and Crown in Boston.</text>
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      <element elementId="54">
        <name>Language</name>
        <description>Language ballad is printed in</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3847">
            <text>English</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="55">
        <name>Date</name>
        <description>Date of ballad</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3848">
            <text>1734</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="59">
        <name>Printing Location</name>
        <description>Location the ballad pamphlet was printed.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3849">
            <text>[Boston] Sold [by Thomas Fleet] at the Heart and Crown in Boston., [1734]</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="74">
        <name>Method of Punishment</name>
        <description>Method of punishment described in the ballad.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3851">
            <text>hanging</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="62">
        <name>Crime(s)</name>
        <description>Crime or crimes for which the person in the ballad is convicted.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3852">
            <text>burglary, murder</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="63">
        <name>Gender</name>
        <description>Gender of the person being executed.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3853">
            <text>Male</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="65">
        <name>Execution Location</name>
        <description>Location the condemned was executed.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="3854">
            <text>Boston Neck</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="93">
        <name>Subtitle</name>
        <description/>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="7841">
            <text>who were appointed to be executed on Boston Neck, the 17th of October, 1734. </text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
      <element elementId="83">
        <name>Image / Audio Credit</name>
        <description/>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="8042">
            <text>&lt;p&gt;Pamphlet location: AAS Record Number: 0F2F82324DC36830, Record Number: w026284&lt;br /&gt;Recorded in &lt;em&gt;Early American Imprints&lt;/em&gt;, Series 1, no. 40054 (filmed)&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="3845">
              <text>A Mournful poem on the death of John Ormsby and Matthew Cushing</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
  </elementSetContainer>
  <tagContainer>
    <tag tagId="58">
      <name>burglary</name>
    </tag>
    <tag tagId="46">
      <name>hanging</name>
    </tag>
    <tag tagId="42">
      <name>Male</name>
    </tag>
    <tag tagId="37">
      <name>murder</name>
    </tag>
  </tagContainer>
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