“My dear Celia,--I hardly know how to begin, or what to say, for the
laws of tyrants have parted us for ever. My dear, this is the last time
you will ever hear from me. I hope you will perform your duty without
delay, which is for the benefit of yourself and children, which I have
explained to you before. My dear, of the anxiety and regard I have for
you and the children, I know not how to explain myself; but I must die
according to law, and leave you in a land full of corruption, where
justice and liberty has taken their flight from, to other distant
shores. My dear, I have heard men remark that they would not marry a
widow, not without her husband was hanged. Now, my dear, I hope you
will bear in mind that the cause of my being consigned to the scaffold
was a pure motive.
“I thought I should have rendered my starving fellow-men, women, and
children a service; and my wish is, when you make another choice, that
this question you will put before you tie the fatal knot. My dear,
it is of no use for me to make remarks respecting my children. I am
convinced you will do your duty as far as lies in your power. My dear,
your leaving me but a few hours before I wrote these few lines, I have
nothing more to say. Farewell! farewell, my dear wife and children, for
ever! Give my love to your mother and Elizabeth. I conclude a constant
lover to you and your children, and all friends. I die the same, but an
enemy to all tyrants.
“JAMES INGS.”
“PS. My dear wife, give my love to my father and mother, brother
and sisters, and aunt Mary, and beg of them to think nothing of my
unfortunate fate; for I am gone out of a very troublesome world, and I
hope you will let it pass like a summer cloud over the earth.”
“Newgate, 4 o’clock, Sunday afternoon,
April 30, 1820.”