Richard Squire, John Mathews, George Steward, Alexander Evins, and John Boardman were charged with piracy after they took control of the schooner Amity, on which they were sailors, and left Capt. James Duncanson and several crew members stranded in the Atlantic in August 1785. Soon after, the marooned men were rescued by a passing ship and taken to New York City, where Captain Duncanson initiated legal proceedings against the pirates. The five men were arrested and imprisoned in Halifax and then tried in Massachusetts before the Essex County session of the Supreme Judicial Court in November. Squire and Mathews were found guilty of robbery but not piracy, while Evins, Steward, and Boardman were found not guilty of all charges. Sentencing of the two guilty men was delayed until February, when they were sentenced to ten years hard labor at Castle Island.