Rachel Wall the mysterious pirate
A woman arrested and convicted of highway robbery, and the last to be executed like a pirate by the state of Massachusetts for stealing a bonnet.
Who are we talking about? Rachel Wall
According to legend she was born c. 1760 in Pennsylvania and ran away from home when she was 16 years old. As soon as she arrived on the coast, she met and married George Wall and moved to Boston. Her husband was a fisherman and so he is said to have left her quite quickly, leaving Rachel to earn a living as a maid. However, George returned one day in 1781 to see Rachel again and persuade her to become a pirate. She tells Sp in her confession. They are believed to have raided ships off the Isles of the Shoals on the New Hampshire coast, although there is no evidence of this and it is not mentioned in the confession. It is believed that Rachel stood on the deck of her ship after storms, pretending to be in distress and screaming for help; when sailors came to her rescue, George and his men killed them and plundered their ships. This did not last long, however after 12 ships it seems that George drowned 1782 during one of these raids, for even his wife did not know where exactly he was.
Rachel returned to Boston and worked as a maid, but never quite managed to become a law-abiding citizen. She continued to ‘plunder’ by sneaking aboard docked ships and taking what she could. She was caught and convicted of robbery twice. Now a third incident occurred in which she stole a 17-year-old girl's bonnet because she thought it was so pretty. As she had already been convicted in two cases of robbery, this third case was punished with death. Unable to deny her past, she listed numerous petty offences in her confession, being careful not to mention any that might be felonies. She was smart enough to know that she could not convince people of her innocence and instead presented herself as being under the influence of her terrible husband.
Attorney General Robert Treat Paine requested that the said Rachel Wall, the prisoner in the dock, be sentenced to death,’ and Governor John Hancock signed the execution order. One could perhaps speculate that she was convicted of far more serious crimes than the attempted robbery of a bonnet, accused of being a thief, but executed for piracy?
Unfortunately for her, Rachel's crime took place during the time of turmoil in the new nation, and the courts, which traditionally gave women lighter sentences than men, sentenced her as an equal, so piracy was not an issue here. The piracy case seems to have been a matter that was brought up at a later date after her death and was probably denied. She probably wasn't a pirate at all but just a thief who they wanted to give a good story.
On Thursday 8 October 1789, Rachel Wall was hanged on Boston Common along with William Smith and William Dunogan. Thousands of men, women and children came to watch the official procession as it wound its way through the streets. They listened to the execution sermon and Rachel Wall's last words as she stood at the gallows.
Her last words were‘...into the hands of Almighty God I commit my soul, trusting in his mercy...and die an unworthy member of the Presbyterian Church, in the 29th year of my age.’
Six years later, unarmed burglary was no longer punishable by death; the three were the last to be executed for robbery in Massachusetts.
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