The true confessions of William Owen : Smuggler, privateer and murderer /Terry Breverton.

The author examines the life of William Owen (c.1717-1747), a smuggler who operated at first in the West Indies but for most of his life along the coasts of the Isle of Man, Wales and the west of England. Owen told his story while awaiting execution following his conviction for the murder of his associate James Lilly and it was either written by himself or dictated to the Reverend John Davies who was in attendence. A manuscript copy of Owen's story 'The Birth, Life, Education and Transactions of Captain William Owen, the noted Smuggler' is held by the National Library of Wales and is written in the hand of Daniel G. Matthias. The author tells Owen's story based on this manuscript and includes a transcript of the account of his trial at Carmarthen Great Sessions. Set alongside this is the author's attempt to authenticate Owen's own story and an unpublished account of Owen's life written in 1860 by the Reverend Henry J. Vincent. There are also chapters on eighteenth-century smuggling focusing on the Isle of Man and Glamorgan.