The last words of S. Tully Who was executed at South Boston, for piracy December 10, 1812

In 1812 a spectacular hanging was staged in South Boston for two men, Samuel Tully (1770-1812) and John Dalton, sentenced to be executed for piracy and murder. For a detailed account, see A Copy of a Letter from Samuel Tully. The broadside shown here, The Last Words of S. Tully, was printed by Coverly, the result of a pre-prepared broadside describing the hanging of both men quickly revised when Dalton was reprieved at the last minute: images of a second body and coffin, in the dramatic illustration likely done by local engraver Nathaniel Dearborn (1786-1852), one of Boston’s earliest engravers on wood, were cut out with a knife.

This broadside includes a prose narrative but no lyrics. The final column is a reflection on the entire affair, with additional information about the victims, including the information that Tully was “an American by birth, of respectable but poor parents in the State of Pennsylvania, and is forty-two years of age.”