The Adultresses Funeral Day: In flaming, scorching, and consuming fire: OR The burning down to ashes of Alice Clarke late of Uxbridge in the County of Middlesex, in West-smithfield, on Wednesday the 20. of May, 1635. for the unnatural poisoning of Fortune Clarke her Husband. A breviary of whose Confession taken from her own mouth, is here unto annexed: As also what she said at the place of her Execution. By her daily Visitor H. G. in life and death. And now published by Authority and Command. LONDON Printed by N. and I. Okes, dwelling in Well-yard in little St. bartholmew's, near unto the Lame Hospital gate, 1635. MURDER UPON MURDER: OR, THE OLD WAY OF POISONING NEWLY REVIVED. In the remarkable Act of Alice Clarke, performed upon her Husband Fortune Clarke, by her, poisoned on Ascension day last passed▪ for which being arraigned, convicted, and condemned, she suffered by Fire in West-Smithfield, upon Wednesday in Whitson-weeke, being the 20. day of May, 1635. with the last words she delivered at the time and place of her Execution. GReat and stupendious are the works and wonders of the God Almighty, who only searcheth the hearts and reins, and therefore perspicuously knoweth the very thoughts and strength of man: For be his vain apprehensions never so cunning to contrive, his policy to conceal, or his boldness to outface any nefarious act committed, yet his unsounded and incomprehensible Wisdom, which can be no way circumscribed, is able at all times, and upon all occasions, as well to publish, as punish it in the open eye of the world, of which, as well those times past, as these present, have, and do afford us remarkable Examples: I will begin with the Sin, before I proceed to the Fact. A Murderer, the Latins call Homicida, from home and caedo, id est, Hominem occidere, To kill a man: Now who the father of murder is, you may read in the Gospel of St. john Chap. 8. Vers. 44. where our blessed Saviour speaking to the Pharisees, saith, Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: He hath been a murderer from the beginning, etc. For the punishment thereof, read Gen. 9 vers. 5. For surely I will require your blood wherein your lives are, at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, even at the hand of a man's brother, will I require the the life of man: Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God hath he made man, etc. And Numb. 35. 31. Moreover, you shall take no recompense for the life of the murderer, which is worthy to dye, for he shall be put to death. That, for the punishment. Now for the execrableness of the Sin: We find in Gen. 4. 11. God speaking to Cain, after the slaughter of his Brother Abel, after this manner, Now therefore thou art cursed from the Earth, which hath opened her mouth to Receive thy brother's blood from thine hand: As also Deutronomy 27. 24. Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly: And all the people shall say, so be it. If this monstrous sin be so heinous in the sight of God, betwixt neighbour and neighbour, or if committed by one stranger upon another, how much more horrid appeareth it in his eyes; when the husband and Wife, who in the matrimonial Contract, are no more too, but one flesh, shall barbarously and treacherously insidiate one another's life. According to that verse of the Poet: Vivitur ex rapto, non hospes ab hospite tutus, Non socer a genero, fratrum quoque gratia rara est: Immi●et exitio vir coniugis, illa mariti: Lurida terribiles miscent aconita noverci, Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos, etc. which I have late read thus paraphrased, All live on spoil, the guest is not secure In his Hosts house, nor is the Father sure Protected by the Son: even brother's jar, True love and friendship is amongst them rare. The husband doth insidiate the wife, And she again seeks to subplant his life: The rough-browed Stepdame her young step-son hugs, Tempering for him (mean time) mortiferous drugs: The Son after the Father's years inquires, And long before the day, his death desires, etc. Such were the passages of those times there amongst the Heathens, when Christianity was not known, but that they should be so familiar and conversant with us, is the more to be pitied and lamented. In the flourishing State of Rome, there were many temperers of poison, and these were called Venificae, which word we apply too, and confer upon, Effacination, Sorcery, and Witchcraft: Concerning which the Civil Laws of the Empire thus speak, In institut. jur. in fine in lege Cornelia, in the Cornelian Law, Et venifeci capite damnantur, qui artibus odiosis tam veneno, quam susurris magicis homines occiderint, vel mala mede camenta publice vendiderint, that is, Let those be held guilty of capital offence, who by odious and abhorred Arts, as well by poison, as by magic spells and wispering, shall kill any man: In which State are likewise included all such, who shall publicly sell any evil Confections: From which Canon we may ground three several sorts of delinquents in this kind, which pass under the name of Venificium: the first Poisoners, the second Sorcerers, or Witches, the third these Apothecaries or Empirics, who shall vend any mortiffarous drugs, knowing that by them any man or woman's life, may be infidiated, and in this case now in hand, though the seller (as he hath apparently justified himself may be excused, yet the bier as the Law hath openly convicted her, so we may presume that she is legally condemned. Now what the reason may be conjectured in these our latest, but worst days: that so many nefarious acts, equalling, if not far surpassing these perpretated in former ages, should be new committed: as Catamatisme, Sodometry, Paracidy, many headed murders and the like: I can give no other reason then this, the contempt of the fear of God, and the neglect of his Sabbath. But to leave off all foreign prodigious acts of the like horrid nature. Which as they are numerous, so they are manifest, in History and Chronologie, and go no further than our own nation, and these latter days. Hath not one brother in the heat of Wine slaine another in the Tavern? A son transpersed the very womb in which he was conceived, and suffered for the fault upon the Gibbet? A man in his drunkenness casts his knife upon his Wife, and missing her, pointed it into the breast of his innocent child, and killed him dead in the instant: hath not the woman offered the like outtage, upon her husband in her fury, and left him dead in the place, and suffered lately for it, for remarkable example. Within the compass of fourteen months or there about, one Enoch ap Evans, upon a small difference betwixt his brother and him, took the advantage when he was asleep cut his throat first, and after his head quite off with his knife, and when the mother hearing a bustling above, came into the room to hear the cause of such a noise, he prosecuted her down the stairs, and afterwards cut of her head with an Hatchet, for which he was Apprehended, arraigned, convicted condemned at Shrewsbury, and after, some distance from the place executed. Since then, these grand Malefactors, who went commonly by the name of Country Tom and Canbery Bess, their fearful murders upon three several Gentlemen, at three sundry times, (the discourse of whose Actions, Examinations, Confession, and Sufferings, because they are already published to the view of the World, I will no longer insist upon, or make any Repetition of their heinous crimes to trouble the Reader. But to come nearer to the matter of this fact now in Agitation, I will only remember you of Mistress Arden, who caused her Husband to be murdered in her own House at Feversham in Kent, the memorable Cercumstances thereof deserving places in a most approved Chronicle, may be very well spared in this short discourse. As also of Mistress Page of Plymouth, who for poisoning her Husband, suffered with her sweetheart Master George Strangwich, who had been before time betrothed unto her: her husband being old, she young, by which may be apprehended the misery of enforced marriage. But not to tyre your patience I will only trouble you with the poor wretched creature, who last suffered in Smithfield in this kind, much commiserated, much lamented: give me leave a little to to insist upon her cause, and compare it with this now in present. Her injuries, and harsh and unmanly usage spurred on by the instigations of the devil, almost compelled her to what she did; which, as they would be scarce modest for me to speak, so they were almost beyond the strength of Nature for her to suffer: she being young and tender, he old and peevish; who notwithstanding his clownish behaviour, and churlish comportment towards her, as seldom or never affording her a smooth brow, or friendly countenance, used not only to beat her with the next cudgel that came accidentally unto his hand, but often tying her to his bedpost to strip her and whip her, etc. But enough, if not too much of that; she then weary of so wretched a life, which she would have been glad to be rid off, and loath in her modesty to▪ acquaint any friend or neighbour with her desperate purpose, who perhaps, (nay no doubt) by their good counsel might have diverted her from so wicked a resolution, and the devil with all catching hold upon so fit an opportunity to work upon her weakness, she pondered with herself how she might end both their lives by poison, which having provided and prepared to that end, she first gave him part, and after resolved with herself to drink the rest: But better motions now coming into her thoughts, and she truly repentant of what she had done, finding the confection begun to work with him, fell down before him upon her knees: First acknowledging the fact, then humbly desiring from him forgiveness, with all, beseeching him to take some present Antidote to preserve his life, which was yet recoverable: on whom he sternly looking, as he lay in that Agony gasping betwixt life and death, returned her answer in this manner; nay thou Strumpet and murderess, I will receive no help at all but I am resolved to dye and leave the world, be it for no other cause, but to have thee burnt at a stake for my death: which having said, and obstinate in that heathenish resolution, he soon after expired. And this Resa●ion I received from those of credit, who were well acquainted with the conditions of them both. I know not how to parallel these two: Her of whom I made this Short discourse, or this miserable woman, who suffered by fire in Smithfield upon wednesday in the Whitsun week last, being the twentieth of May, Anno 1635. the passages of whose life, conviction, and death thus follows. The free and voluntary Confession of Alice Clarke, the 18. day of May, 1635. concerning the Death of Fortune Clarke her husband, at the time she was in Prison. A Just cause, all persons may conjecture, was given on her part, of great dissensions likely to arise between her Husband and herself, unto self-will she to be so addicted, disobediently to frequent the company of one White, of whom oftentimes her Husband hand had interdicted her his society and familiarity: which acquaintance of theirs was begun, before Clerk her Husband, entered into Marriage with her, and therefore with no small difficulty could be forgotten, or shaken off, such former ancient entertainments. No admonitions or threats to either parties could prevail, that proceeded from Clerk unto his wife, or unto White, of continual private meetings between them: Which Clarke perceiving, outrageously fell from words unto blows with his wife, the smart whereof she feeling, incontinently begot in her heart dislike, and resolution of revenge on her Husband Clerk for the same, a fit humour for the devil to work on, and to her old friend White, to give occasion, not of dislike, but content to put in practice what she intended, which he might easily perceive by many pensive declamatitions, in private uttered between themselves of her Husbands unkind usage: The confirmation whereof appears by the words that proceeded out of her own mouth. First, she confessed, because she often companied with White, that stirred up her Husband's just anger against White and herself. Secondly, that unawares unto them both, her Husband finding her and White shut up together privately in a Chamber in the house, on Ascension-day last in the afternoon, was thereat so with fury enraged, that he did beat White going out of the doors, and after that, freshly fell foul upon her, and so cruelly added blow upon blow upon her body, that the marks thereof were very visible on her body at this present. Her old Love, White, instantly taketh this unto heart, and in a rage (as she said) uttered these words, That it were better for one to be hanged, then to endure so discontented a life, and presently putting his hand into his pocket, he took out 4 Tokens, and gave them unto Alice Clerk, saying unto her, if he had had more money, he would have given it unto her: which 4 Tokens so given unto her, she went▪ unto Uxbridge forthwith, and that, afternoon bought a pennyworth of Mercury of an Apothecary in Uxbridge, intending the same unto her Husband, with a further reservation, that if her Husband had not taken it, she would have administered the same unto herself, and so put an end unto all her sorrows, as she vainly supposed. Thirdly, she said, that she was not the cause of her Husband's death, because she gave not unto him the poison whereof he died, but he took it himself violently out of her pockets, which her Husband had rifled, upon hope to find some chink or money there: but of such hopes he altogether was disappointed and deluded. Whether this be not a lame excuse, or strange delusion, I refer it unto the censure of the Judicious; and no further discovery of the fact, could I get from her at that time. She further said, that on Ascension-day her husband violently attempted to drown himself, which she prevented by her language upon him: but in short space afterwards died that Night of the Mercury, taken by himself out of her pocket, as aforesaid. Fourthly, she seemed to be very much afflicted in conscience, that she was a year since gotten with Child by her Master, with whom she last dwelled withal▪ who perceiving the same, with a small sum of money, matched her unto Fortune Clarke her Husband, about Alhallontide last, whom she could not love, or have any matter of maintenance, but relied upon her Master's former promises for the same: and he failing of giving her means, fell into folly and wickedness. A great clog unto such a man's conscience, if it be true; to seduce a woman unto his will, and so leave her. A SHORT TRACT UPON THE heinousness of Poisoning. THough there be sundry sorts of Murder with their several degrees, as open, or secret, acted upon a friend, a stranger, or one's self, yet in my opinion, I know not any of them which contains so much villainy, neither including so many deep circumstances in them, as that of poisoning: That I think is the reason that there are so few examples of it in Holy writ, this way either being than not known; followed, or practised; therefore to descrbe the quality of it and to aggravate it, I must wish you to consider these four things. First, the Duplicem modum, secondly, the Duplicem effectum: Modus prior, the first Manner, Deliberando, Meditando, Is an Act done by Deliberation, or Meditation, no ways carried, and hurried by the violence either of will or of passion, but done upon a cold blood, and not seldom upon fixed resolutions. Modus posterior, Celando, obtegendo, by a secret intent to hide it and conceal it from God if it were possible, so it is to the Patient under the shadow of some Physic, or other medicine, coloured with an outward show of an honest intent, and as far as they can from the Public Magistrate; or else to make a distance of time, either to excuse themselves, or fly away from the hands of Justice: though, Secondly, Effectus prior, sensus 〈◊〉 by changing, stupifying, or absolutely taking away the senses, and depraving the operative Organs of the soul, and sometimes infecting all the principles of life; as the head, the heart, and the liver, howsoever altering and overthrowing the frame and constitution of man's body in general, and making him unfit for a prepararation of himself for death, though it be upon him, so that without the special Mercy of God, the party thus abused, dies without either knowledge of his sins, or repentance for them. Secondly, Effectus posterior, creaturarum abusus, the abusing of the Creatures, contrary to the end of their Creation: They▪ being brought forth for the use and health of Man's Body, by this means they are made deadly, nay this manner of killing any, makes not only the prime Agent guilty, but infects, and makes guilty others too; or at least, causes them to be examined strictly by the Magistrate: so that howsoever their good name for the present, is blotted and blemished, and what more is, they have but two ways to comfort themselves, the first, is the witness of their own Consciences Integrity, the second, is the Judge's knowledge of their Innocence and Ignorance, by a prudent examination, of the fact perpetrated by all circumstances, and suspicious Arguments: And in this kind the Apothecary for selling, the Messengers for buying, the Composers of it, and the deliverers of it to the party, stand in an hazard either of their lives, or fortunes, or both. Laying aside all these together, I hope it will easily appear what a heinous sin it is, when it is thus committed first, with Deliberation: Secondly; with Secrecy: Thirdly, with disabling the party to fit himself for mercy, and with the abusing the blessings of God and their own knowledge: and lastly, for bringing others into danger as well as themselves, yet what is more, all this done under the Gospel; and often, as at this present, against one whose life, credit, goods, and good name, the offender ought to cherish and maintain to the uttermost: So I may take up that saying of jacob to his two Sons, My soul come not into their secrets, neither be joined with their assemblies: nor have to do with their practices, whose conclusions are so deeply died with the blood of Innocents'. The second Confession of Alice Clarke this 10. day of May, 1635. at the place of Execution, concerning the poisoning of her husband, Fortune Clarke. Physicians of the Soul ought to imitate those learned Physicians of the body, frequent visitations of those sick patients, whose diseases are desperate and inveterate; and sometimes it chanceth, that they must desire, necessity so requireth, the advice and sound opinions of others their Colleagues. Even thus it happened between this obdurate Malefactor and myself, who in Adultery was so Rooted, and insensible of the heavy burden, and most intolerable plagues ensuing for it. That at the first and second times of my visiting of her, little or no Repentance I found in her, or her heart to be touched for her most horrid clamorous crimes. This is apparent, if you compare her first confession unto this, how different in truth, how improbable the one are unto the other; nay what she confessed on Monday, she was so far off to proceed in a further revealing of herself, that what touched her home, concerning her husband's death, she would have denied, though formerly confessed by her most confidently true. I was thereupon enforced to hold her unto it, and to extract the truth, and try her spirit, called two of the Keepers of the Goal, to her unknown, whom I appointed to observe and remember the speeches that passed between us, to verify them unto her face, which attestation both of myself, and of them, she would outface, but could not. Upon Wednesday morning, on which she was executed, there assembled unto Newgate multitudes of people to see her, and some conferred with her, but little good they did on her, for she was of a stout angry disposition, suddenly enraged, if you began to touch her to the quick of her husband poisoning. Being that morning of her death accompanied and also assisted by diverse of my worthy, grave, and learned brethren in the Ministry, before and at the time of her Execution, for which I do most heartily thank them, but that God whose work it was, their reward for it with him is laid up in store. Like myself, they stood as men amazed, to perceive that none of theirs, or any other serious persuasions could for a great while prevail with her, joined in opinion with me, that she was no fitting guest for the Table of the Lord jesus thereupon, I made as though I would have excluded her thence, in denying the benefit of the holy Communion, of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, inferring the benefit of the unspeakable bliss, by the worthy receiving of it by Repentance and Faith, and the most woeful malediction to all impenitent and unworthy receivers. Whereupon, it pleased God, so to mollify her heart, that tears from her eyes, and truth from her tongue proceeded, as may appear by this her ensuing Confession at the very Stake, where she was executed, unto Mr. Cordall, sheriff of London, relating the same with as loud and audible a voice, as possible she could, that many others besides, there present, were also witnesses of such her ensuing Confession. First she confessed that Henry White, who was arraigned as a party with her, consenting unto her Husband's death, did give unto her one Ascension day in the after noon, four brass tokens, advising her therewith to go and buy one pennyworth of Mercury, and give it unto her Husband, saying, if that her husband were dead, she should live more quietly and contentedly with him, & after such his death, that he the said White would marry with her; whereupon she went unto Uxbridge, and that afternoon bought the Mercury. Secondly, she confessed that her Master got her with child a year since, which was her overthrow, and mediated for the Marriage, between her and her Husband, whom she could not love, nor no way affect. By her Master's persuasion, who sent her up to London to be Married, and paid the costs thereof, and further promised her maintenance during her life, if she did condescend unto his desires, which were most unlawful, dishonest, and unchaste, before and after her Marriage, with Fortune Clarke her Husband. Thirdly, she confessed, that one of Hillinden enticed her, to run away from her Husband, with him beyond the Seas, and that she did lodge in that man's house, and lay with him a whole fortnight, and speaking unto him of her Husband, that she would not forsake him, he thereupon advised her to pop him up with white bread and milk, and to put some thing else into it, to choke or stuff up his throat. Fourthly she confessed, for the Mercury which she bought, she intended it unto her Husband, but having no convenient opportunity to dispose of it, she put it into her sleeve, which her Husband as she said taken it out of her hand, and then being over charged with drink he immediately swallowed it down, which she perceiving, was thereat so perplexed, that she uttered these words unto her Husband, that he had undone both himself and her. And here give me leave to note unto the World, what a deal of comfort she found, after she had disburdened her loaded conscience by confession, being demanded at the same instant of her death, yea, or nay; that after such her confession, she was by it the better prepared unto death, with comfort, and willingness to suffer the same: She thus replied with hearty thankfulness unto God, that she had better resolutions unto death, then formerly she had, and by her countenance, which was very ruddy confirmed her inward new begotten cheerfulness, and that with hearty prayer, and sweet tone of voice, surrendered her soul into the hands of the Lord jesus, who will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, unto whom we all stand and fall. here is nothing contained in her confession, but that which true, and what she uttered with her own mouth; which I was a witness off. H. Goodcole. FINIS.