In a brief narrative of the life and death of "Mereah Brenton," also known as "Aunt Mereah Cogeshall," an unidentified writer says that in 1722 she was carried to see the hanging of "28 pirates" at Gravelly Point and could recall the "awful spectacle." She was manumitted in 1775. The writer also says that about six years before her death she became "much enfeebled" in recollection and eyesight.