Men are not hang'd for stealing butter, but that butter may not be stolen

'By this time [after the Battle of Saint Cast, 1758] the English privateers swarmed to such a degree in the channel, that scarce a French vessel durst quit the harbour, and consequently there was little or no booty to be obtained.

In this dearth of legal prizes, some of the adventurers were tempted to commit acts of piracy, and actually rifled the ships of neutral nations.

A Dutch vessel, having on board the baggage and domestics belonging to the marquis de Pignatelli, ambassador from the court of Spain to the king of Denmark, was boarded 3 times successively by the crews of 3 different privateers, who forced the hatches, rummaged the hold, broke open and rifled the trunks and boxes of the ambassador, insulted and even cruelly bruised his officers, stripped his domestics, and carried off his effects, together with letters of credit, and a bill of exchange.

Complaints of these outrages being made to the court of London, the lords of the admiralty promised, in the gazette, a reward of five hundred pounds, without deduction, to any person who should discover the offenders concerned in these acts of piracy. Some of them were detected accordingly, and brought to condign punishment.'

(From The History of England, Vol II, Ch. XIV by Tobias Smollett.)

'On Aug. 11, 1758, Nicholas Wingfield and Adams Hyde, of Hastings, masters of two privateer cutters, piratically boarded the Danish ship "Der lieisende Jacob," on board of which was the Marquis Pignatelli, Ambassador Extraordinary from his Catholic Majesty to the Court of Denmark assaulting Jurgan Mtiller, the master of the vessel, and stealing 20 casks of butter.

The Lords of the Admiralty offered a reward of 500l. Nicholas Wingfield and Adams Hyde, with 4 others, having been betrayed by some of their accomplices, were arrested; and on Jan. 15, 1759, were brought under a strong guard of soldiers, and lodged in the Marshalsea.

They were tried at the Admiralty sessions, March 9, 1759, when Nicholas Wingfield and Adams Hyde were found guilty; and on the 28th of the same month, were hung at Execution Dock. The 4 others were acquitted.'

(From The Genuine history of the inhuman and unparalleled murders, 1748-9 by William Galley & Daniel Chater.)

A beggar's sack is bottomless

'John Watkins, known by the name of Black John, died at Bristol [1759], aged 78, who on his being prevented from possessing an estate in Gloucestershire, to which he is said to have been heir, made a vow never to be shaved, which he kept to his death, and a little before his exit, desired he might not be shaven.

He was a beggar for about 50 years last past, and often lodged in a glass-house, though he had a room in the city, in which 200 weight of silver and halfpence, and a considerable quantity of gold was found, all acquired by begging.'

(From The Annual Register For the Year 1759, 8th Edition, London, 1802.)