Second, That Quack (already burnt) did set fire to and burn the house, and that the prisoners, Hughson, his wife, daughter Sarah, and Peggy, encouraged him so to do. Third, That Cuffee (already burnt) did set fire to Phillipse’s house, and burnt it; and they, the prisoners, procured and encouraged him so to do.  Hughson, his family, and Peggy pleaded not guilty to all the above indictments.  The attorney-general delivered a spirited address to the jury, which was more forcible than elegant.  He denounced the unlucky Hughson as “infamous, inhuman, an arch-rebel against God, his king, and his country,—­a devil incarnate,” etc.  He was ably assisted by eminent counsel for the king,—­Joseph Murray, James Alexander, William Smith, and John Chambers.  Mary Burton was called again.  She swore that Negroes used to go to Hughson’s at night, eat and drink, and sometimes buy provisions; that Hughson did swear the Negroes to secrecy in the plot; that she herself had seen seven or eight guns and swords, a bag of shot, and a barrel of gunpowder at Hughson’s house; that the prisoner told her he would kill her if she ever revealed any thing she knew or saw; wanted her to swear like the rest, offered her silk gowns, and gold rings,—­but none of those tempting things moved the virtuous Mary.  Five other witnesses testified that they heard Quack and Cuffee say to Hughson while in jail, “This is what you have brought us to.”  The Hughsons had no counsel, and but three witnesses.  One of them testified that he had lived in Hughson’s tavern about three months during the past winter, and had never seen Negroes furnished entertainment there.  The two others said that they had never seen any evil in the man nor in his house, etc.

“William Smith, Esq.” now took the floor to sum up.  He told the jury that it was “black and hellish” to burn the town, and then kill them all; that John Hughson, by his complicity in this crime, had made himself blacker than the Negroes; that the credit of the witnesses was good, and that there was nothing left for them to do but to find the prisoners guilty, as charged in the indictment.  The judge charged the jury, that the evidence against the prisoners “is ample, full, clear, and satisfactory.  They were found guilty in twenty minutes, and on the 8th of June were brought into court to receive sentence.  The judge told them that they were guilty of a terrible crime; that they had not only made Negroes their equals, but superiors, by waiting upon, keeping company with, entertaining them with meat, drink, and lodging; that the most amazing part of their conduct was their part in a plot to burn the town, and murder the inhabitants,—­to have consulted with, aided, and abetted the “black seed of Cain,” was an unheard of crime,—­that although “with uncommon assurance they deny the fact, and call on God, as a witness of their innocence, He, out of his goodness and mercy, has confounded them, and proved their guilt, to the satisfaction of the court and jury.”  After a further display of forensic eloquence, the judge sentenced them “to be hanged by the neck ’till dead,” on Friday, the 12th of June, 1741.