"Edward Jordan attacking Captain John Stairs with an ax. In The Annals of Crime and Newgate Calendar"
The trial of the pirate Edward Jordan and his wife Margaret for his crimes of piracy, felony murder, and robbery. Edward was found guilty by a Halifax, Canada court and executed on November 20, 1809; Margaret was found not guilty, spared by the court to care for their four children.
The court's president sentenced Edward to death, saying, “You, Edward Jordan, shall be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead — and may God Almighty have mercy upon your soul.”
The court also reminded Edward that punishment for his horrid crimes was not the only reason for the harsh sentence, “But an example to all others of the vengeance which always pursues the steps of the murderer.”
The First Witness: Captain John Stairs
The prosecution called John Stairs to the stand. He was the captain of the Three Sisters, the ship allegedly stolen by Edward Jordan. The Three Sisters was crewed by Stairs and three other men, Heath, Kelly, and Benjamin Matthews. It also carried the Jordan family, Edward, Margaret, and their four children.
Stairs testified that he minded his own business below deck when he looked up to see Edward Jordan aiming a pistol at him from the skylight above. Jordan fired, and the bullet grazed Stairs' nose and cheek. Heath was standing right behind Stairs, and the bullet entered his chest, at which point he said, "Oh, my God. I am killed." Mortally wounded, Heath attempted to crawl to the deck.
Stairs then ran to his room to get his pistols and cutlass, but they were all missing. He came back onto the deck after hearing multiple pistol shots. He found Benjamin Matthews injured, Heath lying dead in a pool of blood, and Edward Jordan brandishing an ax in one hand and a pistol in the other. Stairs and Jordan engaged in a struggle, and Stairs managed to wrestle the ax from Jordan and throw the ax overboard.
Stairs called to Kelly for help but received no response. Instead, Margaret came up behind Stairs and started beating him with a boat-hook handle while shouting, "Is it Kelly you want? I'll give you Kelly."
Edward Jordan reloaded his pistol and managed to find another ax. He finished off Benjamin Matthews with a few swift blows to the back of the head with the ax. Stairs, facing imminent death, threw a hatch overboard and dived into the ocean after it. Stairs floated on the hatch for hours, until, by a stroke of luck, he was rescued by an American fishing schooner.
The Second Witness: John Pigot
John Pigot took the stand. He had been recruited by Kelly, who was pretending to be Stairs, to join the ship to which he agreed by signing a contract. When Kelly arrived, some red flags went up for Pigot, and he tried to back out of his deal. Edward Jordan tried to convince Pigot to come aboard but could not get Pigot to budge. Jordan involved the local magistrate who instructed Pigot to board the ship or be arrested.
Onboard, Pigot noticed strange behaviors from Margaret. She asked Pigot to try to get her off the ship because she feared Edward would shoot her. Pigot asked why, and she said whenever Edward was drunk, he threatened her. Pigot said Edwards was quick to threaten to shoot someone, and on multiple occasions, he threatened Margaret saying, "She was the only person that could hang him."
The Third Witness: Patrick Power
Patrick Power testified that Edward Jordan called himself John Tremain and tried to recruit him to navigate the Three Sisters. Power produced a contract to the court that showed that Jordan wanted him to navigate the boat to Limerick or Galway in Ireland.
One night, before they embarked to Ireland, Margaret was missing from the boat. Edward and Kelly went to bring her back and were successful. Edward was angry with his wife and began drinking. He accused his wife of being unfaithful and said, "I heard you talk." He attempted to grab his musket from the wall to shoot her, but the crew stopped him. Kelly hid Edward's guns, and they began to argue. Edward threatened to kill Kelly and his wife, saying they had been too often alone together. Edward eventually relented but said, "Do not let my wife come to be with me; if you do, I shall kill her."
As the voyage continued to delay, Edward became more anxious and acted like a madman. At one point, he accused the whole crew of sleeping with his wife. Kelly left the ship, and when the Three Sisters finally set sail, His Majesty's schooner the Cuttle was in pursuit. The ship was boarded, and Edward and Margaret Jordan were arrested.
Edward Jordan Takes the Stand
Edward Jordan had just listened to incriminating testimony, and evidence was presented that proved the owners of the Three Sisters were Jonathan and John Tremain. Edward claimed that the boat was, in fact, his. He had contracted with the Tremain's for the Three Sisters construction. The ship was named for his three daughters. Unfortunately for Edward, he had gone into debt, losing any claim to possession of the boat.
On the day in question, Edward tells a different story to that of Captain Stairs. Edward says he was drinking liquor and pretty drunk. His son came up to him and said that Stairs was "taking liberties" with his mother. Edward confirmed the boy's story by going below deck and threw Stairs to the ground.
Stairs recovered and grabbed two pistols from his trunk. He fired at Edward but missed and struck Heath in the chest. Edward ran to the deck to find something to defend himself, only to see Stairs throw the hatch overboard and dive off the ship.
Edward told Kelly to turn around and pick him up, but Kelly did not respond or change the boat's course. He finished his testimony, saying that all the other witnesses had made up their stories and perjured themselves.
Margaret Jordan's Written Statement and the Verdict
The last piece of evidence accepted by the court before verdicts were delivered was a written defense submitted by Margaret Jordan. It described how she and Edward had married ten years prior in Ireland and had been happy there for five years. At that point, they had decided to remove to the United States, and problems soon arose as Edward became jealous of her.
She wrote that Edward was abusive and had promised to buy clothes for the children but had not done so leading up to the day of the crimes. Captain Stairs had given her some calico to make clothes for the kids, and Edward became jealous because he suspected infidelity. Margaret remembered going on deck and seeing Heath dead and Stairs fighting Edward. She did not deny that she may have hit Stairs but claimed innocence because of her state of mind at the time.
The wild case came to a close, and with little deliberation, Edward was sentenced to death while Margaret was acquitted. According to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Nova Scotia, Jordan was hanged at Point Pleasant Park, near the Black Rock beach, in 1809. His dead body was covered in tar, hung in chains, and displayed in an iron cage to discourage others from pursuing piracy. The court called it, "An example to all others of the vengeance, which always pursues the steps of the murderer.”
Source:
Annals of Crime: and new Newgate calendar. 377-383.