Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Nov. 17. Saturday, Morris Keaton, (who was concerned with Joseph Twentyman and Benjamin Johnson, in the piracy and horrid murders lately committed on board the schooner Friendship) was apprehended at Mrs. Debois's lodging-room in Rum-Lane. The unerring hand of divine providence was so conspicuous in the detection of this inhuman monster, that we cannot resist the impulse of saying a short statement thereof before the publick.

A gentleman, who was a lodger at Mrs. Debois's, having learned that a sick stranger, who called himself Captain Carney, had been brought to the house the evening before, determined, from motives of humanity, to inquire after his health; accordingly, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, he went into the sick man's room, seated himself by his bed-side, after the usual salutation, and entered into a conversation with him, during the course of which, Keaton, in great agitation asked the other if some pirates had not been lately apprehended and taken to prison; upon which the visitor replied with great energy, that they were the most bloody and abandoned miscreants that ever were upon record: which made such an impression on Keaton, that he instantly exclaimed, after striking his forehead with great violence and falling into a universal tremour, "My God, what pain I have got in my head, and deadly sickness at my heart! for God's sake, Sir, send for a barber, that I may get my head shaved, as I am sure it will abate the fever in my distracted brain!" The other, whose suspicions were instantly awakened by this extraordinary behaviour, after measuring the man from head to foot with his eye, retired out of the room, and referred to a news-paper for Keaton's description, which having dispelled every doubt of his being the pirate in question, he gave notice to a Magistrate, who issued a warrant against the villain, and gave it to a party of the town guard to execute.

They immediately repaired to the house, and taxed Keaton with his guilt, which at first he strenuously denied; but upon one of the party reading aloud the name of J. Wilkinson, at full length, on the tail of his shirt, which hung out of his breeches, he again fell into a universal tremour, and again sunk down upon the bed in superlative agony, confessed he was the identical person they were in search of, and was carried to the Court-House, where he underwent an examination of three hours and a half, in which he made full and ample confession of his guilt, and at the end thereof was committed a close prisoner to the common jail of this town.
Nov. 20. On Wednesday died in the jail of this town, Morris Keaton, the pirate and murderer, who was concerned with Johnson and Twentyman, and apprehended on Saturday last.