DEEDS AGAINST NATVRE, and Monsters by kind: tried at the goal delivery of Newgate, at the Sessions in the Old Bayly, the 18. and 19. of july last, 1614. the one of a London Cripple name John Arthur, that to hid his shane and lust, strangled his betrothed wife. The other of a lascivious young damsel name Martha Scambler, which made away the fru●t of her own womb, that the world might not see the seed of her own shane: Which two persons with diuers others were executed at tyburn the 21. o● july following.  
With two sorrowful Ditties of these two aforesaid persons, made by themselves in Newgate, the night before their execution.  
 depiction of the execution of a man by hanging  depiction of the execution of a woman by hanging  
At London printed for Edward Wright. 1614.   

Deeds against nature, and monsters by kind: tried at the goal delivery for Newgate, at the Sessions in the Old Bayly, the 18. and 19. of july, last, 1614. the one of a London Cripple name John Arthur, that to hid his shane and lust, strangled his betrothed wife. The other of a lascivious young damsel name Martha Scambler, which made away the fruit of her own womb, that the world might not see the seed of her own shane: Which two persons with diuers others were executed at tyburn the 21. of july following.  
IS it not a marvell, that fire fals not from heaven to consume an infinite number of worse then savage natur'de people in this land, when vile wretches, whom God hath marked with his secret brand of secret purpose, so impiously attempt things against nature, as for example,( which God grant it may so prove for our amendment) here remained amongst us in this city a deformed creature, an unperfect wretch wanting the right shape and limbs of a man though in form and visage like unto one of us, this decreped creature( as I said) name John Arthur, lived and maintained himself with the charity and deuotions of almes-giuing people, and by his lame and lin bless usage purchased more kind favours then many others of his base fraternity: money and means being easily gained by a few beggarly observations, as a wretch graceless, and unthankful for Gods blessings thus bestowed vpon him, made no good use thereof, but spent the same in the service of the divell, as in blasphemy swearing, drunkenness, and such like, all damnable sins and such as be the nurses and breeders of others: this afore-named Cripple being on a time in the middle of his drunkenness heated with lust, fell into familiarity with a certain woman of his own condition; who purposing to live as he did, vpon charity, and good mens alms, and seeing good benefit to come by his clearness, unto whom many people grew willing to give, promised to be his associate, and as his companion and wife to beg with him, many daies and monthes spent they together, continually abusing the gifts of charity, and wasting away the same with drunkenness in the by-places and suburbs of the city, which is evermore the receipt of such begging vacabonds and disordered livers, instruments of the divell prepared still for deeds of mischiese. This Cripple having not one good thought of God gr●ce, so lusted after his begging companion, that he obtained the daily use of her body, and continually committed so that sin of lust & shane, making a practise thereof in the contempt of Gods laws, that the eye of heaven could no longer wink at them, but with a clear sight see into their base wickedness: yea more then base in that a deformed lump of flesh and no perfect creature should thus abuse the seed of generation, and now and then in the fields and highways commit such beastly offences: but God we see hath iron hands, and will at last strike heavily, as he did vpon these two shameless malefactors: For the Cripple in time surfeiting vpon this his shane, and growing weary of this hated offence, as all people will do, being not lawfully married, bgan to cast her off, and to loathe her company though he himself might be thought the more loathsome, which she( abused women) perceiving, and knowing herself to be but his strumpet, challenged of him the promise of marriage, and so importuned him thereunto by his former vows and promises, and that heaven would otherwise call his perjured oaths to account, all instigations of the divell, and subtle policies to draw them both to destruction, her importunate suits to marriage so troubled his mind, bread such a rage in his heart, that a purpose came into his mind to rid her away by some untimely death: a motion no sooner set on fire, but the divell was ready to bring more fuel, and never restend till it was all on a flamme: so vpon a night, a time fitting for such a dark deed, the Cripple enticed her forth into the fields near Islington, where secretly at the Brick kills, the lodging place for rogues and night walkers, he renewed his former familiarity, and with a dissembling kindness persuaded her to lodge there with him all night, which she, mistrustlesse woman, consented too, and little misdoubting his devilish intent laid her down vpon a palate of straw by him to sleep which as a token of hard misfortune suddenly possessed her: The Cripple perceiving all secure and silent, and now thinking to be rid of the shane thus daily following him, took the womans own girdle, and putting the same slily about her neck, where though nature had denied him strength and limbs, yet by the help of the divell, which always adds force to villainy, he made means in her sleep to strangle her, and to take away her life, as it were suddenly without repentance: therefore all people by this example ought still to be prepared for death, for he comes as a thief in the night, and gives no warning: who would haue thought such an out-cast of the world, such a lame deformed creature, not able of his own strength to help himself, should haue power to take away anothers life, but the divell wee see is a cunning, and will still make the simplo his strongest assisters, and those that bee the most weakest, to be of the vilest thoughts, but to conclude, the Cripple, blinded thus with his own shane, had that ignorant opinion of the discovery hereof, that he thought the world too simplo to look into his life, and his decreped carriage would keep away all suspicion, and that no man would think a lame creature could be able to do so wicked a deed: but graceless varlet, as he was, too much flattered in his own opinion, the divell as he was first beginner of his sin, so was he last end of his shane, for the same morning the woman was found thus murdered, and being seen the night before in his company with slender examinations confessed the fact, where for the same he had his trial at the Sessions by a jury of twelve men and his execution at tyburn in the sight of many hundreds of men, women and children, which accounts him to be a Monster by kind and the doer of a deed against nature.  
Like unto this viper of our age, wee are to place in our discourse another caterpillar of nature, a creature more savage then a shée wolf, more unnatural then either bide or beast, for every creature hath a tender feeling of love to their young, except some few murtherous-minded strumpets, women I cannot call them, for a woman esteems the fruit of her own womb, the precious and dearest jewel of the world, and for the cherishing of the same will( as it were) spend her lives purest blood, where, contrariwise the harlot( delighting in shane and sin) makes no conscience to be the butcher of her own seed, nay the Image of God created in her own body, and now and then in the conception makes spoil of the bed of creation before it can receive true form., Therefore for an example likewise cast your eyes vpon this other monster of nature, which was a lascivious, lewd and close strumpet, a harlot lodging privately near Bishops-gate in Bedlam at a kinsmans house of hers, which little suspected this hir vnwomanly carriage but shane long raled up in the ashes of secrecy, though close smoking, will at last break forth into open flamme: so this graceless wanton( spending her youth in lascivious pleasures, as many a one doth in and about this city) hapded to prove w●th child, & having no husband to cover this her act of shane, and withall soaring the disgrace of the world, by a diuilish practise sought to consume it in her body before the birth, but not prevailing( as God would haue it) thee was forced by nature to deliver it alive to the world, and so was made the unhappy mother of a man-child unhappy I may name her, for her own hand made her unhappy. To our purpose, her lusty body, strong nature, and fear of shane brought an easiness to her delivery, and required in her agony no help of a midwife which among women seemeth a thing very strange, for not so much as the least child in the house where she lodged had knowledge of her labour, nor hardly was she thought to be with child, so closely demeaned she herself, but the devill we see adds force unto wickedness, and puts a kind of strength to nature in that kind, otherwise had she been discovered in the childbirth.  
Consider this the Child being born with shane and she by it made a scandal to her acquaintance, renewed the remembrance of her passed sins, and presented present shane unto her grieved thoughts, which troubled cogitations, by the persuasions of the devil, put her in mind violently to make it away, and to give it death before the body had well recovered life, whereupon taking the poor tender babe as it were new dropped from the mothers womb, and not like a mother, but a monster threw it down into a loathsome privy house, therein to give it an undecent grave and as shee thought thereby make to herself a ridance of a further Infamy, but God is just and will reward shane where it is deserved, and such unnatural deeds, let them be acted in deserts, in the caverns of the earth, where never light of day nor Sun shines, yet will they be discovered and brought to the worlds eye, so happened it with this harlot, when all fear of suspicion was past, shee safely delivered, the child in the privy smothered, and in the world no notice taken thereof, yet in the end was it thus most strangely discovered, the Tunnill of the aforesaid vault or privy ascended up into the next neighbours house, as in many places they do, where by chance( as God had ordained) dwelled an unto vard lad that in taking delight in knavish pastimes took a cur Dog then using the house and carelessly threw it down the Tunnell into the vault, where the murdered infant lay, and taking noe regard thereof, suffered the Dog to remain there starving and crying for food the space of three dayes and nights, during which time the yelping of the dog much disquieted the neighbours, and so troubled the dwellers there abouts, that they could not sleep a nights for the noise, but especially the good man of the house, who grieved to see a dumb beast so starved, and for want of food thus to perish like a kind natured man caused the privy to be opened and the poor cur taken up, which proved by Gods Iustice the only discoverer of the aforesaid fact for in taking up the dog, they were woeful witnesses of the sweet Babe lying all besmeared with the filth of that loathsome place. The sight whereof caused no small amazement, especially to the good man of the house, who with a diligent care( as his duty was both to God and his country) and that all such inhuman deeds might bee brought to light, made it knowns to the Magistrates, which likewise with Christian care caused a certain number of substantial women to ma●e search of suspected persons, and of such who were like to be the murdered Infants mother, or murderer, amongst many other loose livers and common harlots, of which number those by places haue too many, the more is the pitty, this aforesaid murtheresse came to the touch, where vpon examination, she confessed the child to be born with life, and herself not worthy of life, and so pleading guilty she was brought to her trial, & for the same arraigned and condemned by the ●●nch of assize in the old bailie the 18. and 19: of july last 1614. and hath suffered death at tyburn the 21. following as an example, that god, either by beasts of the field, souls of the air, fishes in the seas, worms in the ground, or things bearing neither sense nor life will by one means or other make deeds of darkness clear as day, that the world may behold his high working powers, and that no malefactor can escape unpunished, though his deeds be as secret as the w●●kes of hell, beyond the thought of human imagination, convert us from sin great God of Israel, so shal we never be endangered with the like persuasions, which God in his mercy grant. Amen.   

The Cripples complaint in the Dungeon at Newgate.  

ME thinks I hear a doleful sound,  
Within this dungeon under ground:  
Prepare thyself( poor soul) to die,  
For so the Belmans voice doth cry.   

And Beggars all come ring my knell,  
The Cripple now bids all farewell:  
Both Crutches, Scrip, and patched gown,  
Wherewith I begged from town to town.   

Though limbs I want and could not go,  
Yot was my mind not pleased so:  
But had my faults, as others haue,  
Which brings me thus unto my grave.   

In vain delights I spent my daies,  
And wronged my fortunes many ways:  
The alms that good men gave me still,  
I wasted to content my will.   

For heaven had marked me out for shane,  
Whereto I did my courses frame:  
And as I was mishapt by kind,  
Deformed also was my mind.   

For by that sweet enticing sin,  
My sudden downfall did begin:  
Wherein I set my harts delight,  
On wanton women day and night.   

At last when I loues pleasures proved,  
I hated her whom late I loved:  
And sudden loathing, soon begun  
Ashamed sore, of follies dun.   

And still desired to end the life  
Of her, I promised to make Wife:  
For love so gained can never last,  
No sooner done, but love is past.   

Then as my shane I hated her,  
And would her death no time defer:  
But armed with wrath in dead of night,  
I trained her from all peoples sight.   

That never more my follies great,  
To my disgrace she should repeat:  
Nor say unto the world, that I  
Had lived with her most wantonly.   

For in the fields we two alone,  
With weeping tears and bitter mone:  
She craved amends for my amiss.  
To make her W●fe as reason is.   

But I refused that honest course,  
But did an act of sad remorse:  
To end her shane with mine as then,  
I did exceed the deeds of men.   

The devill my helper at that hour,  
For he as then had strongest power:  
Nor by his means I could not faint,  
Though I was lame and limbs did want.   

My heart with furious rage possessed,  
About her neck her girdle cast,  
And forced so away her life,  
Rather then make her married wife.  
never like deed by Cripple wrought,  
For pleasures being too dearly bought,  
Both old and young, both rich and poor,  
Make never maid a common whore.   

For doing so my life I loss,  
With burdens of repentant woes,  
For wanton loues are witched things,  
And with them still much sorrow brings.   

adieu vain world, the Cripple dies,  
In this my life much wonder lies:  
That born a lame deformed wight,  
Should thus take pride in loues delight.    

Martha Scamblers Repentance.  

poor I the poorest now on earth,  
may well accuse my cause of birth:  
Not being born I nere had known,   

This guilt that hath me overthrown.  
Wo worth the cause of sin and shane,  
Which stains my credit and good name:  
Wo worth the trains which still are laid,  
Whereby we women are betrayed.   

When I was won to follies will,  
And took delight in doing ill  
No thought I had of pleasures past:  
But still my youth did vainly wast.   

Till at the length my womb did bread,  
A substance of unlawful seeds:  
Which I supposed a shane to be  
( God knows) unto my friends and me.  
And to prevent the worlds disgrace,  
I sought to find a secret place,  
My shameful burdened womb to ease,  
That way which did my God displease.  
O, when my hour of labour came,  
To bring to light this fruit of shane,  
No Midwiues help at all I sought,  
But soon my own delivery wrought.  
The Babe being born and in my arms,  
I should haue kept it from all harms,  
But like a bear or wolf in wood,  
I wished it smothered up in blood.  
Whereat strange motions without fear,  
From hell to me presented were,  
And bad me bury it in a Vault,  
For none alive did know my fault.   

And so my credit and good name,  
Should take no spot of black defame:  
And I as pure and chast should be,  
From such a crime as any she.   

My shoal then blinded by the divell,  
Bid me consent unto this evil:  
Where I full soon thereto agreed,  
To act a more then womans deed.   

The loathsome jakes received my child,  
Which all misdoubts and fear exiled  
For being tumbled down therein,  
There well might end my shane and sin.   

But God, this deed more dark then night,  
In wondrous sort did bring to light,  
For by a Dog the Child was found,  
As it was thrown therein to drowned.   

Three dayes and nights with yelping cry,  
It troubled much the dwellers by,  
Which caused them to release him thence,  
And so found out this vile offence.   

For which I surely now must taste,  
Rewards for my offences past,  
And die for that accursed crime,  
That makes me monster of my time.  
Both maides and men, both young and old,  
Let not good lives with shane be sold,  
But bear true virtues to your grave,  
That honest burials you may haue.   
FINIS.