On 9 October 1767, the Sherborne Mercury reported that ‘Last Monday was executed at St. Stephens, near Launceston in Cornwall, Wm. Pearse [sic], who was condemned at the last assizes for that county. … He persisted to the last moment that he was not guilty of the crime he died for.’ William Pearce became the only individual in Cornish history to be executed for wrecking under the act of 26 Geo. II c. 19, believing to the last that he had only acted according to custom. He was executed as an example to deter the rest of the populace from wrecking activities, but Pearce's ritual sacrifice was a lesson lost: the Sherborne Mercury did not even report the crime of which he was found guilty when it announced his execution. Mention of his crime was buried in small print in the 31 August issue: at eighty years old, Pearce had been caught taking an ‘inconsiderable quantity of cotton’ from a wreck.

William Pearce was unfortunate to be convicted at a time when the ruling elite wanted to make an example and were not in a mood for lenience. Moreover, they had the act of 26 Geo. II to draw upon. Many legislators argued that the laws were solid; the problem existed in their enforcement. Local magistrates and lords of the manor were expected to enforce the laws, with the assistance of Customs, the Preventive Service, the local militia, and soldiers, if needed. Historians claim that plundering and wrecking continued because of Cornwall's relative isolation and lack of law enforcement on the coast. They also argue that even when suspects were caught and indicted, few convictions followed because of local forms of resistance, such as Cornish particularism; that even local magistrates and juries closed ranks against outsiders and central government authorities. Indeed, one scholar has gone so far as to say that ‘[f]or a long time it was generally accepted that no Cornish jury would ever convict a fellow countryman on a wrecking charge’, and cites Pearce's case as the lone example. Thus we have the development of a popular belief in which Cornish wreckers were hidden and protected by a community who closed ranks in response to law enforcement measures.