?^5 
 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
I 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 .. 
 
 /- > 
 
 '■ OS i : 
 L 
 
THE 
 
 NEWGATE CALENDAR; 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 INTERESTING MEMOIRS 
 
 OP 
 
 THE MOST NOTORIOUS CHARACTERS 
 
 WHO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF OUTRAGES ON 
 
 &t)t iLato* of England 
 
 SINCE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; 
 
 WITH 
 
 OCCASIONAL ANECDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS, 
 SPEECHES, CONFESSIONS, AND LAST EXCLAMATIONS OF SUFFERERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 ANDREW KNAPP AND WILLIAM BALDWIN, 
 
 ATTORNEYS AT LAW. 
 
 Tower of London. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 iiontron: 
 
 J. ROBINS AND CO. IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1828. 
 
 
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HV 
 
 NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 KNAPP AND BALDWIN'S 
 
 A Nn 
 
 Criminal ftceotftev* 
 
 The Affray in which Bolding was killed. 
 
 JAMES SWEENY, RICHARD PEARCE, EDMUND BUCKLEY 
 
 PATRICK FLEMING, MAURICE BRENWICK, AND 
 
 JOHN SULLIVAN, 
 
 CONVICTED «F MURDER. 
 
 These unhappy men were na- 
 tives of Ireland, and belonged to 
 that numerous class who resort to 
 England in search of employment; 
 but whose conduct is too often a 
 disgrace to their own country, and 
 a demoralizing example for this. 
 The muroer, for which these male- 
 factors justly forfeited their lives, 
 originated in that vulgar antipathy 
 which the lower orders of one nation 
 feel for their brethren of another j 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 forgetful that all men should bf 
 brothers in distress. 
 
 On their trial, which took plact 
 at Chelmsford, on the 16th of Au. 
 gust, 18 10, it appeared in evidenc* 
 that John Bolding, for whose inur« 
 der they were arraigned, kept tb« 
 Eagle and Child public house, al 
 Forest Gate, in the parish of Wesl 
 Ham, and that on Sunday evening, 
 the 20th ofMay preceding, a dispute 
 took place in the kitchen, betwccs 
 
 96 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 one Morrisy, an Irish labourer, and 
 one Thomas, an English carter. 
 There was present another Irish- 
 man, named Scandling, and an offi- 
 cer's servant, of the Cornish militia. 
 These silly representations of 
 their respective countries kept up a 
 boisterous debate for a considerable 
 time, during which challenges to 
 fight were given, and Morrisy and 
 the officer's servant were proceeding 
 to blows, when the housekeeper, 
 Sarah Cumber, interfered, and suc- 
 ceeded in pacifying them for a mo- 
 ment. Morrisy then proposed to 
 depart; but the landlord, suspecting 
 that he wanted only to collect his 
 countrymen, prevented him at first, 
 though it appears he afterwards per- 
 mitted him to withdraw, and then 
 bolted the doors. The landlord's 
 conjecture was right; Morrisy re- 
 turned with a mob of followers, but 
 was refused admittance. Soon af- 
 ter a man named Daniel Mahony 
 knocked, when Scandling, who had 
 remained within, opened the door, 
 contrary to the wishes and in spite 
 of the remonstrance of the proprie- 
 tor. Mahony, in an outrageous man- 
 ner, stormed, swore, and brandished 
 his stick over his head. He had 
 not continued long in this violent 
 manner, when a gang of thirty of 
 his countrymen demanded admit- 
 tance. This being refused, they 
 proceeded to break the windows and 
 window-shutters, and Scandling, 
 once more, in defiance of the oppo- 
 sition of the landlord, unbolted tho 
 door. As the band of ruffians rush- 
 ed in, the carter and tiie officer's 
 servant escaped through the back 
 door ; and fortunately for them, as 
 
 otherwise, in all probability, they 
 would have met the fate of their 
 host. Mahony demanded the cause 
 of the uproar, and was answered 
 by a ferocious Hibernian that the 
 English had insulted an Irishman. 
 ' That's enough,' he returned, leap- 
 ing into the bar, and, knocking 
 down the landlord, continued to beat 
 him till his head was much bruised, 
 his arms broken, and his body 
 greatly wounded. A female inter- 
 fering, a blow was made at her, and 
 she was obliged to fly and hide her- 
 self. The ruffians next proceeded 
 to search for the carter and the ser- 
 vant; but, not finding them, they 
 swore they would murder some one 
 before they departed, and actually 
 beat an old man, who was running 
 away, who had three of his teeth 
 knocked out, and his thigh dislo- 
 cated from the kicks he received. 
 These sanguinary brutes next de- 
 manded some gin, which was given 
 them, and they departed, exclaim- 
 ing, • Who will insult an Irishman ? ' 
 
 Holding, the landlord, languished 
 seven days, and then expired, in 
 consequence of the wounds he re- 
 ceived. These six men were then 
 taken up, all the others having ab- 
 sconded, and being sworn to as im- 
 plicated in the riot, they were found 
 guilty as accessaries to the murder, 
 being associated for illegal purposes, 
 which, according to Lord Hale, 
 makes each accomplice responsible 
 for the conduct of a part, or whole. 
 
 Sullivan, who was guilty of no- 
 thing except being present, was res- 
 pited, but the other five unfortunate 
 men were executed on Saturday 
 morning, August the 18th, 1810. 
 
 JOHN LUMLEY, 
 
 WHIPPED FOR POT- STEALING 
 
 There is no petty thieving which cans serve their customers with 
 ims so much increased as stealing porter. Even families have been 
 the pewter wherein London publi- detected in disgracefully withhold- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 mg and denying their leaving- publi- 
 cans' pots in their possession, while 
 proof has been offered that they 
 had not returned them to the owner. 
 Such people are worse than the 
 petty thief who more daringly robs ; 
 and pity 'tis that the law could not 
 reach them as far as the punish- 
 ment inflicted on Lumley. 
 
 To check the severe and increas- 
 ing losses arising from pot-stealing, 
 which is nearly incredible, the pub- 
 licans, who now form a respectable 
 association in London, as Licensed 
 Victuallers, brought a bill into par- 
 liament for the better protection of 
 their property; but the Commons 
 conceiving, perhaps, the complaint 
 not to be of sufficient magnitude for 
 the interference of the legislative 
 body, threw out the bill ; so that 
 their remedy remains upon the law 
 of indictments for petty larceny, 
 which, from being troublesome and 
 expensive, these meanest of thieves 
 are but seldom prosecuted to con- 
 viction. 
 
 The publicans attribute the oppo- 
 sition made to their bill lo the. pew- 
 terers; — what envy even in these 
 grades of society ! — and, by way of 
 revenge, the former have entered 
 into a resolution to manufacture 
 their own pots ! 
 
 John Lumley was indicted at the 
 Westminster sessions, 1810, lor 
 stealing a pewter pint pot, the pro- 
 perty of the landlord of the Cart 
 and Horse public house, Tocley 
 Street: there was also another 
 charge against him for a similar 
 offence, namely, having in his pos- 
 session a pot belonging to the land- 
 lord of the Black Lion; and a third 
 for stealing two pewter pots, the 
 property of the landlord of the Green 
 Dragon, Bermondsey Street. 
 
 It appeared in evidence that the 
 prisoner was passing along Ratcliff 
 Highway on Wednesday evening, 
 when he was observed to drop a pot 
 
 from under his coat, which a person 
 near him instantly picked up; and 
 perceiving it to belong to a public 
 house, and a publican in the neigh- 
 bourhood having recently lostseveral 
 pots, the man followed the prisoner, 
 secured him, and look him to the 
 house in question; and, sending for 
 a constable, they proceeded to search 
 him, when no less than six pint pots 
 were found concealed about his per- 
 son, none of which, however, be- 
 longed to the landlord of the house 
 where he then was, but to several 
 public houses in the Borough, 
 amongst which were the Black Lion 
 and the Cart and Horse public 
 houses in Tooley Street, and the 
 Green Dragon, in Bermondsey 
 Street. Upon discovering from 
 what neighbourhood the pots came, 
 the constable brought the prisoner 
 to Union Hall, where the landlords 
 of the above and other public bouses 
 attended, and swore to the pots 
 being their property. 
 
 The prisoner, when called on for 
 his defence, said he was going from 
 the Borough to Ratcliff" Highway 
 on business; and, having occasion 
 to turn up a court near Loudon 
 Bridge, he found the pots standing 
 there : he picked them up, and it 
 was his intention, on his return 
 home from where he was going, to 
 have returned them to their re- 
 spective owners. 
 
 The jury fouird him Guilty. 
 
 The chairman observed that the 
 offence of which the prisoner had 
 been convicted was one of so great 
 magnitude as to call for the severest 
 punishment. It would scarcely be 
 credited, but it had been ascertained, 
 that the depredations of this sort 
 committed on the property of publi- 
 cans, in and around the metropolis, 
 amounted to the enormous sum o^ 
 one hundred thousand pounds per 
 annum. The prisoner had been 
 convicted on the clearest evidence, 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 and the Court felt itself bound to in the House of Correction, and 
 inflict a punishment which iniifht once during that time to be publicly 
 operate to put a stop, if possible, whipped from the end of Horse- 
 to Ibis evil. The sentence of the monger Lane to the end of Lant 
 Court then was, that be should be Street, in the Borough; which was 
 confined to hard labour three months severely inflicted. 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MUU 
 
 This case exhibits a most cruel 
 and treacherous crime — the assassi- 
 nation of a fellow-creature, at the 
 very moment when the murderer 
 had been proffered his assistance. 
 
 William Moulds was indicted for 
 the wilful murder of William Tur- 
 ner, by shooting him on the king's 
 highway, nearFaruham, on the 18th 
 of May, 1810. The prisoner was a 
 soldier in the 52<1 regiment, from 
 which he deserted from Winchester, 
 accompanied by two females, of the 
 names of Elizabeth Roper and Mary 
 Fisher. — As he was on the road, he 
 declared to them that he must have 
 some man's clothes, to prevent his 
 being taken as a deserter, and he 
 would shoot some one to get them. 
 As they went along they were joined 
 by the deceased ; and, after some 
 conversation about a bed, he told 
 them they should have some straw 
 in his brother's barn at Farnham. 
 The deceased was walking a few 
 yards before with Elizabeth Roper, 
 when the prisoner fired at him with 
 
 MOULDS 
 
 DER OF WILLIAM TURNER. 
 
 his musket, and the ball entered his 
 back. He had, however, strength 
 enough to run to Farnham, when he 
 reached the house of a Mr. Bott, a 
 surgeon ; he lived two days, and 
 then expired. A party of soldiers 
 were sent out in pursuit of the pri- 
 soner, and he was apprehended. 
 The deceased saw him, and identi- 
 fied his person, before he died. 
 After he had shot the deceased, one 
 of the girls fainted, and he and the 
 other took her into an adjoining 
 clover field. Here he declared he 
 was sure that the ball must have 
 entered the man's body, and he 
 could not have run above twenty 
 vards, and he wished he had e:oue 
 back to ha\e had his money and 
 clothes. 
 
 The jury found no hesitation in 
 finding him guilty; and the judge 
 immediately passed on him the sen- 
 tence of the law. He was executed 
 at the New Prison, Horsemongtr 
 Lane, August the 16th, 1810. 
 
 RICHARD VALENTINE THOMAS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 This youthful malefactor evinced 
 an extraordinary propensity for that 
 species of crime which at length 
 brought him to a premature and 
 ignominious death. He was the son 
 of a respectable tradesman of the 
 city of London, who piaced him, at 
 the age of sixteen, in the counting- 
 house of an opulent bargemaster near 
 Blackfriars He had not been long 
 
 here when he forged a check on his 
 employer's bankers, for one thousand 
 pounds, and obtained the money. 
 The fact was discovered; but his 
 master, in pity to his youth, and 
 from respect to his family, declined 
 to prosecute, in consideration of 
 being reimbursed. The father of 
 the guilty youth paid the thousand 
 pounds, and sent the boy to Ports- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 mouth, where he entered him on 
 board a ship of war then hound for the 
 West Indies, thinking such a course 
 most likely to prevent him from the 
 commission of future crimes. 
 
 He went the voyage, hut on his 
 return he deserted from the ship, 
 and again bent his course to Lon- 
 don, where he renewed his former 
 habits. From his knowledge of 
 many commercial houses, and of 
 the bankers with whom they did 
 business, he contrived to acquire 
 large sums through the means of 
 blank checks, which he filled up, 
 and committed forgeries to a vast 
 extent, there being no less than 
 thirteen indictments against him, at 
 the time of his conviclion. 
 
 During the month of July, 1810, 
 he frequented the Surrey Theatre, 
 and the Equestrian Cuffee-house, 
 contiguous to it, the waiter of 
 which he sent to Messrs. Smith 
 and Co. to get the banking book of 
 Messrs. Diffell. This enabled him 
 to ascertain the balance of money 
 which Messrs. Diffell had in the 
 hands of their banker. He then 
 sent back the book by the same 
 person, with a request to have a 
 check-book, upon receiving which 
 he filled up a check for four hun- 
 dred pounds, eight shillings, and 
 delivered it to Mr. Johnson, the 
 box and house keeper of the Surrey 
 Theatre, with whom he appeared to 
 be on intimate terms, telling him he 
 had some custom and excise duties 
 to pay, requesting him to get pay- 
 ment of the check in notes of ten 
 and twenty pounds. 
 
 Johnson went to Messrs. Smith's; 
 but, as they could not pay him as he 
 wished, he received from them two 
 notes of two hundred pounds each, 
 which he immediately took to the 
 Bank, and exchanged for the notes 
 Thomas wanted. The forgery being 
 soon detected, Thomas was taken 
 into custody, in company with a 
 
 woman with whom he cohabited. 
 Upon searching her, a twenty-pound 
 note was found, which was identified 
 by a cltrk of the Bank as one of 
 those paid to Johnson in exchange 
 for the two-hundred-pound notes. 
 The woman, being asked where she 
 got it, answered Thomas gave it 
 her; when he, being locked up in 
 an adjoining room, called out ' No, 
 you got it from a gentleman.' 
 
 In a privy which communicated 
 with Thomas's room fragments of 
 ten-pound and twenty-pound notes 
 were found, and upon several of the 
 pieces the date corresponded with 
 the entry in the Bank. 
 
 In addition to this, Mrs. Johnson, 
 mistress of the Equestrian Coffee- 
 house, produced a twenty-pound 
 note which she had received from 
 Thomas on the same day the check 
 was presented; and which, with the 
 fragments, &c. made up exactly the 
 sum of four hundred pounds. These 
 facts being proved on his trial, and 
 the forgery established, he was 
 found Guilty, and sentenced to be 
 hanged on Monday, September 3, 
 
 is ib. 
 
 From the day of his conviction, 
 August the 20th, until the Satur- 
 day preceding his execution, not- 
 withstanding the zealous exhorta- 
 tion of the chaplain, who daily at- 
 tended him, he could scarcely be 
 aroused from an apathetic indiffer- 
 ence to his fate, or to a penitent 
 sense of the crime for which he was 
 to suffer. On Sunday he attended 
 divine service in the chapel of the 
 gaol, where near three hundred per- 
 sons of respectable appearance were 
 also present, most of whom appear- 
 ed to be more deeply affected by 
 the situation of the prisoner than he 
 himself. 
 
 He was attired in a fashionable 
 and gentlemanly sty le- His dress 
 consisted of a blue coat with gilt 
 buttons, lined through with black 
 
KNAFP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 silk ; white waistcoat, with black 
 silk breeches, and stockings; his 
 hair unpowdered, and his upper lip 
 adorned with Hussar mustachios- 
 His coffin, covered with black, was 
 placed before him; and when the 
 chaplain stated I hat the unfortunate 
 youth, who had now but a few hours 
 to live, was a veteran in the species 
 of crime for which he was convicted, 
 although he had not yet completed 
 his nineteenth year, the whole au- 
 ditory wen; dissolved in tears ; not 
 
 excepting the gaoler, who sat by 
 him, though familiar with such 
 scenes; while the youth himself ma- 
 nifested a pensive firmness, and was 
 the only person present who ap- 
 peared indifferent to his fate. 
 
 Next morning, September 3, 1810, 
 he was brought to the top of Horse- 
 monger Lane gaol. His dress was 
 precisely the same as that already 
 described ; and he met his fate with 
 decorous resignation. 
 
 JOHN WHITSfORE, alias OLD DASH, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR A RAPE. 
 
 The summary punishment of a cut the ravisher to pieces. He 
 
 ravisher, by a conscientious Em- then ordered a light, to see whom 
 
 peror of the Turks, in days of old, he had killed, and, being satisfied, 
 
 if now, perchance, inflicted, might he fell on his knees, and returned 
 
 more tend to check the inordinate, God thanks; after which he ate 
 
 unlawful, lust of mm, than all the heartily of the poor man's bread, 
 
 public executii./is of such destroyers and gave him a purse of gold, 
 
 of the peace of females. Being asked (he reason of this ex- 
 
 Our laws, and certainly wisely traordinary behaviour, he replied, 
 
 too, restrain us from seeking redress ' I concluded this ravisher was one 
 
 at our own hands, except in case of who might fancy himself entitled to 
 
 self-defence: but where is tlie man, my protection, and consequently 
 
 witnessing a brutal attack upon his might be no other than my son* 
 
 wife or daughter, that would, by a therefore, lest the tenderness of na- 
 
 jury of his fellow-men, be convicted ture should enervate the arm of 
 
 of a deadly crime, in searching the justice, I resolved to give it scope 
 
 heart's blood of their ravisher upon in the dark. But, when I saw that 
 
 the trinity spot of his atrocity ? it was only an officer of my guards, 
 
 JMahmoud, Sultan of Damascus, I joy fully returned God thanks, 
 
 one night while he was going to Then I asked the injured man for 
 
 bed, was addressed by a poor vil- food to satisfy my hunger, having 
 
 lager, who complained that a young had neither sleep nor sustenance 
 
 Turk of distinction had broken into from the moment I heard the accu- 
 
 his apartment, and forced him to sation till I had thus punished the 
 
 abandon his wife and family to his author o'" the wrong, and showed 
 
 abuses. The good sultan charged myself worthy of my people's olie- 
 
 that, if the Turk returned, he should diettce.' 
 
 immediately give him no! ice of it. 
 Three days after tlje poor man came 
 again with the same complaint. 
 Mahmoud took a few attendants 
 with him, and, being arrived at the 
 
 Princes, nobles, men of fortune — 
 ' read, mark, learn, and inwardly 
 digest " The hut cf the meanest 
 peasant, by the law of Britain, is 
 sacred as your own gorgeous pa- 
 
 complainant's, commanded the lights laces and castles ; and, should you 
 to be extinguished, and rushing in., dare to violate his female ielative 
 
KNAPF& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 thereiw, each injured owner may 
 prove a Sultan Mahmoud. 
 
 John Whitmore was capitally in- 
 dicted for a rape on the person of 
 Mary, the wife of Thomas Brown, 
 on the 24th of October, 1810, on 
 the Common between Hayes and 
 West Bedford. The prisoner was a 
 labourer in the powder-mills at Har- 
 lington Common ; and the prosecu- 
 trix, who lives at Hayes, having 
 one of her sons by a former husband 
 living as servant with Mr. Potts, a 
 farmer, at West Bedford, had gone 
 thither about twelve o'clock, with 
 some clean linen lor her son. She 
 stopped at a public house in the 
 neighbourhood whilst he changed his 
 linen, and there saw Ihe prisoner, 
 who, after asking her several ques- 
 tions, told her she had come much 
 the longest way about, on her way 
 from Hayes, and offered to show her 
 a much shorter cut over the healh 
 on her return. The prosecutrix 
 thanked him, and accepted his offer. 
 He accompanied her as if for that 
 purpose, decoyed her two miles out 
 of her way to an unfrequented part 
 of the heath, amongst some bushes, 
 under pretence of looking after a 
 stray horse, and there brutally vio- 
 lated her person. 
 
 The poor woman, who was forty- 
 seven years of age, as soon as she 
 could, ran away from him, over the 
 
 heath, and again lost her way ; by 
 accident she met a gentleman, who 
 put her in the right road, and she 
 reached her home about eight 
 o'clock at night. She was afraid 
 to tell her iiusband what had oc- 
 curred till the following Sunday. 
 
 The husband next day set out 
 with the constable in search of the 
 prisoner, from the description given 
 by his wife, and on Tuesday traced 
 him to a public house at Twicken- 
 ham, where he was known by the 
 familiar appellation of 'Old Dasher;' 
 and there, alter a stout resistance, 
 he was taken into custody. The 
 facts were, on his trial, which took 
 place at the Old Bailey, in October, 
 1810, clearly established by the 
 poor woman, who evinced through 
 the whole of her evidence traits of 
 modesty and chastity of mind that 
 would have reflected honour upon 
 any character. 
 
 The prisoner, by the questions he 
 asked her in making his defence, 
 attempted to impeach her as con- 
 senting to his brutal purpose, and 
 thereby only aggravated his crime. 
 
 The common-sergeant summed up 
 the evidence for the jury ; who, 
 after a minute's consideration, found 
 the prisoner Guilty — Death. The 
 fate of this malefactor received no 
 commiseration. 
 
 JAMES 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE 
 
 Few actions can degrade the dig- 
 nity of man more than that of strik- 
 ing a woman; and fewer still are 
 more debasing to human nature than 
 that of a husband striking his wife — 
 one whom, before the altar, he had 
 promised to love, cherish, and pro- 
 tect. The frequency of such deeds, 
 however, have diminished their vile- 
 ness and atrocity, in the common 
 estimation of the world; but the 
 
 FALLAN, 
 
 MURDER OF HIS WIFE. 
 
 brave and the virtuous still regard 
 them with detestation and horror. 
 Those who are dead to the feelings 
 of manhood, and wanting in the 
 Christian duties of life, may, how- 
 ever, be intimidated from such a 
 practice by the following particulars 
 of a man, who, perhaps, thought, 
 like them, that he might with im- 
 punity wreak his passion on his de- 
 fenceless companion, whose soothing 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 exclamations of tenderness were poor 
 protection against the brutal force 
 other inhuman husband, whose blows 
 
 Here followed by death, and for 
 Jrhich he died upon the GALLOWS. 
 
 James Fallan bore, without de- 
 serving it, I he name of soldier. He 
 was a corporal in the guards, from 
 which service he obtained his dis- 
 charge, in consequence of a liver 
 complaint, and was admitted a pen- 
 sioner at Chelsea Hospital on the 
 8th of Fehruary, 1811, and look up 
 his abode in a cellar in the Market- 
 place. The very next day, two of 
 his comrades, also pensioners, with 
 two servant-women, came to see 
 him, and they drank pretty freely, 
 until they had finished all the spirits 
 then in the cellar. Fallan then de- 
 sired his wife to go out for more ; 
 but she, perhaps, thinking that they 
 had already drank enough, nr that 
 her pocket could not afford any 
 more, refused, or, at least, did not 
 obey; upon which the friends de- 
 parted. Fallan then demanded of 
 his wife why she did not do as he 
 had desired her, upon which an al- 
 tercation ensued, and the wife, by 
 no means inclined lo silence, be- 
 stowed upon her husband some 
 abusive terms, when he struck her 
 upon the face, which he repeated, 
 knocking her down several times, 
 though she cried out ' Dear Jemmy, 
 don't murder me!' He, however, 
 continued beating her with such 
 violence, that a woman named Sarah 
 Llewellyn, who lodged in the same 
 cellar with him, attempted to inter- 
 fere, when he threatened to serve 
 her in the same manner, and then 
 
 eturned, with renewed violence, to 
 
 ieat his unfortunate wife, who by 
 this time had sat or fallen down on 
 the bed. Llewellyn now attempted 
 to get out, but he prevented her. 
 As his fuiy had not been yet ex- 
 hausted, he returned to renew his 
 
 blows on his wife; and the woman 
 
 availed herself of the opportunity to 
 run out for assistance. She found 
 three women listening at the cellar 
 door, who went with her up stairs 
 to request a man to come down ; 
 but he refused, and on their return 
 they distinctly heard the continu- 
 ance of the blows, the poor woman 
 all the time crying out, ' Oh ! dear 
 Jemmy, don't kill me!' till her 
 groans grew fainter and fainter. 
 
 Llewellyn, afraid to venture down, 
 remained on the stairs all night, and 
 next morning she found Fallan and 
 his wife in bed together, upon which 
 she expressed her satisfaction. The 
 unfortunate woman appeared shock- 
 ingly bruised, and complained very 
 much of a pain in her side. 
 
 ' Cut my head, and then give me 
 a plaster,' is very applicable to the 
 conduct of such husbands as Fallan. 
 He now sent for a surgeon, an<i 
 had some blood taken from his wife, 
 who did not appear to get better on 
 that account. On Tuesday morning 
 Fallan went out for the avowed pur- 
 pose of procuring another lodging 
 but did not return until the Satur- 
 day following, when he saw his 
 wife, and then went away again. 
 The unfortunate woman languished 
 till next day, Sunday, when she 
 died, in consequence of which her 
 brutal husband was taken into cus- 
 tody. 
 
 His trial came on at the Old 
 Bailey, April the 5th, when, in ad- 
 dition to these facts, it was proved 
 by a surgeon, who opened the body 
 of the deceased, that she came by 
 her death in consequence of the four 
 false ribs, on the left side, being 
 broken, two of which were forced 
 into the pleura, and had wounded 
 several of the vessels, and occa- 
 sioned a great effusion of blood, 
 which was the immediate cause of 
 her death. 
 
 Fallan, in his defence, produced 
 a long written statement, imputing 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the quarrel to the ill temper of the 
 deceased, and alleged that he had 
 only struck her with his open hand 
 and the whalebone of a woman's 
 stays; and that, if her ribs were 
 broken, it must have been in conse- 
 quence of her falling over a deal 
 box in the cellar. He concluded 
 by saying, so far from having any 
 malice towards his wife, he loved 
 her tenderly. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough summed up 
 the evidence, and the jury, after a 
 short consultation, found him Guilty, 
 when the recorder proceeded to 
 
 pass on him the awful sentence of 
 execution and dissection on the 
 Monday following. 
 
 Accordingly ', on Monday, April 
 8th, 1811, he was executed in front 
 of Newgate. He was only twenty- 
 nine years of age, and had seen 
 much service. He was attended by 
 a Roman-Catholic priest; but ap- 
 peared quite indifferent to his fate, 
 and kicked off his shoes when he 
 got upon the platform. After 
 hanging the usual time, his bodv 
 was taken to Bartholomew Hospital 
 for dissection. 
 
 AGNES ADAMS, 
 
 IMPRISONED FOR UTTERING A FALSE NOTE. 
 
 F.>R three or four years previous less paper substituted ' Governor 
 to this trial, numberless impositions and Company of the Bank of Fleet.' 
 had been practised upon the unwary Such a gross deception we may be 
 in the metropolis, in passing paper sure could no tlong be practised, and 
 manufactured in imitation of the now every tradesman, who has dear- 
 notes of the Bank of England. These ly been taught precaution, in taking 
 have been traced to have originated a bank-note, will be convinced that 
 in the Fleet prison, a receptacle for it is not a • Fleet.' 
 debtors only ; through whose iron The circulation of Fleet paper 
 bars next the street the passenger was generally intrusted to profligate 
 is eternally importuned by some of women, who cohabited with the 
 its inhabitants with ' Pray remem- men who made them. This mode 
 berthe poor debtors !' was less suspicions, and in a single 
 
 These notes were printed on paper year had been carried on to a cotisi- 
 
 similar to those of the Bank of Eng- derable amount, 
 land ; but upon the slightest inspec- Of this description, and we couli' 
 
 tion they were easily detected; adduce many such, was Agnes 
 
 which creates surprise at so many Adams; who, in passing one of 
 
 having been imposed upon. The such notes, denominating two pence, 
 
 great success of sharpers passing as a two-pound Bank of England 
 
 them chiefly arose from the hurry note, to Mr. Sprat/, a publican of 
 
 of business, and from the novelty St. John Street, Clerkenwell, was 
 
 of the fraud. The shopkeeper would by him detected, seized, prosecuted 
 
 see the word one, two, three, &c. and convicted atthe Middlesex Ses- 
 
 .ii! exact imitation, but did not ex- sions, 1811. The punishment could 
 
 amine farther, or he would have only be extended to six months' hard 
 
 found, instead of pounds, the coun- labour in the House of Correction, 
 terfeit expressed pence; and this, The fraternity of thieves about 
 
 with all the wisdom of our laws, London have fabricated or cant 
 
 was found not to be forgery. In- names for the different articles 
 
 stead of ' Governor and Company which they steal. The Fleet notes 
 
 of the Bank of England,' the worth- they, called ' blank Screens* 
 
10 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 EDWARD 
 
 WHIPPED FOR DESTROY 
 
 Until the severe examples made 
 of this boy, females often found their 
 clothes drop to tatters, and such as 
 restricted themselves to mere mus- 
 lin and chemise were frequently 
 dreadfully burnt, in a way invisible, 
 and almost unaccountable. A set of 
 urchins, neither men nor boys, by 
 way of a ' high game,' procured 
 aqua-fortis, viliiol, and other corro- 
 sive liquids, and, rilling therewith a 
 syringe, or bottle, would sally forth 
 to give the girls ' a squirt.' 
 
 Of this mischievous description 
 we find Edward Beazley, who was 
 convicted of this unpardonable of- 
 fence at the Old Bailey, the 1 1 Hi 
 of March, 181 1. 
 
 He was indicted for wilfully and 
 maliciously injuring and destroying 
 the apparel of Anne Parker, which 
 she was wearing, by feloniously 
 throwing upon the same a certain 
 poisonous substance, called aqua- 
 fortis, whereby the same was so in- 
 jured as to be rendered useless and 
 of no value. 
 
 He was also charged upon two 
 other indictments for the like of- 
 fence, on the prosecution of two 
 other women. 
 
 BEAZLEY, 
 
 1NG WOMEN'S APPAREL. 
 
 It appeared that the prisoner, a 
 little boy about thirteen years old, 
 took it into bis head to sally into 
 Fleet Street, on the night of Satur- 
 day, February 16, and there threw 
 the same upon the clothes of se- 
 veral of the Cyprians who parade 
 up and down there. He was caught, 
 carried before the sitting magistrate 
 at Guildhall, and fully commuted 
 on three several charges. 
 
 Three ladies appeared, and proved 
 the facts stated in the indictments, 
 and exhibited their burnt garments, 
 such as pelisses, gowns, and other 
 articles, which were literally burnt 
 to riddles. 
 
 He was found Guilty. 
 
 His master, Mr. Blades, and an 
 eminent chymist on Ludgate Hill, 
 gave him a good character for 
 honesty ; he never knew any thing 
 wrong of him before; but he ac- 
 knowledged that he had access to 
 both vitriol and aquafortis. 
 
 The Court having a discretionary 
 power under the act of parliament, 
 instead of transporting him for seven 
 years, only ordered him to be well 
 whipped in the gaol, after which he 
 was returned to his friends. 
 
 MARY GREEN, 
 
 CONVICTED OF PUTTING OFF BASE COIN. 
 
 Coiners of base money employ and gives them good money in re- 
 low people to go from shop to shop turn. This the rogues, among each 
 to put off their counterfeits; and in other, call ' ringing the changes.' 
 doing this every stratagem that can At the Sessions for Middlesex, 
 be devised is employed. One of held the 5th of April, 1811, Mary 
 these tricks is to ask change for a Green, a decent-looking girl, was 
 good dollar; and, in counting the found guilty of putting off two had 
 shillings given for it, they secrete shillings to Mr. Harris, a lsnen-dra- 
 one or more of them, and substitute per, in Pickett Street, Temple Bar. 
 counterfeits. Then they pretend She went into Mr. Harris's shop, 
 that part of their change is bad ; and asked for small silver for a 
 and the tradesman, unconscious of dollar ; Mr. Harris gave it her. She 
 the deception, takes their base coin, walked two or three yards up the 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 i 
 
 shop, and, addressing herself to the 
 shopman, told him that his masier 
 cad given her two bad shillings. 
 This Mr. Harris denied, and refused 
 lo take them. She then conducted 
 herself most rudely; whereupon a 
 constable was sent for. Before he 
 arrived, she still persisted in her 
 impudent behaviour, saying that 
 she had no more money about her 
 but the dollar. Lack, the officer, 
 soon arrived, aud searched her, and 
 there were found concealed about 
 her twelve shillings and four six- 
 pences, all in good silver, besides 
 the change of the dollar. 
 
 The jury, after a charge from 
 Mr. Mainwaring, found her Guilty. 
 
 As soon as the verdict was pro- 
 nounced, the counsel for the prose- 
 cution acquainted the Court, that 
 as the punishment was pointed out 
 by the act of parliament, from which 
 they could not deviate, the pri- 
 soner's case could not be affected 
 by the profligacy of her character. 
 He thought it right to mention that 
 tliis was the second time she had 
 been brought into that court (first 
 with her mother) for this kind of 
 crime ; that her father was trans- 
 ported ; and her younger sister was 
 then in confinement under the sen- 
 tence of the Court for the same kind 
 of offence. She was sentenced to 
 six months' imprisonment. 
 
 RICHARD ARMITAGE AND C. THOMAS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 Forge iiy, from the accumulating an hour thereon ; after which a chair 
 
 number of instances the farther we was set on the pillory ; and he being 
 
 proceed in our work, is manifestly a put therein, the hangman with a 
 
 crime which increases with the cer- sort of pruning-knife cut off both his 
 
 tainty of punishment. Murderers, ears, and immediately a surgeon 
 
 if aught of palliation can be offered clapt a styptic thereon. Then the 
 
 for the frailty of human nature, may executioner, with a pair of scissors, 
 
 indulge a distant hope of the exten- cut his left nostril twice before it 
 
 sion of the royal mercy. Forgery was quite through, and afterwards 
 
 is now never pardoned — adetermina- cut through the right nostril at once, 
 
 tion on the part of the crown, laid He bore all this with great pati- 
 
 down in the cases of the Perreaus ence; but when, in pursuance of 
 
 and of Doctor Dodd, whom no in- his sentence, his right nostril was 
 
 terest could save from an ignomini- seared with a red-hot iron, he was 
 
 ous death. Thus excluded from all in such violent pain that his left 
 
 hope of pardon, it is daily becom- nostril was let alone, ai.d lie ueit 
 
 ing more common; aud the altera- from the pillory bleeding. He wis 
 
 tion in the law, from the pillory and conveyed from thence to the King's 
 
 corporal punishment to death, has B nch Prison, theie to remain fur 
 
 no terrifying influence. The ancienl, life. He died in confinement about 
 
 punishment for this crime we find tin ee years after.' 
 
 thus minutely described in a London The crime for which Armitage 
 
 periodical publication for the year and Thomas so very justly suffered 
 
 1731 : — was of the very worst description of 
 
 'JuneQfh — This day, about noon, forgery — a scandalous breach of 
 
 Japhet Crook, alius St. Peter public trust — a robbery upon the 
 
 Stranger, was brought to Hie pil- very corporation they were faornd 
 
 lory at Charing Cross, according to to protect from the nefariojs at- 
 
 hia sentence for forgery. He stood tempts of others. Like Asielt, their 
 
12 
 
 KNAPP&, BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 has sufficient means to facilitate his 
 escape out of the country, if unfor- 
 tunately he should not be speedily 
 arrested.' 
 
 Towards the latter end of August, 
 1810, Robert Roberts was appre- 
 hended for being concerned in the 
 many forgeries which for some time 
 had been practised on the Bank of 
 England and the commercial part 
 of the metropolis. He was brought 
 to one of the public offices, and 
 from thence remanded to the House 
 of Correction in Coldbath Fields. 
 In a few days, in company with 
 another prisoner, of the name of 
 Harper, he effected his escape, and 
 the public were surprised at seeing 
 large printed sheets of paper, pasted 
 on the walls of the city, announcing 
 this extraordinary circumstance, and 
 offering a large reward for their ap- 
 prehension, but particularly for the 
 discovery of Roberts, the other be- 
 longing merely to the gangs of 
 smaller rogues. 
 
 Mean time strict inquiry was 
 made into the manner of this singu- 
 lar escape. The prison was search- 
 ed ; and Aris the gaoler,* or gover- 
 nor, as such fellows stvle them- 
 selves, and his sons acting as turn- 
 keys, were brought before a bench 
 of Middlesex magistrates, on the 
 31st August, 1810, on a charge of 
 conniving thereat. 
 
 Mr. Aris, senior, his four sons, 
 and the whole of the servants of the 
 prison, were closely examined. It 
 appeared that the two prisoners, 
 Roberts and Harper, were not sup- 
 posed to know each other; and that 
 the whole of the gates leading from 
 
 * This is the gaoler who persecuted a reputable tradesman in the Strand, for de- 
 famation of his character ; and a jury actually gave him large damages ! This was not 
 the heaviest punishment which awaited the convicted ; as will be seen by the follow- 
 ing obituary, of the 24th of September, 1808 : — 
 
 ' Died, on Saturday morning, Mr. Dickie, late stationer in the Strand, who has been 
 confined nearly five years in the Fleet Prison, in consequence of a verdict given against 
 him for seven hundred pounds damages for uttering defamatory words against Mr. 
 Aris,*he(joverm<r of Coldbath Fields Prison. He has left a distressed^widow and four 
 children still to lament his unfortunate offence and unhappy death.' 
 
 former head of department, they long 
 had practised impositions on the 
 Bank of England, unsuspected ; and 
 in the mean time maintained the 
 show of integrity. Aslett was de- 
 tected by Bish, the lottery-office 
 keeper, wherein he performed a pub- 
 lic service — Armitage and Thomas 
 by Robert Roberts, the notorious 
 swindler, to save the halter's noose 
 being affixed round his own neck. 
 
 The circumstances which led to 
 the detection more excited public 
 interest than the frauds of Walsh 
 and Hunt, two members of the 
 House of Commons, — more than 
 Chinnery's flight or Davison's in- 
 carceration — for who can brin? back 
 to mind any public act of delin- 
 quency that more excited the as- 
 tonishment of the individual, or 
 alarmed the mercantile interest of 
 the country, than the result of this 
 Roberts's escape from that strong 
 and dread prison, the House of Cor- 
 rection, Coldbath Fields? Hence the 
 history of the accomplice in this 
 case becomes more interesting, than 
 any other particulars which can be 
 brought forward respecting the suf- 
 ferers. 
 
 ' Robert Roberts,' say the Lon- 
 don newspapers of the day, 'who 
 has made his escape from Coldbath 
 Fields Prison, is one of the most 
 expert swindlers of the present day. 
 He must have made a large sum by 
 personating Earl Percy, for it does 
 not appear that he returned all the 
 money he obtained by that fraudu- 
 lent transaction; he also stands 
 charged with committing forgeries 
 to a large amount, and consequently 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 re 
 
 the confinement of Roberts, six in 
 number, were found open in the 
 morning, they having been made 
 fast at locking-op time on the pre- 
 ceding night. The prisoners thrn 
 made their escape over the wall, by 
 ascending a new lodge in the pri- 
 son, not then finished ; and when at 
 the top of the wall they were sup- 
 posed to have let themselves down 
 by a rope, as a hook was found in 
 the morning by Daniel Aris, the 
 gaoler's son. 
 
 The investigation closed with the 
 suspending of Aris, the iraol-keeper, 
 the committal of Daniel Aris, his 
 son, for felony, and the dismissal 
 of another of Aris's sons, who was 
 a turnkey. 
 
 No clue had then been had of 
 Roberts or Harper. The evidence 
 against Roberts, relative to the for- 
 gery upon the Bank, was quite con- 
 clusive, and a woman he cohabited 
 with was admitted an evidence. 
 
 At a second examination the tes- 
 timony went still further to crimi- 
 nate the son of Aris, who was fully 
 committed ; but the method of es- 
 cape remained then a secret, and 
 was not disclosed until some time 
 after. The facts were these : — Ro- 
 berts bribed a person, employed to 
 sweep the cells, to get him impres- 
 sions of the keys, by which he pro- 
 cured some to be made ; and the 
 same person instructed Harper 
 how to open the gates, and secure 
 his own and Roberts's escape. Much 
 mystery, however, was tiirown over 
 the whole case, and it evidently ap- 
 peared that Roberts had a friend, 
 besides the sweeper, within the pri- 
 son, but who he was remained a se- 
 cret. Aris's son was subsequently 
 acquitted. 
 
 During these long examinations, 
 and notwithstanding a large reward 
 was offered for his apprehension, 
 Roberts evaded the strict search of 
 justice. It was known that he had 
 
 carried off a considerable sum of 
 money, his proportion of the suc- 
 cess of the forgeries wherein he was 
 implicated, and for which the unfor- 
 tunate subjects of this case only 
 suffered. At length he was identi- 
 fied at a tavern at Vauxludl, where 
 he had taken up his lodgings' as a 
 country attorney detained in town 
 on his own concerns. 
 
 The remaining part of this sin- 
 gular case is short. Roberts, to 
 save his own life, impeached Armi- 
 tage and Thomas, two clerks filling 
 places of great trust in the Bank of 
 England, as the immediate agents 
 of the many forgeries which had 
 been cf late committed on that cor- 
 poration ; and he was admitted evi- 
 dence against them on the part of 
 the crown. 
 
 Richard Armitage was first ap- 
 prehended. He was brought to the 
 public office in Marlborough Street 
 on the 8th April, 1810; and, after 
 a short examination, was committed 
 to the New Prison for trial at the 
 next Old Bailey sessions. Among 
 the witnesses bound over to give 
 evidence against him was Mrs. Ro 
 berts, the mistress of his base ac- 
 cuser. His forgeries of dividend 
 warrants were to the amount of two 
 thousand four hundred pounds. 
 
 On the 2d of May following, C. 
 Thomas was apprehended, and 
 brought to the same office, on a 
 charge of having forged several di- 
 vidend warrants; and, after three 
 separate examinations, was also 
 committed for trial. 
 
 The prisoner was a Bank clerk 
 in the Imperial Annuity Office, and 
 the warrants forged were to obtain 
 the dividends of a person who had 
 been dead about three years, and 
 whose executors had not applied 
 for his property. It appeared thai 
 three hundred and sixty pounds had 
 been paid out of the Bank, and the 
 prisoner's name was signed as ao 
 
14 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 attesting witness. It was also proved 
 that bank-notes, with which the di- 
 vidends were paid, were found in 
 the prisoner's possession. LTnder 
 these circumstances the prisonei 
 was fully committed for trial. This 
 is one of the cases disclosed by 
 Roberts. 
 
 Armitaue was fully committed, 
 and Roberts and his wife were the 
 principal witnesses against him. 
 
 The trials of these unfortunate men 
 were unattended by any other circum- 
 stance worthy noticing, farther than, 
 independent of the evidence of Ro- 
 berts and his wife, which, unsupport- 
 ed, would have received little credit, 
 full proof was adduced of their guilt ; 
 
 — they were consequently found guil- 
 tv, and received sentence of death. 
 " On the 24th of June, 181 1, Rich- 
 ard Armitage and C. Thomas, late 
 clerks in the Bank, were executed 
 in the Old Bailey, pursuant to their 
 sentence, for repeated forgeries on 
 that corporation. The former, from 
 severe illness, was under the neces- 
 sity of being supported by a friend 
 while ascending, and during his con- 
 tinuance on the scaffold. He was 
 attended by a clergyman, to whose 
 pious admonitions he appeared to pay 
 becoming attention. The latter, who 
 was a Catholic, was attended by a 
 priest oft ha tpersuasion,and conduct- 
 ed himself with apparent fortitude. 
 
 JANE COX, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR. MURDER. 
 
 We have already reprobated the 1791, at Palermo, a city not far dis- 
 
 constant practice of country apothe- tant from Mantua, an old woman 
 
 caries, and even their apprentices, was executed for dealing out such 
 
 selling poison to any one who of- mortal drugs. 
 
 fcrs the stale pretext of killing rats. ' Many people in this town and 
 The lust of lucre, even in the pen- neighbourhood, '(Palermo,) says this 
 nyworth, induces these underlings author, • died in a sudden and ex- 
 of the disciples of Esculapius to traordinary manner; they were ge- 
 supply the means of death to the nerally seized with vomiting, ai.d 
 lowest order of the community — expired in a few hours. A young 
 even to women — when they might woman went to an officer of justice 
 often perceive that it was craved for to make some complaints concern- 
 diabolical purposes. There ought ing her husband ; he desired her to 
 to be a law, as from Shakspeare we be reconciled, and refused to pro- 
 learn was in Mantua of old, against ceed against him, upon which she 
 such practices; for the Apothecary turned away in a rage, muttering 
 in Romeo and Juliet says: — that she knew how to be revenged. 
 
 • Such mortal drugs I have, but Man- The magistrate paid attention to 
 
 tuas law "hat she said, and gave orders lor 
 
 Is death to any he that utters them.' her being arrested; when, upon 
 
 The world, it appears, since the strict inquiry concerning the mean- 
 days of Shakspeare, has become ing of her word, she confessed that 
 in ore corrupt, for crimes have »reat!y it was her intention to poison her 
 accumulated. On the subject of husband, by purchasing a bottle of 
 selling poison for the purpose of vinegar from an old woman, who 
 jommitting murder, which of old prepared it for that purpose. In 
 vas punished with death, we find, order to ascertain the truth of thia 
 rom ' Hill's Journey through Si- story, another woman was sent to 
 it V and Calabria,' that in the year the old jade, to demand some of the 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 la 
 
 vinegar, which was sold for about 
 ten pence a bottle. " What do you 
 want with it?" said the vender: 
 " Why," (replied the other,) " I 
 have a very bad husband, and I 
 want to get rid of him." Hereupon 
 the old woman, seventy-two years 
 of age, produced the fatal dose; 
 upon which she was immediately 
 seized, and conducted to prison, 
 where she confessed that she had 
 sold forty-five or forty-six bottles. 
 Many people were taken up; but 
 as, upon further inquiry, it was dis- 
 covered that several of the nobility 
 had been purchasers, the affair was 
 dropped, and the old woman alone 
 suffered death.' 
 
 Jane Cox was indicted on the 9th 
 August, 1811, for the wilful murder 
 of one John Trenaman, an infant, six- 
 teen months old; and Arthur Tucker, 
 as an accessary before the fact. The 
 latter was a respectable farmer, living 
 at Hatherleiuh, in Devonshire; and 
 the infant was his natural child. It 
 appeared that Jane Cox had, on 
 the 25th of May, 1811, administer- 
 ed to the child a quantity of ar- 
 senic, by putting it into the child's 
 hands, and winch it put into its 
 mouth, and ate it; inconsequence 
 
 of which it died in about two hours. 
 The prisoner, in her written con- 
 fession, had implicated Tucker, as 
 having persuaded her to do the fact, 
 and stated his having taken the ar- 
 senic from under the roof of a cot- 
 tage, and given it to her, and pro- 
 mised .her a one-pound note if she 
 would administer it to the child. 
 This was not believed. 
 
 The prisoner, Jane Cox, after a 
 trial of seven hours, was convicted. 
 Tucker was acquitted. He called 
 a number of respectable witnesses, 
 who gave him a very high character. 
 
 On Monday the 12th of August, 
 1811, pursuant to her sentence, this 
 unfortunate woman was brought to 
 the ' new drop/ the place of exe- 
 cution, and underwent the dread 
 sentence of the law. 
 
 She addressed the spectators at 
 some length, and in a very audible 
 manner; she repeated her former 
 confession, with some further parti- 
 culars respecting the means used 
 by Tucker to prevail on her to com- 
 mit the horrid deed, for which she 
 acknowledged she ought to die; but 
 lamented that the person who had 
 instigated her to the commission of 
 it was not also to suffer with her. 
 
 FREDERIC BARDIE, alias PETER WOOD, 
 
 INDICTED FOR CUTTING AND MAIMING. 
 
 This unfortunate man, who fell a 
 victim to his ungovernable passions, 
 was a native of Falaize, in Nor- 
 mandy. His parents were respect- 
 able, and he traded in his own ves- 
 sel to the West Indies, where he 
 had a wife and two children at the 
 time of his death. His little bark 
 being taken in 1803, by the ' John 
 Bull' letter of marque, he was car- 
 ried to Liverpool, and from thence 
 to Chatham, where he was put on 
 board the Canada prison-ship, in the 
 JMedway, along with his captive 
 countrymen. 
 
 During the eight years of his 
 sorrowful captivity his conduct was 
 exemplary ; but it appears he was 
 subject to sudden gusts of passion. 
 On the J 2th of March he wanted to 
 go into the cooking-room; but was 
 prevented by Ebenezer Alexander, 
 a private marine, who was on duty 
 there, and whose orders were to that 
 effect. The sentinel desired him to 
 get leave from the sergeant, which 
 he pretended to go for, and returned, 
 saying he had obtained it. This 
 Alexander refused to credit, as he 
 knew in that case a corporal would 
 
16 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 have come to inform liim, and there- 
 fore persisted in his refusal. Upon 
 this Wood drew a knife from his 
 pocket, and, calling the sentinel 
 some vulgar names, said he would 
 kill him. Alexander, who was not 
 apprehensive of danger, paid no at- 
 tention to the threat; hut several 
 fellow-prisoners, who knew their 
 countryman's failing, ran to prevent 
 him. Wood, however, hefore they 
 could secure him, came up to the 
 sentinel, and, seizing him round the 
 neck with his left arm, inflicted 
 with his knife two dreadful wounds in 
 the left breast. The marine fell, and 
 was carried to the hospital, where 
 he was confined thirty-one days. 
 Wood was secured, and brought to 
 trial at the following assizes at Maid- 
 stone, when he was found Guilty, 
 and received sentence of death. 
 
 Thursday, September the 5th, 
 1811,, was the day appointed for 
 carrying his sentence into execu- 
 tion, on Penenden Heath. He was 
 escorted by the usual retinue, and 
 a vast concourse of people, who 
 sincerely lamented his fate. A Ca- 
 tholic confessor attended to prepare 
 him for the awful moment, assisted 
 by the chaplain and Mr. Shelton. 
 He appeared penitent and resigned ; 
 
 and before he ascended the scaffold 
 he requested of Mr. Shelton to say 
 something for him to the people 
 who surrounded him, which he did, 
 as follows :— 
 
 ' Good people ! the poor unfortu- 
 nate man who is about to suffer the 
 dreadful sentence of the law desires 
 me, as he cannot speak our lan- 
 guage, to tell you that he is sin- 
 cerely sorry for having committed 
 the crime which has brought him to 
 this miserable and untimely end ; 
 and that he trusts, through the pre- 
 vailing influence of the venerable 
 priest who attends him, he has made 
 his peace with his God, and rests 
 with full confidence of forgiveness 
 at his dread tribunal. He also di- 
 rects me to warn you against the 
 violence of vindictive passion, by 
 which alone he was actuated to com- 
 mit this dreadful crime. He truly 
 forgives every one, and hopes, in 
 his last moments, you will offer up 
 your prayers for him ; this I am 
 confident you will do, in conse- 
 quence of his deep contrition, and 
 the circumstance of his being a 
 stranger in this country.' 
 
 After this he was supported to 
 the platform, and an end was put 
 to his sufferings. 
 
 ARTHUR BA1LY, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR STEALING A LETTER OUT OF THE POST-OFFICE. 
 
 Baily was a native of Ashburton, house near the bottom of St. James 
 in Devonshire, and came early to Street, Bath, but afterwards re- 
 Bath, where he lived in some re- moved to the Fox Inn, at Mitford, 
 spectable places, as servant, from on the Fromc and Warminster road, 
 which he was strongly recommend- which premises he purchased. 
 ed to Mr. Price, postmaster at Bath. As Mr. Price always esteemed 
 
 In this employ he conducted him- 
 self, for seven years, with great 
 assiduity, and to the complete satis- 
 faction of his master. About nine 
 vears before he committed the fatal 
 
 him a faithful servant, he was, 
 during the busy season at Bath, 
 called on to lend assistance in the 
 post-office, such as making up the 
 mails, sorting letters, &c. and here 
 
 act for which he suffered, he married he was tempted to commit the fatal 
 an amiable woman, by whom he had act for which he died an ignomini- 
 sevcral children, and took a public ous death. Among other letters he 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 17 
 
 secreted one belonging to Messrs. offence he was tried at the assizes 
 
 Slack, linen-drapers, containing for Somersetshire, and found Guilty, 
 
 bills of exchange, on one of which He was sentenced to be executed 
 
 he forged an endorsement. For this at Ilchester, September 11, 1811. 
 
 Scene in a Slave Market, described bu Dr. I'inckara. 
 
 THE HONORABLE ARTHUR WILLIAM HODGE, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS NEGRO SLAVE. 
 
 , As the circumstances attending and all the associates he had formed 
 this case happened in one of our there. A friend, a parent, a wife, 
 West-India colonies, we feel no apo- or child, may each and all combine 
 logy necessary for introducing it in imhittering the hour of separa- 
 into our pages, particularly as it tion, when the chains and whips of 
 affords us an opportunity for making the tyrants who buy and sell him 
 a few remarks on that abominable are less galling than the uncon- 
 traffic, the Slave Trade, which, trollablc anguish of his soul. This 
 to the disgrace of Europe, has not is a picture which gains ready ad- 
 yet ceased to exist, although the mission to the human breast, and 
 efforts of England have been so needs no evidence to make it ap- 
 long directed to its abolition. palling. There can be no fear of 
 
 We think there is no human exaggeration, for description must 
 
 being — we know there is no real fall short of reality, as the painter 
 
 Englishman — who does not sympa- and the poet are alike unable to de- 
 
 thize with the suffering African, pict the revolting horrors of such a 
 
 when dragged from his parent soil, scene. 
 
 VOL. iv. 99 
 
18 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Let us turn from the cries, the 
 tears, the lamentations of Africa, 
 where rum is bartered for blood, 
 and the inhuman contract made be- 
 tween two of the greatest ruffians 
 that curse the earth — a slave-cap- 
 tain and a barbarian prince ; — let 
 us turn from these to our West- 
 India islands, and see how the poor 
 untutored negro, who differs from 
 ourselves only in education and co- 
 lour, is treated by men descended 
 from Englishmen, and some of whom 
 were born in England. We shall 
 not trust our feelings on the sub- 
 ject, but give plain facts, such as 
 we find them in official papers trans- 
 mitted to Lord Liverpool by Go- 
 vernor Elliot, and which were af- 
 terwards laid before a committee of 
 the House of Commons. We select 
 the deposition of the deputy secre- 
 tary of the island of Nevis, because 
 it was subsequently supported by 
 others, and because it embraced the 
 revolting particulars of the conduct 
 of the cruel Huggins. The exami- 
 nation took place before the Assem- 
 bly of the Island of Nevis. 
 
 ' John Burke, junior, deputy se- 
 cretary of the said island, upon oath 
 saith, that on Tuesday, the 23d of 
 January, 1810, he was standing in 
 the street opposite the house of the 
 Rev. William Green, when he saw 
 Edward Huggins, sen. Esq. and his 
 two sons, Edward and Peter Thomas 
 Huggins, ride by, with a gang of 
 negroes, to the public market-place ; 
 from whence the deponent heard the 
 noise of the cart-whip; that depo- 
 nent walked up the street, and saw 
 Mr. Huggins, senior, standing by, 
 with two drivers flogging a negro- 
 man, whose name deponent under- 
 stood to be Yellow Quashy. That 
 deponent went into Dr. Crosse's 
 gallery, and sat down; that two 
 drivers continued flogging the said 
 negro-man for about fifteen minutes, 
 that, as he appeared to be severely 
 
 whipped, deponent was induced to 
 count the lashes given the other 
 negroes, being under an impression 
 that the country would take up the 
 business. That deponent heard 
 Mr. George Abbot declare, at Dr. 
 Crosse's steps, near the market- 
 place, that the first negro had re- 
 ceived three hundred and sixty-five 
 lashes : deponent saith that Mr. 
 Huggins, senior, gave another negro- 
 man one hundred and fifteen lashes; 
 to another negro-man sixty- five 
 lashes ; to another negro-man forty- 
 seven lashes ; to another negro-man 
 one hundred and sixty-five lashes; 
 to another negro-man two hundred 
 and twelve lashes; to another ne- 
 gro-man one hundred and eighty- 
 one lashes; to another negro-man 
 fifty-nine lashes; to another ne- 
 gro-man one hundred and eighty- 
 seven lashes; to a woman one 
 hundred and ten lashes ; to an- 
 other woman fifty-eight lashes ; to 
 another woman ninety-seven lashes; 
 to another woman two hundred and 
 twelve lashes ; to another woman 
 two hundred and ninety-one lashes; 
 to another woman eighty-three 
 lashes ; to another woman forty-nine 
 lashes ; to another woman sixty- 
 eight lashes ; to another woman 
 eighty-nine lashes; and to another 
 woman fifty-six lashes; and that 
 the woman who received two hun- 
 dred and ninety -one lashes appeared 
 young, and was most cruelly flogged. 
 That all the negroes were flogged 
 by two expert whippers; that Mr. 
 Edward Huggins, junior, and Mr. 
 Peter Huggins, were present at the 
 time the negroes were punished : 
 that Dr. Cassin was present when 
 some of the negroes were whipped, 
 and when a man received two hun- 
 dred and forty-two lashes. That 
 deponent understood that Dr. Cassin 
 was sent for by Mr. Huggins, senior; 
 that Edward Harris, Esq. Mr. Peter 
 Butler, and Dr. Crosse, were pre- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 VJ 
 
 sent at Dr. Crosse's liouse a part of 
 the time during the punishment; 
 and that Mr. Joseph Nicholson, 
 Mr. Joseph Laurence, and Mr. Wil- 
 liam Keepe, were present all the 
 time. John Burke, Jun. 
 
 ' Sworn before me, this 31st of 
 January, 1810, at the Secretary's 
 office. — William Laurence.' 
 
 A bill of indictment having been 
 preferred against the said Mr. Hug- 
 gins, in consequence of one of the 
 female slaves dying, he was ac- 
 quitted, on which occasion Mr. J. 
 W. Tobin addressed an animated 
 letter to the governor, asserting 
 that the jury was packed, and that 
 their verdict excited the surprise 
 and indignation of the respectable 
 part of the community. 
 
 In justice to our government at 
 home, we think it right to state 
 that, in the letter of Lord Liverpool 
 to the governor, after adverting to 
 the heinousness of the transaction, 
 he says, ' I am commanded by his 
 Royal Highness the Prince Regent 
 to direct that you will remove from 
 that honorable situation any magis- 
 trate or magistrates who actually 
 witnessed the infliction of the pu- 
 nishment without interference; and 
 that he cannot receive from the 
 council and assembly of the Virgin 
 Islands a more flattering assurance 
 of their regard to the wishes of their 
 sovereign, and of the interest they 
 feel in supporting the honour of the 
 British name, than their anxious 
 endeavours to ameliorate the con- 
 dition of that class of beings, whose 
 bitter and dependent lot entitles 
 them to every protection and sup- 
 port/ 
 
 Let us now bring forward the evi- 
 dence of an individual, whose testi- 
 mony has never been impugned, on 
 the sufferings of African slaves in 
 Ihe British West-India Islands. 
 
 We make the following extracts 
 
 from a work published by Dr 
 Pinckard, inspector-general of hos- 
 pitals, and physician to the Blooms- 
 bury Dispensary, entitled ' Notes 
 on the West Indies.' — The facts 
 took place at an English plantation 
 in Demerara, where the doctor was 
 stationed himself at the time. 
 
 ' Two unhappy negroes, a man 
 and a woman, having been driven by 
 cruel treatment to abscond from the 
 plantation of Lancaster, were taken 
 a few days since, and brought back 
 to the estate, when the manager, 
 whose inhuman severity had caused 
 them to fly from his tyrannic go- 
 vernment, dealt out to them his 
 avenging despotism with more than 
 savage brutality. Taking with him 
 two of the strongest drivers, armed 
 with the heaviest whips, he led these 
 trembling and wretched Africans, 
 early in the morning, to a remote 
 part of the estate, too distant for 
 the officers to hear their cries ; and 
 there tyiug down first the man, he 
 stood by, and made the drivers flog 
 him with many hundred lashes, un- 
 til, on releasing him from the ground, 
 it was discovered that he was nearly 
 exhausted; and in this state the 
 inhuman monster struck him with 
 the t butt-end of a large whip, and 
 felled him to the earth ; when the 
 poor negro, escaping at once from 
 his slavery and his sufferings, ex- 
 pired at the murderer's feet. But, 
 not satisfied with blood, this savage 
 tyrant next tied down the naked 
 woman on the spot by the dead 
 body of her husband, and with the 
 whips, already deep in gore, com- 
 pelled the drivers to inflict a punish- 
 ment of several hundred lashes, 
 which had nearly released her also 
 from a life of toil and torture. 
 
 ' Hearing of these acts of cruelty 
 on my return from the hospital, and 
 scarcely believing it possible that 
 they could have been committed, I 
 went immediately to the sick-house 
 
20 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 to satisfy myself by ocular testi- 
 mony ; when, alas ! I discovered 
 that all I had heard was too fatally 
 true; for, shocking to relate, I 
 found the wretched and almost mur- 
 dered woman lying stark naked on 
 her belly upon the dirty boards, 
 without any covering to the horrid 
 wounds which had been cut by the 
 whips, with the still warm and 
 bloody corpse of the man extended 
 at her side, upon the neck of which 
 was an iron collar, and a long heavy 
 chain, which the now murdered ne- 
 gro had been made to wear from the 
 time of his retarn to the estate. 
 
 ■ The flesh of the womau was so 
 torn as to exhibit one extensive 
 sore from the loins almost down to 
 her hams; nor had humanity ad- 
 ministered even a drop of oil to 
 soften her wounds. The only relief 
 she knew was that of extending her 
 feeble arm in order to beat off the 
 tormenting flies with a small green 
 bough, which had been put into her 
 hand for that purpose by the sym- 
 pathizing kindness of a fellow-slave. 
 A more shocking or distressing 
 spectacle can scarcely be conceived. 
 The dead man, and the almost ex- 
 piring woman,, had been brought 
 home from the place of punishment, 
 and thrown into the negro hospital, 
 amidst the crowd of sick, with cruel 
 unconcern. Lying on the opposite 
 side of the corpse was a fellow- 
 sufferer in similar condition to the 
 poor woman. His buttocks, thighs, 
 and part of his back, had been 
 flogged into one large sore, which 
 was still raw, although he had been 
 punished a fortnight before. 
 
 ' A few days after the funeral, 
 the attorney of the estate happened 
 to call at Lancaster, to visit the 
 officers; and the conversation natu- 
 jally turning upon the cruelty of 
 the manager, and the consequent 
 injury derived to the proprietors, 
 we asked him what punishment the 
 
 laws of the colony had provided for 
 such horrid and barbarous crimes ; 
 expressing our hope that the ma- 
 nager would suffer the disgrace he 
 so justly merited ; when, to our 
 great surprise, the attorney smiled, 
 and treated our remarks only as the 
 dreams of men unpractised in the 
 ways of slavery. He spoke of the 
 murder with as little feeling as the 
 manager who had perpetrated it, 
 and seemed to be amused at our 
 visionary ideas of punishing a white 
 man for his cruel treatment of 
 slaves. 
 
 ' To the question, whether tho 
 manager would not be dismissed 
 from the estate ? he replied, " Cer- 
 tainly not;" adding, "that if the 
 negro had been treated as he de- 
 served, he would have been flogged 
 to death long before." Such was 
 the amount of his sympathy and 
 concern ! " The laws of the coun- 
 try," he said, " were intended to 
 punish any person for punishing a 
 slave with more than thirty-nine 
 lashes for the same offence ; but by 
 incuraing only a small fine he could 
 at auy time punish a negro with as 
 many hundred lashes as he might 
 wish, although the governor and the 
 fiscal were standing at his elbow." 
 
 That the slaves universally be- 
 lieve in transmigration to Africa 
 after their decease, and that this, 
 renders them often desirous to ter- 
 minate their miseries by suicide, 
 which masters have the greatest 
 difficulty in preventing, are state- 
 ments pointedly made by Dr. 
 Pinckard. But his account of two 
 negro funerals, which he witnessed 
 himself, are still more striking, as 
 evidence of the humanity of planters, 
 and the happiness of their slaves. 
 At both these solemnities the most 
 unbounded marks of joy, and, as it 
 were, congratulation, formed the 
 rude ceremonial. The corpse of 
 the happy negro, now rescued from 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 21 
 
 his chains by a Power against 
 which not even white men could 
 contend, was followed by his sur- 
 viving comrades, singing and ca- 
 pering for joy ; not asking him, like 
 the barbarians of the polar circles, 
 why he died, or lamenting that he 
 had left them, but addressing him in 
 exclamations of envy ; of hope that 
 tney should speedily follow him, and 
 of confidence that the moment of 
 their death would prove also the 
 signal of relief from their miserable 
 state. 
 
 Great wretchedness is occasioned 
 at slave sales, by the separation of 
 their friends and relatives. This 
 dreadful and inherent feature of the 
 traffic has not, perhaps, been suffi- 
 ciently attended to. The following 
 description of a mother who was ex- 
 hibited at a sale, with her son and 
 three daughters, furnishes an in- 
 stance :— 
 
 ■ The fears of the parent, lest she 
 should be separated from her chil- 
 dren, or these from each other, were 
 anxious and watchful, beyond all 
 that imagination could paint, or the 
 most vivid fancy portray. When 
 any one approached their little 
 group, or advanced to look towards 
 them with the attentive eye of a 
 purchaser, the children, in broken 
 sobs, crouched nearer together, and 
 the fearful mother, in agonizing im- 
 pulse, instantly fell down before I he 
 spectator, bowed herself to the earth, 
 and kissed his feet ; then alter- 
 nately clinging to his legs, and 
 pressing her children to her bosom, 
 she fixed hersflf upon her knees, 
 clasped her hands together, and in 
 anguish cast up a look of humble 
 petition, which might have found 
 its way even to the heart of a Ca- 
 ligula ; — and thus, in Nature's 
 truest language, did the afflicted 
 parent urge the strongest appeal to 
 his compassion, while she implored 
 the purchaser, in dealing out to her 
 
 the hard lot of slavery, to spare her 
 the additional pane: of being torn 
 from her children.' 
 
 Though Dr. Pinckard was always 
 well received by the planters — lived 
 in their society on a footing of the 
 closest intimacy — was a witness of 
 all the good, as well as the evil, of 
 their manners — and was, in every re- 
 spect, most naturally and properly 
 inclined to vindicate them, where 
 truth will permit; yet his whole 
 volumes, abounding in every species 
 of information, containing all the 
 results of his attentive unwearied 
 observations on the state of the 
 slaves, as well as of the colonies in 
 general, do not offer to the most 
 attentive perusal one single fact or 
 circumstance approaching to a de- 
 fence of the evil so often imputed to 
 the slave trade. Their whole com- 
 pass offers not a line to contradict, 
 nor even in any degree to weaken, 
 the mass of evidence upon which 
 former writers on colonial affairs 
 have long denounced that detestable 
 enormity. On the contrary, he 
 furnishes, almost in every page, 
 new examples of its evils, and new 
 grounds for its abolition. 
 
 It is a humiliating and melan- 
 choly fact, that the more despotic 
 the government the happier the 
 slave. We never hear of the ma- 
 gistrates of Rome interfering to 
 protect the defenceless children of 
 sorrow until the times of the em- 
 perors, when one of them ordered 
 an imperious master to be punished, 
 and his slaves to be liberated. In 
 free states the limited authority of 
 magistrates prevents them from in- 
 terfering in individual concerns; and 
 it frequently happens that the slave- 
 owners are also magistrates. Under 
 despotisms this is not always the 
 case. Human feelings are not there 
 controlled by laws, and the cruel 
 master cannot escape the laudable 
 indignation which his conduct ex- 
 
22 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 cites when the executive punishes 
 in accordance with the feelings of 
 the foment, and not hy the direc- 
 tions of legislative statutes, previ- 
 ously enacted. For these reasons 
 we find the slaves in the French 
 and Spanish colonies much better 
 treated than in our own. There 
 are one or two exceptions ; but, ge- 
 nerally speaking, this is the case ; 
 and we blush for our country while 
 we acknowledge the fact. As a 
 further proof of our remarks, we 
 shall exhibit the state of slavery in 
 Republican America, and see whe- 
 ther tyranny ever inflicted greater 
 tortures than take place in that laud 
 of freedom. 
 
 Mr. John Parrish, an American- 
 bom citizen, and an enlightened 
 Quaker, in a pamphlet published 
 in Philadelphia, 1806, by Kimber, 
 Conrad, and Co. says : — 
 
 • There is a species of slave-trade 
 carried on in the United States, 
 which in cruelty equals that in the 
 West Indies. A class of men, whose 
 minds seem to have become almost 
 callous to every tender feeling, have 
 agents in various places suited to 
 their purpose, who travel through 
 different states, and by purchase, 
 or otherwise, procure considerable 
 numbers of these people, which con- 
 sequently occasions a separation of 
 the nearest connexions in life. H us- 
 bands from wives, and parents from 
 children — the poignant sensations 
 marked on their mournful coun- 
 tenances disregarded — are taken in 
 droves through the country like 
 herds of cattle, but with less com- 
 miseration; for, being chained, or 
 otherwise fettered, the weight and 
 friction of their shackles naturally 
 producing much soreness and pain, 
 they are greatly incommoded in 
 their travel. Gaols, designed for the 
 security of such as have forfeited 
 their liberty tfy a breach of the laws, 
 are, through the countenance of some 
 
 of the magistracy, made receptacles 
 for this kind of merchandise; and, 
 when opportunity presents for mov- 
 ing them further, itisgenerallyin the 
 dead of night, that their cries might 
 not be heard, nor legal methods 
 pursued for the liberation of such as 
 have been kidnapped. Others are 
 chained in the garrets or cellars of 
 private houses, till the numbers be- 
 coming nearly equal to the success 
 which may have been expected, 
 they are then conveyed on board, 
 and crowded under the hatches of 
 vessels secretly stationed for that 
 purpose, and thus transported to 
 Petersburg, in Virginia, or such 
 other parts as will insure the best 
 market; and many are marched by 
 land to unknown destined places. 
 
 ' Is it not a melancholy circum- 
 stance that such an abominable 
 trade should be suffered in a land 
 boasting of liberty? — While I was 
 waiting with others on the legisla- 
 ture of Maryland, at their session 
 in 1803, it was well known that a 
 vessel lay in the river below Balti- 
 more, to take in slaves — a practice 
 frequent on the waters of Maryland, 
 Delaware, and many other places. 
 
 * The evidence of a free African 
 will not be taken against a white 
 man ; and, therefore, he may go un- 
 punished. 
 
 ' Many of the people of colour, 
 who had fled to prevent their being 
 sold to southern traders, have, by 
 authority of the fugitive law, been 
 pursued, brought back, and sold to 
 men of this description; and, as go- 
 vernment has refused to afford them 
 any redress, to God only could they 
 look for support. Thus this law is 
 put in force against an unoffending 
 helpless people, while of the fugi- 
 tive for murder or theft little or no 
 notice is taken ; so that the true 
 spirit of judgment is turned back- 
 ward. 
 
 'In some places, cognizance is 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 23 
 
 taken of murder, long after the per- 
 petration. In Great Britain, the 
 Governor of Goree, in Africa, for 
 ordering a soldier to be illegally 
 whipped, which occasioned his death, 
 was tried and executed fifteen or 
 twenty years afterwards.* How 
 have the coloured people's lives 
 
 be sent from their relatives to the 
 West Indies. Others, in attempting 
 to make their escape, have resorted 
 to desperate means for accomplish- 
 ing it. A number of these unhappy 
 people were taken from the eastern 
 shore of Maryland, by two of the 
 southern slave-traders, called Geor- 
 
 keen sported with in some parts of giamen — by name Henry Spiers 
 
 the United States ! Numbers have 
 been whipped to death, and other- 
 wise murdered, and little or no no- 
 tice taken, in a judicial capacity. 
 It was reported, from good autho- 
 rity, that a black man who was sold 
 
 and Joshua Butts, who being con- 
 cerned with the treasurer of the 
 state of Georgia, were furnished by 
 him with eight or ten thousand dol- 
 lars out of the treasury, to specu- 
 late on ; but as they were returning 
 
 frcm near Snow Hill, in Maryland, to with their purchases through Vir- 
 a distant part of the Continent, re- ginia, they were exterminated by 
 
 turned back, and lay out of doors. 
 Being accused of stealing from his 
 neighbours, he was pursued, taken, 
 and brought into the village one 
 morning, and there hung without 
 ;udge or jury ; of which no more 
 lotice was taken than if they hung 
 a log! 
 
 It was a just observation of 
 Th<mas Jefferson (late President of 
 the'Jnited States), " that the whole 
 comierce between master and slave 
 is on* perpetual exercise of the most 
 boisteous passions on the one part, 
 and (sgrading submission on the 
 other.' Many instances have oc- 
 curred, and some of a recent date, 
 where te slaves have rather chosen 
 death, tian to remain in a state of 
 bondagejiable to be separated from 
 all that is dear to them. Some 
 have pluged into the water, and 
 drowned hemselves; others have 
 
 their prisoners; who were after- 
 wards apprehended, and several of 
 them executed. 
 
 ' When I was travelling through 
 North Carolina, a black man, who 
 was outlawed, being shot by one of 
 his pursuers, and left wounded in the 
 woods, they came to the ordinary 
 where I had stopped to bait my 
 horse, in order to procure a cart to 
 bring the poor wretched object in. 
 Another, I was credibly informed, 
 was shot, his head cut off, and car- 
 ried in a bag by the perpetrators of 
 the murder, who received the re- 
 ward.f which was said to have been 
 two hundred dollars, and that the 
 head was stuck on a coal-house at 
 an iron-works in Virginia. H'n 
 crime was going, without leave, to 
 visit his wife, who was in slavery 
 at some distance. One Crawford 
 gives an account of a black man 
 
 cut their troats — one in particular, being gibbetted alive in South Ca- 
 
 lately in Dlaware county gaol, and rolina, and the buzzards came and 
 
 another onihe pavement in Phila- picked out his eyes. Another was 
 
 delphia, fining they were about to burnt at the stake in Charlestown, 
 
 • See the ca» of Governor Wall, here alluded to. 
 
 t Advertiser>nt from the Edenton newspaper:—' North Carolina, Oct. 29, 1795. 
 * Ten Dollars' Reward will be paid for apprehending and delivering to me my 
 negro-man, nanj Moses, who, after being detected in some villainy, ran away this 
 morning about f r o'clock ; or I will give five times the sum to any person that will 
 give due proof o.\\ s being killed, and never ask a question to know by whom it was 
 done. < w. Skinner. 
 
 This Skinner wi a general in the American army, and a great ttickler foi liberty ! 
 
24 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 in the same state, surrounded by a than six hundred blacks carried off 
 
 multitude of spectators, some of in six months by the Georgiamen, 
 
 whom were people of the first rank, or southern traders.* Some of the 
 
 The poor object was heard to cry agents of those southern traders are 
 
 " Not guilty ! not guilty!" so hardy as to publish advertise- 
 
 ' A judge on the eastern shore merits of their readiness to purchase 
 of Maryland sold thirteen of his these kinds of cargo, which they 
 slaves to a southern trader, among effect in various ways; frequently 
 whom was a man who was sent to by purchases made so secretly, thai 
 gather oysters, while his wife was the poor blacks, when engaged at 
 taken away : when he returned, and their meals, or occupied in soma 
 found his wife was gone, he expos- domestic concerns, not having the 
 tulated with his learned master, ask- least intimation of the design, are 
 ing " Whether he had not been a suddenly seized, bound, and carrml 
 faithful slave for more than twenty off, either to some place provided 
 years, and requesting lie might go for the purpose, or immediately 3a 
 after his wife:" but this boon of board the vessel. Many are cb- 
 merey was refused. A man by the taincd by kidnapping:, until the 
 »iame of Blaek, in Cedar Creek whole supply is completed. 
 Neck, the latter end of April, 1805, * I have heard some men in emi- 
 in the state of Delaware and county nent stations say, " the country 
 of Sussex, suspended a black lad; must be thinned of these people 
 and, tying three fence-rails to his (the blacks) — they must be got rid 
 feet, beat him to death, and then of at any rate." Some from em bar- 
 buried the body in the night. On rassed circumstances have made sae 
 discovery of the fact, the corpse of these wretched objects, wlo, 
 was taken up, and, by the coroner's being fallen upon unawares, vere 
 inquest, he was found guilty of wil- handcuffed, and sent afar off, wiich 
 ful murder. It further appeared has struck such a terror to «ther 
 that Black had been the death of slaves, who would otherwise have 
 two unhappy victims before, which remained with their masters that 
 was kept secret. What made the they have run away. A mil and 
 former murder more lamentable was, his wife on the same shore of-Vlary- 
 the lad was innocent of the crime land, being thus circumstanced, fled 
 he was charged with, viz. taking under such alarm, that tht woman 
 leather for a pair of shoe soles, left behind her sucking child. f 
 which Black's son afterwards ac- After they were taken, I tft them, 
 knowledged he had taken. The coupled together in irons, nd drove 
 murderer escaped justice. along the road like blue beasts, 
 
 ' From an account, published in bv two rough unfeeling hite men. 
 
 the " American Daily Advertiser," About sixty in one droe of these 
 
 by a person who had taken a tour poor men, women, an children, 
 
 along the eastern shore of Mary- were lately driven throuh Pennsy!- 
 
 land, it appears that from that side vania; and not only tl males, but 
 
 of the bay only there were not less the women, were so iro-bound, that 
 
 * This may be called the very heart of the United States. The sit whereon the 
 
 city of Washington, the seat of government, stands, was chosen fojio other reason 
 
 but that of being exactly the centre of the Union. It belonged, fo^erly, partly to 
 
 Maryland, and panly to Virginia ; being upon the boundary lines o/hose two states. 
 
 t No mothers, in the most polished nations, are more tender fd affectionatf to 
 
 eir offspring than negTo-women. What, then, must have been e horrors of the 
 
 le, in a case like this ? 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 25 
 
 it was with great difficulty the lat- 
 ter suckled their children. 
 
 ' It has been asked, what can be 
 said in favour of emancipation, when 
 so many that are free are crowded 
 into gaol for dishonesty ? I am not 
 disposed, to countenance wrong 
 things, but they may plead the 
 example of the whites. That dis- 
 position for theft which they have 
 been branded with must be ascribed 
 to their situation, and not to any 
 depravity in a moral sense. The 
 man in whose favour no laws of pro- 
 perty exist probably feels himself 
 less bound to respect those made in 
 favour of others. When arguing for 
 ourselves, we say, "that laws, to 
 be just, must give a reciprocation 
 of right ;" that, without tins, they 
 are mere arbitrary rules of conduct 
 founded in force, and not in con- 
 science ; and it is a problem, which I 
 give the master to solve, whether 
 religious precepts against the viola- 
 tion of property were not framed 
 for him as well as his slave; and 
 whether the slave may not as justifi- 
 ably take a little from one who has 
 taken all from him, as he may slay 
 one who may slay him ; thai a change 
 in relation, in which a man is placed, 
 should change his ideas of moral 
 right or wrong, is neither new, nor 
 peculiar to the colour of blacks. 
 Homer tells us it was so upwards 
 of two thousand six hundred years 
 ago: — 
 
 •'Jove fixed it certain that whatever 
 
 day 
 Makes man a slave takes half his worth 
 
 away." 
 ' Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.' 
 
 This wretched race of men, both 
 in the West India Islands and 
 United States of America, are 
 bought and sold, exactly as we sell 
 our horses, oxen, sheep, and swine. 
 Planters, who are to a man gam- 
 blers, will stake a negro on the turn 
 of a card, or the cast of the dice j 
 
 or barter them for a horse, cattle, 
 or a piece of land. They are put up 
 in lots at auction, as we sell horses, 
 and carried hundreds of miles from 
 the place where they were born. 
 On the death of their master they 
 are sold, along with the quadruped 
 stock of the estate, to the best 
 bidder, as the following advertise- 
 ment, taken from a paper printed in 
 the very town where General Wash- 
 ington was born, will fully prove: — 
 
 ' To oe sold at auction, pursuant to 
 the last will and testament of Mann 
 Page, deceased, all the personal pro- 
 perty belonging to his estate ; consist- 
 ing of about one hundred and sixty ne- 
 groes, together with all the stock of 
 horses, three mules, cattle, sheep, planta- 
 tion utensils, and about one thousand bar- 
 rels of corn. Amongst the negroes are 
 seven very valuable carpenters, three ex- 
 cellent blacksmiths, two millers, and some 
 other tradesmen. The greater part, if 
 not the whole, of this valuable property, 
 will be sold on a credit of twelve months ; 
 the purchaser giving bond with approved 
 security, to bear interest from the date, if 
 not punctually paid. All sums under 
 twenty dollars must be paid in money.' 
 
 Were we to extract, from more 
 recent publications, the many cases 
 of cruelly lately exercised upon the 
 unhappy children of Africa, we 
 should fill a volume; but we trust 
 that we have said enough to make 
 the reader exclaim, with Cowper, 
 
 ' I would not have a slave to till my 
 
 ground, 
 To fan me when 1 sleep, and tremble 
 
 when 
 I wake, for all that human sinews, 
 
 bought and sold, 
 Have ever earned.' 
 
 Strange that men professing to 
 be followers of the mild and merci- 
 ful Jesus should inflict such tortures 
 as we have already described, and 
 stranger still that interest should 
 not predominate in tho'r cruel and 
 selfish minds; recent experiments 
 having clearly demonstrated that it 
 would be much more advantageous 
 for the planter to have his ground 
 
26 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 cultivated by freemen than slaves ; 
 for one manumitted negro will do 
 more work than three bondsmen ; so 
 much better a stimulant to industry 
 are wages than the whip. But the 
 planters cannot be brought to be- 
 lieve in a fact which Nature herself, 
 providing against slavery, has es- 
 tablished throughout the world ; for 
 her laws have ordained that nine men 
 out of every ten must endure the 
 
 the vicious and thoughtless con- 
 sumers of poisonous rum and un- 
 wholesome tobacco which enable 
 their task-master to keep them in 
 degradation. Little does the affected 
 beau think, while he is extending 
 his nostrils, by filling them with 
 'pungent grains of tittilating dust/ 
 or the young miss, while she is 
 sipping her tea, that the snuff and 
 sugar, which they are so wan- 
 penalty of Adam— live by labour ; tonly wasting, are not only in them- 
 and labour, in all climes, is only ade- selves useless, but manufactured 
 quate to the support of life. The ne- by the labour of slaves, and not un- 
 groes in the West Indies, if free to- frequently tinged with their actual 
 morrow, would labour to support blood.* But the lower classes are 
 themselves;and would certainly work most culpable. The consumption of 
 harder than they do now, even to do rum and tobacco is not only an idle, 
 that. Consequently the planter would fulsome, and vicious habit, but ex- 
 have his ground tilled for less than tremely expensive, and could bedis- 
 what the support of his slaves costs pensed with by the poor, their great- 
 him, and thereby save the money est admirers, with advantage to their 
 
 he must pay to keep up his live 
 stock. This should be an induce- 
 ment, even overlooking the other 
 circumstances which would attend 
 a consummation so devoutly to be 
 wished as the abolition of slavery. 
 But the curse of commerce is on 
 
 health, morals, and pockets; while 
 their useful abstinence would be con- 
 tributing to put a stop to the suffer- 
 ings of their African fellow-crea- 
 tures. 
 
 But our admonition, we fear, is as 
 vain as our lamentations. The com- 
 
 the whole West India proprietors, munity will continue consuming the 
 They bought the blacks as slaves, produce of the West Indies, and 
 and slaves they will retain them, the task-master to inflict his tor- 
 unless they get not only their ture; while the poor negro, in the 
 money, but the interest of it, back, words of the poet, may justly re- 
 Traders like what is tangible, and proachus:— 
 despise the promise of advantages 
 so remote as those depending on 
 
 THE NEGRO'S COMPLAINT. 
 
 the abolition of slavery, and we fear 
 the whip and the driver will still 
 continue to be in request. Yet, with 
 all our abhorrence of this cruel 
 system, a moment's reflection will 
 show us that it is supported and 
 perpetuated by our own idle and 
 pernicious habits. The tap-room 
 might justly be called the tomb of 
 the poor negro's liberty ; for it is 
 
 • The writer of this was present in a grocer's shop when a negro child, apparently a 
 year old, was taken out of a sugar- hogshead, having heen smothered there either by 
 carelessness or design. — The descendant of Ishmael was consigned to the silent grave, 
 and the grocer served his customers with the s-^ar that preserved the little black. 
 
 ' Forced from home and all its pleasures, 
 
 Afric's coast I left forlorn ; 
 To increase a stranger's treasures, 
 
 O'er the raging billows borne. 
 Men from England bought and sold me, 
 
 Paid my price in paltry gold ; 
 But, though slave they have enrolled me, 
 
 Minds are never to be sold. 
 
 ' Still in thought as free as ever, 
 What are England's rights, I ask, 
 
 Me from my delights to sever, 
 Me to torture, me to task 1 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 27 
 
 Fleecy locks and black complexion 
 Cannot forfeit Nature's claim ; 
 
 Skins may differ, but affection 
 
 Dwells in white and black the same. 
 
 ' Why did all-creating Nature 
 
 Make the plant for which we toil 1 
 Sighs must fan it, tears must water, 
 
 Sweat of ours must dress the soil. 
 Think, ye masters, iron-hearted, 
 
 Lolling at your jovial boards ; 
 Think how many backs have smarted 
 
 For the sweets your cane affords. 
 
 * Is there, as ye sometimes tell us, 
 
 Is there One who reigns on high ? 
 Has He bid you buy and sell us, 
 
 Speaking from his throne, the sky 1 
 Ask him if your knotted scourges, 
 
 Matches, blood-extorting screws, 
 Are the means that duty u'ges 
 
 Agents of his will to use'! 
 
 * Hark ! he answers ! — wild tornadoes, 
 
 Strewing yonder sea with wrecks, 
 Wasting towns, plantations, meadows, 
 
 Are the voice with which he speaks. 
 He, foreseeing what vexations 
 
 Afric's sons should undergo, 
 Fixed their tyrant's habitations 
 
 Where his whirlwinds answer — No ! 
 
 ' By our blood in Afric wasted, 
 
 Ere our necks received the chain ; 
 By the miseries that we tasted, 
 
 Crossing in your barks the main ; 
 By our sufferings, since ye brought us 
 
 To the man-degrading mart ; 
 All sustained by patience, taught us 
 
 Only by a broken heart ; 
 ' Deem our nation brutes no longer, 
 
 Till some reason ye shall find 
 Worthier of regard, and stronger 
 
 Than the colour of our kind. 
 Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings 
 
 Tarnish all your boasted powers, 
 Prove that you have human feelings, 
 
 Ere you proudly question ours !' 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 The sum of these doleful tales is 
 the case of Hodge, who, for his 
 wickedness to his slaves, expiated 
 his crimes by the hands of the exe- 
 cutioner, unpitied by the whites, 
 and execrated by the blacks. 
 
 The Hon. Arthur Win. Hodge, 
 proprietor, and one of the members 
 of his majesty's council in the 
 island of Tortola, was indicted for 
 the murder of one of his own ne- 
 groes, of the name of Prosper. 
 
 The prisoner, on his trial, being 
 put to the bar, pleaded Not Guilty. 
 The first witness called to prove 
 the charge was a free woman of co- 
 lour, of the name of Pareen Georges. 
 She slated that she was in the ha- 
 bit of attending at Mr. Hodge's 
 estate to wash linen ; that one day 
 Prosper came to her to borrow six 
 shillings, being the sum that his 
 master required of him, because a 
 mango had fallen from a tree, which 
 he. (Prosper) was set to watch. He 
 told the witness that he must either 
 find the six shillings or be flogged ; 
 that the witness had only three 
 shillings, which she gave him, but 
 that it did not appease Mr. Hodge : 
 that Prosper was flogged for up- 
 wards of an hour, receiving more 
 than one hundred lashes, and threat- 
 ened by his master that, if he did 
 not bring the remaining three shil- 
 lings on the next day, the flogging 
 should be repeated ; that the next 
 day he was tied to a tree, and flog- 
 ged for such a length of time, with 
 the thong of the whip doubled, that 
 his head fell back, and that he could 
 bawl no more. — From thence he 
 was carried to the sick-house, and 
 chained to two other negroes : that 
 he remained in this confinement 
 during five days, at the end of which 
 time his companions broke away, 
 and thereby released him ; that he 
 was unable to abscond ; that he 
 went to the ne«;ro-houses, and shut 
 himself up ; that he was found there 
 dead, and in a state of putrefaction, 
 some days afterwards ; that crawlers 
 were found in his wounds, and not 
 a piece of black flesh was to be seen 
 on the hinder part of his body where 
 he had been flogged. 
 
 Stephen M'Keogh, a white man, 
 who had lived as manager on Mr. 
 Hodge's estate, deposed that he 
 saw the deceased, Prosper, after he 
 had been so severely flogtied ; that 
 he could put his finger in his side ; 
 
23 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 he saw him some days before his 
 death in a cruel state; he could not 
 go near him for the blue flies. Mr. 
 Hodge had told the witness, while 
 he was in his employ, that, if the 
 work of the estate was not done, 
 he was satisfied if he heard the 
 whip. 
 
 This was the evidence against the 
 prisoner. His counsel, in their at- 
 tempt to impeach the veracity of 
 the witnesses, called evidence as to 
 his general character, which dis- 
 closed instances of still greater bar- 
 barity on the part of Mr. Hodge. 
 Among other examples, the witness, 
 Pareen Georges, swore that he had 
 occasioned the death of his cook, 
 named Margaret, by pouring boil- 
 ing water down her throat. 
 
 Before the jury retired, the pri- 
 soner adilressed them as follows : — 
 
 ' Gentlemen, as bad as I have 
 heen represented, or as bad as you 
 may think me, I assure you that I 
 feel support in my affliction from 
 entertaining a proper sense of reli- 
 gion. As all men are subject to 
 wrong, I cannot but say that that 
 principle is likewise inherent in me. 
 I acknowledge myself guilty in re- 
 gard to many of my slaves; but I 
 call God to witness my innocence 
 in respect to the murder of Prosper. 
 I am sensible that the country thirsts 
 for my blood, and I am ready to sa- 
 crifice it.' 
 
 The jury, after some deliberation, 
 brought in a verdict of Guilty. 
 
 There were six other indictments 
 on similar charges against the pri- 
 soner. 
 
 After, as well as previous to, his 
 condemnation, and to the last mo- 
 ment of his life, Mr. Hodge persisted 
 in his innocence of the crime for 
 which he was about to suffer. He 
 acknowledged that he had been a 
 cruel master (which, as he after- 
 wards said, was all he meant, in his 
 admission to the jury, of his guilt 
 
 in regard to others of the slaves) ; 
 that he had repeatedly flogged his 
 negroes ; that they had then run 
 away, when, by their own neglect, 
 and the consequent exposure of their 
 wounds, the death of some of them 
 had possibly ensued. He denied all 
 intentions of causing the death of 
 any one, and pleaded the unruly 
 and insubordinate disposition of his 
 whole gang as the motive for his 
 severity. These were the senti- 
 ments in which he died. 
 
 Governor Elliott sent to Lord 
 Liverpool the depositions of the 
 witnesses who were examined on 
 this trial. The deposition of Mr. 
 Robertson states that he has every 
 reason to suspect Mr. Hodge of 
 having murdered five of his slaves ! 
 
 The governor then mentions the 
 proceedings he had thought proper 
 to adopt; gives an account of the 
 trial and conviction of Mr. Hodge 
 — the majority of the petit jury re- 
 commended him to mercy ! ! but 
 none of the judges seconded the re- 
 commendation. 
 
 From the period of his condemna- 
 tion to his execution, which took 
 place May the 8th, 1811, Governor 
 Elliott thought it expedient to pro- 
 claim martial law and to embody 
 the militia ; hut, fortunately, no dis- 
 turbance took place. However, the 
 governor added, that ' the state of 
 irritation, nay, I had almost said, 
 of anarchy, in which I have found 
 this colony, rendered the above 
 measures indispensable for the pre- 
 servation of tranquillity, and for 
 ensuring the due execution of the 
 sentence against Arthur W. Hodge. 
 Indeed, it is but too probable that 
 without my presence, in a conjunc- 
 ture so replete with party animosity, 
 unpleasant occurrences might have 
 ensued.' 
 
 The evidence adduced during this 
 trial shows to what an alarming 
 height cruelty is still practised in 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 2J 
 
 the West Indies. The legislature 
 of tiiis country, or the crown, is 
 imperiously called upon to interfere, 
 and put a final check to atrocities 
 which inflict a deep wound upon 
 the character of the nation. If the 
 colonial assemblies have not hither- 
 
 to evinced an inclination to stop 
 these proceedings, they are unfit 
 and unworthy to legislate ; and th i 
 parent state should resume an an. 
 thority which has been so feebly 
 exercised for the protection of thi 
 weak. 
 
 ANTONIO CARDOZA, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF THOMAS DAVIS. 
 
 This malefactor was a sailor, 
 and a native of Portugal. He was 
 indicted at the Old Bailey, January 
 11, 1811, alonj; with Sarah Brown, 
 alias Gotz, a Jewess, and Mary 
 Rogers, botli women of the town, 
 for the wilful murder of Thomas 
 Davis, a British seaman, in Night- 
 ingale Lane, on the night of the 
 12lh of December, 1810. 
 
 The facts of the case were these : 
 — The deceased, some what tipsy, was 
 on his way home, in company with 
 his brother, James Davis, when, 
 passing these girls in the street, he 
 
 Eut his arm round the waist of 
 irown, which she resented by 
 striking him several times on the 
 head with her patten, which she 
 held in her hand. James Davis 
 desired her not to be angry, as his 
 brother was tipsy, and that he 
 would give her something to drink; 
 upon which the other woman struck 
 him in the face with her umbrella. 
 A squabble ensued ; Davis flung the 
 umbrella into a green- grocer's shop, 
 and in the struggle both fell to the 
 ground, upon which the girl got up 
 first, and, holding him down, called 
 out * Antonio! Antonio! why don't 
 you fetch Antonio ?' addressing the 
 other girl, Rogers, who immediately 
 ran to a public house, and called 
 Antonio, when Cordoza, and three 
 other Portuguese sailors, rushed 
 out, and attacked the two brothers, 
 James Davis succeeded in repel- 
 ling the ruffians, and was on the 
 point o! getting away, when, look- 
 
 ing round, he saw the deceased 
 knocked down by Cardoza, and, 
 while he was down, the vindictive 
 Portuguese took from his sleeve a 
 knife, and stabbed his victim in the 
 back, the infamous woman, Brown, 
 all the time crying out to Antonio, 
 
 ' Kill the b r! don't leave a 
 
 bit of life in him ! it's the way all 
 English b rs should be served.' 
 
 The wounded man exclaimed, 
 ' Brother, I'm killed !' and on being 
 removed to the shop of Mr. King, 
 a surgeon in the neighbourhood, he 
 died in two minutes. These facts 
 were substantiated by several wit- 
 nesses who saw the transaction; 
 and Cardoza was immediately found 
 guilty of murder; but Mary Brown 
 only of manslaughter, as there had 
 been a quarrel between her and the 
 deceased ; whereas Cardoza, with- 
 out any personal provocation, in- 
 flicted the deadly wound. Rogers 
 was acquitted, as there was no evi- 
 dence affecting her, except that of 
 standing by. 
 
 Sentence was immediately passed 
 on this desperate foreigner, and he 
 was ordered for executiou on the 
 Monday morning following, January 
 14, 1811, which was accordingly 
 carried into effect opposite Newgate. 
 
 From the time of his trial to the 
 last moment of his existence he 
 persisted in his assertion of inno- 
 cence, and was heard to say that, 
 during his trial, the man who ac- 
 tually committed the murder was in 
 court. If he was innocent, which 
 
Si) KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 we by no means take upon ourselves 
 to advocate, his fate inculcates an 
 important lesson on the evil of 
 keeping bad company; and, if not 
 actually guilty of the murder, his 
 conduct was little less criminal for 
 joining with those that did it, in de- 
 fence of prostitutes, for whom he 
 must have been a bully, as they 
 called individually on him by name 
 when insulted by the deceased. 
 
 Previous to his being brought 
 from the Press-yard he cried bit- 
 terly ; but on mounting the scaffold 
 be acted with becoming foriitude. 
 He was attended by a Portuguese 
 clergyman, with whom he joined in 
 fervent prayer, and a few minutes 
 after eight o'clock he was launched 
 into eternity. The concourse of 
 spectators was immense, and among 
 tke crowd were several of his coun- 
 trymen, who seemed much affected 
 at the melancholy scene. After 
 being suspended for the usual time, 
 his body was cut down, and con- 
 veyed to Bartholomew's Hospital 
 for dissection, where it was exposed 
 to public view during the day. 
 
 Some doubts were entertained by 
 the public as to the power vested in 
 the judges of ordering the execution 
 of this man during the indisposition 
 of his majesty, George III. and the 
 consequent deficiency in the execu- 
 tive power, as the regent was not 
 then appointed, from a feeling that 
 it would be unjust to deprive a hu- 
 man being of life, however enormous 
 his crime, while the fountain of 
 mercy was closed. Mr. Sheridan 
 mentioned this case in the House 
 of Commons the Thursday after the 
 execution, and was answered by the 
 secretary of state for the home de- 
 
 partment that, according to the sta- 
 tute respecting conviction for mur- 
 der, it is enacted that the judge, 
 before whom a murderer is con- 
 victed, shall, in passing sentence, 
 direct him to be executed the next 
 day but one after his being found 
 guilty, (unless the same shall be 
 Sunday, and then on the Monday 
 following,) and that his body be de- 
 livered to the surgeons to be dis- 
 sected and anatomized. The judge 
 may likewise direct his body to be 
 afterwards hung in chains, but in no 
 wise to be buried without dissection. 
 In the case of this malefactor, the 
 secretary stated that the judges who 
 tried him had no doubt of his guilt; 
 and that, as no application came 
 from the unfortunate man himself, 
 it was deemed advisable to let the 
 law take its course, otherwise he 
 would have been respited. 
 
 Our readers will please to recol- 
 lect that we have already stated the 
 law upon this head, by which they 
 will see that in all cases of capital 
 conviction, within the city of Lon- 
 don, it is necessary that a regular 
 report of the prisoners should be 
 made to his majesty, or, in the event 
 of his indisposition, as in the pre- 
 sent case, to his representative, of 
 the respective cases, and his sanc- 
 tion must be obtained before execu- 
 tion can take place. This rule, 
 however, only applies to the city of 
 London, as the judges going circuit 
 act under a special commission, 
 which empowers them to pass sen- 
 tence of death, and to direct its 
 execution in all cases, as well as to 
 respite it, and relax the other re- 
 straints upon sufficient cause, with- 
 out the direct authority of the king 
 
 WILLIAM TOWNLEY, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR BURGLARY. 
 
 William Townley was a native twenty-nine exhibited a reroarkabJe 
 
 of instance to what extent human ue- 
 
 of Winchcomb and at the 
 
 a^e 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 31 
 
 pravity may be carried. In 1779, 
 when only seventeen years of age, 
 he was, with an elder brother, con- 
 victed of burglary, and sentenced 
 to two years' imprisonment in the 
 Penitentiary House. He had not 
 l.mg regained his liberty when he 
 was brought a second time to the 
 gaol, charged with a capital offence, 
 found guilty, and sentenced to trans- 
 portation for seven years, which 
 period he served on board the hulks 
 at Woolwich ; from whence he was 
 only discharged three months when 
 he was a third time committed for 
 the t crime for which he justly suf- 
 fered. 
 
 In the last interval he had enter- 
 ed as a substitute in the Worcester- 
 shire militia, for forty guineas, ten 
 of which he had received : he soon 
 squandered the money, and then 
 perpetrated a burglary, for which 
 he was tried at Gloucester, and re- 
 ceived sentence of death. 
 
 He persisted in declaring the wit- 
 nesses against him perjurers, until 
 within a short time of the execu- 
 tion, when, it is said, just before he 
 received the sacrament, he admitted 
 
 bis full share in the crime for which 
 his life became forfeited to the of- 
 fended laws of his country. 
 
 Saturday, the 23d of March, 
 1811, he was executed at the new 
 drop before Gloucester gaol, and 
 had been suspended about twenty 
 minutes when a reprieve arrived ! 
 Is the life of man of so little value, 
 that those intrusted with important 
 power will not study correctness? 
 Some stupid clerk in office directed 
 it to the sheriff of Herefordshire in- 
 stead of Gloucestershire, by mis- 
 take! On Friday night it arrived, 
 but was not opened till next morn- 
 ing, when immediately the import- 
 ance of its contents to the wretched 
 object of intended mercy was ascer- 
 tained, and an express sent off, by 
 Mr. Bennett, of the hotel, at his 
 own expence ; but, alas ! the mes- 
 senger was twenty minutes too 
 late to arrest the fatal hand of the 
 executioner; and he whom became 
 to save was gone to that ' bourn 
 from whence no traveller returns.' 
 What must have been the feelings 
 of the clerk who misdirected the 
 letter? 
 
 RICHARD ANDREWS AND ALEXANDER HALL, 
 
 TRANSPORTED 
 
 Andrews bad been long a de- 
 predator upon the public; and 
 though he had not, like Roberts, 
 the advantage of being a counsellor- 
 at law, yet be well knew how to 
 ' keep bis neck out of the halter:' 
 he would not, in fact, touch upon 
 what might amount to a felony ; 
 but, with all their art and know- 
 ledge, we are always finding swin- 
 dlers stumbling upon the pillory, or 
 stroking on board a transport. 
 
 The first public examination of 
 Andrews, of any moment, was at 
 the Police-office, in Queen Square, 
 Westminster, on the 31st of March, 
 1807; when Colonel Davison (not 
 
 FOR FRAUD. 
 
 of St. James's Square) stated that 
 he became acquainted with the pri- 
 soner in the King's Bench. It was 
 very material for the colonel to get 
 a seat in parliament; and, as the 
 prisoner had often represented him- 
 self as intimately connected with 
 some of the first characters in the 
 country, the colonel disclosed his 
 affairs to him, who undertook to for- 
 ward his intention. He described 
 himself as the intimate acquaintance 
 of the Earl of Besborough, Lord 
 Fitzwilliam, and R. Spencer, Esq. 
 from whom he received contribu- 
 tions while in prison. After the 
 colonel had left the Bench, he fre- 
 
32 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 quently relieved him with pecuniary 
 trifles, till lie was liberated by ihe 
 Insolvent Act; and lie then carried 
 his pretensions to the extreme, by 
 observing that he had been offered 
 a seat in parliament by Earl Filz- 
 william, but it would ill become 
 him to accept it, having been so 
 recently liberated; and he could, by 
 the interest of the Earl of Besbo- 
 rough, have the honour conferred 
 on the colonel, as it was by the in- 
 terest of that earl that Lord Fitz- 
 william's promise was to be real- 
 ized. The colonel went to dine 
 with B. Goldsmid, Esq. at Roe- 
 hampton, and the prisoner accom- 
 panied him in his carriage to the 
 Earl of Besborough's house, at the 
 same place ; but the earl was from 
 home. He saw the prisoner again 
 in a day or two, when he informed 
 him that he had conversed with the 
 Earl of Besborough on the subject 
 of a seat in parliament; and the 
 earl jocosely remarked, ' I should 
 conceive you to be a Don Quixote 
 to want a seat, after taking the be- 
 nefit of the Insolvent Act.' The 
 conversation then became more se- 
 rious ; and the colonel, as his friend, 
 was to have the seat promised by 
 Earl Fitzwilliam. The prisoner 
 went on to state that he was con- 
 nected with the noble earl, who had 
 four boroughs in Ireland, and who 
 would dispose of them at four thou- 
 sand pounds each; and, if the colo- 
 nel should have other friends to ac- 
 commodate, he might have the pre- 
 ference, as the noble earl had au- 
 thorized him to find candidates. 
 The colonel found candidates for 
 all the boroughs the prisoner had 
 talked of, and by his desire the mo- 
 ney was deposited in the hands of 
 a banker. The candidates, when 
 they became members, were to re- 
 tain their seats for five years, in 
 case of a dissolution of parliament. 
 The colonel here observed that he 
 
 had such full confidence in the pri- 
 soner as by his artifices to have 
 been led away in a manner that 
 made him look more like an accom- 
 plice than a dupe. He had been 
 so deceived by the plausible pre- 
 tences and the solemnity of the 
 prisoner's conduct, that his mind 
 was tranquillized: thus he had ob- 
 tained of him (the colonel), and his 
 friends, by his recommeudaton, four 
 thousand pounds, he having got two 
 thousand pounds in two payments, 
 as he said, for the Earl of Besbo- 
 rough, as part of the consideration 
 for the boroughs in Ireland. The 
 other money consisted in relieving 
 the temporary embarrassments of 
 the prisoner, and accepting his bills. 
 The colonel had accepted bills for 
 a carriage, which the prisoner had 
 made in Poland Street; also for his 
 stud, &c. besides those of different 
 tradespeople. The colonel, having 
 at length entertained some suspi- 
 cion of the prisoner, waited on the 
 Earl of Besborough, when he found 
 his suspicious realized. 
 
 The Earl of Besborough stated 
 that he knew no more of the pri- 
 soner than having received letters 
 from him while in prison, asking 
 relief, which he granted to him in 
 trifles. He knew nothing of what 
 had been related respecting the bo- 
 roughs; and the other noblemen 
 who had been talked of knew no 
 more of the prisoner than having 
 afforded relief to his distresses. 
 
 A gentleman, who had agreed to 
 purchase one of the boroughs, proved 
 that he had paid the prisoner four 
 hundred pounds, as part of the con- 
 sideration, and had been completely 
 misled. The prisoner was committed 
 for re-examination. 
 
 He formerly kept his carriage, 
 and a dashing equipage, in Half- 
 Moon Street, Piccadilly; but he 
 was apprehended in an obscure 
 lodging in Westminster. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 33 
 
 In a few Jays Andrews was a«rain 
 brought to J he same office for a 
 farther ex;imiiialioii. On this oc- 
 casion the principal evidence against 
 linn was Mr. Harris, an aged geiU 
 llcnian, a surgeon and inan-inidwife 
 in I he Strand, whose ruin had heen 
 the consequence of the conduct of 
 the prisoner. 
 
 It appeared, by (he stalement of 
 this tif'iilleinnii, that he accidentally 
 met with a lady, (who turned out 
 to he the wife of the prisoner,) in 
 1800. It heinir late at night, he 
 offered to see the lady home ; and 
 he did so, to Edward Street, Ca- 
 vendish Square. The prisoner ex- 
 pressed Ins warmest acknowledg- 
 ments for the trouble Mr. Harris 
 had taken, and invited him to dine, 
 &c. at Ids table. 
 
 A mutual intimacy now subsisted 
 between the parties, and Mr. Harris 
 attended professionally at the ac- 
 couchement of Mrs. Andrews, in 
 February, 1801. In April the pri- 
 soner took apartments at the house 
 of Mr. Harris, and remained there 
 above twelve months; but never 
 paid board or lodging. The pri- 
 soner kept his carriage at the time. 
 He used to represent, himself as a 
 man of fortune, and the brother of 
 the person who was the proprietor 
 of the Dartford powder-mills. Mr. 
 Harris was employed by the pri- 
 soner to inspect Jesuit barks, opium, 
 &c. which he (the prisoner) used to 
 purchase in considerable quantities. 
 The complainant, on a certain day 
 in April, 1801, supped with the 
 prisoner, and others ; and, after 
 having drank freely, and reduced 
 himself to a state of stupefaction, 
 the party retired, and shortly after 
 returned with a bundle of papers, 
 which he signed, as a witness, with- 
 out knowing what they were. The 
 complainant stated that he believed 
 opium had been mixed with his wine, 
 for he felt himself very ill the next 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 day. Mr. Harris had not signed 
 these papers many days, when he 
 was arrested at the suit of Mr. B.ir- 
 ron, druggist, in the Strand, though 
 unconscious of having contracted a 
 debt with that gentleman; but the 
 business was settled by the attorney, 
 whilst Mr. Harris was in a lock-up- 
 house. He was released, and re- 
 turned to his house, which was then 
 in Theobald's Road. He used to 
 ride with the prisoner in his car- 
 riage; and on a certain day, when 
 at the foot of Westminster Bridge, 
 the prisoner alighted, and observed 
 that he was going for a gentleman; 
 and he, in a few minutes, brought a 
 sheriff's officer, who served a writ 
 on the complainant, who knew of 
 no debt he owed, and he was hurried 
 away in the carriage to the Kind's 
 Bench prison, where he remained 
 until October, 1804, when be was 
 cleared by the Insolvent Act. He 
 could get no redress for this cruel 
 treatment, and he reflected with 
 horror on the conduct of Andrews, 
 who called on him again after his 
 release. At this time a cup- 
 board door was standing open in 
 Mr. Harris's house, and the pri- 
 soner reached a box from off a shelf, 
 and rattled it. The complainant 
 was at this moment sent for into 
 his shop, and the prisoner went up 
 stairs with the box, which contained 
 plate to the amount of two hundred 
 pounds. The complainant returned, 
 and followed the prisoner up stairs; 
 but he had gone off with the box 
 and plate. Mr. Harris saw the 
 prisoner again in the evening, when 
 he said that he had made a tempo- 
 rary use of the plate, to save him- 
 self from being arrested, but he 
 would return it in a day or two; 
 but he ultimately absconded. The 
 plate was the property of a West- 
 India merchant, who had married 
 the daughter of Mr. Harris, and it 
 was left in his possession for safety, 
 100 
 
M 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 whilst the merchant was gone 
 abroad. 
 
 Another charge was exhibited 
 against the prisoner by a young 
 man, in whose mother's house the 
 prisoner lodged in 1797. He had 
 obtained twenty-one pounds of the 
 woman, which was chiefly ex- 
 pended in clothing a female with 
 whom he had cohabited. The pri- 
 soner had given the young man two 
 letters to take to the Duke of De- 
 vonshire and Earl Spencer, which 
 were, according to his account, re- 
 commendations for the father of the 
 youth to get a comfortable place; 
 but whilst he was gone the prisoner 
 decamped from the house. .The 
 young man had seen the prisoner 
 with Sir Watkin Lewes, who had 
 informed him he would pay the 
 debt ; but he (the witness) had very 
 recently seen Sir Watkin, who said 
 he had also a charge to institute 
 against the prisoner. 
 
 William Brown, late coachman to 
 the prisoner, appeared in his old 
 master's livery, blue and silver lace, 
 to answer interrogatories respecting 
 goods which had been obtained by 
 the prisoner from Mr. Asser, china- 
 man; but Mr. Asser was not pre- 
 sent, and the testimony was of no 
 avail. 
 
 The magistrate informed the pri- 
 soner that his situation wore a se- 
 rious aspect, for he stood charged 
 with felony. The prisoner observed 
 that he had been advised to say no- 
 thing until he came before a jury ; 
 but he had feelings which, irritated 
 by an abominable conspiracy, com- 
 pelled him to spark. He then en- 
 tered into a Jong vindication of his 
 conduct in a firm manner, and pro- 
 tested his innocence. He also beg- 
 ged of the persons present to sus- 
 pend their judgment till the hour of 
 trial. The magistrate replied that 
 jt was astonishing the prisoner 
 should make solemn asse\erations 
 
 of his innocence, when it «as pal- 
 pable that, without fortune, or any 
 visible means of obtaining support, 
 he had been enabled to keep a car- 
 riage and sumptuous equipaue — 
 that there had been a multiplicity 
 of persons at the office to substan- 
 tiate charges against him ; and he 
 (the magistrate) considered it the 
 duty of his official situation to re- 
 mand the prisoner, for the further 
 investigation of his conduct. He 
 was therefore remanded accordingly. 
 
 On the 10th of April following, 
 Andrews underwent a fourth exa- 
 mination. The first witness called 
 was Mrs. Harris, the wife of the 
 merchant who had lost his plate, 
 and the daughter of Harris, from 
 whose house it was said to have 
 been stolen. This lady corrobo- 
 rated what had been advanced by 
 Mr. Young, who redeemed the plate 
 
 Mr. Brown, who resides in the 
 neighbourhood of Bedford Square, 
 stated that he lived on an inde- 
 pendent property, and first became 
 acquainted with the prisoner in the 
 King's Bench, a few months since. 
 He (Mr. Brown) was discharged by 
 the Insolvent Act as well as the 
 prisoner, and about the same time; 
 they had become the most intimate 
 friends; and Mr. Andrews, after 
 his release, lived in Great Russell 
 Street, Bloomshury, where he kept 
 his chariot and a livery servant, 
 which was afterwards replaced by a 
 family coach and two livery ser- 
 vants. Mr. Andrews had given this 
 witness to understand that he was 
 on the eve of coining to an unli- 
 mited fortune, as the heir of Bishop 
 Andrews; and Mr. Brown and his 
 lady used frequently to dine with 
 the prisoner, as did he and his 
 lady with them. At Mr. An- 
 drews's dinner party Colonel Davi- 
 son, Maltby, M'Cullum, and others, 
 used to be present; but these per- 
 sons were never invited to Mr 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 35 
 
 Brown's table. In a conversation 
 with a Mrs. Roberts, who used to 
 dine at the prisoner's table, that 
 lady, in the presence of Mrs. Brown, 
 felt herself surprised at seeing Mrs. 
 Andrews pay some tradesmen's bills, 
 and publicly deprecated so mistaken 
 an idea ! This witness had sub- 
 scribed four hundred pounds to Mr. 
 Andrews's system of finance, be- 
 sides having done him some little 
 favours while he was in the King's 
 Bench. He had also some bills of 
 Colonel Davison's acceptance, which 
 were not yet due. Mr. Brown had 
 also received a letter from the pri- 
 soner, addressed to the Earl of Bes- 
 horough, width was to procure him 
 (Mr. Brown) a place of four or five 
 hundred a year under government, 
 which he delivered lo (he earl. Mr. 
 Brown had received this mark of 
 kindness from the prisoner, after he 
 had lent him four hundred pounds; 
 and he needed :io promise for that 
 advance, for Mr. Andrews, by his 
 open conduct, had completely got 
 the better of his purse, which he felt 
 no hesitation in opening to him. 
 
 A poor man of the name of New- 
 combe, at whose house the prisoner 
 lodged, lost twenty-five pounds by 
 him, by paying chandler's shop and 
 other little scores, and gave a very 
 singular description of the prisoner's 
 conduct. He acted the part of an 
 embarrassed gentleman, and one day 
 reau a printed speech, which he said 
 he made from the hustings at Ips- 
 wich, when he was a candidate for 
 the representation of that borough 
 in parliament. 
 
 Andrews complained of the unfair 
 conduct of the magistrate during 
 the inquiry, and again denied ever 
 having had an intention of injuring 
 any one. A committee, he said, sat 
 daily at Fishmongers' Hall, to carry 
 on this foul conspiracy against him ; 
 and, however his feelings might be 
 tortured by being made a ridicule in 
 
 that office, a jury would convince 
 the world of his innocence. 
 
 Again he was brought up, and 
 fresh charges exhibited against 
 him; but so artfully had he gone 
 about the commission of the different 
 frauds, that he evaded the full pu- 
 nishment due to his crimes, for near 
 five years, though during that long 
 period he lived, 10 use an old say- 
 ing, ' by his wits/ But justice, 
 though sometimes tardy, will surely 
 at length overtake the most artful 
 and hardened offender. Andrews, 
 after this long course of infamy — he 
 who had duped nobles, and deceived 
 men of all grades in society — was at 
 length caught in swindling a tavern- 
 keeper out of a dinner! 
 
 He was at length committed, upon 
 seven different indictments, to take 
 his trial. It appeared in the course 
 of his various examinations that he 
 committed depredations on all ranks, 
 from the rich and fashionable down 
 to a poor washerwoman, in whose 
 house, when closely pursued, he 
 took lodgings, borrowed money of 
 her, and even defrauded her of the 
 articles that she received in the way 
 of her occupation. 
 
 At the Middlesex quarter ses- 
 sions, on Tuesday, September the 
 24th, 1811, Richard Andrews and 
 Alexander Hall were put to the bar, 
 charged upon an indictment with 
 defrauding Isaac Kendall, by means 
 of certaiu false pretences, of the 
 sum of thirteen pounds, five shil- 
 lings, against the form of the sta- 
 tute in that case made and provided. 
 
 When the indictment was about 
 to be read, and the prisoners called 
 upon to plead, Andrews addressed 
 the Court, and repeated his appli- 
 cation to have the trial postponed, 
 being quite unable, for the want of 
 pecuniary assistance, lo have the 
 professional aid of those who were 
 competent to support him on so 
 severe an occasion. He said, also, 
 
36 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 that the want of money prevented 
 him from procuring the necessary 
 witnesses, whose evidence could 
 alone prove his innocence, and con- 
 vince the world that he was not the 
 man whom newspaper report had so 
 branded ; for there was not a jour- 
 nal published in the nation that did 
 not impose upon him an assumed 
 characteristic. In some he was called 
 ' Parson Andrews,' in others ' Cap- 
 tain Andrews;' many had the good 
 nature to dub him ' Doctor An- 
 drews;' but they all agreed in one 
 point, namely, that of giving him 
 every name but that which belonged 
 to him. He called God to witness 
 that in the whole course of his life 
 he never arrogated to himself any 
 characteristic that did not belong to 
 him, or assume any other descrip- 
 tion than that of plain ' Richard 
 Andrews.' Yet he was persecuted 
 beyond example. He entreated of 
 the Court, he supplicated the Bench, 
 that he might be allowed a month 
 to prepare himself; that he might 
 have the benefit of counsel, and be 
 provided with the necessary instruc- 
 tions for his counsel, as he was 
 convinced, if that indulgence should 
 be allowed to him, that he would 
 make his innocence, as far as the 
 intent of wronging the prosecutor, 
 perfectly manifest; at present he 
 could neither obtain the support of 
 witnesses and proofs, the assistance 
 of solicitor, nor the aid of coun- 
 sel. He submitted to the Court 
 that the prosecutor had two indict- 
 ments for the one offence against 
 him, and he begged to know 
 upon which of them he intended 
 to try him, as he understood that 
 he had preferred another bill 
 against him. 
 
 Mr. Alley, for the prosecution, 
 here interfered, and observed, that 
 the defendant well knew, that al- 
 though there were two indictments, 
 that yet there was but one charge, 
 
 and that was a charge for an offence 
 committed so far back as the 12lh 
 February last, and therefore he 
 could not complain of surprise ; and 
 as to the fact of preferring another 
 bill, in point of substantial truth it 
 was no such thing. It was no more 
 nor no less than merely amending 
 a clerical error in the first bill — the 
 introduction of a single word in- 
 stead of another. Therefore the de- 
 fendant had not to take this for a 
 bill of the present sessions. 
 
 Several observations were made 
 by Andrews, and the counsel for 
 the prosecution severally replied to 
 them. 
 
 At length Mr. Mainwaring stated 
 the sentiments of the Court, the 
 substance whereof was, that, al- 
 though they were disposed to give 
 every reasonable and humane as- 
 sistance that they could to all per- 
 sons in the predicament of the pri- 
 soner, yet that they actually did not 
 perceive that satisfactory grounds 
 were adduced for postponing this 
 trial any longer. The circumstance 
 of deficiency of pecuniary means 
 was not a reason why the public 
 justice of the country was to be de- 
 layed ; but the prisoner, as in such 
 cases, would find counsel iu the 
 Court themselves — the judges would 
 be his counsel, as iu humanity they 
 ought. 
 
 The trial then proceeded. Mr. 
 Alley staied the case, that it was 
 an indictment under the 30th of Geo. 
 III. commonly called ' the Swindling 
 Act,' and, after expatiating on the 
 enormity of offences such as the 
 prisoner whs accused of, proceeded 
 to call his witnesses. 
 
 Isaac Kendall stated himself to 
 be the proprietor of the coffee-house 
 situate in St. Clement's Church- 
 yard. He said, that on the 12th 
 of February last, the two prisoners, 
 Andrews and Hall, came to his 
 house, and ordered dinner. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 37 
 
 Mr. Kendall continued — The 
 coffee-room was very full, and I was 
 busy attending the company. Be- 
 fore they finished their dinner they 
 called for a hottle of wine. There 
 was another gentleman in the cof- 
 fee-room, who spoke to Mr. Hall. 
 This gentleman was invited to join 
 them after dinner 
 
 Q. By Mr. Alley— Is not the 
 person yon speak of a most respect- 
 able man ? do you not know him 
 very well ? — A. Beyond a doubt. 
 
 Kendall — After dinner they call- 
 ed to me and asked for their bill ; I 
 made it out; it amounted to one 
 pound, seven shillings.and sixpence. 
 They offered me a check on Drum- 
 mond and Co. 
 
 Q. By the Chairman. — Who do 
 you mean by they ?— A. Hall of- 
 fered me the check ; on looking at 
 it I saw an informality, and would 
 not take it. I then returned it to 
 Hall; Andrews said he would draw 
 another, and they begged pardon 
 for the mistake; the check had 
 thirteen on it instead of thirteen 
 pounds; I saw Andrews draw an- 
 other for thirteen pounds, five 
 shillings. 
 
 Q. By the Chairman — Was the 
 first check in the name of Andrews, 
 though offered by Hall ? — A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Did you see Andrews draw 
 it ? — A. I was rather busy at the 
 moment, but he called for pen and 
 ink, and he had a book of checks 
 by his side. The draft was for 
 thirteen pounds, five shillings, on 
 Drummond and Co. While An- 
 drews was doin<j something with it, 
 I took Hall aside, and asked him 
 was all right ; he answered, ' ! 
 yes ! my dear fellow, don't be 
 afraid ;' and, speaking of Andrews, 
 he said, ' He was a rich uncle of 
 his, who had been very kind to him 
 on various occasions, and that I 
 need not fear.' . The opinion I 
 formerly entertained of Hall was so 
 
 high that I would have given him 
 forty pounds, instead of the balance 
 of the draft, had he asked it. 
 
 Q, Was any thing said to the 
 gentleman who had joined the pri- 
 soners' company, about going to the 
 theatre ? — A. It was agreed that he 
 should accompany them there; they 
 did not go out together. It was 
 proposed by them (the prisoners) 
 to dine at my house on the Wednes- 
 day or Thursday following, when 
 they would bring a party of friends, 
 and the gentleman was also invited. 
 When the prisoners left the house, 
 the gentleman stopped at the bar to 
 inquire whether the dinner would 
 be on the Wednesday or Thursday. 
 In the mean time they went away. 
 I went to the door along with the 
 gentleman, but they were gone. We 
 looked both to the right and left, 
 but they were not to be seen. I 
 then suspected something was 
 wrong. 1 sent my son next morn- 
 ing to Drummond's, but there were 
 no effects to pay the draft. In a 
 day or two after, I went, accom- 
 panied by my son, to the bankers' ; 
 but it was useless : the draft has 
 never been paid. 
 
 Mr. Heald, from the house of 
 Messrs. Drummond, proved that 
 Andrews had not, at the time of 
 the drawing the said draft, any 
 cash whatever in their hands; that 
 the last money which lay in their 
 hands, belonging to him, was three 
 shillings and sixpence, which was 
 paid to his messenger three years 
 ago; but he admitted that there 
 was a cash account with the pri- 
 soner Andrews, in their house, and 
 that, within three years previous to 
 the year 1808, his account exceed- 
 ed six thousand pounds. It was, 
 however, all drawn out in January, 
 1808. 
 
 The prosecution on the part of 
 the crown being finished, the pri- 
 soners were called on their defence, 
 
 
38 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 when Andrews asked a few questions 
 of Mr. Kendall and Mr. Heald, and 
 then addressed the Court, admitting 
 that he drew the draft, and that the 
 money was given to his unfortunate 
 friend, the other prisoner ; but he 
 submitted, that as he had kept an 
 account in the banking-house, even 
 had that account been over-drawn, 
 yet that he did not consider himself, 
 much less did he consider Hall, as 
 guilty of any violation of the law. 
 He glanced at the effects which pre- 
 judice must have upon a man so 
 miserably situated as he was, and 
 concluded with a strong appeal to 
 the merciful consideration of the 
 Court and of the jury. 
 
 Mr. Mainwaring recapitulated the 
 whole of the evidence, making suit- 
 able comments upon it, and upon 
 the law of the case, as far as re- 
 garded the offence charged against 
 both the prisoners, and left it 
 with the jury to say whether they 
 were guilly or not; and the jury, 
 after a very short consultation, 
 brought in a verdict of Guilty. 
 
 They were both again tried, upon 
 a second indictment, for a like of- 
 ft nee, in defrauding a person of the 
 name of BrundeM, who keeps a ta- 
 vern at Black wall, of thirty pounds. 
 
 The prisoners went to Mr. Brun- 
 dell's house and dined ; after dinner 
 they got him to sit down and drink 
 a glass of wine with them, and in 
 the course of the conversation they 
 
 signified that a party of twenty 
 would dine there on the Thursday 
 following, and bespoke a turtle 
 dinner accordingly for that number, 
 at the rate of twenty shillings a 
 head, in a little time after dinner, 
 a letter was received by Mr. Brun- 
 dell at his bar, and on opening it 
 he found another directed • To Rich- 
 ard Andrews, Esq.* which letter 
 was instantly handed up stairs to 
 Mr. Andrews. Mr. Andrews no 
 sooner received it than a conversa- 
 tion took place respecting the sale 
 and purchase of an estate ; at length 
 the prisoners again got into a con- 
 versation with Mr. Brundell; and, 
 in short, they tendered to him a 
 draft for fifty pounds on Messrs. 
 Biddulph and Co. and, desiring him 
 to stop twenty pounds on account of 
 the intended turtle dinner, got the 
 difference, which was thirty pounds, 
 from him; and, after finishing two 
 or three bottles, they walked off. 
 When the draft was presented the 
 next day at Messrs. Biddulph's the 
 fraud was discovered, for be had no 
 account there, and Mr. Brundell 
 saw no more of his guests till they 
 were in custody. They were both 
 found Guilty on this indictment. 
 
 Mr. Mainwaring passed the sen- 
 tence of the Court, which was, that, 
 for the first offence, they should be 
 imprisoned in Newgate six months, 
 and, for the second, that they should 
 be transported for seven years. 
 
 MICHAEL WHITING, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR POISONING 
 
 Crime has different shades; but 
 a deeper dye cannot be given to it, 
 than when one in the assumed robe 
 of sanctity attempts to dip his hands 
 in human blood, particularly when 
 that blood is united to him by ties 
 of consanguinity. 
 
 Michael Whiting lived at Down- 
 . am, where he occasionally preach- 
 
 HIS TWO BROTHERS-IN-LAW. 
 
 ed, being a methddist parson, but 
 as the bounty of those who listened 
 to his pious exhortations was not very 
 large, he endeavoured to add to his 
 resources by keeping a shop in which 
 he sold bread, meal, &c. and, what 
 must surprise our London readers, 
 he also vended drugs, being at once 
 a comforter of the soul and body. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 3U 
 
 This arch hypocrite had two bro- 
 thers-in-law, named George and 
 Joseph Landman, who resided on a 
 small farm near Downham. They 
 were both under age, and had two 
 sisters, one of whom was married to 
 Whiting, and the other, aged ten 
 years, lived with her brothers. To 
 possess himself of the small estate 
 of these youths Whiting had re- 
 course to a most diabolical plan. 
 
 The little sister was sent to his 
 shop for some bread, and, learn- 
 ing from her that the housekeeper 
 of the brothers was about going 
 from home for a few days, he af- 
 fected much kindness, and promised 
 paying them a visit. He did so, 
 and with unusual liberality brought 
 with him materials for making a 
 padding or two, observing to the 
 housekeeper, ' Catherine, be sure 
 you make the boys a pudding be- 
 fore you go.' 
 
 After doleing out a few texts of 
 Scripture, which he had ready on all 
 occasions, and which, to use a pro- 
 fane comparison, he applied with as 
 much judgment as Sancho Panza 
 did his proverbs, he departed, taking 
 with him the little girl, tenderly 
 remarking that her sister would take 
 better care of her than her bro- 
 thers, during the housekeeper's ab- 
 sence. 
 
 Catharine made the puddings ; 
 but remarked, during the process, 
 that the dough would not properly 
 adhere, and when she departed she 
 left them in a kneading-trough. The 
 brothers, not suspecting that any 
 mischief was intended, boiled one of 
 the puddings for dinner, and, when 
 
 properly done, sat down to partake 
 of it; but, before they had swallowed 
 three mouthfuls, they were seized 
 with violent vomitings. Suspecting 
 that the pudding was poisoned, they 
 threw a small piece of it to a sow in 
 the yard, which she had scarcely 
 swallowed when the poor animal 
 was taken sick, and, alter lingering 
 a short time, died. 
 
 The eldest brother, by the ap- 
 plication of proper medicine, soon 
 recovered ; but the youngest lingered 
 for a long time ere he regained his 
 health. The pudding was now ana- 
 lyzed by an university professor of 
 chymistry, who found it to contain 
 a large quantity of corrosive subli- 
 mate of mercury, and no other poi- 
 sonous ingredient, — a fact which de- 
 stroyed the defence set up by Whit- 
 ing, that he had laid some mix 
 vomica for rats, some of which he 
 supposed had got among the meal. 
 On examining his bins, however, it 
 appeared that he had evaded inves- 
 tigation by previously throwing the 
 meal into the privy. 
 
 For this offence Whiting was in- 
 dicted at the Isle of Ely assizes, on 
 Thursday the 5th of March, 1811 ; 
 when, in addition to the above facts, 
 it was proved that, in the event of 
 the Langmans' death, he would 
 come in for their property, in right 
 of his wife, as the next heiress of 
 her brothers. 
 
 The trial lasted till six o'clock 
 in the evening, when the jury re- 
 tired ; and, after a deliberation of ten 
 minutes, found the prisoner Guilty, 
 when he was immediately sentenced 
 to be hanged. 
 
 LORD LOUTH, 
 
 CONVICTED FOR ABUSE OF HIS AUTHORITY AS A MAGISTRATE. 
 
 We have already recorded some advanced in apology for the illegal 
 
 desperate and foolish acts of the conduct of that oppressed people. 
 
 Irish peasantry; but, if crime ever Apprehensive that the laws of the 
 
 admits of palliation, much may be realm are unfavourable to them, 
 
40 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 they lie at the mercy of every ty- loyalty, while their poor tenantry 
 
 rant who may choose to gratify ca- are suspended upon the gibbet as 
 
 price or promote his own interest, examples to scare the million, who 
 
 Driven thus by oppression, can it be return from the sight strengthened 
 
 wondered at that they take upon in their hereditary opinion that there 
 
 themselves to do what they errone- is " no law for an Irishman." Let 
 
 ously suppose the law will not do them, however, undeceive them- 
 
 for them, and plunge into acts that selves, and learn, from the following 
 
 make them amenable to justice? case, that the impartial omnipotence 
 
 The weak and the defenceless are of British laws is able to protect 
 
 soon overpowered by legal autho- the poorest peasant and punish the 
 
 rily ; but their lordly and imperious most lordly villain, 
 tyrants, who goaded thtm to deeds Lord Louth disgraced at once 
 
 of blood, are applauded for their the peerage and the magistracy* 
 
 * A memorable reproof of a magistrate occurred at Cardiff this year, 1811, upon 
 tlie circuit there. A gentleman of opulence, a magistrate, and of undoubted repute, 
 addressed a letter to one of the judges, in which bis object was, not only to accuse a 
 culprit (committed for manslaughter upon a coroner's inquest) of a deliberate and 
 savage murder, but also, upon the evidence of assertion alone, to inflame the judicial 
 mind of his correspondent against that prisoner, by persuading the judge, before-hand, 
 that unless the accused should be cut off by the law, not a life near him, or within his 
 reach, could be safe. He represented this man as a conspirator in a desperate clan 
 of miscreants, who were men of sanguinary habits and passions. 
 
 He told the judge that all the witnesses who were to be heard were partial to the 
 accused, and would suppress the facts they knew, unless his lordship would make 
 them speak out; and he desired him to keep the secret of these hints, for which he 
 gave this reason, that every thing valuable to him was at stake in withholding from 
 this clan a knowledge of the part he took against them. 
 
 When the judge had read this letter, which he received in court, the bar and grand 
 jury attending, he told them a letter had been just put into his hand, and he named 
 the writer of it; he added, that circumstances of peculiar delicacy respecting the sub- 
 ject of that letter imposed upon his feelings the painful necessity of deferring to pub- 
 lish the contents till the gaol had been delivered ; but that he should then direct his 
 principal officer to read it aloud, and should pass a marked and public censure upon 
 it, after delivering which he should command the deposit of the letter upon the files 
 of the court, for safe custody, accompanied by a note of its doom, that if the writer 
 chose to appear he would be in time, and would be heard. When the man accused of 
 the manslaughter had been tried, and had received sentence of imprisonment for 
 three months, he was remanded. The writer of the letter did not appear, and the 
 judge delivered himself nearly as follows to a numerous audience : — 
 
 'You have heard this letter, and your looks were eloquent. They reprobated this 
 tampering and cruel artifice. 
 
 ■ A magistrate of the county, at whose mercy, in some degree, are the lives and li- 
 berties of men, writes to me for the single purpose of insinuating and whispering away a 
 man's life, by undue influence upon the judgment or the feelings of his correspondent. 
 
 ' His object is, to invert the habit and principle of a judicial trust, which is that of 
 being counsel for the prisoners, into the new and sanguinary department of a suborned 
 advocate against them. His letter prompts me to goad the witnesses into evidence 
 more hostile to the culprit than it was their intention to give — advice to me, insinuated 
 behind the back of the accused, and just before his trial, upon evidence of assertion 
 alone, unduly and surreptitiously communicated ! 
 
 'But what heightens the depravity of this iusult upon the Court, and the cruelty of 
 it, as it has taken aim at the parties who are implicated, is the confidence proposed 
 and claimed. 
 
 ' My God !' said the judge, 'is it in 1811 that any man breathing, a subject of this 
 realm, could think a judge base enough to be an accomplice in this fraud upon the 
 sacred honour of his covenant upon oath ; of his dignified indifference to parties ; and. 
 above all, of his presumptions, which are those of the law, that up to the moment of 
 conviction, by authentic and sworn proof, .he accused are innocent? 
 
KNAPPk BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 41 
 
 h$ an act of oppression which, alas! himself of belonging to any frater- 
 is too frequent in Ireland. His nity of sa<« r es, although his economi- 
 lordship had a tenant, named Mat- cal propensities entitled him to he 
 thews, who occupied four acres of classed with the respectable fol- 
 land, and was employed as a la- lowers of the elder Cato, and the 
 bourer, by his lordship, from 1801 turnip-loving Fabius, whose attach- 
 to 1809, without ever incurring the mrnt to cheap diet was equalled, if 
 displeasure of this stem ofarislo- not surpassed, by this Irish noble- 
 cracy. But the noble peer thought man. 
 
 his tenant too happy, and resolved Paddy had his full share of that 
 
 upon diminishing his enjoyments, shrewd sagacity which Providence 
 
 by converting his four acres of poor has, for wise reasons, no doubt, so 
 
 land to his own use. Perhaps his amply dispensed to his country- 
 
 h>id>hip wanted to try upon this men, and defeated, for a while, by 
 
 mighty faim s<>me new system of his cunning, the anger of his 
 
 agriculture ; but Paddy thought landlord. But what can wisdom do, 
 
 his lordship might put his theory when opposed to power without 
 
 into practice in some corner of his principle ? His lordship caused 
 
 large domain, and bluntly refused to Matthews to be summoned before 
 
 surrender his little field to the ra- him on an alleged charge of cutting 
 
 pacious nobleman, who, it appeared, down some trees of his lordship's 
 
 wanted it only because he thought, between sun-rise and sun-set ; but 
 
 by sowing turnips in it, he could the wisdom of Providence has won- 
 
 make it more productive than by derfully qualified all things in na- 
 
 leaving it at a moderate rent with ture. Where it has given the poi- 
 
 poor Matthews. sonous sting, it has denied the 
 
 ' Provoke not the mighty,' said members of progression, — wings or 
 
 the moralist; but Paddy did not f.-et. In the mora! world, where we 
 
 understand, or at least did not act find a bad man we generally find a 
 
 upon this maxim, and from that great deficiency of intellect. It ap- 
 
 hour forward he experienced no- peared, that where his lordship ac- 
 
 thing from his lordship but repeat- cosed Matthews of cutting down 
 
 ed acts of vexatious oppression, the timber, a tree had not grown 
 
 But the Irish are an enduring peo- for cen uries; and consequently the 
 
 pie, and from long habit are re- hearing of the case was postponed 
 
 gardless of such trifling acts of from that day, Monday* to the fol- 
 
 cruelty from their betters. His lowing Saturday, 
 
 lordship was no philosopher, and he Matthews thought the charge 
 
 was indignant at finding Paddy a abandoned ; but no ! on the follow- 
 
 stoic, when he had not the honour ing Thursday his lordship, accom- 
 
 ' What can be said for the writer? 
 
 ' Even to him I would be merciful. Is it an error of judgment? Ts it ignorance? 
 Bui can we forget that tie is a magistrate, and that he is a man? Shall a magistrate 
 be indemnified, or dismissed with a gentle rebuke, who is ignorant of the judicial ho- 
 nour imposed upon him by his peculiar office? Is he a man so unenlightened as to 
 be unapprized of those feelings which tell every honourable mind that no man is to 
 be condemned unheard, and whimpered out of the world by a secret between bis ac- 
 cuser and his judge ? 
 
 'As a memorial to after-ages of the disgrace inseparable from attempts like these, I 
 direct the officer to file this letter upon the records of the Court, accompanied by a 
 note of the fact that it was read aloud in open Court, and severely censured by the 
 judge to whom it was addressed.' 
 
 The other judge assenting, it was made a rule of the Court. 
 
42 
 
 KMAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 panied by several constables, beset 
 Iris house and made him prisoner. 
 In vain the poor man declared his 
 wife was dying! In vain be pointed 
 to his dead infant, that required to 
 be interred ! In rain be protested 
 his innocence, and beseeched his 
 landlord to allow him to remain at 
 home for another day to perform 
 the last melancholy office for his 
 child. But the peer was inexorable, 
 and, without either oath, informa- 
 tion, or document whatever, to 
 substantiate the charge, committed 
 the poor man to gaol for a felony. 
 Here he remained twenty-four days, 
 and was not discharged until the as- 
 sizes, when there was no prosecution. 
 For this conduct a criminal in- 
 formation was filed against his lord- 
 ship in the Court of King's Bench ; 
 and, it appearing that be was ac- 
 tuated by malicious motives, and a 
 vile spirit of revenge, he was found 
 guilty of abuse in his office of ma- 
 
 gistrate. The Court recommended 
 him to make adequate compensation 
 to the injured man, and, to afford 
 him time to do so, protracted the 
 period of declaring his sentence. 
 
 On the 19th of June, 1811, his 
 lordship was brought up to receive 
 sentence, and, it appearing that be 
 bad paid Matthews three hundred 
 pounds, Jadge Day sentenced him to 
 three months' confinement in New* 
 gate. 
 
 During his lordship's sojourn in 
 durance, his parsimonious habits 
 attracted the notice of Watty Cox, 
 the editor of the Irish Magazine, 
 who was confined for a libel. Ac- 
 cordingly Watty honoured his lord- 
 ship with a place in his publication, 
 and gave an engraving of the de- 
 graded nobleman in the act of blow- 
 ing his fire with a mutilated pair 
 of bellows, insinuating that his 
 parsimony would not allow him to 
 purchase a good one. 
 
 HARRIET MAGNIS, 
 
 TRIED FOR STEALING A CHILD. 
 
 In this very singular and myste- 
 rious affair, suspicion first fell upon 
 an innocent lady, the wife of a 
 surgeon in the navy, and, after two 
 examinations of several witnesses, 
 all of whom mistook her person, she 
 was committed for trial at the Old 
 Bailey. It is true she was acquitted ; 
 but what alleviation could be offered 
 to her feelings — what reparation 
 made to an injured husband and dis- 
 tressed relatives ? 
 
 At length the mystery began to 
 develope itself. The first information 
 received in London, was from a 
 magistrate in Gosport, acquainting 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dellow of the dis- 
 covery that their child was safe 
 there, and ready to be delivered to 
 its parents. The father instantly 
 set off, and soon after relumed 
 home with bis son, when he was re- 
 
 quired to appear before the Lord- 
 Mayor of London, where he found 
 WiHia m Barber, the keeper of the 
 Gosport Prison, ready to give evi- 
 dence against a woman of that town 
 of the name of Harriet Magnis, in 
 whose possession the child was 
 found. 
 
 This man, having seen a hand* 
 bill describing the child, got in- 
 formation that it was at Gosport, 
 and went to the lodgings of Mrs. 
 Magnis, who lived in a very respect- 
 able way. He asked her if she had 
 a child, and if it was her own ; 
 to which she replied, rather faintly, 
 that it was; but upon bis saying 
 that he doubted it, and desiring to 
 see the child, she took him very 
 readily to the room where it was 
 in bed, and confessed to him that 
 she had found the boy in London 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 43 
 
 The keeper handed a copy of her 
 confession and examination at Gos- 
 port to his lordship. Mrs. Dellow 
 said that her husband had brought 
 her child home alive and well, though 
 not quite so lusty. The lord-mayor 
 remanded the prisoner for further 
 examination, when it appeared Vhata 
 woman at Gosport observed a 
 neighbour of hers in possession of a 
 boy, bearing the marks described, 
 and answering to the age. She im- 
 mediately thought it was Thomas 
 Dellow, who had been so long miss- 
 ing ; the more so, as she had rea- 
 son to believe that the pre- 
 tended mother had never borne a 
 child. She communicated her sus- 
 picions to the gaoler, when Mrs. 
 Magnis confessed the whole affair, 
 and her motive for the robbery ; 
 that her husband, who was a gunner 
 on board one of his majesty's ships, 
 and had saved a considerable sum of 
 money for a man in his station of 
 life, was extremely partial to chil- 
 dren, and had often expressed his 
 most anxious wish to have a little 
 darling, as he used to term it. His 
 wife, not less anxious to gratify him 
 in this respect, wrote to him while 
 at sea, that she was in the family 
 way. The gunner, highly delighted 
 that he had obtained his desired 
 object, sent home the earnings of 
 many a cruise, amounting to three 
 hundred pounds, with a particular 
 charge that the infant should be 
 well rigged, and want for nothing: 
 if a boy, so much the better. 
 
 The next letter from his hopeful 
 wife announced the happy tidings 
 that liis firsl-botu was a son; and 
 that she would name him Richard, 
 alter his father. — The husband ex- 
 pressed his joy at the news, and 
 count' (I the tedious hours until he 
 should be permitted to come home 
 to his wife and child. 
 
 At home lie at length arrived, 
 but at an unfortunate time, when 
 
 the dear Richard was out at nurse, 
 at a considerable distance; change 
 of air being necessary to the easy 
 cutting of his teeth. The husband's 
 time being short, he left his home 
 with a heavy heart, without being 
 able to see his offspring ; but he 
 was assured that on his next trip to 
 Gosport he should have the felicity 
 he had so often pined for, of clasp- 
 ing his darling to his bosom. It 
 was not until November last that he 
 was at liberty to revisit home, when 
 he had again the mortification to 
 find that his son, whom he expected 
 to see a fine boy of three years old, 
 had not yet cut his teeth, or that 
 he was from home on some other 
 pretence. The husband, however, 
 was not to be pacified thus : he 
 would go and see his son, or his son 
 should come to him. Mrs. Magnis, 
 finding him determined, thought the 
 latter much the best way ; and ac- 
 cordingly set off to fetch the boy. 
 The metropolis occurred to her as 
 the market best calculated to afford 
 her a choice of children ; and, pass- 
 ins down Martin's Lane, she was 
 struck with the rosy little citizen, 
 Tommy Dellow, and at once deter- 
 mined to make him her prize. He 
 was playing with his sister at the 
 green-grocer's shop-door, into which 
 Mrs. Magnis went, with the double 
 view of purchasing some apples, and 
 carrying off the boy. — She made 
 much of the sister, caressed the 
 boy, and gave him an apple: The 
 children being pleased with her at- 
 tention, she asked the little girl to 
 shew her to a pastry-cook's shop to 
 buy some cakes, when she got clear 
 off with the boy, and left the girl 
 behind. 
 
 Poor Magnis felt a parental affec- 
 tion for the boy ; and, when the im- 
 position was discovered before the 
 magistrate, he was grieved to the 
 heart at being obliged to part wit a 
 him under all the circumstances o, 
 
u 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 t!ie transaction. The little fellow 
 hruseir seemed highly pleased with 
 all the work he occasioned. 
 
 Harriet Magnis was committed 
 to Winchester gaol ;* and, when she 
 was brought to trial at the assizes for 
 
 Hampshire, it was agreed, after 
 many arguments urged by counsel 
 on both sides, that the offence was 
 committed in London, and not in 
 Hampshire, and that consequently 
 she must be acquitted. 
 
 BENJAMIN WALSH, ESQ. M.P. 
 
 CONVICTED OF FELONIOUSLY STEALING. 
 
 Mr. Walsh had long been known 
 in the city of London as a dashing 
 mercantile character. In copartner- 
 ship with a Mr. Nisbett, he con- 
 tracted with the chancellor of the 
 exchequer for a lottery of fifty 
 thousand tickets. This proved, to 
 such a man, a very lucky specula- 
 tion. He rubbed off his debts by a 
 statute of bankruptcy ; and he soon 
 procured for himself a seat in the 
 Parliament of his country ! 
 
 The meeting of the creditors un- 
 oer the commission against Walsh 
 and Nisbett brought to light some 
 of the finesse practised by lottery 
 contractors and by lottery-office- 
 keepers. The first meeting took 
 place on the 12th of November, 
 1308, when Mr. Montague, as coun- 
 sel for Mr. Whiting, the printer, 
 stated that he should object to per- 
 sons who were subscribers in Walsh 
 and Nisbett's list proving, under 
 the idea of their being partners; and 
 as he conceived Mr. Bish was not 
 only a great person in this business, 
 but also a great creditor, he should 
 like to try his strength with him 
 first. Mr. Bish was on oath, and 
 Mr. Montague put several questions 
 to him, chiefly whether he conceived 
 himself as a partner with Messrs. 
 Walsh and Nisbett. — Mr. Bish an- 
 swered, that he conceived that, if 
 there really was a profit on the lot- 
 tery, he was entitled to a share on 
 eight hundred and fifty-four (the 
 number of tickets he was a sub- 
 
 scriber for) as that bore to fifty 
 thousand, the number of tickets 
 which the two lotteries consisted 
 of. Mr. Burroughs then asked a 
 variety of questions of Mr. Bish, as 
 to the nature of the contract for a 
 lottery, and whether he did not 
 know, of his own knowledge, that 
 the most gross, infamous, and scan- 
 dalous practices had been used to 
 make false sales, and thereby raise 
 the price of the transfer of tickets 
 from the original subscribers to 
 other persons. Mr. Bish answered 
 that such practices had been used, 
 but that he was no ways privy to 
 them, but was the instrument in 
 detecting them. After debating a 
 variety of intricate points for up- 
 wards of three hours, the commis- 
 sioners being divided two and two, 
 a petition seemed to be generally re- 
 commended to the chancellor on 
 this unprecedented and important 
 business. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this clamour 
 of creditors, Walsh and Nisbett 
 bustled through their broken for- 
 tunes; and, from the counting- 
 house desk, the former, as we have 
 already observed, was placed in the 
 seat of a legislator for his country. 
 There, among ' the great men, the 
 grave men, and the sage men of the 
 land,' he beheld a fair field for the 
 exercise of his talents. Elevation 
 to rank and power soon wipes away 
 every former stain of reputation, 
 and effaces each blot of character. 
 
 * This we thought at the time a strange kind of commitment — a prisoner to be tried 
 «n Hampshire for an offence committed in the city of London. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 45 
 
 Among the dignified of the House 
 of Commons, Sir Thomas Plomer, 
 it seemed, had not a whit worse opi- 
 nion of his brother member Walsh 
 than if no lottery contract had been 
 made, or any bankruptcy against 
 him issued forth. In short. Sir 
 Thomas intrusted him with a very 
 large sum of money to purchase go- 
 vernment securities; but Walsh laid 
 it out in tiie stocks of the United 
 States of America in his own name, 
 and endeavoured to fly to that land 
 of refuge to the guilty ; but was 
 overtaken by the arm of justice, at 
 the port from whence he intendid 
 to quit his native country. 
 
 Walsh was pursued by the soli- 
 citor of the duped knight and a Bow 
 Street runner, to Falmouth ; to 
 which port it was discovered he had 
 fled by stopping his letters, under 
 a government order, at the General 
 Post- Office. Young members of 
 parliament are fond of franking the 
 letters of their friends ; and it ap- 
 peared that Walsh was so very 
 tenacious of his prerogative, that, 
 in an ignominious concealed flight, 
 he must still indorse upon his let- 
 ters, " Free, B. Walsh." 
 
 This degenerate legislator was 
 arraigned at the bar of the Old 
 Bailey, charged with feloniously 
 stealing twenty-two bank-notes of 
 one thousand pounds each, and one 
 bank-note for two hundred pounds, 
 the property of Sir Thomas Plomer, 
 Knt. with intent to defraud him of 
 the said sum of money : in other 
 counts of the indictment the offence 
 was variously charged, to which 
 the prisoner pleaded Not Guilty. 
 
 Mr. Garrow observed, that, if it 
 had been possible for the prosecutor 
 in this action to have extended in- 
 dulgence or commiseration towards 
 the unfortunate prisoner at the bar, 
 his honourable and humane feelinns 
 and character wwuld have most will- 
 
 ingly abstained from the present 
 prosecution ; but, from the nature ot 
 the case, he was Called upon to dis- 
 charge an important public duty, 
 which was indispensable. The pro- 
 secutor was his majesty's solicitor- 
 general, and had Ion lt been ac- 
 quainted with the gentleman whom 
 lie bad now the painful duty to pro- 
 secute. His father had been a di- 
 rector of the Bank of England, and 
 from this the prosecutor was in- 
 duced to intrust the prisoner as a 
 stock-broker. He then proceeded 
 to state the case, as it appeared in 
 evidence, from which he concluded 
 that, at the time of the prisoner's 
 getting the means into his power, it 
 was his intention to perpetrate the 
 felony. As to the question of law, 
 he took it from the oldest autho- 
 rities, that the crime of larceny 
 was imputable to the prisoner. 
 The crime of simple larceny was 
 sufficiently known and well defined; 
 it was feloniously taking the per- 
 sonal chattels against the will, and 
 without the knowledge, of the 
 owner, with intent to convert them 
 to his own use, and upon the evi- 
 dence it would appear that the pri- 
 soner at the bar had taken this 
 money with no other intent. 
 
 Sir Thomas Plomer stated that 
 he had for many years employed 
 the prisoner as a stock-broker, and 
 in the month of August last apprized 
 him that he had made a contract for 
 the purchase of an estate, for which 
 he was to pay at Michaelmas, and 
 it would be necessary for him to 
 sell out stock to a considerable 
 amount. The prisoner advised, at 
 that time, to postpone selling out, 
 as he expected a considerable rise 
 in stock, and the longer he post- 
 poned it the better ; but in No- 
 vember the prisoner urged him 
 strongly to sell out, as stock would 
 fall considerably, saying, he had 
 
46 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 consulted the most intelligent per- 
 sons upon the subject; and, in con- 
 sequence of this, he gave him au- 
 thority to sell out stock to the 
 amount of thirteen thousand four 
 hundred pounds, three per cent, 
 and eighteen thousand six hundred 
 pounds, reduced consols. On the 
 following day he called at the pri- 
 soner's office in the city, who told 
 him lie had made the contract for 
 the sale, and it was agreed to be 
 transferred on the Wednesday or 
 Thursday following, which accord- 
 ingly took place; and he then con- 
 sulted the prisoner on the best way 
 of disposing of the money until he 
 should want it, and he advised the 
 purchase of exchequer bills ; but it 
 was then, he said, too late in the 
 day for that purpose. The next 
 day the prisoner called at his cham- 
 bers at Lincoln's Inn, and he gave 
 him a check on Messrs. Goslings, 
 his bankers, for twenty-two thou- 
 sand pounds, for the purpose of pur- 
 chasing those exchequer bills, and 
 he promised to return with them 
 that day at four o'clock ; this was 
 Thursday, the 5th December. He 
 returned about half-past four, ap- 
 peared agitated, and complained of 
 an asthma ; and after a little pause 
 told him he had made the contract 
 with Mr. Trotter, Mr. Coutts's 
 broker; but the exchequer bills 
 could not be delivered until Satur- 
 day, as they were locked up in the 
 Bank, and Mr. Coutts was not in 
 town; and that he should cation 
 that day at three o'clock. At that 
 time he produced six thousand 
 pounds exchequer bills, which he said 
 lie would lo.lue with his bankers, 
 along with the receipt for the ba- 
 lance. He aflerwards inquired at 
 his bankers', and found the exche- 
 quer hills for six thousand pounds 
 were lodged, but no receipt, and he 
 never saw the prisoner after until 
 h« saw biui in Bow Street. 
 
 Upon his cross-examination oy 
 Mr. Scarlett, he admitted he had 
 given the check for twenty-two 
 thousand pounds for the express 
 purpose of purchasing exchequer 
 bills, as his stock-broker: he did 
 not give any particular injunction 
 as to the mode of obtaining the 
 money for the check, but left it to 
 his own discretion. 
 
 William Ewins, clerk at Goslings 
 and Co.'s, proved the payment of 
 the check for twenty-two thousand 
 pounds to the prisoner in person ; 
 and Mr. William Haunaii proved 
 the purchase of six thousand five 
 hundred pounds in exchequer bills, 
 by order of the prisoner ; and George 
 Hankley, his clerk, proved the de- 
 livery o( them to the prisoner. 
 
 Mr. Enuis De Berdt, a broker of 
 American stock, proved the pri- 
 soner having commissioned him, 
 on the 29th of November, to pur- 
 chase ten or eleven thousand pounds 
 American stock, for a gentleman 
 going to that country. The pur- 
 chase was completed ; and on 
 Thursday, the 5th of December, 
 about twelve o'clock in the fore- 
 noon, the prisoner paid him in 
 eleven bank-notes of one thousand 
 pounds each, for ten thousand four 
 hundred and fifty-nine pounds, nine- 
 teen shillings, American stock ; and 
 the witness gave him a check on 
 his bankers for the balance. 
 
 Mr Joseph Walsh, brother of 
 the prisoner, proved a payment to 
 him of one thousand and ninety-nine 
 pounds odd, on the 5th of Decem- 
 ber, due to him by his brother some 
 time. 
 
 Thomas Clark, the brcther-in- 
 law of the prisoner, also proved a 
 payment to him by the prisoner, 
 on the same day, of one one-thou- 
 sand-pounds' bank-note, and he 
 gave him a check on his banker for 
 six hundred pounds, leaving in his 
 hands four hundred pounds. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 47 
 
 Henry Atwriffht, clerk of the 
 prisoner, proved his hiving changed 
 a bank-note for one thousand pounds 
 given to him by the prisoner on that 
 same day. 
 
 Here Mr. Garrow took occasion 
 to observe, that there was not the 
 slightest ground of suspicion that 
 any of the witnesses had any pre- 
 vious knowledge of the prisoner's 
 intention. 
 
 Mr. Charles, of the Bank of Eng- 
 land, proved his having made the 
 contract with the prisoner for the 
 purchase of the stock sold out by 
 Sir Thomas Plomer. 
 
 Joseph Hearn, a silversmith, 
 proved the purchase of three hun- 
 dred pounds in Portuguese dou- 
 bloons from him by the prisoner on 
 the 5th of December. 
 
 Mr. Scarlett, in addressing the 
 Court for the defence, hoped he 
 should not be understood to enter- 
 tain any other sentiments of this 
 offence than a conviction of the 
 moral turpitude of the prisoner ; 
 and he was satisfied the prisoner 
 himself entertained no other senti- 
 ment, and felt all the contrition be- 
 longing to such a crime; but it now 
 became his duty to make such ob- 
 jections as occurred to him : — First, 
 there could be no charge of this 
 sort for stealing the check, for it 
 was in evidence that the prosecutor 
 had given it the prisoner for a spe- 
 cific purpose ; and it was not alto- 
 gether misapplied, for he had pur- 
 chased some exchequer bills, and 
 the law did not allow the act of 
 felony to be in part separated. The 
 second objection was under the 
 statute of the second year of the 
 reign of George II. by which the 
 security intended by the legislature 
 was to such property as was still 
 available to the party himself. In 
 this case the prosecutor had parted 
 
 with all control over the check by 
 delivering it to the prisoner. Thirdly, 
 the felonious intent of the party 
 taking was not in itself sufficient to 
 constitute a felony when the party 
 to whom the property belonged had 
 relinquished his control over it; 
 and, in support of these objections, 
 he referred to several cases in 
 point. 
 
 After some observations by Mr. 
 Garrow, Mr. Scarlett, and Mr. Alley, 
 it was agreed that the jury should 
 find a verdict subject to the future 
 judgment of the twelve judges upon 
 the chief baron's report. 
 
 The chief baron acquiesced in 
 this arrangement, and then adverted 
 to that part of the evidence which 
 went to show the previous intent of 
 the prisoner to commit the felony ; 
 observing, at the same time, that 
 it was impossible, upon such evi- 
 dence, not to find the prisoner 
 guilty; who, in consequence of the 
 objections made by his counsel, 
 would have all the benefit of the 
 judgment of the twelve judges 
 hereafter. 
 
 The jury immediately returned a 
 verdict of — Guilty. 
 
 Durinjr the whole of the trial the 
 prisoner was much affected ; but 
 particularly when that part of the 
 letters was read relative to the 
 situation of his wife and children. 
 
 The result of the argument before 
 the judges was, that the facts 
 proved did not, in estimation of 
 law, amount to felony, and as Walsh 
 had been convicted of that offence 
 he received a free pardon. 
 
 The Commons expelled him from 
 his seat in their house; and he was 
 attain made a bankrupt, whereupon 
 Sir Thomas found himself entitled 
 only to a pitiful dividend under the 
 second commission. 
 
43 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 WILLIAM HEBBERFIELD, 
 
 EXECUTED FOK FORGERY.* 
 
 William Hebberfield stood ca- ones lie had received from Mr. 
 pitally indicted for feloniously forg- Weston, of which the prisoner re- 
 in^, and, in a second count, for utter- turned him three, saying he had 
 ing, knowing it to be forged, a cer- not enough of the other notes ready 
 tain two-pound note, with intent to until to-morrow, and then gave him, 
 defraud the Governor and Company in lieu of the three notes he kept, 
 of the Bank of England. Forgeries forged notes to the nominal value 
 of their notes to a most enormous of six pounds. With these Barry 
 amount had been for a considerable immediately returned to Mr. Weston, 
 time going on, the authors of which who waited in the street, and im- 
 the company were not able to dis- mediately Beckett went in, accom- 
 cover. The prisoner was confined panied by Brown and another offi 
 in Newgate under a sentence of two cer, to the prisoner's chamber 
 years' imprisonment, by the Court, where Beckett asked him to pro- 
 of King's Bench, on a conviction (luce what property he had about 
 for conspiracy in aiding the escape him. Upon which the prisoner pro- 
 of the French General Austin, a duced from one pocket a handful of 
 prisoner of war in this country upon gold, from another a pocket-book 
 his parole. There was also a pri- filled with bank-notes, fromanotlnr 
 soner named Barry, confined in the a quantity of loose bank-notes, and 
 House of Correction at Clerkenwell, he also produced a stocking stuffed 
 on a sentence of six months' impri 
 
 sonment, for uttering counterfeit 
 dollars. Mr. Weston, the princi- 
 pal clerk of Messrs. Kayeaud Fresh- 
 field, solicitors of the Bank, went 
 to Barry in piison on Monday, the 
 23d September ; and, in cotise- 
 
 with the like currency. Beckett, 
 on examining these notes, and not 
 perceiving amongst them any of 
 the marked ones he sought for, told 
 the prisoner he had some more, and 
 desired him to produce them. Upon 
 which the prisoner took some other 
 
 quence of a plan then concerted, he notes from his side-pocket, and laid 
 gave Barry eight pounds in Bank them on the bed where he was sit- 
 of England notes, which he pre- ting. — Beckett took those up. They 
 viously marked with the letter W; were the marked notes; he said 
 he then accompanied Barry in a these were what he wanted, and 
 coach, together with one of the returned the prisoner the rest. Upon 
 turnkeys, named Beckett, to New- which the prisoner, probably pro- 
 gale, where Barry went in, and di- phesying his purpose, snatched the 
 reetly, without communicating his notes, and thrust them into the 
 purpose to any one, to the room of fire. Beckett's assistant, however, 
 the prisoner, where there were a rescued them from the flames, and 
 number of persons with him. He they were proved to be the same 
 went up to the prisoner, gave him which Barry had paid him just be- 
 six one-pound notes of the marked fore; and the notes Barry received 
 
 • The number of persons prosecuted for forged notes of the Bank of Engl. md, and 
 for uttering, or having them in their possession, knowing them to be forged, from 
 the year 1797 to 1811 inclusive, amounted to no less than four hundred and seventy- 
 one. The number of persons prosecuted for counterfeiting the tokens issued by the 
 Bank of England, or for uttering the same, was, in 1804, eight persons ; 180.5, none ; 
 '806, two; 1807, none ; 1808, one ; 1809, nine ; 1810, six ; and 1C 11, twenty three. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CADENDAU. 49 
 
 in liei. were al*o proved lo be 
 forgeries. 
 
 The prisoner v«as found Guilty— 
 Death. He suffered before New- 
 gale on the 29th of January, 1812, 
 with Paul Whitehead, a man ot 
 genteel appearance, who was tried 
 at the same sessions for forging the 
 name of Thomas Gullan, an acceptor 
 
 of a hill of eighty-seven pounos, 
 ten shillings, and thereby defraud- 
 ing Messrs. Robarts, Curtis, and 
 Co. They met their fate with 
 decent fortitude, and when on 
 the fatal scaffold shook hands, 
 after which they were launched 
 into eternity.— The crowd was im- 
 mense. 
 
 Tucker fraudulently performing tne Marriage Ceremony. 
 
 JOHN TUCKER, 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR OBTAI NING MON EY ONDEIl FALSE PKETENCE9. 
 
 THIS impostor's career in vil- carrying vegetables for sale to that 
 
 Jainy, though short, was notorious; city. His son, entertaining higher 
 
 jor few swindlers ever contrived notions than the father, procured 
 
 to arrest so much of public atten- as much education as qualified him 
 
 tion, with so little advantage to for the situation of a teacher of 
 
 themselves; as it must be admitted writing and arithmetic in schools, 
 
 jiis gains bore no proportion to the and in this profession he spent a 
 
 address with which he imposed up- few years of his life, until sonvj 
 
 on a learned profession. misconduct of his caused his dis- 
 
 John Tucker was the son of a missal from an academy at Ham- 
 poor man who resided in a village mersmith. 
 near Exeter, and got his living by While engaged as an usher, h& 
 
 VOL IV. iOl 
 
50 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 contrived to get into the society of 
 many students of Oxford, from 
 whom he learned numerous particu- 
 lars of tlie college, the fellows, the 
 degrees, &c. and with this infor- 
 mation he determined to assume 
 the character of a master of arts, 
 and commence parson. 
 
 He represented himself as just 
 come from college, and waiting for 
 church preferment, which he ex- 
 pected quickly to take place, in 
 consequence of his connexion with 
 a great man, whose letters in corro- 
 boration he always carried about 
 him, unless when in company with 
 those who might know the writing, 
 and then the original he stated was 
 at home ; but the copy he had with 
 him. In this way he practised his 
 deceptions to a great extent, as- 
 suming different names, saying at 
 one time that his father was Re- 
 corder of Exeter, and at another 
 that he was himself Rector of Frome, 
 but uniformly asserting that he was 
 in holy orders, and thereby suc- 
 ceeded in perpetrating his depreda- 
 tions on the clergy, whom he ge- 
 nerally contrived to dupe. 
 
 He got a pretty good footing at 
 St. Clement's Church, in the Strand, 
 by merely calling there, sometimes, 
 in a curricle, gig, or on horseback, 
 pretending he was just come from 
 the country ; and, under pretence 
 of being familiar with several gen- 
 tlemen at Oxford, he imposed upon 
 Mr. Gurney, the rector, and Mr. 
 Shepherd, his assistant, with whose 
 connexions he got acquainted. He 
 frequently dined with them, and 
 often did duty at the church. 
 
 One day Mr. Shepherd had to 
 bury a corpse, and about the same 
 hour was engaged out to dine ; when 
 Tucker, being there, offered his ser- 
 vice, and he actually performed the 
 burial ceremony. Dr. Hawker was 
 engaged to preach a charity-sermon 
 at that church. Tucker made his 
 
 appearance in the vestry at an early 
 hour; and, although Mr. Shepherd 
 had promised to read the prayers 
 for the doctor, this fellow got pos- 
 session of the surplice against the 
 consent of the clerk and sexton, 
 and went into the desk, where he 
 remained, though, on Mr. Shepherd's 
 arrival, the sexton offered to pull 
 him out. This and some other 
 circumstances exciting suspicions 
 against him, he was refused permis- 
 sion to officiate there in future. 
 
 One Sunday morning he went to 
 Hammersmith, before the com- 
 mencement of the church service, 
 and introduced himself to the rector 
 as the Rev. Mr. Tucker, just ar- 
 rived from Oxford, &c. and that 
 he was engaged to dine with the 
 master of Hammersmith academy 
 He offered his service to the rectot 
 who politely accepted it, observing, 
 ' Probably you could give us a ser- 
 mon.' Tucker replied that he was 
 not exactly prepared ; but that he 
 would read prayers in the morning 
 and preach in the afternoon. The 
 rector lent him his best <jown ; and, 
 when the service was over, Tucker 
 strutted through the town with it 
 on his back, and went to the aca- 
 demy, where he had formerly lived 
 as usher. The master and family 
 were much surprised to see him, 
 especially in a clerical dress, as his 
 conduct was not the most proper 
 when last at Hammersmith. But 
 he had a ready tale; and, deceived 
 by his false representations, they 
 invited him to dinner. In the mean 
 time the rector received information 
 that Tucker was an impostor, and 
 accordingly went to the academy, 
 where he found him swaggering 
 away in his gown. Tucker affected 
 to be greatly hurt at the charge; 
 and, on a constable being sent for, 
 he pretended sudden illness, and re- 
 tired to the garden; and, the better 
 to conceal his design of running 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 51 
 
 awav, left his hat behind; hut he 
 supplied its place by borrowing one 
 from the biggest boy, and made good 
 his retreat. 
 
 Tucker also officiated at Park 
 Street Chapel, read prayers, preach- 
 ed, and administered the sacrarr.ent; 
 and so powerful had the impression 
 been that he was a parson, that 
 the clerk of this chapel, on being ap- 
 plied to by a tavern-keeper respect- 
 ingTucker, went security for his bill. 
 
 To detail the impositions of this 
 vile swindler would be nearly impos- 
 sible, so various were bis schemes, 
 and so many were his dupes. He 
 not only baptized and buried, but 
 actually performed the marriage 
 ceremony ; and when, in St. Mar- 
 tin's Church, he published the 
 banns of matrimony, it is said the 
 ladies were delighted with his fine 
 audible voice. Tavern and coffee- 
 house keepers were his dupes, and 
 there were few he came in contact 
 with from whom he did not contrive 
 to borrow a few shillings or a few 
 pounds. 
 
 Such a course of fraud could not 
 continue. On the 29th of July, 
 1811, application was made at the 
 police office, Bow Street, by a cler- 
 gyman belonging to a man-of-war, 
 in consequence of Tucker having 
 imposed on him, and got from him, 
 at various times, to the amount of 
 thirty pounds. This being borrowed 
 money, no warrant could be grant- 
 ed. But iu the evening a very dif- 
 ferent charge was made by Thomas 
 Edbrook, of the City of Quebec pub. 
 lie house, in Oxford Street, from 
 whom he had received money and 
 wine on false pretences. An officer 
 being dispatched in pursuit of Tuck- 
 er, he was found to have enlisted 
 in the 21st regiment, representing 
 himself as a young man of family, 
 who would quickly buy him off 
 when they heard of his situation. 
 Iiv consequence of this representa- 
 
 tion, he was living at the sergeant's 
 expense. When brought before the 
 magistrates he candidly acknow- 
 ledged that he had frequently per- 
 formed all the duties of a clcrsrv- 
 man without being in orders. It 
 was no sooner known that Tucker 
 was in custody than hundreds flock- 
 ed to make their charges ; but the 
 greater number, ashamed of their 
 credulous simplicity, shrunk back 
 when they had heard that enough 
 was deposed to criminate him. He 
 was tried at the Middlesex sessions 
 for obtaining three bottles of wine, 
 and five shillings and sixpence in 
 money, on false pretences. The 
 evidence being gone through, he 
 made the following speech in his 
 defence : — " Your worship, and gen- 
 tlemen of the jury — In this age of 
 curiosity, when matters, however 
 trifling in their nature, usurp as 
 much the attention of mankind as 
 the high concerns of empires, it is 
 not wonderful that a being, humble 
 as myself, should obtain some por- 
 tion of that attention. It is the less 
 wonderful, gentlemen, as I have 
 been considered fair game by the 
 whole pack of those who live by 
 poisoning the public mind. The 
 editors of newspapers, and the 
 tribe of caricaturists, have con- 
 tributed all in their power to mis- 
 represent me. I have filled the 
 columns of their journals and their 
 shops ; but I blame them not — 1 
 have been to them a profitable con- 
 cern, and they must write and paint 
 to be able to eat. In order, how- 
 ever, to stem in some degree the 
 torrent of misrepresentation, al- 
 though very unwilling to obtrude 
 myself upon the public, I determined 
 to sell my ikeness, thinking that 
 its exhibition might in some mea- 
 sure tend to correct the mistaken 
 ideas entertained of me.' [The 
 chairman here interrupted the pri- 
 soner, and begged him to confine 
 
62 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 himself to the matter of the indict- 
 ment. It was hetter for him to deny 
 or to disprove what had been alleged 
 against him.] The prisoner in con- 
 tinuation — ' Language, then, sir, 
 could not speak louder in behalf of 
 the knavery than the testimony of 
 that first witness. — I know not 
 what to say, — I stand here as a 
 wretched example of human infir- 
 mity. 1 made my entrance into 
 human life friendless and unassisted, 
 without one fostering hand to che- 
 rish or direct me, and depending 
 solely on the exertion of my talents 
 for my progress through the world. 
 I had, perhaps, too much confidence 
 in my own powers; and, unfortified 
 oy religion, I may have little sus- 
 pected the deceitfulness of my own 
 heart. — I am now fallen, — 1 am 
 iorne down by my own follies, as 
 \e\[ as by the calumnies of a mer- 
 ciless world. My reputation gone, 
 ^-poverty and scorn heavy upon 
 
 me; my name and my crime filling 
 the papers of the day, and sung 
 even in ballads through the streets. 
 Coming from the gloom of a prison, 
 and torn by those anxieties which 
 loss of character, more than fear of 
 punishment, is able to excite, am I 
 not, gentlemen, a young man most 
 deserving of your pity ? Am I not 
 an object that must raise in your 
 bosoms every emotion of tender- 
 ness and compassion ? I once was fair 
 in reputation, and my morning life 
 was without a cloud ; I now feel the 
 value of the one, and all is dark- 
 ness before me. Should you, gen- 
 tlemen, restore me to the waiks of 
 life, I can only say, most sincerely, 
 that my future conduct will be such 
 as to prove that your clemency shall 
 not have been thrown away.' 
 
 The jury found him Guilty, and 
 the chairman sentenced him to trans- 
 portation for seven years. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS, 
 
 MURDERER AND SUICIDE. 
 
 The metropolis — indeed the whole 
 .nation — was never before so com- 
 pletely horror-struck, at any private 
 calamity, as at the daring and in- 
 human murders perpetrated in the 
 very heart of the city of London, 
 on the close of the year 1811. 
 
 On a dark evening in the begin- 
 ning of the month of December, 
 about the time when tradesmen are 
 shutting up their shops, Mr. Marr, 
 a respectable draper, sent his ser- 
 vant-maid to purchase some oysters 
 for the family supper. Mr. Marr 
 was in the act of placing goods, 
 which had been exposed to the 
 view of customers on the counter, 
 upon their shelves. The girl left 
 the shop door a-jar, expecting to 
 return in a very few minutes; but 
 unfortunately the nearest place of 
 sale for oysters had disposed of the 
 
 whole, and she therefore went far- 
 ther on her errand. Mean time 
 two or more ruffians entered the 
 shop, shut the door, knocked down 
 Mr. Marr, and cut his throat. They 
 next seized his shop-boy, and mur- 
 dered him. Mrs. Marr was in the 
 kitchen, hushing her babe to sleep. 
 Hearing an extraordinary noise and 
 scuffling above, as was supposed, 
 she hastily laid the child in the 
 cradle, and ran up stairs, where 
 she was met by the blood-thirsty 
 monsters, and instantly murdered in 
 the same way they had dispatched 
 Mr. Marr and the boy. 
 
 The child, disturbed with being 
 hastily laid down, cried aloud, and 
 the villains, doubtless apprehensive 
 that it would cause an alarm- 
 more horrible still to relate — de- 
 scended, and cut its innocent throa* 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 63 
 
 so as nearly to sever its tender head 
 from the body. 
 
 By this time the girl returned 
 with the oysters, and finding the 
 shop door shut, rang the bell ; but 
 no person answered. At this in- 
 stant a watchman, passing on his 
 round, asked what she did there; 
 and he pulled the bell with vio- 
 lence, which so much alarmed the 
 villains that they made a precipi- 
 tate retreat through a window of 
 the back part of the house, across 
 some mud, and along an intricate 
 way, which no one that had not pre- 
 viously reconnoitered the situation, 
 could have readily found. 
 
 The watchman, finding the bell 
 still unanswered, went to the next 
 door neighbour, and gave an alarm. 
 Some three or four men collecting 
 together, it was determined to scale 
 the wall which divided Mr. Marr's 
 back premises from those of the 
 adjoining house. This was done 
 without mucli loss of time, and there 
 was presented one of the most woe- 
 ful scenes that ever disgraced hu- 
 man nature. The body of Mr. 
 Marr and his shop-boy, the latter 
 of whom appeared, from evident 
 marks, to have struggled for life 
 with the assassins, near each other; 
 that of Mrs. Marr in the passage, 
 and the infant in its cradle, all 
 dead, but yet warm and weltering 
 in their blood. The horrible scene 
 for a moment petrified those who 
 first entered, and they naturally 
 feared the murderers might still be 
 in the house, plundering the pro- 
 perty therein. They opened the 
 street door, and called out an alarm 
 of ' Murder !' which spread with 
 such rapidity that the neighbour- 
 hood was very soon in an alarm. 
 The nightly watch mustered, and 
 the drum of the melancholy beat to 
 arms— in fine, though now near 
 midnight, so great a crowd assem- 
 bled that it was necessary to shut 
 
 the doors, while some one explaiued 
 the cause of the alarm to those in 
 the street. 
 
 The coroner's jury of course 
 brought in the verdict, ' Guilty of 
 wilful murder against some person 
 or persons unknown !' 
 
 ' In murder's annals shall we find 
 A deed so savage in its kind, 
 So formed to rend the feeling heart, 
 And bid the soul with horror start; 
 Yet force that very heart to own 
 'Twas well that neither fell alone 1 
 Yes, it was well — the husband's bier 
 Drank not his widow's frenzied tear : 
 Nor did her blood-stained beauty crave 
 Like anguish o'er her early grave : 
 Nor were their mingled sorrows shed 
 On their sweet babe's ensanguin'd head. 
 One doleful moment's matchless woe, 
 One dire unutterable blow, 
 And all was past — concerted there 
 Fled the last sighs of sorrow and despair. 
 Trust we, in that tremendous hour, 
 Almighty Mercy's soothing power 
 O'er the pale victims shed a ray, 
 The harbinger of endless day : 
 Then bade the unfettered spirits rise 
 To sudden glory to the skies.' 
 
 Scarce had the horror excited by 
 the fate of these unfortunate persons 
 subsided, when the neighbourhood 
 in which they resided became again 
 a scene of confusion, horror, and 
 dismay ; and, by the spectacle which 
 was presented on Thursday night, 
 the l&th of December, 1811, a new 
 and irresistible feeling of alarm per- 
 vaded all the inhabitants, lest some 
 of their domestic circles should next 
 become the objects of midnight as- 
 sassination. 
 
 Shortly after eleven o'clock, the 
 neighbourhood of New Gravel Lane 
 was alarmed by the most dreadful 
 cries of ' Murder!' Crowds of ia- 
 dividuahs resident on the spot soon 
 collected around the house whence 
 proceeded the appalling sounds (the 
 King's Arms public house, No. 81, 
 Gravel Lane,) and it was imme- 
 diately ascertained that the cries 
 which excited such general alarm 
 came from a man who was seen de- 
 
-H 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 scending, almost in a state of nu- 
 dity, by a line formed by the junc- 
 tion of two sheets, from the two- 
 pair-of-stairs' window of the house 
 in question. On reaching the ex- 
 tremity of the sheets, which was 
 nearly eight feet from the around, 
 he was assisted by the watchman, 
 who caught him in his arms, when 
 he cried out, in the greatest agi- 
 tation, ' They are murdering the 
 people in the house!' These words 
 were no sooner uttered than a short 
 consultation was held by the people 
 assembled, and it was at once re- 
 solved that an entry should be forced 
 into the house through the cellar 
 flap, which was shortly accomplish- 
 ed. On looking round the cellar, 
 the first object that attracted atten- 
 tion was the body of Mr. William- 
 son, which lay at the foot of the 
 stairs, with a violent contusion on 
 the head, his throat dreadfully cut, 
 and an iron crow by his side ; they 
 then proceeded up stairs into the 
 parlour, where they found Mrs Wil- 
 liamson also dead, with her skull 
 and her throat cut, blood still issu- 
 ing from the wound ; and near her 
 lay the body of the servant wo- 
 man, whose head was also horribly 
 bruised, and her throat cut in the 
 most shocking manner. 
 
 During the examination before 
 the magistrates of the Shadwell Po- 
 lice-office, Mr. Anderson deposed 
 that he was a constable: he knew 
 Mr. and Mrs. Williamson ; they 
 were highly respected in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and for the space of fifteen 
 years kept the King's Arms public 
 house, which was the resort of fo- 
 reigners of every description. At 
 eleven o'clock every night they in- 
 variably closed their house. On 
 Thursday night, the 19th of De- 
 cember, 1811, Mr. Williamson 
 adopted the same plan. Ten mi- 
 nutes before eleven witness called 
 for a pot of beer. During the time 
 
 Mis. Williamson was drawing th c - 
 beer, Mr. Williamson, who was sit- 
 ting by the fire, said to him, ' You 
 are an officer — there has been a fel- 
 low listening at my door, with a 
 brown coat on; if you should see 
 him take him into custody, or tell 
 me.' Mr. Anderson answered ' He 
 certainly would, tor his and his own 
 safety.' These were the last words 
 Mr. Anderson mentioned, and then 
 retired. Witness lived next door 
 but one to the deceased; between 
 twenty and thirty minutes after he 
 left the King's Arms he intended to 
 go for another pot of beer; as soon 
 as he got out of his house he heard 
 a noise, when he saw the lodger 
 lowering himself down into the 
 street by the sheets. He ran into 
 the house for his staff, and pro- 
 ceeded to the spot. The watchman 
 caught the lodger in his arms, when 
 witness and others broke the cellar 
 flap open, and began to look round 
 the cellar; on coming to the stair- 
 case, they saw Mr. Williamson 
 lying on his back, with his legs 
 upon the stairs, his head down- 
 wards: by his side was an iron in- 
 strument, similar to a stone-mason's 
 crow, about three feet long, in dia- 
 meter three quarters of an inch : it 
 was much stained with blood. Mr. 
 Williamson had received a wound 
 on the head, his throat was dread- 
 fully cut, his right leg was broken 
 by a blow, aud his hand severely 
 cut. From these marks of violence 
 witness supposed Mr. Williamson 
 made great resistance, being a very 
 powerful man. They then pro- 
 ceeded up into the sitting-room, 
 when they saw Mrs. Williamson 
 lying on her left side; her sku_ 
 was fractured, and her throat cut 
 and bleedmg most profusely; near 
 to Mrs. Williamson was the servant 
 woman, lying on her back, with her 
 head under the grate; her skull was 
 more druulfully fractured than thai 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 of her mistress, her throat most in- 
 humanly cut, and none of the bodies 
 were cold. Witness then stated 
 that the premises were afterwards 
 examined, and it was discovered 
 that the murderers had made their 
 escape from a back window looking 
 into a piece of waste ground belong- 
 ing to the London Dock Company. 
 The sill of the window was stained 
 with hlood, and the sash remained 
 thrown up. The distance which 
 the villains had to jump did not 
 exceed eight feet, and the ground 
 beneath was soft clay ; so that they 
 could sustain no injury even had 
 they fallen. From the waste ground 
 in question there was no difficulty 
 whatever in escaping, as it commu- 
 nicated with several by-streets. 
 
 John Turner, the man who es- 
 caped from the window, and who 
 *as a lodger in the house, deposed 
 as follows : — 
 
 ' I went to bed about five minutes 
 before eleven o'clock; I had not 
 been in bed more than five or ten 
 minutes before I heard the cry of 
 " We shall all be murdered !" which 
 1 suppose was the cry of the woman 
 servant. I went down stairs, and 
 saw one of the villains cutting Mrs. 
 Williamson's throat, and rifling her 
 pockets. 
 
 ' I immediately ran up stairs, 
 took up the sheets from my bed, 
 fastened them together, and lashed 
 them to the bed-posts; I called to 
 the watchman to give the alarm; I 
 was hanging out of the front win- 
 dow by the sheets; the watchman 
 received me in his arms, naked as I 
 was; a great mob had then assem- 
 bled opposite the door : as soon as 
 I got upon my legs the door was 
 forced open ; I entered, and found 
 the bodies lying as described. There 
 was nobody lodged in the house but 
 myself, except a grand-daughter of 
 Mrs. Williamson. I have lived in 
 the house about eight months, 
 
 and during that time I have found 
 them to be the most peaceable 
 people that could keep a public 
 house. The man whom I saw 
 rifling Mrs. Williamson's pocket, as 
 far as I could see by the light in 
 the room, was about six feet in 
 height, dressed in a genteel style, 
 with a long dark loose coat on. I 
 said nothing to him; but, terrified, 
 I ran up stairs, and made my escape 
 as already mentioned. When I was 
 down stairs, I heard two or three 
 very great sighs; and when I was 
 first alarmed, I heard distincly the 
 words, " We shall all be murdered." 
 Turner farther deposed that, at the 
 time he went to bed, Mrs. William- 
 sou was on the stairs, taking up a 
 silver punch-ladle and watch, which 
 were to be raffled for on the follow- 
 ing Monday, into her bed-room for 
 security.' 
 
 The wounds on the heads of the 
 unfortunate sufferers were evidently 
 inflicted by an iron bar; and from 
 their position, as well as from the 
 cuts on the throat, one of the mur- 
 derers would appear to have been 
 left-handed. The under part of the 
 house was a skittle-ground, next to 
 the entrance of which was the cel- 
 lar door, by both of which entries it 
 seemed that the villains attempted 
 to escape, as marks of blood were 
 diC overed upon them. During the 
 time the horrid deed was perpe- 
 trating, a public house, almost ad- 
 joining, was filled with people drink- 
 ing, and a few doors on the other 
 side was a rendezvous for seamen, 
 all of which looked into the waste 
 ground alluded to. 
 
 Of the many examinations which 
 took place at the Shadwell Police 
 office, the investigations of Mr. 
 Graham, of the Bow Street office 
 and many other active magistrates 
 we shall select such as fix these 
 most dreadful crimes upon a mail 
 of the inline of John Williams, who 
 
56 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 evaded justice by committing the 
 additional crime of suicide. 
 
 This man at length was appre- 
 hended as one of the murderers; 
 and on his examination, John Fre- 
 deric Rilchen, a Dane, also a pri- 
 soner, under suspicion of being an 
 accomplice, stated that he lodged in 
 the same house with Williams for 
 about twelve weeks and three or 
 four days, but knew little of him, 
 except as a fellow- lodger. On 
 being minutely questioned respect- 
 ing his knowledge of two persons — 
 a carpenter and a joiner, (whose 
 names, though known at the office, 
 were, for obvious reasons, sup- 
 pressed,) as acquaintances of Wil- 
 liams — he said that, about three or 
 four weeks ago, he saw them drink- 
 ing at the Pear Tree public house 
 with Williams, and since that time 
 had seen them there without Wil- 
 liams. On the night of the murder 
 of the Marr family, a few minutes 
 before Williams came home, there 
 was a knock at the door, and he, 
 the examinant, went down to open 
 it, when he found the key had been 
 taken from the inside of the lock, 
 and he called to the mother of Mrs. 
 Vermillee, the landlady, to come 
 down and open the door. Hearing 
 her coming down, he went up to his 
 own room; and, when there, heard 
 her in conversation with a man, 
 whose voice resembled that of one 
 of the two men before mentioned. 
 A few minutes afterwards Williams 
 himself came in. This was almost 
 half past one o'clock. Three or 
 four days before Williams was taken 
 up he observed that the large sandy- 
 coloured whiskers, which had before 
 formed a striking feature of Wil- 
 liams's appearance, had been cut 
 off. About eleven o'clock on the 
 day after the murder of the Marr 
 family, the examinant went from 
 curiosity to examine the premises, 
 which he entered, and saw the dead 
 
 bodies. From thence he returned 
 to the Pear Tree, where he found 
 Williams in the back yard, washing 
 out his stockings, but he did n<i| 
 teil Williams where he had been 
 Being questioned respecting hi 
 knowledge of the maul, and also 
 the iron instrument, which was a 
 round bar, about an inch in diame- 
 ter, between two and three feet in 
 length, flattened at the end into the 
 shape of a chisel, but not with a 
 cutting edge, being apparently a 
 tool for caulking, he said the 
 maul resembled one he had seen 
 about the Pear Tree public house, 
 but he could not identify it. A 
 pair of blue woollen trowsers, and 
 also a pair of canvass trowsers, were 
 then produced, which had been 
 found between the mattrass and the 
 bed-clothes of the hammock in which 
 the examinant slept at the Pear 
 Tree. The legs of the blue trow- 
 sers had evidently bten washed, for 
 the purpose of cleaning them from 
 mud, of which the appearance was 
 still perfectly visible in the creases, 
 that had not been effectually 
 cleansed. These trowsers were 
 damp at the time of the examina- 
 tion ; the canvass trowsers were also 
 damp, but they presented no par- 
 ticular appearance. The exami- 
 nant stated that both these pairs of 
 trowsers had formerly belonged to 
 a person since gone to sea, and he 
 had since worn them himself. 
 
 Mrs. Orr stated that, on the Sa- 
 turday before Marrs' murder, about 
 half past one o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, she was getting up linen, when 
 she heard a noise about the house, 
 as if a man was attempting to break 
 into the house. She was fright- 
 ened, and asked ' Who is there?' 
 A voice answered, which she knew 
 to be Williams's, ' I am a robber !' 
 She answered, ' Whether you are a 
 robber or not, I will let you in, and 
 am glad to see you.' Williams en- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 57 
 
 lered, seating himself down till the 
 watchman was calling the hour of 
 past two o'clock; Williams got up 
 from his chair, and asked the land- 
 lady if she would have a glass. 
 She assented; but, as he would not 
 go for it, she went to the Pear Tree 
 public bouse, and could gain no 
 admittance. She returned, when 
 Williams inquired how many rooms 
 there were in her house, and the 
 situation of her back premises. She 
 replied there were three rooms, and 
 that her back yard communicated 
 with Mrs. Vermillee's house. The 
 watchman came into Mrs. Orr's 
 house, which Williams resisted for 
 some time. The watchman told 
 Mrs. Orr that be bad picked up a 
 chisel by I he side of her window. 
 Williams ran out, unobserved, at 
 this information; soon afterwards 
 he returned; the watchman was 
 going, when Williams stopped him, 
 and desired him to go to the Pear 
 Tree, and get some liquor. The 
 house was then open. While the 
 watchman was gone for the liquor 
 Williams took up the chisel, and 
 inquired where she got it. Mrs. 
 Orr retained the instrument till the 
 Monday following. Hearing that 
 Williams was examined, she went 
 to Mrs. Vermillee's, and showed 
 her the chisel. Mrs. Vermillee 
 compared it with the tools in Pe- 
 terson's chest, when it was found to 
 bear the same marks, and declared 
 that it was taken out of her house. 
 Mrs. Orr instantly delivered the 
 chisel to the magistrates of Shad- 
 well- Street office, as being a further 
 trace to the villainy. Mrs. Orr 
 said she knew Williams for eleven 
 weeks ; he frequently nursed her 
 child, and used to joke with her 
 daughter. They both thought him 
 an agreeable young man, and of a 
 most insinuating address, and never 
 nought Ip could be the man who 
 would attempt to rob or murder. 
 
 The ripping-chisel which was 
 found in Mr. Marr's house was con- 
 veyed to Newgate, in oTder to be 
 identified by Mr. Vermillee. The 
 conference was private, and con- 
 tinued until four o'clock in the 
 evening. Mr. Vermillee gave tes- 
 timony to the instrument, called a 
 ripping-book, being among the 
 chest of tools deposited in bis house. 
 We must here remind our readers 
 that the said ripping-hook, about 
 two feet in length, was found by 
 the side of Mrs. Marr, and the 
 same which Mr. Vermillee deposed 
 that he knew perfectly well. 
 
 For a considerable time after the 
 perpetration of these sanguinary 
 atrocities, the police devoted, with- 
 out intermission, the whole of their 
 time, from an early hour every 
 morning till midnight, to the in- 
 cessant pursuit of the murderers. 
 
 When the gaoler went to the 
 room in the House of Correction in 
 Cold bath Fields, where Williams 
 was confined, in order to call him to 
 bis last examination before the ma- 
 gistrates, his body was found dead, 
 hanging to a beam ; thus adding to 
 his manifold crimes that of self- 
 murder ! 
 
 ' Those only wish to die who fear to live, 
 Fettered with guilt, reflection, and re- 
 morse ; 
 Made cowards by an age of former crimes : 
 Hence this distaste of life.' 
 
 Of all the sins of mankind we are 
 taught to believe suicide the most 
 offensive to the Creator. It is a 
 crime engendered by cowardice, and 
 its commission rests in those hands 
 alone whose hearts can no longer 
 hear against the stings of con- 
 science, the torments of jealousy, 
 the fear of exposure, or the idea 
 of being curtailed of accustomed 
 luxury, rank, or power. The canon 
 law assures us that Judas committed 
 a greater crime in hanging himself 
 than in betraying Jesus Christ 
 
53 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Hence such law denies Christian 
 burial, to those who are guilty of 
 suicide, concluding thence that it is 
 not lawful to inherit on earth from 
 one who hath himself no inheritance 
 in heaven. 
 
 On the last day of I his fatal year 
 the remains of this sanguinary as- 
 sassin (for, from the circumstances 
 which had been developed, not a 
 doubt can exist but that he was a 
 principal, if not the only actor, in the 
 horrible massacres) were privately 
 removed, at eleven o'clock at night, 
 from the cell in Coldbath-fields' pri- 
 son, where he committed suicide, 
 and conveyed to St. George's watch- 
 house, near the London Docks, 
 preparatory to interment. Mr. Cap- 
 per, the magistrate, had an inter- 
 view with the secretary for the 
 home department, for the purpose 
 of considering with what propriety 
 the usual practice of burying sui- 
 cides in the nearest cross-roads 
 might be departed from in the pre- 
 sent instance, and it was then de- 
 termined that a public exhibition 
 should be made of the body through 
 the neighbourhood which had been 
 the scene of the monster's crimes. 
 In conformity with this decision, 
 the following procession moved from 
 the watch-house, about half past 
 ten o'clock on Tuesday morning : — 
 
 Several hundred constables, with their 
 
 staves, clearing the way. 
 The newly-formed patrole, with drawn 
 cutlasses. 
 Another body of constables. 
 Parish officers of St. George's, St. Paul's, 
 and Shadwell, on horseback. 
 Peace-officers, on horseback. 
 Constables. 
 The high constab.e of the County of Mid- 
 dlesex, on horseback. 
 The Body of Williams, 
 Extended at full length on an inclined 
 platform, erected on the cart, about four 
 feet high at the head, and gradually slop- 
 ing towards the horse, giving a full view 
 of the body, which was dressed in blue 
 trowsers and a white and blue striped 
 waistcoat, but without a coat, as when 
 
 found in the cell. On the left side of the 
 head the fatal maul, and on the right the 
 ripping-chisel, with which the murders 
 were perpetrated, were exposed to view. 
 The countenance of William was ghastly 
 in the extreme, and the whole had an ap- 
 pearance too horrible for description. 
 A strong body of constables brought up 
 the rear. 
 
 The procession advanced slowly 
 up Ratcliffe Highway, accompanied 
 by an immense cencourse of per- 
 sons, eager to get a sight of the 
 murderer's remains. When the 
 cart came opposite to the late Mr. 
 Marr's house, a hilt was made for 
 near a quarter of an hour. The 
 procession then moved down Old 
 Gravel Lane, along Wapping, up 
 New Crane Lane, and into New 
 Gravel Lane. When the platform 
 arrived at Mr. Williamson's late 
 house, a second halt took place. 
 It then proceeded up the hill, and 
 again entered Ratclifte Highway, 
 down which it moved into Cannon 
 Street, and advanced to St. George's 
 turnpike, where the New Road is in- 
 tersected by Cannon Street. There 
 a grave, about six feet deep, had 
 been prepared, immediately over 
 which the main water-pipe runs. 
 Between twelve and one o'clock the 
 body was taken from the platform, 
 and lowered into the grave, imme- 
 diately after which a stake was 
 driven through it; and, the pit 
 being covered, this solemn cere- 
 mony concluded. 
 
 During the last half-hour the 
 crowd had increased immensely — 
 they poured 'a Irom all parts, but 
 their demeat.uur was perfectly quiet. 
 All the shops in the neighbourhood 
 were shut, and the windows and 
 tops of the houses were crowded 
 with spectators. On every side, 
 mingled with execrations of the 
 murderer, were heard fervent pray- 
 ers for the speedy detection of his 
 accomplice or accomplices; but 
 from subsequent discoveries, there 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 5«> 
 
 is reason to think he perpetrated 
 the foul deed without assistance. 
 Of his uuilt Ihere does not remain a 
 doubt; for the knife which he al- 
 ways carried about him was found 
 concealed in a hole in t lie room 
 where he slept, incrusted with 
 blood ! 
 
 The sensation produced by these 
 horrid murders awakened the appre- 
 
 hensions of seveial parishes for in- 
 dividual safety. Meetings were 
 held, and resolutions passed with a 
 view to establish a more vigilant 
 system of police, and many useful 
 plans were adopted and carried into 
 practice, which we hope will pre- 
 vent the recurrence of such diaboli- 
 cal deeds. 
 
 JOHN CLAYTON AND WILLIAM JENKINS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR BURGLARY. 
 
 We have now to record one of door. The servant girl answered 
 the most daring robberies that was it. The man who knocked at the 
 ever committed, as well as the door proved to be Clayton, who 
 greatest perseverance and exertions pretended to be the girl's sweet- 
 hy police-officers, to detect and ap- heart; they crossed over the way 
 prebend robbers. Reid, belonging talking together, he kissing and 
 to Perry's party of the patrole, re- squeezing her. Clayton expected to 
 ceived information that the house, be admitted that night, but the 
 No. 4, in Bury Street, St. James's, girl was not able to fulfil her pro- 
 kept by Mrs. Martin, was marked mise, owing to her mistress being 
 to be robbed by a gang of thieves, unwell, and consequently not going 
 who had got to the knowledge that 
 she in general went out every even- 
 ing, principally to the play, through 
 the thoughtless and imprudent con- 
 duct of her female servant, Mary 
 
 out. 
 
 On the following Tuesday night, 
 about eight, or half past eight 
 o'clock, the officers, being at their 
 usual place to watch, observed 
 
 Wakelin, who had admitted one of Clayton knock at Mrs. Martin's 
 them, named Clayton, to visit her door. The servant came to the 
 as a sweetheart; having got ac- door; they walked away together. 
 quainted with her under a false re- and went to a liquor-shop, and had 
 presentation that he was a trunk- some gin. When they were separat- 
 maker, living in Oxford Street, ing, he professed such strong love 
 Monday se'nnight was the time for her, that he was nearly broken- 
 fixed on for the perpetration of the hearted at parting with her, and 
 robbery. Perry, Reid, Limbrick, kissed her at least a dozen times, 
 and others, applied to a neighbour On Wednesday night, about the 
 residing opposite to Mrs. Martin's same time, Clayton and two other 
 house, to accommodate them with a men appeared before Mrs. Martin s 
 room, to watch the proceedings of house. They threw stones against 
 the night. They went there about the kitchen window, which not an- 
 half past seven o'clock, and in swerinsr the purpose of bringing out 
 about three quarters of an hour the girl, they threw some halfpence, 
 after, three or four men and two which had the desired effect. She 
 women came and walked up and came out, and went and had some 
 down in the front of Mrs. Martin's liquor with them. Clayton kissed 
 house; and, after some time, one of and courted the girl for some time 
 the men knocked at Mrs. Martin's in the street. During all these 
 
60 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 visits, Clayton wished very much 
 to go into the house ; but the girl 
 told him she dared not, her mislress 
 being still ill, and remaining con- 
 fined in the house. On Thursday 
 night Clayton attended alone; but 
 his companions were supposed to 
 be at an adjoining house. The girl 
 came out, and they went and drank 
 together. On Friday night Clay- 
 ton was accompanied by two or 
 three more men : they walked up 
 and down in front of the house, 
 while Clayton knocked at the door. 
 The girl answered it, and came out 
 to him, and they talked together 
 for some time; the whole sang was 
 very eager to get into the house 
 that night. On Saturday, Sunday, 
 Monday, and Tuesday nights, Clay- 
 ton pursued similar conduct, going 
 with the girl on her errands, drinking 
 together, &c. On Tuesday night, 
 the girl told Clayton that her mis- 
 tress was so much recovered, that 
 she expected she would be well 
 enough to go the following night to 
 the play. 
 
 On Wednesday night, about eight 
 o'clock, Mrs. Martin, accompanied 
 by a male and female friend, went 
 in a coach to the theatre. In a 
 few minutes after, the servant girl 
 came out, and returned shortly 
 with Clayton, arm in arm together. 
 They talked together several mi- 
 nutes at the door, and then went 
 in. In about a quarter of an 
 hour after, Clayton came out, and 
 returned in about five minutes, ac- 
 companied by another man. Clay- 
 ton knocked at the door, and the 
 girl opened it. She appeared to 
 refuse letting the other man in; but 
 Clayton forced open the door, and 
 the other man rushed in. The of- 
 ficers, who had been upon the close 
 watch every night, then went over 
 to the house, and heard all three 
 talking very loud in the kitchen. 
 From the noise, and what thev saw 
 
 through a key-hole, they ascer- 
 tained that the two men were drag- 
 ging the girl up stairs against he. 
 will, and she was exclaiming, 
 " Lord have mercy upon me! what 
 shall I do?" One of the men told 
 her, if she made such a noise he 
 would blow her brains out, and pre- 
 sented a pistol to her head, and 
 kept it there. They forced her up 
 stairs, she continuing the above 
 exclamation in defiance of their 
 threat. The officers heard doors 
 being broken open, &c. and, in a 
 few minutes after, the other man 
 came down stairs, and returned 
 with the kitchen poker : they then 
 heard other doors break open, but 
 not hearing the noise of the girl 
 continued, the officers were afraid 
 she was being murdered, and were 
 proceeding to force the street-door 
 with an iron crow, which the girl 
 hearing, exclaimed it was her mis- 
 tress, gave a sudden spring, re- 
 leased herself from them, ran down 
 stairs, and the robbers after her : 
 they got into the passage just as 
 the officers had got into the pas- 
 sage. — Clayton and Jenkins ap- 
 peared as if nothing had happened, 
 and wanted to get out. Perry and 
 Reid seized them : the villains made 
 a most desperate resistance, which 
 they were enabled to do, being very 
 tall, stout, powerful men : the of- 
 ficers, however, soon secured them. 
 On searching Clayton, a larije 
 clasp knife and a bad dollar were 
 found. On Jenkins were found a 
 pistol, two bad dollars, &c. On 
 examining the house, the officers 
 discovered that a large quantity ol 
 property had been packed up, 
 ready to be carried off. Several 
 rooms and closets were broken open, 
 and they were in the act of break- 
 ing open a chest when they were 
 disturbed. 
 
 The trial of these desperadoes 
 came on at the Old Bailey, the 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 61 
 
 l&th of January, when Mary Wake- 
 lio, before named, deposed that she 
 first became acquainted with the 
 prisoner Clayton about eight or 
 ten days before the 1st of January ; 
 he I hen came to her mistress's house, 
 when she answered the door, and 
 told her his name was Wilson, and 
 that he had a letler for Mrs. Mar- 
 tin, which was the name her mis- 
 tress went by. A night or two 
 afterwards, he threw tilings down 
 the area. Her mistress sent her 
 out with a message, and she then 
 saw Clayton, who asked her to take 
 something to drink, which she at 
 first refused; but upon his insisting 
 they went and had something to 
 drink. She saw him a night or 
 two afterwards in the streets, as 
 she went out on an errand, and fre- 
 quently after that; but she never 
 saw the prisoner Jenkins till the 
 night of the first of January. 
 
 The jury found both the prisoners 
 Guilty. 
 
 The fearful sentence was carried 
 into effect on the scallbld before the 
 debtors' door, Newgate, at the 
 usual hour, and with the accustomed 
 solemnity. Clayton was twenty- 
 eight years of age, and Jenkins 
 thirty-five. 
 
 After the culprits had been di- 
 vested of their irons, Clayton ob- 
 served to Jenkins it was an awful 
 moment, and he exhorted him to 
 cheer his spirits, and die with manly 
 fortitude — adding that the sentence 
 was just, and trusting their example 
 would warn others against keeping 
 bad company. 
 
 A servant, who had formerly lived 
 with Mrs. Martin, informed a man 
 with whom she lived, that there 
 was always money in the house. 
 This was communicated to others, 
 and seven persons had beset the 
 house several nights — but one of the 
 gang, who had squabbled about the 
 division of other spoil, gave informa- 
 tion at Bow Street of their intention. 
 
 tt'ILLIAM 
 
 EXECUTED FOR ROBBE 
 
 This malefactor had been purser 
 on board his majesty's ship Amphi- 
 trite, and from some unsuccessful 
 speculations had got himself into 
 embarrassed circumstances. In 1 809 
 he entered into a concern, with some 
 others, to ship goods for the Brazils. 
 Jemmet, accompanied by a mariner, 
 named Moore, went to Mr. White, 
 a ship-broker, in London, and en- 
 tered into negotiation for the pur- 
 chase of a Portuguese vessel then 
 lying in the Thames. They pro- 
 fessed to treat on behalf of the house 
 of Lazarus and Cohen, and pur- 
 chased the ship for seven hundred 
 pounds, which was paid for at two 
 payments. They then employed 
 Mr. White to procure them freight 
 for Pernnmbuco. The vessel, which 
 they called the Maria, was then 
 
 JEMMET, 
 
 RY ON THE HIGH SEAS. 
 
 advertised as ready to receive goods, 
 and vast quantities were shipped; 
 among other things, seven casks of 
 dollars, containing thirty-two thou- 
 sand ounces of silver. The cargo 
 was estimated at eighty or ninety 
 thousand pounds ; and the freight, 
 amounting to eight hundred and 
 eighty-six pounds, six shillings, 
 was paid in advance. 
 
 In April, 1810, the Maria, Cap- 
 tain da Sylva, sailed from the 
 Downs, where Jemmet went on 
 board ; but, instead of proceeding 
 to the Brazils, they shaped their 
 course for the West Indies. On 
 their way from Teneriffe to Porto 
 Rico the vessel's sides were painted 
 yellow, and her name changed from 
 Maria to the Columbia, of New 
 York. The first mate took, the 
 
62 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 command. They were not suffered 
 to break bulk at Porto Rico, and in 
 consequence they proceeded to Porto 
 Plato, in St. Domingo, where they 
 freighted a schooner with part of 
 the cargo, and then sailed to St. 
 Jago, in the Isle of Cuba, where 
 the dollars were landed by Jein- 
 met. They then steered for the 
 Havannah, where the crew was dis- 
 charged, and the vessel dismantled. 
 Neither the owners of the ship nor 
 the cargo ever heard how either 
 was disposed of. 
 
 Jemmet, being dishonestly pos- 
 sessed of property, proceeded to 
 Philadelphia, where he procured 
 bills on England for six thousand 
 pounds, with which he returned 
 home. But an account of his vil- 
 lainy had preceded him, and on his 
 appearance in London he was taken 
 into custody, and committed to 
 prison. His trial came on at the 
 Old Bailey, February 28, 1812, 
 when these facts were proved against 
 him by some of his crew, and he waa 
 accordingly found Guilty — Death. 
 
 WILLIAM CUNDELL 
 
 EXECUTED FOR 
 
 Repentance and a correspond- 
 ing conduct are sure of forgiveness, 
 for the past, before Heaven ; but 
 earthly tribunals differ from those 
 above; and it is supposed that oc- 
 casional examples of capital punish- 
 ment are necessary for the good 
 of society, though the victims of 
 penal laws may have ceased to of- 
 fend, and consequently, from them 
 individually, there is nothing more 
 to apprehend. In hanging one 
 man, and acquitting another guilty 
 of the same crime, there may be 
 policy ; but there certainly is not 
 justice; and he that suffers may 
 reasonably accuse his judges of vin- 
 dictiveness and partiality. There 
 are, however, shades of criminality 
 which would warrant a difference of 
 punishment, and we hope that, in the 
 present case, these shades were 
 found by the attorney-general, who 
 conducted the prosecution, and we 
 have no reason to suspect he did 
 not. 
 
 In 180S, a number of British 
 sailors and mariners were confined, 
 as prisoners of war, in the Isle of 
 France. The prison, being much 
 crowded, was greatly incommoded 
 with dirt and vermin, and, there 
 being no way of escaping from such 
 
 AND JOHN SMITH, 
 
 HIGH TREASON. 
 
 inconvenience but that of deser- 
 tion, every art was practiced by 
 their keepers to induce the unhappy 
 prisoners to enter the French ser 
 vice. Fifty men, among whom were 
 Cundell and Smith, had not virtue 
 enough to resist the temptations on 
 one hand, and the hope of escaping 
 from distress and filth on the other. 
 They forgot their country and alle- 
 giance, and put on the enemy's 
 uniform, acting as sentinels over 
 those who were so recently their 
 companions in captivity. 
 
 These traitors continued to do 
 duty with the French until the 
 surrender of the island to the Bri- 
 tish forces, when Cundell and Smith, 
 with ten others, positively refused 
 to accompany the enemy, and threw 
 themselves upon the mercy of their 
 country, having immediately sur- 
 rendered to the English, while the 
 thirty-eight others marched off to 
 old France. 
 
 These culprits were now trans- 
 mitted to England, and a special 
 commission was issued for their 
 trial, which took place at the Surrey 
 Court House, February the 6tb, 
 1812. 
 
 Cundell, Smith, and five others, 
 were found guilty of adhering to 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 63 
 
 his majesty's enemies, when the 
 attorney-general stated that he 
 thought the ends of justice obtained, 
 and that he would not press the 
 conviction of the remaining five, 
 who were discharged, not for any 
 want of proof of their guilt, hut 
 through the clemency of the go- 
 vernment. He pitied the situation 
 of the unfortunate men at the bar ; 
 but as an example, to deter others 
 from forsaking their duty, it was 
 necessary that the law should take 
 its course, in order that those en- 
 gaged in the service of their country 
 might be impressed with the con- 
 viction, that such offenders could 
 not expect to escape the hands of 
 justice. There were reasons for 
 selecting the men who had been 
 tried, as well as those who were ac^- 
 quitted, and, from his official know- 
 ledge of the particulars, he thought 
 he ends of justice obtained. 
 
 The lord chief baron then pro- 
 ceeded to pass sentence, after a 
 suitable address — ' That you, and 
 each of you, be taken to the place 
 from whence you came, and thence 
 te drawn on a hurdle to the place 
 of execution, where you shall be 
 hanged by the necks, but not till 
 you are dead : that you be severally 
 taken down, while yet alive, and 
 your bowels taken out, and burnt 
 before your faces; that your heads 
 be then cut off, and your bodies cut 
 in four quarters, to be at the king's 
 disposal.' 
 
 The prisoners were then, after 
 again crying for mercy, re-con- 
 ducted to their cells. Almost 
 every individual in court was dis- 
 
 solved in tears during the melan- 
 choly scene. 
 
 On Monday morning, the 16th 
 of March, 1812, William Cundell 
 and John Smith, pursuant to their 
 sentence, were hung, and afterwards 
 beheaded, at Horsemonger Lane> 
 in the presence of some thousands 
 of spectators, and their remains then 
 delivered over to their respective 
 friends for interment. During this 
 melancholy occasion the sight was 
 distressing. At eight o'clock, these 
 two young men were conducted 
 from their cells to chapel, from 
 whence, after remaining some time, 
 they were drawn on a hurdle to the 
 place of execution, and having with 
 becoming fortitude ascended the 
 scaffold, attended by the clergy- 
 man, they again spent a short period 
 in prayer, seemingly thoroughly 
 sensible of that fate fast approach- 
 ing them. The dreadful moment 
 having at length arrived, they were 
 launched off, and their bodies, after 
 hanging nearly half an hour, were 
 taken down. The scene then, while 
 the executioner was performing that 
 part of the remaining sentence, in 
 severing off their heads, and alter- 
 nately with his right hand present- 
 ing each to the surrounding specta- 
 tors, exclaiming, ' Behold the head 
 of a traitor !' became truly awful, 
 and apparently dissolved in tears 
 each individual who beheld the fate 
 of two men, who thus, in the bloom 
 of life, suffered death, according to 
 the laws of their country. 
 
 The remaining five were pardoned 
 on condition of serving in colonies 
 beyond the seas. 
 
 GEORGE SKENE, ESQ. 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 In our long catalogue of crimes of which, one would imagine 
 
 we have not presented a malefactor might have fully guarded him 
 
 of the description of Mr. Skene, — against the commission of a crime 
 
 a man who held an office, the duties which reduced him to a level with 
 
6i 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the unfortunate creatures whose 
 ;*ases came daily before him. Yet 
 such is tlie weakness of human 
 nature, and so uncontrollable our 
 propensities, created by unbounded 
 appetite, or cursed avarice, that 
 this man committed a forgery on 
 the very office in which he held a 
 confidential situation. 
 
 George Skene was of a most re- 
 spectable family in the north of 
 Scotland ; where he received a li- 
 beral education. He was possessed 
 of considerable mental acquirements, 
 pleasing manners, and an amiable 
 disposition; and received a charac- 
 ter, on his trial, such as is seldom 
 bestowed on a criminal in a court 
 of justice. At an early age he re- 
 moved to London, where he obtained 
 a situation in the Shadwell Police 
 Office, and subsequently in that of 
 Queen Square as chief clerk, with a 
 salary of two hundred uounds a 
 year. 
 
 The duties which devolved upon 
 him consisted of receiving all fees 
 and fines, and disbursing all demands 
 on the office. The latter being ge- 
 nerally greater than the former, he 
 had to apply to the receiver-general 
 at the secretary of state's office for 
 such sums as the receipts of the 
 office were inadequate to discharge. 
 
 How many are virtuous, because 
 they are precluded from tempta- 
 tion ! Mr. Skene, being in the con- 
 stant habit of receiving money for 
 all tradesmen's bills presented by 
 him, foolishly thought that fictitious 
 accounts, when vouched in the usual 
 way, would pass undiscovered and 
 enable him to add to the other emo- 
 luments of his office by an act 
 which was at once a breach of 
 trust and an unpardonable crime. 
 
 In pursuance of this design he 
 presented and obtained money for 
 four receipts, purporting to be from 
 four different persons ; but, suspicion 
 arising, the case was investigated; 
 
 when it appeared that the receipts 
 were forgeries, considerable addi- 
 tions being made to each account. 
 
 For this offence he was com- 
 mitted to prison, and brought to 
 trial at the Old Bailey on the 15th 
 of January, 1812. The facts being 
 proved he was called upon for his 
 defence, when he declared to God 
 and his conscience that he had no 
 intention of committing any fraud, 
 and attributed the errors in his ac- 
 counts to the circumstance of his 
 being absent five hundred miles 
 from London, on professional busi- 
 ness, a short time previous to the 
 commission of the deed for which 
 he was indicted. 
 
 The Marquis of Huntley, and 
 above a dozen magistrates, gave 
 testimony as to his character, and 
 the chief baron in summing up ob- 
 served that the character of a well- 
 spent life had its weight in cases 
 ol doubt ; but, where the evidence 
 was conclusive, it was much to be 
 lamented that character was forfeit- 
 ed. The jury, after a short con- 
 sultation, returned a verdict of 
 Guilty, and he was ordered for exe- 
 cution. 
 
 From the momewt of his convic- 
 tion to a few days previous to his 
 execution, this young man was 
 buoyed i*p with the hope of the 
 royal mercy; and a paragraph ap- 
 peared in some of the newspapers, 
 stating that he had received the 
 royal pardon. This hope, however, 
 as well as those arising from a 
 scheme formed for his escape, were 
 dissipated, and he was given to un- 
 derstand that he had no mercy to 
 expect. He expressed his perfect 
 resignation to his fate, and took 
 leave of his friends with becoming 
 fortitude. On Tuesday, about four 
 o'clock, he, in company wit li Lord 
 Robert Seymour, took the sacra- 
 ment: and next morning, March the 
 18lh, 1812, he was attended by 
 
KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 05 
 
 Ordinary, until summone<l to the 
 Press-yard ; from whence at eight 
 o'clock lie proceeded to the scaffold. 
 Previous to ascending the platform, 
 he was considerably affected ; hut 
 in a few seconds he resumed his 
 fortitude, and, taking off his hat, 
 submitted himself to the execu- 
 tioner, who, having performed his 
 melancholy office, retired, leaving 
 Dr. Ford with Mr. Skene in prayer. 
 In Iwo minutes afterwards the plat- 
 form fell, and he was launched into 
 eternity. Having heen suspended the 
 usual time, the body was cut down 
 and carried within the prison, where 
 il remained until eight o'clock, 
 when it was delivered to his friends. 
 Mr. Skene's wife, who had been 
 previously the wife of the Earl of 
 Fife, was burnt to death about four 
 years before the ignominous ter- 
 mination of her husband's life. 
 
 ' I never see a criminal carried 
 to execution,' says the learned and 
 benevolent Boerhaave, ' withoutask- 
 ing myself whether I may not be 
 more guilty than this man.' It 
 might not be unproductive of good 
 if every person in this vast metro- 
 polis would put the same interroga- 
 tion lo himself on those mornings 
 when the prisons of this city are 
 emptied in the grave. Perhaps 
 those who witness such melancholy 
 exhibitions might then return home, 
 with a conviction of the necessity of 
 reforming their own lives: for how 
 many are there whose conscience 
 must accuse them of a greater crime 
 than that of defrauding government 
 of a small sum of money ; and how 
 many greater offences are there for 
 which the law has not provided so 
 severe a punishment as that in- 
 flicted on George Skene. 
 
 THOMAS BOWLER, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MALICIOUSLY FIRING AT MR. BURROWES. 
 
 An unprovoked and foul spirit of trifling dispute about some trees,; 
 revenge, indulged in to excess, but which was amicably adjusted 
 precipitated this hoary sinner on without any application to lawyers, 
 the commission of a crime for which Notwithstanding this apparent con- 
 he forfeited his life to the injured ciliation Bowler from that moment 
 laws of his country. The motives nourished a spirit of revenge, and 
 which prompt other men to deeds about the middle of March, 1812, 
 of blood were wanting here; plun- in the presence of one Sheppard, in 
 <ler was not the object; nor was St. James's Market, said 'Damn 
 there a single worldly advantage that Burrowes's eyes, I'll Burrowes 
 which this desperate man could pro- him before long; he shan't live to 
 mise himself from the premature the end of June, if I was to be 
 death of his neighbour ; nor does it hanged the next moment.' Sliep- 
 appear that he received a provoca- pard remonstrated, and Bowler re- 
 turn from his intended victim that plied, ' Pll be d — d if 1 don't be 
 would justify the slightest act of the death of him.' This was corn- 
 hostility, much less a premeditated municated to Burrowes, who took 
 attempt on his life. no farther notice of it than just to 
 
 Thomas Bowler was a wealthy observe • 1 don't fear him ; he is 
 
 farmer, who resided near Harrow, too fond of his own life to take 
 
 and had for his neighbour another away mine.' 
 
 farmer named Burrowes, who was Bowler, being a man who never 
 
 also a hay-salesman in St. James's, put any restraint on his violent pas- 
 
 Haymarket. These men had a stems, indulged his evil propensity 
 
 . vol. iv. . 102 
 
66 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 for better than two months, and on 
 the 30th of May prepared to carry 
 into execution his foul design, as he 
 knew his unsuspectiug neighbour 
 would be on his way to London at 
 a certain hour, to attend his duty in 
 the Haymarket. 
 
 His preparations were all coolly 
 and deliberately arranged. He pro- 
 vided a boy to keep a swift horse 
 to carry him out of danger in case 
 of pursuit; and, as the pan of his 
 blunderbuss lost the priming, he 
 carried it on that very morning to 
 a blacksmith for repair, telling him 
 he wanted it to shoot a mad dog. 
 While the smith w;is employed on 
 the lock he went out, and kept walk- 
 ing up and down; and, as he saw 
 Burrowes coming up the road in 
 his chaise-cart, he returned into the 
 smith's shop, took up the blunder- 
 buss, and stationed himself behind 
 an elm-tree, which concealed him 
 all but his feet from Mr. Burrowes. 
 Where Bowler stood was about fif- 
 teen yards from the canal bridge, 
 at Alperton ; and, just as the chaise- 
 cart gained the bridge, the assassin 
 took a deliberate aim, when Bur- 
 rowes exclaimed ' Don't fire !' and 
 stooped down in the cart. • Damn 
 your eyes, take that !' said Bowler, 
 firing, and wounded Mr. Burrowes 
 in the neck and back. At the re- 
 port of the blunderbuss the horse 
 ran away, and the assassin mounted 
 his horse, and galloped off, leaving 
 his hat behind him, and throwing 
 the blunderbuss into the ditch. 
 
 What added to the atrocity of 
 this act was the age of the perpe- 
 trator, which at the time was more 
 than sixty years. Besides, he was 
 immensely rich, and had a respect- 
 able family to suffer disgrace by his 
 unprincipled wickedness. 
 
 Happiiy Mr. Burrowes' wounds 
 were not mortal ; he gradually re- 
 covered, and diligent pursuit was 
 made after the hoary fugitive. For 
 
 a week he avoided the vigilance of 
 Mr. Burrowes' friends ; but on the 
 6th of June he was apprehended at 
 his own house. To the person who 
 took him into custody he offered 
 ten, twenty, and, lastly, thirty 
 thousand pounds, to be allowed his 
 liberty ; but his offers were reject- 
 ed, and he was carried to the police- 
 office, from which he was fully com- 
 mitted to Newgate. He thought 
 bail would be accepted, and offered 
 to deposit ten thousand pounds. 
 
 Bowler's friends now began to 
 prepare for his defence; and, know- 
 ing there was no possibility of con- 
 troverting the fact, endeavoured "to 
 establish a case of lunacy. For 
 this purpose a commission was sued 
 out, and a jury gave a verdict that 
 he was insane from the preceding 
 March, in consequence of a fracture 
 in his skull, occasioned by a fail 
 from his horse. 
 
 His trial came on at the Old 
 Bailey, July the 3d, 1812, when 
 the case of the prosecution being 
 gone through, several witnesses 
 were examined to establish his in- 
 sanity. Among these were three 
 or four medical men, who gave it as 
 their decided opinion that he was in 
 an unsound state of mind ; and va- 
 rious acts of eccentricity and ex- 
 travagant passion were adduced in 
 support of the defence. But as his 
 conduct at the time of the dreadful 
 act, in preparing the means of 
 escape, argued a conviction of a 
 knowledge of right and wrong, the 
 jury found him Guilty, and he was 
 sentenced to be hanged. 
 
 For some time he supported him- 
 self with the hope of royal mercy, 
 till Thursday, August the 20th, 
 when he was given to understand 
 that his execution was appointed to 
 take place the ensuing day. He 
 met his fate with pious firmness, on 
 Friday, August the 21st, 1812. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 67 
 
 DANIEL DAWSON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR POISONING RACE HORSES. 
 
 To that useless, and, we fear, of the solution of arsenic, out of 
 vicious rice of men denominated which two horses, the property of 
 the sporting world, this malefactor Lord Foley and Sir F. Standish, 
 belonged. iJe had, for many years, had to drink. Tlie drug- was too 
 ma !e Newmarket his residence, and powerful, and the horses died. Sus- 
 was variously employed by t lie fre- picion fell upon Dawson, and a man 
 quenters »>f that mart of folly and named Cecil Bishop, an accomplice, 
 dissipation. His principal occupa- when they were taken into custody, 
 tion was that of toulter, a name Bishop, on apprehension, mtde a 
 given to those who conceal them- full confession, and accused Dawson 
 selves among the furzes on the of having poisoned another horse in 
 heath, to see the trials of horses, 1809, belonging to Mr. Adams, of 
 and make reports to the betters. Royston, Herts; and established a 
 Dawson, though perfectly illiterate, chain of conclusive evidence against 
 had a comprehensive mind, and on his companion in iniquity, lor which 
 these occasions his judgment and he was admitted an evidence, 
 integrity gave great satisfaction; For this offence Dawson was in- 
 for he was able to determine, with dieted at the Lent assizes at Cam- 
 great accuracy, the superior powers bridge, as a principal; and it ap- 
 of one horse over another. [tearing he was only an accessary, 
 
 Seeing his judgment so beneficial he was acquitted, but was detained 
 
 to others, he resolved to make it on a charge of poisoning race-horses 
 
 more useful to himself, and com- in 1809. His second trial, which 
 
 menced better ; but Newmarket took place in August, 1812, proved 
 
 was not the school for moralitv or fatal to him. He was found Guilty, 
 
 honour, and Dawson had none, 
 Gamblers do not wish to trust en- 
 tirely to chance, and generally con- 
 trive some method to influence the 
 issue in their own favour. This 
 dishonest man had recourse to a 
 
 to the satisfaction of a crowded 
 court, and had sentence of death 
 passed on him. 
 
 For some time after conviction 
 he had hopes of mercy. Lord Foley, 
 for some communication made by 
 
 practice which terminated in an Dawson, was disposed to save his 
 ignominious death; and, though he life; but all his efforts proved Una- 
 protested not having intended the vailing, and he was left to his fate, 
 mischief that occurred, still it did Disappointed in the hopes of the 
 not prove less fatal. royal clemency, he resolved to at- 
 Dawson had been long in the tempt securing his own liberty ; by 
 habit, in imitation of his betters, what means will best appear from 
 of conveying deleterious drugs into the following letter: — 
 the drink of race-horses, for the ' Dear Wife, — I learn by yours 
 purpose of disqualifying them for I am in danger; by that 1 have an- 
 the course, and consequently ena- other way to escape without fear of 
 bling those who knew the cause to being discovered. — You go to a 
 stake their money on the safe side, tool-shop, and get a small hack 
 In this practice he continued for saw, as the watchmakers use, the 
 some time without detection, until smaller the better, to convey to me; 
 April, 1811, when he conveyed into the best way you can get it in will 
 u watering- trough a large quantity be between some turf, with some 
 
68 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 black thread ; if you can find a bet- 
 ter way, do it; but be careful, for 
 all the danger is to get that to me, 
 for I have but one bar to cut, and I 
 am in town by four o'clock in the 
 morning. — They will not miss me 
 till eight, when they come to un- 
 lock us. I shall be by that out of 
 their reach. Dear girl, bring me 
 the turf six pieces at a time. When 
 I have got the saw, I must have 
 some friend come round to see the 
 Castle, but take no notice of me, 
 but to see the situation ; I am in 
 full north; and come again in one 
 hour after we lock up; bring rope 
 enough to reach over the wall, and 
 he stand on the other side, and hold 
 it till I am up the wall. Fasten a 
 large spike to the end of the rope, 
 and throw it over the wall, and tie 
 knots about nine inches asunder, to 
 hold by, and about twenty -five feet 
 long. There is no danger in this, 
 for there is nobody inside, after we 
 come to bed. A rainy night will be 
 best; but I will let you know the 
 night by another line. Mr. Prince 
 says he has got a very respectable 
 man, who will come forward and 
 swear to every thing of the concern, 
 all but seeing it put in. If any 
 body can be found to write to Lord 
 F. O. (alluding to a threat,) it will 
 have great effect. Mr. J. B. South 
 Street, Grosvenor Square, Mr. B. 
 King's Mews, Elbs (meaning Theo- 
 bald's) Road, Gray's-lnn Lane, 
 have a good look out, if there is 
 any danger. I shall soon be along 
 with you, with a little of your as- 
 sistance; by applying to the people 
 above mentioned you will get good 
 intelligence. When you write, di- 
 rect your letters to Mrs. Howell's 
 sister. When you come, ask me 
 for my pocket-book, and I can give 
 you all at once. I shall call them 
 
 things breeches and coat, so you 
 will know.' 
 
 This letter was detected in the 
 hand of his wife, by the gaoler, 
 whose suspicions were excited by 
 the circumstance of their parting on 
 this occasion with more than usual 
 emotion. Baffled in all his schemes, 
 he for a time indulged the criminal 
 design of taking away his own life; 
 but from which he was persuaded 
 by the pious exhortations of the 
 chaplain. 
 
 Seeing no hopes of either mercy 
 or escape, he resigned himself to his 
 fate, but persisted in denying having 
 intended to destroy the horses, as he 
 only wanted to incapacitate them 
 from winning. Of the frequenters 
 of Newmarket he gave an appalling 
 picture, and alleged that many gen- 
 tlemen of turf notoriety deserved, 
 as much as he did, the punishment 
 that awaited him ; for that there 
 were not three fair betters amongst 
 them, and that one nobleman, in 
 particular, would cheat his Creator 
 if his lordship had a match with him. 
 
 Dawson spent his last days in 
 all the fervency of prayer, and ex- 
 pressed his pious hope in the for- 
 giveness of the Almighty. The last 
 parting from his wife was truly 
 affecting, and he described it as 
 worse than death. The night be- 
 fore his execution he slept sound, 
 and ate, next morning, a hearty 
 breakfast. Previous to his receiv- 
 ing the sacrament he tied a yajd of 
 black riband round his neck, which, 
 at his dying request, was conveyed 
 to his afflicted wife. At twelve 
 o'clock he was led to the platform, 
 on the top of Cambridge Castle, and 
 was turned off amidst an immense 
 concourse of spectators, it being 
 market day. He died without a 
 struggle. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 m 
 
 LIEUTENANT GAMAGE, 
 
 EXECUTED FOtt. MURDER. 
 
 This unfortunate young officer 
 fell a victim to ungovernable pas- 
 sions. He bad ordered a sergeant 
 of marines upon some duty, wbicb 
 the sergeant, conceiving it incompa- 
 tible with his situation, refused 
 performing; and was, withal, in- 
 solent in his replies. The lieu- 
 tenant burst into a violent passion, 
 ran to his cabin, seized his dirk, 
 returned, and stabbed the sergeant to 
 the heart. For this crime he was 
 tried by a court martial, and sen- 
 tenced to death. 
 
 The execution took place on 
 board the Griffon, in November, 
 1812. He bore his fate with manly 
 fortitude. About eight o'clock he 
 was attended by the clergyman, 
 and remained with him till about 
 half past nine, when the procession 
 began from his cabin to the plat- 
 form, from whence he was to be 
 launched into eternity. The clergy- 
 man walked first; then Lieutenant 
 Gamage, attended on each side by 
 two friends, officers; several officers 
 followed afterwards ; every one pre- 
 sent was deeply affected at the 
 unfortunate fate of this young gen- 
 tleman, the ship's company parti- 
 cularly. Bouts from the different 
 ships attended, as usual, round the 
 execution, and ' God receive his 
 soul' frequently burst forth from 
 different seamen. He bowed and 
 thanked them three times, and 
 seemed deeply affected with the 
 sympathy he excited. He spoke 
 shortly to his own crew, warning 
 them to beware of giving way to 
 sudden passion. As soon as he 
 reached the platform, he prayed 
 again with the clergyman, and pre- 
 cisely at ten o'clock, the signal 
 gun being fired, he was run up to 
 the yard-arm, amidst the repeated 
 exclamations from the seamen of 
 
 * God bless and receive him !' He 
 appeared to suffer but little. 
 
 Previous to the execution, the 
 following circular address was sent 
 by Admiral Foley to every ship in 
 his fleet: — 
 
 * The commander-in-chief most 
 earnestly desires to direct the par- 
 ticular attention of the fleet to the 
 melancholy scene they are now called 
 to attend — a scene which offers a 
 strong, and much he hopes, an im- 
 pressive lesson to every person in 
 it — a lesson to all who are to com- 
 mand, to all who are to obey. — 
 Lieutenant Gamage is represented 
 by every person who knew him, 
 and by the unanimous voice of the 
 Griffon's ship's company, as a hu- 
 mane compassionate man — a kind 
 indulgent officer; yet, for wa tit of 
 that guard which every man should 
 keep over his passions, this kind, 
 humane, compassionate man com- 
 mits the dreadful crime of murder ! 
 
 ' Let his example strike deep 
 into the minds of all who witness 
 his unhappy end ; and, whatever 
 their general disposition may be, 
 let them learn from him, that, if 
 they are not always watchful to 
 restrain their passions within their 
 proper bounds, one moment of in- 
 temperate anger may destroy the 
 hopes of a well-spent honourable 
 life, and bring them to an untimely 
 and disgraceful death. And let 
 those who are to obey learn from 
 the conduct of the sergeant the 
 fatal effects which may result from 
 contempt and insolent conduct to- 
 wards their superiors. — By repeated 
 insolence the sergeant overcame the 
 kind and gentle disposition of Lieu- 
 tenant Gamage ; and, by irritating 
 and inflaming his passion, occa- 
 sioned his own death. 
 
 • The commander-in-chief hopes 
 
70 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 lhat this afflicting lesson may not 
 be offered in vain; but, seriously 
 contemplating the awful example 
 before I hem, every officer ami every 
 man will learn from it, nevir to 
 suffer himself to be driven by ill- 
 governed passion to treat with 
 cruelty 01 violence those over whom 
 he is to command, nor by disobedi- 
 ence or disrespect to rouse the 
 passions of those whom it is his 
 duty to obey and respect. 
 
 (Signed) * Thomas Foley.' 
 
 The body was brought on shore 
 for interment at two o'clock, and 
 was received at landing by Perrer 
 Dower, Esq. governor of the naval 
 hospital, who, with a number of 
 naval and military officers, attended 
 this unfortunate young gentleman's 
 remains to the burial-ground at the 
 naval hospital, where they were 
 deposited. General Trollope, and 
 the officers of the Griffon, with se- 
 veral of the crew, were present. 
 
 It might have been hoped that 
 his untimely fate would have served 
 
 to check the passions of young 
 officers in dispensing their orders to 
 those under their command. We 
 are, therefore, sorry to find a case 
 nearly similar, and immediately 
 afler that of Lieutenant Gamage. 
 
 A court martial was held on 
 Tuesday, 24th of November, 1812, 
 in Plymouth harbour, on Mr. Paul 
 Walker, late midshipman of his 
 majesty's cutter Sylvia, on charges 
 of drunkenness, contempt, disobedi- 
 ence of orders, and for stabbing 
 Isaac Smith, corporal of marines, 
 in several places with a dirk ; which 
 being clearly proved, the Court ad- 
 judged the said Walker to forfeit 
 the whole of his time as midship- 
 man, and to serve before the m ;ist 
 of such of his majesty's ships as 
 the commander-in-chief shall direct ; 
 and, as a further disgrace, ordered 
 him to be taken alongside every 
 ship and vessel iu the said harbour, 
 where the sentence was publicly 
 read. 
 
 JOACHIM, MARTIN, MILLINGTON, AND WILLIAMS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF THEIR OFFICERS. 
 
 At a court martial held on board three persons they murdered, viz. 
 
 Ills majesty's ship Salvador del Mr. Andrews, master's mate; Mr. 
 
 Mundo, in the Hamoaze at Ply- Bolen, quarter-master; and Mr. 
 
 mouth, in December 1812, these iu- Winsland Steward, a passenger; and 
 
 human seamen were tried for one that, afier iu vain attempting to 
 
 of the most foul, unprovoked, and carry the vessel into an enemy's 
 
 desperate murders which ever (lis- port, they were again fallen iu with 
 
 graced the British navy. by the Diana and Aquilon frigates. 
 
 It appeared in evidence that and brought to Plymouth in irons. 
 
 Joachim, a Portuguese; Martin, a The first witness, Boyd, deposed 
 
 that, on the 25th of November, 
 himself, with Grant, the prisoners, 
 the black since drowned, and the 
 three missing people, were put on 
 
 black, belonging to the Diana; 
 Milliugton, an Irishman ; and Wil- 
 liams, ati Englishman, belonging 
 to the Growler gun-brig; Baptist, 
 
 another black, concerned in t he board the brig, and directed to pro- 
 murder, drowned, with two other ceed to Plymouth, which they did, 
 seamen, named Boyd and Grant, until the night of the 29th, or mom- 
 admitted as evidence against them, ing of the 30th ; when, off Scilly, 
 were put on hoard the French prize- the diabolical plan was put in exe- 
 brig Le Sitir Maree, along with the cutiem. That he and Grant had the 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 71 
 
 first watcli, from eight to twelve, 
 and were relieved at twelve by 
 some of the prisoners. That at 
 about three o'clock he was called 
 by Joachim, but he did not then 
 attend to him; — that he was called 
 the second time, when he went up- 
 on deck, where he was told by Joa- 
 chim and Baptist they had taken 
 the vessel, and intended to take her 
 to France, and if he would join them 
 he might; — this offer he peremp- 
 torily refused, and called for Bolen, 
 who did not answer; he called 
 again, and was answered by one of 
 the prisoners that he was dead. 
 Horror instantly struck him to the 
 soul : he, however, called for Grant, 
 who answered very low ; on which 
 Joachim told him, as he was a poor 
 seaman like himself, he might go 
 below, and they should not hurt 
 him : that he then went down the 
 steerage into the cable-tier, where 
 he found Grant, who had Ik en pre- 
 viously called up, and asked the 
 same questions. Here their situa- 
 tion must have been truly dismal, 
 expecting every moment to be mur- 
 dered also. They were kept as 
 prisoners by the negro, Martin, 
 who stood over them with Mr. An- 
 drews's sword. Boyd farther stated 
 that there was only a sliding door 
 which parted them and the cabin, 
 where they saw a body covered over 
 with a quilt, and lying ou the floor, 
 which was afterwards removed on 
 deck, and thrown overboard. That 
 in the morning, at day light, they 
 heard a voice on deck say ■ Two sail 
 in chase;' and about eight o'clock 
 they heard the boat lowered from 
 the stern, and row off. That, after 
 the boat was gone, Boyd looked on 
 deck, and, perceiving oidy Baptist, 
 Millington, and Williams, he said 
 to Grant, ■ Now is our time to go 
 on deck, and throw the black 
 (Baptist) overboard, and secure the 
 other two;' with which Grant com- 
 
 plied, and they both went up: — by 
 this time the vessels were near them, 
 and they were about seven miles 
 from the Saints Island, standing 
 quite on upon the land. For some 
 time they (the witnesses) appeared 
 to take no notice; but, on Boy tl 
 observing the force-top bowline 
 loose, he desired the black to haul 
 it taught, and he went to assist, 
 hoping to get an opportunity to 
 throw him overboard ; but, not 
 finding an advantageous opportunity 
 then, he walked behind him towards 
 the stern, and, observing the main- 
 mast topsail-sheet gone, he desired 
 him to haul that taught. When the 
 desired moment arrived, he seized 
 the black, and threw him outside 
 the bulwark, where the fellow clung 
 with his hands to the rigging, and 
 with his teeth almost bit off Boyd's 
 thumb. On Grant observing this, 
 he ran to Boyd's assistance, and 
 struck the black on the head with a 
 stick, and knocked him overboard. 
 That he (Boyd) then went to the 
 helm, seized Milliisgtou, tied his 
 hands, and set him on the deck ; — 
 that Grant, at the same time, seized 
 Williams, ;nd set them side by 
 side ou the deck, when they stood 
 the vessel off the land, to near the 
 frigate, and to avoid the black, who 
 was still swimming. That the 
 Aquilon's boat boarded them soon 
 after, when he related to the lieute- 
 nant what had happened, and was 
 then taken on board the Diana. 
 
 Grant deposed exactly to the 
 same effect, and both of them gave 
 their evidence in the most clear and 
 steady manner. 
 
 The prisoners stated no cause 
 that led them to commit this diaboli- 
 cal act. They were sentenced to 
 suffer death on board such ships, 
 and at such time, as the lords com- 
 missioners of the admiralty should 
 be pleased to direct. 
 
 The awful sentence, although 
 
72 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 read in the most impressive manner 
 by the judge-advocate, had not the 
 smallest etFect on any one hut Mil- 
 lington, who cried much, for which 
 he was jeered by Williams, who told 
 him that hanging was nothing but 
 choking ! 
 
 The president, before dismissing 
 the Court, took the opportunity of 
 returning thanks to Boyd and Grant 
 
 for their brave and seaman-like con- 
 duct while in such a perilous situa- 
 tion ; and said he hoped it would 
 npver be forgotten by those pre- 
 sent, and that their high and merito- 
 rious behaviour deserved the great- 
 est praise. 
 
 They were hanged from the yard- 
 arm of a vessel of war. 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SLIGO, 
 
 FINED AND IMPRISONED FOR ENTICING SEAMEN TO DESERT HIS MA- 
 JESTY'S NAVY. 
 
 In 1810 the noble marquis, then his noble friend upon the danger of 
 a very thoughtless young man, having deserters on board, as the 
 quitted college, and proceeded on navy was then very low, being 
 his travels, visiting those places in nearly two thousand under its corn- 
 person, of whose ancient fame and plement. He then left the mar- 
 greatness he had read so much, quis, and from his own ship sent 
 Being partial to marine excursions, him a description of the men miss- 
 and willing to indulge himself in ing, requesting that, if they offered 
 one in the Mediterranean, he hired, themselves to his lordship, they 
 at Malta, a brig called the Pylades; might be sent to some of his ma- 
 and, having been introduced to Cap- jesty's ships at Malta, 
 tain Sprainger, of the Warrior, then It must he admitted, we fear, that 
 on that station, he received from British seamen are generally too 
 that naval officer much information much disposed to leave the service, 
 and kindness. and probably, inthe present instance, 
 
 The noble marquis, being fre- did not require much pressing : but 
 
 quently rowed to and from the War- still we cannot acquit his lordship 
 
 nor by some of her athletic crew, 
 seems to have thought the addition 
 
 of something worse than ingrati- 
 tude ; for he kept the men conceal- 
 
 of a few of these fine fellows a de- ed on board, and pledged his word 
 sirable acquisition to his handful of of honour that he had them not. 
 Italians. Accordingly it appears Next day the Warrior sailed ; and 
 he succeeded in enticing two of the noble marquis, fired with the 
 them, upon which suspicion fell fame of his grandfather, Lord Howe, 
 upon his lordship; for it was sup- resolved that his brig should be a 
 posed no ordinary inducement had letter of marque, for the purpose of 
 been held out to them, as they were upholding the honour of the British 
 men of tried fidelity, loiiy standing, flai;. For the business if navi-a- 
 and had then three years' arrears tion, a comparatively few men would 
 of wages due to them Captain have done ; hut in this new capacity 
 Sprainger paid the marquis a visit he required at least forty. To pro- 
 onboard the Pylades ; and, on hint- cure these was no very difficult 
 ing his suspicions, his lordship ap- task on a station where men were 
 peared greatly hurt; upon which hourly in the habit of quitting their 
 the captain, from their intimacy, ships ; and his lordship's servant, in 
 contented himself with cautioning the course of an evening or two, 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 added fourteen brave fellows to their 
 complement. 
 
 On the 13th of May his lordship 
 sailed to Palermo, and from thence 
 to Messina, where, on pledging his 
 word of honour that he had no de- 
 serters on board, he received a six 
 months' protection for forty men, 
 having inserted false names for the 
 men-of-war's men. The Pylades 
 then proceeded on her course, and 
 on the 30lh of May she was chased 
 by the Active, an officer of that ship 
 having heard that deserters were on 
 board. Ere the boat came along- 
 side, his lordship ordered the men- 
 of-war's men below, and, though a 
 search took place, they escaped de- 
 tection. 
 
 The marquis next sailed to Pat- 
 mos, where ten of the men were al- 
 lowed to go on shore, and that 
 evening the vessel sailed without 
 them. On this transaction so much 
 contrary evidence was given on the 
 trial, that we are at a loss which 
 side to credit. The men on shore 
 said that his lordship proposed 
 stopping for a fortnight, and that 
 no signal for sailing was made. The 
 reverse of this was sworn by others 
 of the crew, and we leave the reader 
 to form his own opinion. The 
 abandoned men, however, appear to 
 have suffered great hardship; and 
 at Scio, when accompanied by the 
 British consul to the Pylades, his 
 lordship refused to receive any of 
 them except four, who were useful 
 in the management of the vessel. 
 
 Some of the men returned to their 
 duty, and, were tried by a court mar- 
 tial. From Constantinople the mar- 
 quis wrote to Captain Strainger, 
 stating that he found he had some 
 of his men on board, and that he 
 was determined to send them on 
 
 shore the first opportunity ; that, it 
 the business was brought into a 
 Court, he would do the best to de- 
 fend himself; and that, at the worst, 
 he had an ample fortune, and could 
 pay the fines. 
 
 Tired with travelling, his lord- 
 ship returned home, and soon after 
 his arrival in England he was in- 
 dicted for enticing British seamen 
 from their duty. The trial came on 
 at the Old Bailey, December 16th, 
 1812, when, after a protracted in- 
 quiry, his lordship was found Guilty, 
 and sentenced to pay a fine of five 
 thousand pounds, and be imprisoned 
 four months in Newgate. 
 
 On this case it is unnecessary for 
 us to make any observation. Un- 
 fortunately, in the folly and indis- 
 cretion of youth, this young noble- 
 man was betrayed into a forgetful- 
 ness of what he owed to his country 
 and to himself, and descended from 
 those pure principles which high 
 rank ought to generate. He had 
 perverted the great advantages 
 which he possessed to draw his in- 
 feriors from their duty, and thereby 
 exposed them to ignominy and pu- 
 nishment, as well as serving, in a 
 slight degree, to weaken the de- 
 fence of the kingdom. However, it 
 is a source of consolation, that his 
 lordship's aberration from duty 
 afforded another instance of Ihe im- 
 partiality of British laws, which 
 have a like punishment for similar 
 offences for the high and the low. 
 
 Perhaps it is not the least curious 
 particular attending this case, that 
 his lordship's mother, the Dowager 
 Marchioness of S'igo, soon after 
 her son' s trial, was married to Sir 
 William Scott, the judge who 
 passed sentence on the youthful 
 marquis. 
 
74 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 JOHN LOMAS AND EDITH MORREY, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MR. MORREY. 
 
 ' My son, learn to say No/ was perpetuate their guilty connexion, 
 
 the dying injunction of a pious resolved on removing the unsuspi- 
 
 mother to a heloved youth ; and, cious husband, whose existence 
 
 though the advice was concise, it they thought a drawback on their 
 
 is one of the most satre that ever mutual happiness, 
 
 was delivered from mortal lips. He Various attempts to murder the 
 
 that learns to say ' No' to the first unfortunate man proved abortive, 
 
 invitation to crime will never be- until the night of the 11 th of April, 
 
 come guilty; for the climax of 1812. Morrey had been out at a 
 
 iniquity is never attained at once, cocking, and returned home at the 
 
 but must be approached through usual hmir. He spoke with his 
 
 ail the progressive ways of vice, usual kindness to Lomas.aud laughed 
 
 Reader ! peruse the atrocious nar- and joked with his wife as they 
 
 rative we are about to relate; and, were going to bed, little suspecting 
 
 while you mourn for the weakness the dreadful intentions which that 
 
 and wickedness of your species, barbarous woman harboured to- 
 
 commune with yourself on the im- wards the father of her children, 
 
 porlance of learning to say ' No/ an Between one and two o'clock Mrs. 
 
 ignorance of which brought this Morrey got up and went to Lomas's 
 
 guilty pair to an ignominious room, desiring him to get up, and 
 
 death. murder her husband. The infatu- 
 
 John Lomas lived as servant ated youth obeyed the horrid sum- 
 with a farmer named Morrey, who mous, and, ascending, had an axe 
 resided in Cheshire, and by whom put into his hands ; while his mis- 
 he was treated with great kindness, tress held the candle, Lomas struck 
 Lomas, not being more than twenty his master three blows on the head, 
 years of age, attracted the notice of and as the unfortunate man moaned, 
 his mistress ; and, though she was he was heard by a servant-maid in 
 the mother of five children, she an adjoining apartment, who, mak- 
 admitted a criminal passion for ing a noise, alarmed the murdereis, 
 her servant boy. Some acts of when they ran out of the room, Mrs. 
 kindness on her part conciliated the Morrey extinguishing, at the same 
 youth, and the condescension of the time, the candle, 
 mistress emboldened him to fami- Morrey continuing to moan, Lo- 
 liarity. The wholesome barriers of mas was sent in again to dispatch 
 respect and deference being once him]; but, after giving several blows, 
 broken through, modesty was left came out without having effected 
 without a protector, and the guilty his horrid purpose. At this Mrs. 
 pair plunged into all the excesses Morrey said, 'John, he is alive; 
 of forbidden enjoyment. Henious go in and kill him;' and put a razor 
 as was their conduct, had it stopped into his hand for the purpose. On 
 here, they would have escaped the his entering a third time, their mi- 
 miserable condition to which they serahle victim was yet alive, and 
 reduced themselves. But the guid- seemed to recognise Lomas, whom 
 ance of virtue once forsaken, the he caught by the shirt, and laid his 
 progress of guilt is rapid. head down on his breast, in a sup- 
 
 This atrocious pair, either appre- plicating manner; but at this mo- 
 
 hensive of discovery, or wishing to ment the monster drew the razor 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 75 
 
 twice across liis throat, and termi- 
 nated liis struggles for existence. 
 
 Mrs. Money now went into the 
 servant-maid's room, and prevented 
 her from escaping through the 
 window, telling her to remain quiet, 
 as there were murderers in the 
 house. 
 
 To save appearances, Lomas ran 
 through the neighbourhood, lament- 
 ing and proclaiming that some vil- 
 lains had murdered his master. Se- 
 veral people attended, and blood 
 being found on Lomas, and traced 
 to his room, he was accused of the 
 murder, when he unhesitatingly 
 confessed it, and implicated his 
 mistress. When the constable came 
 to take her into custody, she drew 
 from her pocket a razor, and in- 
 flicted a deep wound in her throat; 
 but it did not prove mortal. The 
 razor was found in a pond, where 
 Lomas had thrown it; and his bloody 
 shirt was taken out of his trunk, 
 where he had concealed it. 
 
 So great was the sensation pro- 
 duced in the country hy the perpe- 
 tration of this horrid murder, that 
 when the trial of these malefactors 
 came on at Chester, July 21st, 
 1812, the court was crowded to 
 excess, it being computed that four 
 thousand persons attended to hear 
 the verdict. The facts of the case 
 being proved, the jury, without re- 
 tiring, pronounced them Guilty, and 
 they were ordered for execution 
 the ensuing Monday. When sen- 
 tence was passed, Lomas stretched 
 out his hands and exclaimed, ' I 
 deserve it all — I don't wish to live; 
 but I hope for mercy.' His more 
 miserable companion pleaded preg- 
 nancy ; and, a jury of matrons prov- 
 ing this to be case, she was re- 
 spited. 
 
 The trial continued six hours. 
 Edith Morrey wore a veil when she 
 was put to the bar; but this being 
 ordered to be removed, she held her 
 
 handkerchief to her face, and pre- 
 served, throughout the awful in- 
 vestigation, a sullen, unmoved, 
 hardness. From the time of her 
 imprisonment, she protested h< r in- 
 nocence; and, thinking that there 
 was not a sufficient evidence to 
 criminate her, she spoke with con- 
 fidence of acquittal. On the other 
 hand, Lomas all along confessed 
 his crime in all its horrid circum- 
 stances. 
 
 On Sunday, the day before exe- 
 cution, Edith Morrey acknowledged 
 her guilt, and desired to speak with 
 Lomas. This was granted, and they 
 purtook of the sacrament together, 
 previous to which they had some 
 mutual recrimination, Money being 
 unwilling to acknowledge the mi- 
 nute particulars of her atrocious 
 conduct. But they parted in 
 friendship; and, praying for each 
 other, acknowledged their sins. 
 
 On Monday, according to his 
 sentence, Lomas was removed from 
 Chester Castle to the New City 
 Gaol. The sheriffs received him 
 at the boundaries, and, on being- 
 placed in a cart, he fell on his knees, 
 and continued in prayer till he ar- 
 rived at the gaol, in front of which 
 the drop was erected. He declared 
 he would rather die than live, and 
 every part of his deportment evinced 
 the sincerity of his professions. 
 When the rope was placed round 
 his neck, he addressed a few words 
 to the surrounding multitude, ob- 
 serving that he had made his peace 
 with God, and warned them to 
 take example by his present awful 
 situa'ion. Soon after he was launch- 
 ed into eternity ; but, being in the 
 vigour of youth and health, he 
 struggled violently before he quitted 
 this mortal state. 
 
 The miserable Edith Morrey 
 having given birth to an infant, 
 and the time of parturition over, 
 she prepared to meet the fate of 
 
76 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 her paramour. On the 7th of Fe- 
 bruary, 1813, she was conducted to 
 the place of execution, and it is 
 some alleviation to our feelings 
 that she died a penitent. She was 
 dressed in widow's weeds, and, 
 when placed upon the platform, 
 she advanced to the front and ad- 
 dressed the multitude. ' My dear 
 Christians, I hope you will take 
 warning by my melancholy situa- 
 tion. My crime has been of a double 
 
 nature. In the first place I have 
 broken one of God's command- 
 ments, by committing adultery, and 
 defiling the marriage bed ; and, in 
 the next, I have committed a most 
 inhuman murder, imbruing my hands 
 in the blood of an affectionate and 
 most indulgent husband.' — Then 
 clasping her hands, she exclaimed, 
 ' Lord, unto thee I commend my 
 spirit,' and in a moment after she 
 was launched into eternity. 
 
 JOSEPH SIMMONS WINTER, BENJAMIN ALLEN, WILLIAM 
 TAYLOR, JOHN 1VEY, & ROBERT COOPER, 
 
 THE THREE FI KST EXECUTED FOR STEALING SILK, AND THE TWO 
 LATTER TRANSPORTED FOR RECEIVING IT, KNOWING IT TO 
 
 BE STOLEN. 
 
 These men belonged to a gang hoy, that when Banton should pur- 
 of desperate villains who frequently posely run his vessel aground, he 
 
 committed depredations on the River 
 Thames; but all their previous acts 
 of dishonesty were lost in the enor- 
 mity of the one we are about record- 
 ins, which, at the time of perpe- 
 tration, created a greater notoriety 
 than any case of felony we remem- 
 ber to have heard of. 
 
 The brig ' Velocity,' laden with 
 silk and ostrich feathers, sailed in 
 the month of May, 1812, from 
 Gibraltar to London. Coming from 
 a country afflicted with a pesti- 
 lential disease, the ship was obliged 
 to perform quarantine on her arrival 
 
 was to come alongside, and carry off 
 the silk, &c. 
 
 Thieves cannot exist without re- 
 ceivers; and these villains had more 
 than one. Cooper, who kept three 
 public houses, and was turning at 
 the rate of seventeen thousand 
 pounds a year, agreed to purchase 
 the silk at a certain price; a man 
 named Ingram was also to receive 
 it; and Ivey, who was a toy-chan- 
 dler in Artillery Lane, agreed to 
 make sales for them. Cooper and 
 Ingram went down to Dagenham to 
 receive the goods, where it was ex- 
 
 in the mouth of the Thames. Of pected they would have been landed, 
 this circumstance the hand of pirates On the 14th of July the hoy re- 
 got notice, and having ascertained ceived the goods, and sailed. Win- 
 that a man named Banton, master ter followed ; but in consequence of 
 of the ' Sisters' hoy, was to go Banton having a Custom-house offi- 
 down to Stangate Creek to fetch up cer on board, who was well acquaint- 
 the silk and feathers, they ensaged ed with the river, he refused to fulfil 
 him — nothing loath — to aid them his promise. Thus disappointed, 
 in making away with the cargo, they execrated Banton, and for this 
 His mate, named Knox, was also in time abandoned their intentions; 
 the secret, and approved of the but on the • Sisters' coming up to 
 scheme. Winter was also the mas- the Custom House on Saturday, 
 ter of a hoy, and engaged to carry they entered into a new conspiracy 
 the robbery into execution ; for to steal the silk and feathers, there 
 which purpose he followed with his being ten bales of the first, and two 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 77 
 
 of the lalter, onboard. Allen and 
 Taylor, who were working men on 
 the river, were two of those con- 
 cerned. On Tuesday night they 
 went on hoard, when one of the 
 thieves imitated Banton's voice, and 
 told the officers that he should 
 move out in the river, to be ready 
 for the morning's tide, as he wanted 
 to get in the London Docks, and 
 requested of them to go below, and 
 get into bed. The stupid fellows 
 did so, and the villains carried the 
 hoy into a wharf above Blackfriars 
 Bridge, on the Surrey side, where 
 they quickly carried off the cargo. 
 When the officers awoke next morn- 
 ing they found themselves confined; 
 and when, with great difficulty, they 
 broke through the skylight, they 
 found the goods in which they were 
 in charge had been carried off. 
 
 The silk and feathers were first 
 removed to a stable in Woolpack 
 Yard, Gravel Lane. The parties 
 afterwards met at several public 
 houses, to concert means to dispose 
 of the property. Ivey refused to 
 be immediately concerned, but pro- 
 mised to sell the feathers when the 
 alarm excited was allayed, and re- 
 ceived payment for the part he had 
 already taken. Cooper then agreed 
 to pay for the silk nine hundred 
 pounds, and actually sold a part of 
 it to a Mr. Gibbs, of Cumberland 
 Street, Shoreditch. He then em- 
 ployed one Harris, a clerk, and 
 brother to an attorney, to dispose of 
 more of it; and this man negotiated 
 with some of the trade, pretending 
 that he was employed by men of 
 character, but whose names, from 
 motives of delicacy, he was not at 
 liberty to disclose. The silk being 
 of a peculiar nature, and sent to 
 the purchaser in an unusual state of 
 package, he indignantly rejected it, 
 suspecting that it was part of the 
 stolen silk, then universally adver- 
 tised. 
 
 Several of the party wue appre- 
 hended on suspicion ; but there 
 being no evidence against th. in, 
 they were acquitted. Harris acted 
 as their professional agent, and sup- 
 plied them with money. At length 
 a new light was thrown on the 
 affair. A silk-thrower, whose mills 
 were at Bruton, was sent some of 
 this silk to prepare; and suspecting, 
 from its state, that it belonged to 
 that stolen, informed the parties 
 concerned of the circumstance, upon 
 which several of the villains were 
 taken into custody; but the affair 
 being of a complicated nature, it was 
 found necessary to admit some of 
 the accomplices as evidence against 
 the others. For this purpose three 
 men, named Brown, Fenwick, and 
 Banton, were admitted as approvers ; 
 and Winter, Allen, Taylor, Ivey, 
 Knox, Ccoper, and Harris, were 
 indicted at the Old Bailey, October 
 the 30th, 1812. 
 
 Their trial occupied the Court 
 three days, during which time the 
 jury were not permitted to separate. 
 The facts being deposed against 
 them, several witnesses were called 
 as to character ; and Cooper had 
 the solicitor of the Customs and 
 Excise examined, to show that he 
 had been frequently prosecuted as 
 a smuggler, with a view to persuade 
 the jury, by inference, that he 
 bought the silk, with the idea that 
 it was smuggled. 
 
 The jury, having been charged, 
 retired at twelve o'clock at night, 
 and soon returned with a verdict of 
 Guilty — Death — against Winter, 
 Taylor, and Allen : — Ivey and 
 Cooper Guilty — transportation; and 
 acquitting Harris and Knox. 
 
 Knox, it appeared, knew nothing 
 of the last transaction; and no evi- 
 dence went to show that Harris was 
 otherwise employed than as a pro- 
 fessional agent. 
 
 After their conviction several in- 
 
73 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 struments were conveyed to Winter days before their final one upon 
 
 and Allen, with a view to enable earth. The three unfortunate men 
 
 them to make their escape; and a suffered the sentence of the law, 
 
 similar attempt was made a few January 25, 1813. 
 
 CHARLES FREDERICK PALM AND SAMUEL TILLING,. 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MUTINY AND MURDER. 
 
 These sanguinary men were in- tioned. He then shaped his course 
 dieted at the Sessions of the Hijjh towards Congar, upon the coast of 
 
 Bailey 
 cembei 
 
 Court of Admiralty, at the Old 
 on Friday the 18th De- 
 ber, 1812, for the murder of 
 James Keith, master of a trading 
 vessel, called ' The Adventure.' — 
 There were other counts in the 
 said indictment against the prison- 
 ers, charging them with the mur- 
 der of William Smith, the first mate 
 
 Africa, intending thus to make his 
 voyage to the South Seas; but, 
 whilst an hundred leagues off that 
 place, the crew began to show 
 strong symptoms of mutiny ; and, 
 on a morning in April, about four 
 o'clock, a boy named George, who 
 was at the helm, called to the cap- 
 tain, saying there was something 
 
 of the said vessel, and two black bad going on upon deck. The un- 
 
 men belonging thereto, called, the fortunate Keith, who had already 
 
 one Joe, and the other John.* in vain attempted to conciliate his 
 
 From the evidence adduced on crew, instantly arose from his bed, 
 the trial it appeared that the de- and, without putting on his clothes, 
 ceased, James Keith, was master hurried to the deck, where he saw 
 and sole owner of the vessel in Palm, the second mate, in the act 
 question; and that, having embark- of striking a light, 
 ed the whole of his property there- The captain asked what he was 
 in, to the extent of nearly two about, when Palm struck him with 
 thousand pounds, he resolved to the cooper's hammer, which he had 
 make a voyage to the South Seas ready in his hand. In the mean 
 upon a fishing concern; and for time, another man, since dead, at- 
 that purpose engaged a crew, which, tacked the chief mate, who had 
 with himself and three boys, amount- come on deck immediately after 
 ed altogether to fourteen persons, the captain, and struck him re- 
 Palm was a Swede, an experienced peatedly with the cook's axe, and 
 seaman, by his commander ap- Palm, and two other Swedes (both 
 pointed to the post of second male. since dead), took an active part in 
 
 ' The Adventure ' sailed from Ports- throwing the captain and chief mate 
 
 mouth in the month of November, overboard. 
 
 1811, and for a part of the time After this all hands went below, 
 
 had a prosperous voyage; but one except the boy at the helm. Piilm 
 of the crew becoming sickly, and produced a Bible, and they all took 
 eventually dying, the captain put an oath upon it, wishing they might 
 
 nlo the Island of St. Thomas's, never see the light of heaven if they 
 and took on board the two black divulged what had passed. 
 
 men, Joe and John, already men- The boy left at the helm was 
 
 * The prisoner, Palm, being an alien, was asked, in the usual manner, whether he 
 would be tried by a jury composed of half Englishmen, and the other half foreigners. 
 He hesitated ; but answered that he would rather trust himself to Englishmen, than 
 Lave a single Swede on the jury. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 afterwards sworn ; and, after the 
 bodies of the captain and chief 
 Mate had been thrown overboard, 
 the two Swedes provided them- 
 selves each with a pistol and a glass 
 of rum : the rum they offered to 
 the blacks; and, whilst in the act 
 of drinking it, each shot his man ; 
 when both were immediately thrown 
 overboard by Palm and the two 
 Swedes. 
 
 After this they plundered the 
 captain's property, and Palm had 
 a five-pound note out of it. Palm 
 then look charge of the vessel ; but 
 it was afterwards determined to 
 scuttle the ship, and take to the 
 boats, and steer for the coast of 
 Guinea. 
 
 Two boats were prepared, and 
 provisions put into them with the 
 crew, eleven in number; they were 
 three days and three nights before 
 they reached land, and then one 
 of the boats was swamped, and a 
 boy was drowned ; they then walk- 
 ed along the beach till night, when 
 they lay down on the sand to sleep, 
 and next day went into the country. 
 The moment, however, they were 
 discovered, the black natives rushed 
 upon them, seized, plundered, and 
 stripped them naked, and ltd them 
 off through the country, to be sold 
 as white slaves. 
 
 In this deplorable state they re- 
 mained several weeks, traversing a 
 vast extent of country, during which 
 all of them died through disease, 
 cruelty of the negroes, or fatigue, 
 except Palm, Tilling, William 
 Wright, not yet apprehended, and 
 Henry Madis. The survivors were 
 marched, or rather driven, to Cape 
 Lopez, a southern promontory of 
 Africa, where the black chief re- 
 leased them, supposing they were 
 shipwrecked mariners, and, after a 
 short time, a Portuguese vessel 
 touching there, Palm and Wright 
 took their voyage to Europe in her, 
 
 and in a few days, a Liverpool ship 
 also touching there, Tilling and 
 Madis got a passage in her, and 
 they were landed at Liverpool iu 
 September. 
 
 Tilling, appearing an object of 
 charity, was admitted a patient in 
 the hospital; and Mr. Capper, the 
 first mate of the ship which brought 
 them back to their native country, 
 humanely took the boy, Madis, lo 
 his own home. In about a week 
 after their arrival, when Madis went 
 to see Tilling at the hospital, he 
 was greatly surprised to see Palm 
 at the same place, having, on the 
 morning of that same day, been 
 taken in as a patient from the ship 
 that brought him over. 
 
 The day on which young Madis 
 landed in Liverpool he wrote the 
 outlines of the above sad story to 
 his mother in London; and urged 
 her to send him money to defray 
 travelling charges, that he might 
 lay the whole before a London ma- 
 gistrate. 
 
 Such was the evidence against 
 the prisoners. The impulse which 
 appeared principally to occupy the 
 mind of Palm was that of criminat- 
 ing his fellow-prisoner, whom he 
 laboured to make appear to have 
 acted an equal part in the bloody 
 scene with himself; which by no 
 means came out in evidence : on 
 the contrary the work of death 
 seemed to have been done by Palm 
 and his brother Swedes, of which 
 country the greater part of the crew 
 were composed. 
 
 Witnesses were called to the cha- 
 racter of Tilling, among whom was 
 his sister; who all spoke highly of 
 his former conduct in life. This 
 might have had some weight in his 
 behalf; indeed nothing vindictive 
 was proved against him, and those 
 charitably inclined believed that he 
 took the forced oath, and appeared, 
 after the murderous deeds were 
 
80 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 done, as indeed any one would, to 
 retain the blessing - of life; — but 
 Tilling did not act like Madis, who 
 gave information of the horrid 
 transaction on his return to his na- 
 tive country. They were both found 
 Guilty, and suffered at Execution 
 Dock on the 21st December, 1812. 
 Palm appeared to be about fifty 
 years of age; but the hardships lie 
 had undergone among the negroes in 
 Africa might have had a premature 
 effect upon his appearance. Tilling 
 
 bore the marks of youth, not more 
 than twenty-five years. They were 
 placed in the cart which led tbem to 
 Execution Dock without betraying 
 those emotions natural to men in 
 their unfortunate situation. Palm, 
 soon as seated, put a quid of tobacco 
 into bis mouth, and offered another 
 to his wretched companion, who re- 
 fused it with indignation. Some in- 
 dications of pity were offered for the 
 fate of Tilling ; Palm, execrations 
 alone. 
 
 WILLIAM BROWN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF A CHILD. 
 
 over a stile, which led into a lane, 
 where a little girl was at play. The 
 child, alarmed at bis sudden appear- 
 ance, cried, when be seized her in 
 
 William Brown was a private 
 in the royal artillery, and lived as 
 servant with Lieutenant Wehber. 
 He bore a most exemplary charac- 
 ter in the regiment; though, a 
 short time before the commission 
 of the crime for which he suffered, 
 some articles were missing from his 
 master's lodgings, which it was 
 suspected he had stolen ; and, as he 
 got some intimation of the charge 
 against him, he absented himself 
 
 his arms, and with his finger and 
 thumb strangled her. As soon as 
 she was dead, he carried her under 
 his arm to some distance, and then 
 laid her on some stone steps which 
 he described, and where the body 
 was subsequently found, and, from 
 the marks on its little throat, it 
 
 on the night of the 4th of April, was evidently killed as the monster 
 
 1812, from the barrack, and this 
 circumstance seems to have led to 
 the fatal deed. 
 
 The circumstances of the case 
 were of an extraordinary nature. 
 On the morning of the 5th, he re- 
 turned to the barrack as early as 
 
 described. The name of the child 
 was Isabella M'Guire, aged seven 
 years. Brown could ascribe no mo- 
 tive for the perpetration of the 
 dreadful act, and, as he had no ma- 
 lice acainst the child, be could not 
 tell how he came to do it. We are, 
 
 between five and six, and called up therefore, either to suspect that he 
 
 a person of the name of Jeffecot, 
 with whom he had lived. After 
 some preliminary conversation, he 
 told him be had committed a crime 
 for which he must be hanged, and 
 desired that he might be taken to 
 the guard-house, where he was 
 received by the sergeant-major. 
 
 had a disposition habituated to 
 cruelty, or was stimulated to the 
 deed by temporary insanity ; for 
 human nature, thank God, is not 
 altogether so sanguinary, as deli- 
 berately to shed innocent blood, 
 without any provocation whatever. 
 For this offence he was indicted 
 
 When in custody, he requested to at Maidstone on the 7th of August, 
 
 speak with the sergeant in private. 1812, when he was found Guilty, 
 
 This being granted, he told him and underwent, according to his 
 
 that, being walking in the country sentence, the dreadfui fiat of the 
 
 the preceding evening, he was going law on the following Monday. 
 
Jt>etltit!>hiim shooting Mr. Percewl- 
 
 JOHN BELLINGHAM, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF THE RIGHT HON. MR. PEKCEVM,. 
 
 There are some crimes linked chant and ship-broker, who, at ths 
 to immortality by the very atrocity time of Bellingham's union with his 
 which accompanies them. The in- family, lived at Newry, but who 
 cendiary who ' fired the Epbesian subsequently removed to Dublin, 
 fane' will live as I on £ as literature Bellingham, being a man of activity 
 endures; and, like Felton, who as- and intelligence, was now employed 
 sassinated the Duke of Bucking- by some northern merchants to pay 
 ham, the name of Bellingham is a another visit to Russia, on corn- 
 subject of English history, made mercial affairs. This was in 1804, 
 more conspicuous than his prede- and he went accompanied by his 
 cessor in guilt by the circumstances wife. At Archangel he engaged in 
 which attended the commission of some transactions with the house of 
 his premeditated crime. Dorbecker and Co. ; and before the 
 
 John Bellingham was brought up expiration of a twelvemonth a quar- 
 in a counting-house in London, and rel took place, when each party 
 afterwards went to Archangel, where made a pecuniary claim upon the 
 he lived three years with a Russian other. The subject was referred, 
 merchant. Having returned to his by the governor-general, to the de- 
 native country, he married an ami- cision of four merchants, two of 
 able young woman — a Miss Nevill, whom Bellingham was allowed to 
 the daughter of a respectable mer- select from his countrymen resident 
 
 ' OL, IV. 103 
 
82 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 at Archangel. By the award of 
 these arbitrators Bellingham was 
 found to be indebted to the house 
 of Dorbecker and Co. in the sum 
 of two thousand roubles ; but this 
 sum he refused to pay, and appealed 
 to the senate against the decision. 
 
 In the mean time a criminal suit, 
 had been instituted against him, by 
 the owners of a Russian ship which 
 had been lost in the While Sea. 
 They accused him of having written 
 an anonymous letter to the under- 
 writers in London, stating that the 
 insurances of that ship were fraudu- 
 lent transactions ; in consequence of 
 which the payment for her loss 
 was resisted. No satisfactory proof 
 being adduced, Bellingham was ac- 
 quitted : but before the termination 
 of the suit he attempted to quit 
 Archangel ; and being stopped by 
 the police, whom he resisted, he was 
 taken to prison ; but was soon after 
 liberated, through the influence of the 
 British consul, Sir Stephen Shairp, 
 to whom Bellingham had made ap- 
 plication, requesting to be protected 
 from what he considered the injus- 
 tice of the Russian authorities. 
 
 Soon after this the senate con- 
 firmed the award of the arbitrators, 
 and Bellingham was delivered over 
 to the college of commerce, a tribu- 
 nal established, and acknowledged 
 by treaty, for taking cognizance of 
 commercial matters relating to Bri- 
 tish subjects. He was to remain in 
 custody till he discharged the debt 
 of the two thousand roubles ; but 
 his confinement was by no means 
 severe; for he had permission to 
 ■walk wherever he pleased, attended 
 by an officer belonging to the col- 
 lege. Lord G. L. Gower being at 
 this time ambassador at the Russian 
 Court, Bellingham made frequent 
 application, and, at various times, 
 received from his secretary small 
 sums of money to support him during 
 his confinement. One night, in par- 
 
 ticular, he rushed into his lordship'* 
 house at St. Petersburgh, and re- 
 quested permission to remain all 
 night, to avoid being retaken by the 
 police, whom he had escaped. This 
 was granted, although Lord Gower 
 had no authority to protect him 
 from a legal arrest. It appears he 
 was afterwards retaken, and, being 
 confined by the authorities of the 
 country, the British ambassador 
 could have no pretence to solicit 
 his release. His lordship, how- 
 ever, in a conversation with the mi- 
 nister for foreign affairs, expressed 
 a personal wish that the Russian 
 government, seeing no prospect of 
 recovering the money from Belling- 
 ham, would liberate him, on condi- 
 tion of his immediately returning to 
 England. What effect this had we 
 are not told, as Lord Gower soon 
 after quitted the Russian court. 
 
 The foregoing is taken from the 
 statement published by Lord Gran- 
 ville Leveson Gower, in his own jus- 
 tification, against the charge made 
 against, him by Bellingham on his 
 trial. We hope, for the honour of 
 our country, that this statement is 
 correct; and we must confess that 
 a review of all ihe circumstances 
 tends to confirm its accuracy. Our 
 ambassador, it is admitted, had the 
 case investigated ; and as his refusal 
 to interfere was subsequently con- 
 firmed by that of the English go- 
 vernment, it is evident that Bel- 
 lingham must have had no just 
 cause of complaint, or, at least, not 
 of a nature that called for diplo- 
 matic negotiation or pecuniary re- 
 compense. In justice, however, to 
 the unfortunate man, we shall, when 
 we c«.me to his trial, give his own 
 statement, and leave the reader to 
 draw his own conclusion. 
 
 Bellingham having, by some 
 means or other, procured his libe- 
 ration, returned to England, and at 
 Liverpool commenced the business 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 83 
 
 of an insurance-broker; and as his 
 wife kept a milliner's shop, he might 
 have done well, had not the Russian 
 business impressed itself on his mind 
 to that degree of fervency, that his 
 friends regarded him, on this topic, 
 as in a state of insanity. From 
 continually talking of this affair he 
 soon came to expect redress ; and, 
 having made application to the 
 Marquis Wellesley, he was referred 
 to the privy council, and from the 
 privy council to the Treasury. Not 
 receiving redress, he applied to the 
 chancellor of the exchequer, who 
 refused to support his claims. He 
 was then advised to petition parlia- 
 ment; but, as it was too late in the 
 session of 181 1 to receive private 
 petitions, he was obliged to have 
 recourse to other remedies ; and he 
 accordingly, in the Christmas of 
 this year, came to London, and me- 
 morialized his royal highness the 
 prince regent, who referred it to 
 the Treasury, from the secretary of 
 which he received a letter, slating 
 that he had nothing to expect from 
 government. 
 
 This denial was subsequently re- 
 peated, in consequence of another 
 memorial; and nothing shows more 
 the delusion under which he la- 
 boured, on this business, than his 
 persisting to seek redress for his 
 real or imaginary grievances, after 
 being repeatedly denied. On one 
 occasion he carried his wife, who in 
 vain endeavoured to divert him from 
 his Russian malady, with another 
 lady, to the secretary of state's 
 office, for the purpose of convincing 
 her that the business was in a train 
 of settlement; and though he was 
 there verbally informed that he had 
 nothing to expect, he renewed, on 
 their way home, the subject, and 
 expressed his conviction of having 
 all his losses made good in a very 
 short time. 
 
 He continued in London from 
 
 Christmas to March, prosecuting 
 his claims; but being every way 
 rejected, he had recourse to a novel 
 mode of seeking redress, which was 
 nothing less than soliciting the aid 
 of the police. The following sin- 
 gular letter he transmitted to the 
 magistrates of Bow Street : — 
 
 ' To their Worships the Police 
 Magistrates of the Public Office, 
 in Bow Street. 
 
 ' Sirs, — I much regret its being 
 my lot to have to apply to your 
 worships under most peculiar and 
 novel circumstances.— For the par- 
 ticulars of the case, I refer to the 
 enclosed letter of Mr. Secretary 
 Ryder, the notification from Mr. 
 Perceval, and my petition to par- 
 liament, together with the printed 
 papers herewith. The affair re- 
 quires no further remark, than that 
 1 consider his majesty's government 
 to have completely endeavoured to 
 close the door of justice, in declin- 
 ing to have, cr even to permit, my 
 grievances to be brought before 
 parliament for redress, which privi- 
 lege is the birthright of every indi- 
 vidual. The purport of the present 
 is, therefore, once more to solicit his 
 majesty's ministers, through your 
 medium, to let what is right and 
 proper be done in my instance, 
 which is all I require. Should this 
 reasonable request be finally denied, 
 I shall then feel justified in exe- 
 cuting justice myself — in which 
 case I shall be ready to argue the 
 merits of so reluctant a measure 
 with his majesty's attorney-general, 
 wherever and whenever I may be 
 called upon so to do. In the hopes 
 of averting so abhorrent, but com- 
 pulsive an alternative, I have the 
 honour to be, Sirs, your very 
 humble and obedient servant, 
 
 ' John Bellingham. 
 ' No. 9, New Millman Street, 
 March 23, 1812/ 
 
84 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 This letter was submitted to the 
 government, but excited no alarm ; 
 and an answer was returned by Mr. 
 Read, stating that the office could 
 not interfere. This is the first in- 
 timation we have of the diabolical 
 design which entered his bead, and 
 which he afterwards so fatally car- 
 ried into execution. Once more he 
 applied to the Treasury, and again 
 was told he had nothing to expect, 
 and that he might resort to what- 
 ever measures he thought fit. This 
 he considered, as he expressed it, a 
 carte blanche to take justice into 
 his own hands; and as Mr. Per- 
 ceval refused to sanction his appli- 
 cation to parliament, he resolved to 
 make him a sacrilice to his revenge, 
 that he might thereby have an op- 
 portunity of arguiug the merits of 
 his case ; — thinking, from an in- 
 fatuation perfectly unaccotintable, 
 that his wrongs, or what he consi- 
 dered such, would be ample justifi- 
 cation of so foul a deed ; for all 
 along he anticipated acquittal for 
 the murder he premeditated, and 
 afterwards committed. 
 
 This determination having un- 
 happily entered his mind, he began 
 to prepare for putting it into execu- 
 tion. He purchased a pair of pis- 
 tols, powder, and a bullet-mould ; 
 had an additional pocket made for 
 conveniently carrying them; and 
 nightly took his stand in the lobby 
 of the House of Commons, through 
 which the members had to pass. 
 On the 11th of May, 1812, he took 
 his station, as usual, behind the 
 folding door; and at five o'clock in 
 the evening, as the Right Honor- 
 able Spencer Perceval, chancellor 
 of the exchequer, passed in, Belling- 
 ham presented his pistol, and fired. 
 The unfortunate gentleman received 
 the ball in his left breast, which 
 passed through his heart. He reeled 
 to a short distance, and, exclaiming 
 ' Oh, murder !' fell upon his face, 
 
 and instantly expired. Loud cries 
 of* Shut the door, let no one out!' 
 now resounded through the hall; 
 and, when some one asked ' Where's 
 the murderer?' BeUiugham, who 
 still held the pistol in his hand, an- 
 swered ' I am the unfortunate man.' 
 Being interrogated as to his motives 
 for committing such an act, he re- 
 plied ' Want of redress, and denial 
 of justice.' 
 
 Duiinir the momentary confusion 
 which followed the firing of the pis- 
 tol, he made no attempt to escape; 
 and though when taken into custody 
 he betrayed some agitation, he soon 
 recovered his self-possession, and 
 with great calmness answered every 
 question, and corrected one of the 
 witnesses in an omission in his evi- 
 dence against him. During his 
 examination before the magistrates 
 up stairs, in the House of Commons, 
 he persisted in denying any per- 
 sonal enmity to Mr. Perceval, for 
 whose death he expressed the 
 greatest sorrow, separating, by a 
 confusion of ideas, the man from 
 the minister; and seemed to think 
 he had not injured the individual, 
 though he had taken away the life 
 of the chancellor of the exchequer. 
 
 This event excited the greatest 
 sensation. A cabinet council was 
 called, and the mails were stopped, 
 until instructions were prepared to 
 secure tranquillity in the districts; 
 for at first it was apprehended that 
 the assassin was instigated by poli- 
 tical motives, and that he was con- 
 nected with some treasonable asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Measures being provided for se- 
 curing order through the country 
 and the metropolis, BeUiugham was 
 removed, about one o'clock in the 
 morning, to Newgate, and conducted 
 to a room adjoining the chapel. 
 One of the head turnkeys, and two 
 other persons, sat up with him all 
 night. He retired to bed soon after 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 85 
 
 his arrival, but had no sound sleep 
 during the night. He arose soon 
 after seven o'clock, and requested 
 some tea for breakfast, of which he 
 took but little. No private persons 
 were allowed to see him ; but he 
 was visited by the sheriffs, and a 
 few other public characters. He 
 conversed very cheerfully, and ex- 
 pressed no regret for the deed he 
 had perpetrated, conceiving himself 
 justified in what he had done, and 
 did not seem to view it in a crimi- 
 nal light; for, he said, the govern- 
 ment had given him a carte blanche 
 to do his worst, which he had done. 
 
 Alderman Combe, one of the com- 
 mitting magistrates, in endeavour- 
 ing to learn the habits and asso- 
 ciates of Bellingham, called on the 
 woman at whose house he lodged; 
 but could learn nothing from her 
 but that her lodger was a quiet in- 
 offensive man, of a religious turn, 
 and, though somewhat eccentric, a 
 great favorite in the family. On 
 being told of the deed he had per- 
 petrated, she expressed her incre- 
 dulity; for she had met him, a few 
 minutes before five o'clock on the 
 fatal evening, when he told her that 
 he had just been buying a prayer- 
 book. 
 
 The morning of his committal 
 Bellingham wrote a letter to this 
 woman; and as it exhibits the state 
 of his mind, in his miserable situa- 
 tion, we shall give it entire. 
 
 ' Tuesday Morning, Old Bailey. 
 
 ' Dear Madam, — Yesterday mid- 
 night I was escorted to this neigh- 
 bourhood by a noble troop of light 
 horse, and delivered into the care of 
 Mr. Newman, (by Mr. Taylor, the 
 magistrate, and M. P.) as a state 
 prisoner of the first class. For 
 eight years I have never found my 
 mind so tranquil as since this me- 
 lancholy, but necessary, catastrophe. 
 As the merits or demerits of my 
 peculiar case must be regularly un- 
 
 folded in a criminal court of justice, 
 to ascertain the guilty party, by a 
 jury of my country : I have to re- 
 quest the favour of you to send me 
 three or four shirts, some cravats, 
 handkerchiefs, night-caps, stock- 
 ings, &c. out of my drawers, toge- 
 ther with comb, soap, tooth-brush, 
 with any other trifle that presents 
 itself, which you think I may have 
 occasion for, and enclose them in 
 my leather trunk, and the key please 
 to send sealed, per bearer; also my 
 great coat, flannel gown, and black 
 waistcoat, which will much oblige, 
 
 ' Dear Madam, 
 ' Your very obedient servant, 
 
 ' John Bellingham.' 
 ' To the above please to add the 
 prayer-book. 
 'To Mrs. Roberts.' 
 
 At two o'clock he ate a hasty 
 dinner, and requested to dine at the 
 same hour in future. Alter passing 
 the day in a tranquil manner, he 
 retired to bed at twelve, slept till 
 seven next morning, and break- 
 fasted about nine. He appeared 
 quite composed, talked with appa- 
 rent indifference about his trial, and 
 repeated his former statement. The 
 sheriffs, with several other gentle- 
 men, paid him another visit, and, en- 
 tering on the subject of Mr. Perce- 
 val's death, Bellingham became less 
 tranquil, vindicated the act, and de- 
 clared that, had he a thousand lives 
 to lose, they would not have pre- 
 vented him from pursuing his object 
 in the same way. 
 
 Notwithstanding the unpardon- 
 able crime for which he was about 
 to be tried, he anticipated acquittal; 
 and when asked by a friend if he 
 had any commands for his wife, he 
 said not, as in a day or two he 
 should be himself in Liverpool. 
 
 On May the 15th, 1812, four 
 days after the death of Mr. Perce- 
 val, came on, at the Old Ba'uey, the 
 
86 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 trial of tli is assassin. The judges, 
 at ten o'clock, took their seats on 
 each side of the lord-mayor ; and 
 the recorder, the Duke of Clarence, 
 the Marquis Wellesley, and almost 
 all the aldermen of the city of Lon- 
 don, occupied the Bench. The 
 court was crowded to excess, and 
 no distinction of rank was observed ; 
 so that members of the House of 
 Commons were forced to mingle in 
 the throng. There were also pre- 
 sent a great number of ladies, all 
 led by the most intense curiosity to 
 behold the assassin, and to hear 
 what he might urge in defence or 
 in palliation of his atrocious act. 
 
 At length Bellingham appeared, 
 and advanced to the bar with a 
 firm step, and quite undismayed. 
 He bowed to the Court most re- 
 spectfully, and even gracefully. The 
 impression which his appearance 
 made, accompanied by this unex- 
 pected fortitude, it is impossible to 
 describe. A mute horror sat upon 
 every countenance, while the mi- 
 serable cause seemed unconscious 
 of the effect he had produced. He 
 was dressed in a light brown sur- 
 tout coat, and striped yellow waist- 
 coat; bis hair plainly dressed, and 
 without powder. 
 
 Before Bellingham Was called on 
 regularly to plead, Mr. Alley, his 
 counsel, made application to have 
 the trial postponed, for the purpose 
 of procuring proofs of his client's 
 insanity, which was alleged in two 
 affidavits he held ; and had no doubt, 
 if time was allowed, that the pri- 
 soner could be proved insane. Mr. 
 Alley was here interrupted, as the 
 Court could not hear him until the 
 prisoner had first pleaded. 
 
 When the indictment was read, 
 the usual question, ' Guilty or not 
 guilty ?' was put to Bellinghun, 
 when he addressed the Court: — 
 • My lords, — Before I can plead to 
 this indictment, I must state, in 
 
 justice to myself, that by hurrying 
 on my trial I am placed in a most 
 remarkable situation. It so happens 
 that my prosecutors are actually the 
 witnesses against me. All the do- 
 cuments, on which alone I could 
 rest my defence, have been taken 
 from me, and are now in possession 
 of the crown. It is only two days 
 since I was told to prepare for my 
 defence ; and when I asked for my 
 papers, I was told they could not 
 be given up. It is, therefore, my 
 lords, rendered utterly impossible 
 for me to go into my justification ; 
 and, under the circumstances in 
 which I find myself, a trial is abso- 
 lutely useless. The papers are to 
 be given to me after the trial, but 
 how can that avail me for my de- 
 fence ? I am, therefore, not ready 
 for my trial.' 
 
 The Court, however, insisted 
 that he should plead to the indict- 
 ment; and then, in a subdued tone 
 of voice, he said ' Not guilty : I 
 put myself upon God and my coun- 
 try.' The attorney-general then 
 rose, in explanation of the papers, 
 which he said should be given to 
 the prisoner when he came to make 
 his defence. Mr. Alley here rose, 
 to urge his former plea for the post- 
 ponement of the trial, but was over- 
 ruled by the Court; and the jury 
 being sworn, the trial proceeded. 
 The evidence being gone through, 
 Bellingham was called on for his 
 defence ; and understanding that 
 his counsel could not speak for him. 
 he demanded his papers, and, having 
 arranged them, he addressed the 
 Court in a speech of two hours' 
 length. He began by thanking the 
 attorney-general for opposing the 
 defence set by his counsel, which 
 went to prove that he was insane ; 
 but he expressed his obligations 
 for the zeal shown by his counsel, 
 and their intention in setting up 
 such a plea at the desire of his 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 87 
 
 friends. He then spoke nearly as 
 follows: — 
 
 ' I beg to assure you tliat the 
 crime which I have committed has 
 arisen from compulsion rather than 
 from any hostility to the man whom 
 it has been my fate to destroy. 
 Considering the amiable character 
 and universally admitted virtues of 
 Mr. Perceval, I feel, if I could mur- 
 der him in a cool and unjustifiable 
 manner, I should not deserve to 
 live another moment in this world. 
 Conscious, however, that I shall be 
 able to justify every thing which I 
 have done, I feel some degree of 
 confidence in meeting the storm 
 which assails me, and shall now 
 proceed to unfold a catalogue of cir- 
 cumstances which, while they har- 
 row up my own soul, will, I am 
 sure, tend to the extenuation of my 
 conduct in this honorable court. 
 This, as has already been candidly 
 stated by the attorney-general, is 
 the first instance in which any the 
 slightest imputation has been cast 
 upon my moral character. Until 
 this fatal catastrophe, which no one 
 can more heartily regret than I do, 
 not excepting even the family of 
 Mr. Perceval himself, I have stood 
 alike pure in the minds of those 
 who have known me, and in the 
 judgment of my own heart. I hope 
 I see this affair in the true light. 
 For eight years, gentlemen of the 
 jury, have I been exposed to all the 
 miseries which it is possible for hu- 
 man nature to endure. — Driven al- 
 most to despair, I sought for re- 
 dress in vain. For this affair I had 
 the carte blanche of government, 
 as I will prove by the most incon- 
 testable evidence, namely, the writing 
 of the secretary of state himself. I 
 come before you under peculiar dis- 
 advantages. Many of my most ma- 
 terial papers are now at Liverpool, 
 for which I have written, but have 
 been called upon my trial before it 
 
 was possible to obtain an answer 
 to my letter.— Without witnesses, 
 therefore, and in the absence of 
 many papers necessary to my justi- 
 fication, I am sure you will admit I 
 have just grounds for claiming some 
 indulgence. I must state that, after 
 my return from my voyage to Arch- 
 angel, I transmitted to his royal 
 highness the prince regent, through 
 my solicitor. Mr. Windle, a petition; 
 and, in consequence of there being 
 no reply, I came to London to see 
 the result. Surprised at the delay, 
 and conceiving that the interests of 
 my country were at stake, I con- 
 sidered this step as essential, as well 
 for the assertion of my own right, 
 as for the vindication of the national 
 honour. I waited upon Colonel 
 M'Mahon, who stated that my peti- 
 tion had been received ; but, owing 
 to some accident, had been mislaid; 
 Under these circumstances, I drew 
 out another account of the particu- 
 lars of the Russian affair, and this 
 may be considered the commence- 
 ment of that train of events, which 
 led to the afflicting and unhappy 
 fate of Mr. Perceval.' 
 
 He then read various documents, 
 containing a statement of the whole 
 of his affairs in Russia ; and, in the 
 course of narrating these hardships, 
 took occasion to explain several 
 points, adverting, with great feeling, 
 to the unhappy situation in which 
 he was placed, from the circum- 
 stance of his having been but lately 
 married to his wife, then about 
 twenty years of age, with an infant 
 at her breast, and who had been 
 waiting for him at St. Petersburgh, 
 in order that she might accompany 
 him to England — a prey to all those 
 anxieties which the unexpected and 
 cruel incarceration of her husband, 
 without any just grounds, was cal- 
 culated to excite. — He also described 
 his feelings at a subsequent period, 
 when his wife, from an anxiety to 
 
88 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 reach her native country (England) 
 when in a state of pregnancy, and 
 looking lo the improbability of his 
 liberation, was obliged to quit Pe- 
 tersburg unprotected, and under- 
 take the voyage at the peril of her 
 life; while Lord L. Gower and Sir 
 S Shaiip suffered him to remain in 
 a situation worse than death. ' My 
 God ! my God !' he exclaimed, ' what 
 heart could bear such excruciating 
 tortures, without bursting with in- 
 dignation at conduct so diametrically 
 opposite to justice and to huma- 
 nity. I appeal to you, gentlemen 
 of the jury, as men — I appeal to 
 you as brothers — I appeal to you as 
 Christians — when, under such cir- 
 cumstances of persecution, it was 
 possible to regard the actions of the 
 ambassador and consul of my own 
 country with any other feelings 
 but those of detestation and horror! 
 In using language thus strong, I 
 feel that I commit an error; yet 
 does my heart tell me, that towards 
 men who lent themselves thus to 
 bolster up the basest acts of perse- 
 cution, there are no observations, 
 however strong, which the strict 
 justice of the case would not ex- 
 cuse my using. Had I been so for- 
 tunate as to have met Lord Levison 
 Gower instead of that truly amiable 
 and highly lamented individual, Mr. 
 Perceval, he is the man who should 
 have received the ball !' 
 
 After reading several other pa- 
 pers, he thus proceeded : — « If, 
 whenever I am called before the tri- 
 bunal of God, I can appear with as 
 clear a conscience as I now possess, 
 in regard to the alleged charge of 
 the wilful murder of the unfortu- 
 nate gentleman, the investigation of 
 whose death has occupied your at- 
 tention, it would be happy for me, 
 as essentially securing to me eternal 
 salvation ; — but that is impossible. 
 That my arm has been the means 
 of his melancholy and lamented exit, 
 
 I am ready to allow. But, to con- 
 stitute murder, it must clearly and 
 absolutely be proved to have arisen 
 from malice prepense, and with a 
 malicious design, as I have no 
 doubt the learned judge will shortly 
 lay down, in explaining the law on 
 the subject. If such is the case, I 
 am guilty— if not, I look forward 
 with confidence to your acquittal. 
 
 ' That the contrary is the case 
 has been most clearly and irrefut- 
 ably proved ; no doubt can rest 
 upon your minds, as my uniform and 
 undeviating object has been an en- 
 deavour to obtain justice, accord- 
 ing to law, for a series of the most 
 long-continued and unmerited suf- 
 ferings that were ever submitted to 
 a court of law, without having been 
 guilty of any other crime than an 
 appeal for redress for a most flagrant 
 injury offered to my sovereign and 
 my country, wherein my liberty 
 and property have fallen a sacrifice 
 for the continued period of eight 
 years, to the total ruin of myself 
 and family (with authenticated do- 
 cuments of the truth of the allega- 
 tions), merely because it was Mr. 
 Perceval's pleasure that justice 
 should not be granted, sheltering 
 himself with the idea of there being 
 no alternative remaining, as my 
 petition to parliament for redress 
 could not be brought (as having a 
 pecuniary tendency) without the 
 sanction of his majesty's ministers, 
 and that he was determined to op- 
 pose, by trampling both on law 
 and right. 
 
 ' Gentlemen, where a man has so 
 strong and serious a criminal case 
 to bring forward as mine has been, 
 the nature of which was purely na- 
 tional, it is the bounden duty of 
 government to attend to it ; for 
 justice is a matter of right, and not 
 of favour. And when a minister is 
 so unprincipled and presumptuous 
 at any time, but especially in a 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 89 
 
 case of such urgent necessity, as to 
 set himself above both the sovereign 
 and the laws, as has been the case 
 with Mr. Perceval, he must do it 
 at his personal risk ; for by the 
 law he cannot be protected. 
 
 ' Gentlemen, if this is not fact, 
 the mere will of a minister would 
 be law; it would be this thing to- 
 day and the other to-morrow, as 
 either interest or caprice might 
 dictate. — What would become of 
 our liberties? where would be the 
 purity and the impartiality of the 
 justice we so much boast of? — To 
 government's non-attendance to the 
 dictates of justice is solely to be 
 attributed the melancholy cata- 
 strophe of the unfortunate gentle- 
 man, as any malicious intention to 
 his injury was the most remote from 
 my heart. Justice, and justice only, 
 was my object, which government 
 uniformly objected to yrant; and 
 the distress it reduced me to drove 
 me to despair in consequence; and, 
 purely for the purpose of having 
 this singular affair legally investi- 
 gated, I gave notice at the Public 
 Office, Bow Street, requesting the 
 magistrates to acquaint his ma- 
 jesty's ministers, that if they per- 
 sisted in refusing justice, or even 
 to permit me to bring my just peti- 
 tion into parliament for redress, I 
 should be under the imperious ne- 
 cessity of executing justice myself, 
 solely for the purpose of ascertain- 
 ing, through a criminal court, whe- 
 ther his majesty's ministers have 
 the power to refuse justice to a 
 well-authenticated and irrefutable 
 act of oppression, committed by 
 the consul and ambassador abroad, 
 whereby my sovereign's and coun- 
 try's honour were materially tar- 
 nished, by my person endeavoring 
 to be made the stalking-horse of 
 justification, to one of the greatest 
 insults that could be offered to the 
 Crown. 
 
 * But, in order to avoid so reluc- 
 tant and abhorrent an alternative, I 
 hoped to be allowed to bring my 
 petition to the House of Commons 
 — or that thev would do what was 
 right and proper themselves. 
 
 ' On my return home from Russia, 
 I brought most serious charges to 
 the privy council, both against 
 Sir Stephen Shairp and Lord Gran- 
 ville Levisou Gower, when the af- 
 fair was determined to be purely 
 national, and consequently it was 
 the duty of his majesty's ministers 
 to arraign it by acting on the re- 
 solution of the council. Suppose, 
 for instance, the charge I brought 
 could have been proved to be er- 
 roneous, should I not have been 
 called to a severe account for my 
 conduct ? but, being true, ought I 
 not to have been redressed ? 
 
 ' After the notice from the police 
 to government, Mr. Ryder, consci- 
 ous of the truth and cruelty of tiie 
 case, transmitted the affair to the 
 Treasury, referring me there for a 
 final result. After a delay of some 
 weeks the Treasury came to the 
 resolution of sending the affair hack 
 to the secretary of state's office ; 
 at the same time I was told by a Mr. 
 Hill, he thought it would be useless 
 my making further application to 
 government, and that I was at li- 
 berty to take such measures as I 
 thought proper for redress. 
 
 ' Mr. Beckett, the undersecretary 
 of state, confirmed the same, adding 
 that Mr. Perceval had been con- 
 sulted, and could not allow my pe- 
 tition to come forward. Thus, by 
 a direct refusal of justice, with a 
 carte blanche, to act in whatever 
 manner I thought proper, were the 
 sole causes of the fatal catastrophe 
 — and they have now to reflect on 
 their own impure conduct for what 
 has happened. 
 
 'It is a melancholy fact, that 
 the warping of justice, including all 
 
90 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the various ramifications in which 
 it operates, occasions more misery 
 in the world, in a moral sense, than 
 all the acts of God in a physical 
 one, with which he punishes man- 
 kind for their transgressions; a 
 confirmation of which, the single, 
 but strong, instance before you is 
 cine remarkable proof. 
 
 ' If a poor unfortunate man stops 
 another upon the highway, and robs 
 him of but a few shillings, he may 
 be called upon to forfeit his life. 
 But I have been robbed of my li- 
 berty for years, ill treated beyond 
 precedent, torn from my wife and 
 family, bereaved of all my property 
 to make good the consequences of 
 such irregularities, deprived and 
 bereaved of every thing that makes 
 life valuable, and then called upon 
 to forfeit it, because Mr. Perceval 
 has been pleased to patronize ini- 
 quity that ought to have been pu- 
 nished, for the sake of a vote or 
 two in the House of Commons, 
 with, perhaps, a similar good turn 
 elsewhere. 
 
 ' Is there, gentlemen, any com- 
 parison between the enormity of 
 these two offenders ? No more than 
 a mite to a mountain. Yet the 
 one is carried to the gallows, while 
 the other stalks in security, fancy- 
 ing himself beyond the reach of law 
 or justice: the most honest man 
 suffers, while the other goes for- 
 ward in triumph to new and more 
 extended enormities. 
 
 • We have had a recent and strik- 
 ing instance of some unfortunate 
 men, who have been called upon to 
 pay their lives as the forfeit of their 
 allegiance, in endeavoring to mi- 
 tigate the rigours of a prison. — (Al- 
 luding to the trials of Cundell and 
 others, for high treason, at Horse- 
 monger Lane,) — But, gentlemen, 
 where is the proportion between the 
 crimes for which they suffered, and 
 what government has been guilty 
 
 of, in withholding its protection 
 from me ? Even in a Crown case, 
 after the years of sufferings, I have 
 been called upon to sacrifice all my 
 property, and the welfare of my fa- 
 mily, to bolster up the iniquities of 
 the Crown, and then am prose- 
 cuted for my life, because I have 
 taken the only possible alternative 
 to bring the affair to a public inves- 
 tigation, for the purpose of being 
 enabled to return to the bosom of 
 my family with some degree of 
 comfort and honour. Every man 
 within the sound of my voice must 
 feel for my situation ; but by you, 
 gentlemen of the jury, r-t must be 
 felt in a peculiar degree, who are 
 husbands and fathers, and can fancy 
 yourselves in my situation. — I trust 
 that this serious lesson will operate 
 as a warning to all future ministers, 
 and lead them to do the thing that 
 is right, as an unerring rule of con- 
 duct; for, if the superior classes 
 were more correct in their proceed- 
 ings, the extensive ramifications of 
 evil would, in a great measure, be 
 hemmed up — and a notable proof of 
 the fact is, that this Court would 
 never have been troubled with the 
 case before it, had their conduct 
 been guided by these principles. 
 
 'I have now occupied the atten- 
 tion of the Court for a period much 
 longer than I intended ; yet, I trust, 
 they will consider the awfulness of 
 my situation to be a sufficient 
 ground for a trespass, which, under 
 other circumstances, would be in- 
 excusable. Sooner than suffer what 
 I have suffered for the last eight 
 years,however, I should consider five 
 hundred deaths, if it were possible 
 for human nature to endure them, a 
 fate far more preferable. Lost so 
 long to all the endearments of my 
 family, bereaved of all the blessings 
 of life, and deprived of its greatest 
 sweet, liberty, as the weary travel- 
 ler, who has long been pelted by 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 91 
 
 the pitiless storm, welcomes the 
 much-desired inn, I shall receive 
 death as the relief of all my sorrows. 
 I shall not occupy your attention 
 longer; hut, relying on the justice 
 of God, and submitting myself to 
 the dictates of your consciences, I 
 submit to the fiat of my fate, firmly 
 anticipating an acquittal from a 
 charge so abhorrent to every feel- 
 ing of my soul.' 
 
 Here the prisoner bowed, and his 
 counsel immediately called several 
 witnesses, who deposed to their be- 
 lief in his insanity : but as he always 
 conducted his own affairs, and was 
 never under restraint, this defence 
 could not legally avail, and the 
 judge having charged the jury, a 
 verdict of Guilty was returned. 
 The Recorder than passed on him 
 the awful sentence of the law, and 
 he was ordered for execution on 
 Monday, and his body to be anato- 
 mized — asentence which Bellingham 
 heard with the utmost composure. 
 
 The trial lasted eight hours. The 
 Horse Guards were stationed near 
 Blackfriars' Bridge during that pe- 
 riod, ready to act in preservation of 
 order, if called on. Other precau- 
 tions were taken in the city ; but, 
 happily, the public peace remained 
 undisturbed ; and this assassin was 
 tried and condemned, to the satis- 
 faction of the friends of justice, with- 
 out creating any emotion through- 
 out the kingdom. 
 
 Bellingham, from his condemna- 
 tion, was fed upon bread and water. 
 All means of suicide were removed, 
 and he was not allowed to be shaved ; 
 a prohibition which gave him much 
 concern, as he feared he should not 
 appear as a gentleman. He was 
 visited by the Ordinary on Satur- 
 day, and some religious gentlemen 
 called on him on Sunday, with 
 whose conversation he seemed 
 greatly pleased. He appeared na- 
 turally depressed by his situation; 
 
 but persisted in a resolute denial of 
 any guilt in his crime. He fre- 
 quently said that he had prepared 
 himself to go to his Father, and that 
 he should be pleased when the hour 
 arrived. He seemed to rejoice as 
 the fatal hour drew nearer, and, on 
 Sunday morning, received the sa- 
 crament with great devotion, mak- 
 ing the responses in an audible and 
 correct manner. 
 
 Being informed, by Mr. New- 
 man, that two gentlemen from Liver- 
 pool had called, and left word that 
 his wife and children would be pro- 
 vided for, he seemed but little af- 
 fected ; but, having requested pen, 
 ink, and paper, he wrote the fol- 
 lowing letter to his wife:— 
 
 ' My blessed Mary, — It rejoiced 
 me beyond measure to hear you are 
 likely to be well provided "for. I 
 am sure the public at large will 
 participate in, and mitigate, your 
 sorrows ; I assure you, my love, 
 my sincerest endeavours have ever 
 been directed to your welfare. — As 
 we shall not meet any more in this 
 world, I sincerely hope we shall do 
 so in the world to come. My bless- 
 ing to the hoys, with kind remem- 
 brance to Miss Stephens, for whom 
 I have the greatest regard, in conse- 
 quence of her uniform affection for 
 them. With the purest intentions, 
 it has always been my misfortune 
 to be thwarted, misrepresented, 
 and ill-used in life; but, however, 
 we feel a happy prospect of com- 
 pensation in a speedy translation to 
 life eternal. — It's not possible to be 
 more calm or placid than I feel, and 
 nine hours more will waft me to 
 those happy shores where bliss is 
 without alloy. Your's ever affec- 
 tionate, — 'John Bellingham.' 
 
 That this man was afflicted with 
 a strange malady, which occasion- 
 ally rendered him incapable of cor- 
 rect conclusions, must be evident 
 from the following note, which he 
 
92 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 wrote Ihe night preceding his exe- 
 cution: — 'I lost my suit solely 
 through the improper conduct of 
 my attorney and counsel, Mr. Alley, 
 in not bringing my witnesses for- 
 ward, (of which there were more 
 than twenty) : in consequence, the 
 judge took advantage of Ihe circum- 
 stance, and I went of [on J the de- 
 fence without having brought for- 
 ward a single friend — otherwise I 
 must inevitably have been acquitted.' 
 On Monday morning, at the usual 
 hour, the execution took place, in 
 the. accustomed manner, and unat- 
 tended by any circumstance distin- 
 guishing it from similar exhibitions. 
 In all the conversations he had with 
 the Ordinary, Dr. Ford, Bellingha,m, 
 so far from exhibiting any thing 
 like contrition, continued to glory 
 in the act for which he was about 
 to suffer. He talked incessantly 
 of the non-redress of his alleged 
 grievances, nor would he listen to 
 any of the suggestions of Dr. Ford 
 on the impossibility of any govern- 
 ment interfering to prevent the re- 
 gular course of the laws in another 
 country. He constantly wound np 
 his answers by expressing a hope 
 that the fate of Mr. Pt-rceval would 
 prove a warning to men in power 
 not to neglect the claims of injured 
 individuals, and he continued to 
 
 the last to exult in the success of hii 
 efforts to revenge his own injuries. 
 
 Bellingham was, in his person, 
 tall and raw-boned, with a thin 
 long visage, and aquiline nose : his 
 eyes were sunken and his com- 
 plexion sallow. His age was forty- 
 two; and, as he was grossly misre- 
 presented at the time of his com- 
 mitting the horrid act, we think. 
 it but justice, revolting as was his 
 turpitude, to state that his widow 
 and friends all bear testimony that 
 his general character was that of 
 strict integrity — a kind husband 
 and father — loyal in his political 
 opinions — and punctual in the ob- 
 servance of religious duties; and Ihe 
 whole tenor of his life, with the ex- 
 ception of the Russian affair, on 
 which it was supposed he was insane, 
 proves him to have been a well-in- 
 tentioned man. It may not be un- 
 necessary to observe, in reference to 
 the effect which he supposed mitrht 
 be produced by the death of Mr. 
 Perceval — that other ministers 
 would pay more attention to the 
 complaints of oppressed individuals, 
 we must express a hope that his fate 
 will operate as a warning to others, 
 not to cherish and ripen in their 
 bosoms the seeds of hatred and ven- 
 geance, till they grow up and break 
 forth in acts of bloodshed and murder. 
 
 ROBERT TOWERS, 
 
 IMPRISONED FOR ENDEAVOURING TO BRIBE A TURNKEY OF NEWGATE. 
 
 There is something in the hu- 
 man breast which endures us to fa- 
 vour the efforts of mistaken genero- 
 sity, and disposes us to regard 
 with forgiveness those departures 
 from rijrid justice which take place 
 in behalf of friendship. The follow- 
 ing case is one of those where jus- 
 tice is opposed to feeling; and, 
 though we do not find fault with 
 the sentence, we cannot refuse our 
 sympathy to the sufferer. 
 
 Robert Towers was a warm- 
 hearted sailor who felt acutely, 
 and whose actions emanated from 
 his feelings. Allied by blood and 
 friendship to the unfortunate George 
 Skene, whose case we have already 
 given, he forgot his crime in the 
 contemplation of the punishment 
 that awaited his offence; and, with 
 a precipitancy that did more ho- 
 nour to his heart than his head, he 
 meditated effecting the escape of 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 93 
 
 his friend from Newgate, about a 
 fortnight after his committal. 
 
 For tliis purpose he invited a 
 turnkey, named Samuel Davis, to 
 drink with him. They went to the 
 New Inn, where Towers inquired of 
 Davis what family he had; and 
 then hinted that it was in his power 
 to procure for himself the means of 
 making them all comfortable for 
 life. Davis, thinking that the fa- 
 vour required of him related to 
 Mr. Skene's accommodation, pro- 
 mised to do every thing in his 
 power; but this not amounting to 
 Towers's expectations, he gave him 
 clearly to understand that he ex- 
 pected nothing less than Mr. 
 Skene's escape, promising to re- 
 lease Davis from the necessity of 
 continuing turnkey, and that his 
 
 reward should be paid, not in bank- 
 notes, but in gold. The turnkey 
 refusing to accede to these terms, 
 nothing further passed until Mr. 
 Towers's next visit to his friend, 
 when Mr. Newman called him into 
 a private room, and confronted 
 him with Davis, who had told 
 his employer what had passed. — 
 Towers did not deny the charge; 
 but contented himself with stating 
 that he offered Davis no specific 
 sum. 
 
 Mr. Towers was now taken into 
 custody, and brought to trial at 
 the Old Bailey, April the 6th, 1812, 
 when, the charge being proved, he 
 was found Guilty, and sentenced to 
 pay a fine of fifty pounds, and be 
 imprisoned for twelve calendar 
 months in the gaol of Newgate. 
 
 WILLIAM BOOTH, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 This malefactor was not impelled facture secured by three doors, 
 
 by poverty or distress to the com- well and studiously fastened with 
 
 mission of the crime for which he bolts, &c. 
 
 lost his life. He lived near Bir- Thus shut up, as he thought, in 
 
 mingham, and occupied two bun- his impregnable fortress, he consi- 
 
 dred acres of land; but, being dered himself out of danger; but 
 
 desirous of acquiring wealth by all his precaution could not avail, 
 
 speedier means than the produce of It was discovered that he had issued 
 
 honest industry afforded, he re- forged notes to a large amount, and 
 
 sorted to the culpable and danger- the policeof Birmingham were on the 
 
 ous practice of fabricating notes, alert to apprehend him. For a while 
 
 purporting to be of the Bank of he kept them at defiance ; but, at 
 
 England. Unlike other criminals, length, the whole nosse laid regular 
 
 he was not seduced into the act by siege to his invulnerable castle, 
 
 design or ignorance ; he entered Various modes were devised for 
 
 upon it with the full knowledge of gaining admittance; hut all proved 
 
 the consequence of detection; and, fruitless, until one of the constables 
 
 as he knew that no device or stra- procured a ladder, which reached 
 
 tagem could evade discovery, he re- to one of the upper windows. As 
 
 solved to bid defiance to the mi- he was ascending he saw Booth 
 
 nions of law, and oppose force to ruu to the middle of a room over 
 
 force. the parlour, and take some papers, 
 
 For this purpose he had his house of the size of bank-notes, from a 
 
 barricaded, the windows secured rolling-press, and put them into 
 
 by strong iron bars, and the ap- the fire. By breaking open the 
 
 proach to the place of illegal manu- attic window the constable procured 
 
94 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 an entrance, through which he was 
 followed by several of his comrades. 
 The interior of the house displayed 
 not less industry to baffle assailants 
 than the exterior. Trap-doors were 
 ingeniously contrived for opposing 
 an enemy or facilitating escape; 
 but the activity of the officers of 
 justice rendered all his precautions 
 of no avail. They jumped through 
 one trap-door while Booth was 
 escaping by another; and, having 
 pursued him from concealment to 
 concealment he was apprehended. 
 Part of the papers were taken out 
 of the fire, and fouud to have the 
 Bank mark in them. 
 
 Booth was fully committed for 
 trial, and a workman of his, being 
 apprehended, gave information of 
 a trunk of forged notes, which he 
 had buried by his master's orders. 
 These were produced on his trial, 
 
 which look place at the Stafford 
 assizes, and along with other cor- 
 roborating circumstances establish- 
 ed his guilt to the satisfaction of 
 the jury, and he was sentenced to 
 be hanged. 
 
 The 15th of August, 1812, was 
 the day appointed for the final suf- 
 fering of this unfortunate man. 
 A most distressing occurrence took 
 place at the time of his execution 
 — the rope slipping, he fell to the 
 ground, and many people thought 
 that he was dead ; but he got up, 
 and fell upon his knees, praying to 
 the Almighty for mercy. The scaf- 
 fold was again prepared ; but, owing 
 to a mistake the drop, remained fast 
 when Booth gave the signal for it 
 to fall; and it was not until much 
 force was applied that it gave way, 
 and the miserable criminal was 
 launched into eternity. 
 
 THOMAS NUGENT, & JOHN & WILLIAM FOLKARD, 
 
 PILLORED FOR ATTEMPTING TO DEFRAUD THE CREDITORS OF JOHN 
 
 FOLK4RD. 
 
 Among all the frauds of London 
 none are more frequent, or more 
 extensive, than those practised by 
 dishonest bankrupts on their un- 
 suspicious creditors. 
 
 John Folkard carried on business, 
 as a silversmith and jeweller, in 
 the Surrey Road, between four and 
 five years, and was in good credit ; 
 a character he might have retained, 
 had he not entered into a scheme 
 for enriching himself by speedier 
 means than the profits of his busi- 
 ness afforded. He became ac- 
 quainted with a money-lender, 
 named Thomas Nugent, and, in 
 conjunction with him, and his own 
 brother, William Folkard, he re- 
 solved to become a bankrupt ; but, 
 that he might do so advantageously, 
 they fabricated bills, purporting to 
 be drawn on them by different men, 
 whom they got to swear to their fic- 
 
 titious debts for a few shillings. 
 Debts, too, were entered on the 
 books, pretended to be due by 
 men either no longer in existence, 
 or no longer in the country; and, 
 when all things were prepared, 
 John Folkard's name appeared in 
 the Gazette, to the great astonish- 
 ment of his creditors. His object 
 was to take them by surprise, and 
 to have one of his friends appointed 
 assignee before they were aware of 
 his design. 
 
 From some circumstances of a 
 suspicious nature, the bona fide cre- 
 ditors saw it was necessary to unite, 
 and get some of themselves chosen 
 assignee, instead of those proposed 
 by the bankrupt. After a severe 
 struggle they were successful, and 
 Messrs. Powis, Hemming, and Tay- 
 lor, were chosen. On inspecting 
 the list of debts, several appeared 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 05 
 
 fictitious. One man, who was de- 
 scribed as a bullion-dealer on Lud- 
 gate Hill, whose debt appeared to be 
 one hundred and thirty-eight pounds, 
 was no where to be found, and many 
 others, with demands equally as 
 large, were only just emerged from 
 prison, through the mercy of the 
 Insolvent Act, and, so far from being 
 able to lend money, were objects of 
 charity. 
 
 The assignees waiting on these 
 people, and insisting on having the 
 particulars of their accounts, under 
 the threat of prosecution, so alarmed 
 a woman, who called herself Baro- 
 ness Minkwitz, that she disclosed 
 the premeditated fraud. 
 
 In consequence of her testimony 
 Thomas Nugent and the two bro- 
 thers were taken into custody. On 
 Friday, September the 25th| 181:2, 
 their trial came on at the Old 
 Bailey, when the whole transaction 
 was satisfactorily proved by parties 
 concerned, and numerous corrobo- 
 rating facts. After an investiga- 
 tion of ten hours they were found 
 Guilty, and the Common Sergeant 
 sentenced John Folkard to be im- 
 prisoned two years, and stand twice 
 in the pillory ; Thomas Nugent to 
 be imprisoned eighteen months, and 
 stand once in the pillory ; and Wil- 
 liam Folkard to be imprisoned one 
 year, and to stand once in the pillory. 
 
 JOHN DAVISON, ESQ. 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR FELONIOUSLY STEALING. 
 
 The station of life of this of- 
 fender, a captain in the royal 
 marines, and his being twice brought 
 before our notice, give him some 
 notoriety. He was first indicted on 
 the 13th of November, 1810, at the 
 assizes for the county of Somerset, 
 for stealing a piece of muslin, value 
 thirty shillings, the property of 
 James Bunter, mercer, of Taunton. 
 
 The counsel for the prosecution 
 stated that the facts were few and 
 short, but cogent and irresistible. 
 Alexander Bailer, apprentice to 
 Mr. Bunter, deposed that Captain 
 Davison came to his master's house 
 on the 25th July, when he alone 
 was in the shop, and asked to look 
 at some muslins he had seen the 
 night before. After looking at them 
 some time he went towards the 
 door; but, before that, he had 
 thrown his handkerchief upon four 
 or five of the pieces, which he had 
 folded up : he then sat down in a 
 chair rather below where the mus- 
 lin was, and asked to look at some 
 stockings ; there was at this time 
 a piece under his handkerchief, and, 
 
 whilst taking out some stockings, 
 the witness observed him draw his 
 handkerchief from the counter into 
 his lap with both his hands, the 
 muslin being still under the hand- 
 kerchief. He then asked for some 
 fashionable waistcoat patterns, and 
 took up the handkerchief and 
 squeezed it together, put it under 
 his coat, and walked out of the shop. 
 On searching the captain's lodg- 
 ings, the piece of muslin was found, 
 and clearly identified. 
 
 Several persons of the first re- 
 spectability gave the prisoner an 
 excellent character. 
 
 The judge told the jury, however 
 they might lament that a gentle- 
 man of the prisoner's condition in 
 life, who had borne so honourable 
 a character till the present time, 
 should on this occasion have for- 
 feited that character, that it was 
 their duty, if they were satisfied 
 with the evidence they had heard, 
 to find him guilty, however painful 
 the discharge of that duty might be. 
 In cases where a fair doubt could be 
 entertained, character ought to bave 
 
96 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 considerable Weight with a jury ; 
 but where the facts were clear, and 
 established by credible witnesses, 
 however good the character of the 
 prisoner might have been up to the 
 time of committing the felony, it 
 was no excuse for the commission 
 of it. And unless they could say 
 that the prisoner, at the time of 
 drawing the handkerchief from the 
 counter with both his hands, as the 
 witness Bailer stated, was ignorant 
 that the muslin was contained in it, 
 he did not know how to state to 
 them a ground of doubt; the muslin, 
 as they saw, was of considerable 
 bulk, and not likely to be contained 
 in a silk handkerchief, without its 
 being perceived by the prisoner; 
 and if they thought so, it was their 
 duly to say that he was guilty. 
 
 The jury, after a few seconds' con- 
 sideration, returned a verdict of Guil- 
 ty, and he was sentenced to transpor- 
 tation for seven years ; but was af- 
 terwards pardoned on condition of 
 quitting the country for that period. 
 
 The base are never honourable. 
 This malefactor continued, contrary 
 to promise, in England, and had 
 recourse to a practice more highly 
 criminal than even stealing ; for he 
 was convicted at Oxford, on the 
 18th January, 1813, for having in 
 his custody one ten-pound, two 
 five-pound, and two one-pound, 
 forged Bank of England notes, with- 
 out being able to assign or prove 
 any lawful cause or excuse. He 
 was charged with the offence at 
 Birmingham, but escaped, and was 
 pursued to Oxford, where they 
 traced him to the Cross Inn, and 
 took him into custody. On search- 
 ing him, they found the forged 
 notes wrapped up in a brown paper 
 parcel, with two blank forged Lei- 
 cester bank-notes for one pound 
 each, not filled up or signed ; and also 
 several counterfeit three-shilling 
 tokens. 
 
 The charjes being satisfactorily 
 proved, the Court sentenced him to 
 transportation for fourteen years. 
 
 THE LUDDITES, 
 
 GUILTY OF RIOTING AND ADMINTSTEKING UNLAWFUL OATHS. 
 
 The cotton manufacturers of Not- men were at length brought to con- 
 
 tini;hamshire, Dei byshire, Leicester- dign punishment, 
 
 shire, and some parts of Yorkshire, A special commission was issued 
 
 having suffered under a considerable for their trial, and was opened by 
 
 reduction of wages and scarcity of Baron Thompson at the city of 
 
 work, which they attributed to the York, on Monday the 4th January, 
 
 very extensive introduction of ma- 1813, in a most impressive charge 
 
 chinery, associated in such numbers to the grand jury. 
 
 for the destruction of frames and On Tuesday, the 5th, the busi- 
 
 looms, and the annoyance of those ness of the Court commenced with 
 
 manufacturers who had been most the trial of John Swallow, John 
 
 forward in introducing the ma- Bailey, Joseph Fletcher, and John 
 
 chines, that those counties be- Lamb, for a burglary and felony 
 
 came the seat of the most serious 
 tumults, not unattended with mur- 
 der. They pretended to be fol- 
 lowers of a leader whom they 
 
 in the house of Mr. Samuel Moxon, 
 at Whitley Upper: the jury pro- 
 nounced them all Guilty. 
 Throughout the whole of these im- 
 
 called General Ludd, and hence portant trials theevidence was nearly 
 arose the term Luddites. A con- to the same effect — administering 
 sidtrable number of those misguided uulawful oaths— riotously assembling 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 97 
 
 — destroying the frames and looms 
 of manufacturers of cloth — breaking 
 into houses — robbery, and murder. 
 We shall, however, proceed more 
 particularly to state the cases 
 marked with blood. 
 
 On Wednesday, George Mellor, 
 of Lonjjroyd Bridge, William Thorp, 
 and Thomas Smith of Huddersfield, 
 were indicted for the wilful murder 
 of William Horsfall, of Marsden, 
 merchant and manufacturer, at Lock- 
 wood, in the West Riding of the 
 county of York. 
 
 It appeared from the evidence of 
 John Armitage, who kept a public 
 house at Crossland Moor, called 
 the Warren House, that Mr. Hors- 
 fall had, on the "J8th of April, been 
 at Huddersfleld market, and on his 
 return called at witness's house 
 about a quarter past six in the 
 evening, and not a glass of rum 
 and water, treated two persons who 
 were there, paid his reckoning, and 
 rode away:— did not stop twenty 
 minutes at witness's; nor did he 
 get off his horse. Between witness's 
 house and Marsden, there is a plan- 
 tation belonging to Mr. Ratcliffe, 
 and about a quarter of a mile from 
 Warren House. About seven 
 »'dock, witness heard that Mr. 
 Horsfall had been shot. Witness 
 Sind the two persons whom the de- 
 ceased had been treating went out 
 together, and found Mr. Horsfall 
 about twenty or thirty yards below 
 the plantation, sitting on the road- 
 side, bleeding very much. They 
 got him down to Warren House as 
 soon as they could. Mr. Horsfall 
 died there. 
 
 Henry Parr was at Huddersfleld 
 on the 28th of April last; was 
 upon the road between Huddersfleld 
 and Marsden; and, after he had 
 passed the Warren House, heard 
 the report of fire-arms — saw a per- 
 son riding before him — report 
 seemed to come from Mr. RatcIinVs 
 
 Vol l*. 
 
 plantation — saw smoke arising at 
 the same time, and four persons 
 were in the plantation in dark-co- 
 loured clothes; the person who 
 was before witness on horseback, 
 after the report, fell down on the 
 horse's chine, and the horse turned 
 round as quick as possible; Mr. 
 Horsfall raised himself by the 
 horse's mane, and called ' Murder!' 
 As soon as he called out murder, 
 one of the four men got on the wall 
 with one hand and two feet, and 
 Pair called out, ' Have you got 
 enough yet?' and he (Parr) set off 
 to Mr. Horsfall at full gallop. Mr. 
 H. said, ' Good man, you are a 
 stranger to me; I'm shot.' Mr. 
 Horsfall yrew sick, and blood 
 began to flow from his side. Mr. H. 
 desired witness to go to Mrs. Hors- 
 fall's. 
 
 Bannister, a clothier, met Parr 
 on the road, who told witness that 
 Mr. Horsfall was shot. Witness 
 found Mr. H. on the road-side very 
 bloody. 
 
 Mr. Horton, surgeon, gave his 
 testimony professionally. He ex- 
 tracted a ball from the deceased, 
 and found several wounds in bis 
 body, and had no doubt they were 
 the cause of his death. 
 
 Benjamin Walker, an accomplice, 
 stated that the prisoners, George 
 Mellor and Thomas Smith, worked 
 with him at Wood's; and, in a con- 
 versation about the attack on Mr. 
 Cartwright's mill, Mellor said therv. 
 was no way to break the shears — 
 but shoot the master. Mellor had 
 a loaded pistol, and said he must 
 go with him to shoot Mr. Horsfall. 
 The pistol was loaded. Witness 
 and the three prisoners went to the 
 plantation. Smith and Walker went 
 together, and got to the plan- 
 tation first — Thorp and Mellor came 
 afterwards. George Mellor ordered 
 witness and Smith to fire, if they 
 missed Mr. Horsfall ; witness did 
 
 104 
 
9* 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CA 
 
 hot fire, hut heard Mellor say Mr. 
 Ilorsfall was coining, and soon after 
 neanl the report of a pistol ; they 
 waited at a short distance till the 
 job was done. 
 
 The prisoners attempted to prove 
 an alibi. 
 
 The jury withdrew about twenty 
 minutes, and returned a verdict of 
 Guilty against all the prisoners. 
 
 On Friday these wretched men 
 were brought to the place of execu- 
 tion, behind the Castle at York. 
 Every precaution had been taken 
 to render a rescue impracticable. 
 Two troops of cavalry were drawn 
 up near the front of the platform, 
 and the avenues to the Castle were 
 guarded by infantry. 
 
 A few minutes before nine o'clock 
 the prisoners came upon the plat- 
 form. After the Ordinary had read 
 the accustomed forms of prayer, 
 \Jeorge Mellor prayed for about ten 
 iiinutes. William Thorp also pray- 
 ed ; but his voice was not so well 
 heard. Smith said but little, but 
 seemed to join in the devotions with 
 great seriousness. 
 
 The prisoners were then moved 
 to the front of the platform ; and, 
 after saying a few words, the exe- 
 cutioner proceeded to perform his 
 fatal office, and the drop fell. 
 
 On the 8th John Baines the 
 elder, John Baines the younger, 
 Zacbary Baines, of the same family, 
 the elder near seventy years of aye, 
 and the latter scarce sixteen, John 
 Eadon, Charles Milnes, William 
 Blakeborough, and George Duck- 
 worth, all of Halifax, were tried for 
 administering an unlawful oath to 
 John Macdonald; and all, except 
 the boy, were found Guilty. 
 
 On the 9th January, James liaiuh, 
 of Dal ton. Jonathan Deane, of Hud- 
 dersfield, John Ogden, James Brook, 
 Thomas Brook, John Walker, of 
 Louirroyd Bridge, and John Hirst, 
 ol LiVwfsedce. were tried LwaJ lack- 
 
 ing the mill of Mr. William Cart- 
 wright, at Rawfolds. Mr. C. being 
 apprehensive of an attack being 
 made upon his mill, procured the 
 assistance of five soldiers, and re- 
 tired to rest about twelve o'clock, 
 and soon afterwards heard the bark- 
 ing of a dog. Mr. C. arose; and, 
 while opening; the door, heard a 
 breaking of windows, and also a 
 firing in the upper and lower win- 
 dows, and a violent hammering at 
 the door. Mr. C. and his men flew 
 to their arms ; a bell placed at the 
 top of the mill, for the purpose of 
 alarming the neighbours, being 
 rung by one of his men, the persons 
 inside the mill discharged their 
 pieces from loop-holes. The fire 
 was returned regularly on both sides. 
 The mob called, ' Bang up, lads ! in 
 with you! keep close! damn that 
 bell ! get to it! damn 'em, kill 'em 
 all !' The numbers assembled were 
 considerable. The attack continued 
 about twenty minutes. The fire 
 slackened from without ; and they 
 heard the cries of the wounded. The 
 men that were wounded were taken 
 care of. They afterwards died. 
 One of the accomplices, W. Hall 
 was one of those connected witlt 
 Mellor and Thorp, and assemblei 
 with many other persons, by fltt 
 desire of Mellor, in a field belong 
 ing to Sir George Armitage, Bart, 
 on the night of the 11th of April. 
 They called their numbers, re- 
 mained there some time, and then 
 marched oft': Hall's number was 
 seven. Mellor commanded the mus- 
 ket company, another the pistol 
 company, and another the hatchet 
 company : they were formed in lines 
 of ten each. Two of the men wen/ 
 to go last, and drive up the rear.— 
 Some had hatchets, some hammers 
 some sticks, and others had nothing 
 Another accomplice gave a simi- 
 lar testimony. 
 
 The illfv fniiPil Jrnn-'S K>''^ -' 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 99 
 
 Dean, John Ogden, Thomas Brook, 
 and John Walker, Guilty — James 
 Brook, John Brook, anil John Hirst, 
 Not Guilty. 
 
 Jan. 1 1. — J. Hay, John Hill, and 
 William Hartley, were next tried, 
 for a hurglary in the house of Mr. 
 George Haigh, of Sculcoates; and 
 found Guilty. 
 
 On Thursday the grand jury, 
 after stating they had no more bills 
 before them, inquired it any more 
 were prepared. — Mr. Parke said — 
 ' I shall, with leave of the Court, 
 answer the question put by the 
 grand jury.' Their lordships inti- 
 mated assent, and Mr. Parke pro- 
 ceeded : — ' My learned friends and 
 myself have examined the different 
 cases which have been presented to 
 you ; and, considering that many 
 of these people have acted under 
 the influence of other persons, we 
 have, in the exercise of that discre- 
 tion confided to us by the Crown, 
 declined, at present, to present any 
 other bills before you ; and I hope 
 this lenity will produce its proper 
 effects, and that the persons on 
 whom it is exercised will prove 
 themselves, by their future good 
 conduct, deserving of it. But, if it 
 be abused, proceedings against them 
 can be resumed.' 
 
 Jan. 12.— James Hay, Joseph 
 Crowther, and N. Hayle, were 
 found guilty of taking from James 
 
 Brook a promissory note of one 
 pound, and some silver and copper 
 coin. 
 
 Several prisoners were, through 
 the lenity of government, admitted 
 to bail, on their entering into re- 
 cognizances, the prisoners in two 
 hundred pounds each, and their bail 
 in one hundred pounds each. 
 
 Mr. Baron Thompson then passed 
 sentence on the prisoners. — Ffteen 
 were sentenced to death ; six to be 
 transported tor seven years ; sixteen 
 were discharged on bail; and six- 
 teen were discharged without bail. 
 
 On Satuardy the following male- 
 factors convicted before mentioned 
 were also brought to the same place 
 of execution, at different times, viz. 
 at eleven in the forenoon, John Hill, 
 Joseph Crowther, N. Hayle, Jona- 
 than Dean, John Ogden, Thomas 
 Brook, and John Walker, were 
 placed upon the scaffold. Many of 
 them, after the clergyman had re- 
 peated ' The Lord have mercy 
 upon you !' in a very audible voice 
 articulated ' I hope he will.' The 
 bodies, after hanging till twelve 
 o'clock, were then cut down. 
 
 At half past one o'clock, John 
 Swallow, John Batley, Joseph 
 Fisher, William Hartley, James 
 Haigh, James Hey, and Job Hay, 
 were also executed. The conduct 
 of the prisoners was becoming theit 
 awful situation. 
 
 HUFFUM {alias HUFFEY) WHITE, AND RICHARD 
 
 KENDALL, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR ROBBING THE MAIL. 
 
 Huffey White was a more ex- which could not be deciphered by 
 pert and notorious housebreaker, any but the initiated. When in 
 and perpetrated more adroit bur- prison he drew a hand manacled 
 glaries, than any malefactor who with iron; and when conviction was 
 has suffered during the last fifty likely to follow, he portrayed a gal- 
 years. He was totally illiterate, lows : similar designs pave his ac- 
 yet contrived to convey information complices, when at a distance, no- 
 lo his wife by means of holographs, tice of his various proceedings; and 
 
100 KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 thus his ingenuity obviated the de- 
 fects of his education. 
 
 In 1809 he was sentenced, for a 
 burglary, to transportation for life, 
 preparatory to which he was sent 
 on board the hulks at Woolwich. 
 Not liU'iig the treatment he expe- 
 rienced there, he contrived to make 
 his escape, and once more visited 
 the scenes of his former crimes in 
 London. At this time he became 
 acquainted with the notorious Jem 
 Mackcoull, whose case we shall 
 hereafter give, and agreed to ac- 
 company him to Chester, for the 
 purpose of robbing the bank there. 
 
 White lodged in the house of a 
 blacksmith, named Scottock, who 
 supplied him with the necessary 
 implements. The pair of villains, 
 having directed the smith to for- 
 ward them the keys, &c. to Chester, 
 set off for that place early in 1810; 
 and, having made their observa- 
 tions, called at the coach -office for 
 the box of implements. Fortu- 
 nately the friction of the coach had 
 broken one corner of the box, 
 through which a skeleton key sus- 
 piciously obtruded. An officer was 
 sent for, and, being concealed when 
 White and Mackcoull came to de- 
 mand the box, he secured them 
 both, on which they were committed 
 to the house of correction as rogues 
 and vagabonds. 
 
 Mackcoull went by the name of 
 Martin, and White assumed that of 
 Evans; but a description of their 
 persons being transmitted to Bow 
 Street, an officer was sent for, 
 who quickly recognised them both. 
 White was brought to trial at the 
 next assizes, and received sentence 
 of death, for being at large before 
 the expiration of his period of trans- 
 portation ; but this sentence was 
 afterwards commuted to transporta- 
 tion for life, and he was once more 
 sent to his former station in the 
 
 hulks, Mackcoull remainiitgin Ches- 
 ter gaol, to which he was sentenced 
 six months for being a rogue and a 
 vagabond. 
 
 At the expiration of six months 
 Mackcoull returned to London, and, 
 agreeing with one French to rob 
 the Glasgow bank, they wished for 
 the assistance of Huffey White, 
 and actually contrived to liberate 
 him from the hulks, after which 
 they set off for Scotland. For the 
 particulars of the robbery which they 
 committed there we must refer the 
 reader to the case of Mackcoull ; it 
 being only necessary to state here 
 that the amount of their booty was 
 the enormous sum of twenty thou- 
 sand pounds. 
 
 Immediately after their return to 
 London, however, White was appre- 
 hended ; but, through the agency 
 of Mrs. Mackcoull, and part of the 
 money being restored to the bank, 
 White was not prosecuted ; his for- 
 mer sentence, however, being still 
 in force, he was again sent to the 
 hulks, from which he once more 
 escaped, but confined his depreda- 
 tions to the country, where he com- 
 mitted various burglaries. A short 
 time before his apprehension, he 
 contrived, by skeleton keys, &c. to 
 open the doors of the Kettering 
 bank ; and such was the masterly 
 manner in which he effected his en- 
 trance, and conducted the business 
 altogether, that the bankers, Messrs. 
 Keep and Gotch, remained ignorant 
 of the robbery, until an accomplice, 
 on White's trial, detailed the trans- 
 action. They conceived it impos- 
 sible for such a thing to take place 
 without their knowledge, or, at 
 least, without exciting suspicion ; 
 and, accordingly, treated the in- 
 formation as fabulous, until told the 
 number of the page in which their 
 Loudon banking account was kept, 
 and which could only have been 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 101 
 
 obtained by an inspection of their 
 private ledger. It was fortunate, 
 however, that the bankers had not 
 more cause to know of their noc- 
 turnal visitors, which was owing to 
 their meeting with an iron chest 
 that they could not open ; and, 
 fearful of creating suspicion, they 
 removed nothing, intending, on a 
 future night, to make another visit, 
 and come provided with proper keys. 
 
 The crime for which White was 
 at length executed was the robbery 
 of the Leeds mail, on the "29th of 
 October, 1812, near to Higham- 
 Ferrers, in Northamptonshire. The 
 guard having gone over the top of 
 the coach to the front seat, the rob- 
 bers contrived, during his short ab- 
 sence, to open the lock and extract 
 the mail-bags, which they carried 
 off. 
 
 Information of the robbery being 
 given at the General Post-office, 
 two officers of Bow Street, Richard 
 and John Limhrick, were dismissed 
 in pursuit of the villains. White 
 was the man suspected; and they, 
 hearing that he was seen at Bristol, 
 proceeded thither. On their arrival 
 there they learned that Ned Burkitt 
 and John Goodman, two well-known 
 thieves, were living there, and they 
 had no doubt but White resided 
 with them. Burkitt had passed 
 himself off as a captain, and had 
 taken a house, the front of which 
 was towards the fields, in conse- 
 quence of which the officers had 
 much trouble in watching it for four 
 days, being obliged to go round, 
 about a quarter of a mile, for fear 
 of creating alarm. At length they 
 saw Goodman and his wife go into 
 Bristol, where they took him into 
 custody, on suspicion of being con- 
 cerned in the robbery of the Can- 
 terbury bank. 
 
 Having secured their prisoner, 
 they returned to the house, and 
 gave a double knock at the door, 
 
 which was answered by Burkitt; 
 the officers rushed upon him, but 
 he made a violent resistance, and 
 was secured with great difficulty. 
 In the mean time White effected 
 his escape over a shed, and through 
 an adjoining house. 
 
 His career, however, was drawing 
 to a close. It was intimated that 
 he, and one Haywood, intended 
 paying Liverpool a visit, in conse- 
 quence of which the police were 
 every where on the alert. Early 
 in April, 1813, they were traced to 
 a house in the Scotland Road, which 
 was immediately surrounded by con- 
 stables and assistants. An old wo- 
 man, for some time, refused their 
 admittance; but, as they were pre- 
 paring to force the door, it was 
 opened. Two officers rushed down 
 to the cellar; one of them seized 
 Haywood, at which White struck 
 him a dreadful blow, and pushed 
 past him. The other officer, how- 
 ever, seized him, and a severe 
 struggle ensued. A pistol was fired 
 by a constable, and, after a despe- 
 rate resistance, they were secured. 
 Under the flags in the cellar were 
 found all the implements of house- 
 breaking, skeleton-keys in abun- 
 dance, with matches, tapers, &c. &c. 
 The woman was also taken into 
 custody. 
 
 At the ensuing summer assizes 
 at Northampton, Huffey White, 
 Richard Kendall, and Mary Howes, 
 alias Taylor, were arraigned for the 
 robbery of the Leeds mail. The 
 evidence against White and Kendall 
 was circumstantial. They were seen 
 on the road, the evening of the rob- 
 bery, in a gig, and subsequently at 
 the house of Mary Howes, who 
 lived not far from the spot where 
 the mail was robbed ; and, what 
 was not a little singular, theirs was 
 the only gig which passed through 
 the turnpike on that evening. Next 
 morning White and Kendall were 
 

 102 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 seen together, and were traced, 
 without a chasm, to London, where 
 White offered to negotiate some of 
 the bills and notes wilh Richardson, 
 who had been before this time con- 
 victed of robbing the house of the 
 Marchioness of Downshire. 
 
 Forty witnesses were examined 
 on this trial, which lasted fourteen 
 hours ; and such was the interest 
 produced, that the court was crowd- 
 ed to excess. The judge having 
 charged the jury, they retired, and 
 Boon after returned, finding White 
 and Kendall Guilty, but acquitted 
 tbe woman, in accordance with the 
 direction of the judge; it appearing 
 that her offence did not take place 
 in the county she was arraigned in. 
 This informality, and not her inno- 
 cence, saved her life.* 
 
 The night preceding their execu- 
 tion, White attempted to make his 
 escape, and had succeeded so far 
 as to cut off his irons, and break 
 tbrough several doors; but he was 
 stopped at the outward gate, and 
 reconducted to his cell. At nine 
 o'clock, August the 13th, 1813, the 
 procession approached the place of 
 execution at Northampton. Kendall 
 appeared deeply impressed with a 
 sense of the awful fate that awaited 
 him ; but uniformly persisted in de- 
 claring his innocence, and said that 
 
 he fell a victim in consequence 
 of having the misfortune to be in 
 company with his fellow-sufferer 
 the night of the robbery. He de- 
 clared, on the gallows, that he was 
 a murdered man; he appealed to 
 the populace, which was immense, 
 in a speech of some length, in which 
 he endeavoured to convince them of 
 his perfect innocence. 
 
 White's deportment was such ag 
 to convince the surrounding multi- 
 tude that he was not impressed with 
 the fear of death. Hardihood never 
 forsook him, and he more thau once 
 found fault with the manner in 
 which the chaplain performed his 
 duty. From the time of his con- 
 viction he disregarded the gallows; 
 and, being humanely asked by a 
 clergyman if he could administer 
 any sort of comfort to him, answer- 
 ed — ' Only by getting some other 
 man to be hanged for me.' He de- 
 clared Kendall innocent, a few mi- 
 nutes before they were launched 
 into eternity. 
 
 White was a man whose face did 
 not indicate his profession. He was 
 remarkable for his silence and easy 
 manner, temperate in his habits, 
 and never known to injure any one 
 in their person; on the contrary, he 
 always refused to be concerned with 
 those who indulged in violence. 
 
 PHILIP NICHOLSON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 From the assault of an external 
 enemy precaution may secure us; 
 but against the midnight visit of the 
 domestic assassin no foresight can 
 provide. Hence the universal ab- 
 horrence with which a traitorous 
 
 servant is viewed, when he, un- 
 mindful of the laws of nature and 
 society, attacks those whom he was 
 paid to protect. Murder in any 
 case is a crime of great magnitude, 
 but it becomes doubly revolting 
 
 * While White was in prison his wife applied to Mackcoull for the means of going 
 down to him ; but that villain, fearing that White might disclose some important 
 seciets, amused the unfortunate woman with promises, which he broke from day to 
 day, in the hope that her husband might be hanged before she could see him. An- 
 other person supplied her with the means ; and, in 1820, Mrs. White went down to 
 Scotland, to give evidence against Mackcoull. This woman led an abandoned life, 
 and resided chiefly if a brothel. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 103 
 
 when committed by a dependant on 
 a kind benefactor. 
 
 Among those whose crimes have 
 acquired for them a detestable im- 
 mortality Philip Nicholson stands 
 conspicuous — we might almost say 
 alone — for he was an isolated mon- 
 ster of atrocity, whose case admits 
 not a single palliative to detract 
 from the naked wickedness of his 
 bar b a. o us and wanton cruelty. He 
 was not prompted to the deed of 
 blood by any of those causes which 
 usually precipitate men into crime: 
 plunder was not his object; and it 
 could not be revenge, for be re- 
 ceived no provocation. In fact he 
 was a murderer without a motive; 
 and the victims of his satauic tur- 
 pitude were the last in the world 
 whom he should have injured — the 
 best of masters and mistresses. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bonar were an 
 aged, happy, and respectable couple, 
 who resided at a mansion called 
 Camden Place, in the village of 
 Chiselhurst, Kent, where they bad 
 lived about eight or nine years, in 
 all the enjoyments which attend 
 upon virtue and affluence. Their 
 decline of life was serene and cloud- 
 less ; they looked back without re- 
 gret, and regarded the future devoid 
 of apprehension. Their children 
 were good and prosperous; and 
 every thing around indicated tran- 
 quillity and happiness. But, alas ! 
 terrene possessions are insecure, 
 and no man can say to-morrow 
 shall be at his own disposal. 
 
 On Sunday night, May the 30th, 
 1813, Mr. Bonar went to bed at his 
 usual hour of twelve o'clock, and 
 his wife followed at two. Her maid 
 undressed her in the ante-room, 
 and, having disposed of every thing 
 in their own places, retired to bed. 
 During the night no noise was 
 heard by any of the domestics. 
 The two maids slept in rooms 
 •ituate in the rear of the house, the 
 
 groom and the coachman over the 
 stable, and Philip Nicholson, the 
 footman, had his bed in the hall, 
 being the only male servant who 
 slept in the house. 
 
 At half past six o'clock next 
 morning one of the garden labourers 
 came to call up Nicholson, and re- 
 marked to him that the hall-door 
 and windows-shutters were open ; 
 when he answered that he was not 
 aware of their being so. At seven 
 the maids were called up by one oi 
 the under servants, who told them 
 that a bad smell came from the 
 mistress's bed-room, and that foot- 
 marks of blood were visible in the 
 ante-room; something dreadful was 
 immediately apprehended, and one 
 of the maids exclaimed that there 
 had been murder. In great agita- 
 tion she then ran down stairs, where, 
 horrid to relate, she found her mas- 
 ter and mistress were weltering in 
 their blood ; the old lady lying on 
 the bed, while the corpse of her 
 husband was stretched upon the 
 floor, literally swimming in gore. 
 The instrument with which the dia- 
 bolical act was perpetrated, a kitchen 
 poker, lay bent near the head of the 
 bed. 
 
 In the confusion and dismay which 
 followed the discovery of the ap- 
 palling spectacle, Nicholson was 
 observed to take the sheets from his 
 master's bed, and, in spite of the 
 remonstrance of the maid, to wrap 
 them up in his own, after which 
 he threw a blanket over the corpse. 
 He looked much agitated; but they 
 were all greatly alarmed, and took 
 no particular notice of his conduct 
 He roused one of the maids, who 
 had swooned away in the hall, and 
 told her to go to her mistrees, for 
 that she was still alive. This was 
 found to be the case, as she breathed 
 softly, but made no attempt to speak. 
 
 Nicholson now insisted on jjoing 
 to town for a surgeon, and, in at- 
 
104 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALFNDAR. 
 
 tempting to saddle a horse, betrayed 
 so much agitation that the groom 
 was obliged to assist him : when 
 mounted he seemed incapable of 
 keeping his seat, which surprised 
 the groom, as he had served in the 
 dragoons. 
 
 On the road he was seen to drink 
 copiously of brandy, and a little 
 after eight o'clock he arrived at the 
 house of Mr. Astley Cooper, who 
 instantly set off for Camden Place, 
 in the hope of affording surgical 
 assistance to the murdered lady. 
 Nicholson went next to the Red 
 Lion, near Bedlam, where he saw a 
 man named Dale, who had been 
 only a few weeks discharged for 
 improper conduct from Mr. Bonar's 
 service; and to whom he used this 
 remarkable expression : ' The deed 
 is done, and you are suspected ; but 
 you are not in it.' He then pro- 
 ceeded to the office at Bow Street, 
 in a state of intoxication, to give 
 information of the murder. Having 
 mentioned his interview with Dale, 
 that person was brought to the 
 office; but he established a most 
 satisfactory alibi, and was dis- 
 charged. Three officers immedi- 
 ately set off for Chiselhurst. 
 
 Mr. (afterwards, Sir Astley) 
 Cooper arrived with all possible 
 dispatch at Camden Place, but was 
 too late ; the wound was mortal, and 
 Mrs. Bonar expired at eleven mi- 
 nutes past one o'clock, having been 
 through the whole previous time in- 
 sensible, and only once uttering the 
 exclamation of ' Oh dear I' 
 
 1 We never witnessed,' says one 
 who saw it, ' such a scene of horror 
 as the bed-room presented. Almost 
 the first object which met the eye 
 on entering was the dead body of 
 Mr. Bonar, with the head and hands 
 steeped in blood : the skull was li- 
 terally broken into fragments in 
 two or three places; and there was 
 a dreadful laceration across the nose, 
 
 as if effected by the edge of a poker. 
 His hands were mangled in several 
 places, apparently by the same in- 
 strument: there was also a severe 
 wound on the right knee. From 
 the numerous wounds on the body 
 of Mr. Bonar, the swollen state of 
 his mouth, and the convulsive ad- 
 hesion of his hands and knees, it is 
 clear that he had struggled with all 
 his force against his horrid mur- 
 derer. The most shocking circum- 
 stance connected with this spectacle 
 was the appearance of the night-cap, 
 which lay a few paces from the 
 head, drenched in blood, with a 
 lock of grey hair sticking to it, 
 which seemed to have been struck 
 from the skull by the violence of 
 the blow of the poker. The pillows 
 of his bed lay at his feet, completely 
 dyed in blood. The manly athletic 
 person of Mr. Bonar — for, though 
 advanced in life, he seems to have 
 been a powerful man — gave an in- 
 crease of horror to this afflicting 
 sight. The view of Mrs. Bonar, 
 though equally distressing, excited 
 more pity than terror : though her 
 head had been fractured in a dreadful 
 manner, yet there was a calm soft- 
 ness in her countenance, more re- 
 sembling a healthy sleep than a 
 violent death; it might have been 
 supposed that her life had parted 
 from her without one painful effort. 
 The linen and pillow of the bed in 
 which she lay were covered with 
 blood, as was also the bed of Mr. 
 Bonar. They slept in small se- 
 parate beds, but placed so close to- 
 gether that there was scarce room 
 for a person to pass between them. 
 The interval of floor between the 
 beds was almost a stream of blood. 
 No slight additional horror arose 
 from the contrast of the spacious 
 handsome apartment in which this 
 scene of death was exhibited. The 
 most heart-moving spectacle yet 
 remained. About seven o'clock in 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 104 
 
 the evening Mr. Bonar, jun. ar- 
 rived from Faversham, where he 
 was on duty as Colonel of the Kent 
 local militia. In spite of the efforts 
 of Mr. Angtrstein, jun. and some 
 other gentlemen, he rushed up stairs, 
 exclaiming, ' Let me see my father ! 
 itideed I must see him.' It was 
 impossible to detain him : he burst 
 into the bed-charnber, and imme- 
 diately locked the door after him. 
 Apprehensions were entertained for 
 his safety, and the door was broken 
 open, when he was seen kneeling 
 with clasped hands over the body of 
 his father. His friends bore him 
 away, and hurried him, tottering 
 and fainting, into an adjoining 
 chamber.' 
 
 The officers were now busy in in- 
 vestigating the scene of murder. 
 There was no appearance of any- 
 one having broken into the house, 
 nor was there any attempt at rob- 
 bery ; for the bureau remained lock- 
 ed, and the watches of the deceased 
 were found in their usual places. — 
 Of the perpetrator or perpetrators 
 of the murder nothing had trans- 
 pired for some time but suspicion 
 and surmise; and no motive could 
 be assigned for the assassination of 
 two persons, who were not only in- 
 offensive, but universally beloved 
 for their kindness and benevolence. 
 It was at first supposed the instru- 
 ment of murder, the poker, did not 
 belong to the house ; but this was 
 subsequently proved to be the case, 
 and the error originated from the 
 circumstance of its having been 
 recently repaired, by order of a ser- 
 vant who had just left Mr. Bonar's 
 service. 
 
 The mystery soon began to de- 
 velop itself. It was observed that, 
 though the room was covered with 
 blood, there were no bloody foot- 
 steps in the hall, nor in the ante- 
 room ; and, though the hall-door 
 was found open, there was no ap- 
 
 pearance of the assasiiis having 
 passed through it. A pair of Nichol- 
 son's shoes were found in a closet, 
 stained with blood, and on apply- 
 ing them, as well as another pair, 
 to the bloody footsteps in the bed- 
 room, they were found exactly to 
 correspond. His night-cap was aso 
 discovered to have marks of blood 
 on it ; but the sanguinary marks 
 could be traced no farther, as he 
 had artfully confounded his own 
 linen with the bloody sheeting which 
 he had taken from his master's bed. 
 
 The suspicion thus excited gra- 
 dually received confirmation from 
 the unfeeling conduct of Nichol- 
 son himself, which tended, more 
 than the above circumstances, 
 to fix upon him the charge of mur- 
 der. In place of following the 
 officers to the house of his late 
 master, he contrived to get from 
 their sight in Brydges Street, and 
 proceeded through town drinking 
 with his acquaintances wherever he 
 met them. 
 
 In the mean time his room was 
 searched, and, there being no sign 
 of his returning, a warrant was is- 
 sued for his apprehension. 
 
 Forrester, one of the city officers, 
 was sent in pursuit of him, and, 
 after diligent inquiry, he was traced 
 to Whitechapel, where he found him 
 on horseback, drinking at the inn- 
 door of the Three Nuns with an old 
 acquaintance. Forrester laid hold 
 of the bridle of the horse, and, after 
 a smart scuffle, in which Nicholson 
 received some Blight jruises, he 
 was secured, and conveyed to 
 Giltspur Street Compter. He was 
 then in a state of intoxication ap- 
 proaching to insanity. Some gen- 
 tlemen questioned him ; but no ad- 
 mission of guilt could be drawn from 
 him. He was carried before the 
 lord mayor, and examined ; but 
 such was drunken state that no ra- 
 tional answer could be extracted. 
 
106 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 The next day, Tuesday, lie was 
 again brought to the Mansion-house; 
 lie denied all knowledge of the per- 
 petrators of the murder, and when 
 reprimanded for removing the sheets, 
 as well as calling upon Dale before 
 lie called at the Police Office, he 
 pleaded ignorance. 
 
 It appeared, fiom the account he 
 gave of himself, that he was a na- 
 tive of Ireland, and had been dis- 
 charged from the thirteenth dragoons 
 in consequence of a broken wrist, 
 lie subsequently lived three years 
 with the city remembrancer, and 
 had been only three weeks in the 
 employ of his late master, Mr. 
 Bonar. Among the servants at 
 Camden Place he was looked upon 
 as a man of harmless disposition 
 and good nature, with no discernible 
 failing but one, drunkenness, to 
 which he was greatly addicted, 
 being seldom sober when he could 
 procure any spirits. 
 
 All questions which were deemed 
 necessary having been put to him, he 
 was sent, in custody of Adkins and 
 another officer, to Chiselhurst, to 
 give evidence before the coroner's 
 jury, who were to sit that evening 
 on the bodies of the deceased. 
 
 The evidence being gone through 
 before the coroner, Mr. Martyr, he 
 was reading over the depositions of 
 the several witnesses for their assent 
 and signature, when an alarm was 
 given that Nicholson had attempted 
 his own life. He had been in cus- 
 tody of two officers, and requested 
 leave to go into the yard, which was 
 refused ; but he was permitted to 
 enter a waler-closet in the passage 
 leading to the servants' hall; while 
 here be cut his throat with a razor, 
 which, it appeared, he had con- 
 cealed in the front of his breeches. 
 The gash was so deep, and it bled 
 so profusely, that it was supposed 
 he could not live many minutes. 
 The head seemed almost severed 
 
 from the body, and a large hand 
 might have been inserted in the 
 wound. Fortunately two surgeons 
 of Bromley were in attendance, one 
 of whom, Mr. Holt, immediately 
 rushed forward, and, with great pre- 
 sence of mind, seized with both his 
 hands the gushing arteries, which 
 he stopped from bleeding until the 
 application of more regular means. 
 
 An express was instantly dis- 
 patched for Mr. Astley Cooper, who 
 arrived in three hours, and, having 
 dressed the wound, declared Nichol- 
 son out of danger. To prevent a 
 hemorrhage, every precaution was 
 taken ; his head was placed in a 
 fixed position, and two attendants 
 constantly held his hands. Being 
 a Roman Catholic, a priest was 
 sent for ; but he made no declara- 
 tion, and, in the few words he spoke, 
 persisted in declaring his innocence. 
 
 The coroner's jury, after a long 
 and patient investigation, returned 
 a verdict of ' wilful murder against 
 Philip Nicholson.' 
 
 The sensation which the murder 
 produced throughout the country 
 was amazing. Nicholson's attempt 
 at suicide seemed to confirm the 
 suspicion of his guilt; and every one 
 was anxious to see the monster who 
 was charged with so foul a crime. 
 
 On Monday, June the 7th, he 
 was visited by several of the nobi- 
 lity, among whom were Lord Castle- 
 reagh, Lord Camden, and Lord Ro- 
 bert Seymour. During their presence 
 he showed repeated symptoms of 
 annoyance and agitation ; this cir- 
 cumstance, together with an attempt 
 to make him look more cleanly, 
 oaused his wound to bleed afresh. 
 This happened about seven o'clock 
 in the evening; and, as the he- 
 morrhage was of an alarming na- 
 ture, a dispatch was sent ofFfor Mr. 
 Astley Cooper, who arrived about 
 eleven o'clock. Mr. Brains ton, the 
 priest, with Mr. Bonar, came about 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 107 
 
 the same time; ami great appre- 
 hensions were entertained for the 
 life of the unfortunate wretch. 
 
 At six o'clock next morning he 
 requested Mr. Bramston to send for 
 Mr. Bonar immediately. When 
 this gentleman entered, Nicholson 
 hurst into tears, and, begging par- 
 don of Mr. Bonar, expressed his 
 wish to make a full confession. A 
 neighbouring magistrate, and other 
 gentlemen, having been sent for, 
 Nicholson, in their presence, made 
 and afterwards signed a voluntary 
 confession that the murder was com- 
 mitted by him, but itilid not appear 
 that he had any motive whatever 
 for the perpetration of the dreadful 
 deed. 
 
 In consequence of assertions con- 
 tained in this confession, search was 
 nude for the linen, when it was found 
 in a laurel bush. The stockings 
 were very bloody, and the shirt was 
 rent almost to rags about the neck 
 and front, in consequence of the op- 
 position made by Mr. Bonar. 
 
 Nicholson, who, before his con- 
 fession, looked gloomy, fierce, and 
 malicious, afterwards became per- 
 fectly calm, and had even an air of 
 satisfaction. He repented his at- 
 tempt at suicide; and, as much ap- 
 prehension was entertained for his 
 recovery, every thing that could 
 disturb him was studiously kept out 
 of sight. 
 
 When Nicholson was considered 
 out of danger, he was removed to 
 the House of Correction, Coldbath 
 Fields, where he ^mained until the 
 17th of August, when he was 
 carried to Maidstone to take his 
 trial; and on the 20th, at eight 
 o'clock, he was placed at the bar. 
 His looks were gloomy and sad; 
 but, on the whole, he appeared firm 
 and collected. He pleaded ' Not 
 Guilty/ in consequence, he said, of 
 the persuasions of several persons. 
 
 The case was fully made out by 
 
 the witnesses, independently ol the 
 confession ; and, when called on for 
 his defence, he merely inquired if 
 the truth of his declaration was at 
 all doubted. The son of the city 
 remembrancer appeared to give 
 testimony to his character, which 
 he described as humane and gentle, 
 there being never any complaint 
 made against him for the three 
 years he lived with his father, ex- 
 cept for frequent intoxication. 
 
 The judge having charged the 
 jury, they immediately returned a 
 verdict of * Guilty;' after which he 
 was asked, in the usual form, if he 
 had any thing to say, when he re- 
 plied, ' Nothing/ 
 
 Mr. Justice Heath then pro- 
 ceeded to pass sentence nearly in the 
 following terms : — ' Prisoner, after 
 a minute trial, you have been con- 
 victed by a jury of your country of 
 traitorously murdering your master; 
 whom, instead of attacking, it was 
 your duty to protect, at the peril 
 of your life. What was your mo- 
 tive for so atrocious a crime does 
 not appear : it does not seem to 
 have been revenge; you were not 
 intoxicated, nor offended at your 
 master, against whom it was im- 
 possible to feel resentment, for his 
 whole life was a series of kindness 
 and beneficences, for which he is 
 now gone to receive his reward. 
 You, Nicholson, must soon appear 
 before a tribunal more awful than 
 this, and I solemnly recommend 
 you to employ the short interval 
 which remains to you in making 
 your peace with Heaven. Nothing 
 that I can say can aggravate the 
 sense of your guilt in the minds ot 
 this assembly : I shall, therefore, 
 proceed to discharge my duty in 
 passing upon you the sentence of 
 the law, which is, that you be 
 taken hence to the place from whence 
 you came, and on Monday next be 
 drawn on a sledge to the place of 
 
108 KNAPF & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 execution, and there hanged till 
 you are dead, and then your body 
 shall be given to be dissected and 
 anatomized.' 
 
 Immediately after the sentence, 
 the prisoner put in a paper, and de- 
 sired it to be read. The judge 
 said tii is was irregular, but looked 
 at the paper, and told the jury that 
 it contained a confession of crime, 
 which was imputed to excessive 
 drinking. 
 
 The paper which he put in and 
 desired to be read was as follows : — 
 
 ' I acknowledge, with the deepest 
 contrition, the justice of the sen- 
 tence unto deatli which has been just 
 passed upon me. My crimes are, 
 indeed, most heavy ; I feel their 
 weight, but I do not despair; nay, 
 I humbly hope for mercy, through 
 the infinite mercy of my Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, who bled and 
 died for me. In order to have a 
 well-grounded hope in him, my all- 
 merciful Redeemer, I know that it 
 is my bounded duty not only to 
 grieve from my heart for my dire 
 offences, but also to do my utmost 
 to make satisfaction for them. Yet, 
 alas! what satisfaction can I make 
 to the afflicted family of my master 
 and mistress, whom, without any 
 provocation, I so barbarously mur- 
 dered ? I can make none beyond 
 the declaration of my guilt and 
 horror of soul that I could perpe- 
 trate deeds so shocking to human 
 nature, and so agonizing to the 
 feelings of that worthy family. I 
 implore their forgiveness, for God's 
 sake ; and, fully sensible of their 
 great goodness, I do hope that, for 
 his sake, they will forgive me. — I 
 freely give up my life as a just for- 
 feit to my country, whose laws I 
 have scandalously outraged. De- 
 parting this tribunal, I shall soon 
 appear before another tribunal, 
 where an eternal sentence will be 
 passed upou me. With this dread 
 
 sentence full in my view, I do most 
 solemnly declare, and I desire this 
 declaration to be taken as my dying 
 words, that I alone was the base 
 and cruel murderer of my master 
 and mistress ; that I had no ac- 
 complice; that no one knew or pos- 
 sibly could suspect that I intended 
 to perpetrate those barbarities; that 
 I myself had no intention of com- 
 mitting those horrid deeds, save for 
 a short time, so short as scarcely 
 to be computed, before I actually 
 committed them; that booty was 
 not the motive of my fatal cruellies; 
 I am sure the idea of plunder never 
 presented itself to my mind : I can 
 attribute those unnatural murders 
 to no other cause than, at the time 
 of their commission, a temporary 
 fury from excessive drinking; and, 
 before that time, to the habitual 
 forgetfulness, for many years, of 
 the great God and his judgments ; 
 and the too natural consequence of 
 such forgetfulness, the habitual 
 yielding to the worst passions of 
 corrupted nature; so that the evil 
 that I was tempted to do, that I 
 did : the Lord in his mercy has, 
 nevertheless, spared until now my 
 life — that life which I, in an agony of 
 horror and despair, once most 
 wickedly attempted to destroy : he 
 has most graciously allowed me 
 time for repentance; an humble and 
 contrite heart must be his gift; that 
 gift I hope he has granted to my 
 most ardent supplications : in that 
 hope, and bearing in mind his pro- 
 mise that an humble and contrite 
 heart he will not despise, I, freely 
 offering up to him my sufferings, 
 and my life itself, look forward, 
 through his most precious blood, to 
 the pardon of all my crimes, my 
 manifold and most enormous crimes, 
 and most humbly trust that the 
 same mercy which he showed to 
 the penitent thief who was crucified 
 with him he will show to me: thus 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 109 
 
 nieikly t-oiifi«lin<^ iti thee, O Jesus! 
 into thy hands I commend my spi- 
 rit. Amen 
 
 • Philip Nicholson.' 
 « This 20th August, 1813.' 
 
 The signature was in Nicholson's 
 own handwriting: the rest appeared 
 written hy another hand. 
 
 A^'ter sentence of death was pass, 
 ed, Nicholson was placed in the 
 condemned cell, which in the Maid- 
 stone gaol is under ground, and the 
 approach to it is dark and dreary, 
 down many steps. In this cell 
 Mr. Bonar had an interview with 
 the prisoner, at half past five on 
 Monday morning. On his ap- 
 proaching the cell, he found Nichol- 
 son on his knees at prayer. 
 
 At about twelve o'clock, the pre- 
 parations for the removal of Nichol- 
 son being nearly completed, Mr. 
 Bonar, accompanied by his brother, 
 and Mr. Bramston, the Catholic 
 clergyman, had another interview 
 with the unfortunate man, soon after 
 which the hurdle or sledge, which 
 was in the shape of a shallow box, 
 about six feet by three, was drawn 
 up to the gaol door; at each end 
 was a seat just capable of holding 
 two persons. Nicholson, double 
 ironed, was first placed in it, with 
 his back to the horses ; he was also 
 pinioned with ropes, and round his 
 shouhlers was coiled the fatal cord ; 
 by his side sat the executioner; op- 
 posite to the prisoner the Rev. Mr. 
 Bramston took his seat, and by his 
 side sat one of the Maidstone 
 gaolers with a loaded blunderbuss. 
 Every thing being in readiness, the 
 procession advanced at a very slow 
 pace towards Pennenden Heath, 
 which is distant from Maidstone 
 nearly a mile and a half, on which 
 was erected a temporary new drop, 
 which had a platform raised seven 
 feet from the ground, and was large 
 enough to contain about a dozen 
 persons. A little before two o'clock 
 
 the hurdle arrived, and slopped im- 
 mediately under the fallows, when 
 Mr. Bramston and Nicholson knelt 
 down on it, and remained lor some 
 time in prayer. Some time pre- 
 vious to this Mr. Bonar arrived on 
 the ground in a post-chaise, and 
 took his stand within twelve yards 
 of the fatal spot, with the front 
 windows full on the gallows, and 
 which he kept open during the 
 whole time; but each of the side 
 windows was closed by blinds. So 
 anxious was Mr. Bonar to net from 
 the unfortunate wretch his very 
 dying words, as to whether he had 
 either motive or accomplice, that a 
 person was deputed to ascend the 
 platform after the cord was round 
 the prisoner's neck, and to ask him 
 the following questions: — 
 
 Q. ' Now that you have not 
 many moments to live, is all that 
 you have stated, namely, that you 
 had no motive that you can tell of, 
 nor had you any accomplice, true ?' 
 — A. ' All that I have stated is 
 true.' 
 
 'Then there is no creature living 
 on earth who had any thing to do 
 with the murder but yourself?' — 
 ' No, no one.' 
 
 ' You had no accomplices ?' — 
 ' None.' 
 
 * Had you any antipathy to either 
 your master or mistress, before you 
 committed the horrid murder ?' — 
 Clasping his hands together as well 
 as his heavy irons would permit 
 him, * As God is in Heaven it 
 was a momentary thought, as 1 have 
 repeatedly declared before.' 
 
 The above were the last words of 
 this unhappy man; in a few mi- 
 nutes after they were uttered, the 
 bottom of the platform, which, we 
 have before stated, was constructed 
 like one of the new drops, was let 
 fall, and Nicholson was launched 
 into eternity. He died unusually 
 hard, being greatly convulsed. 
 
110 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Nicholson's parents were Irish, 
 his father a Protestant, his mother 
 a Catholic; but he was doubtful 
 of the place of his birth, though 
 he had a complete Irish accent. 
 He was a man about the middle 
 height, not bulky, but well fixed 
 and muscular; his countenance 
 bore evidence of a decided reso- 
 lute character, but his features 
 were neither unfavourable nor un- 
 pleasing ; his age was twenty-nine 
 years. 
 
 His acknowledgment of his guilt 
 and its causes relieves us from the 
 necessity of comment upon his case. 
 To irreligion and habitual drunken- 
 
 ness he rightly ascribed the mo- 
 mentary infatuation which preceded 
 the dreadful crime, for which he 
 was afterwards exhibited as a warn- 
 ing spectacle to others; for, it is to 
 be observed that, the day before 
 the murder, he had been frequently 
 seen in the beer-cellar, and no 
 doubt the effecls of intoxication 
 might have produced a paroxysm 
 approaching to temporary insanity. 
 What an example ! Let others learn 
 from it that the habitual drunkard 
 can never account for his own ac- 
 tions; but let him also learn, from 
 the fate of Nicholson, that intoxi- 
 cation is no excuse for crime. 
 
 WILLIAM HOWE, alias JOHN WOOD, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MR. ROBINS. 
 
 The following case, while it ex- 
 hibits the utmost depravity and 
 wickedness, affords a consolatory 
 instance of the persevering industry 
 of two officers of justice, whose 
 conduct merits the highest praise, 
 and well deserved whatever reward 
 had been offered for the apprehen- 
 sion of the murderer. 
 
 On the evening of the 18th of 
 December, 1812, as Mr. Benjamin 
 Robins, a farmer of Dunsley, near 
 Stourbridge, was returning home 
 from market on foot, he was over- 
 taken by a man, who, under pre- 
 tence of inquiring his way, walked 
 with him for a mile, when be sud- 
 denly fired a pistol at him, and robbed 
 him of twenty-six pounds and his 
 watch. Mr. Robins reached home 
 in great agony, when the wound 
 was found to he so serious, that, after 
 languishing eight days, he expired. 
 
 The alarm caused by this atrocity 
 induced the magistrates of Bow 
 Street to send down Adkins and 
 Taunton, two most active officers, 
 by whose extraordinary exertions 
 the wretch was traced to Loudon, 
 where, after a patient watch of many 
 
 days and nights, they at length 
 succeeded in securing him. He was 
 conveyed directly to Stourbridge, 
 where he was identified by those 
 who saw him on the day of the mur- 
 der At the Stafford assizes, March 
 the 17th, 1813, he was put upon 
 his trial, when, in addition to other 
 facts, it was pr»ved that after his 
 apprenension he had sent a letter 
 to his wife, directed Mrs. Howe, 
 wherein he told her to go to a rick 
 near Stourbridge, to search for 
 something. Vickers and Aston 
 went to the rick, and in a hole, 
 apparently made by a hand, they 
 found three bullets and a pistol, a 
 fellow to the one found in the box. 
 
 A "watch, which proved to have 
 belonged to Mr. Robins, was also 
 found to have been sold by Howe; 
 and, after a trial of ten hours, his 
 guilt was fully established by the 
 corroborating testimony of between 
 thirty and forty witnesses. The 
 judge passed on him the awful 
 sentence of the law ; after which 
 Howe, who did not call a single 
 witness, exclaimed, ' My heart is 
 innocent!' 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CAL 
 
 He appeared quite indifferent with the aw fulness of his situation, 
 
 during his trial ; but at the tune ol and manifested corresponding symp- 
 
 his execution, Monday, the 20th ot toms of repentance. 
 March, he seemed to he impressed 
 
 ANTONIO 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDE 
 
 We have, in the progress of our 
 work, exhibited many a monster of 
 atrocity ; but it was reserved for 
 us to crown the climax of wicked- 
 ness with the case of Antonio Tar- 
 dit, the deliberate murderer of his 
 countryman, his fellow-soldier, his 
 fellow-prisoner, in a strange coun- 
 try, where both endured all the pri- 
 vations of captivity ; and for what ? 
 because he suspected the victim of 
 his long- cherished vengeance to 
 have supplied materials for a satire, 
 in which Tardit considered himself 
 ridiculed ! 
 
 In the year 1811, a French pri- 
 soner in Porchester depot composed 
 some verses ; and, among the cha- 
 racters introduced in the poem, one, 
 very unfortunately, struck Tardit, 
 who was also a prisoner of war, as 
 expressly written to satirize him. 
 This idea, whether erroneous or 
 not, invariably operated upon the 
 demoniac spirit of the wretch, who 
 sought numerous opportunities to 
 glut his vengeance on another pri- 
 soner, named Leguey, who, he ima- 
 gined, had given the hints to the 
 writer of the verses, enabling him 
 to delineate the characteristic traits 
 in question. 
 
 Fifteen long months, with all the 
 irksomeness of a prison, were unable 
 to cool the fiery vengeance which 
 burned within his breast ; and, early 
 in the year 1813, he prepared to 
 sacrifice his victim. In order to 
 render his weapon, a large sharp 
 knife, more certain in its operation, 
 he first sharpened it, and then 
 bound the handle with a thick cord, 
 that the grasp might be more firm. 
 
 TARDIT, 
 
 R OF A FELLOW-PRISONER. 
 
 This knife he denominated his 
 ' guardian angel,' and slept every 
 night with it under his pillow. The 
 dreams of this monster so much dis- 
 turbed a fellow-prisoner, who slept 
 in an adjoining hammock, that he 
 asked Tardit if he should not 
 awaken him whenever he became 
 so dreadfully agitated. ' No " re- 
 plied this demon of vengeance, ' for 
 I am then dreaming of a deadly 
 enemy who has dishonoured me; 
 and, although he appears to con- 
 quer for a time, yet the vision 
 always terminates by giving me 
 his blood.' 
 
 On Monday evening, March the 
 1st, 1813, about eight o'clock, Tar- 
 dit found the long-wished for op- 
 portunity ; when rushing upon his 
 victim in the privy, he literally 
 ripped him open, when the bowels, 
 in consequence, obtruded them- 
 selves, and the unfortunate man 
 bent forward to receive his entrails, 
 exclaiming, « I am murdered !' 
 • Oh, no !' cried the murderer, 
 ironically, « it is merely a scratch ;' 
 then twice plunged his knife in the 
 back of Leguey, exclaiming, ' Take 
 that — and that!' He was proceed- 
 ing thus to indict additional wounds, 
 when his murderous arm was ar- 
 rested ; on which the villain ex- 
 claimed, ' I have now completed 
 my work, and am content; you 
 may take the weapon and me where 
 you like !' 
 
 While they were binding his 
 arms, he desired those around him 
 to stand aside, that he might glut 
 his vengeance by looking on his 
 immolated victim, remarking ironi- 
 
112 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 cally. ' I have sent you before me 
 on your journey, that you may pro- 
 vide me a lodging.' One of the 
 prisoners then inquired why he did 
 not prove that he, at least, pos- 
 sessed one noble sentiment, by 
 plunging the weapon in his own 
 breast after the perpetration of the 
 deed, in order to escape the gallows. 
 ' Jt was/ replied the wretch, ' ori- 
 ginally my intention ; but it after- 
 wards struck me that I might ex- 
 pire first, and then the certainty of 
 taking away his tile would not have 
 been known to me, and nothing less 
 would have gratified my heart.' 
 
 Soon after the villain was irored 
 he fell into a sound and tranquil 
 sleep, from which he did not awake 
 until late the following morning, 
 when he said he had not had so un- 
 disturbed a repose for the last 
 twelve mouths. 
 
 Tardit was tried at the ensuing 
 summer assizes for Hampshire, and 
 found Guilty. In his defence he 
 said Leguey had dishonoured him, 
 and reduced him to despair. Sen- 
 tence was immediately passed on 
 him, and the next day but one he 
 suffered the penalty of his diabolical 
 crime. 
 
 AZUBAH FOUNTAIN AND GEORGE TURNER ROWELL, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 We should readily admit that At the Lincoln assizes, on the 
 
 some men are naturally depraved, 3d of August, 1813, Azubah Foun- 
 
 did we not know the power of ha- tain, aged thirty-six, and George 
 
 bit, whether good or bad ; and this Turner Rowell, aged twenty-three, 
 
 should be an inducement to parents were indicted for the wilful murder 
 
 to impress upon the minds of their of Robert Fountain, the husband of 
 
 children those principles of moral Azubah, by administering four 
 
 rectitude, which are generally found ounces of laudanum in some elder- 
 
 to lead the mind from such actions berry-wine; and, thinking this 
 
 as bring in their train ignominy and quantity insufficient, a further dose 
 
 disgrace. of two ounces was given him in a 
 
 We are persuaded that neither of cup of ale, of which he died, 
 
 those malefactors, whose case is be- Rowell, who at the time of the 
 
 fore us, heard in their youth many murder was, as we have observed, 
 
 useful lessons, or received, before only twenty-three years of age, was 
 
 their minds were depraved, much a native of Melton- Mowbray, at 
 
 wholesome advice. We allude par- which place he bore a very bad 
 
 ticularly to Rowell, who seems to character. From lh07 to 1809 he 
 
 have been habitually vicious; but worked, being a cooper, with Mr. 
 
 the unhappy woman who shared his Skinner, of Bingham, who fre- 
 
 ignomiuious fate appears more im- quently told him, when reproving 
 
 becile than wicked, more weak than him for his evil practices, • that he 
 
 criminal ; her conduct was perfectly was fearful, when he left his employ, 
 
 unaccountable; and, though we it would be his lot to suffer the 
 
 must execrate her crime, we can vengeance of the laws;' a predic- 
 
 scarcely refrain from pitying her; tion which was too truly fulfilled, 
 
 for she appears to have fallen a for this vicious and irreclaimable 
 
 victim to the arts of Rowell, work- young man was not to be advised, 
 
 ing on a weak mind, irritated by In 1813 he went to lodge with 
 
 the brutal conduct of an unfeeling Robert Fountain at Lincoln, and 
 
 husband. had not been in the bouse more 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 113 
 
 than twelve weeks when the act lor 
 which he suffered took place, and 
 in which the wife was deeply impli- 
 cated. Of their guilt there cannot 
 be a doubt ; and what makes Rowell 
 doubly culpable is the fact that he 
 was ahout to be married to the 
 daughter of his host, having re- 
 ceived his consent to that effect a 
 day or two before the murder. 
 On the ensuing Friday they were 
 
 both taken to the place of execu- 
 tion near Lincoln, where they were 
 launched into eternity. Rowell per- 
 sisted to the last in denying that he 
 knew to what purpose the laudanum 
 was to be applied ; whilst his part- 
 ner in u'liilt continued to assert that 
 they both had frequent conversa- 
 tions on the subject, and that he 
 knew, when he got it, that it was 
 to poison her husband. 
 
 The distraction of one of Morris's wives on his Conviction. 
 
 HENRY MORRIS, 
 
 TRANSPORTED 
 
 * Frailty, thy name is Woman,' 
 says Shakspeare. The immortal 
 bard is right ; or how could we find 
 them, in spite of precept and ex- 
 ample, still the victims of the dis- 
 solute and designing ; clinging to 
 their destroyers with a devotional 
 tenacity, which, like their beanty, 
 almost makes us pardon their indis- 
 irHion • so accustomed are we to 
 
 ▼OL. IT. 
 
 FOR BIGAMY. 
 
 expect virtue where appearances 
 promise all that is commendable 
 But, if we must lament the infatua- 
 tion of the frailer sex, in what 
 terms can we express our detesta- 
 tion of the villain who calculates 
 on their weakness and simplicity • 
 and, like the veiled prophet of 
 Korassan, exhibits not the hideous- 
 ness of his natural character until 
 105 
 
114 KN APP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the victim is secured f But, alas ! 
 not even then lias infatuated wo- 
 man resolution enough to evince 
 the dignity of insulted virtue ; for 
 we too often find them, as in the 
 present instance, become more at- 
 tached, as their destroyer becomes 
 more worthless. 
 
 Henry Morris, in 1813, was in- 
 dicted at Green Street, Dublin, for 
 marrving Mary Anne Murphy, on 
 the *15th of May, 1811, having 
 previously been married to Maria 
 Fontaine, on the 7th of August, 
 1805, who was alive at the time of 
 his second marriage. 
 
 Both marriages being proved, 
 Dennis Murphy, the afflicted father 
 of the last of the prisoner's wives, 
 (for he had several,) came forward, 
 and detailed a narrative of wrongs, 
 that sensibly affected the Court. 
 He first knew the prisoner on the 
 15th of October twelvemonth, at a 
 billiard-room, in Dame Street. He 
 told him of his being deeply in love 
 with his daughter, who was then 
 only fifteen years of age ; and re- 
 presented himself as a teacher, of 
 great respectability. Morris was 
 then introduced to Mr. Murphy's 
 family, and continued his visits for 
 five or six months; at the expira- 
 tion of which period he persuaded 
 the credulous girl to elope with him. 
 
 Two months after, the villain 
 Morris wrote the unfortunate father 
 a letter; expressed much contrition 
 for what had occurred ; and attri- 
 buted it to the violence of his love, 
 -which would not brook delay.' 
 He begged God's and Murphy's 
 pardon ; and requested a meeting. 
 A meeting accordingly look place; 
 the parties were reconciled ; and 
 Morris and Miss Murphy were 
 legally married. But, before the 
 woiimled feelings of the father had 
 beeu healed, he accidentally ac- 
 quired information which caused 
 them to bieed afresh. He learned, 
 
 too surely, that his hopeful son-in- 
 law had several wives ; and that he 
 had abandoned four young girls 
 whom he had successively married. 
 The poor man, with tears which be- 
 spoke the anguish of his heart, here 
 mentioned that Maria Fontaine had 
 died of a broken heart three weeks 
 before the trial ; and said that his 
 unfortunate daughter still continued 
 so attached to her destroyer, that 
 she spent the whole of her time 
 with him in Newgate, coming home 
 occasionally for support, which was 
 given to her; for the unhappy 
 parents could not bring themselves 
 to desert their poor child, under 
 any circumstance; and, if they were 
 to do so, would consider themselves 
 accountable in the eye of Heaven 
 for the crimes she should fall into; 
 as, in case of being turned from the 
 paternal door, she had no alterna- 
 tive but street prostitution. 
 
 This wretched girl, lovely as 
 unfortunate, was in court during the 
 trial, and remained close to the pri- 
 soner. When the verdict was pro- 
 nounced, she burst into the most 
 outrageous expressions of grief; 
 cried out most violently to save 
 him ; tore her hair, and clung 
 round his neck, declaring that she 
 would not be separated from him. 
 The judges, however, ordered her 
 to be removed, but directed that it 
 should be done as gently as pos- 
 sible ; and she was accordingly 
 carried out of court in a state of 
 utter distraction. Morris was then 
 sentenced to transportation for se- 
 ven years; the judge remarking 
 that he had often ordered a man to 
 be hanged for an offence much less 
 heinous. 
 
 We cannot omit this opportunity 
 of saying a few words respecting the 
 virtue of prudence, which may be 
 called the guardian of all the other 
 domestic virtues. Without expa- 
 tiating on its general impor«an^, 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 1|5 
 
 perhaps, it may be sufficient to re- to guard his child from error dp- 
 mark that the affliction of Murphy's served to suffer for that child's 1m- 
 family, and the ruin of his miser- propriety. This case, however, we 
 able child, proceeded directly from hope will not be unproductive of 
 the total absence of prudence in the public benefit. Parents may learn 
 old man. He introduces a stranger; from it to guard their children from 
 encourages his addresses to his the arts of strangers ; and young 
 daughter, only fifteen years of age; women may be taught that to trust 
 and then permits them to go out their ears to the tongue of men, 
 alone; for under pretence of going whose character they know not, is 
 to prayers they had eloped ! Surely to invite the seducer to spread his 
 he who took such little precaution snares for their ruin. 
 
 ROBERT KENNETT, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 A long course of iniquity brought nuity, with the additional consi- 
 this malefactor to the gallows. The deration of a place to be obtained 
 first mention we hear of him was in for him under government, through 
 the debates in the House of Com- the interest of the royal duke, 
 mons on the conduct of the Duke The address with which Kennett 
 of York ; where it appeared Kennett, imposed on his royal highness may 
 though not worth a shilling, pro- be inferred from the several let- 
 posed lending his royal highness ters* which were made public, and 
 seventy thousand pounds upon an- strongly evinced the zeal and per- 
 
 * ' Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor presents bis compliments to Mr. Kennett, and is 
 directed by tbe Duke of York to transmit to him a copy of a letter from Mr. Pitt's 
 private secretary, in reply to tbe application which his Royal Highness made in Mr. 
 Kennett's favour for the Collectorship of tbe Customs of Surinam ; which answer, his 
 Royal Highness regrets, is not conformable to his wishes. Colonel Taylor would have 
 sent it earlier, had he not been absent from London when it was sent to the Horse 
 Guards. 
 
 'August 7th, 1804.' 
 
 ' Downing Street, Friday, 3d August, 1804. 
 
 'My dear Sir, — I have not failed to state to Mr. Pitt the wishes of his Royal 
 Highnes3 tbe Duke of York, communicated through you, that he would nominate 
 Mr. Kennett to the office of Collector of his Majesty's Customs at Surinam ; and I am 
 directed to request that you will submit to his Royal Highness, that, desirous as Mr. 
 Pitt must at all times be to attend to his Royal Highness's commands, he is fearfufi 
 that, from prior engagements, he is so circumstanced, as not to have it in his powei 
 to do so on tbe present occasion. 
 
 ' 1 am, &c. (Signed) ' W. D. Adams.' 
 
 Addressed — ' Lieut. -Colonel Taylor.' 
 
 ' Colonel Taylor presents his compliments to Mr. Kennett, and is extremely sorry 
 that he could not wait, as the Duke's carriage was waiting for him. He is directed 
 by his Royal Highness to say, that he will apply for the situation of Assistant Com- 
 missary-General, &c. &c. at Surinam ; but that be will be able to do it with more 
 effect, if Sir H. Mann will write to his Royal Highness, recommending Mr. Kennett- ' 
 
 'Robert Kennett, Esq. &c. &c. &c 
 ' Horse Guards, Aug. 15.' 
 
 'Bromley Hill. Kent, Aug 30th. 
 
 ' Sir, — I am sure Mr. Pitt would have been very happy to have attended to yo'ur 
 request, respecting Mr. Kennett ; but 1 know, upon tbe application of the Duke of 
 York, he was informed that the office of collector had been appointed to. As to the 
 other office, having received a letter, written by the desire of his Royal Highness the 
 Duke, I made the inquiries respecting it, and I do not find that there ia any such 
 
116 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 tinacity with which situations were 
 solicited for him, in return for the 
 supposed accommodation he was to 
 afford the royal duke. 
 
 Before Kennett, however, suc- 
 ceeded in effectually imposing upon 
 his royal highness, his character 
 was discovered, and consequently 
 all correspondence ceased. From 
 that time he subsisted on ways and 
 means; which, as they were prac- 
 tised in private, it is impossible for 
 us to be acquainted with. 
 
 In 1812 he became acquainted 
 with Richardson and Cooke, the 
 two accomplices, who discovered 
 the villainy of Badcock and others, 
 whose case will be next given. 
 With these men he planned and 
 forged a bill of exchange on an un- 
 wary tradesman, for the sum of 
 one hundred and sixty pounds, which 
 they too securely obtained without 
 detection or prosecution, and lodged 
 in the funds. Having obtained this 
 sum, they found access to Messrs. 
 Trowers and Co. stock-brokers, who 
 sold for them the stock they had so 
 recently lodged, and paid them with 
 a draft on Messrs. Glyn and Co. 
 
 Possessing this draft, they forged 
 one like it for two thousand pounds, 
 and Kennett obtained cash for it in 
 
 the following manner : — He took a 
 lodging in Frances Street; and a 
 young man, having advertised for a 
 clerkship, was engaged by Kennett. 
 This lad he sent with the check, 
 which was paid in two large notes; 
 after which he went, as directed, to 
 the Bank, and obtained small notes 
 for them in exchange. He then 
 went to Moorgate Coffee House, 
 where Kennett, who had assumed 
 the name of Blunt, promised to 
 meet him. He was not there, but 
 a note was left appointing another 
 place of meeting, where he did not 
 attend ; but the young man at 
 length met him in Warwick Court, 
 Holborn, where he delivered him 
 the money. At this time he was 
 concealed in a strange dress — hav- 
 ing on a large wig, brown great 
 coat, top boots, &c. 
 
 Richardson and Cooke having 
 informed against all those with 
 whom they were connected, Kennett 
 was amongst the number ; and ac- 
 cordingly he was apprehended, and 
 brought to trial at the Old Bailey ; 
 when he was found Guilty on the 
 evidence of his accomplices, which 
 was fully corroborated by the testi- 
 mony of other witnesses. 
 
 When brought up to receive sen- 
 
 office as Assistant-Commissary and Agent for Prisoners, (or Commissary-General, as 
 it was called in the Duke's letter,) to be appointed from hence : the Commissary- 
 General in the West Indies, Mr. Glassford, recommends such deputies as he finds 
 necessary for conducting the business of his department ; and they are usually ap- 
 pointed by the Treasury in consequence. The office of Agent for prisoners I conceive 
 to be under the direction of the Transport Board. 
 
 'Believe me, Sir, most faithfully yours, ' C. Long.' 
 
 ' Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor encloses, for Mr. Kennett's perusal, a letter from Mr. 
 Chapman, and is very sorry to find from it that the situation of Vendue Master is 
 disposed of. Mr. Chapman has been out of town, which accounts for the delay in re- 
 gard to the receipt of the information now given. Should Mr. Kennett wish to see 
 Colonel Taylor, he will be here to-morrow, between three and five o'clock. 
 'Horse Guards, 22d Nov. 1804.' 
 
 (Private.) 
 
 « Downing Street, 22d Nop. 1804. 
 • Dear Taylor, — Lord Camden desires me to request you will express to the Duke 
 of York his great regret that the office of Vendue Master of Surinam was disposed of 
 before you communicated his Royal Highness's wish in favour of Mr. Kennett. 
 
 ' Believe me, very sincerely yours, ' Jas. Chapman. 
 
 ' I should have give you an earlier aaswer, but have been out of town.' 
 Addressed — * lieut.-Colonel Taylor,' in an envelops, • To Mr. Kennett, &c.' 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 117 
 
 tence, and asked the usual question 
 what he had to say why sentence of 
 death should not be passed on him, 
 he addressed the Court, saying 
 that he was convicted on the testi- 
 mony of those who, he urged, were 
 not entitled to credit. He then 
 adverted to the deplorable state of 
 his family, consisting of a wife and 
 four children ; and added, that his 
 eldest son died fighting for his king 
 and country ; a circumstance for 
 which he thanked God, as he was 
 thereby saved from the horror of 
 witnessing the ignominious fate of 
 his miserable father. He then re- 
 marked that some of his ancestors 
 had obtained the highest honours 
 which the city of London had to 
 bestow; and that his uncle (Alder- 
 
 man Keunetl) had filled that chair, 
 as chief magistrate, from whence 
 sentence of death was about to be 
 passed on him. He concluded by im- 
 ploring mercy. After which the Re- 
 corder passed sentence in the usual 
 form. 
 
 On Wednesday, June the 16th, 
 1813, this unhappy man was exe- 
 cuted in front of Newgate. He was 
 brought upon the scaffold at eight 
 o'clock, dressed in a plain suit of 
 mourning, and attended by the 
 Ordinary of Newgate, with whom 
 he remained some time in prayer 
 During this short and awful period 
 he appeared to be perfectly resigned 
 to his fate, which he met with be- 
 coming fortitude. 
 
 WILLIAM BADCOCK, R. BRADY, alias OXFORD BOB, AND 
 
 S. HILL, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 These offenders were brought to 
 justice through the information of 
 two accomplices, Richardson and 
 Cooke. They all met at the Horns 
 Tavern, Doctors' Commons, where 
 they agreed to commit forgeries on 
 some banking house in the city. 
 
 It was agreed that Hill was to 
 procure genuine checks, from which 
 Cooke was to execute the forgeries. 
 Badcock was then to procure porters 
 to carry the forged checks, that 
 they might be cashed ; and Rich- 
 ardson was to watch the porters, to 
 see that the checks were paid with- 
 out hesitation, and to return and 
 inform Badcock ' that all was right.' 
 
 On the 4th of September, 1812, 
 Hill received three checks from 
 Parsons, a hay-salesman, in White- 
 chapel, who did not know for what 
 purpose they were wanted. From 
 one of these Cooke forged, in the 
 the name of Burchell and Co. to 
 the amount of seven hundred and 
 sixty pounds on the house of Ro- 
 
 barts, Curtis, and Co. The first 
 check being paid, they forged the 
 two others; and, in two days they 
 robbed the one banking house of 
 three thousand and eight hundred 
 pounds which these worthies di- 
 vided among them at the Moorgate 
 Coffee House. 
 
 The notes were then sold at 
 twenty per cent, discount to one 
 Edmund Birkett, who was subse- 
 quently brought to justice. 
 
 These facts were fully corrobo- 
 rated by other witnesses in addition 
 to the evidence of the accomplices, 
 Richardson and Cooke; and the 
 prisoners were found Guilty — 
 Death, at the Old Bailey, July 
 17th, 1813. 
 
 On Thursday, July 29th, Bad- 
 cock was executed in the front of 
 Newgate; Birkett, already men- 
 tioned, suffered also with him ; as 
 well as one Ennis, for forgery, and 
 William Smith, for taking money 
 out of a letter iu the P »st Office. 
 
118 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 These unhappy men were brought 
 upon the scaffold a few minutes he- 
 tore eight o'clock ; and, after Entiis 
 bad remained in prayer some time 
 with a Catholic clergyman, and the 
 three others with the Ordinary of 
 Newgate, they met their fate with 
 becoming fortitude. Smith and 
 Enhis evinced great penitence. 
 Birkett had contrived to secrete a 
 pistol, with so much address as to 
 evade detection upon the search 
 which took place the night hefore 
 
 the execution ; and about eleven 
 o'clock, although a fellow-prisoner 
 and one of the turnkeys were in the 
 cell with him, he discharged a ball 
 into his left side. He failed, however, 
 in his object of destroying himself, 
 and only inflicted a wound which 
 caused much pain. He ascended 
 the scaffold without assistance, and 
 submitted to his fate with the others. 
 Brady and Hill subsequently un- 
 derwent the sentence of the law in 
 the same place. 
 
 DAVID SPREADBURY. 
 
 executed for forgery. 
 
 This case illustrates the remark a forgery. One of the waiters now 
 
 we have often made, that crime, mounted a swift horse, and pursued 
 
 however ingeniously committed, the villain, of whom he got informa- 
 
 canuot escape detection — nay, the lion at Foston toll-bar, where be 
 
 very solicitude to avoid suspicion is had received good notes for another 
 
 frequently the cause of creating it; forgery for ten pounds. The waiter, 
 
 audit generally so happens; that, hearing this, continued the pursuit, 
 while the depredator thinks he is The post-hoy suspected that all 
 
 flying from danger, he is only plung- was not right, in consequence of 
 
 ing into the coils of justice. Spreadbury saying at each turnpike 
 
 David Spreadbury arrived in the that be bad no change, and pre- 
 dress of a gentleman at Deeping, sent ing a ten-pound note in pay- 
 on the 26th of March, J813, in the merit, and actually passed through 
 Peterborough coach, and ordered a one without paying, though the 
 chaise from the New Inn, spying post-boy knew be had abundance of 
 he was going to Lincoln. Before change in his pocket, 
 be took his departure, however, he The post-boy at length observed 
 got the proprietor of the inn to that they were pursued ; and, sus- 
 change for him a note for ten pecting that it was some one from 
 pounds, which afterwards turned bis master, he slackened his pace, 
 out to he a forgery: it purported Spreadbury observed this, and urged 
 to be of the bank of Johnson and the boy to proceed, but without 
 Eaton, of Stamford. He was next effect; for be refused to use the 
 found on the road from Newark to whip, and kept moving slowly. 
 Grantham, having hired a chaise at Near Grantham Spreadbury ex- 
 the Kingston Arms, where he got pressed his apprehensions that their 
 another ten-pound note exchanged, pursuer was a highwayman; and, 
 He said, at Newark, that his lug- as the post-boy continued obstinate, 
 gage bad gone on by the eoach, he thought it better to trust to his 
 and that he was anxious to overtake heels, and accordingly jumped out 
 it. He accordingly set oft' in the of the chaise. He ran forward to 
 chaise; but, suspicion arising, the Grantham; but the post-boy and 
 note was shown to some person, who waiter did not lose sight of him, 
 was a good judge, and found to be and he was apprehended in a little 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 119 
 
 lane, which he thought to make his 
 way through, but was disappointed, 
 as there was no egress at the ex- 
 tremity. 
 
 On searching him, there were 
 found on his person about forty 
 pounds in good notes, and some 
 silver; and, in the passage where 
 he thought to secrete himself, were 
 discovered seven ten-pound notes, 
 forgeries, and one blank-note, un- 
 signed, rolled up. There was no 
 
 doubt but he had dropped these 
 when he found there was no hope 
 of eluding his pursuers. 
 
 At the summer assizes, at Lin- 
 colnshire, he was capitally indicted 
 for uttering forged notes, knowing 
 them to be such. Of his guilt their 
 could not be a doubt, and lie was 
 accordingly convicted. The judge 
 passed on him the awful sentence of 
 the law, and the unfortunate man suf- 
 fered, on Friday, Aug. the 1 3th, IS 1 3. 
 
 WILLIAM CORNWELL, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MRS. STEVENS. 
 
 This malefactor was a native of 
 Cambridgeshire, and was born, in 
 1789, within about six miles of 
 Cambridge. His employment was 
 that of an hostler, and, having lived 
 two years at the Axe and Gate 
 Inn, Holborn, he removed to the 
 Red Lion Inn, in the same street. 
 While in this last employment, he 
 contracted several small debts in 
 the neighbourhood, to avoid which 
 he ultimately left London, and in 
 April, 1813, he was employed at 
 Woodford by a coach-keeper. He 
 Lad not continued here more than 
 
 ten o'clock ; and her door was heard 
 to slam, at eleven o'clock, as if 
 some persons had come out of the 
 shop, and pulled it violently after 
 them. It had a spring latch, and 
 could be fastened in that manner. 
 On Sunday her next door neiuh- 
 bour tapped at her window, as if to 
 awaken her, about ten o'clock ; but, 
 though he did not see her stirring, 
 he took no further notice till the 
 next morning, when it was obvious 
 from the circumstance of her shop 
 remaining shut, that something se- 
 rious was the matter. A ladder was 
 
 six weeks, when it is supposed he procured, and access to her apart- 
 
 committed the murder for which he 
 suffered. When we shall make the 
 reader acquainted with the unfeeling 
 levity of his conduct, we think there 
 will be little disposition to give 
 
 ment was gained, through a back 
 window. Her bed was seen un- 
 disturbed ; but, on descending into 
 the shop, the poor woman was 
 found murdered, as we have already 
 
 much credit to his dying declara- described, her pockets turned in- 
 
 tion of innocence. side out, and her till emptied of its 
 
 O.i Monday, the 7th of June, contents. 
 1813, a decent poor woman, named The sensation produced by this 
 
 Stevens, who kept a little chandler's dreadful and mysterious murder was 
 
 shop at Woodford, was found mur- intense. Search was every where 
 
 dered, her throat having been cut by 
 the shop-knife, and her head dread- 
 fully bruised by a mallet, wfiich 
 she kept for the purpose of breaking 
 sugar. 
 
 Mrs. Stevens had been seen on 
 the Saturday night, on which it is 
 supposed the murder took place, at 
 
 made, but no clue was found that 
 might lead to a detection of the 
 perpetrator. But murder cannot be 
 concealed, and the incaution of the 
 guilty generally leads to their own 
 apprehension. 
 
 It was ascertained that Mrs. Ste- 
 vens, previous to her murder, had 
 
120 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 been in possession of a new silver 
 watch, made by Ridley, of Wood- 
 ford, and numbered 1,544. This 
 bad been carried off; and, as a 
 likely means of discovering the 
 murder, it had been pretty gene- 
 rally advertised. 
 
 On Sunday Cornwell purchased 
 a hat, and some other articles, in 
 Woodford, with a one-pound note; 
 and on Wednesday came into Lon- 
 don on his master's coach. Going 
 to the Sun public house, in Gate 
 Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, the 
 landlady, Mrs. Davis, upbraided 
 him for leaving the neighbourhood 
 without paying a score he owed 
 her; shortly after which, he dis- 
 charged it, by giving Mr. Davis a 
 watch worth five pounds for an old 
 one of little value, and receiving 
 half a crown. The watch answer- 
 ing the description of Mrs. Ste- 
 vens's, Davis gave information of 
 the circumstance, and Cornwell 
 was apprehended, and underwent 
 an examination of three hours. He 
 gave an account of himself up to 
 nine o'clock on the Saturday even- 
 ing previous to the murder, when 
 he stopped short, and refused to 
 answer any more questions. 
 
 On the day appointed for bis next 
 examination, he swore he would 
 not walk to the office, and he was, 
 therefore, brought up doubly ironed, 
 and strongly hand-cuffed. During 
 the examination, he exhibited a 
 continued laugh, or sneering grin, 
 and behaved in the most hardened 
 manner, and with the most inde- 
 corous levity, though every thing 
 in the proceedings was solemn and 
 awful. He heard the evidence in 
 support of the charge with con- 
 temptuous indifference ; and his un- 
 feeling and brutal conduct served to 
 add additional horror to the crime 
 imputed to him. 
 
 In addition to the facts already 
 detailed, Cornwell's employer de- 
 
 posed that he never knew him to 
 have a one-pound note by him ; for 
 his wages were only fifteen shillings 
 a week, and every week he partly 
 anticipated his pay by borrowing. 
 But this witness confirmed some 
 part of Cornwell's statement on his 
 examination. 
 
 Cornwell himself said he had 
 nothing more to say, and that they 
 might hang him if they pleased. 
 The churchwardens were then bound 
 over to prosecute, and Cornwell was 
 fully committed. 
 
 The trial of this malefactor came 
 on at Chelmsford, August the 6th, 
 when, after a patient investigation 
 of six hours, he was found Guilty. 
 The evidence against him was cir- 
 cumstantial ; but, as detailed by 
 eighteen witnesses, it was so con- 
 clusive, that the jury had not a 
 moment's hesitation in returning 
 their verdict. Lord Ellenborough 
 passed sentence on him in a most 
 feeling manner, which affected every 
 one in court, except the prisoner 
 himself. 
 
 Cornwell exhibited the same un- 
 becoming levity and hardihood dur- 
 ing the progress of the trial which 
 he had shown at his previous ex- 
 aminations and ever since he had 
 been in custody, always persisting 
 in his innocence. Upon the judge 
 pronouncing on him the dreadful 
 sentence of the law, he said, with a 
 convulsive grin, ' Thank you, my 
 lord and gentlemen;' after which 
 he was removed from the bar. 
 
 Cornwell having complained, the 
 preceding day, that he was poor 
 and friendless, one of the magis- 
 trates humanely ordered him a 
 counsel at his own expense. 
 
 The magistrates, in order to pro- 
 duce the greater horror in the 
 public mind, requested of the judge 
 that, in this instance, the ordinary 
 place of execution might be de- 
 parted from, and that the criminal 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR. 121 
 
 might be hung at Woodford instead 
 of Chelmsford. This being com- 
 plied with, Cornwell was removed 
 in the gaol caravan at nine o'clock 
 on Monday to the place of execution. 
 Upwards of three thousand of the 
 inhabitants of Woodford, and its 
 vicinity, were collected on the oc- 
 
 casion. He not only declined 
 making any confession, but refused 
 to join in prayer ; declaring that 
 he had nothing to say, but was in- 
 nocent of the crime for which he 
 was going to suffer ; and, repeating 
 this assertion, he was launched into 
 eternity. 
 
 JOHN BRITAIN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE. 
 
 This is a melancholy case ; and 
 the victim of offended laws excites 
 our pity, though we must approve 
 his punishment. 
 
 John Britain was indicted at the 
 Warwick assizes, August the 18th, 
 1813, for the wilful murder of his 
 own wife. On his trial the princi- 
 pal evidence against him was his 
 own son, who, on the sight of his 
 father, was scarcely able to sustain 
 the shock. His countenance be- 
 trayed his horror at the painful part 
 he was called on to act : nor were 
 his feelings confined to himself: 
 judges, counsel, jury, and spec- 
 tators, were alike affected at the 
 scene. After some time had been 
 allowed the witness to recover him- 
 self, the judge (Sir S. Le Blanc) 
 told him that the task was, indeed, 
 a painful one; but that it was a 
 duty he owed to his God, his coun- 
 try, and the memory of his de- 
 ceased mother, to relate to the 
 Court such circumstances of the 
 murder of his deceased parent as 
 were within the compass of his 
 knowledge, recollecting that his 
 father had broken the chain that 
 binds society together. After re- 
 peated encouragement from the 
 counsel, he proceeded in his testi- 
 mony, with but little interruption, 
 and in the course of it stated the 
 following facts:— 
 
 The witness was sleeping, on the 
 morning of the 5th of April, in the 
 husk room with his father, mother, 
 
 and a younger brother ; about six 
 o'clock, on being suddenly disturbed 
 by a noise which proceeded from 
 that part of the room where his 
 parents slept, he rose and went to 
 the spot, and there found his father 
 standing in a threatening attitude 
 over the bed in which his mother 
 lay. On examining the bed, he 
 found his mother weltering in her 
 blood, which flowed from a wound 
 she had received from a bar of iron 
 which his father held in his hand. 
 The prisoner was again in the act 
 of raising his hand to strike the de- 
 ceased, when witness rushed up to 
 him, and wrested the bar from his 
 grasp, exclaiming at the same time, 
 * O, my dear father, have mercy !' 
 and, in his endeavours to obtain the 
 murderous weapon, received a vio- 
 lent blow on one of his arms. On 
 his father becoming cooler, witness 
 went again to his mother, and saw 
 that she was much bruised about the 
 head and face, her blood flowing 
 very fast : her speech was gone, 
 and she appeared to be in extreme 
 agony. He wiped the blood from 
 her face with some water, and his 
 father in a short time came to the 
 bed and assisted him. Witness left 
 the room to call for the assistance 
 of his neighbours, and then pro- 
 ceeded in search of medical aid. 
 The witness further stated, that he 
 had often been disturbed in his rest, 
 during the last six or seven months 
 previous to the murder., by his fa- 
 
122 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 tiler's singular behaviour ; as, for 
 instance, by getting, out of bed at 
 wight going down stairs, and mis- 
 placing the furniture, and by his 
 use of strange expressions. He was 
 convinced that his father laboured, 
 at times, under mental derangement, 
 but nothing had occurred of that 
 description within a month previous 
 to the murder. 
 
 Some other evidence, in corrobo- 
 ration of the facts above stated, was 
 gone through, when the prisoner 
 was called upon for his defence. 
 He accordingly uttered a long and 
 unconnected address, partaking more 
 of a soliloquy than of any thing else. 
 He seemed to rely on his insanity 
 at the time the fatal deed was com. 
 Initted, and on the act being volun- 
 tary and unpremeditated. 
 
 The learned judge, in summing 
 up, stated to the jury that they had 
 to confine themselves to the ques- 
 
 tion, whether the prisoner was sane 
 at the time of committiug the deed, 
 the fact of the deceased having met 
 her death at his hands being indis- 
 putable. 
 
 The jury in ten minutes returned 
 their verdict — Guilty. 
 
 On the following Friday he was 
 executed in front of Warwick gaol, 
 in the presence of a large concourse 
 of spectators. He declared that he 
 had no animosity against his wife 
 the time he went to bed on the 
 night of the murder; but that, on a 
 sudden and irresistible impulse, and 
 wilhout any provocation, he jumped 
 out of bed, and perpetrated the hor- 
 rid crime with a bar of iron. After 
 condemnation he manifested an ap- 
 pearance of calmness and serenity. 
 He left three children to lament his 
 shocking end, and bewail the fate of 
 their mother. 
 
 JOSEPH RICHARDSON, JAMES SYMONS, AND NATHAN 
 
 SYMONS; 
 
 THE TWO FIRST CONVICTED OF STEALING, THE LAST FOR RECEIVING 
 
 STOLEN GOODS. 
 
 . On the night of the 29th of 
 March, 1813, the house of the 
 Marchioness of Downshire, in Ha- 
 nover Square, was broken into, and 
 robbed of plate, jewels, &c. to the 
 amount of four thousand pounds. 
 The villains effected their entrance 
 by means of a lamplighter's ladder, 
 which they had released from the 
 place where it had been lodged be- 
 hind the marchioness's stables. 
 
 For several days they escaped the 
 most diligent pursuit of the police, 
 but were at length brought to jus- 
 tice through the information of their 
 accomplice, Richardson, who, it ap- 
 peared, had been the principal exe- 
 cuter of this robbery, though not 
 the planner of it. 
 
 Richardson, although but a young 
 man, is supposed to have committed 
 
 a number of daring robberies, and 
 had broken out of two of thestrongest 
 prisons in the kingdom. Being sus- 
 pected of this robbery, he was ap- 
 prehended by Becket, an officer, 
 who, on searching him, found bank- 
 notes to the amount of five hundred 
 and twenty-three pounds, which he 
 offered to give Becket if he would 
 let him go; he was, however, con- 
 veyed to the House of Correction, 
 where he disclosed the circumstances 
 of the marchioness's robbery, and 
 accompanied the officers to various 
 places in search of the parties con- 
 cerned. 
 
 At No. 4, Seymour Court, they 
 found Old Symons in bed, and took 
 him into custody. He at first de- 
 nied that his name was Symons, but 
 Adkins knew him when he had put 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 123 
 
 on his clothes. Under the bed, in 
 a box, they found a large quantity 
 ot the marchioness's property. Next 
 day more rings and jewellery were 
 given up by Richardson; and Marry 
 Adkins found young Symons locked 
 up in a cupboard in the house of 
 one Levi, a Jew. 
 
 The family of the Symons* were 
 a notorious set of cheats and rob- 
 bers, and on this occasion planned 
 the robbery which the young Sy- 
 mons and Richardson executed. 
 The mother and daughter, having 
 shared in the plunder, were also 
 apprehended, as well as one Frankill, 
 a well-known character. 
 
 The parties were indicted at the 
 
 Old Bailey, June the 5th, 1813, 
 when, after a protracted trial, young 
 Symons and Richardson were found 
 Guilty — Death ; and Old Nathan 
 Symons guilty of receiving the pro- 
 perty, knowing it to be stolen. The 
 others were acquitted for want of 
 evidence, and Richardson, in con- 
 sequence of his timely information, 
 was considered a fit object for a 
 commutation of punishment. He 
 was subsequently pardoned, and be- 
 came an useful spy for the police. 
 
 The trial excited great interest; 
 and the Duke of Sussex, Marchio- 
 ness of Downshire, and several of 
 the nobility, were present the whole 
 time. 
 
 LUKE HEATH, 
 
 EXECUTED FUR MLRDER. 
 
 We have thought it our duty, man, named James Harris, the fa- 
 frequently, to remark upon the evil ther of three daughters, two of whom 
 consequences of excessive drinking, were married, and the youngest, 
 as we find it, too often, the irnme- Sarah, lived in the house with him. 
 diate cause of many of those crimes Unfortunately, Luke Heath form- 
 which bring ruin upon families, and ed an acquaintance with this girl, 
 disgrace and iunominioiis death upon and, dreading that the old man 
 individuals. Yet, fraught as inloxi- would not sanction his addresses, 
 cation is with evil, we still hesitate to he prevailed on her lo permit him 
 pronounce it as productive of crime to visit her without her father's 
 in its consequence as that demora- knowledge. Unhappily, she con- 
 lizing vice — seduction. The case sented, and, from meeting him in 
 we are about to detail saves us from the pent-house, she agreed to admit 
 the uecessily of comment, as it fear- him to her bed-room, after the old 
 fully illustrates the fatal tendency man had retired to rest, 
 of this too common sin; and holds The better to prevent a discovery 
 out an important lesson to the youth of their stolen hours, they oiled the 
 of both sexes, in which they may hinges of the doors which led to 
 learn that forbidden enjoyments, their apartment, lest their creaking 
 and honourable fidelity, are as op- might create suspicion in the father, 
 posite to each other as ligfet and who, thus undisturbed, slept sound- 
 darkness. Iv, nor dreamed of the destroyer of 
 
 Luke Heath was the sou of a re- his child being under one roof with 
 
 spectable farmer, who lived in the him. 
 
 parish of Cow-Honeyboume, Glou- In unhallowed love, the birth of 
 cestershire. In the same parish, the enjoyment is the death of the 
 and within a quarter of a mile of passion ; and the woman who corn- 
 Heath's residence, dwelt a poor plies with the lover's importunities 
 
124 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 soon witnesses a termination of his 
 attentions. Heath and his mistress 
 soon repented of their criminal in- 
 tercourse; for appearances were be- 
 ginning openly to declare that she 
 was about to become a dishonoured 
 mother. Their meetings were no 
 longer attended with impatient rap- 
 ture. Reproach was all on one side, 
 and repentance on the other, while 
 the intervals were spent in fruitless 
 conjectures about what should be 
 done. No doubt she requested of 
 him to blot disgrace from her cha- 
 racter by marriage, and the sequel 
 seems to imply that he must have 
 consented. 
 
 On the night of the 22d of June, 
 1809, James Harris and his daugh- 
 ter retired to rest. Next morning 
 the old man arose; but, as he could 
 not go to the kitchen without pass- 
 ing through his daughter's room, he 
 was somewhat alarmed at finding 
 her door open, and herself not in 
 bed, which, at the hour, was rather 
 an unusual thing. Suspecting that 
 she had gone into the garden, he 
 went to look for her, and on his way 
 found the back door ajar, a pitch- 
 fork thrown across the path, hut no 
 appearance of his daughter. He 
 then proceeded into the village, and, 
 at the house of one of his married 
 daughters, learned, for the first time, 
 that Sarah was with child by Luke 
 Heath. 
 
 This information increased the 
 poor man's apprehension for the 
 safety of his child; and, after going 
 to the house of his third daughter 
 to inquire for her, he returned home, 
 and was told that Sarah was found 
 in the pond into which it had been 
 thrown after it was murdered. There 
 was a scar on the left temple, and 
 a hole in the back part of the head ; 
 the fork was found bloody, which 
 the old man had not observed be- 
 fore, and blood was also scattered 
 
 about the pent-house and the path 
 adjoining. The pond where the 
 body had been found was about 
 sixty yards from the house. 
 
 The village was now alarmed, 
 and suspicion instantly fell upon 
 Heath, who was apprehended on 
 his father's farm, dressed in a dirty 
 smock frock. He denied all know- 
 ledge of the murder, and, when 
 asked where was his other frock, he 
 said he had no other. He attended 
 the coroner's inquest ; but there 
 being no evidence to implicate him, 
 he was acquitted. 
 
 In a few days, however, circum- 
 stances arose to increase the sus- 
 picion against him, in consequence 
 of which a warrant was granted, but 
 he could not be found, neither could 
 any thing be discovered in his fa- 
 ther's house which might throw 
 light on the mysterious affair. But 
 his sudden flight was presumptive 
 evidence of his guilt; and accord- 
 ingly every exertion was used to ap- 
 prehend him. The officers of jus- 
 tice were dispatched throughout the 
 kingdom in pursuit of him; and, 
 after a diligent search of three 
 months, they returned unsuccessful. 
 
 Near four years had elapsed, when 
 Heath was discovered to have been 
 living, during the two preceding 
 years, in the neighbourhood of Kid- 
 derminster, as a farm servant, where 
 he went under the name of Farmer 
 John. Information was given to a 
 magistrate, and he was taken into 
 custody. He denied he knew Sarah 
 Harris, that he ever heard of her 
 mother, or that he ever lived in 
 Gloucestershire ; but, on Cow-Ho- 
 ney bourne being mentioned, he hid 
 his face in his hands, became greatly 
 agitated, and shed tears. When 
 asked where he had spent the two 
 intervening years between his de- 
 parture from Gloucestershire and hit 
 visit to Kidderminster, he said he 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 125 
 
 was on board a man of war ; but an 
 officer of marines, being present, 
 questioned bim, and, from liis an- 
 swers, inferred thai be bad never 
 been on board ship in bis life. 
 
 While Heath remained in Kid- 
 derminster gaol, be confessed to a 
 fellow-prisom-r that Sarah Harris 
 had been pregnant by him, that she 
 was murdered with a pitchfork, and 
 he was the man ; but hoped be would 
 not tell. 
 
 Heath was now removed to Glou- 
 cester, where bis trial came on at 
 the summer assizes, when the evi- 
 dence of bis guilt was conclusive. 
 
 The jury found b'm guilty, and the 
 judge passed on bim the awful sen- 
 tence of the law. 
 
 On Heath's return to prison, after 
 his condemnation, he made a full 
 confession of his guilt, and appeared 
 truly penitent. On Monday, Au- 
 gust 30, 1813, he was executed. 
 The multitude who witnessed his 
 sufferings were immense ; but he 
 did not address them. After a short 
 ejaculation he was turned off; and, 
 having hung the usual time, bis 
 body was given to the surgeons for 
 dissection. 
 
 JOHN HANNAH, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE. 
 
 This case exhibits so much bru- 
 tal insensibility, that we shall give 
 it in the words of the witnesses on 
 whose testimony he was convicted. 
 He was indicted at the general 
 sessions for Yarmouth, September 
 the 3d, 1813, for the wilful murder 
 of his wife. His age was sixty- 
 seven years. 
 
 On the trial, Elizabeth Betts 
 deposed that she rented a room di- 
 rectly over the one in which the 
 prisoner lived; that on the morning 
 of the 15th of April she was alarmed 
 about three o'clock with a dreadful 
 cry of murder; she went down 
 stairs and called out, 'You old 
 rogue, you are murdering your 
 wife;' — she heard Elizabeth Hannah 
 say, ' For God's sake come in, for 
 my husband is murdering me !' but 
 witness, knowing: the violence of 
 the prisoner's temper, was afraid, 
 and said she dare not go in, but 
 went up stairs to dress herself, with 
 a view of procuring assistance; she 
 went out and told a neighbour, of 
 the name of Thomson, that Hannah 
 and his wife were quarrelling, and 
 was going to the watch-house to 
 procure some assistance ; she, how- 
 
 ever, did not succeed, the watch 
 being off duty ; on her return her 
 children were crying and out of 
 bed, which obliged her to remain 
 with them ; she called frequently to 
 the prisoner to come out of his 
 room, or he would be the death of 
 his wife ; she heard the cries of the 
 deceased about a quarter of an hour 
 after her return from the watch- 
 house ; she distinctly heard three 
 heavy groans, after which all was 
 silent, and she went to bed; she 
 got up about six o'clock, and did 
 not leave the door of the prisoner 
 till it was opened by the constable. 
 
 James Storey, a constable, de- 
 posed that he broke open the door 
 of the house, and entered the room 
 with several neighbours, when he 
 saw Elizabeth Hannah lying on 
 the bed, dead, with her arms by her 
 side, as if laid out, and the bed- 
 clothes covered smoothly over her; 
 the bed-clothes were rejourned, and 
 he saw the deceased had apparently 
 a bruise on the front of her neck 
 he saw the prisoner sitting near the 
 bed-side, smoking a pipe, and look- 
 ing at the bed. He said to him, 
 ' Why, John, surely you hare mur- 
 
126 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 dt red your wife :' to which he re- 
 plied, * She was always quarrelling 
 with me.' Witness said there were 
 other means of getting rid of her 
 than killing her. The prisoner 
 made no reply. 
 
 The prisoner made no defence, 
 and the jury brought in their ver- 
 dict, Guilty. The trial lasted five 
 hours, during which the prisoner, 
 who was represented of a most 
 ungovernable temper, remained en- 
 tirely unmoved. He behaved like- 
 wise with the same brutal insensi- 
 bility at the place of execution on 
 Monday, September 6th, 1813. On 
 ascending the gallows he confessed 
 ' That he was the murderer of his 
 wife, by strangling her with his 
 hands, and not with a rope, as had 
 been stated ; he said they had lived 
 a very uncomfortable life for many 
 
 years past, owing to his wife giving 
 her company to other men, which 
 was the cause of his committing the 
 murder.' The instant before being 
 turned off, he particularly requested 
 to see his daughter, when he was 
 informed it was not possible, as 
 she was confined in Bedlam; he 
 also desired the gaoler to look under 
 the step of the cell, and he would 
 there find four shillings and six- 
 pence. He had disposed by will of 
 some little property, the joint sav- 
 ings of himself and his wife. A 
 signal was then given, and the 
 unfeeling man was immediately 
 launched into eternity. The body, 
 after hanging the usual time, was 
 delivered to the surgeons for dis- 
 section. The gaoler, on his return, 
 found the money, as described, in 
 the cell. 
 
 MICHAEL 
 
 EXECUTED FOR CELEBRATING A 
 
 The happiness of the greater 
 portion of mankind may be said to 
 be domestic; and, as this depends 
 entirely upon the female part of the 
 community, any thing which tends 
 to destroy their character, and 
 consequently their peace of mind, 
 should be guarded against as a direct 
 attack upon the happiness of so- 
 ciety in general. Woman, deprived 
 of her maiden innocence in civilized 
 countries, may be said to be an out- 
 cast from society — deserted by her 
 own sex, and insulted by that of her 
 destroyer; abandoned to despair, or 
 plunged into prostitution, where the 
 excess of crime may cause a mo- 
 mentary forgetfulness of her miser- 
 able condition. The man who pre- 
 vails upon her to make the first 
 fatal step toward such a vicious 
 course deserves the universal exe- 
 cration of his species; but the vil- 
 lain who steals her virtue under the 
 sanction of apparent matrimony, 
 
 M'lLVENA, 
 
 MARRIAGE, HE BEING A LAYMAN. 
 
 and, when she fondly imagines she 
 is an honoured wife, finds herself a 
 forlorn object for the finger of Scorn 
 to point at, deserves what befell 
 Michael M' II vena — the gallows. 
 
 This villain was an impostor, who 
 aspired to no greater notoriety than 
 that which he acquired by cheating 
 the credulous and simple inhabitant; 
 of a village. He was a native o< 
 Ireland ; and, in his migrations 
 through the northern part of that 
 kingdom, personated, successively, 
 the characters of a Catholic priest, 
 a Protestant minister, and a lawyer. 
 The last place we find him in was 
 the village of Ballinahinch, where 
 he went under the appellation of The 
 Counsellor. 
 
 While here he became acquainted 
 with a man of the name of Chris- 
 topher Jennings, with whom he con- 
 spired to debauch a young girl, 
 named Mary Hair. 
 
 This unsuspecting creature was 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 127 
 
 only seventeen years of age ; and had 
 been servant, a year and a half, with 
 Mr. Knox, of Drumanockan, near 
 Dromore. Having spent the Christ- 
 mas of 1812 with her father and 
 mother, she was returning to her 
 master's house, when she met Jen- 
 nings on the road, with whom she 
 had been acquainted. He took her 
 into a public house, and made, as 
 he had often done before, proposals 
 of marriage to her. The artless 
 cirl consented ; and both proceeded 
 to Ballinahinch. with the intention 
 of procuring a clergyman. 
 
 Jennings took her into a public 
 house, where M'llvena was sitting, 
 and to whom she was introduced by 
 her intended husband ; who said, 
 ' There is the minister who will 
 marry us.' It must be observed 
 that Mary Hair was a Protestant 
 and Jennings a Catholic; conse- 
 quently it was necessary the cere- 
 mony should be performed by a 
 Protestant clergyman ; for a Ca- 
 tholic is prohibited marrying a Pro- 
 testant subject under any circum- 
 stance; and Jennings might have 
 suspected that Mary, simple as she 
 was, would have declined the union, 
 had M'llvena professed himself any 
 thing but a Protestant clergyman. 
 
 M'llvena, with assumed sanctity, 
 pulled out his book, and went 
 through, what Mary thought, a 
 ceremony ; joining their hands, and 
 interrogating the parties in the 
 usual form. After the ceremony 
 the poor girl asked for a certificate. 
 This at first was refused ; but, as 
 she insisted on it, he took pen and 
 ink, and wrole the following : — 
 
 ' These are to certify that Mary 
 Hair is this day joined in marriage 
 to Christopher Jennings, of Dru- 
 mara. As given under my hand, 
 this 26th December, 1812. 
 
 < W. M'G.' 
 
 This scrawl contented the de- 
 luded girl; and the mock parson 
 
 intimated that he was always paid 
 for such duties. Mary then gave 
 him ten tenpennies, which he threw 
 on the table in an indignant man- 
 ner ; saying, ' Am I to be college- 
 bred, and learned, and not receive 
 my just dues?' To carry on the 
 farce, Jennings said, * And please 
 your reverence, Mr. Gawdy, what- 
 ever is your demand I'll pay.' The 
 parson then took up the tenpennies, 
 and put them in his pocket; after 
 which he went out to procure the 
 new-married couple a lodging. 
 
 In a short time he returned, say- 
 ing he had engaged lodgings for 
 them ; and, after partaking of an- 
 other jug of punch, be conducted 
 them to the house of a poor woman, 
 named M'Kee ; who, hesitating to 
 admit them, M'llvena declared they 
 were man and wife, lawfully mar- 
 ried ; which the old woman still 
 seeming to doubt, he said, ' Blud and 
 ounze, won't you believe my word 
 of honour ?' This succeeded ; and 
 the unfortunate girl admitted the 
 villain, Jennings, to the rights of a 
 husband. 
 
 Next morning Jennings directed 
 her to give notice to her master; 
 and he undertook to break the busi- 
 ness to her father and mother. The 
 poor girl was parting from him with 
 reluctance, when he told her un-i 
 blushingly that she was not his wife, 
 and that she was deceived. 
 
 The unhappy girl was awakened 
 to all the misery of her situation ; 
 and ran, in a state of distraction, to 
 her parents, to whom she related all 
 that had occurred. The necessary 
 proceedings were immediately taken, 
 and the counsellor and Jennings 
 were committed to prison. At the 
 summer assizes for Downpatrick, 
 August the 17th, 1813, they were 
 brought up for trial. M'llvena was 
 first indicted ; and, Mary Hair hav- 
 ing deposed to the foregoing facts, 
 she was cross examined, with a view 
 
V28 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 to affect her testimony, by endea- 
 vouring to make her acknowledge 
 a former connexion with Jennings. 
 This she indignantly denied; and, 
 when asked if she had had any 
 objections to be treated by Jennings, 
 she replied to the counsel, ' I sup- 
 pose you have treated a girl before 
 now yourself.' 
 
 M'ilvena, in his defence, pro- 
 duced Jennings, who swore to pal- 
 pable falsehoods. First, that he had 
 an intimate knowledge of the pro- 
 secutrix long before the time men- 
 tioned in the indictment ; next, that 
 she never represented herself as his 
 wife; and that M'ilvena never pre- 
 tended to join their hands together, 
 or otherwise unite them in mar- 
 
 riage. 
 
 Jennings, having given his evi- 
 dence, was ordered back into the 
 dock from whence he had come, and 
 M'ilvena was found guilty: after 
 which he was called on, in the usual 
 form, why sentence of death should 
 not be passed on him. He ap- 
 peared quite unmoved; and said he 
 was not guilty of the crime imputed 
 
 to him. The judge tnen proceeded 
 to pass sentence on him ; which lie 
 did in a very impressive manner, 
 though frequently interrupted by 
 exclamations of innocence from the 
 prisoner. The offence being made 
 by a particular act of parliament 
 a capital felony, he was sentenced 
 to be hanged. He asked for a long 
 day, which was humanely granted, 
 and his execution was deferred to 
 the 18th of September, on which 
 day it took place, in the midst of a 
 vast concourse of spectators. 
 
 The day after M'llvena's trial, 
 Jennings was placed at the bar, on 
 an indictment for conspiring to de- 
 bauch Mary Hair. He was almost 
 instantly found Guilty; when the 
 judge told him his crime was 
 much enhanced by the attempt he 
 made to screen his accomplice from 
 punishment, in which he committed 
 wilful and corrupt perjury. The 
 sentence of the Court was, that he 
 should stand for an hour on the 
 pillory, be imprisoued for one year, 
 and pay a fine of fifty pounds. 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURD 
 
 It has, no doubt, been observed 
 by our readers, that no small part 
 of our Calendar has been oc- 
 cupied with details of atrocities, in 
 which the natives of the sister 
 island have been concerned. There 
 are causes which tend to demoralize 
 and deprave the lower orders of 
 that unfortunate country, — their 
 local insurrections, and continual 
 migrations. The first, in addition 
 to its evil tendency, subjects them 
 to the vengeance of penal laws; 
 and the latter exposes them to 
 all the temptations to which po- 
 verty is subject, when released 
 from those wholesome restraints 
 
 JAMES LEARY, 
 
 ER OF EDWARD CLIFFORD. 
 
 which keep poor men temperate and 
 honest. 
 
 The nominally high wages in 
 this country, when contrasted with 
 the low price of labour in Ireland, 
 induce many of that kingdom to 
 emigrate to England, where they 
 find, too late, that the poor man 
 may change his master, but not his 
 condition; for he that has to live 
 by labour must labour whilst he 
 lives. By far the greater portion 
 of them, however, like birds of pas- 
 sage, pay us only periodical visits ; 
 and these, whose strange manners 
 and singular dress make them little 
 less remarkable than the cuckoo, 
 
KNAPPk BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 129 
 
 are mostly natives of the barren encounter every where prejudice and 
 mountains ofConnaughl, which ibfij reproach; to fly from which they 
 desert, in summer, for the fertile are compelled to associate with eaca 
 plains of England.* t/tner, and drown their misfortunes 
 But there is another race of Hi- in gin and brandy: vice follows as 
 bernians, very dirlen nt from these a thing of course, and crime tou 
 — natives of the south of Ireland, often ensues. The poor man, thus, 
 who are either obliged to fly from who, in his native village, was sober 
 the violated laws of their country, and industrious, because he had a 
 or desert it in the hopes of bettering character to lose, is gradually ini- 
 their condition. Liverpool, Bristol, tiated into vice, because he has no 
 and London, are the scenes where longer a character to sustain. Such 
 they play their part, and where, it a man has no sufficient inducement 
 must be admitted, they exhibit the to be moral — and soon learns that, 
 degrading vices of human nature in where so many are otherwise, indi- 
 /he utmost perfection. This does vidual wickedness is likely to pass 
 not arise from any innate depravity, undiscovered. Add to this the in- 
 or national propensity to vice: it pro- fluencc of bad example, and it can 
 ceeds directly from circumstances, be no longer surprising that the la- 
 Speaking a different dialect, fre- bouring Irish in London are brutal, 
 quently a different language, and drunken, and vicious, 
 professing a proscribed religion, they These observations have been 
 
 * We take the following description of Irish cottiers from the ' Dublin and London 
 Magazine,' for 1825 :— 
 
 ' The word cottier, in Ireland, is synonymous with labourer in all other countries ; 
 and those who come under the denomination are composed of that class of society 
 who are doomed, by a wise Providence, literally to earn their bread by the " sweat of 
 their brow." We have no right, therefore, to expect in these any thing not found in 
 the major part of the population of all kingdoms — any thing but a perpetual necessity 
 to toil and economize — any thing but what are the associates of a poor man — want, 
 worldly want, and a long train of what many will consider privations. Nine-tenths 
 of mankind are necessarily reduced to this condition ; and, whatever theorists may 
 say, in this condition they must continue while the economy of this world prevails. 
 
 * An Irish cottier is to be looked upon as the poorest man in the kingdom ; one who, 
 if he was not entitled to the appellation he bears, would be called a labourer, depend- 
 ing on his daily toil for support. At present he enjoys a portion of independence, 
 which he would then lose ; and cannot be under the apprehensions of him who has to 
 provide for the day that is passing over him, because he can, if the fault is not his 
 own, always possess an annual supply of provisions which habit has reconciled him. 
 to, that places him beyond the reach of absolute want, pauperism, and hunger. 
 
 ' A cottier in Ireland is a poor man, who possesses from one to ten acres of land, 
 upon which stands his habitation — mean, to be sure ; but in what country do the 
 poor possess splendid dwellings ? For this holding he is generally obliged to work for 
 his landlord — sometimes all, and sometimes half his time, according to the quantity 
 of ground he occupies ; but he frequently pays a certain rent, and employs his 
 time in whatever way he thinks fit. Those who pay in labour are small cottiers, who 
 have not more than two or three acres, which supply them with oats andpoiatoes; 
 their employers, in almost every instance, being bound to give them feeding for a 
 cow, and one or more sheep. 
 
 ' The nominal price of labourers— six or eight pence a day — sounds low ; but it 
 should be recollected that, in Ireland, the farm-servants are all boarded ; and that 
 those who are thus paid are constantly employed — in their own words — wet and dry. 
 The cottier has his work always provided for him • and for this, if he has common in- 
 dustry, his family are put in possession of absolute abundance ; for a single acre of 
 land, properly cultivated, will produce him at least sixty pounds of potatoes for every 
 day in the year, while his cow supplies him with milk , and, as he can keep a pig, a 
 goat, sheep, poultry, &c. ho can have meat, drink, and clothes.' 
 
 ▼OL. IT. 1(X> 
 
130 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 drawn from us in consequence of 
 the case we are about to narrate, 
 and in the hope that it may be read 
 by some of the Irish themselves. 
 From it they may learn to refrain 
 from transmitting false intelligence 
 to their countrymen at home, whom, 
 instead of deluding: to quit Ireland,* 
 they should deter from visiting Lon- 
 don, where they are sure to en- 
 counter misery ; and that too often 
 leads to those crimes, for which 
 many, who, like them, were once 
 innocent, have suffered an ignomi- 
 nious death. 
 
 James Leary, whose case is now 
 before us, was a native of Ireland, 
 and, in addition to the shrewdness 
 and cunning of his countrymen, 
 possessed that persevering and con- 
 cealed wickedness which belongs to 
 criminals of all nations. Of his 
 guilt there does not remain a doubt; 
 yet the deliberate and hardened 
 cunning of the man has thrown such 
 a mystery over the whole case, that 
 no one can pronounce with certainty 
 who actually perpetrated the mur- 
 der. There is, however, a melan- 
 choly consolation in knowing that 
 Leary deservedly suffered ; for, if 
 he did not strike the blow, he con- 
 
 fessed he was a spectator, and might 
 have prevented it. 
 
 Edward Clifford was a native of 
 Cahir, in the county of Tipperary, 
 Ireland. He there became acquaint- 
 ed with a woman, named Burke, 
 whose husband had deserted her. 
 She was the mother of four chil- 
 dren, and, in 1813, was pregnant 
 of another, of whom Clifford was 
 the father. To avoid the disgrace 
 which the publicity of their criminal 
 intercourse would surely bring upon 
 them, they resolved to quit lie- 
 land, and remove to London, where 
 Clifford promised to support Mrs. 
 Burke and her children by his la- 
 bour. 
 
 Clifford had saved, by his earn- 
 ings, sixteen or seventeen pounds, 
 and Mrs. Burke's effects produced 
 thirty pounds. With this sum they 
 set off for the British metropolis, 
 where they arrived early in the 
 July of 1813. Clifford could not 
 speak a word of English; but Mrs. 
 Burke, who now assumed the name 
 of Clifford, could, as she had been 
 in London when a child. When 
 they alighted from the waggon, at 
 Fleet Market, they sat down on the 
 flags, and were addressed by one 
 
 * As late as 1824, neaT two hundred Irish peasants were literally kidnapped by an 
 unprincipled master of a steam packet, which sailed between Cork and Bristol. He 
 sent his agents through the country, to the distance of twenty miles, to inform tlie 
 peasantry that thousands of hands were wanted in London, where men received six 
 and women four shillings a day, and that there was a certainty of constant employ for 
 five years. Tlie credulous people, who were only paid sixpence a day, and board, at 
 home, immediately began to prepare for their journey, and, to provide for the expenses, 
 sold their pig. pot, and every thing else they were possessed of. They paid sixteen 
 shillings for their passage ; yet the unfeeling wretch who commanded the packet, and 
 whose conduct deserves execration more than half the depredators recorded in this 
 work, refused to let them either boil a kettle, or have boiling water, without sixpence 
 for every time they wanted it, so that, on their arrival in London, they had not a far- 
 thing in theit pockets. Finding that they had been cruelly deceived, they wandered 
 through the streets, not knowing what to do. Information being given at Marylebone 
 Street Police-office, they were brought up, when an old woman, named Eleanor Walsh, 
 with much feeling detailed the above particulars. She implored, above all things, 
 that they might be sent home ; for, though their cabins and every thing else were gone, 
 still they would be able to make out something to eat in their own country, which they 
 could not hope to do in this. The magistrate expressed his indignation at the supine- 
 ness of the authorities in Cork in permitting such an exportation, and wrote concern- 
 ing it to the Home department, in consequence of which instructions were given 10 
 provide against a renetition of such a transaction. The poor people were Bent home. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 131 
 
 of their countn women, who turned 
 out to be the wife of Leary. She 
 affected much kindness, and they 
 were happy in meeting with one so 
 cordial in a strange place. They 
 inquired for lodgings, and Mrs. 
 Leary invited them to her own 
 room, in a lane that led into the 
 market, to which they instantly re- 
 moved, and where they passed for 
 man and wife. 
 
 They continued four days with 
 Leary, who was a bricklayer's la- 
 bourer, and were charged two shil- 
 lings and sixpence a night for their 
 bed, which they were told was too 
 much by one Slattery, whom they 
 had known in Ireland, as he had 
 only left it three months before. 
 Slattery recommended them to a 
 room in Church Lane, St. Giles's, 
 to which they removed, and he 
 went to lodge with them. 
 
 Here they continued for three 
 weeks, without any hope of pro- 
 curing employment, and Clifford 
 seemed anxious to return to Ire- 
 land. On Saturday night, July 
 the 24th, Leary, for the first time, 
 paid them a visit, at eleven o'clock, 
 and, being asked what brought him 
 so late, answered he came to let 
 Clifford know he had procured him 
 work. Next morning Clifford went 
 to Leary's lodgings about the work; 
 and his wife, or rather she who as- 
 sumed the title, followed him. They 
 appeared to have been quarrelling, 
 and, Leary saying Clifford was to 
 dine with him, she insisted he 
 should not. During the time they 
 remained in the room Leary con- 
 trived to whisper in Mrs. Clifford's 
 ear that her husband was deter- 
 mined to set off for Ireland, but 
 charged her, for her life, not to 
 mention who told her. She, not- 
 withstanding, accused Clifford with 
 intending to desert her; but he 
 denied it, and inquired who told her, 
 which she refused to answer. 
 
 Clifford and his wife, after this, 
 returned to their own lodgings, 
 where they remained until five 
 o'clock, at which hour, just as 
 they were sitting down to dinner, 
 Leary and his wife, unexpected 
 and uninvited, came in. Mrs. 
 Clifford was much displeased, as 
 Mrs. Leary was very drank, though 
 her husband was quite .sober. Some 
 beer was sent for, and about eight 
 o'clock they stood up to go home. 
 Previous, however, to doing so, 
 Leary had drawn from Mrs. Clifford 
 the particulars of how they kept 
 their money; for she had impru- 
 dently told Mrs. Leary, on her first 
 coming to town, that they had a 
 trifle. On this occasion she acted 
 with similar incaution, and informed 
 Leary that her husband kept his 
 own money about him, and that she 
 had also a small sum, about which 
 he knew nothing. 
 
 On Leary's going down stairs he 
 called Clifford, and took him off 
 with him. The poor unfortunate 
 woman, apprehensive, from what 
 she heard in the morning, that her- 
 self and children would he deserted, 
 went out in search of her husband. 
 She found, at nine o'clock, that he 
 was drunk in Leary's room, and in- 
 sisted on his going home with her. 
 He complied, and in their way was 
 overtaken by Leary, who took them 
 into a public house, and made Clif- 
 ford drink a glass of gin. After 
 coming out of this one, he wheeled 
 them into another, where they had 
 some beer. Here he promised Mrs. 
 Clifford that her husband should be 
 in work on the morrow. 
 
 On their way up Holborn Hill, 
 they walked too quick for Mrs. 
 Clifford, who was far advanced in 
 pregnancy. She requested they 
 would wait for her ; but Leary said 
 they were going to his employer. 
 She remonstrated against it, as it wan 
 too late to call on any gentleman 
 
132 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 particularly as it was Sunday even- 
 ing. ' Never fear, Mrs. Clifford,' said 
 Leary; 'do you take your time, 
 and we shall be home before you. 
 and have half a gallon of beer on 
 the table.' They then left her, it 
 being near ten o'clock. 
 
 The unfortunate woman then 
 made the best of her way home ; 
 and, seeing her husband had not 
 arrived, she sat up smoking the 
 pipe — no uncommon amusement 
 with her countrywomen — until the 
 clock struck twelve. Slattery was 
 in bed, and bore evidence to this 
 fact. Being uneasy about Clifford, 
 she arose about two, and between 
 three and four went to Leary's 
 lodgings. The door was locked on 
 the outside, and Mrs. Leary said 
 her husband was not within ; for he 
 had concealed himself when he 
 heard the knock at the door. She 
 then returned home, with intention 
 to follow Clifford, who, she sup- 
 posed, had set off for Ireland, and 
 requested of her brother, who lived 
 in Parker Street, Drury Lane, to 
 procure her a pass from the parish. 
 Between seven and eight o'clock, 
 however, she heard of the murder 
 of Clifford; and being taken to a 
 public house in Gray's Inn Lane, 
 where the body was, she recognised it. 
 
 The remains of this unfortunate 
 man were found in a pond at the 
 bottom of Gray's Inn Lane, into 
 which he had been thrown, after 
 being murdered : his brains had 
 been knocked out with, as was sup- 
 posed, a hammer, and one of his 
 pockets was turned inside out : in 
 the other were found only three 
 halfpence, although it appeared he 
 had, the preceding evening, thirteen 
 or fourteen pounds about him. 
 
 Suspicion immediately fell upon 
 Leary. Two officers went to his 
 lodgings, at which his wif« j appeared 
 greatly alarmed, and refused to 
 tell where her husband worked. 
 
 They, however, discovered ; and, on 
 going there, they saw him descend- 
 ing a ladder, with a hod on his 
 shoulder. Unwilling to surprise 
 him, they inquired for his master, 
 when he replied, • It is not my 
 master you want; it is me.' They 
 said it was, and apprehended him. 
 On their way to the office, Leary 
 said, ' I have heard of this poor 
 man who has been killed.' On 
 being asked how he heard, he said, 
 'Nevermind how; I have heard.' 
 On his person was found only one 
 shilling and sixpence; nor was any 
 money found in his room, though 
 it was searched. A hammer, which 
 seemed to correspond with the cuts 
 in the hat of the deceased, was 
 found buried in some coals. 
 
 After Leary was put in the strong 
 room, he wished to see a person 
 named Macarthy, a shoemaker, to 
 whom he said, • What do you think 
 of this job of mine?' Macarthy 
 replied, * I think it a very bad case, 
 and that the evidence brought 
 against you will hang you ;' and 
 pressed him to acknowledge his 
 guilt. Leary then hinted that, if 
 he could get a person to prove that 
 he was at home at ten o'clock, it 
 would set all right. Macarthy said, 
 * Suppose you could do that, where 
 were you between the time you left 
 Mrs. Clifford and ten o'clock?' 
 Leary said, • There is where I shall 
 fail.' Macarthy said he thought 
 there was nothing would get him 
 through it. 'Nothing,' said Leary, 
 ' but one thing; and that is, to fix 
 it upon somebody else.' Macarthy 
 replied, ' If that is what you wanted 
 me for, I will leave you to your 
 fate, and you will be hung like a 
 dog, and not one of your coun- 
 try men shall come forward to give 
 one shilling.' On parting, Leary 
 said, • I know I shall he hanged : 
 may I go to hell if I have any more 
 to do with the murder than you.' 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 133 
 
 The coroner's inquest having sat 
 en the hody of the unfortunate 
 Edward Clifford, it was removed, 
 on Monday evening-, to a public 
 house in St. Giles's, there to be 
 waked after the manner of his 
 country. Several hundred persons 
 went to see the remains of the un- 
 fortunate man, and on Thursday 
 Leary was brought from the House 
 of Correction, Coldbath Fields, in 
 a hackney coach, heavily ironed, 
 and well guarded, in order that he 
 might see the body he was charged 
 with so cruelly mangling. On en- 
 tering the room, the lid of the 
 coffin was removed, and his motions 
 were watched. He took the hand 
 of the decased, declared his in- 
 nocence of his blood, and said lie 
 should not know the man. He was 
 certainly much altered. Leary 
 trembled exceedingly ; but, on 
 going down stairs, he resumed his 
 fortitude, and drank a pint of porter 
 in the parlour: after which he was 
 removed to Hatton Garden for fur- 
 ther examination. On Friday even- 
 ing the remains of poor Clifford 
 were buried in St. George's bury- 
 ing-ground, attended by multitudes 
 of his country-people. 
 
 From the time Leary beheld the 
 mangled remains of Clifford he la- 
 boured under great agitation of 
 mind, and was troubled with fright- 
 ful dreams — the midnight testi- 
 monies of a guilty conscience. He 
 appeared horror-struck ; and parted, 
 at night, with reluctance from the 
 turnkey. On Sunday he wished to 
 see the gaoler ; and, after confess- 
 ing that he knew of the murder, 
 signed a long statement, in which 
 he attempted to throw the charge 
 upon the miserable widow — we call 
 her widow, as we have called her 
 wife, to prevent confusion in our 
 narrative. 
 
 In consequence of this pretended 
 
 confession, Mrs. Clifford, or rather 
 Mrs. Burke, was committed to 
 Coldbath Fields' Prison, and her 
 children were sent to St. Pancras 
 Poor-house, although a benevolent 
 lady, near Fitzroy Square, had un- 
 dertaken to provide for them. So 
 great was the interest excited in 
 her behalf, that some gentlemen 
 had subscribed fifty pounds; but, 
 at the request of the magistrates, 
 they held itover, until some light was 
 thrown upon the mysterious affair. 
 
 Leary's statement displayed a 
 mind of great acuteness and cir- 
 cumspection; but, as it was not 
 founded on truth, his allegations 
 were easily confuted. In minor 
 points he strictly adhered to facts; 
 but, in the most material, he evi- 
 dently departed from truth : for it 
 was proved, by more than one wit- 
 ness, that Slattery, whom he ac- 
 cused of throwing the body into tht- 
 pond, stopped at home the whole 
 evening, and that Mrs. Clifford 
 purchased a candle, and lit it it? 
 the street where she lived, at eleven 
 o'clock. 
 
 It is true, the unfortunate wo- 
 man, Mrs. Clifford, or Mrs. Burke, 
 as we shall call her in future, did 
 not exactly communicate her situa- 
 tion to the magistrates at the first 
 and second examination ; but deli- 
 cacy might, and no doubt did, re- 
 strain her from acknowledging that 
 she was not married to the de- 
 ceased, or that her husband, who 
 had culpably deserted her, was still 
 living. But, while we make this 
 extenuation of her conduct, let us 
 not be accounted advocates for its 
 impropriety ; on the contrary, we 
 condemn her, not only for conceal- 
 ing these facts on so solemn an oc- 
 casion, but also for alleging that 
 she had no money, when she had 
 placed six pounds in the hands of a 
 'handler to keep for ber, and which 
 
134 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 six pounds she had without Clifford's 
 knowledge. 
 
 On the other hand, it must be 
 admitted that Leary's statement 
 evinced much cunning and wicked- 
 ness; he took care to hint that 
 Mrs. Burke had meditated the 
 crime, as he "said he felt a stick 
 under her clothes, insinuating the 
 hammer with which the deed was 
 perpetrated ; and, that the act 
 might appear to have had a motive, 
 he alleged that Slattery aided her, 
 from which it might be implied that 
 herself and Slattery made away 
 with Clifford, that they might co- 
 habit together. This was a deep- 
 laid scheme to implicate them both ; 
 and, to qualify himself for a king's 
 evidence, he stated that he was 
 looking on while the bloody deed 
 was doing. Luckily lor the ends of 
 justice, this statement was satisfac- 
 torily contradicted in evidence, by 
 which it appeared he pursued his 
 diabolical ends with the most cruel 
 patience, inebriating his victim, 
 and then, under pretence of taking 
 him to his employer, way-laying 
 him. Still it must be admitted 
 that he could have no enmity to 
 the man, and that, if plunder was 
 his object, be could have robbed 
 him, as he was drunk, without 
 murdering him to prevent detection. 
 These are considerations which su- 
 peradd to his osvn declaration of 
 not having actually perpetrated the 
 deed, and which must lor ever in- 
 volve the case in mystery. 
 
 Mrs. Burke was delivered in pri- 
 son of her fifth child, and, at the 
 next examination, which, for her 
 convenience, took place at the 
 House of Correction, Coldbath 
 Fields, her other four children, 
 three girls and a boy, were also 
 present, and the two eldest gave 
 their testimony in a very correct 
 and respectful manner, which in- 
 
 terested all present, among whom 
 were some of the royal family, and 
 numbers of the nobility; so great an 
 interest did the case excite. 
 
 After this examination Leary was 
 committed to Newgate; and on 
 Friday, September the 17th, he 
 was arraigned at the Old Bailey. 
 Mrs. Burke appeared as principal 
 evidence against him, and her testi- 
 mony was corroborated by that of 
 several others. 
 
 Leary, in his defence, complain- 
 ed of mistalements in the news- 
 papers, and charged several of the 
 witnesses for the prosecution with 
 perjury. He said he was the son of 
 a schoolmaster — to show he was not 
 ignorant; and that, unlike others 
 in his station of life, he was not ad- 
 dicted to petty theft. 
 
 He received an excellent charac 
 ter from several persons; but the 
 jury found him Guilty, and he was 
 sentenced to be hanged the ensuing 
 Monday. He now became visibly 
 affected, burst into tears, and 
 seemed lost in affliction. He shook 
 his hand with bitterness at Mac- 
 arthy ; but, before his removal 
 from the duck, he extended it to 
 him with apparent forgiveness; but 
 Macarthy refused to take, what he 
 called, his blood-stained hand. 
 
 On Monday morning the platform 
 was erected as early as five o'clock, 
 with the railing round it. At six 
 the circle was formed by the con- 
 stables, and the crowd began to 
 assemble from all quarters of the 
 town. The day was remarkably 
 fine, and every window, and all 
 the tops of the houses that had any 
 view of the gallows, were covered 
 with spectators. The Rev. Mr. 
 Devereux arrived about six o'clock, 
 and was admitted to the unfortunate 
 prisoner, whom he found walking 
 about his ceil with hurried steps, 
 clenched hands, and his eyes turned 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 135 
 
 up to Heaven. Mi. D. vereux heard 
 his confession, and administered the 
 sacrament to him; and remained 
 after with him in secret prayer un- 
 til half past seven. Colonel O'Kelly, 
 Mr. Newman, and the under-sh< riff, 
 arrived about seven, and waited in 
 the yard for half an hour, when the 
 prisoner was brought forward. He 
 seemed to look forward to his fate 
 with firmness and resignation. He 
 kept his colour as usual, but the 
 tears stood full in his eyes. He 
 was pinioned, and both his wrists 
 tied close. The other unfortunate 
 man, John Denton, who suffered at 
 the same time, for the murder of 
 Catharine Denton, was with him. 
 They were both led to a large iron 
 block, and had their irons knocked 
 off. Denton was very penitent, and 
 acknowledged the justice of his 
 sentence. Whilst this man was in 
 earnest prayer with the Ordinary, 
 Colonel O'Kelly again addressed 
 the unfortunate Leary in the follow- 
 ing manner :— 
 
 Col. O'Kelly. — Now the fatal 
 hour is arrived, I understand you 
 have received the sacrament ; and 
 as you have but this one moment 
 allowed you to satisfy justice and 
 the public, by making a candid de- 
 claration, and acquitting the inno- 
 cent, take advantage of it, by sign- 
 ing this confession, which I have 
 just drawn up on this small bit of 
 paper. Read it over attentively ; 
 you will perceive I have left a 
 blank, and your own conscience 
 will tell you what to do with it. 
 
 The following is an exact copy 
 of the paper which Colonel O'Kelly 
 handed him : — 
 
 I, James Leary, having received 
 the sacrament, and being now on the 
 brink of eternity, do hereby most so- 
 lemnly declare, that I did com- 
 mit the murder of Clifford. 
 
 Newgate, Sept. 20, 1813. 
 
 Leary (after reading it over). — 
 
 Colonel, I see you do not credit 
 me ; but, as I expect for mercy, 
 what I now declare is true; give me 
 your pencil. 
 
 The colonel gave him a pencil, 
 and, although both his wrists were 
 tied, in the presence of all he inter- 
 lined the words, although I teas 
 present, and in the blank space he 
 wrote not, and then signed the 
 paper, which then stood thus: — 
 
 I, James Leary, having received 
 the sacrament, and being now on 
 the brink of eternity, do hereby most 
 solemnly declare, that, although I 
 was present, I did not commit the 
 murder of Clifford. 
 
 (Signed) James Leary. 
 Newgate, Sept. 20, 1813. 
 
 Both the criminals were then led 
 forward to the place of execution ; 
 Leary walked first, and, as he was 
 mounting the ladder, Col. O'Kelly, 
 who still strove to rouse him to a 
 confession, for the last time ad- 
 dressed him thus: — Leary, look 
 round ; what an awful sight pre- 
 sents itself to you ! in ten minutes 
 more you will be before your Judge, 
 and, if you have committed an error 
 in this paper, it is not yet too late 
 to correct it. 
 
 Leary (turning his eyes towards 
 Heaven). — I call on my great God, 
 in whose presence I am shortly to 
 appear, to witness, that every sen- 
 tence of that confession is true. 
 
 Colonel. — One word more, Leary; 
 do you mean to say that it was 
 Mrs. Clifford who committed the 
 murder? 
 
 Leary — I would wish not to be 
 pressed more on that question ; I 
 have made my confession, and I 
 hope also my peace with God. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Devereux 
 beckoned to Colonel O'Kelly to 
 press him no farther. Both crimi- 
 nals ascended the platform about a 
 quarter before eight ; the two cler- 
 gymen attended them in prayer 
 
136 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 about 6even minutes, Denton's cap 
 being pulled over his face all the 
 time. Leary appeared very peni- 
 tent and attentive to Mr. Devereux. 
 At seven minutes before eight his 
 cap Was pulled over his f;ice, and 
 they were both launched into eter- 
 nity. After the bodies were cut 
 down they were put into a cart, and 
 conveyed to the dissecting room, 
 St. Bartholomew's Ho-pital, escort- 
 ed by the city marshals, and a lar^e 
 posse of constables, where they 
 were deliveied up to the surgeons. 
 Leary was observed to be a full 
 quarter of an hour in convulsive 
 aijony, but Deutmi was dead almost 
 as s"on as lie was let drop. 
 
 We have used no common dili- 
 gence in collecting the particulars of 
 this mysterious case, and shall not 
 
 protract it by any comments of oar 
 own. One thing, however, may not 
 be unnecessary to state, as it holds 
 out a forcible lesson to our readers. 
 Drunkenness appears to have been 
 the means by which the murder was 
 perpetrated. Had the unfortunate 
 Clifford continued sober, he had 
 escaped assassination ; and, though 
 his former conduct in cohabiting 
 with a married woman, and then 
 bringing her from her own country, 
 deserves loud condemnation, yet it 
 produced less mischievous conse- 
 quence than that of getting inebri- 
 ated. May others learn, from this 
 case, that the man who, under the 
 mask of tjood fellowship, prevails 
 on his friend to drink till he is in- 
 toxicated, is a concealed enemy, and 
 should be studiously avoided. 
 
 JOHN DENTON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MUltDER OF M KS. DENTON. 
 
 This unfortunate man, whose were very intimate, and he was 
 
 case becomes doubly notorious from very partial to her. 
 
 the circumstance of his having suf- On the 13th of June, 1813, Den- 
 
 fered at the same time with Leary, ton was somewhat outrageous in his 
 
 fell a victim to passion, brought on manner, no doubt from frequent po- 
 
 by intoxication. It is a melancholy tations of gin and beer, as it was 
 
 truth, and one which should be im- fair time ; and he struck a woman 
 
 pressed on the mind of the reader, named Mrs. Whitehead. The wi- 
 
 that the greater number of malefac- dow considered his conduct impro- 
 
 tors who fall victims to the violated per and unmanly ; and desired him 
 
 laws may attribute their misfortunes to leave her house, and never enter 
 
 to drunkenness, and its concomi- it again. He came, however, in the 
 
 tanls, poverty and debauchery. evening, about .seven o'clock, mani- 
 
 The facts of this case are short, festly for the purpose of bavins' re- 
 John Denton had been a sailor ir venge for the supposed insult. Mrs. 
 the early part of his life, but latterly Denton had her daughter and female 
 followed the trade of a rigger, and friend with her when he entered; he 
 was accounted a good workman, kept one hand in his breast, and 
 He was acquainted with a man of held a pot of beer in the other. He 
 his own name, and, after his death, wanted the widow to drink with 
 became very attentive to his widow, him, but she refused, and took some 
 who resided in Bow Lane Buildings, liquor of her own, saying * Get you 
 in the parish of Bromley. Denton gone, John ; \ou are a disgrace to 
 sometimes lived in the house: but your sex.' He asked ' What do 
 it does not appear that any improper you say ? am I disgrace to my sex?' 
 connexion took place, though they She replied in the affirmative, and 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 e started up, drew a knife from his 
 breast, rushed upon her, and ran lier 
 through the arm, the point of the 
 knife penetrating her side. He was 
 immediately taken into custody ; 
 and, when asked what induced him 
 to commit the crime, he answered 
 • It was all for love/ 
 
 The widow survived only a month; 
 for the artery of iier arm being di- 
 
 vided, a mortification ensued, which 
 terminated in death. Denton was 
 brought to trial at the Old Bailey, 
 September the 18lh, 1813; and 
 though several witnesses deposed 
 to various acts of extravagance, 
 with a view to prove him insane, 
 he was found Guilty. The parti- 
 culars of his execution we have al- 
 ready given in the preceding case. 
 
 THOMAS FOSS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 The man who fabricates a single necessary for his purpose, he struck 
 
 b II, or check, may say something off some notes, and save tliem to 
 
 in palliation of his crime; but the two persons, named Norman and 
 
 deliberate forger of a bank-note has Gwyn, to pass. These fellows had 
 
 nothing to advance in extenuation not continued lonir in their ne- 
 
 of bis guilt. He goes systematically farious traffic, when their career was 
 
 to work, procures agents, and de- stopped : they were detected, and 
 
 liberates upon the means of defraud- committed to prison, 
 ing the public in a permanent While in confinement each of 
 
 manner. them, unknown to the other, offered 
 
 Few forgers of a more danger- to become king's evidence, and they 
 
 ous character than Thomas Foss were both admitted. Inconsequence 
 
 have ever committed depredations of their information Foss was taken 
 
 on the public. He had been long into custody, and the whole ap- 
 
 employed in the Bank of England paratus for fabricating forged notes 
 
 as copper-plate printer; but left it was discovered, 
 to commence business on his own Foss was indicted at the Old 
 
 account. He joined another per- Bailey, September 18th, 1813, when, 
 
 son; but kept a private press of his in addition to these facts, the 
 
 own, without the knowledge of his printer to the Bank swore that the 
 
 partner. signature to the notes was in Foss's 
 
 So persevering was his industry, handwriting. He was accordingly 
 
 that he learned the art of engraving, found Guilty, received sentence of 
 
 and invented a method for impress- death, atid was executed in front of 
 
 ing the water-marks upon paper. Newgate, November the 10th, 1813. 
 
 Having thus arranged every thing He died penitent. 
 
 CHARLES CALLAGHAN. 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MISS GOMPERTZ'S BUTLER. 
 
 repent. He died as he lived — 
 without the fear of God in his heart. 
 About the middle of December, 
 1813, the Misses Gompertz, who 
 lived in Vauxhall, were alarmed one 
 
 Hardened depravity attended 
 this unfortunate and guilty young 
 man through his short and vicious 
 life; for, though be was not more 
 than nineteen years of age, he com 
 
 mitted many depredations, and when night by the report of a pistol, and, 
 f'jstice overtook him he refused to on going down stairs, found that 
 
138 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 their butler had been murdered by 
 some villains, who had effected their 
 escape. Several articles of plate 
 were missing, and information of 
 the robbery and murder was given 
 at the different police-offices. 
 
 Soon after, Callaghan, and one 
 Hylas Parish, were apprehended on 
 suspicion, as they were about leav- 
 ing London, under very mysterious 
 circumstances. No evidence, how- 
 ever, could be adduced against 
 them, sufficient to detain them on 
 that charge ; but, fortunately for the 
 ends of justice, there were found on 
 Callaghan duplicates of pledged 
 property, which warranted their 
 committal for a burglary in the 
 house of Mr. Taylor, of Chatham. 
 
 These youthful depredators had 
 not remained long in prison when 
 Parish was induced, in the hope of 
 pardon, to make a full confession. 
 He stated that himself and Cal- 
 laghan became acquainted at Vaux- 
 hall Gardens, and that they sub- 
 sequently lodged together in the 
 London Road. Callaghan and he 
 agreed to commit a robbery, in the 
 hope of recruiting their exhausted 
 finances; and Callaghan proposed 
 the house of the Misses Gompertz 
 as the object of attack, as he had 
 lived there for some time in the ca- 
 pacity of footman. Having thus 
 agreed on their plan, they went one 
 evening, about dusk, to reconnoitre 
 the premises ; after which they went 
 to the Surrey Theatre. 
 
 When the performance was over 
 they returned, and, having gained 
 admission into the garden, they 
 forced open the kitchen window- 
 shutter, but could not open the 
 window itself, in consequence of 
 which they cut out a pane of glass, 
 and, having disburdened themselves 
 of their coats, they forced their way 
 through. When they had got in, 
 they were alarmed by a rustling 
 uoise, which soon ceased, aid they 
 
 supposed it was made by a cat. 
 Parish struck a light, he having 
 some tinder with him ; and, ob- 
 serving the tea-things on the dresser, 
 they took up six silver spoons and 
 a pair of sugar-tongs. Before they 
 proceeded any further they took off 
 their shoes, and then went into the 
 pantry, where they were susprised 
 to find the butler asleep in bed. 
 This caused them to retreat into 
 the kitchen, where they found two 
 silver waiters. Callaghan then re- 
 collected that the butler had a 
 watch, which always hung at the 
 head of his bed, and desired Parish 
 to eo and fetch it. 
 
 Parish accordingly went, and 
 while he was feeling for the watch 
 the unfortunate man awoke, and, 
 thinking it was a cat that was an- 
 noying him, hissed it away ; but 
 immediately after he started up, 
 and ran to the kitchen window ; at 
 which Callaghan exclaimed ' Give 
 it him — give it him, Bill [' Parish 
 accordingly, to intimidate the but- 
 ler, fired his pistol into the ceiling; 
 but Callaghan, coming up to him, 
 placed the muzzle of his close to 
 the unfortunate man's ear,- and blew 
 his brains nut. In their flight Cal- 
 laghan left his shoes behind him ; 
 but they carried off part of the 
 silver, which they pledged next day 
 in town, except a small portion, 
 which they carried to Gravesend, 
 where they sold it. 
 
 In consequence of this confession 
 Parish was admitted king's evi- 
 dence, and Callaghan was indicted 
 at the Surrey assizes, March the 
 31st, 1814, when the testimony of 
 his accomplice was fully corrobo- 
 rated by that of other witnesses. 
 He made no defence, and was in- 
 stantly found Guilty. 
 
 On the ensuing Saturday he was 
 executed, at the top of Horse- 
 monger Lane Prison. At half past 
 nine o'clock he was removed to the 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 13*J 
 
 chapel, from whence, after remain- 
 ing a short time, he was brought 
 out to have his irons knocked off, 
 previous to his having; the sacra- 
 ment administered to him; in the 
 course of which he was frequently 
 exhorted to confess his guilt of the 
 crime for which he was about to 
 
 suffer. But the pious solicitude o( 
 the chaplain was of no avail ; and 
 in that state of obdurate hardihood 
 which attended him throughout he 
 was launched into eternity, after 
 which his body was given to the 
 
 surgeons. 
 
 JOHN DREW MAY, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 The advocates for the abolition been discovered, and the miscalcu- 
 
 of capital punishment might adduce lating culprit has been suspended 
 
 this case as a further illustration of on the gallows, because he had not 
 
 the principle, that hanging one man a few pounds to take up a fictitious 
 
 does not prevent another from fall- endorsement.* 
 
 ing into the same crime; otherwise We do not think that the man 
 
 we should not see, at each sue- on whose case we are now entering 
 
 cessive sessions, men arraigned for comes under the description of those 
 
 forgery whose situations in life war- whose crime admits of palliation, 
 
 rant us in supposing that they were He pocketed the money, and could 
 
 not ignorant of the consequence of not possibly refund it; and there- 
 
 deteclion when they committed the fore we must condemn him as the 
 
 crime. very worst of forgers, for he im- 
 
 How many have suffered for forg- posed upon those who confided in 
 ery, who had not even a remote inten- him, and defrauded those whom he 
 tion of fraud ! A merchant's credit, could not afterwards remunerate, if 
 like a woman's honour, (once sus- his villainy passed undetected, 
 pected, it is lost,) is frequently at the In October, 1813, Mr. John 
 mercy of an hour; and, to prevent the Drew May, a respectable bill-broker, 
 tottering reputation from falling, was brought before the lord-mayor 
 forgery, particularly of bills, is too on a charge of altering and inter- 
 often resorted to as the means of lining a certain bill, which was 
 obviating a temporary embarrass- originally drawn for twenty-eight 
 inent. It is, no doubt, a dangerous pounds, eight shillings, and six- 
 resource; but it is one which some, pence, but which Mr. May paid 
 whose credit is yet high, have ven- away to a Mr. Berry, for one thou- 
 tured to adopt, escaping detection by sand and twenty-eight pounds, eight 
 timely meeting their engagements; shillings, and sixpence, an addition 
 whilst others, incautious and unfor- being made to it, while in his pos- 
 fortunate, have been disappointed session, of one thousand pounds, 
 in their expectation. The bill has The discovery was made by Mr. 
 been dishonoured, the forgery has Berry carrying the bill, for discount, 
 
 * On Tuesday, June the 8th, 1813, Joseph Nash, a grocer, in Newgate Street, 
 was found guilty of forging an endorsement on a bill for four hundred and eighty- 
 nine pounds, and three shillings. It appeared that bills with the same name endorsed 
 on them had been frequently passed and honoured ; but, in consequence of temporary 
 embarrassment, he was unable to meet this one when due ; though his property was 
 fully adequate to discharge all his debts, and, a few days after the bill became due, 
 he offered the money at the Bank, which was refused. Here was abeence of guilty 
 intention, and Mr. Nash was afterwards pardoned. 
 
140 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 to the house of Down, Thornton, 
 and Co. where it was found to have 
 been altered. May, on being ques- 
 tioned on the subject, said he re- 
 ceived it from a person at tiie west 
 end, whose name and residence he 
 was entirely ignorant of. 
 
 May was remanded, to admit of 
 further inquiry; and on the 12th 
 of June he was brought up for final 
 examination, when the prosecutor, 
 Mr. Thornton, wished to decline 
 proceeding, in consequence of two 
 similar charges being about to be 
 preferred against the prisoner by 
 the admiralty ; but the lord-mayor 
 thought it was no longer optional 
 with Mr. Thornton, and, therefore, 
 bound him over to prosecute. 
 
 The next charge preferred against 
 Mr. May was for altering a navy 
 bill. The case was this : — The 
 victualling board had various con- 
 tracts, and these were uniformly 
 paid by bills, at different dates, on 
 the treasurer of the navy, and which 
 hills passed, in the money market, 
 with the facility of bank-notes- In 
 the present instance a bill for seven 
 hundred and thirty-two pounds, 
 thirteen shillings, and eight pence, 
 was paid to a Mr. Ringsford, pay- 
 able in ninety days. This bill, 
 after passing through several hands, 
 came, at length, in its original state, 
 to Mr. May, and he was charged 
 with inserting the figure of one be- 
 fore the seven, making the bill ap- 
 pear to have been drawn for one 
 thousand, seven hundred, and thirty- 
 two pounds, thirteen shillings, and 
 eight pence. Whether he actually 
 did so himself, or not, it is impos- 
 sible to say ; but it was proved that 
 he personally received that sum for 
 it, from Bruce, Warren, and Co. 
 bill-brokers. The bill continued in 
 circulation until due, each succeed- 
 ing hand taking it for the value of 
 one thousand, seven hundred, and 
 thirty-two pounds, thirteen shil- 
 
 lings, and eight "pence, without in- 
 specting the body of the bill ; and, 
 what appears still stranger, it was 
 actually paid at the navy board for 
 that amount. At length the fraud 
 was discovered, and Mr. May was 
 charged with the forgery. 
 
 For this last offence he was in- 
 dicted at the Old Bailey, Decenribei 
 2, 1813, when the bill was traced, in 
 its original state, to his hands, and 
 was proved to have been passed by 
 him in its interpolated condition. 
 His counsel exerted themselves 
 much to throw the blame upon Mr. 
 May's clerk, named Lacey, his bro- 
 ther-in-law, who was thoroughly in 
 his confidence, but who had ab- 
 sconded. It was proved that Lacey 
 carried Mr. May's check-book, which 
 he occasionally filled up, Mr. May's 
 signature being affixed to the blank 
 check. But, on the other hand, it 
 did not appear that Lacey had any 
 benefit in interpolating the bills, 
 supposing he had done so; <ior did 
 May show that Lacey had either 
 defrauded him or others. 
 
 Mr. May, being called on for his 
 defence, addressed the jury with 
 much feeling, observing that not 
 only his life, but, what was infi- 
 nitely dearer to him than life, his 
 character and honest fame, were now 
 in their hands. He was one of 
 eight children, and had received a 
 liberal and virtuous education ; and, 
 till the moment of this accusation, 
 had lived with credit and reputation. 
 He was content that his life should 
 he forfeited, if any man could say 
 that he had been wronged by him. 
 He had been bred to business, had 
 a wife and three children, and, after 
 the labour of the day, was wont to 
 seek domestic enjoyment in the bo- 
 som of his family, where he was sure 
 to find it. Was it probable that a 
 man so circumstanced would resign 
 his claim to these endearments by 
 committing a crime which could 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 141 
 
 lot fail to brines ruin on himself, and 
 disgrace on those who were nearest 
 and dearest to his heart ? There 
 was no proof that he had forced the 
 hill, none that he had uttered it, 
 knowing: it to he forged ; the case 
 rested upon mere suspicion ; and 
 upon that suspicion any man might 
 be placed at that bar. 
 
 He had reposed unlimited confi- 
 dence in his clerk, and had left 
 blank checks with him to fill up. 
 His clerk was now beyond his reach ; 
 nor, if he was present, could he be 
 compelled to answer any question 
 which might criminate himself. 
 Should the jury entertain any 
 doubts, (and he was convinced they 
 must have insurmountable ones,) 
 the judge would tell them that he, 
 the prisoner, was entitled to the 
 benefit of them. He made no com- 
 plaint on the subject of the prose- 
 cution, nor of the manner in which 
 it was conducted; and he was cer- 
 tain the public prosecutor, having 
 discharged what he conceived to 
 have been his duty, would be the 
 first to rejoice at his acquittal. 
 
 Several witnesses were then call- 
 ed, who gave the prisoner an exctl- 
 lent character for integrity and ho- 
 nour in his commercial transactions ; 
 and, the judge having summed up 
 the evidence, the jury retired, and 
 continued in consultation for two 
 hours — a dreadful interval of sus- 
 pense to the unfortunate prisoner, 
 who, on their returning with a ver- 
 dict of Guilty, became so agitated 
 that he was scarcely able to stand. 
 
 When brought up to receive sen- 
 tence, Mr. May briefly addressed 
 the Court. He stated that, though, 
 on his own account, he had no wish 
 to live, stripped of the unblemished 
 reputation he had formerly enjoyed ; 
 yet, for the sake of his parents, and 
 of near and dear connexions, he 
 wished his life to be spared. He 
 acknowledged he had been found 
 
 guilty ifter a long and patient trial ; 
 and hoped that the long confinement 
 he had undergone, and the anxiety 
 of mind with which it had been ac- 
 companied, would be looked upon as 
 some expiation, even upon the sup- 
 position that he had been guilty of 
 the imputed crime. It had not been 
 proved that the bill, in its original 
 state, had ever been in his hands, 
 or that he had either forged it him- 
 self, or had uttered it, knowing it to 
 he forged. The forgery must have 
 been by another, who entirely pos- 
 sessed his confidence, and who had 
 left the country. Did he seek to 
 elude justice ? He had been seized 
 in the bosom of his family, in all 
 that security that was the attendant 
 on innocence. The bill had passed 
 undetected through the hands of 
 others; in the same manner, also, 
 it might have passed through his. 
 From the pressure of extensive bu- 
 siness, he had been unable to exa- 
 mine all the bills that had passed 
 through his hands, and the exami- 
 nation of them had in consequence 
 been frequently intrusted to his 
 clerk, as also the filling up of 
 checks. He hoped it would be 
 stated to the prince regent, that the 
 jury had taken three hours to con- 
 sider their verdict, which showed 
 that no common doubts hung over 
 his case. At all events, he was 
 confident that he was before a tri- 
 bunal ffhere any doubts on the side 
 of justice would leave room for the 
 voice of mercy to be heard, and to 
 prevail.- -The most profound silence 
 obtained while Mr. May was ad- 
 dressing the Court. 
 
 Sentence of death was then passed 
 on the unfortunate man in the usual 
 form. 
 
 From the time of Mr. May's con- 
 demnation his friends spared no ex- 
 ertion in endeavouring to procure 
 an extension of the rosal mercy; 
 aed their hopes were alive until 
 
142 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Friday evening, April the 3d, 1814, 
 when they were given lo understand 
 that the law should take its course. 
 The unfortunate man took leave of 
 his three brothers that afternoon, as 
 his execution was appointed for the 
 next morning. His unhappy wife, 
 being confined by indisposition, was 
 saved the misery of a last inter- 
 view. 
 
 He suffered with four other un- 
 fortunate men for forgery, Slurman 
 
 for setting fire h> his house, and 
 another man, for burglary. May, 
 being asked how how he felt, an- 
 swered ' Happy,' and requested that 
 his friends might be assured of that 
 fact. His last words were, parting 
 at the scaffold, ' This is the worst 
 part of the ceremony; to go forth 
 thus, and to die in a manner which 
 will cast reflections on my pos- 
 terity — it is this only part which 
 gives me pain.' 
 
 JOHN ASHTON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR HIGHWAY ROBBERY. 
 
 The circumstance which attend- in constant prayer, in which he 
 ed the execution of this unfortunate joined most fervently. Sturyess, 
 
 man alone entitles him to a place in 
 our pages, for otherwise his case is 
 void of interest. 
 
 He was apprehended for a high- 
 way robbery, and convicted at the 
 Old Bailey, when he received sen- 
 tence of death. From the time of 
 his conviction, he either affected, 
 
 Field, and Mitchell, conducted them- 
 selves with great propriety. The 
 unfortunate Ashton had been in a 
 state of insanity since the receipt of 
 the awful warrant for his execution. 
 In the Press Yard he distorted his 
 countenance horribly. He was the 
 fifth who mounted the scaffold, and 
 
 or suffered, complete insanity; but ran up the steps with great rapidity ; 
 
 this did not release him from the 
 consequence of his sentence ; and, 
 on Monday, August 22d, 1814, he 
 was executed in front of Newgate, 
 along: with William Henry Lye, 
 for burglary; John Mitchell, for 
 forgery ; Francis Sturgess, and 
 Michael Mahoney, for highway 
 robbery ; and John Field, alias 
 Jonathan Wild, for burglary. By 
 half past six o'clock the Old Bailey, 
 and houses adjacent, were crowded 
 to great excess. At half past seven 
 Mahoney was brought forward, for 
 the purpose of being disencumbered 
 of his irons. While his irons were 
 knocking off, it was found neces- 
 sary to search for a knife to cut 
 some part of the cordage, which 
 confined the irons. Mahoney, see- 
 ing this, stooped, and, with an 
 Herculean effort, tore it asunder. 
 This being the only Catholic, the 
 Rev. Mr. Devereux attended him 
 
 and, having gained the summit of 
 the platform, began to kick and 
 dance, and often exclaimed, ' I'm 
 Lord Wellington!' The Rev. Mr. 
 Cotton, who officiated for the first 
 time as Ordinary, enjoined him to 
 prayer, to which he paid little at- 
 tention, and continued to clap his 
 hands as far as he was permitted 
 by the extent of the cord. Mitchell 
 often invited him to prayer. All 
 that could be done was ineffectual, 
 and it was necessary to have two 
 men to hold him during the awful 
 ceremony. When they released 
 him for the purpose of the Lord's 
 Prayer being said, he turned round, 
 and began to dance, and vociferated, 
 ' Look at me; I am Lord Welling- 
 ton!' At twenty minutes past 
 eight o'clock the signal was given, 
 and the platform fell. Scarcely, 
 however, had the sufferers dropped, 
 before, to the awe and astonishment 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 143 
 
 of every beholder, Ashton rebound- not Lord Wellington now?' He 
 
 ed from the rope, and was instan- then danced, clapped his hands, and 
 
 taneously seen dancing near the huzzaed. At length the execu- 
 
 Ordinary, and crying out very tioner was compelled to get upon 
 
 loudly, and apparently unhurt, the scaffold, and to push him forcibly 
 
 'What do ye think of me? am I from the place on which he stood. 
 
 JAMES M 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MUR 
 
 James Mitchell was a native 
 of Salisbury, where he first lived 
 with a farmer in the capacity ot 
 ploughboy. He afterwards removed 
 to London, and became a gentle- 
 man's servant. While in this situa- 
 tion he got acquainted with Miss 
 Mary Ann Welchman, to whom, for 
 two years, he was in the habit ot 
 paying his addresses. 
 
 Miss Welchman was a ladies' 
 dress-maker, and lived as forewo- 
 man with Miss Macey, who carried 
 on that business in Mount Street. 
 She was an elegant young woman, 
 about four-and-twenty years of age, 
 and of a most amiable disposition. 
 To her, in an evil hour, Mitchell 
 paid his addresses, under the name 
 of Smith, and represented himself 
 as purser on board some ship. The 
 credulous girl helieved him worthy 
 and honourable, and permitted him 
 to visit her, at the house of her em- 
 ployer, where he was, for some 
 time, treated with politeness and 
 friendship. At length his own con- 
 duct betrayed his deceptions ; he 
 obtruded himself at improper hours, 
 and more than once offended the 
 young ladies in the workroom by 
 the coarseness and indelicacy of his 
 conversation. This coming to the 
 knowledge of Miss Welshman's 
 brother, he prevailed, with some 
 difficulty, on his sister, to forego 
 the acquaintance of Smith, alias 
 Mitchell. 
 
 In accordance with her brother's 
 advice, Miss Welchman had se- 
 veral interviews on the subject with 
 
 ITCH ELL, 
 
 DER OF MISS WELCHMAN. 
 
 Mitchell ; but still he continued 
 Coming to the house, notwithstand- 
 ing her prohibition, and persevered 
 in his visits, although she had re- 
 peatedly denied herself. On Fri- 
 day, August the 5th, 1814, he called 
 at Mount Street, and was ushered 
 into the workroom, where Miss 
 Welchman was sitting. 
 
 He continued in the room the 
 whole of the evening, and was very 
 abusive in his language. Miss 
 Welchman desired him several times 
 to leave the house; but he refused, 
 unless a letter was returned to him, 
 which Miss Welchman declared she 
 had destroyed. He then wanted 
 her to provide supper, which she 
 refused ; he next wished her to go 
 out with him, which she also re- 
 fused, and declined lending him 
 some money which he requested of 
 her. 
 
 About eleven o'clock Miss Macey 
 and her work-people went down to 
 supper. Miss Welchman followed, 
 leaving Mitchell above, without 
 any one with him ; but, as if recol- 
 lecting something, she returned, 
 saying she wanted to be alone with 
 him for about five minutes. 
 
 She had scarcely entered the 
 room when a loud scream was heard, 
 and presently the report of a pistol, 
 which was instantly followed by an- 
 other. The house and neighbour- 
 hood became greatly alarmed. The 
 assassin was seen descending from 
 the first-flcor Window, and running, 
 without a hat, down the middle of 
 the street. The people of the 
 
144 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 house, on entering llie room, saw 
 the once lovely Miss Welchman a 
 lifeless corpse, a pair of pistols ly- 
 ing on the floor, which on inspec- 
 tion bore evident marks of being 
 the instruments with which the mur- 
 der had been perpetrated. There 
 was also found in the room the hat 
 of Mitchell; and it appeared that, 
 during: the time of Miss Welchman's 
 absence, he had opened the window- 
 shutters, as they had been pre- 
 viously closed, and could not have 
 been opened in the interval between 
 the firing: of the pistols and the 
 escape of the assassin. 
 
 On examination, it was found that 
 Miss Welchman had been shot in 
 the head ; one bullet had entered 
 her temple, and the other had been 
 resisted by the substance of the fore- 
 head. She lived a few minutes, 
 but was unable to speak. It was 
 evident Mitchell was the assassin; 
 for no other man had been in the 
 house, and several persons proved 
 that no one whatever went out 
 through the hall from the time the 
 report of the pistol had been heard 
 till after the examination of the pre- 
 mises. 
 
 The apprehension of Mitchell was 
 now desired by all. The officers 
 of justice were dispatched in pur- 
 suit of him, but without effect; for, 
 as he had been for a length of time 
 out of place, a clue to his last resi- 
 dence was net easily found. At 
 length word was brought to town 
 that he was in custody at his na- 
 tive place, Salisbury, to which he 
 lad bent his steps, and where he 
 had been recognised by his old 
 master, the farmer, who, having 
 heard of the murder, immediately 
 had him secured. 
 
 On the 13th of August he was 
 brought up to Bow Street, in 
 the custody of Taunton, where he 
 underwent an examination, after 
 which he was fully committed to 
 
 Newgate. Mitchell appeared very 
 little affected at his situation, and 
 preserved a sullen silence. 
 
 Friday, September the 16th, 
 Mitchell was arraigned at the Old 
 Bailey, for the murder of Miss 
 Welchman. The evidence was cir- 
 cumstantial, but conclusive ; and, 
 when called on for his defence, he 
 denied the crime with which he 
 was charged, and said that it was 
 not proved the pistols and hat were 
 his. He called no witnesses, and 
 the jury, having been charged, re- 
 tired for a few minutes, and return- 
 ed with a verdict of Guilty. 
 
 The Recorder, after silence had 
 been proclaimed, then pronounced 
 the dreadful sentence of the law, 
 which was heard by the prisoner 
 without the least apparent emotion. 
 • Odious,' said the Recorder, ' as 
 the crime of murder always was, iu 
 this instance it was attended by 
 every possible circumstance of ag- 
 gravation. He had, in the gratifi- 
 cation of his blood-thirsty venge- 
 ance, taken away the life of an un- 
 offending female, with whom he had 
 proposed to connect himself iu mar- 
 riage. Where Nature had called 
 aloud for kindness, he had exhi- 
 bited cruelty ; where he should 
 have appeared in the character of a 
 protector, he stood her murderer. 
 In relation to an offence of such 
 enormity, human laws concurred 
 with the divine precept, " Whoso 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
 his blood be shed." The sentence 
 of the law was, that he shall be 
 taken hack to prison, and on Mon- 
 day morning taken to some place of 
 execution, there to be handed until 
 dead, and his body delivered to 
 the surgeons for dissection.' 
 
 As this malefactor suffered along 
 with Hoi lings, we shall give his 
 c;ise next ; after which we shall give 
 the particulars of the execution of 
 these two atrocious monsters. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 14' 
 
 being knocked off", ant] the usual menls being complelp, t Ley were 
 awful ceremony of tying the bands ushered to the fatal scaffold. M it- 
 being executed, he lifted his hands cbell was until this time firm and 
 as far as he was permitted, and, unconcerned : he was prayed to hy 
 looking up, bowed, and appeared to Mr. Cotton. He became much 
 be in prayer. Hollings stepped for- agitated, and the horrors of death 
 ward to the block with an activity were strongly portrayed in his 
 which at first reminded us of the countenance. Hollings shook hands 
 
 unhappy man, Ashton. He was, 
 however, very tranquil ; and, upon 
 being disencumbered of his irons, 
 addressed the persons around him 
 in nearly the following words : 
 ' Here, you see, I stand, a victim 
 to passion and barbarity : my crime 
 
 with the officers of justice, declared 
 to Mr. Frere that he was quite 
 happy, and mounted the scaffold 
 with great firmness and resignation. 
 The clergymen continued to pray 
 to them until the fatal signal was 
 given, when the drop fell. M it- 
 
 is great; and I acknowledge the chell continued in the strongest 
 justice of my sentence. But oh ! convulsions for several minutes, 
 the unfortunate girl I loved, I and appeared to die very hard, 
 adored, as one of my own. I have After they had hung some lime, 
 made contrition, and prayed for for- three females were introduced, for 
 giveness; I resign myself, under the application of the ' dead man's 
 an impression that Almighty God hand,' supposed to remove marks, 
 bas beard my prayers, and will wens, &c. The first was a young- 
 forgive me : may you and the world woman of interesting appearance, 
 
 W. H. HOLLINGS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF ELIZABETH PITCHER. 
 
 This man's conduct was at once she appears to have rejected alto- 
 infamous and extravagant. He had gether, as an honest and 
 
 been in the excise, where he be- 
 came acquainted with one Pitcher, 
 also an excise-officer, who on his 
 death-bed recommended his wife 
 and daughter, Elizabeth, to the 
 
 g,... .,».,, aa an imiicM ailU VirtuOUS 
 
 young woman should do. 
 
 For refusing to entertain his abo- 
 minable passion, Hollings meditated 
 the ruin of this unfortunate girl, 
 who was only in her twentieth year. 
 
 care and protection of his friend On July the 4th he went in the 
 
 Hollings. evening to the house of her master, 
 
 The friend of the father was and asked for Betsy ; she came 
 
 caressed by the mother and daugh- out to him, and closed the door 
 
 ter. The latter lived servant with after her; they had continued to- 
 
 Mr. Caitwright, in Lower Gros- gether for a few minutes when the 
 
 venor Street, where Hollings had 
 been in the habit of calling on her. 
 Notwithstanding that he had a wife 
 of his own, who did not live with 
 him, and was fifty years of age, 
 without any personal recommenda- 
 tion whatever, he had the infamous 
 audacity to annoy this poor girl 
 with his fulsome addresses, which 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 report of a pistol was heard, and 
 the butler, tunning out, saw Hol- 
 lings supporting the poor trirl, who 
 had been shot through the heart, 
 a wound of immense" size beins: 
 made in her side, from which flowed 
 a copious discharge of blood. 
 
 Holliiiffs did not attempt to-es>v 
 cape. He held another pistol in 
 107 
 
144 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 house, on entering (lie room, saw 
 the once lovely Miss Welchman a 
 lifeless corpse, a pair of pistols ly- 
 ing 1 on the floor, which on inspec- 
 tion bore evident marks of being 
 the instruments with which the mur- 
 der had been perpetrated. There 
 was also found in the room the hat 
 of Mitchell; and it appeared that, 
 during the time of Miss Welchman's 
 absence, he had opened the window- 
 shutters, as they had been pre- 
 viously closed, and could not have 
 been opened in the interval between 
 the firing of the pistols and the 
 escape of the assassin. 
 
 On examination, it was found that 
 Miss Welchman had been shot in 
 the head ; one bullet had entered 
 her temple, and the other had been 
 resisted by the substance of the fore- 
 head. She lived a few minutes, 
 but was unable to speak. It was 
 evident Mitchell was the assassin; 
 for no other man had been in the 
 house, and several persons proved 
 
 only made him sick. His intention 
 was, having shot the unfortunate 
 girl, to poison himself; but the ex- 
 plosion of the pistol defeated his in- 
 tentions. 
 
 On Friday, September the 16th, 
 he was indicted at the Old Bailey, 
 and tried, after the diabolical mur- 
 derer, Mitchell. The facts of the 
 murder having been proved, several 
 witnesses deposed to various acts of 
 insanity committed by the prisoner, 
 during the last twelve months. He 
 had been discharged from the excise 
 in consequence of his strange con- 
 duct; and certainly there appeared 
 sufficient evidence to lead to an opi- 
 nion that, he was under the dominion 
 of occasional insanity. But his 
 whole conduct, with regard to the 
 murder, was atrociously consistent. 
 Ho had loaded the pistols on pur- 
 pose, provided the poison, and pro- 
 cured the presence of his victim, by 
 pretending that he had a message 
 for her. All these, taken into ac- 
 
 Newga'e. Mitchell appeared very 
 little affected at his situation, and 
 preserved a sullen silence. 
 
 Friday, September the 16th, 
 Mitchell was arraigned at the Old 
 Bailey, for the murder of Miss 
 Welchman. The evidence was cir- 
 cumstantial, but conclusive; and, 
 when called on for his defence, he 
 denied the crime with which he 
 was charged, and said that it was 
 not proved the pistols and hat were 
 his. He called no witnesses, and 
 the jury, having been charged, re- 
 tired for a few minutes, and return- 
 ed with a verdict of Guilty. 
 
 The Recorder, after silence had 
 been proclaimed, then pronounced 
 the dreadful sentence of the law, 
 which was heard by the prisoner 
 without the least apparent emotion. 
 ' Odious/ said the Recorder, ' as 
 the crime of murder always was, in 
 this instance it was attended by 
 every possible circumstance of ag- 
 gravation. He had, in the gratifi- 
 
 *5 
 
 at the top of the houses opposite 
 the debtors' dnor; and carts, wag- 
 gons, and other vehicles, were all 
 in requisition. It appears that Mit- 
 chell had entertained some hopes of 
 acquittal, as he was often heard to 
 say, ' There was no corroborating 
 proof of his having fired the pistol.' 
 At a quarter before eight the pri- 
 soners were introduced to the Press 
 Yard, for the purpose of having 
 their irons knocked off, accom- 
 panied by the Reverend Mr Cotton 
 and the Reverend Mr. Frere, the 
 latter of whom sat up in constant 
 prayer all the night with Hollings, 
 who joined most fervently in the 
 devotion. Mitchell, who was dressed 
 in black, was first brought out from 
 the cell ; he looked pale, and main- 
 tained a deportment of sullen re- 
 signation ; he did not say a word, 
 nor did he betray the slighest symp- 
 toms of feeling at his awful situa- 
 tion. He appeared regardless of 
 any earthly transaction. The irons 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 14" 
 
 being knocked off, and the usual 
 awful ceremony of tying the hands 
 being executed, he lifted his hands 
 as far as he was permitted, and, 
 looking up, bowed, and appeared to 
 be in prayer. Hollings stepped for- 
 ward to the hlock with an activity 
 which at first reminded us of the 
 unhappy man, Ashton. He was, 
 however, very tranquil ; and, upon 
 being disencumbered of bis irons, 
 addressed the persons around him 
 in nearly the following words : 
 ' Here, you see, I stand, a victim 
 to passion and barbarity : my crime 
 is great; and I acknowledge the 
 justice of my sentence. But oh ! 
 the unfortunate girl I loved, I 
 adored, as one of my own. I have 
 made contrition, and prayed for for- 
 giveness; I resign myself, under 
 an impression that Almighty God 
 bas heard my prayers, and will 
 forgive me : may you and the world 
 take warning hy my example ; and 
 here I confess the justice of my fate 
 — receive my soul, O God !' At 
 the last expression his feelings 
 overcame hirn, and be wept. 
 
 The whole of the awful arrange- 
 
 ments being complete, they were 
 ushered to the fatal scaffold. Mit- 
 chell was until this time firm and 
 unconcerned : he was prayed to hy 
 Mr. Cotton. He became much 
 agitated, and the horrors of death 
 were strongly portrayed in his 
 countenance. Hollings shook hands 
 with the officers of justice, declared 
 to Mr. Frere that he was quite 
 happy, and mounted the scaffold 
 with great firmness and resignation. 
 The clergymen continued to pray 
 to them until the fatal signal was 
 given, when the drop fell. Mit- 
 chell continued in the strongest 
 convulsions for several minutes, 
 and appeared to die very hard. 
 
 After they had hung some lime, 
 three females were introduced, for 
 the application of the ' dead man's 
 band,' supposed to remove marks, 
 wens, &c. The first was a young- 
 woman of interesting appearance, 
 who was so much affected hy the 
 ceremony that she was obliged to 
 be supported. 
 
 At nine the bodies were cut down, 
 and sent to St. Bartholomew's Hos- 
 pital for dissection. 
 
 JOHN JAMES, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 This unfortunate man was a some of his hay, and, being auc- 
 
 farmer at West Witton, in the North tioneer at the sale, he knocked 
 
 Riding of Yorkshire, and the crime down to himself, at fifteen shillings, 
 
 for which he suffered was the con- what was well worth five pounds, 
 
 sequence of a litigation between if fairly exhibited, 
 him and his landlord. The unfortunate James, teazed 
 
 In November, 1813, one William by litigation, and naturally irritable, 
 Ridley, a sheriff's officer and auc- vowed vengeance on the present 
 tioneer, went to seize some hay of occasion against Ridley, if he at- 
 James's, under pretence that he tempted to distrain for rent which 
 was in arrears for rent, which it was not due. The bailitf, hardened 
 subsequently appeared was not le- in such scenes, treated the deuun- 
 gally due. James had several rea- ciation with contempt, and pro- 
 sons for disliking Ridley, in addi- ceeded directly to the field where the 
 tion to that arising from his offici- hay-stack was situated. Just as he 
 ousness on the present occasion, opened the gate to give admission 
 He had, not long before, seized to his followers, the revengeful and 
 
148 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 infatuated James rushed from be- 
 hind a hedge, seized Ridley, and, 
 in an instant, plunged a knife seve- 
 ral limes into his hack and neck. 
 The bailiff, without a groan, fell 
 down and expired. 
 
 James was tiow taken into cus- 
 tody, and brought to trial at York, 
 March the 28th, 1814, when he was 
 found Guilty ; for, though it was 
 folly proved that he owed no rent, 
 and that the conduct of the deceased 
 was highly aggravating, still it did 
 not justify the summary vengeance 
 inflicted on him, or extenuate the 
 crime of murder. 
 
 When asked what he had to say 
 why sentence of death should not 
 be passed on him, he briefly replied, 
 * That he submitted to the laws of 
 bis country, though he had no law 
 shown to him.' 
 
 The judge then proceeded to 
 animadvert on the enormity of his 
 crime, and ordered him for execu- 
 tion the next day but one. 
 
 William, the brother of John 
 
 James, was indicted for aiding and 
 assisting; but the charge against 
 him amounted only to some words 
 subsequently spoken, expressive of 
 his satisfaction at the death of Rid- 
 ley ; and these, though they evinced 
 a malignant obduracy of heart, were 
 not sufficient to implicate him in 
 the crime of his brother; conse- 
 quently he was acquitted. 
 
 On the fatal consequences of 
 giving way to sudden bursts of pas- 
 sion we have frequently remarked ; 
 and we hope our readers have not 
 forgotten the examples we have ad- 
 duced : if they have, we can only 
 recommend their reflecting for a few 
 minutes on the fate of this unfortu- 
 nate man — torn from home, and all 
 the endearing associations which 
 made home agreeable, and after- 
 wards suspended an ignominious 
 spectacle on the gallows, because he 
 had not learned to curb the natural 
 viciousness of his temper, and seek 
 justice where it would not ulti- 
 mately be denied him. 
 
 ADMIRAL BRADLEY, 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 High and chivalrous honour has 
 always characterized the British 
 navy ; but, as it is composed of se- 
 veral thousands, we cannot hope to 
 see it entirely free from unworthy 
 members, though we really did not 
 expect to find a rear-admiral con- 
 victed of a petty fraud, in practising 
 which he committed a deliberate 
 forgery to obtain the mighty sum of 
 three pounds, eight shillings, and 
 sixpence. 
 
 All vessels which bring home 
 foreign letters are entitled to two- 
 pence for each, as a remuneration 
 for their trouble, and this they are 
 always paid by the postmaster of 
 the port where they come to anchor. 
 The gallant admiral availed himself 
 of this circumstance to commit the 
 
 fraud for which he was transported. 
 On the 10th of March, 1814, he 
 brought four hundred letters to the 
 post-office at Gosport, and received 
 two-pence for each letter. He sub- 
 sequently repeated his visits, and 
 on the 10th of the following month 
 he brought one hundred and eleven 
 letters, which he said had come in 
 the Mary and Jane, then lying at 
 Cowes. For these he was paid 
 three pounds, eight shillings, and 
 sixpence, for which he gave his re- 
 ceipt, and signed it with the name 
 ' William Johnson/ 
 
 The postmaster's son, suspecting 
 that all was not right, made in- 
 quiries about the Mary and Jane, 
 and found that there was not, nor 
 had been, any such vessel at Cosve«. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 149 
 
 in consequence of this, a constable 
 was sent to where Admiral Bradley 
 Jodged at Soathwich, for at this time 
 he was on the retired list. The 
 admiral was asked if his name was 
 Johnson : he said no, but that be 
 had a friend in Portugal of that 
 name. He denied being at Gosport 
 with the letters : but the post- 
 master, bis son, and daughter, knew 
 him quite well, having seen him 
 frequently. 
 
 The admiral was now fully com- 
 mitted, and brought to trial at the 
 
 summer assizes at Winchester, in 
 1814. The above facts were fully 
 proved, and it appeared in evidence 
 that the admiral's conduct, at times, 
 was very eccentric. He received a 
 very good character from several 
 naval officers; but he was found 
 Guilty, and received sentence of 
 death, to be executed on Saturday, 
 the 6th of August. His friends 
 succeeded in averting such a dis- 
 grace, and had the sentence com- 
 muted to transportation for life. 
 
 WILLIAM QUIN, 
 
 IMPRISONED AND WHIPPED FOR A MALICIOUS ASSAULT. 
 
 This misguided man was a na- On the J 5th of the same month 
 
 five of Dublin, where be worked in they put their threat into practice, 
 
 a coach-maker's yard. In 1814 just as Kelly and two other men were 
 
 there was what is called a turn-out going across the street to their work. 
 
 amongst coach-builders for higher 
 wages, and Quin was one of those 
 who contended for the new regula- 
 tions. On the 1st of September be 
 met a man named Kelly, a black- 
 smith, who had come up from the 
 country in the hope of getting em 
 
 The two men saw their danger, and 
 ran ; but Kelly, apprehending no 
 danger, was proceeding regularly 
 into Mr. Long's yard, when a man 
 came up, and struck him in the eye 
 with a stone. Kelly, being recently 
 from the country, knew how to 
 
 ployment. He asked Kelly what handle his limbs, and tripped up bis 
 he was doing. ' Looking for work,' assailant; another, who attacked 
 he replied. ' What hire did you him, he served in the same way ; 
 ask ?' inquired Quin. Kelly re- when four men, armed with clubs, 
 plied, ' Not any particular wages; ran across the street, and knocked 
 but a gentleman told me there was him down ; and, when down, pom- 
 a turn-out amongst the men, but melled his face against the pave- 
 that, if I chose to work for sixteen ment, until released from his peri- 
 shillings and three- pence, he would Ions situation by Mr. Long's men. 
 employ me.' ' Don't go into any Kelly recognised Quin as being the 
 yard,' said Quin, ' under nineteen first of the four men who beat him, 
 shillings and sixpence or a pound,' and it was Quin who knocked him 
 and then left him. down with the new spoke of a coach- 
 Kellv, driven by distress, did go wheel. 
 
 into Mr. Long's yard, in Mary 
 Street, for sixteen shillings and 
 three-pence a week, where he had 
 only worked a few days when the 
 combinators resolved to slate him, 
 the Dublin flash word for an unmer- 
 ciful beating. 
 
 For this barbarous attack upon 
 an unprotected stranger Quin was 
 apprehended, and indicted Septem- 
 ber the 24th, 1814, for the assault. 
 The jury, without hesitation, found 
 him Guilty ; and the recorder, pre- 
 vious to pronouncing sentence, ob- 
 
150 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 served that, if the prisoner pos- 
 sessed any of the common feelings 
 of humanity, he must perceive the 
 wickedness of the act he had com- 
 mitted, from the situation in which 
 lie had left the unfortunate prose- 
 cutor. The Court were at u loss 
 what punishment to inflict for a mis- 
 demeanor accompanied with such 
 atrocities. There was no crime 
 short of murder or high treason that 
 called for a higher degree of punish- 
 ment than that of which the prisoner 
 had heen convicted : yet he trusted 
 that the sentence which he was 
 about to pronounce would have a 
 more salutary effect than that which 
 was pronounced, not a fortnight ago, 
 for a similar offence. If that sen- 
 tence had had the desired effect, the 
 prisoner would not now be standing 
 at the bar of the Court, an atrocious 
 offender against the peace of the 
 country. There was, however, one 
 consolation, that, under such cir- 
 cumstances of brutality, death did 
 not ensue; for, if homicide had been 
 the consequence, no power on earth 
 would have prevented the prisoner 
 from suffering an ignominious death. 
 When men of the description of tne 
 prisoner enter into tho>e illegal com- 
 binations, they do not see the fatal 
 consequences likely to follow : they 
 are as bitter enemies to themselves 
 as to the man they attack — ilis 
 graceful to themselves, disgraceful 
 to their families, and disgraceful to 
 their country : and all this is done, 
 and those atrocious acts committed, 
 to prevent an innocent and unof- 
 fending man from earning an honest 
 livelihood, — against a man guilty of 
 no other crime — against whom there 
 was no cause ever to harbour resent- 
 ment : but it seemed to be the de- 
 termination of such men as the pri- 
 soner to carry their rules and regu- 
 
 lations into execution with more 
 despotic sway than is practised in 
 the most inflamed counties. 
 
 The prisoner was sentenced to be 
 impiisoued for six months on each 
 of the indictments; and, on the 
 indictment for the assault with an 
 intent to murder, to be publicly 
 whipped twice, to be fined fifty 
 marks, and to give security for 
 good behaviour, himself in one hun- 
 dred pounds, and two sureties in 
 fifty pounds each. 
 
 On the 2d of November Quiu 
 underwent the first whipping; but 
 it appeared the common executioner 
 by no means did his duly, and for 
 this purpose another was provided 
 for his second laceration. The 
 figure of this person was highly 
 grotesque: he appeared to be an 
 able tall man, in a grey coat, with 
 a huge wi^, and a large slouched 
 hat; but his face was the most sin- 
 gular part of his appiarance; it 
 was completely covered with yel- 
 low ochre, strongly tattooed with 
 deep lines of black. He, however, 
 fully answered the. purpose for which 
 he was employed, cutting the un- 
 fortunate and misguided man's back 
 at every stroke, which he bore with 
 a firmness and stoicism worthy of a 
 better cause. Quirt chewed a bullet 
 between his teeth the whole of the 
 way, and did not suffer even a groan 
 to escape him. When arrived at 
 the Royal Exchange he smiled on 
 the crowd with the air of a martyr; 
 and the people set up a shout, mixed 
 with hisses and execrations, against 
 the magistrates and police; hut the 
 executioner was the principal object 
 of their fury, and they manifested 
 every disposition for riot, which was 
 timely suppressed, and several of 
 the ringleaders were taken into 
 custody. 
 
KNAFP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 151 
 
 MAJOR J. G. SEMPLE, alias LISLE, 
 
 SEVERAL TIMES CONVICTED OF SWINDLING AND THEFT. 
 
 This notorious character was pounds, the property of John Lycett, 
 born in Scotland, of a respectable a coachmaker in Whitechapel. The 
 family, in 1759. In 1775 lie en- indictment charged him with hiring 
 tered the army, and went to A me- a post-chaise for a limited period, 
 rica, being then only sixteen years which he never returned; the de- 
 old. The following year he was fendant, however, protested that the 
 taken prisoner, but was soon re- chaise was regularly ordered and 
 leased, and shortly afterwards sent sent home, and therefore the trans- 
 home, in consequence of being action could be only looked upon 
 wounded. as a debt. The judge, however, 
 
 Being afterwards on the Conti- thought otherwise, and the prisoner 
 nent, he entered the army of Fre- was found Guilty, 
 deric the Great, at the time when Semple, in his own Memoirs, 
 that monarch was marching against speaking of this occurrence, says: — 
 the Empress Queen Maria Theresa. ' The case stood thus with me: 
 In 1779, however, he quitted the I had bespoke a travelling post- 
 Prussian army, and returned to Eng- chaise of a coachmaker, Mr. Lycett. 
 land, but immediately repaired to It was ordered to be finished on a 
 the Continent again. At Harwich particular day, and on that day he 
 he became acquainted with an Eng- sent it home. My then situation 
 lish lady of great respectability, rendered such a carriage necessary 
 whom he soon married. Being a for me, and I was at that time able 
 short time after in France, his wife to pay for it; but my fatal turn fo 
 introduced him to the Duchess of extravagance soon put that out of 
 Kingston, who persuaded him to ac- my power. After remaining some 
 company her to Russia, where he time in town, I went again to 
 was soon appointed by Prince Po- the Continent, and, during twelve 
 temkin a captain in the Russian months, passed and repassed very 
 army. His conduct was such as frequently; on which occasions se- 
 gainedhim various honours from Po- veral attempts were made to arrest 
 temkin; but, being dissatisfied with me for the debt: nor was there any 
 the service, he quitted it in 1784, idea of calling it a fraud till a year 
 and retired to Copenhagen, from after the carriage was delivered to 
 whence, after visiting the King of me at my lodgings at Knightsbridge. 
 Prussia, he returned to England. I am far from vindicating the nou- 
 
 We wish the after-occurrences of payment of a just debt, but I so- 
 Major Semple's life were as free from lemnly declare that. I had not the 
 censure as those we have already smallest idea of defrauding the 
 enumerated; but our narrative is.un- coachmaker.' 
 
 fortunately interrupted by a circum- After sentence Semple was of 
 
 stance, which appears to justify va- course committed to the charge of 
 
 rious assertions derogatory to his the keeper of Newgate, by whom he 
 
 character that were afloat previous was lodged in the state apartments, 
 
 to this period. where he remained a considerable 
 
 On the 1st of September, 1785, time, until he was sent to Woolwich, 
 
 the major was indicted at the Old where, by the intercession of his 
 
 Bailey, on a charge of feloniously friends, he received his majesty's 
 
 stealing a post-chaise, value fifty pardon, on condition of going abroad. 
 
152 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 While in Newgate he invented a 
 new saddle and accoutrement for 
 cavalry, a model of winch lie sent to 
 the King of Prussia. 
 
 From Woolwich Semple went to 
 France, where he became acquainted 
 with Beruyer, Pethiou, Roland, and 
 several of the then leaders. He was 
 present at the trial of Louis XVI. 
 and shortly after resolved on relum- 
 ing to England, in consequence of 
 the irruption with this country, which 
 he then saw was inevitable. He 
 therefore obtained a passport, which 
 he had scarcely done when he was 
 denounced to theCommitteeof Public- 
 Safety as a spy, and going to join 
 the enemy. Beiiii;, however, se- 
 cretly apprized of what was going 
 forward, he was able to effect his 
 escape, although with some difficulty, 
 before the arrest was issued. 
 
 On his escape Semple joined the 
 allied army against France, and dis- 
 tinguished himself on various occa- 
 sions, particularly in the battle of 
 St. Fronde, which lasted three days. 
 On the retirement of the King of 
 Prussia from this campaign, Semple 
 lost his best friend, and, being shortly 
 alter wounded, he found himself in- 
 capacitated from service, and almost 
 destitute of the means of existence. 
 After a short retirement, however, 
 he recovered sufficiently to remove to 
 Augsburgh; on bis arrival at which 
 place he was suddenly arrested by 
 order of the Baron d'Ompteda, in 
 the name of his Britannic Majesty ; 
 no reason, however, was assigned 
 for the arrest, and he was liberated 
 in a short time. 
 
 Considering he had been ill used 
 on the Continent, Semple again re- 
 turned to England; and in 1795 
 we again find him at the bar of the 
 Old Bailey, on a charge of stealing 
 in the shop of Mr. Wattleworth, in 
 "Wigmore Street, one yard of muslin, 
 two yards of calico, and one linen 
 shirt. 
 
 It was proved that the prisoner 
 came into the shop of Mr. Wattle- 
 worth, about noon, on the 10th of 
 November, 1794, and, showing two 
 patterns, one of muslin, and the 
 other of calico, said he wanted them 
 matched for Mrs. Coningham, of 
 Egham Green. They could not 
 find an exact match in the shop to 
 the muslin; but he chose one; and 
 a yard being cut off, and two yards 
 of calico, he said he would give them 
 to the lady's servant, then at the 
 door, and, calling in a man, gave 
 them to him. He then said that he 
 had just arrived from the Continent, 
 and should want a quantity of shirts, 
 and wished to take one with him to 
 consult his sister, who, he thought, 
 would he a better judge of the linen 
 than he was; that he would bring 
 it back in the morninsr, and then 
 give his order. This sister he call- 
 ed Coningham; and, as the witness 
 had a customer of that name, he 
 made no hesitation, but gave him 
 the shirt under those conditions. 
 This happened in November; but 
 the prosecutor never saw the pri- 
 soner again until January, when he 
 was in custody in Bow Street. 
 
 The counsel for the prisoner con- 
 tended that they had not made out 
 the charge of the felony, the evi- 
 dence, if true, amounting only to 
 that of obtaining money under false 
 pretences. Mr. Justice Buller, who 
 tried the cause, admitted the coun- 
 sel was perfectly right as to the ca- 
 lico and muslin; but he did not 
 agree with him in respect to the 
 shirt, and therefore should leave it 
 to the jury. 
 
 Semple, being called upon for his 
 defence, begged permission to read 
 a few words which he had put to pa- 
 per, fearlul bis embarrassed situa- 
 tion might otherwise prevent him 
 from saying what he wished. This 
 paper stated that he did not mean 
 to deny he had unfortunately been 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 153 
 
 in that place before; hut some of the 
 public prints had so misrepresented 
 facts, that he had reason to fear the 
 minds of the public might be so far 
 prejudiced against him as to suppose 
 he had spent his whole life in com- 
 mitting depredations : to prove that 
 this was not true, he begged to show 
 how his latter time had passed. 
 
 On going abroad, he found the 
 French engaged in a war, fighting, 
 as he thought, for freedom ; he en- 
 tered their service, and was soon 
 honoured with rank in their army. 
 
 This, however, at much hazard, 
 he quitted, on their declaring war 
 against this country, and went over 
 to the Austrians, with whom he for 
 some time served as a volunteer. 
 
 The commander, noticing his ex- 
 ertions, gave him a commission of 
 no small rank, in which he con- 
 tinued until he was recognised by 
 some British officers, and it was in- 
 stantly circulated through the army 
 that he was the convicted Semple, 
 he having taken upon himself the 
 name of Lisle. 
 
 On this he was obliged to quit 
 that service; but, still willing and 
 desirous to serve, he went towards 
 the Rhine, and obtained a commis- 
 sion under the hereditary prince. 
 
 He had not, however, been long 
 here, when a British officer sent to 
 the commandant that he had been 
 condemned to transportation, with- 
 out stating that the time had ex- 
 pired. 
 
 Being thus suspected of being a 
 runaway felon, he was taken into 
 custody by the police, and confined 
 in a prison for more than five weeks, 
 without even the permission of pen 
 and ink. 
 
 The fact being cleared up, he was 
 set at liberty, but not without losing 
 his situation ; he again, however, 
 went into the field, aud was twice 
 wounded. 
 
 This induced him to return home, 
 and lie sent a letter to Mr. Duiidas, 
 a copy of which he desired might be 
 read ; but the Court thinking it irre- 
 levant, it was not admitted. 
 
 He then concluded, that he had 
 been thus perescuted because he 
 was Major Semple, and which had 
 also brought him to that baron that 
 day, upon a charge of which he was 
 totally innocent. 
 
 The jury, however, found him 
 Guilty of stealing the shirt, but 
 Not Guilty upon the charge of the 
 muslin and calico; and he was ac- 
 cordingly transported. 
 
 Had this action failed, several 
 other indictments were out against 
 him, on various charges of swin- 
 dling; notwithstanding which, such 
 was the mixture of Semple's cha- 
 racter, that various persons of the 
 greatest respectability interested 
 themselves in his behalf, among 
 whom were Burke and Boswell, who 
 both wrote to the under secretary of 
 state, interceding for the royal mercy. 
 
 After remaining in Newgate, on 
 the state side, for two years, in a 
 state of uncertainty as to his future 
 destiny, he was at length removed 
 to Portsmouth, and from thence pro- 
 ceeded to New South Wales. On 
 his passage a mutiny took place on 
 board the vessel, and twenty-nine 
 persons were sent adrift in an open 
 boat, among whom was Semple, who 
 had contrived to conceal a quantity 
 of gold in some soap, by which stra- 
 tagem he succeeded in taking it 
 with him. After a dangerous pas- 
 sage they landed in safety at Fort 
 St. Pedro, in the province of Rio 
 Grande. 
 
 The governor of the fort received 
 them with great hospitality, and 
 Semple was introduced as a Dutch 
 officer and passenger. In conse- 
 quence of a quarrel, however, with an 
 ensign, the latter exposed Semple's 
 
154 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 character, which so irritated him 
 that he would have murdered him 
 with liis sword, if he had not been 
 prevented. After remaining some 
 time in the Brazils, he left it in 
 1798, and arrived at Lisbon, where 
 he was arrested in consequence of his 
 Brazilian quarrels. By an order, 
 however, from the British minister 
 at Lisbon, he was sent on board an 
 English vessel, and conveyed to 
 Gibraltar. While here he was ar- 
 rested on account of the discovery 
 of a conspiracy; nothing, however, 
 appearing against him, he was con- 
 veyed to Tangier, where he remain- 
 ed some time. 
 
 In December, 1798, an order ar- 
 rived from England, ordering him 
 home in custody; and he was ac- 
 cordingly sent on board a ship, and 
 arrived at Portsmouth the following 
 April. He was immediately con- 
 veyed to Tothillfields' Bridewell, 
 where he remained till he was again 
 sent out of the country. 
 
 From this period nothing parti- 
 cular occurred in Vie major's life 
 until his return from Botany Bay in 
 1810, when he resorted to his former 
 evil practices; but as he became 
 more notorious he became less suc- 
 cessful, until at length he was re- 
 duced to the utmost distress, and 
 had recourse to the basest means of 
 supporting a miserable existence. 
 
 In 1814 he went into a cheese- 
 monger's shop in Devonshire Street, 
 Queen Square, and ordered a small 
 quantity of bacon and butter to be 
 sent to No. 42, Cross Street. He 
 met the messenger at the door, and, 
 
 taking the articles from him, sent 
 him back for six pennyworth of 
 eggs. When the boy returned he 
 knocked at the door, and was in- 
 formed that the person he inquired 
 for did not live there, and that they 
 knew nothing about him. This was 
 true, for the major bad only made a 
 feint of going in to deceive the boy, 
 and had made off when the lad was 
 out of sight. 
 
 For this offence he was appre- 
 hended, and brought, to trial at the 
 Middlesex sessions, December the 
 3d, 1814, and found Guilty, when, 
 for the third time, sentence of trans- 
 portation for seven years was passed 
 on him. 
 
 It must be lamented that a man 
 possessing the courage and ability 
 which Semple certainly did would 
 not pursue the path of honour, which 
 he might have done so profitably to 
 himself and so serviceably to others. 
 As an additional proof of his talent, 
 we insert the following lines, which 
 were written by him to a young 
 lady at Richmond, in Yorkshire, to 
 "whom he was to have been married, 
 but fortunately his character was 
 timely discovered : — 
 
 ' For ever, O merciless fair ! 
 
 Will that cruel indifference endure ? 
 Can those eyes look me into despair, 
 
 And that heart be unwilling to cure t 
 
 How oft what I felt to disguise 
 Has my reason imperiously strove, 
 
 Till my soul almost fell from my eyes, 
 In the tears of the tenderest love ! 
 
 Then, Delia, determine my fate, 
 Nor let me to madness be drove ; 
 
 But, oh ! do not tell me you hate, 
 If you even resolve not to love.' 
 
 CHARLES WELLER, 
 
 CONVICTED OF STEALING NOTES AND BILLS. 
 
 This malefactor was paid to pro- purloined notes and bills to the 
 
 tect the property he stole, being amount of two thousand three huu- 
 
 guard of the Swansea mail-coach, died pounds, 
 
 out of a parcel sent by which he In the month of October, 1813 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 155 
 
 the above parcel was forwarded from 
 the bank of Newport, in Monmouth- 
 shire, to Down and Co. bankers, in 
 London; and, for the better dis- 
 guising its value, the property was 
 put into a box, and the box packed 
 in a coarse canvass bag, and di- 
 rected to Mr. Fothergill, a relation 
 of one of the partners in the bank. 
 
 The box and bag arrived as di- 
 rected, but without the property, 
 and every exertion was made to de- 
 tect the robber. In the course of 
 his inquiries, Vickery, the Bow- 
 Street officer, learned that some 
 bank-notes had been concealed at a 
 place called Totterdown Hill, near 
 
 Bristol, by a woman named Hick- 
 man, with whose daughter the pri- 
 soner was particularly intimate, and 
 who absconded soon after ; but being 
 apprehended, as was Weller also, 
 she was admitted evidence against 
 him. The notes were traced in va- 
 rious directions, some even to Paris. 
 On Saturday, January the 14th, 
 1815, Weller was indicted for this 
 robbery ; and, the facts being; proved, 
 he was found Guilty ; but, the of- 
 fence not being capital, he was only 
 sentenced to fourteen years' trans- 
 portation. Many men have been 
 hanged for a crime of much less 
 magnitude. 
 
 SARAH 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR 
 
 The public attention was so much 
 excited by the case of Mrs. Magnis, 
 who stole the little boy in 1811, 
 that an express act of parliament 
 was passed, making child-stealing 
 felony, thereby subjecting the of- 
 fender to transportation — a punish- 
 ment by no means too severe for 
 this species of crime, by which fa- 
 milies are thrown into the greatest 
 confusion and distress. 
 
 The following curious case was 
 the first which occurred after the 
 passing of the act ; and, though we 
 rejoice at the conviction of the 
 woman, we cannot but smile at 
 the simplicity of the ignorant tar, 
 whose credulity seems extraordi- 
 nary, though his paternal affection 
 was amiable. 
 
 At the Old Bailey sessions, Ja- 
 nuary the 18lh, 1815, Sarah Stone 
 was indicted for feloniously stealing, 
 on the 14th of October, 1814, a 
 female child, seven weeks old. The 
 following was the evidence against 
 her : — 
 
 Catharine Kreemer, the prose- 
 cutrix, deposed that she was a poor 
 woman, residing at No. 3, Swan's 
 
 STONE, 
 
 STEALING A CHILD. 
 
 Court, Cowheel Alley, Golden Lane : 
 her husband was a labourer; she had 
 had six children, two of them twins, 
 and was occasionally obliged to so- 
 licit charity in the streets for their 
 support. On the 14th of October 
 the twins were about seven weeks 
 old, on which day she went out with 
 one of her children, five years old, 
 having her twins in her arms; and, 
 whilst she was sitting on the steps 
 in St. Paul's Churchyard, the pri- 
 soner accosted her — gave her a 
 penny, saying she had fine babies 
 in her arms — and observed that, if 
 she would go with her she would 
 introduce her to a fine lady, who 
 would give her half a guinea. She 
 accordingly set oft' with the pri- 
 soner, carrying her twins, and fol- 
 lowed by her other child. In Cheap- 
 side her cloak fell from off her babes, 
 when she requested the prisoner to 
 put it over them, to prevent them 
 from catching cold, wiio offered to 
 carry one of them. She delivered 
 the largest of them into her arms, 
 and they proceeded together to the 
 Commercial Road, where, at the 
 corner of a public house, the pri- 
 
156 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 soner gave her threepence, to get 
 something to drink. The prose- 
 cutrix thanked her for the money, 
 but said she did not want either 
 beer or gin, but wished to see the 
 fine lady. The prisoner said she 
 would go and show the lady her 
 fine twin, and immediately return to 
 her. She followed the prisoner up 
 a court, not choosing to part from 
 her child, when her little girl, who 
 was walking by her side, fell over 
 some bricks. She assisted her to 
 get up, and then turned round to 
 look for the prisoner, who was gone 
 out of sight. The prosecutrix im- 
 mediately screamed out, being un- 
 able to pursue the prisoner, from the 
 incumbrance of her two children. 
 Her cries collected a number of 
 people about her, some of whom 
 were going to take her into custody, 
 on account of the clamour she raised. 
 This was about three o'clock in the 
 afternoon; she ran about in search 
 of the prisoner and her child until 
 half past seven o'clock. She par- 
 ticularly noticed the prisoner's per- 
 son, who had a tooth broken out in 
 her right upper jaw, was of a swarthy 
 complexion, had dark eyes, and was 
 much pitted with the small-pox : she 
 was dressed in a reddish spotted 
 gown, a light shawl, and a black 
 straw bonnet. Poor as she was, the 
 prosecutrix immediately had adver- 
 tisements and hand-bills published, 
 with this description of the prisoner, 
 for which she paid seventeen shil- 
 lings. The same night she gave 
 information at Lambeth Street po- 
 lice office. Six weeks afterwards 
 she was taken on board a ship in 
 the Thames, when the prisoner was 
 pointed out to her, and she imme- 
 diately recognised her, and found 
 her lost child in the prisoner's arms. 
 As she ascended the side of the ship 
 she heard a child cry, and knew it 
 was the voice of her infant. The 
 moment she perceived it she asked 
 
 the prisoner to let her have a kisi 
 of her baby, when a sailor, who wat 
 standing by, said ' No, not if you 
 were the Queen of England,' and 
 took the child out of the prisoner's 
 arms. Her child appeared thinner 
 than it was when she lost it. The 
 prisoner was not suckling the child. 
 She never entertained a doubt of the 
 prisoner being the woman who stole 
 her child. Dalton then took the 
 prisoner into custody, and went 
 ashore with her, the prosecutrix, 
 and child. When she undressed the 
 child she found the piece of blanket 
 it had on when she lost it round its 
 body. The prisoner said it was 
 very silly of the prosecutrix to 
 think the child was hers, it being 
 her own, and seemed very unwilling 
 to part with it. The twins were 
 females, and greatly resembled each 
 other. The sailor said he was the 
 father of the child, and acted as if 
 he thought so. 
 
 Elizabeth Murray, a widow, de- 
 posed that she lived next door to 
 the prosecutrix: had known her for 
 fifteen years : remembered her being 
 delivered of twins: saw her in 
 Golden Lane about six or seven 
 o'clock in the evening of the day 
 on which she lost one of them; saw 
 a child that was found on board of 
 a ship by the prosecutrix, which 
 she believed was the sains that was 
 lost, though it was much wasted. 
 It died last Friday. The mother 
 had plenty of milk, and kept them 
 in ' good case.' 
 
 Ebenezer Dalton, the officer, de- 
 posed that he went with the prose- 
 cutrix on board the Hugh Inglis 
 East Indiaman, where he saw the 
 prisoner, and, from the description 
 he had had of her from the prosecu- 
 trix, immediately knew her : she 
 had a child in her arms, which 
 she fed with pap. He told the pri- 
 soner he had come about the child, 
 which she said was her own, and 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 157 
 
 she would show him the room where 
 she was delivered: that she was 
 taken in labour in the Minories, 
 and named the very day on which 
 the child was lost, when she stated 
 a young woman took her to her 
 apartments, where she was imme- 
 diately delivered, in White Horse 
 €ourt, Rosemary Lane : the young 
 Roman's name, she said, was Mary 
 Brown. When there, she could 
 show the officer where the man- 
 midwife lived who was fetched to 
 attend upon her, as it must be near 
 the place, the young woman who 
 went for him having been absent 
 only a very short time; that she 
 was delivered at three o'clock, and 
 returned to her home in Blylhe's 
 Buildings, Sun Street, Bishopsgate, 
 at five o'clock, in a coach, where 
 she lived with her mother, though 
 in a separate apartment; and Swaine 
 (the sailor who refused to let the 
 prosecutrix kiss the child) was its 
 father. When the prosecutrix first 
 saw the prisoner with the child iu 
 her arms, she flew towards her, and 
 would have struck her if he had 
 not interfered, exclaiming, ' That 
 is my child, and that is the woman 
 who stole her from me.' The pro- 
 secutrix's description of the pri- 
 soner's person was correct, except 
 wilh regard to her age. He brought 
 the prisoner to London, accompanied 
 by the prosecutrix, who refused to 
 be again separated from her child, 
 and it was restored to her by the 
 order of the magistrate. He then 
 inquired ineffectually, at every 
 house in White Hart Court, for a 
 person named Mary Brown ; and, 
 on telling the prisoner of his ill 
 success, she said she must have 
 mistaken the name of the court; 
 but, if she were to go herself, she 
 could find the place. He went with 
 hei by desire of the magistrate, and 
 she led him to Johnson's Chain, 
 Rosemary Lane, and pointed out a 
 
 house, in which she said she was 
 delivered in the front room, up tne 
 pair of stairs. Miller, another of- 
 ficer, who was along with them, 
 went into the house, and returned 
 with Elizabeth Fisher, who inhabit- 
 ed the room described by the pri- 
 soner, who, when she saw her, ap- 
 peared much confused, and said she 
 did not know her, though she was 
 sure of the house; and Elizabeth 
 Fisher professed herself unacquaint- 
 ed with the prisoner. He went to 
 the only man-midwife near, who 
 said he had never delivered a wo- 
 man in the house they mentioned, 
 and the prisoner said he was not the 
 person. Swaine gave up his voy- 
 age, and accompanied the witness 
 and prisoner in a post-chaise to 
 London, to assert his right to the 
 child. There were other women 
 with children in their arms besides 
 the prisoner on the deck of the 
 ship, when the prosecutrix, without 
 hesitation, fixed upon her as the 
 woman who stole her child. 
 
 Isabella Gray deposed that she 
 lived at No. 3, Blythe's Buildings, 
 in Sun Street. The prisoner and 
 Swaine lodged in her house as man 
 and wife. Saw the prisoner go out 
 about one o'clock on the 1 4th 
 October : remembers her dress, 
 which she described to have been 
 the same as that the prosecutrix 
 swore was worn by the woman who 
 stole her child. Prisoner had lodged 
 in her house about three months. 
 The witness went out in the after- 
 noon, and on her return was told 
 by the prisoner's mother that she 
 was delivered. Saw the child, and 
 remarked it was a very large one, 
 appearing like a child of a month 
 old more than like a new-born in- 
 fant. The prisoner heard her say 
 this, but made no reply. Swaine 
 was in the room at the time : wit- 
 ness asked him if that was his child. 
 He said 'So they told him: he had 
 
158 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 just come into the house.' Prisoner 
 had previously appeared like a wo- 
 man who was pregnant: n-ever saw 
 any medical man or other person 
 attending the prisoner on account 
 of her lying-in. 
 
 Grace Brown deposed that she 
 lived opposite to the prisoner in 
 Blythe's Buildings : saw her come 
 into the court about five o'clock in 
 the afternoon of the 14th of October. 
 The prisoner did not appear as if 
 she had been just delivered : she 
 had had children herself, and did 
 not believe that any woman who 
 had been only delivered that after- 
 noon could have walked up the 
 court as prisoner did. Prisoner had 
 been 'big six months:' she had 
 jumped out of a two pair of stairs' 
 window whilst she was said to be 
 pregnant: never spoke to the pri- 
 soner. 
 
 The prisoner, in her defence, 
 told the same story to the Court 
 which she had related to Dalton, 
 and pointed out Elizabeth Fisher 
 
 as the person who took her into her 
 room, where she persisted she was 
 delivered, and that Elizabeth Fisher 
 called herself Mary Brown, to 
 which name she said she answered 
 before the magistrate. 
 
 Elizabeth Fisher was called, and 
 declared she never saw the prisoner 
 before she was brought to her house 
 by the officer; that, when before 
 the magistrate, she had answered 
 to the name of Brown, on some per- 
 son's addressing her by that appel- 
 lation, being greatly alarmed by 
 the circumstance of appearing be- 
 fore a magistrate. 
 
 The mother of the prisoner, 
 Swaine, the reputed father of the 
 child, and two other persons, in- 
 effectually endeavoured to establish 
 the prisoner's innocence, and to 
 prove that the child was her own. 
 
 The jury unhesitatingly found 
 her Guilty ; sentence, seven years' 
 transportation. A sum of money, 
 for the relief of the prosecutrix, 
 was subscribed by the jury. 
 
 ANNE RADFORD, 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR PERJURY. 
 
 Few subjects have excited greater nocent man as the infuriated assas- 
 complaint than the inconsistency ot sin, for circumstances may be such, 
 the English criminal code. A man in either case, as to preclude the 
 is hanged for cutting or maiming, possibility of defence. The case 
 with intent to kill, because, say we are going to narrate will illus- 
 the commentators on the law, though trate the foregoing remarks, 
 the wounded man recovers, that is In the latter end of the year 
 no palliation of the crime, for the 1 814, Anne Radford, a poor man's 
 offender deserves the same punish- daughter, aged nineteen, accused 
 raent as if the object of his attack her sweetheart, John Bird, a farm- 
 had actually expired, the intention er's servant, of having murdered a 
 being the same. By analogy, this rival of his, one Buckhill, a gentle- 
 argument applies to those who man's servant, two years before, 
 falsely endeavour to swear away Bird was accordingly apprehended, 
 the life of a man; yet the most ag- and his accuser deposed as follows : 
 gravated perjury is only punished — That one evening, in the month 
 with transportation, and in most of June, she and Bird were walking 
 cases with only fine and imprison- along the road, about eight o'clock, 
 ment, though an artful perjurer may when they met Buckhill, whom 
 as much endanger the life of an in- Bird immediately attacked, knock- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. IA9 
 
 ed him down, cut his throat, and 
 then dragged him into a neighbour- 
 ing corn-field, where he buried him. 
 The particulars she described with 
 such apparent candour and minute- 
 ness, that it was impossible to sus- 
 pect her story to be fabricated. 
 
 Bird was committed to Exeter 
 gaol ; and Anne Radford, not being 
 able to procure bail to prosecute, 
 was also sent to prison, there to be 
 taken care of until the ensuing 
 assizes. 
 
 The momentary wonder which 
 this extraordinary charge excited 
 having somewhat subsided, the so- 
 ber pari of the people began to re- 
 flect on its improbability. The 
 publicity of the place where the 
 alleged murder was committed, the 
 early hour at which it took, place, 
 and the silence which attended the 
 transaction, no one having ever 
 heard of any such murder in the 
 neighbourhood, seemed to attach 
 falsehood to the charge, and throw 
 discredit on the accuser's story. But 
 then the circumstantial manner in 
 which she described the deed, and 
 the absence of any inducement to 
 prompt her to fabricate so atrocious 
 a statement, as well as the fact of 
 Buckhill not having been since seen 
 in the neighbourhood, were consi- 
 dered corroborating proofs of the 
 truth of her charge, which she al- 
 leged having made to rid her con- 
 science of an intolerable burden that 
 pressed heavily upon it during the 
 last two years. 
 
 The magistrates had her brought 
 to the field where she stated Buck- 
 hill to have been buried, and had 
 the place dug up where she de- 
 scribed the body to have been de- 
 posited ; but, though the utmost 
 diligence was used, nothing was 
 found to lead to a supposition that 
 any such interment had taken place. 
 
 In the mean time it was confi- 
 dently reported that Buckhill was 
 
 still alive; and Bird's master, whose 
 humane and praiseworthy exertions 
 merit the highest eulogium, went 
 in search of him. Having travelled 
 soven hundred miles, he at length 
 found the object of his pursuit, who 
 had just returned from France, 
 where he had been with Lord Beau- 
 champ's family during the two years 
 preceding. 
 
 To save a fellow-creature from 
 ignominy and death, Buckhill hast- 
 ened to Exeter, where the assizes 
 were about to be held ; and, on 
 Radford hearing of his presence, 
 she declared her whole story was a 
 falsehood, though up to that mo- 
 ment she persisted in 'her wicked 
 allegations. 
 
 When Bird was arraigned at 
 Exeter, January the Kith, 18 15, 
 in a most crowded court, the Re- 
 corder asked Radford what she had 
 to say : she replied, ' Nothing, sir ; 
 I am guilty :' upon which Bird was 
 discharged, and a bill of indictment 
 was then presented to the grand 
 jury, and found against Anne Rad- 
 ford, for wilful and corrupt perjury. 
 She was immediately put upon her 
 trial, and said, ' Though I know I 
 am guilty, I am advised to plead 
 Not Guilty.' 
 
 Her affidavit having been read, 
 Buckhill, the man stated to have 
 been murdered, was called. He de- 
 posed that be never knew Bird, and 
 consequently that he could not have 
 had any quarrel with him. About 
 two years before he was in the ha- 
 bit of privately visiting the prisoner 
 in her father's garden, during the 
 eleven days which he stopped in the 
 country, since which time he knew 
 nothing of her. 
 
 Bird having also been called, and 
 his evidence gone through, the 
 jury, without hesitation, found the 
 prisoner Guilty, and she was sen- 
 tenced to seven years' transporta- 
 tion. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Were it not for the zeal of Bird's this wicked girl would in all proba- 
 master in finding Buckhill, the cir- hility have convicted him of murder, 
 cumstantial and minute evidence of What a lesson for jurors ! 
 
 WILLIAM SAWYER, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HARRIET GASKETT. 
 
 William Sawyer was a young reduced the facts to writing, which 
 
 man in the commissariat department Sawyer signed. When he was suf- 
 
 of the British army, and the cir- ficiently recovered he was removed 
 
 cumstances of his case are of a to England, where, shortly after 
 
 most extraordinary and singular his arrival, he was indicted at the 
 
 nature. In the month of Fehruary, Old Bailey, April the 7th, 1815, 
 
 1814, he went out to Portugal, for the above murder. His case 
 
 where he lived in the same house excited great interest, and the court 
 
 in the Campo Major, at Lisbon, was filled long before the arrival of 
 
 with a friend, Mr. Riccord, who the judges. 
 
 had a female, named Harriet Gas- 
 kett, under his protection. An at- 
 tachment grew up between this un- 
 fortunate woman and Sawyer, though 
 he had a wife at the time in Eng- 
 land ; and his attentions were so 
 
 The above facts being deposed 
 
 to- 
 
 Mr. Tobin was called. — Was at 
 Lisbon at the time of this unfortu- 
 nate transaction. Knew the parties 
 before the 27th of April, and saw 
 apparent that they excited jealousy them together the evening before, 
 in his brother officer, who appears Mr. Riccord seemed indisposed, 
 to have remonstrated with his friend Witness called to see him the next 
 and mislress,which occasioned much morning; saw the prisoner on that 
 infelicity. occasion : he requested him, the 
 On the 27th of April they met witness, to accompany him to view 
 at dinner, with two or three other a house which he wished to take, 
 officers; but such was the agitation Witness did so, and advised him 
 of their feelings, that Riccord, Har- not to take the house; he, however, 
 riet, and Sawyer, ate no dinner, said he would take it. In the even- 
 The latter appeared greatly deject- ing, about eight o'clock, Mr. Ric- 
 ed ; and, as well as Harriet, with- cord and Mr. Green called at his 
 drew as soon as possible. bouse: they were much agitated. 
 In the evening the party heard They stated that the prisoner and 
 the report of three pistol-shots; the deceased had murdered each 
 and, on going into the garden, other, or something to that effect, 
 Harriet and Sawyer were found and requested witness to go and 
 both lying on the ground. Harriet render what assistance he could, 
 was quite dead, but Sawyer had not Witness went to Mr. Riccord's 
 been mortally wounded. On being house, and found the prisoner lying 
 removed into the house, he was on the floor, with his throat cut, 
 left in the care of a brother officer, and a wound in his temple. Re- 
 while the others went in search of mained some time with him, and 
 a physician; and during their ah- assisted in washing his wounds, 
 sence he contrived to get a razor, There was a paper on the table, on 
 with which he cut his throat in a which the prisoner appeared to have 
 dreadful manner, but not mortally. been writing. Witness inquired 
 Next day the officers met, and where Harriet was; and, handing 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 161 
 
 that paper, tlie prisoner wrote that 
 she lay in the garden in the first 
 Jane from the house. Witness went 
 in consequence of this information, 
 and found the deceased. She was 
 quite dead. There was a wound in 
 \ier temple. The prisoner was finally 
 removed from the floor on which he 
 lay to a sofa in an adjoining room. 
 About eleven o'clock the doctor 
 came. Saw nothing more that 
 night: went to the prisoner the 
 next morning at eleven, and found 
 him in bed. Several gentlemen 
 were assembled to inquire into the 
 facts of the case, who judged it ad- 
 visable that the prisoner should be 
 called upon to give some account 
 of the fatal transaction. In conse- 
 quence of this opinion witness wrote 
 down on a paper such facts as had 
 come to his knowledge respecting 
 the calamitous circumstance. This 
 paper was read over to the prisoner 
 distinctly; he afterwards read it 
 himself, and subscribed to the cor- 
 rectness of its contents: he also 
 signed his name to it. Upon this 
 paper having been read over, they 
 saw that it was not sufficiently clear 
 for the want of the word ' my.' 
 Witness, therefore, went once more 
 to the prisoner the next day, and 
 requested permission to amend it. 
 He pointed out that the paper, as 
 it existed, left room to doubt whe- 
 ther Harriet had not murdered her- 
 self: he therefore requested the 
 prisoner to say who had fired the 
 pistol-shot by which she had been 
 killed. The prisoner said he fired 
 it, and desired the necessary cor- 
 rection to be made to the paper, 
 which was accordingly done. There 
 was also another memorandum 
 written, to which he likewise 
 signed his name. To these pa- 
 pers there were four subscribing 
 witnesses. 
 
 The papers in question were now 
 put in and read. The first was 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 dated 28lh April, 1814, and was, 
 in substance, as follows : — 
 
 ' Having laid violent hands upon 
 myself, in consequence of the death 
 of Harriet, I think it hut justice to 
 mankind and the world, being of 
 sound mind, solemnly lo attest that 
 her death was occasioned by her 
 having taken part of a plii.il of lau- 
 danum, and "my" discharging a 
 pistol at her head, provided for the 
 occasion. I took the residue of the 
 laudanum myself, and discharged 
 two pistols at my head. They fail- 
 ing in their effect, I then retired to 
 the house, and endeavoured lo put 
 an end to my life, leaving myself 
 the unfortunate object you now be- 
 hold me. 
 
 (Signed) 'Will/am Sawyer,' 
 And three witnesses. 
 
 The word ' my,' in the above pa- 
 per, was interlined, as slated in Mr. 
 Tobin's evidence. 
 
 The second paper was dated se- 
 ven o'clock, Saturday evening, the 
 30th of April. It was nearly aw 
 follows: — ' The word " my," inter- 
 lined in the above paper, was in- 
 serted with my full concurrence. I 
 have heard the contents of that 
 paper deliberately read, and en- 
 tirely agree to them. We mutually 
 agreed to destroy each other; and 
 then she requested me to destroy her 
 previous to my destroying myself.' 
 
 Captain Thomas Tyrrell witness- 
 ed the signing of the second paper 
 by the prisoner, and, at Mr. Ric- 
 cord's request, produced to him 
 another paper for him (the prisoner) 
 to sign. This was for the purpose 
 of removing any imputation against 
 Mr. Riccord's character. Witness 
 then read over a paper of consider- 
 able length, which was signed by 
 the prisoner: it was, in substance, 
 as follows : — 
 
 ' On my arrival in Lisbon I called 
 upon Mr. Riccord, who, in conse- 
 quence of some attention which I 
 
 10S 
 
162 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 had shown him, when ill, on a 
 former occasion, received me with 
 great kindness, and invited me to 
 his house. I lived there with Har- 
 riet and him for some time, with 
 great happiness, till about three 
 months hack, when Mr. Riccord 
 manifested some displeasure, in 
 consequence of some civilities, of 
 more than a common description, 
 which I paid to Harriet. This, 
 however, was soon forgotten, as I 
 assured him there was no ground for 
 
 his suspicion. On or about , 
 
 Harriet gave way to my solicita- 
 tions, and agreed to live with me, 
 provided Mr. Riccord went to Eng- 
 land, and was restored to his fa- 
 mily.' 
 
 Mere the witness stated, that, 
 in addition to the declarations, he 
 had put several questions to the 
 prisoner, which he had answered. 
 Tiny were as follow :— 
 
 Q. Harriet having declared, in 
 the most solemn manner, to Mr. 
 Riccord, that she never had any 
 connexion of an intimate nature 
 with you, it is but just that you 
 should state whether you had such 
 connexion, and when and where 
 that connexion took place. — A. I 
 had connexion with Harriet, and 
 slept with her three times, during 
 the time that Mr. Riccord was 
 obliged to sleep at the Convent. 
 
 Q. When Harriet ran towards the 
 well, did not Mr. Riccerd tell you 
 you might live together, and that 
 he would go to an hotel, and only 
 waited for Harriet to hand him 
 some things ? — A. He did. 
 
 Q. Then, if you had this per- 
 mission, why did Harriet require 
 you to shoot her, when you had a 
 full opportunity of living together ? 
 —A. Harriet assigned as a reason 
 for asking me to shoot her, that, if 
 she lived with me, she was sure 
 Riccord would shoot himself; and, 
 although she had promised not to 
 
 live with me, she had not promised 
 not lo die with me. 
 
 Q. Was it not Harriet's request 
 that you should destroy her, be- 
 cause you said yon would destroy 
 yourself if she did not live with 
 you ? — A. No, so help me, God ! 
 I declare that she entreated me to 
 shoot her, without any such de- 
 claration on my part. 
 
 The prisoner was then called 
 upon for his defence, and put in a 
 written paper, in which he stated 
 that, in consequence of his being 
 unable to articulate, from the wound 
 in his throat, he had committed to 
 paper all he had to say in his de- 
 fence. The paper then went, on to 
 state that the prisoner had Felt the 
 sincerest affection for the unfortu- 
 nate individual in question, towards 
 whom he had never meditated the 
 slightest injury. He perfectly re- 
 collected her having entreated him 
 to shoot her, hut had no idea of 
 what passed subsequently, till some 
 time afterwards, when he was told 
 he had signed papers, of the con- 
 tents of which he had no recol- 
 lection. He then expressed acknow- 
 ledgments for the efforts made by 
 his prosecutors to bring forward 
 Mr. Riccord, who would have bee-n 
 a material witness in his behalf; 
 and had only to lament that these 
 efforts had not been attended with 
 success. 
 
 Several persons were then called 
 to speak to the general humane 
 character of the prisoner, among 
 whom were General Sir Edward 
 Howard, Colonel Sir William Robe, 
 W. Stacey, Esq. E. Weaver, Esq. 
 Mr. Wells, and Mr. Guy. 
 
 A Mrs. Nichnlls proved that tiie 
 deceased had lodged with her from 
 June, 1813, lo February, 1814. 
 She was of a most violent and ty- 
 rannical disposition, and had a 
 pistol, which she kept constantly 
 in her room. 
 
RNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 163 
 
 Lord Ellenborough summed up 
 the evidence, when the jury retired, 
 and, after an absence of two hours, 
 returned with the verdict o£ Guilty ; 
 but recommended the prisoner 
 strongly to mercy, on the ground 
 that there was no malice on his 
 part towards the deceased, further 
 than the act itself imported. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough now desired 
 to hear whether any thing was to be 
 submitted as a ground for respiting 
 the sentence of the prisoner. 
 
 Mr. Alley repeated his former 
 arguments, and contended that the 
 prisoner could not legally receive 
 sentence for a crime committed in 
 another kingdom, where there were 
 laws to which he was distinctly 
 amenable. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough considered this 
 point as decided, and therefore did 
 not think it proper to reserve it. 
 He was induced to believe, how- 
 ever, that there were other grounds 
 upon which a motion for a respite 
 of sentence might have been claim- 
 ed. He desired the counsel for the 
 prisoner to look to the indictment, 
 and see whether that did not pre- 
 sent some points which it would be 
 proper to reserve for discussion. 
 
 Mr. Alley and Mr. Curwood hav- 
 ing looked, in compliance with his 
 lordship's intimation, to the indict- 
 ment, but not immediately discover- 
 ing any points of the nature alluded 
 to, his lordship, to save the time of 
 the Court, stated there were two 
 points which had presented them- 
 selves to him, on the face of that 
 indictment, as sufficient under the 
 act to warrant him respiting the 
 judgment of the prisoner: — The 
 first was, that the prisoner was said 
 to have committed the murder in 
 question ' against the form of the 
 statute,' but the particular statute 
 infringed was not specified, as it 
 ought to have been ; and, next, it 
 was not stated that the prisoner 
 
 was a ' British subject ;' and there- 
 fore the Court adjudged that the 
 sentence should be respited accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 On the 12th of May Mr Sawyer 
 was brought up to receive the de- 
 cision of the judges, which Sir 
 Simon Le Blanc delivered as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 'William Sawyer was tried and 
 convicted, undtr the authority of 
 a special commission, appointed for 
 that purpose, for the wilful murder 
 of Harriet Gaskell, in the kingdom 
 of Portugal, a subject of our lord 
 the king, and in the peace of the 
 king. 
 
 ' Upon this conviction, three ob- 
 jections were taken upon the indict- 
 ment, in arrest of judgment. The 
 first of these was, that the juris- 
 diction of this country had no 
 power whatever to try the offence 
 of an individual committed in a 
 country beyond the seas, and un- 
 der the dominion of a foreign power; 
 second, that the indictment did not, 
 upon the face of it, show that the 
 parties were British subjects; and, 
 third, that the indictment did not 
 conclude, as being agreeable to the 
 form of the statute, &c. With re- 
 spect to t lie first point of objection, 
 namely, that which related to the 
 33d of Henry VIII. the words and 
 construction of that statute must be 
 taken as implying that the offender 
 must be tried by a jury where the 
 offence is committed; but it also 
 appeared, from that statute, that, 
 if a murder is committed upon a 
 British subject, it may be lawful, 
 upon information of such murder 
 being »iven, for any of his majesty's 
 counsel to bring the offender to 
 justice, whether the offence be com- 
 mitted within or without the king- 
 dom, or any of his majesty's shires. 
 That such offender shall be tried 
 under a special commission of the 
 great seal, cither within or without 
 
64 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Vie kingdom, or any of his majesty's 
 'Wires, for such offence, the words 
 «ere sufficiently clear, and admitted 
 of the construction which had, since 
 the passing of the act, been put 
 upon them.' [He then cited three 
 tasi*s where convictions had taken 
 place pursuant to this statute. Thf 
 first was the case of one Chambers, 
 who had committed a murder in 
 Barcelona, in the kingdom of Spain, 
 in 1709, when the law took its 
 course: the next was the case of 
 one Ealing - , who was convicted of a 
 murder committed in Sweden in 
 17"2(): and the tiiird was that in 
 which Captain Roche was convicted 
 of the murder of one Ferguson, at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, in 1775.] 
 — ' In all these cases the construc- 
 tion of the act quoted applied, and 
 the law had taken its regular course. 
 They were all cases, too, where 
 the offence had been committed 
 beyond the seas, and out of the 
 dominions of his majesty. With 
 regard to the second objection, the 
 words of the statute are, " that if 
 any person shall commit such of- 
 fence of murder against any subjpct, 
 in the peace of the king," &c. and 
 sufficient appeared upon the face of 
 the indictment to show that the 
 subject so murdered was a British 
 subject, and in the peace of the 
 king. As to the last objection, 
 stating that the indictment did not 
 conclude " under the form of the 
 statute," &c. it did not appear of 
 so much importance, being inter- 
 woven with the other arguments, 
 and sufficient appearing on the face 
 ♦f the indictment to make the case 
 rlear, agreeably to the statute * 
 
 The learned judge concluded by 
 sayinjj, that, after the fullest con- 
 sideration that could be given to 
 the casp, the judges were unani- 
 mously of opinion that there was no 
 ground whatever for arrest of judg- 
 ment. 
 
 The recorder then proceeded to 
 pronounce the awful sentence ol the 
 law. 
 
 The prisoner appeared deeply 
 altevieJ throughout, and, upon 
 hearing tk«iwful decision and sen- 
 tence, remained motionless for some 
 time, when at length he faintly re- 
 vested one of the officers to entreat 
 the Cctirt o recommend him to the 
 royal clemency. He was then taken 
 from the dock. 
 
 Monday, May the 22d, 1815, 
 being the day appointed for the 
 execution of this infatuated man, at 
 an early hour an immense number 
 of spectators assembled in the Old 
 Bailey, to witness the awful scene. 
 Since the sentence of death was 
 passed on him he assumed a decree 
 of sullenness; and the only decla 
 ration he was heard to make was 
 'that he would not be executed:' 
 this was considered to import that 
 he was resolved on self-destruction. 
 His intentions, however, if such 
 they were, were defeated by the 
 constant attendance of two officers 
 night and day. On Sunday he re- 
 ceived the sacrament, after which 
 he appeared more composed. About 
 three o'clock on Sunday his wife 
 went to the prison, for t lie purpose 
 of taking a farewell : she was an- 
 nounced by an officer; but the un- 
 happy man gave a peremptory order 
 that she should not be admitted, 
 and all that could be urged could 
 not induce him to see her. When 
 he went to his ctll he was much 
 depressed, and refused any kind of 
 sustenance: about two o'clock be 
 laid down, and soon after becanw 
 very sick, and vomited copiously , 
 he continued reslless until half past 
 six o'clock, at which time be was 
 visited by the Rev. Mr. Cotton, 
 who prayed to him fervently. A 
 little before eight o'clock Mr. She- 
 riff Reay, attended by the iisus 
 officers, proceeded from Just «, 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 165 
 
 II. ill towards the cell. The unfor- 
 tunate gentleman was introduced 
 into the Press-yard by the Or- 
 dinary : he was very dejected, and 
 did not utter a word during his 
 being conveyed to the platform. 
 At eight o'clock precisely, every 
 necessary arraiiL;ement bi ing com- 
 plete, the fatal signal was given, 
 and the unhappy man was launched 
 into eternity. During the cere- 
 
 mony a profound silence prevailed 
 throughout the populace. He died 
 under evident symptoms of pa- 
 roxysm, and a quantity of blood 
 gushed from his mouth, from the 
 cut in his throat. At nine o'clock 
 the body was taken to Bartholo- 
 mew's Hospital in a cart, attended 
 by the under-sheriff and officers. 
 He was dressed in a suit of black, 
 and was not ironed 
 
 THOMAS JESSON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF A CHILD. 
 
 The man who has no self-re- prostitutes, whose extravagance 
 
 sped, or principles of honour, is ami dissipation are to be supported 
 
 seldom virtuous ; and, though rea- by illegal means; and, if women, 
 
 son may conduce to good conduct, we find them tilher abandoned to 
 
 yet ninety-nine men out of every shame and infamy, or living in se- 
 
 hundred are influenced by feeling cret or open defiance of the laws of 
 
 only ; and, happily for society, the God and society. The parties be- 
 
 general feeling of mankind is on fore us, though not exactly of this 
 
 the side of virtue and morality. class, were nevertheless far from 
 
 In the case before us we have a being models of propriety : the wo- 
 
 deplorable instance of the bad con- man was a mother before she was 
 
 sequences which uniformly proceed married ; and the man undertook to 
 
 from conduct in opposition to what father her child begotten in shame, 
 
 the world approves. Jesson married From such a connexion little goo;{ 
 
 a woman with an illegitimate child, was to be expected, though irhn* 
 
 the daughter of a wealthy seducer, followed could not possibly be anti- 
 
 at her breast ; and, though he pro- cipated. 
 
 mised to protect, and apparently Thomas Jesson, a nailer, aged 
 
 did caress the infant, yet he pri- twenty-five, was indicted at the 
 
 vately hated and detested the inno- Salop assizes, March the 24th, 
 
 cent cause of his anger ; for he was 1815, for the wilful murder of his 
 
 aware of the circumstances attend- wife's child, in the parish of Hale's 
 
 ing its birth and filiation before he Owen, on the night of Saturday, 
 
 married its imprudent mother. the 28th of the preceding January. 
 
 Whoever reads the history ofde- By the evidence of a surgeon it ap- 
 
 linquenls (and we know not one peared that the right cheek and 
 
 more copious than the ' Newgate temple were bruised very much, thf* 
 
 Calendar') must be struck with the skin was ruptured on the right sid» 
 
 obvious advantages whirh, even in of the child, and the lower jaw was 
 
 this world, attend a life of propriety broken exactly in the centre. He 
 
 and virtue. Scarcely a case of observed a large fracture on the 
 
 atrocity, horror, or dishonesty oc- back part of the head : after remov- 
 
 curs, but we find the parties con- ing the scalp two large portions of 
 
 cerned immersed in sin and crime, the bone were entirely detached, 
 
 If men, they are the companions of and pressed upon the brain. A 
 
166 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 single blow would not have caused 
 the fracture of" both the jaw and the 
 head. 
 
 The prisoner 6tated that he was 
 in a fit when it was done; and that 
 he knew not how it happened. This, 
 
 however, did not appear from the 
 evidence to be the fact; and the 
 jury brought in a verdict of Guilty, 
 in the propriety of which the judt;e 
 fully concurred, and immediately 
 passed sentence of death upon him. 
 
 JOHN MURDOCH, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF JAMES MURDOCH. 
 
 Philip, King of Macedon, de- 
 rived less glory from all his vic- 
 tories than from one sin«le act of 
 justice. One of his veterans had 
 been billetted on a poor peasant, who 
 treated him with great hospitality ; 
 hut the base soldier, in return for 
 such kindness, resolved to ruin his 
 host : he fabricated a tale for the 
 ear of his commander, injurious to 
 the character of the peasant, and 
 solicited for himself the home and 
 field of his benefactor. His villainy 
 was detected, and the indignant 
 monarch ordered to be branded, 
 on his forehead, ' The ungrateful 
 guest' — a stigma which, in Chris- 
 tian times, is, we are sorry to say, 
 often merited by modern soldiers, 
 as the following case will show :— 
 
 John Murdoch was a discharged 
 soldier, who, in the beginning of 
 the year 1815, visited a namesake 
 of his, with whom he was formerly 
 acquainted, at Langrig, a small vil- 
 lage near Whitburn, Scotland. Al- 
 though of the same name, there 
 was no relationship between them ; 
 but, on the strength of nominal 
 connexion, the veteran received a 
 hearty welcome from his friend,* 
 James Murdoch, who lived in a 
 house by himself, and kept a little 
 shop. 
 
 For eight days the old soldier 
 
 was hospitably entertained ; but, 
 like the ' ungrateful guest/ he 
 wished to possess himself of the 
 property of his host, and, horrid 
 to relate, he one night took up a 
 carpenter's adze, and clove the 
 poor man's head in two ! after 
 which he concealed the body in a 
 corner. 
 
 Next day, the shop not being 
 opened as usual, the neighbours 
 became alarmed, and, going to in- 
 quire, they were told by the mur- 
 derer that the old man had gone to 
 Whitburn, and would not return 
 until the evening. This not satis- 
 fying the people, they rushed for- 
 ward, and soon discovered the 
 mangled corpse of the deceased. 
 
 The ' ungrateful guest' attempted 
 to escape; but he was pursued, and 
 quickly overtaken. When examin- 
 ed, the money of the poor shop- 
 keeper, as well as his watch, was 
 found upon the wretch, who was 
 fully committed for trial. 
 
 On Monday, February the 18th, 
 lSlo, he was indicted for this mur- 
 der in the High Court of Justiciary, 
 Edinburgh, and found Guilty. The 
 execution of a murderer does not 
 take place in Scotland so soon after 
 conviction as in this country ; and 
 this malefactor did not suffer until 
 the 29th of the following March. 
 
 
 JOHN EI.LEM, 
 
 EXECUTED FOK RAVISHING A YOUNG GIRL. 
 
 This brutal and unmanly villain himself; for he that forcibly violates 
 richly deserved the fate he earned for the pnson of an unprotected female 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 167 
 
 is unfit lo fill any station in civilized 
 society, and commits a private in- 
 jury which nothing on earth can re- 
 compense, as Ids unfortunate vic- 
 tim may be said to walk through 
 life an animated corpse, shunned 
 hy the living, and insulted by the 
 wicked and the thoughtless, while 
 the commiseration of the humane 
 oidy renews those tortures which 
 nothing but death can assuasre. 
 The man who subjects a female, 
 otherwise innocent and lovely, to 
 such a life as this, deserves more 
 tortures than are found in physical 
 death. 
 
 John Ellem, a wealthy rope- 
 maker, at Barking, was indicted at 
 Chelmsford, July the 14th, 1815, 
 for ravishing Anne Pearson, on the 
 24th of March. 
 
 Anne Pearson, the prosecutrix, 
 stated that she was sixteen last 
 Christmas. On the 24th, her mas- 
 ter, his wife, and the servant boy, 
 went out to go to London, but her 
 master returned in about half an 
 hour; it was about six o'clock: he 
 asked her if the kettle boiled, and 
 told her to get the things ; there 
 was no person in the house but 
 themselves; having placed the tea- 
 things, he desired her to go up 
 stairs and fetch his pocket-book ; 
 she went, but could not find it; 
 she called down stairs to say it was 
 not there ; he again called up to 
 look into his waistcoat pocket; she 
 did, it was not there; she told him 
 so, and he desired her to look into 
 his jacket pocket; it was not there: 
 she then lieard him coming up 
 stairs, and she, having a suspicion 
 of his intention to take improper 
 liberties with her, shut the door 
 and locked it ; he knocked at the 
 door, and desired her to open it ; 
 she refused, unless he would go 
 down stairs; he said if she did not 
 open the door he would break it 
 open, adding, what the hell do you 
 
 think I want with you ? She then 
 opened the door; he immediately 
 threw her upon the bed: she got 
 up once, and had reached the door, 
 but he again caught her and ac- 
 complished his purpose; he then 
 went down stairs, and she followed 
 in about two minutes ; he walked 
 about the room whistling ; she left 
 the house in less than half an hour, 
 and went to her mother's. On her 
 way she met a young friend, who 
 asked her what she was crying 
 about. She said her master had 
 behaved rude to her ; she told her 
 mother the same, but did not then 
 tell her the whole. Her friend came 
 in shortly afterwards, and she told 
 her the particulars, desiring that 
 she would tell her mother, as she 
 did not like to do it herself. In 
 the evening, when she went to bed, 
 disclosed the whole to her mother, 
 who (on the Monday), this being 
 Good Friday, sent for Mr. Desor- 
 meaux, the doctor. — She was sub- 
 jected to a very severe cross-exa- 
 mination. She said she could not 
 have been heard to cry out; she 
 could not get to the window ; she 
 denied having had any loose con- 
 versation with a milkman on that 
 same day ; she knew a Mr. Smith, 
 a doctor, at Barking, but she had 
 never applied to him for any me- 
 dicines, or had ever spoken to him. 
 Her mother, Mr. Desormeaux, and 
 Caroline Walker, were called, who 
 confirmed her as to her immediate 
 disclosure of the. facts, except that 
 Mr. Desormeaux said, that, in stat- 
 ing the mode of perpetration, she 
 had described it differently with 
 respect to confining her hands. The 
 prisoner, being called upon for his 
 defence, said he left it to his conn . 
 sel. They called witnesses to show 
 a contradiction in parts of her testi- 
 mony. The washerwoman's girl 
 said, that, when she had brought 
 the waistcoat, she had another girl 
 
168 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 wilh her, and that she came in a 
 laughing manner, as though no- 
 thing had happened ; but the prin- 
 cipal witness was Richard Baker 
 Smith, who described himself as a 
 surgeon and apolhecary, now resid- 
 ing at Ilford, then at Barking. 
 He said the girl came to his house 
 about ten o'clock on the night of 
 I lie 1st of April. When he opened 
 the door, he supposed she came 
 n bon t a certain disorder, and he 
 asked her if it was so. She said 
 no ; but some young men had been 
 playing tricks with her, and she 
 wanted some physic. A woman was 
 with her, wrapped in a red cloak. 
 He loli) her to come in the morning. 
 He was sure it was her, as he knew 
 her and her family. Upon cross- 
 examination he proved a most igno- 
 rant man ; so much so, that he 
 spelt dropsy, dropsee, and fistula, 
 festerly. He insisted, however, 
 that he was a regular-bred medical 
 man, and bad two hundred venereal 
 patients from Barking alone, and 
 
 produced a certificate, which, upon 
 examination, proved to be a certi- 
 ficate written by himself. The girl, 
 who was confronted with him, most 
 solemnly denied ever having spoken 
 to him. He named also the mother's 
 brother as his patient. He happened 
 to be in court, and denied the fact. 
 The witness said, ' If not him, he had 
 had his wife under his care.' His 
 lordship expressed great indigna- 
 tion at the conduct of this witness. 
 The foreman of the prisoner was 
 called lo prove a conversation be- 
 tween the girl and a milkman on 
 the day of the transaction, which 
 she denied. He said two other 
 persons heard it, hut they were not 
 present. The noble and learned 
 judge having detailed all the evi- 
 dence on both sides, the jury, after 
 a very short deliberation, found the 
 prisoner Guilty. His lordship im- 
 mediately passed sentence of death 
 upon him, assuring him that he 
 need not hope for mercy in this 
 world. 
 
 ELIZABETH DREW, 
 
 TRIED FOR ROBBERY. 
 
 This singular trial took place at technical phrases, delivered with a 
 
 Cornwall, July the 26th, 1815, and rather slight brogue. In vain was 
 
 occupied the Court for a consider- it that he was desired to cut short 
 
 able time, during which the spec- his prolix narrative: honest Tom 
 
 tators, the Bar, and the Bench, Martin knew how to keep, but not 
 
 were convulsed with laughter. to abridge, a log-book ; every in- 
 
 Elizabeth Drew was indicted for terruplion caused him to lose his 
 
 robbing Thomas Martin of a watch, reckoning, and he found it easier to 
 
 some wearing apparel, &c. &c. begin anew than to splice a broken 
 
 The prosecutor, who was an Irish story. He had marked down every 
 
 seaman, with his arms folded, in course he had steered, and every 
 
 an erect though careless attitude, a variation of wind and weather he 
 
 smile of apparently invincible good had experienced — every port he 
 
 humour on his countenance, and had made, and every harbour in 
 
 »very minute casting a significant which he bad anchored — Trom the 
 
 glance on the prisoner, answered time he had embarked with the nri- 
 
 the interrogatories of the Bench in soner to the hour of his appearance 
 
 a language which his lordship de- in court; and he would relate the 
 
 dared to be wholly iucomprehen- whole. He said he was armourer 
 
 iuble but which was composed of of the Severn frigate, and was in 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 169* 
 
 Hamoaze in the beginning of the 
 present month, when he got his 
 long liberty. He knew the pri- 
 soner; and why should he not? She 
 washed for him, and was a country 
 girl of his own. He was surprised 
 that the judge did not know that 
 long liberty lasted a month. The 
 prisoner was on board the Severn 
 for four or five days before he got 
 his long liberty, and he told her he 
 was going to spend it in Ireland. 
 On her expressing a wish also to 
 visit her dear country, which she had 
 not seen for three years, he said lie 
 would pay her passage. This offer 
 she accepted on condition that one 
 bed should serve them during their 
 voyage; to which, of course, he 
 made no objection. Some smutrnlers 
 coming on board, he resolved to 
 nave a parting jollification with his 
 messmates, and bought half a gal- 
 lon of rum. He had a hearty booze 
 before he left the ship, so that, 
 when he came on shore, he was 
 rather top-heavy. On coining to 
 North Corner he gave his com- 
 panion two pounds to take her 
 clothes out of pawn ; after which 
 they shortened sail, and came-to at 
 the second public house on the 
 right hand as you go up. Here 
 they drank some beer, and Tom 
 got intoxicated, so that he deter- 
 mined to cast anchor, and take a 
 nap. However, having the same 
 confidence in his country-girl as if 
 she had been his real wife, he gave 
 her charge of his money, which 
 amounted to twenty-seven pounds, 
 before he turned in to sleep. A 
 canvass hag, containing five white 
 slnrls, four pair of stockings, and 
 sundry other articles of wearing ap- 
 parel, with a prayer-book, called 
 the ' Key of Paradise,' a pocket- 
 book, and a «. r reen book that he 
 used to keep his accounts in, he 
 left in the bar. He bad his watch 
 in his pocket when he fell asleep. 
 
 The prisoner took the bag from the 
 bar, his watch from his pocket, and 
 the lady even took his handkerchief 
 from his neck, and put an old rag 
 in its place, not worth a penny. 
 The watch was as good a watch as 
 ever went ; she was worth ten 
 guineas of any man's money. The 
 seal and key were gold ; the chain 
 was what is called composition, and 
 he could not tell what it was worth. 
 But, after all, he wished his coun- 
 try-giil should have fair play : he 
 was sorry to come against a woman ; 
 he would rather come against a 
 man by ten decrees. Finding him- 
 self plundered, he made inquiry 
 for bis companion, and he just got 
 a sight of her in the public house; 
 but she gave him the double, and 
 he saw her no more till, after a long 
 chase, he made her out at Calling- 
 ton. When he saw her he clapped 
 his hand on her shoulder this way 
 (giving a specimen of his mode of 
 salutation by a smart slap on a gen- 
 tleman's shoulder who sat near the 
 witnesses' box) ; ' but,' said he, 
 'madam knew nothing about me; 
 she did not know me at all.' The 
 manner in which he pronounced 
 this, with an arch smile on his coun- 
 tenance, pointing to the prisoner, 
 and casting a significant glance first 
 on her, and then on the judge, 
 would have done honour to the most 
 celebrated of the Thespian votaries; 
 it was one of the best pieces of 
 comic acting we ever saw, and com- 
 pletely overturned the gravity of 
 the Bench, drawing a peal of laugh- 
 ter and applause from a crowded 
 Court. Order being restored, Tom 
 Martin proceeded with the same de- 
 gree of sang froid. Having once 
 got sight of the chase, he was not 
 to be baffled, but kept her close on 
 board until the constable, whom he 
 had hailed on reaching Callington 
 had procured a warrant. His ungrate- 
 ful countrywoman, finding she could 
 
170 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 not give him the double a second 
 time, resolved to adopt another 
 manoeuvre, and, desiring to be: left 
 alone willi him, gave up the watch 
 as a peace-offering. 
 
 Being desired to produce the 
 watch, Tom first hesitated, and 
 then owned that he had pawned it 
 for two guineas, in order to prevent 
 the necessity of his coins on board 
 before bis long liberty was expired ; 
 a circumstance that he appeared 
 most seriously to deprecate. His 
 lordship then asked what he had 
 done with the double he said the 
 prisoner had given him. ' What 
 did I do with it ?' replied the wit- 
 ness, evidently much amused at the 
 misconception of the Bench ; (Ids 
 lordship supposed that by double 
 was meant a duplicate given by a 
 pawnbroker;) 'why I could do no- 
 thing; she gave it to me entirely. 
 But, as it is going as it is, I'll out 
 with the whole on her. This waist- 
 coat on me, my lord' 
 
 Judge. — ' No matter about the 
 waistcoat; it is not mentioned in 
 the indictment.' 
 
 Witness.— 'Ay; but I'll tell all 
 about it.' 
 
 His lordship, however, would 
 hear nothing about the waistcoat, 
 and told the witness he knew not 
 what to make of his story ; on 
 which Tom replied — 'I believe, 
 my lord, I've told it very fair; it 
 is very fair doctrine, and there is 
 no Englishman but will understand 
 what it means.' His canvass hair, 
 he said, was found at the pri- 
 soner's lodgings; but the ' Key of 
 Paradise,' and the rest of its con- 
 tents, except a pair of stockings, 
 were gone. 
 
 His lordship summed up the evi- 
 dence, as well as he could collect it 
 (rom the prosecutor ; and the jury, 
 not thinking that the things pro- 
 duced were sufficiently identified, 
 acquitted the prisoner. 
 
 WILLIAM BRADFORD, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 
 This unfortunate culprit was a by Robert Tieverton, purser of the 
 
 youni; man, twenty-three years of Acasto, and certified by Alexander 
 
 age, of most respectable connexions, Robert Kerr, the captain, 
 
 and held a situation as clerk in the Bradford then procured an unsus- 
 
 Victualling Office, where he had pecting friend, named Williams, lo 
 
 various opportunities of becoming carry the bill for acceptance to the 
 
 acquainted with the forms of bills, Victualling Office; and so well was 
 
 as well as a correct knowledge of it executed, and every thing ma- 
 
 the handwriting of those by whom naged with such adroitness, that it 
 
 they were usually signed. passed through all the necessary 
 
 Thoughtless extravagance plung- offices without exciting the least 
 
 ed him into pecuniary difficulties, suspicion. He next sent it to the 
 
 from which he resolved to relieve Bank of England, and got it dis- 
 
 himself by committing forgery, counted. 
 
 Desperate and criminal as the reso- Suspicion was, however, subse- 
 
 lution was, he carried it into effect quently excited, and Bradford was 
 
 by fabricating a bill for eight huti- taken into custody. A fifty-pound 
 
 dred and sixty-eight pounds, nine note was found in his lodging, which 
 
 shillings, and sixpence, purporting turned out to be one of those paid 
 
 to be drawn on the commissioners for the bill at the Bank : and even- 
 
 of his majesty's Victualling Office tually every one of the notes was 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 171 
 
 traced to his possession ; even a 
 ten-pound note, with which he re- 
 deemed his watch, proved to have 
 heen one of these. 
 
 The trial of this miserable young 
 man carne on at the Old Bailey, 
 October the 28th, 1815, and lasted 
 for five hours. The evidence was 
 conclusive, and he was accordingly 
 found Guilty. When he was re- 
 moving from the bar he fainted, so 
 great was the impression made upon 
 him by the verdict. 
 
 The efforts of his friends to pro- 
 cure a commutation of his sentence 
 proved unavailing, and the law was 
 left to take its course. On Monday, 
 December the 8th, he was visited 
 by his two younger brothers, for 
 the purpose of taking leave of him ; 
 but, when the hour of parting came, 
 their feelings were wound up to 
 such a pitch, that the keepers with 
 difficulty separated them from the 
 unhappy sufferer; and, even after 
 they had been taken from the cell, 
 
 the younger brother clung to every 
 object in his way, exclaiming, in a 
 dreadful paroxysm of grief, ' My 
 brother! oh, my unhappy brother!' 
 At length they were tranquillized, 
 but did not quit the mansion of 
 misery for some time. 
 
 During Tuesday night Bradford 
 was attended by the Rev. Mr. 
 Rudge, and he appeared tranquil, 
 joining most fervently in prayer 
 with his friend. In the course of 
 the night he took a little negus, 
 but it did not remain on his stomach. 
 He slept for about two hours, and 
 afterwards partook of some toast and 
 water. The next morning, Wednes- 
 day, December the 10th, 1815, being 
 the time appointed for his execu- 
 tion, he was brought, at eight 
 o'clock, to the Press-yard, and dis- 
 encumbered of his irons : after which 
 he walked with a firm step to the 
 scaffold ; and his last words were — 
 * O Lord, spare my soul ; for I am 
 a miserable sinner !' 
 
 ELIZABETH FENNING, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR ATTEMPTING TO POISON A FAMILY. 
 
 The extraordinary interest taken grity and wisdom of our ancestors 
 
 by the public in this very peculiar might not be injured by our folly or 
 
 and affecting case is at least an ho- perverted by our remissness. Men 
 
 nourable proof that, however lax should be aware of that blind conG- 
 
 may be the practice of virtue, the dence which induces them to rely 
 
 principle still continues to be our upon the intrinsic excellence of legal 
 
 national character. A more striking institutions and the solemnity of 
 
 evidence of this can hardly be ad- judicial proceedings; for experience 
 
 duced than the spontaneous move- shows that, though they may be 
 
 ment excited by the prosecution, secure from corruption, they are still 
 
 condemnation, and execution of liable to erroneous administration. 
 
 Eliza Fenning, in whose lamentable ' Better,' says the legal maxim, 
 
 fate all classes and descriptions of ' that ten guilty escape, than that 
 
 persons seemed to be animated by one innocent person should suffer;' 
 
 a common feeling. and, as jurors are the great arbitra- 
 
 The reflection that all institutions tors of life and death, they cannot 
 of man are liable to abuse operates hesitate too long before they con- 
 as a standing lesson to make us sign a fellow-creature to a prema- 
 watchful over the forms of law and ture crave. But, where guilt is 
 the proceedings of Courts, that only presumptive, they should not 
 what was established by the inte- only reflect well upon the motives- 
 
171 KNAPF& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 of human action, and the prejudice 
 of prosecutors, hut give the accused 
 the whole benefit of every possible 
 doubt. 
 
 As the case of this unfortunate 
 young woman is pregnant with in- 
 struction, both in a legal and indi- 
 vidual point of view, we have used 
 every diligence in preparing an un- 
 biassed statement of facts, free from 
 error and misrepresentation. 
 
 Elizabeth Penning was born in 
 the island of Dominica in the West 
 Indies, on the 10th of June, 1793. 
 Her father, William Fenniug, was a 
 native of Suffolk, and belonged to 
 the first battalion of the 15th regi- 
 ment of infantry. Her mother was 
 a native of Cork, in Ireland: her 
 parents were respectable, and she 
 was married to Fenning in 1787, in 
 her native town, where the regiment 
 had been quartered. In 1790 they 
 sailed from the Cove of Cork for 
 the island of Barhadoes, and from 
 thence to Dominica, where the sub- 
 ject of this narrative was born. 
 Both her parents were Protestants, 
 and she was baptized by a minister 
 of the same religion. 
 
 In 1796 or 1797 the regiment 
 came home, having suffered great 
 mortality, and were quartered in 
 Dublin. In 1802 Fenning solicited 
 and obtained his discharge, with a 
 certificate of his good character, 
 which it appears he merited, as he 
 rose to the rank of a non-commis- 
 sioned officer. He then came to 
 London, and entered the service of 
 his brother, a potatoe-dealer in Red 
 Lion Street, Holborn, with whom 
 he continued for three years, and 
 afterwards lived as servant in a po- 
 tatoe-warehouse in Red Lion Pas- 
 sage, where his correct conduct gave 
 satisfaction to three successive pro- 
 prietors. His wife, for five years, 
 worked for one upholsterer — a suffi- 
 cient proof of her good conduct. 
 They had ten children, all of whom 
 
 died young except Eliza, who was 
 the darling of her parents, who, 
 being industrious themselves, did 
 not rear iheir daughter up in idle- 
 ness. From the age of fourteen she 
 lived in servitude, ami, in the latter 
 end of January, 1815, was hired as 
 cook in the family of a Mr. Orlibar 
 Turner, at No. 08, Chancery Lane, 
 where she had not been above seven 
 weeks when circumstances unhap- 
 pily arose which led to the poor 
 creature's being charged with an 
 attempt to poison Turner's family. 
 
 The facts of the case will be best 
 explained by the following report 
 of the trial, taken in short-hand by 
 Mr. Sibly, short-hand writer to the 
 corporation of London, which differs 
 materially from the ' Sessions' Pa- 
 per' report. 
 
 Eliza Fenning was indicted at 
 the Old Bailey, April the 11th, 
 1813, for that she, on the 21st of 
 March, feloniously and unlawfully, 
 did administer to, and caused to be 
 administered to, Orlibar Turner, Ro- 
 bert Gregson Turner, and Charlotte 
 Turner, his wife, certain deadly 
 poison, (to wit, arsenic,) with intent 
 the said persons to kill and murdtr. 
 
 The case was stated by Mr. Gur- 
 ney ; after which — 
 
 Mrs. Charlotte Turner deposed — 
 I am the wife of Mr. Robert Greg- 
 son Turner, who is a law-stationer 
 in Chancery Lane, in partnership 
 with his father, Mr. Orlibar Turner, 
 who lives at Lambeth. About seven 
 weeks before the accident the pri- 
 soner came into my service as cook; 
 and about three weeks after 1 had 
 occasion to reprove her, for I ob- 
 served her, one night, go into the. 
 young men's room partly undressed. 
 It was very indecent of her to go into 
 the young men's room thus undressed. 
 There were two young men, about 
 seventeen or eighteen years old. I 
 reproved her severely next morning 
 for her conduct: the excuse was, 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 173 
 
 thai she was going to fetch t!ie 
 candle. I threatened to discharge 
 her, and gave her warning to quit ; 
 but she showed contrition; I for- 
 gave her for it, and retained 
 In r. That passed over. For 
 the remaining month 1 observed 
 that she failed in the respect th.it 
 ahe before paid me, and appeared 
 extremely sullen. About a fort- 
 night before the transaction she re- 
 quested me to let her imike some 
 ytast dumplings, professing herself 
 to be a capital hand. That request 
 was frequently repeated. On Mon- 
 day, the 20th of March, she came 
 up into the dining-room, and said 
 the brewer had brought some yeast. 
 I had given no orders to the hrewer 
 to brin? any yeast: I lold her I did 
 not wish to trouhle the man; that 
 was not the way 1 had them made ; 
 I generally had the dough from the 
 baker's, which saved the cook a 
 great deal of trouhle, and was also 
 considered the best. Having this 
 yeast, I said it was of no conse- 
 quence ; as the man had brought a 
 little, the next day she might make 
 some On Tuesday morning, I, as 
 usual, went into the kitchen. I 
 told her she .niyht male some; but, 
 before she made the dumplings, to 
 make a beef-steak pie for dinner for 
 the young men. As she would have 
 to leave the kitchen to get the 
 steaks, I did not wish her to do so 
 after the dumplings were made. I 
 told her I should wish the dough to 
 be mixed with milk and water. She 
 said she would do them as I desired 
 her : this was about half past eleven. 
 She carried the pie to the baker's 
 before kneading the dough com- 
 menced : I told her I wished her 
 not to leave the dough that she 
 might carry the pie to the baker's. 
 I suppose she carried the pie to the 
 baker's near twelve. I gave her 
 directions about making the dough. 
 1 said, I suppose there was no occa- 
 
 sion for me stopping. She said, 
 Oh no, she knew very well how to 
 doit; and then I went up stairs. 
 In not more than half an hour I 
 went again into the kitchen : I tlien 
 found the dough made, and set be- 
 fore the fire to rise. We have one 
 more servant, a house-maid, Sarah 
 Peer I had given Sarah orders to 
 go into the bed-room, to repair a 
 counterpane, at the time the dough 
 was made. During the time the 
 dous;!) was made I am certain there 
 could he nobody in the kitchen bat 
 the prisoner: I suppose this might 
 be half past twelve. We dine at 
 three — the young men at two. In 
 the interval between half past twelve 
 and three I was in the kitchen two 
 or three times, until the dough was 
 made into dumplings. The dough 
 remained in a pan before the fire, 
 for the purpose of rising; but I ob- 
 served the dough never did rise. I 
 took off the cloth, to look at it : my 
 observation was, that it did not rise 
 and it was in a very singular posi- 
 tion, in which position it remained 
 until it was divided into dumplings. 
 It was not put into the pan, as I 
 have observed dough : its shape was 
 singular; it retained the shape till 
 the last; it remained heavy all the 
 time, not rising at all. I am confi- 
 dent it never was meddled with 
 after it was put there. The dum- 
 plings were divided, to put into the 
 pot, about twenty minutes before 
 twelve. I was not in the kitchen 
 at the time, but I was in it about 
 half an hour before that time. 
 
 By a Juror. — I did not remark to 
 her the singular appearance of the 
 dough. I told her it had nevct 
 risen : the prisoner said it woult! 
 rise before she wanted it. There 
 were six dumplings brought upon 
 the table about three o'clock, when 
 I sat down to dinner. I observe* 
 to the other servant that they were 
 black and heavy instead of being 
 
174 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 white and light. My husband, Ro- son's house in Chancery Lane : I 
 bert Gregson Turner, and his fattier, dined there. The dinner consisted 
 Orlibar Turner, sat down to dinner of yeast dumplings, beef-steaks, and 
 with me: I helped them to some potatoes. After some time Mrs. 
 dumplings, and took a small piece Turner left the room indisposed, 
 myself. I found myself affected in At the time she left the room I did 
 a few minutes after I had eaten. * not know she was ill. Some time 
 did not eat a quarter of a dumpling, after my sou left the room, and 
 I felt myself very faint — an excru- went down stairs. I followed him 
 dating pain, an extreme violent very shortly. I had gone into my 
 pain, which increased every minute : parlour below: I came into the 
 it came so bad, I was obliged to passage. I met my son in the pas- 
 leave the table — I went up stairs, sage, at the foot of the stairs : he 
 I ate, beside the dumpling, a piece told me that he had been very sick, 
 of rump sleak, cooked by Eliza, and had brought up his dinner. I 
 When I was up stairs I perceived found his eyes exceedingly swollen 
 my sickness increased, and I ob- — very much indeed. I said I 
 served my head was swollen ex- thought it very extraordinary. I 
 tremely. I retched very violently : was taken ill myself in less than 
 1 was half an hour aloae, and won- three minutes afterwards. The 
 dered they did not come to my as- effect was so violent, I had hardly 
 sistance. I found my husband and time to go into my back yard be- 
 father very ill — both of them. I fore my dinner came up. I felt 
 was very ill from half past three un- considerable heat across my stomach 
 til about nine: the violence abated, and chest, and pain: I never expe- 
 but did not cease. My head was rienced any vomiting before like it, 
 swollen, and my tongue and chest for violence; it was terrible indeed, 
 were swollen. We called in a gen- It was not more than a quarter of 
 tleman who was near, and alter- an hour when my apprentice, Roger 
 wards Mr. Marshall, the surgeon. Gadsden, was very ill, in a similar 
 We applied for the nearest assist- way to myself. My son was also 
 ante we could get. sick. While we were sick I was 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. — repeatedly in the parlour and the 
 
 This happened about six weeks back yard. My son was up and 
 
 after the girl came to live with me. down stairs at intervals; Gadsden, 
 
 I had no other cause of complaint I believe, was in the kitchen below, 
 
 except that. I for°ave her. I do The prisoner gave not the smallest 
 
 not think it was that day the coals assistance. We were all together 
 
 had been delivered : the girl is here alarmed : it was discovered that she 
 
 who received them: it could not be did not appear concerned at our 
 
 that day. She had no occasion to situation; our appearance was most 
 
 receive the coals.* 1 have heard the distr. ssuil: — more so than ever I 
 
 prisoner herself was taken very ill. wilnessed in my life. I did not ob- 
 
 Orlibar Turner deposed — I be- serve the prisoner eat any of the 
 
 lieve I am the father of Robert dumplmgs.f I had a suspicion of 
 
 Grtgson Turner. On Tuesday, the arsenic: I made a search the next 
 
 21st day of March, I was at my morning. 
 
 * It is a serious and confirmed fact that the coals were delivered on that day, and 
 received by Eliza Fenning; consequently both Mrs. Turner and Sarah Peer were mis- 
 taken in their evidence. After the poor girl's condemnation this was found to be the 
 case, on application to the coal-merchant and the men who delivered the coals. 
 
 i How could he, when he did not go into the kitchen, or she come out of it I 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 175 
 
 Bu the Court. — I suspected it 
 was poison. I observed, the next 
 morning, in the pan in which llie 
 dumplings had been mixed, the 
 leavings of the dumplings: they 
 stuck round the pan. I put some 
 water inlo the pan, and stirred it up 
 'ith a spoon, with a view to form a 
 liquid of the whole. Upon the pan 
 being set down for a moment or 
 two, or half a minute, ami taking it 
 up slowly, and in a slanting direc- 
 tion, I discovered a white powder at 
 the bottom of it. I showed it to 
 several persons in the house : I kept 
 it in my custody until Mr. Marshall 
 came; no person had access to it. 
 Arsenic had been kept in a drawer 
 'ii the office, fronting the tire-place, 
 in two wrappers, tied up very tight, 
 the words ' Arsenic, deadly poison,' 
 written upon it. I believe the pri- 
 soner can both read and write. 
 
 Mrs. Turner was here asked ' Is 
 that so?' and she replied 'Yes, 
 she can read and write very well.' 
 
 Orlibar Turner resumed — The 
 drawer always remained open ; any 
 person might have access to it. It 
 was the prisoner's duty to light the 
 fire : she miuht resort to that drawer 
 for loose paper that was kept in it; 
 she might resort to it to light a fire. 
 I had seen the parcel of arsenic 
 there on the 7th of March ; not 
 since that time. Before the 21st of 
 March 1 heard of its being missed 
 about a fortnight. I made observa- 
 tion on the appearance of the knives 
 and forks which I ate the dumplings 
 with : I have two of them in my 
 pocket now to show ; they have 
 been in my custody ever since. I 
 saw them with the blackness upon 
 them the next flay : it appeared 
 upon them then ; there is some little 
 rust upon them now. The next 
 day I snoke to the prisoner about 
 these yeas'* dumplings : I asked her 
 how she came to introduce ingre- 
 dients that had been so prejudicial 
 
 to us. She replied it was not in 
 the dumplings, but in the milk that 
 Sarah Peer brought in. I had se- 
 veral discourses with her that day 
 upon this suliject, during the whole 
 of which she persisted it was in the 
 milk, as before described. That milk 
 had been used for the sauce only : 
 the prisoner made the dumplings 
 with the refuse of the milk that had 
 been left for breakfast. The pri- 
 soner did not tell me what use had 
 been made of the milk that had been 
 fetched by Sarah Peer. I asked 
 her if any person but herself had 
 mingled, or had any thing to do 
 with, the dumplings. She expressly 
 said ' No.' 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. — 
 In the conversation I had with the 
 prisoner I did not tell her that, two 
 months before, I had missed the 
 poison. I do not know if the clerks 
 keep the door of the office locked 
 when they are not there. 
 
 Roger Gadsden sworn. — I am an 
 apprentice to Mr. Turner. I remem- 
 ber seeing, in a drawer in the office, 
 a paper, with * Arsenic, deadly poi- 
 son,' written upon it. The last day 
 I saw it was on the 7th of March : 
 I missed it in a day or two after; I 
 mentioned in the office that I missed 
 it. On Tuesday, the '2 1st of March, 
 between three and four, I went into 
 the kitchen : I had dined at two. lit 
 the kitchen I observed a plate: in 
 it was a dumpling and a half. I 
 took a knife and fork up, and was 
 going to cut it, to eat of it. The 
 prisoner exclaimed, ' Gadsden, do 
 not eat of that ; it is cold and heavj ; 
 it will do you no good !' I ate a 
 piece about as big as a walnut, or 
 bigger. There was a small quan- 
 tity of sauce in the boat: I took a 
 bit of bread, and sopped it in it, and 
 ate that. This might be twenty 
 minutes after three. I went intc 
 the office: Mr. Robert Turner came 
 into the office about ten minutes 
 
17G KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 after, and said lie was very ill. 
 They were all up stairs in t he par- 
 lour: — not the least alarm of any 
 body being ill then. About ten 
 minutes alter that I was taken ill, 
 but not so ill as to vomit. I was 
 sent oft* for Mr. Tinner's mother. I 
 was very sick going and coming — I 
 thought I should die. The prisoner 
 had made yeast dumplings lor sup- 
 per the night before : 1 and the 
 other maid, and herself, partook of 
 them : they were quite different from 
 these dumplings in point of colour 
 and weight, and very good. When 
 the poison was missed I made no 
 inquiry about it of the prisoner. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. — 
 We don't keep the door of the office 
 locked when we are out of it. The 
 prisoner made the fire. No person 
 could go into the office until I did. 
 Any person might go in and out in 
 the day. At night it was locked. 
 Paper was kept in the drawer where 
 the poison had been. If the pri- 
 soner went to that drawer I should 
 not watch her, to see what she did 
 there. 
 
 Margaret Turner sworn. — I was 
 sent lor. When I arrived I found 
 my husband, son, and daughter, 
 extremely ill. The prisoner, very 
 soon after I was there, was ill, and 
 vomiting. I exclaimed to her, ' Oh, 
 these devilish dumplings !' suppos- 
 ing they had done the mischief. 
 She said, • Not the dumplings, but 
 the milk, madam. ' I asked her 
 ' What milk ?' She said * The half- 
 penny-worth of milk that Sally had 
 filched, to make the sauce.' She 
 said my daughter made the sauce. 
 I said ' That cannot be; it could 
 not he the sauce.' She said ' Yes ; 
 Gadsden ate a very little bit of 
 dumpling, not bitter than a nut; 
 but licked up three parts of a boat 
 of sauce with a bit of bread.' 
 
 Mrs. Turner, jun. being called, 
 t»asd — ' The sauce was made with 
 
 the milk brought by Sarah P^er. 
 I mixed it, and left it for be! to 
 make.' 
 
 Robert Gregson Turner sworn.— 
 I partook of the dumplings at din. 
 ner ; 1 ate none of the sauce what, 
 ever. Soon after dinner I was taken 
 ill : 1 first felt an inclination to be 
 sick ; I then felt a strong heat across 
 my chest. 1 was extremely sick: 
 I was exactly as my father and wife 
 were, except stronger symptoms. 
 I had eaten a dumpling and a half. 
 I suffered more than .any person. I 
 should presume that the symptoms 
 were such as would be produced by 
 poison: — all taken in the same way, 
 and pretty near the same time. 
 
 Sarah Peer sworn. — I have been 
 servant to Mrs. Turner near eleven 
 months. 1 recollect the warning 
 given to the prisoner some time 
 after she came. After that I heard 
 her say she should not like Mr. or 
 Mrs. Robert Turner any more. On 
 the 21st of March I went for some 
 milk after two o'clock, after I had 
 dined with the prisoner on beef- 
 steak pie. I had no concern what- 
 ever iu making the dough for the 
 dumplings, or in making the sauce. 
 1 was not in the kitchen when the 
 dough was made: I never meddled 
 with it, or put any thing to it; I 
 never was iu the kitchen until I 
 went up to make the beds, a quar- 
 ter after eleven, until I came down 
 again. I had permission to l>o out 
 that afternoon, directly after J took 
 up the dumplings. I went out di- 
 rectly. 1 came home at nine o'clock 
 exactly. I ate none of the dum- 
 plings myself. In eating the beef- 
 steak pie, I ate some of the crust. 
 I was not at all ill. I had eaten 
 some dumplings she had made the 
 night before: 1 never tasted any 
 b'-tter. They were all made out of 
 the same Hour. I had no difference 
 with my mistress at any time. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. — 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 177 
 
 Tiie coals were not delivered on 
 that day. It is not true that I 
 was set to watch the coals coining 
 in. As the dumplings were taken 
 out of the pot I went out. The 
 prisoner and I were on good terms 
 by times: our la>.t quarrel was two 
 or three days before. She had 
 taken something out of my drawer 
 for a duster: I said I did not like 
 to lead that life without she altered 
 her temper. About a week or a 
 week and a half before we had an- 
 other quarrel : I don't know what it 
 was about. It was the habit of the 
 house for the servants to take it 
 turn about to go out of a Sunday. 
 On Tuesday I visited my sister at 
 Hackney : I had been to my sister's 
 about a month before that : it was 
 my turn- to go out before this Tues- 
 day. The prisoner lived seventeen 
 weeks in my master's house. Never 
 went to visit my sister but on a 
 Sunday, except on that day. I 
 went very seldom into the office 
 where the young men were. I knew 
 the waste paper was kept in the 
 office; but my mistress always kept 
 it up stairs in the dining-room for 
 my use. I did not know there was 
 waste paper in the office; I never 
 touched any there. I did not know 
 it for certainly: there migiit be 
 waste paper there, but I never 
 touched it. Did not know there 
 was poison kept there. I never 
 went to the drawer in the office, 
 nor never knew there was poison 
 kept there to kill rats and mice. 
 
 Mr. Oilibar Turner re-examined. 
 — This poison was kept to destroy 
 mice, a>id for no other purpose. It 
 had not been used before for a year 
 and a half. 
 
 William Thiselton sworn. — I am 
 an offieer of Hatton Garden office. 
 I took the prisoner into cu>tody on 
 the 23d of March, the day before 
 Good Friday. She said she had 
 made a beef-steak pie of the flour 
 
 VOL. IT. 
 
 she had made the dumplings with; 
 that she and her fellow-servants, 
 and one of the apprentices, had 
 dined off the pie. She said she 
 thought it was in the yeast ; .«.he 
 saw a red settlement in the yeast 
 after she had used it. 
 
 The brewer's man was then called. 
 He deposed that the yeast was the 
 same as bakers use. He gave the 
 yeast to the house-maid, not to the 
 prisoner. 
 
 John Marshall sworn. — I am a 
 surgeon. On the evening of the 
 21st of March I was sent for to 
 Mr. Turner's family; I got there 
 about a quarter before nine o'clock. 
 All the symptoms attending the fa- 
 mily were produced by arsenic; I 
 ha\e no doubt of it by the symp- 
 toms. The prisoner was also ill, 
 by the same, I have no doubt. Mr. 
 Oilibar Turner showed me a dish 
 the next morning: I examined it; 
 1 washed it with a tea-kettle of warm 
 water; I first stirred it, and then 
 let it subside; I decanted it off; I 
 found half a tea-spoonful of white 
 powder; I washed it the second 
 time; I decidedly found it to be 
 arsenic. Arsenic cut with a knife 
 will produce the appearance of black- 
 ness on the knife; I have no doubt 
 of it. There was not a grain of 
 arsenic in the yeast: I examined 
 the flour-tub; there was no arsenic 
 there. 
 
 The case for the prosecution closed 
 here, and the poor girl made the 
 following defence : — 
 
 ' I am truly innocent of the whole 
 charge: I am innocent; indeed I 
 am ; I liked my place, I was very 
 comfortable. 
 
 * Gadsden behaved improperly to 
 me; my mistress came and saw me 
 undressed : she said she did not like 
 it ; I said, " Ma'am, it is Gadsden 
 that has taken liberty with me." 
 The next morning I said " I hope 
 you don't think any thing of what 
 
 109 
 
173 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALEND\f?. 
 
 passed last night." She was in a 
 great passion, and said she would 
 not put up with it; I was to go 
 away directly. I did not look upon 
 Mrs. Turner as my mistress, but 
 upon the old lady. In the evening 
 the old lady came to town ; I said, 
 " I am going away to-night." Mrs. 
 Turner said " Do not think any 
 more about it ; I don't." She asked 
 Mrs. Robert Turner if she was will- 
 ing for me to go. She said " No, 
 she thought no more about it.' 
 
 ' As to my master saying I did 
 not assist him, I was loo ill. I had 
 no concern with that drawer at all ; 
 when I wanted a piece of paper I 
 always asked for it." 
 
 The prisoner called five witnesses, 
 who gave her an excellent charac- 
 ter for integrity, sobriety, cheerful- 
 ness, and humanity. One of these 
 was proceeding to state an acci- 
 dental conversation he had with the 
 prisoner two days after she had 
 ordered the yeast, wherein she de- 
 clared herself happy and contented 
 •with her situation, and pleased with 
 her master and mistress ; but the 
 recorder stopped him, saying it was 
 not evidence. 
 
 Whilst the trial was proceeding, 
 William Penning, the father of the 
 prisoner, went to a public house, and 
 got a person (for he was too agi- 
 tated himself) to write on a slip of 
 paper, that on the 21st of March he 
 went to Mr. Turner's, his daughter 
 having sent for him in the morning, 
 and that Sarah Peer told him Eliza 
 Lad gone of a message for her mis- 
 tress, whilst, at the same time, she 
 was in agonies below stairs from the 
 effect of having eaten of the dum- 
 plings. He then went home, and 
 thought no more about it. 
 
 When this note was written, it 
 was handed to Mr. Alley, who, 
 standing upon tip-toe, showed it to 
 the recorder, who leaned over and 
 looked at it. 
 
 No further notice was taken of 
 this paper, either by the recorder or 
 Mr. Alley; and, soon afterwards, 
 upon the prisoner requesting the 
 apprentice to be brought forward, 
 Gadsden went up into the witnesses' 
 box ; whereon the prisoner energeti- 
 cally exclaimed, ' No, my lord, it's 
 not that apprentice boy — it's not 
 the younger apprentice that I want 
 —it's Thomas King that I want — 
 the elder apprentice, who knows 
 that I never went to the drawer in 
 my life; for when I asked for paper 
 he always gave it me; and if he 
 was here he dare not deny the truth 
 to my face, and I wish him to be 
 sent for.' 
 
 The recorder said ' You should 
 have had him here before.' 
 
 The prisoner replied, ' My lord, 
 I desired him to be brought, and I 
 wish him lo be sent for now.' 
 
 The recorder said ' No, it's too 
 late now — I cannot hear you.' 
 
 The recorder then asked Roger 
 Gadsden ' Who lit the fire in the 
 office ?' He replied ' The prisoner ; 
 I and my fellow-apprentice have 
 seen her go lo that drawer many 
 times.' 
 
 William Fenning, the prisoner's 
 father, greatly agitated, stepped up 
 into the witnesses' box, and said, 
 ' I am the father of the unfortunate 
 girl, my lord : if you won't hear 
 her, I hope you will hear me.' 
 
 He was then proceeding to relate, 
 amongst other circumstances, his 
 having been denied access to his 
 daughter, in the manner mentioned 
 in the note delivered to Mr. Alley, 
 and shown to the recorder; and to 
 state that his daughter, when he 
 was denied, was lying in great 
 agony below stairs, from the effects 
 of the poisoned dumplings. 
 
 The recorder would not suffer the 
 prisoner's father to go on — he put 
 his hand out, and motioned him to 
 leave the witnesses' box — he told 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'8 NEWGATE CALENDAR. 179 
 
 him ' he could not hear him — it was 
 too late — he must go down.' 
 
 Finding that the recorder would 
 not hear him, and heing ordered 
 down, the father left the witnesses' 
 box. 
 
 The recorder proceeded to sum up 
 the evidence, and charge the jury. 
 
 Before the summing up, Mr. Alley, 
 the prisoner's counsel, left the Court. 
 
 The recorder, in summing up the 
 evidence, made remarks as he went 
 on, and dwelt particularly on the 
 prisoner's declaration to Sarah Peer, 
 that she should not like Mr. and 
 Mrs. Turner any more — on her re- 
 peatedly requesting her mistress to 
 let her make yeast dumplings; par- 
 ticularly her telling her mistress, 
 when she complained they did not 
 rise, that they ' would rise time 
 enough ;' and on her telling Gads- 
 den not to eat of the dumplings that 
 had come down stairs — that they 
 were cold and heavy, and would do 
 him no good. 
 
 The recorder observed that, vel- 
 lum and parchment being very va- 
 luable, arsenic was kept to preserve 
 these valuable things from the ver- 
 min called rats and mice; and that 
 it was evident that the prisoner at 
 the bar could not be ignorant of the 
 poison, because it was written on 
 • Arsenic, deadly poison ;' and as 
 this girl had an education, and 
 could read and write, she could not 
 be iirnorant of the poison. 
 
 The recorder concluded his charge 
 in the following words, or words to 
 the like effect : — 
 
 ' Gentlemen, you have now heard 
 the evidence on this trial, and the 
 case lies in a very narrow compass. 
 There are but two questions for 
 your consideration ; and these are, 
 the fact of poison having been ad- 
 ministered, in all, to four persons, 
 and by what hand such poison was 
 given. That these persons were 
 poisoned appears certain from the 
 
 evidence of Mrs. Charlotte Turner, 
 Orlihar Turner, Roger Gadsden the 
 apprentice, and Robert Turner; for 
 each of these persons ate of the 
 dumplings, and were all more or 
 less affected ; that is, they were 
 every one poisoned. That the poison 
 was in the dou^h of wh'ch these 
 dumplings were composed has been 
 fully proved, 1 think, by the testi- 
 mony of the surgeon who examined 
 the remains of the dough left in the 
 dish in which the dumplings had 
 been mixed and divided ; and he 
 deposes that the powder which had 
 subsided at the bottom of the dish 
 was arsenic. That the arsenic was 
 not in the flour, I think appears 
 plain from the circumstance that the 
 crust of a pie had been made that 
 very morning with some of the flour 
 of which the dumpings were made, 
 and that the persons who dined off 
 the pie felt no inconvenience what- 
 ever: that it was not in the yeast, 
 nor in the milk, has been proved ; 
 neither could it be in the sauce, for 
 two of the persons who were ill 
 never touched a particle of the 
 sauce, and yet were violently af- 
 fected with retching and sickness. 
 From all these circumstances it 
 must follow that the poisonous in- 
 gredient was in the doui;h alone; 
 for, besides I hat the persons who 
 partook of the dumplings at dinner 
 were all more or less affected from 
 what they had eaten, it was ob- 
 served, by one of the witnesses, 
 that the dough retained the same 
 shape it had when first put into the 
 dish to rise; and that it appeared 
 dark and was heavy, and in fact 
 never did rise. The other question 
 for your consideration is, by what 
 hand the poison was administered ? 
 and, although we have nothing be- 
 fore us but circumstantial evidence, 
 yet it often happens that circum- 
 stances are more conclusive than 
 the most positive testimony. 
 
180 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 ' The prisoner, when taxed with 
 poisoning the dumplings, threw the 
 hhnne first on the milk, next on the 
 yeast, and then on the sauce; but 
 it has been proved, most satisfac- 
 torily, that none of these, contained 
 it, and that it was in the dumplings 
 alone, which no person but the pri- 
 soner had made. Gentlemen, if 
 poison had been given even" to a 
 dog, one would suppose that com- 
 mon humanity would have prompted 
 us to assist it in its agonies : here 
 is the case oi' a master and mistress 
 bein^ both poisoned, and no assist- 
 ance was offered. Gentlemen, I have 
 now stated all the facts as they 
 have arisen, and I leave the case 
 in your hands, being fully persuaded 
 that, whatever your verdict may be, 
 vou will conscientiously discharge 
 »our duly both to your God and to 
 your country.' 
 
 After the charge, the jury in a 
 few minutes brought in a verdict of 
 Guilty, and the miserable girl was 
 carried from the bar convulsed 
 with agony, and uttering frightful 
 screams. 
 
 The recorder passed sentence of 
 death upon her. 
 
 In the foregoing trial there is no 
 proof that the prisoner took the 
 arsenic out of the drawer, or that 
 she had ever seen it there ; it was 
 not seen with her, neither was there 
 any indication of her having had it, 
 when she and her box were searched 
 after the fatal accident. There was 
 no proof that arsenic was in the 
 dumplings; and, what is more, in 
 all probability, it was not arsenic 
 that caused the sickness in Turner's 
 family. A moment's reflection must 
 lead to this opinion. Gadsden ate 
 
 only the size of a walnut of the 
 dumpling, and was ill in a way si- 
 milar to old Mr. Turner; Mrs Ro- 
 beit Turner did not eat a quarter 
 of a dumpling", and was first ill, and 
 continued longest indisposed; while 
 Robert Greyson Turner ate a 
 dumpling and a half,* and dots not 
 appear to have been more ill than 
 his wife, who did not eat more than 
 one-fifth of that quantity. Arsenic 
 (Iops not operate in this way; one 
 grain will not have the effect of 
 five. 
 
 Mr. Marshall swore that he found 
 next morning, in the dish in which 
 the dumplings were made, half a 
 tea-spoouiul of arsenic. If the 
 arsenic had been mixed in the 
 douirh, no doubt it would have been 
 equally diffused throughout the 
 whole mass, for, though it had not 
 been done so with the kneading, it 
 has that property in itself. Now 
 every one in the habit of f, r oing into 
 a kitchen knows that the dough 
 which adheres to a dish wherein 
 dumplings had been made is very 
 small, and, if collected, would cer- 
 tainly not exceed the size of a wal- 
 nut, or one-eighth of a dumpling. 
 If, therefore, there was in that 
 quantity half a tea-spoonful of ar- 
 senic, which it has been ascertained 
 would w. igb fifty grains, there 
 would have been in the four dum- 
 plings and a half, eaten by the five 
 perso is, a quantity of arsenic weigh- 
 ing one thousand eiyht hundred 
 grains. Now as five grains of ar- 
 senic would destroy any human being 
 who swallowed it. the quantity in 
 Mrs. Turner's quarter of a dumpling 
 was equal to the death of ten per- 
 sons; that in her husband's dumpling 
 
 • There were but »ix dumplings in all ; and if Robert Turner and his wife ate one 
 and three-fourths, and there remained, when the liquorish Gadsden went down to the 
 kitchen, only a dumpliug and a half, then Eliza, and the old man must have eaten 
 Two dumplings and three-quarters between them, which clearly demonstiatesthat Eliza 
 Fetming ate nearly as much as any one in the house. — Would she have done this had 
 •she pai poison in them ! 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 181 
 
 and a half would have killed one 
 hundred and twenty; and in that 
 eaten by the five persons would have 
 destroyed three hundred and sixty 
 people ! ! ! 
 
 It is probable, therefore, that 
 arsenic was not in the dumplings; 
 and, if the illness of the family 
 arose from having; swallowed arse- 
 nic, it must have been shaken upon 
 the dumplings after they were made, 
 and this supposition accounts for 
 the large quantity found in the 
 dish nut of which the dumplings 
 were taken. But, after all, may 
 not the deleterious ingredient have 
 been some other mineral less fatal 
 in its effects than arsenic, though 
 capable of exciting similar symp- 
 toms ? and might not this have 
 been introduced by some mischiev- 
 ous or malignant person who might 
 have gone into the kitchen while 
 Eliza was absent? 
 
 It is true, indeed, that Mr. Mar- 
 shall, the apothecary, swore posi- 
 tively that it was arsenic he found 
 in the dish ; but he was evidently 
 a man of little science, for his e« i- 
 dence was in part untrue; and, 
 coming from a medical man, though 
 erroneous, might have had a fatal 
 influence on the decision of a jury. 
 He swore that arsenic being cut 
 with a knife would blacken the 
 knife; and, as this is not the case, 
 it is not very unreasonable to sup- 
 pose that he was also mistaken in 
 respect to the powder which he 
 found in the dish. 
 
 Of all the criminal cases which 
 can come before a jury, that of poi- 
 soning is the easiest accomplished, 
 the hardest to guard against, and 
 the most di testable, and most dif- 
 ficult of proof. Tiiere can be no 
 punishment too severe for such an 
 enormity. When it is committed 
 in a family, every individual of that 
 family is seized with horror of the 
 crime— anger and abhorrence of 
 
 whoever is accused — and a propor- 
 tionate dread of being each suspect- 
 ed and sacrificed. Until some in- 
 dividual is apprehended, suspicion 
 attaches upon all the inmates, and 
 the master, mistress, and servants, 
 are equally objects of arrest and 
 imprisonment ; but the moment any 
 one of these is committed, the united 
 detestation of the others collects 
 upon that individual ; and facts 
 which, otherwise, would be proofs 
 of innocence, are then arrested to 
 their disadvantage, and are brought 
 in as corroborating evidence of guilt. 
 A jury ought, therefore, with ge- 
 nerous manliness, to stand upon 
 the forlorn hope of the accused, and 
 not for a single moment to forget 
 that every one of those who de- 
 posed against the p isoner at the 
 bar came that morning from one 
 house, had conferred together upon 
 the evidence they were to give, and 
 were knit together by the ties of 
 blood, the interest of family cha- 
 racter, and the bonds of domestic 
 dependency and servitude. They 
 ouglit to recollect that all the de- 
 ponents partake of the same pre- 
 judices, horror, and alarm for them- 
 selves, and have an absolute interest 
 in the conviction and execution of 
 the unfortunate accused, as they 
 are thereby secured from future 
 suspicion of the horrid crime. Pro- 
 per weight is to be given to the 
 testimony of consistent witnesses, 
 substantiating the whole of their 
 presumptive evidence by some one 
 act of evil in itself; but an intelli- 
 gent juror will not permit inconsist- 
 ency, improbability, and outrageous 
 impossibility, to pass on him for 
 evidence, merely because thev are 
 sworn to in his presence. It is 
 worthy of remark that the whole 
 of the witnesses against Eliza Ken- 
 ning were in Court, listening to each 
 other, during the unfortunate girl's 
 trial. 
 
182 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 We make no apology for the 
 length of this case, because it is 
 one of vilal importance lo every in- 
 dividual, since it may possibly fall 
 to the lot of any person, in what- 
 ever walk of life, to become acci- 
 dentally an object of suspicion, and 
 to be charged with an offence of the 
 greatest enormity on mere surmise. 
 The discussion, therefore, of a sub- 
 ject so momentous, and which 
 conies home to the bosom of every 
 man, cannot surely be reprehended 
 as useless or uncalled for. 
 
 Few cases ever excited greater 
 interest than that of Eliza Fenning; 
 and as some men — through inadvert- 
 ency, to say no worse of it — ma- 
 ligned her character, we are happy 
 in bting able to state that her re- 
 ligious principles were correct, and 
 her professions sincere : through 
 life she was distinguished by a su- 
 periority of intellect, and a pro- 
 priety of deportment, which could 
 hardly be reconciled with the de- 
 pravily of which she was accused. 
 Her person was short of stature, 
 but of the most perfect symmetry ; 
 while her countenance evinced a 
 heart at ease, and a mind at once 
 intellectual and lively. She had 
 been, before the fatal transaction, 
 betrothed to a young man, to whom 
 she appears to have been sincerely 
 attached — a circumstance which 
 must have added to her sufferings. 
 
 After the unfortunate girl's con- 
 viction she was induced to apply to 
 the fountain of mercy for remission 
 of the sentence of death, and sent 
 a petition to the prince regent. She 
 next addressed the lord chancellor, 
 to whom she mentioned the remark- 
 able fact that Mrs. Turner swore at 
 one time that she (Eliza) carried 
 the pic to the baker's about twelve 
 o'clock, while in an another place 
 she states that the dough was di- 
 vided into dumplings twenty minutes 
 before twelve. She also sent a 
 
 letter to Lord Sidmouth, and an- 
 other to her late master, requesting 
 him to sign a petition in her favour, 
 with which be refused to comply. 
 
 Several gentlemen now interested 
 themselves in the fate of the poor 
 girl, and Mr. Montagu, of Lin- 
 coln's Inn, waited on the recorder, 
 offering to produce evidence of a 
 member of Mr. Turner's family, 
 who was insane, having declared 
 that he would poison the family; 
 but the recorder assured him that 
 the production of such evidence 
 would be wholly useless. 
 
 The night before her execution 
 a meeting of gentlemen took place 
 in Mr. Newman's apartments, in 
 Newgate, at which Mr. Gibson, of 
 the house of Corbyn and Co. chy- 
 mists, No. 300, Holborn, staled 
 that Robert Gregsen Turner, in 
 the month of September or October, 
 called at their house in a wild and 
 deranged state, requesting to be 
 put under restraint, otherwise he 
 declared he should destroy himself 
 and wife. Mr. Gibson also stated 
 that it was well known in the fa- 
 mily that Robert Turner was oc- 
 casionally subject to such violent 
 and strange conduct. 
 
 With this information Mr. Gib- 
 son, accompanied by a clerk from 
 the secretary of state's office, waited 
 on the recorder, requesting that 
 the unfortunate girl might be re- 
 spited, to admit of investigation : — 
 in twelve hours after, Eliza Fenn- 
 
 ing was executed ! 
 
 From the moment the poor girl 
 was first charged with the poison- 
 ing, however or by whomsoever 
 questioned, she never faltered in 
 her denial of the crime, and rather 
 courted than shunned an investiga- 
 tion of her case. So many circum- 
 stances, which had developed them- 
 selves subsequently to the trial, 
 had been communicated to the se- 
 cretary of state by the gentlemen 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 183 
 
 who hiterested themselves in her 
 favour (among whom were some 
 of great respectability), that a re- 
 prieve was confidently expected to 
 the last : and the order for her execu- 
 tion, four months after her conviction, 
 was received with very great surprise. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, the '25th, 
 she took her last farewell of her 
 father, who, by the firmness of his 
 manner, exemplified the courage 
 lie wished his child to sustain upon 
 the scaffold: but with her mother 
 the parting scene was heartrending. 
 
 On the fatal morning, the 26th 
 July, 181 5, she slept till four o'clock, 
 when she arose, and, after carefully 
 washing herself, and spending some 
 time in prayer, she dressed herself 
 neatly in a white muslin gown and 
 cap. About eight o'clock she 
 walked steadily to the spot where 
 criminals are bound; and, whilst 
 the executioner tied her hands — 
 even whilst he wound the halter 
 round her waist — she stood erect 
 and unmoved, with astonishing for- 
 titude. At this moment a gentle- 
 man who had greatly interested 
 himself in her behalf adjured her, 
 in the name of that God in whose 
 presence she was about to appear, 
 if she knew any thing of the crime 
 for which she was about to suffer, 
 to make it known ; when she replied, 
 distinctly and clearly, ' Before God, 
 then, I die innocent!' The question 
 was again put by the Rev. Mr. Vazie, 
 as well as by the Ordinary, and finally 
 by Oldfield, who suffered with her, 
 and to each she repeated ' I am in- 
 
 nocent ' These were her last words ; 
 and she died, without a struggle, 
 at the age of twenty-one. 
 
 Her miserable parents, on appli- 
 cation for her body, were not pre- 
 pared to pay the executioner's fees 
 of fourteen shillings and sixpence : 
 they, however, borrowed the money, 
 and were then permitted to remove 
 it. On Monday, the 31st, the 
 corpse was interred in the burial- 
 ground of St. George the Martyr, 
 near Brunswick Square, in the pre- 
 sence of an immense concourse of 
 spectators. 
 
 Thousands of people, deeming 
 the poor girl innocent, vented all 
 their indignation on her prosecu- 
 tors: vast numbers assembled be- 
 fore Turner's door, in Chancery 
 Lane, hooting and hissing, inflamed 
 by all sorts of exaggerations. This 
 state of things continued for several 
 days, notwithstanding the active 
 interference of the police to avert 
 the public anger. Davis, a turnkey 
 in Newgate, made an affidavit that 
 Eliza Fenning's father conjured his 
 daughter, when she came out on 
 the scaffold, to declare that she was 
 innocent. This affidavit was print- 
 ed, and industriously circulated ; 
 but old Fenuing, after his daughter's 
 funeral, replied to it in a Cviunter 
 affidavit, which, with Davis's ex- 
 planation, showed that the asser- 
 tion was utterly false. The public 
 sympathized with the unhappy 
 parents of Eliza Fenning, and a 
 subscription was entered into for 
 their benefit. 
 
 ELIZABETH WOOLLERTON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR POISONING. 
 
 This wicked woman, unlike the of a farmer, residing at Denton, in 
 
 unfortunate Eliza Fenning, had the Norfolk, and the mother of nine 
 
 crime brought home to her, which children, was tried on a charge* of 
 
 she aggravated by attempting to having mixed a certain quantity 
 
 throw the charge upon her daughter, of arsenic in a cake, which cako 
 
 Elizabeth Woollerton, the wife she sent as a present to her uncle, 
 
184 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Tifford Clarke, Esq. on the 2d day 
 of July, 1816, thereby intending; 
 to kill him ; and part of the said 
 cake being eaten by Robert Sparkes, 
 son of Benjamin Sparkes, occasioned 
 his death. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Loner, apothecary 
 at Bungay, said that the prisoner 
 had purchased from him a quantity 
 of arsenic on the 2'2d of June ; also 
 on a prior occasion. 
 
 It was proved by the prisoner's 
 daughters, who were admitted evi- 
 dence against her, that she had 
 made the cake in question, and 
 sent it to her uncle. It further ap- 
 peared that she stood indebted to 
 her uncle in the sum of two hun- 
 dred pounds, and who intimated 
 leaving her by his will a further 
 sum of five hundred pounds. 
 
 Mr. Clarke proved the having re- 
 ceived cakes from the prisoner on 
 a former occasion, the eating of 
 which had made him extremely ill, 
 and in consequence he desired her 
 not to send him such cakes in fu- 
 ture; and for the reason alluded to 
 he refused to eat of the cake in 
 question. The housekeeper of Mr. 
 Clarke, upon this, unknowingly 
 sent the poisoned cake to her son- 
 in-law, Sparkes, who had a family 
 of five children. Upon receipt of 
 
 it, the mother of the deceased di- 
 vided the cake into equal portions 
 for the children's breakfast next 
 morning, previous to their departure 
 for school at an early hour. The 
 youngest of these, a boy six years 
 old, was the first to eat his portion, 
 which ultimately proved fatal to 
 him; the other four were danger- 
 ously ill, but by means of timely 
 assistance recovered, not having ate 
 their full proportions: owing to 
 this circumstance, the eldest, a girl 
 about twelve years old, perceiving 
 an acrid taste, took from her bro- 
 thers and sisters that which re- 
 mained uneaten. 
 
 The surgeons who opened the body 
 of the deceased proved, by means of 
 analyzation, that that part of the 
 cake found in the stomach contained 
 arsenic, occasioning the death of 
 the boy ; and, in like manner, that 
 part of the cake which had not 
 been eaten. 
 
 The prisoner, in her defence, per- 
 sisted in her innocence, after an 
 attempt to throw it upon her daugh- 
 ter, an interesting girl fourteen 
 years of age ! She was found Guilty 
 — Death; and pursuant to her sen- 
 tence was executed on Monday, 
 July 17, 1815, at Ipswich, amidst 
 an immense crowd of spectalors. 
 
 ELIZABETH HUNTER AND REBECCA JARVIS. 
 
 CONVICTED OF ROASTING A CHILD. 
 
 These were worthy descendants Jarvis aired twenty-one, was a ser- 
 
 of Mother Brownrigg, of notorious vant in Hunter's employ, 
 memory ; and, had not their wick- Catherine Evans stated on the 
 
 ed proceedings been fortunately in- trial that she was in the habit of 
 
 terrupted, no doubt they would washing and ironing clothes for the 
 
 have earned for themselves the late prisoner, and that on the morning 
 
 of their infamous predecessor in this of the 24th of May she went at an 
 
 unnatural species of cruelty. early hour to look for work, when 
 
 Elizabeth Hunter, aged forty-six, she found Hunter chastising one of 
 
 resided in the parish of Barking, the children she had under her care, 
 
 and was iu the habit of receiving whom she told to strip. The child 
 
 parish children to nurse. Rebecca did so, when Hunter and Jarvis 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. IS5 
 
 bound it hand and foot. Evans 
 asked the former what she was 
 going to do with the child, when 
 she replied that she was going to 
 roast it. Evans instantly apprized 
 a neighbour, and they went together 
 to Mrs. Hunter's, whom they 
 found with her servant holding the 
 child stiipped before the fire. The 
 child was very close, and cried out 
 greatly. They were so shocked at 
 the sight that they ran out of the 
 house ; but returned again, when 
 the child was gone. Not being 
 
 able to get a sight of it, they went 
 to the parish officers, and informed. 
 them of the circumstance. An of- 
 ficer was in consequence sent to 
 take away the child, who b(iug 
 found in a dangerous state, the 
 perpetrators of the cruel act were 
 apprehended, and indicted at the 
 Chelmsford assizes on the 3d of 
 August, 1816, when they were 
 found Guilty, and Mrs. Hunter was 
 sentenced to eighteen months' im- 
 prisonment, and Rebecca Jarvis to 
 six, in the county gaol. 
 
 Grunt and hit Companions attacked by the Military, 
 
 JEREMIAH GRANT, 
 
 EXICUTEJ) FOR EURGLARY. 
 
 The exploits of this celebrated His progress in literature was very 
 
 Irish freebooter were fully equal to trifling; indeed it has been slated 
 
 those of the accomplished robber that he could neither read nor 
 
 Duvell. Captain Grant was the son write. His fertile genius, however, 
 
 of a poor peasant in the Queen's obviated this misfortune, and his 
 
 County, and early evinced a piedi- daring spirit triumphed over 
 
 lection for the bread of idleness, minor obstacles. He sallied out, 
 
186 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 before the age of twenty, to levy 
 contributions on the highway, and 
 before lie was twenty-one a chosen 
 band ol followers bailed him Captain. 
 
 His depredations for several years 
 were confined to bis native county, 
 where bis improvident liberality se- 
 cured him the esteem and blessings 
 of the lower orders, while the terror 
 of his name, and dread of bis venge- 
 ance, kept those of a higher rank 
 in complete subjection to his autho- 
 rity. 
 
 Like Rob Roy, be levied an annual 
 tax on the farmers, which they 
 cheerfully paid, as it secured them 
 from the nocturnal visits of his fol- 
 lowers ; for Grant was a man of 
 strict honour and a rigid disciplina- 
 rian, who punished with severity 
 any dereliction of duty in his band. 
 
 Notwithstanding the offer of re- 
 ward for his apprehension, Captain 
 Grant, as the country people called 
 him, was to be seen at every fair 
 and pattern in the country, and 
 had a more numerous acquaintance 
 than the village doctor. At every 
 farmer's table he was welcome, and 
 the cottages that gave him shelter 
 were sure of reward ; for be freely 
 shared the contributions he obtained 
 with danger. 
 
 With the ladies he was a second 
 Macbeath, and more wives than 
 one claimed him for their husband ; 
 and no wonder, for be was fre- 
 quently complimented, on his per- 
 son and manner, by the mistresses 
 of those bouses which he visited 
 without the formality of an invita- 
 tion. But it must be observed that 
 Grai't never forgot his accustomed 
 humanity and politeness; and, un- 
 less when attacked by the police, 
 he never did an individual a per- 
 sonal injury. His behaviour al- 
 ways evinced a degree of refinement 
 above his education and birlh; so 
 mucn so, that even those who suf- 
 fered from his depredations never 
 
 spoke of him but as an accomplish- 
 ed villain. 
 
 His person was of the most 
 elegant symmetry, and bis agility 
 surprising. At rural games be 
 had no rival; and he danced with 
 so much grace, that the country 
 uirls were often beard to wish he 
 bad not been a robber. 
 
 His character at length grew so 
 notorious in the Queen's County, 
 that a consultation of magistrates 
 was held for the purpose of devis- 
 ing means for his apprehension. In 
 consequence of the measures they 
 adopted several of Grant's followers 
 were brought to justice, and they 
 died, as their Captain expressed it, 
 of the ' gallows fever.' For some 
 time his knowledge of the country 
 and the partiality of the peasantry 
 towards him,aided him in evading the 
 pursuit which was made after him ; 
 but a traitor was found, and Grant 
 was delivered into the bands of the 
 Philistines. 
 
 The gentry of the country, and 
 ladies of the first rank, crowded to 
 the gaol of Maryborough to see 
 the ' bold outlaw,' which, it was 
 supposed, so much affected his sen- 
 sibility, that he took his departure, 
 one night, from prison, through a 
 window, having first contrived to 
 cut the bars that guarded it. 
 
 Dreading another specimen of 
 the rudeness of the Irish aristo- 
 cracy, he prudently resolved to 
 leave the Slieve-bloom mountains, 
 and, with the remnant of his ban- 
 ditti, he removed to the wood of 
 Killoughram, in the county of Wex- 
 ford, within four miles of the town 
 of Enniscorthy. Here he continued 
 for some time, and made frequent 
 visits to the neighbouring towns, 
 where he was known by the name 
 of Cooney. 
 
 In the March of 1816 he made 
 a journey to his native county, where 
 he robbed the house of Thoni 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 167 
 
 Cambie, Esq. of money and plate 
 to a large amount. Mrs. Camltie 
 was at home, ai.d he behaved with 
 so much politeness, that she order- 
 ed him supper and wine. The cap- 
 tain, being impatient of delay, ap- 
 plied his teeth to extract a cork 
 from a bottle; upon which the mis- 
 tress observed ' it was a pity to 
 spoil his fine white teeth,' and im- 
 mediately stood up and procured 
 him a cork-screw. Grant, on his de- 
 parture, took the liberty to horrow 
 Mr. Cambie'a horse and gi<. r , in 
 which he rode to his retreat in the 
 wood of Killoughram. 
 
 The captain's occasional depreda- 
 tions in the county of Wexford ex- 
 cited great alarm, for a robbery there 
 then was a thing of very rare occur- 
 rtnce. Notice was given of the 
 banditti retreat, and Archibald Jacob 
 inarched the military out of Ennis- 
 torthy and surrounded the wood. 
 Some of the soldiers and yeomanry 
 penetrated the fastness, and in the 
 thickest part of the shade they dis- 
 covered the ' Robber Chief/ and five 
 of his followers, on a bed of straw, si- 
 tuated in a romantic cave. The free- 
 booters defended themselves with de- 
 sperate valour, and, ere they surren- 
 dered, wounded five of the military. 
 In the cave were found all the utensils 
 of housebreaking, and abundance of 
 arms. 
 
 The captain was committed to 
 Wexford gaol by the name of 
 Cooncy ; but the evidence against 
 him being doubtful, it was appre- 
 hended he would be acquitted, when 
 
 fortunately it was discovered th:tt 
 he vas the celebrated Captain 
 Grant. The gaoler of Maryborough 
 now claimed his body, am! he was 
 forthwith transmitted to his former 
 abode. This was fortunate for the 
 ends of justice ; for it was discovered 
 that on the night of his removal he 
 had matured a scheme of escape 
 from the Wexford gaol. 
 
 His trial came on at Maryborough 
 August the 16th, 1816, when he 
 was found Guilty of the burglary in 
 Mr. Cambie'a house. To the ques- 
 tion ' What reason he had why 
 judgment and sentence of death 
 should not be passed on him ?' be 
 replied in the most firm, collected, 
 and, indeed, feeling manner, — ' My 
 lord, I only beg of the Court some 
 short time to arrange things before 
 my departure for another place; not 
 in the idle hope of escape or par- 
 don, but to make restitution to the 
 persons who have suffered by my 
 bad line of life. I have been visited 
 in my cell by some blessed people, 
 who have, thank God, given this 
 turn to my mind, and to which I 
 implore your lordship's attention.' 
 
 Grant's conduct throughout the 
 trial was firm and collected, and 
 was spoken of by the judge in terms 
 of melancholy approbation. 
 
 Sufficient time was allowed him 
 to make the arrangements he wish- 
 ed, after which he met his fate 
 with decent fortitude and pious re- 
 signation, at Maryborough, August 
 the 29th, 1816. 
 
 JAMES MARSH, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 This was a most hardened and de- Parsons lived in the employ of Mr. 
 
 liberate murderer, and had the an- Metford, of Glastonbury, in Sorner- 
 
 dacity as well as wickedness to face setshire. One Saturday morning, 
 
 his God with ' all his sins upon his Parsons was going, as usual, for the 
 
 head,' and no * preparation made.' purpose of paying the spinners of 
 
 James Marsh and a man named Mr. Metford their wages, and carry- 
 
138 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 1115 in his cart a supply of work for 
 the ensuing week. He was assisted 
 in loading the cart by Marsh, who 
 afterwards followed him on the road 
 towards Wells. On his way he pro- 
 vided himself with the hone of a 
 horse's leg, and got permission of 
 Parsons to ride with him in the 
 cart. 
 
 At a moment when Parsons was 
 offering him a pinch of snuff, he 
 knocked him down with the bone, 
 repeated his blows and afterwards 
 cut his throat. He was immediately 
 after detected in endeavouring to 
 hide the body. He fled instantly, 
 hut, being closely pursued, was ap- 
 prehended, and confessed the murder. 
 
 The deceased had twelve pounds 
 of his master's money ; and this sum, 
 it was supposed, tempted the wretch 
 Marsh to take away his life, as he 
 was in want of money to provide 
 for his wedding, which was ap- 
 pointed to take place the ensuing 
 week. This money was found on 
 him. 
 
 For this dreadful deed he was 
 brought to trial at the Spiing as- 
 sizes for Somersetshire, in 1816, 
 when he was found Guilty, and or- 
 dered for execution. 
 
 From the time of his apprehen- 
 sion Marsh appeared quite insen- 
 sible to the enormity of his crime, 
 and behaved in the most hardened 
 and audacious manner. He con- 
 fessed his crime to the chaplain ; 
 but assigned no reason for it. On 
 arriving at the fatal spot, finding 
 the chaplain about to call him to 
 prayers, be said * No, I shall say no 
 more — where is the man ? (meaning 
 the executioner;) I am ready/ He 
 was, however, prevailed on to join 
 in prayer, after which he again 
 called for ' the man,' and frequently 
 repeated ' Make haste, I am ready.' 
 
 Thus perished this desperate mur- 
 derer, in the 26ih year of his age. 
 He was a good-looking roan, and of 
 a mild countenance; not at all in- 
 dicating the dieadful depravity of 
 his mind. 
 
 THOMAS 
 
 CONDEMNED FOR THE 
 
 The Irish, though seldom suc- 
 cessful on the stage, are neverthe- 
 less capital actors, but generally 
 give to trairic parts a comic effect. 
 The following case of successful 
 adroitness is only one out of many 
 such tricks played off* through the 
 prisons of that country. Similar 
 cases have frequently occurred, and 
 a few years before this period two 
 convicts made their escape the 
 same day, unknown to each other, 
 out of Wexford gaol. 
 
 Thomas Carson, and his brother 
 John, were tried at the Meath as- 
 sizes in the spring of 1816, for the 
 wilful murder of a man named Cas- 
 sidy. The Carsons belonged to a 
 corps of yeomen, that is, a kind of 
 local militia, and, being Frotestunts, 
 
 CARSON, 
 
 MURDER OF C. CASS1DY 
 
 were thus privileged to carry arms. 
 Of these, however, they made a bad 
 use, and turned them against one 
 of his majesty's subjects, named 
 Cassidy, whose life they took away, 
 through wanton cruelty, in 1800, in 
 Kilmaiiiham Wood, in the county of 
 Meath. John was acquitted; but 
 Thomas Carson was found Guilty, 
 and ordered for execution on the 
 following Friday morning, at one 
 o'clock. 
 
 At five o'clock on Friday morn- 
 ing a brother of the prisoner went 
 to see the unhappy culprit, and in- 
 formed the goaler that Mr. Wain- 
 wright, the clergyman would attend 
 in a short time to pray with, and 
 administer the sacrament to, his 
 brother. The judge had, from hu- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 189 
 
 manity, directed that his relations 
 should have free access to the pri- 
 soner, so that his brother was per- 
 mitted to go into the condemned 
 cell to him. Some time after the 
 gaoler entered the cell, and said that 
 the time was very short, and, if the 
 clergyman was expected, they had 
 better send for him. The brother 
 offered to go for him, and accord- 
 ingly did. Shortly after Mr. Wain- 
 wright came ; and being shown into 
 the cell, continued a long time in 
 prayer with the prisoner. The time 
 of execution approaching the gaoler 
 came in accompanied by the pri- 
 soner's uncle. The clergyman told 
 Ihe prisoner he had no time to lose — 
 that his uncle had come, and would 
 communicate with him in the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament. The 
 prisoner entreated to be allowed to 
 pray a little longer, and appeared ab- 
 sorbed in devotion. At length the 
 gaoler becoming quite impatient, he 
 rose from the straw on which he was 
 kneeling, and welcomed his uncle. 
 The latter instantly exclaimed, 
 ' Good God ! how grief has altered 
 
 him ! — this cannot be T 
 
 ommy 
 
 M 
 
 and, looking nearer — 'No,' said 
 he 'this is Anthony Carson!' 
 The clergyman was amazed — the 
 gaoler ran down stairs, and dis- 
 covered that the person whom he 
 had sent for the clergyman was no 
 other than the convict himself, who 
 had not thought proper to return. 
 
 Coming back into his cell, the 
 gaoler died out in a rage, ' Your 
 brother is gone off! what shall I do? 
 I am ruined !' ' Gone off!' cried 
 Anthony, with great surprise; 'Oh! 
 he has taken away my big coat !' 
 
 The two brothers served in tt to 
 same corps, and were so alike id 
 appearance that Anthony came to 
 the prison in a frize pi eat coat, 
 which he trave to the convict, who, 
 thus disguised, passed all the doors 
 of the prison, and walked delibe- 
 rately into the street, from whence, 
 in great apparent affliction, he look- 
 ed up at the preparation for execu- 
 tion, and passed on as if to Mr. 
 Waihwright's house. 
 
 Diligent search was made for the 
 fuuitive, but without effect. The 
 brother was detained, but the extent 
 of his crime was a misdemeanour. 
 
 CAPTAIN GEORGE HARROWER, 
 
 CONVICTED OF BIGAMY. 
 
 Although the conduct of Cap- reprobated his prosecution, and con- 
 tain Harrower was far from blame- tinned to perform towards him, even 
 
 less, yet we have no hesitation in 
 pronouncing him a * man more sinned 
 against than sinning.' He met 
 treachery, in more instances than 
 one, where he had a rigdit to ex- 
 
 after accusation, all the offices of 
 an affectionate wife. But, whatever 
 censure may be cast upon him, it was 
 not for the ungrateful father of his 
 second wife to drag him to a court 
 »"iect gratitude; and was prosecuted of justice, in the hope of transport- 
 by him who should, for many con- ing him from his country, for the 
 siderations, have been his friend. base purpose of revenge or lucie, 
 
 The captain's conduct, even from at the expense of his daughter's 
 the most fastidious, admits of many happiness. 
 
 palliations. His first wife might be At the Old Bailey sessions, Fe- 
 said to be, though not physically, bruary the 17th, 1816, Captain 
 morally dead, and his treatment of George Harrower was indicted for 
 Iris second seems to have been ho- having married one Susannah Anne 
 nourable, kind, and tender ; for she Giblett, on Ihe 12th of October, 
 
190 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 1812, his former wife, Mary Usher j 
 being then living. 
 
 It appeared in evidence that the 
 captain was married at Bombay, in 
 1794, to Mary Usher, who after- 
 wards becoming a lunatic, lie was 
 obliged, on leaving that country, to 
 leave behind him. 
 
 After residing some years in this 
 country, and feeling conscious that 
 the unfortunate state in which his 
 wife remained at Bombay precluded 
 the possibility of his ever seeing 
 her again, he resolved on marrying 
 Mi>s Susannah Giblelt, the daugh- 
 ter of a butcher in Bond Street, 
 which he did on the 12th of Octo- 
 ber, 1813, with whom he lived in 
 perfect happiness. 
 
 The circumstance of his former 
 marriage, however, coming to the 
 ears of his father-in-law, Giblelt, 
 the latter took advantage of it to 
 obtain money from Harrower, who, 
 in his defence, adverted to the pe- 
 liod when he had the misfortune to 
 become known to the prosecutor, 
 Giblett, who, in draining him of his 
 purse, and instituting proceedings 
 against his liberty and character, 
 had left him but one consolation, 
 an amiable and beloved wife, un- 
 fortunately the daughter of the 
 worst of men. The prosecution, he 
 said, was the result of a foul and 
 infamous conspiracy, and not that 
 of a desire to support the laws of 
 the country, or to punish those who 
 transgressed them. He had been 
 introduced to Giblett in an un- 
 uuarded way, and, feeling a consci- 
 ousness of his own integrity, did 
 not suspect a contrary principle to 
 prevail in him. After (he acquaint- 
 ance between them was matured, 
 he married his daughter, upon 
 whom he settled a jointure of ten 
 thousand pounds. He afterwards 
 lent Gibbett sums of money amount- 
 ing to seventeen thousand pounds; 
 and further sums, which raised the 
 
 whole of what Giblett had suc- 
 ceeded in drawing from him to more 
 than thirty thousand pounds. In 
 fact, he had not only deprived him 
 (Capt. Harrower) of all the money 
 he could by possibility extract, but 
 he had robbed his own daughter of 
 the ten thousand pounds which had 
 been settled upon her. Every 
 means was used by Giblett to cause 
 his wife to leave him, and live at 
 home with himself, when he offered 
 to give up certain apartments in 
 his house for her accommodation ; 
 adding, that they would be able to 
 get the whole of the money to them- 
 selves, and he (Captain Harrower) 
 ' might go and starve.' These pro- 
 posals, however, were always uni- 
 formly and indignantly refined by 
 his wife. He alluded to the com- 
 mission of bankruptcy which had 
 been issued against Giblett, by 
 which he had contrived to defraud 
 him of his money, and mentioned 
 a circumstance which that person 
 had been heard to declare, namely, 
 ' that he would try and <ret the 
 money into Chancery, if other de- 
 signs failed of depriving him of the 
 property.' He went into a variety 
 of other statements, the object of 
 which was to represent Giblett to 
 be a character of the worst descrip- 
 tion ; a diameter such as he never 
 thought existed in England, and 
 as he trusted never would be found 
 in it again. He concluded by pro- 
 testing his innocence, and trusting 
 that the Court would rescue him 
 from the infamous plot which iiad 
 been laid against him, and restore 
 him to the arms of a beloved and 
 only partner. 
 
 The jury, after retiring half an 
 hour, brought in a verdict of Guilty, 
 but strongly recommended the pri- 
 soner to mercy. 
 
 The laudable recommendation of 
 the jury was subsequently attended 
 to, and Captain Harrower, after a 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. J91 
 
 short confinement, was restored to and confined lo the apartment which 
 
 society, and the arms of her who Captain Harrower had occupied, for 
 
 at least deserved to ho his wife. not giving satisfactory answers to the 
 
 In less than two years afterwards commissioners, on his bankruptcy. 
 Gibiett was committed to Newgate, 
 
 SUSANNAH 
 
 EXECUTED FOR POISONING HtR 
 
 This is a most shocking case, 
 and shows to what an extent human 
 depravity may he carried. Su- 
 sannah Hoiroyd was the wife of a 
 weaver, named Matthew Holroyd, 
 who had the misfortune not lo live 
 on good terms with her, though they 
 had three children. She was in the 
 habit of nursing illegitimate chil- 
 dren, and at the time of poisoning 
 had one of these in the house, as 
 well as its mother. About a fort- 
 night previous to the horrid deed 
 she had a very extraordinary con- 
 versalion with this woman, whose 
 name was Mary Newton. She told 
 her that she had had her fortune 
 read, and that in the course of one 
 week, and within the period of the 
 ensuing six weeks, three funerals 
 would go from her door. 
 
 She did not delay her destined 
 purpose, however, until the six 
 weeks of the fortune-teller had ex- 
 pired; for in about a month after- 
 wards she went to the shop of a 
 chymist, and purchased an ounce 
 and a half of arsenic, to fulfil the 
 prophecy. 
 
 This happened on Saturday, the 
 13th of April, 1816, being Easter- 
 Eve. Next morning her husband 
 had some coffee for his breakfast, 
 and soon alter became ill. The 
 children were likewise affected. 
 To restore them she prepared some 
 water-gruel, and in it she mixed the 
 poison. The wretched man felt 
 that the gruel had an uncommon 
 taste, and at first refused to take it; 
 out she urged him so strongly, by 
 telling him that ' it was the last 
 
 HOLROYD, 
 
 HUSBAND AND TWO CHILDREN. 
 
 gruel she ever would prepare for 
 him/ that he complied with her 
 entreaties, not knowing the enigma 
 hid under these words. 
 
 As he grew worse, she called in 
 a doctor, the better to allay suspi- 
 cion, and was intrusted by the phy- 
 sician with the remedies to be ad- 
 ministered ; but she refused to apply 
 them, saying her ' husband would 
 die.' 
 
 The wretched man died on the 
 18th following, and his son, a hoy 
 of eight years old, survived him 
 only six hours, and the child of 
 Mary Newton died the Tuesday 
 following, in great agony. 
 
 This wicked woman was now ap- 
 prehended, and, on being brought 
 before a magistrate, made an unre- 
 served confession of her guilt. 
 
 Her trial came on at the Lancas- 
 ter assizes, September the I3ih, 
 1816, when she was found Guilty 
 on the clearest evidence, and the 
 judge pronounced on her the awful 
 sentence of the law, ordering her 
 for execution on the following Mon- 
 day. She evinced throughout her 
 trial the greatest indifference lo 
 her situation ; but on hearing her 
 sentence she appeared somewhat 
 affected. 
 
 In addition to the horror felt at 
 her crime, there was a pretty ge- 
 neral belief that, in her occupation 
 of nursing illegitimate children, she 
 had murdered, at different times, 
 several infants in the same manner 
 that she had taken away the life of 
 her husband and the other two vic- 
 tims of her unprovoked malice. 
 
192 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 THOMAS BROCK, JOHN PELHAM, AND MICHAEL POWER, 
 
 CONVICTED OF COINING. 
 
 In tlie year 1816, when Matthew on that account tends to impress 
 
 Wood, Esq. was lord-mayor of Lon- the public with the belief that the 
 
 don, several conspiracies of a most, condemnation, and not the acquittal 
 
 diabolical nature were detected, and of the accused, is the. object of our 
 
 some of the conspirators punished, criminal laws. Too true, the ' blood 
 
 The conduct of the chief magis- money/ as this species of remune- 
 
 trate was such as to do honour not ration was emphatically dpnomi- 
 
 ouly to his understanding and ability, nated, did contribute in reality to 
 
 but to his disinterestedness and hu- the evil we allude to. But had not 
 
 inanity ; and, when he retired from a development of unparalleled vil- 
 
 office, the benedictions of thousands lainy put scepticism tp flight, we 
 
 followed bun into private life, while could not have brought ourselves 
 
 he had the consciousness of leaving to believe that those who were paid 
 
 behind him a public character from to detect crime should be found the 
 
 which envy could not detract, nor most active in seducing innocence 
 
 friendship make more exalted in the and youth to its commission. Yet 
 
 opinion of all good men. it is an indubitable fact that, for ten 
 
 The legislature, with the inten- years preceding 1816, victims were 
 
 tion of stimulating the exertions of brought up, session after session, to 
 
 police-officers, and inducing others be convicted of crimes to which 
 
 to give information, had awarded they were seduced by the very men 
 
 certain rewards to the parties who who gave evidence against them; 
 
 should contribute to the conviction and for what? — that they might 
 
 of offenders against the laws. This, revel on the ' blood money/ or 
 
 though laudable, was capable of make use of it to provide other 
 
 great perversion, and in a country victims for the insatiate law. Se- 
 
 of freedom is liable to many objec- veral of those connected with the 
 
 tions ; one in particular — it gives police-offices, particularly the pa- 
 
 the prosecutor an interest in the trolrs, were detected in this traffic 
 
 conviction of the prosecuted, and of blood;* hut only one officer of 
 
 * The following are the parliamentary rewards for the conviction of felons : — 
 
 1. By 4 W. and Alary, cap. 8. forty pounds on the conviction of every highway- 
 man. 
 
 2. By 6 and 7 Will. III. cap. 17. forty pounds upon the conviction of every person 
 v ho has counterfeited the coin, or clipped, &c. the same, or has brought into the 
 kingdom clipped coin, &c. 
 
 3. By 5 ,-inne, cap. 31. forty pounds on conviction of every burglar or housebreaker. 
 
 4. By 14 Geo. II. cap. 6. ten pounds on the conviction of every sheep-stcaler, &c. 
 
 5. By 15 Geo. II. cap. 28. forty pounds for conviction of any person of treason or 
 felony, relating to the coin upon this act; and ten pounds upon the conviction of 
 counterfeiting copper money. 
 
 6. By 16 Geo. II. cap. 15. twenty pounds upon conviction of a person returning 
 from transportation before the expiration of his term. 
 
 Air. Philip Holdsworth, city-marshal, when examined before a committee of the 
 House of Commons, was asked ' Did he think these parliamentary rewards a good or 
 bad mode of paying the officers of police V His reply was, ' Infamously bad I 
 wish Al'Coul was here ; he would name the men, and tell you the supposed crimes for 
 which they suffered, and would give you proofs that they were not guilty of the things 
 they suffered tor ; but he would tell you the confession of men who afterwards suffered; 
 particularly I remember a man of the name of Arthur Connelly, who committed a high- 
 way robbery, and another man was executed for it !' 
 
RNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. iy; 
 
 any consequence, named Vaughan, 
 was found sporting with the lives of 
 his fellow-creatures. 
 
 The modes by which these inhu- 
 man villains proceeded were an 
 aggravation of their crime; the hun- 
 gry, the idle, and the industrious, 
 were alike theiir victims ; and when 
 the wretched child of sorrow was 
 receiving what he thought their 
 bounty, he was only closing his 
 hand upon what would ultimately 
 lead to his conviction. The prin- 
 cipal victims were poor distressed 
 objects who were met in the streets, 
 to whom these traders in blood, un- 
 der the mask of pity and charity, 
 gave base money, with which the 
 starving creatures hastened to pro- 
 cure something to eat. The mi- 
 nions of the law watched their 
 movements, and generally contrived 
 to apprehend them in the act of 
 passing the bad money ; conviction 
 followed as a thing of course. 
 
 But this was only one resource 
 of their iniquity; others were sup- 
 plied with forged notes under dif- 
 ferent pretences, and apprehended 
 when they dreamed not of improper 
 or illegal conduct; others were se- 
 duced to break into private houses, 
 by wretches whose business it is to 
 mature youth in crime, and who 
 had previously arranged with the 
 officers the mode of apprehension. 
 To detail the ingenuity and extent 
 of these iniquitous practices would 
 be impossible ; for though the 
 worthy lord-mayor discovered up- 
 wards of thirty cases, he declared 
 that the ramifications of the system 
 extended beyond any thing he at 
 first imagined ; and no doubt many 
 modes by which ' blood money' was 
 procured remained unknown to his 
 lordship. 
 
 The case which led to the detec- 
 tion of these men of blood was that 
 of three poor illiterate labouring 
 Irishmen, of the names of Quin, 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 Riorton, and Connolly. These 
 men were detected in fabricating 
 base shillings and Bank tokens, 
 brought to trial, and convicted ; 
 but, fortunately for them, something 
 occurred during their trial which 
 induced the lord-mayor to suspect 
 the guilt of their prosecutors rather 
 than the prosecuted. An investiga- 
 tion took place; but the convicted 
 men, when confronted with their 
 employers, refused to disclose the 
 particulars which led to their sup- 
 posed guilt, because they had been 
 sworn by the * men of blood* to se- 
 crecy. Their religious veneration 
 for their oath declares at once their 
 innocence and their ignorance ; but 
 a Catholic priest being sent for, he 
 succeeded, with some difficulty, in 
 convincing them that there was no 
 obligation due to an illegal oath. 
 Thus relieved in their conscience, 
 they disclosed the whole particu- 
 lars, through which Brock, Pelham, 
 and Power were brought to justice. 
 
 These malefactors, though the 
 seducers of the three poor ' Irish- 
 men' into an offence against the 
 law, were obliged to be indicted for 
 a similar crime, for which they were 
 convicted, namely, high treason, in 
 traitorously, feloniously, and deceit- 
 fully counterfeiting the current coin 
 of the realm. There was a second 
 count in the indictment, with having 
 aided and abetted Dennis Riorton, 
 James Quin, and Thomas Connolly, 
 who were convicted at a former 
 sessions. 
 
 Upon the motion of the attorney- 
 general, at the Old Bailey, Sep- 
 tember the 25th, 1816, the three 
 Irishmen were called to the bar, to 
 receive his majesty's pardon, which 
 was necessary previous to the com- 
 mencement of the present trial. 
 
 It appeared from the evidence of 
 
 a man named Barry, that Pelhaiu 
 
 applied to him to gel some men to 
 
 make bad shillings, which Power 
 
 110 
 
194 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 could colour. Barry said they must 
 go to the market for them, which 
 was in Cheapside, at the corner of 
 King Street, where poor Irishmen 
 were waiting for employment. Some 
 days after, he went with Brock and 
 Power to the market, wheu Quin 
 and Riorton were engaged by them. 
 Being told they could not be em- 
 ployed unless they would be sworn 
 to secrecy, they took an oath on a 
 piece of paper. A room was hired, 
 and tools procured by the prisoners, 
 and the poor Irishmen were set to 
 work to cut brass into the form of 
 shillings, &c. under the superintend- 
 ence of Power. Connolly was sent 
 for to assist. He said to Barry, in 
 Irish, ' We are doing a job that will 
 hang us all.' Barry replied that if 
 he thought so he would not work 
 another day at it. The Irishmen 
 were then employed in colouring 
 the metal, and every thing being in 
 readiness, notice was given, the 
 officers entered, and the Irishmen 
 •were seized, tried, and found guilty. 
 Power and Pelham's landlady 
 proved that the scissars used by 
 the Irishmen in cutting through 
 brass had been procured by her at 
 Pelham's request; another woman 
 
 also swore that the hammer and 
 hies taken in the coining room had 
 been sold by her to Brock and Pel- 
 ham. 
 
 Quin, one of the entrapped Irish- 
 men, used to go to the city market to 
 find employment. One morning he 
 was hired, with Riorton, by Barry, 
 who brought them to the room 
 where they were apprehended, with 
 Connolly, while they were rubbing 
 pieces of copper with sand-paper. 
 Power coloured the pieces. 
 
 Brock, in his defence, declared 
 his innocence. Power denied either 
 going to the market or the room ; 
 and Pelham said the Barrys were 
 noted perjurers, and the women were 
 false witnesses. 
 
 The jury, without hesitation, 
 brought in a verdict of Guilty — ■ 
 Death. 
 
 The cause of the three unfortu- 
 nate Irishmen was taken up by the 
 lord-mayor, and others, who opened 
 a subscription, through which they 
 were enabled to return to their own 
 country, and purchase small farms; 
 after which they wrote to the loid- 
 mayor, expressive of their happiness 
 and gratitude. 
 
 GEORGE VAUGHAN, ROBERT MACKEY, AND 
 GEORGE BROWN, 
 
 CONVICTED OF A CONSPIRACV. 
 
 While the lord-mayor was de- 
 tecting the ' men of blood' in the 
 city the magistrates at Bow Street 
 were not less meritoriously employ- 
 ed in tracing similar crimes to a 
 police-officer, named Vaughan, and 
 several others not immediately em- 
 ployed by the magistrates, but who 
 were well known as loungers about 
 the different offices. Several of 
 these atrocious wretches were ap- 
 prehended, and many revolting cir- 
 cumstances disclosed. 
 
 George Vaughan, Robert Mackey, 
 
 and George Brown, were tried at the 
 Middlesex sessions, on the '21st of 
 September, 1816, on a charge of 
 conspiring to induce William Hur- 
 ley, Michael Hurley, William San- 
 derson, William Wood, aged thir- 
 teen, and Dennis Hurley, to com- 
 mit a burglary in the house of Mrs. 
 M'Donald, at Hoxton ; and, by 
 having them convicted of the fact, 
 thereby procure for themselves the 
 rewards given by parliament for the 
 conviction of housebreakers. 
 
 It appeared on the trial that 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 195 
 
 Drake,* who had been an acting Various witnesses were examined, 
 lieutenant in the navy, had been in- who proved the facts against the 
 troduced by Mackey to Vaughan, prisoners, and Mackey made a full 
 when the latter proposed that San- confession, which exposed the nefa- 
 derson and the others should com- rious conduct of the conspirators, 
 mit a burglary at the house of a and stated that Vaughan furnished 
 friend of his in Gray's Inn Lane, the skeleton-keys and crow-bar 
 Drake accordingly spoke to San- which was used at Mrs. M'Donald's. 
 derson and the others, who.agreed The prisoners being found guilty, 
 to do it. This he communicated to the Court sentenced them to five 
 Vaughan and Mackey, and they' years' imprisonment in the House 
 went to Brown's house to talk over of Correction, and at the expiration 
 the matter. About eleven at night of that time to find security for three 
 Drake went with the men to the years, themselves in eighty pounds, 
 house which was to be robbed, but and two sureties in forty pounds 
 which they could not effect in con- each. Vaughan was tried two days 
 sequence of the watchman. Some afterwards, with John Donnelly, 
 time after, the burglary in Mrs. The latter for burglariously break- 
 M'Donald's house was planned, for ing into the house of James Poole, 
 which Vaughan found the money, and stealing therein thirty yards of 
 Brown kept Mrs. M'Donald out of cloth ; and the former for counsel- 
 t he way, and Drake took t lie five ling, aiding, and abetting him in the 
 men to the house, when Vaughan same, on the lGth of December, 
 and Mackey came up, and took the 1815. On which charge both pit- 
 men into custody. Vaughan had soners were found Guilty. 
 promised Drake part of the rewards. 
 
 * William Drake, the accomplice and evidence against Vaughan in one of his ex- 
 ploits, is a person whom the town loungers and treasurers of electioneering anecdotes 
 will recognise as an accuser of the late Mr. Sheridan, whose natural daughter he 
 married. It seemed that Drake forged a certificate from that gentleman, while Trea- 
 surer of the Navy, recommending a Jew slopseller to the captains of ships of war, for 
 which he obtained five guineas, or thereabouts. This affair Drake made known to 
 Mr. Paull j and by means of a petition of the latter to the House of Commons against 
 Mr. Sheridan's return for Westminster, an investigation took place, when it plainly 
 appeared that Drake had taken advantage of his known connexion with Mr. Sheridan 
 to sell a forged recommendation, and afterwards, in revenge for merited neglect, had 
 attempted to prove him corrupt, by means of his own forgery, offering his services to 
 Mr. Paull, who was his dupe, for that express purpose. The extreme contemptibility 
 of this man, and that of another reptile with whom he was connected, weie so appa- 
 rent to the house, that Drake was, by unanimous vote, committed to Aewgate, and the 
 whole business fell to the ground. He said he had lost his leg at Camperdown — it was 
 not true : that he had hall a dozen pensions for services — he had only one from the 
 Greenwich chest. His time, place, and circumstances, with respect to the immediate 
 subject of his evidence, were nearly all proved false ; and, in short, he was altogether 
 disregarded as a dissolute and abandoned character. His real history proved him to 
 be a young man whom an unfortunate accident injured in his professional career, and 
 who had consequently fallen into idleness and bad company. His utter degradation 
 at present it is unnecessary to dwell upon, presenting, as he does, the horrible picture 
 of superior address and cunning prostituted to the vilest purposes. And hence an- 
 other feature of the blood-money system ; the friends it creates are all of the specious 
 Belial kind — creatures who possess talents to concert means and ends with exceeding 
 plausability. The necessity of making such men as Drake witnesses, too, grows out 
 of it ; for though it fortunately happens in the present case that his evidence is fully 
 supported, the indecency of this exhibition, combined with impunity to so much wick- 
 edness, produces a sensation of moral loathing, which saps the foundation of general 
 philanthropy and good will to mankind. — W. Hone, 
 
196 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 JOHN CASH MAN, 
 
 EXFCUTED FOR FELONY COMMITTED ON THE DAY OF THE SPAFIELDS 
 
 RrOT. 
 
 at resuscitation. A few of them* 
 however, cannot be passed over in 
 sileuo.; for the base and the worth- 
 less sometimes acquire a lasting 
 notoriety; and we doubt not but 
 that posterity will read the deeds 
 of Thistlewood, Watson, and Hunt, 
 with much the same feelings. 
 Englishmen have the undoubted 
 
 The city of London had not ex- 
 hibited, since 1780, so great a 
 scene of riot and outrage as that 
 which occured on Monday, De- 
 cember the 2d, 1816. Happily 
 the prompt and constitutional ton- 
 duct of the civil power prevented 
 any of those atrocious excesses 
 which distinguished the infuriated 
 followers of the fanatic Lord George privilege of assembling for the pur- 
 
 Gordon. 
 
 On the cessation of that protract- 
 ed war which consigned Buona- 
 parte to St. Helena, Great Britain 
 found herself subject to those tem- 
 porary difficulties which always 
 succeed a sudden return from hosti- 
 lity to peace. The revulsion was 
 felt by nearly every individual in 
 the kingdom ; agriculture, trade, 
 and commerce became, for the in- 
 stant, almost torpid, and thousands 
 of the labouring classes were thrown 
 out of employment. 
 
 In this moment of paramount dis- 
 tress, the evil-minded and the de- 
 signing, taking advantage of the 
 disposition of the people, commenced 
 disseminating their specious politi- 
 cal principles. The multitude could 
 not be persuaded that the difficul- 
 ties were only temporary, and 
 ought to be borne with patience. 
 They attributed them to defects in 
 the representative system, which 
 they considered the root of the 
 evil, and hence they were denomi- 
 nated ' Radicals.' 
 
 The oracles of these misguided 
 men were those whom dissipation 
 
 pose of expressing their grievances 
 and soliciting redress, whether 
 from the sovereign or his parlia- 
 ment. This liberty afforded the 
 demagogues a good opportunity for 
 inflaming the passions of the de- 
 luded, and disseminating their own 
 pernicious opinions. Meetings were 
 held in various parts of the king- 
 dom for the ostensible purpose of 
 petitioning for parliamentary re- 
 form, and the metropolis followed 
 the example. When %ve come to 
 the case of Watson and Thistle- 
 wood, we shall enter fully into Hie 
 atrocious scheme of those who df- 
 vised many of these meetings, but 
 at present it is necessary to con- 
 fine ourselves to a detail of facts, 
 which will serve as an illustration 
 of what is to follow. 
 
 The first meeting, which may be 
 called the prologue to the riot, took 
 place November the loth, 1816, 
 in the Spafields, then a wild unin- 
 closed space. A flag was unfurled 
 bearing the following words, ." Na- 
 ture to feed the hungry — truth to 
 protect the oppressed — justice to 
 punish offenders." Orator Hunt 
 
 and improvidence had rendered vi- had attended in consequence of an 
 
 cious and desperate. Their names, 
 having nothing of immortality 
 or veneration about them, are 
 sinking fast into oblivion, and we 
 certainly shall not retard the ac- 
 celeration of decay by any attempt 
 
 invitation, and was deputed to 
 carry a petition to the Prince Re- 
 gent. This meeting dissolved, after 
 having passed a resolution to meet 
 at the same place on the 2nd of 
 December, to receive the answer tc 
 
KNAPPa. BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 197 
 
 their petition. This meeting pro- 
 fessed to be exclusively composed 
 of distressed artisans. 
 
 Previous to the 2d of December 
 hand bills of a very inflammatory 
 nature were industriously distri- 
 buted, and well-calculated to draw 
 together a vast concourse of 
 people ; for it was designed, no 
 doubt, for the curious, the idle, 
 and the vicious. Accordingly, on 
 the day above-mentioned the meet- 
 ing took place. 
 
 Shortly after twelve o'clock, a 
 crowd was seen entering the fields, 
 surrounding two tri-coloured flags 
 and a banner ; the largest of the 
 two first mentioned was that which 
 was so triumphantly waved in pre- 
 sence of Mr. Hunt on the former 
 occasion. The latter was new and 
 much swollen. The banner con- 
 tained the inscription already al- 
 luded to — ' The brave soldiers are 
 our brothers; treat them kindly.' 
 Part of the crowd in front of the 
 public houses were attracted, with 
 others, who had been straggling 
 about the fields, towards the flags, 
 which became stationary ; and, in 
 a short time not less than four or 
 five thousand persons were congre- 
 gated within about thirty yards of 
 the corner of the field next the 
 Cold Bathfields prison. Here a 
 waggon was placed very opportu- 
 nely ; a fellow, dressed in sailor's at- 
 tire, bearing the larger flag,mount- 
 ed amidst loud huzzas, and asked if 
 the people wanted a leader ? He 
 received an answer in the affirma- 
 tive, and suddenly Dr. Watson, 
 his son, and a Mr. Hooper, all 
 distinguished with tri-coloured cock- 
 ades in their hats, jumped into the 
 waggon to his support ; and being 
 recognized as having been present 
 at the former meeting, were hailed 
 with loud cheers. Dr. Watson now 
 took off his hat, and waving his 
 hand in all directions, craved si- 
 
 lence while he addressed the meet- 
 ing. 
 
 The doctor was followed by his 
 son, who, in a most inflammatory 
 speech, called upon the people to 
 follow him. On their crying out 
 that they would, he jumped from the 
 cart and proceeded towards Clerk- 
 enwell. 
 
 The enfuriated mob followed 
 their desperate leader, under the 
 idea that he was going to the lord- 
 mayor, at the Mansion-house ; but 
 a cry of ' arms' being- set up in 
 Smithfield, they rushed down Snow 
 Hill, where young Watson, with a 
 pistol in his hand, followed by five 
 others, entered the shop of Mr. 
 Beckwith, gunsmith, crying out, 
 'Arms! arms! I want arms !' At 
 this moment a gentleman, named 
 Mr. Plait, who was quitting the 
 shop, attempted to seize his arm, 
 but failed, on which the desperate 
 youth fired and wounded Mr. Piatt, 
 after which he attempted to strike 
 him with the butt-end, but was pre- 
 vented, and the pistol fell in the 
 struggle. The assassin was then 
 pushed into the counting-boils'?, 
 when Mr. Piatt said to him, ' You 
 have shot me.' — 'Oh!' he ex- 
 claimed, ' I am a misled young 
 man — I have been at Spafiehls 
 — send for a surgeon — I am a 
 surgeon myself;' and he was 
 about proceeding in a manner 
 that clearly shewed he spoke the 
 truth ; his profered service was, 
 however, rejected, and another sur- 
 geon was procured. During a 
 quarter of an hour, which they con- 
 tinued in the counting-house, Wat- 
 son frequently exclaimed, ' I am 
 a misled young man!' but being 
 allowed by the thoughtless constable 
 to shew himself at the window, the 
 mob, who had at first fled on the 
 firing of the pistol, under the impres- 
 sion that their leader had been shot, 
 became riotous, and demanded his 
 
IDS KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALExNBAR. 
 
 iteration. Furious at his deten- 
 tion they proceeded to demolish the 
 shop-windows, and carried him off 
 with nearly all the fire-arms in the 
 place. Mr. Piatt and the constable 
 were obliged to seek their safety 
 in climbing over a wall at the back 
 of the house ; this gentleman, though 
 dangerously wounded, we are happy 
 t) state recovered under the skil- 
 ful care of Mr. Astley Cooper. 
 
 Young Watson, feeling himself 
 secure amid his desperate plunder- 
 ers, thought proper to give them a 
 proof of his courage and coolness 
 before he left the scene of blood and 
 devastation. He accordingly took 
 up a brace of pistols, and loaded 
 them with great care and delibera- 
 tion, an example which his comrades 
 followed, after which they set off 
 for the Tower, the rampart of which 
 Watson mounted, and harangued 
 the soldiers, telling them that the 
 people were their friends ; and that 
 if they abandoned their allegiance 
 they should have one hundred gui- 
 neas a man; as might be expected, 
 the orator was heard with indigna- 
 tion. 
 
 In the mean time the Minories 
 were one scene of devastation : gun- 
 smith-shops were the objects of ge- 
 neral attack, and arms were supplied 
 in abundance. The rioters, for the 
 most part, consisted of sailors — 
 some black, some tawny, some En- 
 glish, some foreign — some boys, 
 and some men. — A sweep took a 
 fancy to a dress-sword, and gave 
 much satisfaction by a display of 
 those antics which the sooty gentle- 
 men are in the habit of performing 
 every May-day. 
 
 The irruption of the mob was 
 sudden and unexpected. The lord- 
 mayor, Matthew Wood, Esq. was 
 proceeding to the public business of 
 the mansion-house, when he first 
 heard of their proceedings ; his 
 ' iinediatcly went to Guild- 
 
 hall, where he was joined by seve- 
 ral magistrates and a large party 
 of police; but before they could 
 act, the mob had arrived at the 
 Royal Exchange, which they en- 
 tered iu military order ; as soon 
 as the greater part of the rioters had 
 passed through the north side, di- 
 rections were given to close the 
 gates, by which means three men, 
 with arms, were taken into custody 
 by Sir James Shaw and the lord- 
 mayor. 
 
 The remainder of the insurgents, 
 on learning the capture of their 
 comrades, became exceedingly fu- 
 rious ; and not being able to force 
 the Exchange, they raised each 
 other upon their shoulders, and fired 
 over and under the gates, upon the 
 lord-mayor and his party. Afresh 
 force, however, arriving, the ruffians 
 departed, taking the direction of the 
 Minories, where they committed nu- 
 merous depredations. 
 
 Another portion of the mob took 
 the direction of St. Giles's, and 
 then towards the Strand, robbing 
 bakers shops as they went along. 
 Holywell Street, St. Clement's, held 
 out more invitations than one : the 
 Dog tavern supplied them with de- 
 lacies for their palates, and the shops 
 of the honest Israelites afforded 
 clothes for all sizes ; with these 
 they made quite familiar, and strip- 
 ped the shelves of the Jews, with- 
 out the formality of trying if the 
 clothes would fit. 
 
 Such scenes, in a well-regulated 
 city, could not last long, though it 
 is alarming to think of the destruc- 
 tion of life and property that must 
 have taken place had the rioters 
 commenced proceedings during the 
 night, or even after dark. Lament- 
 able as the case was, it must ha>e 
 been then deplorable indeed, for 
 though the riot occurred early in 
 the day, several hours had elapsed 
 before the mob was dispersed. A 
 
KNPAP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 199 
 
 few of the military was sufficient 
 for this purpose, as the inceiularii s 
 fled in all directions on the appear- 
 ance of opposition, having first 
 thrown away their arms. The mi- 
 litary patroled the streets and su- 
 burbs during the day and night, hut, 
 fortunately, no disposition to riot 
 manifested itself. 
 
 These disgraceful scenes being 
 ended, the next object of importance 
 was to bring those who had been 
 taken into custody to justice. Pri- 
 vate and public examinations took, 
 place, and several of the most ac- 
 tive were committed to prison : but 
 the leader evaded pursuit with an 
 ingenuousness unparalleled. Wat- 
 son, the elder, of whom we shall 
 speak more hereafter, was appre- 
 hended ; but of the son nothing 
 positive could be ascertained. 
 
 At first it was not known to the 
 magistrates that young Watson was 
 the man who shot Mr. Piatt, but 
 no sooner was this fact ascertained 
 than officers were instantly dispatch- 
 ed in search of the assassin in every 
 direction; and the lord-mayor was 
 daily annoyed by the arrival of 
 hundreds of letters pretending to 
 give information j but which were, 
 in fact, for the purpose of misleading 
 him. 
 
 Young Watson, notwithstanding 
 that a reward of several thousand 
 pounds was offered by government 
 and numerous corporate bodies, 
 for his apprehension, evaded the 
 officers of justice, and got clear off 
 to America, where be continued to 
 reside.* He was described in the 
 proclamation as follows : — A young 
 man,, about 23 years of age, five 
 feet four inches high, rather slender 
 made, has a scar or mole under his 
 right eye ; had on abrown great coat, 
 blue under coat, black waistcoat, 
 
 dirty drab breeches, and long 
 gaiters — appearance, shabby- een- 
 teel." 
 
 In justice to this misled youth 
 we must state, that it appears be 
 was the victim of an enthusiastic 
 temperament and some designing 
 villains, who made him an instru- 
 ment to forward their own base pur- 
 poses. He declared that the pistol 
 which unfortunately wounded Mr. 
 Piatt went off by accident in the 
 scuffle, and that he deplored the 
 event which cast such a stigma on 
 his character. 
 
 As the circumstances which at- 
 tended his escape are of a singular 
 and extraordinary nature, we shall 
 give those best authenticated : after 
 his foolish and insane attempt on 
 the soldiers at the Tower, he return- 
 ed hastily to his lodgings, and pos- 
 sessed himself of some papers and 
 other trifling articles, after which 
 he went to a public house in Fetter- 
 lane, where he fell in with his father 
 and the notorious Thistlewood, 
 afterwards decapitated for high- 
 treason. 
 
 This trio, considering themselves 
 in danger of arrest, thought it ad- 
 visable to leave London immediate- 
 ly, and proceeded, after nightfall, for 
 Northampton. At Highgate, bow- 
 ever; they were intercepted by the 
 patrole, who took them for highway- 
 men, and a desperate scuffle ensued, 
 which ended in the arrest of the 
 elder Watson, and the escape of the 
 other two ; young Watson bad the 
 good fortune to get safe, to London, 
 where he continued until his friends 
 provided him with the means of 
 escaping. 
 
 The Spaftelds riot, so formidable 
 on its first appearance, terminated 
 with the loss of one life, and that 
 one according to the laws of the 
 
 * In 1821 we learn, from American newspapers, that young Watson was convicted or 
 a burglary, and received twenty lashes as Ins punishment. 
 
£00 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S, NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 country. Several men were appre- 
 hended and brought to trial, but 
 John Cashman only was capitally 
 convicted. In the justice of this 
 man's sentence we must acquiesce, 
 but there appears so many pallia- 
 tions of his crime, that we could 
 almost wish mercy had been extend- 
 ed to the culprit, particularly as 
 numbers were evidently guilty of 
 the crime for which he suffered, 
 without being able to allege, as he 
 could, that they were goaded by 
 hunger, and precipitated on the 
 offence without being aware of its 
 eulpability ; for it is not to be for- 
 gotten* that Cashman was a thought- 
 less sailor, who had been, through 
 life, actively engaged, and, of course, 
 knew but little of the duties of a 
 landsman. 
 
 It appears that Cashman was one 
 of the most active of the rioters who 
 attacked and demolished Mr. Beck- 
 with's shop in Skinner Street. Se- 
 veral persons deposed that he fre- 
 quently brought out bundles of fire- 
 arms and distributed them among 
 the mob in the street, and he was 
 actually apprehended with one of 
 Mr. Beckwith's guns in his hand, at 
 the Royal Exchange, being one of 
 those seized by the lord-mayor. 
 
 For this offence Cashman, with 
 four others, were brought to trial at 
 ihe Old Bailey, January 20th, 1817. 
 The indictment did not charge them 
 with any species of treason, being 
 confined to capital felony only, for 
 .stealing the fire-arms, &c. stated to 
 he considerably above the value of 
 two hundred and fifty pounds. The 
 names of the four others were, — 
 John Hooper, R. Gamble, William 
 Gunnel], and John Carpenter. Two of 
 these were apprehended at the same 
 time as Cashman, and under similar 
 circumstances, and the evidence 
 against them all went to implicate 
 them in the crime of felony ; but Ihe 
 jury, to the apparent astonishment 
 
 of the court, acquitted all but Case?- 
 man, who was found Guilty — Dealhv 
 
 When asked what he had to say 
 why sentence of death should not 
 be passed on him, he addressed the 
 Court as follows : — 
 
 • My lord — I hope you will ex- 
 cuse a poor friendless sailor for oc- 
 cupying your time. Had I died 
 fighting the battles of my country, 
 I should have gloried in it; but I 
 confess that it grieves me to think 
 of suffering like a robber, when I 
 call God to witness that I have 
 passed days together without a bit 
 of bread rather than violate the 
 laws. I have served my king for 
 many years, and often fought for 
 my country ; I have received nine 
 wounds in the service, and never 
 before been charged with any of- 
 fence. I have been at sea all my 
 life, and my father was killed on 
 board the Diana frigate. 1 came to 
 London, my lord, to endeavour to 
 recover my pay and prize-money, 
 but being unsuccessful I was re- 
 duced to the greatest distress ; and 
 being poor and pennyless, I have 
 not been able to bring witnesses to 
 prove my innocence, or to acquaint 
 my brave officers, or I am sure they 
 would all have come forward on my 
 behalf. The gentlemen who have 
 sworn against me must have mis- 
 taken me for some other person, 
 there being many sailors in the 
 mob ; but I freely forgive them, and 
 I hope God will also forgive them, 
 for I solemnly declare that I com- 
 mitted no act of violence.* 
 
 Wednesday morning, March the 
 12th, 1817, was the time appointed 
 for the execution of this unfortu- 
 nate man, and to make the dreadful 
 ceremony as awfully impressive as 
 possible, it was ordered that he 
 should suffer in front of Mr. Beck- 
 with's shop, where the crime, for 
 which his life was forfeited, had 
 been committed, 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 201 
 
 When the ordinary of Newgate 
 stated to Cashmaii the short time 
 lie had to remain in this world, and 
 exhorted him to devote that period 
 to- making his peace with God, 
 the unhappy man received the in- 
 formation with much calmness, ex- 
 claiming, ' Well, if it must be so I 
 am ready to die !' He was visit- 
 ed by a Romish priest ; and, during 1 
 the condemned sermon, the Rev. 
 Mr. Cotton addressed him as follows: 
 ' How lamentable is it to behold 
 a British sailor, who has fought 
 nobly against foreign foes, traitor- 
 ously seduced by domestic ones — 
 enlisting himself under their ban- 
 ners, to wield the sword against the 
 authority of the laws; plundering 
 and devastating in the very bosom 
 of his country, and in one fatal mo- 
 ment making shipwreck of his duty 
 and allegiance .' Let us, however, 
 hope charitably that the crime ori- 
 ginated in inflamed and misguided 
 passion — not in the heart: and may 
 your sad end operate as a warning 
 to all your fellow-mariners, to guard 
 against the arts of designing men, 
 who, while they promise liberty, 
 make use of that liberty as a cloak 
 of maliciousness !' 
 
 Previous to the fatal moment, 
 Cashman was visited by several 
 friends, among whom was an Irish 
 gentleman named Upton, who 
 had been the landlord of his father. 
 To this person he spoke freely, 
 and said he was entitled to two 
 hundred pounds wages and prize 
 money, about the disposition of 
 which he was very anxious, and 
 dictated a will, which Mr. Upton, 
 to gratify his feelings, drew up. In 
 this he left the property chiefly to 
 purchase a boat for his brother, who 
 had been a fisherman on the coast of 
 Ireland ; to his mother, and for the 
 payment of his debts, about which 
 he appeared particularly solicitous. 
 
 lie fpoke freely to his fellow- 
 
 prisoners, and admitted that he had 
 been in Beckwith's shop, but denied 
 that he was at all privy to the firing 
 at Mr. Piatt, or even aware of the 
 circumstance. He said he had 
 been down to the Admiralty with a 
 letter, and that on his way back he 
 met with a brother sailor, by whom 
 he was persuaded to go to Spa- 
 fields. In their way they drank a 
 great quantity of ruin, gin, and 
 beer; and having had but little food 
 for two days before, it had a great 
 effect upon him. He spoke much 
 of his bravery on various occasions, 
 and that he had received several 
 wounds, to which some of his officers 
 bore testimony. 
 
 On the morning of execution 
 great precautions were taken to 
 guard against any disturbance, by 
 stationing constables and soldiers 
 in various parts of the metropolis. 
 At eight o'clock Caslnnan was 
 brought from his cell ; he seemed 
 perfectly composed, but exhibited a 
 good deal of levity. In alluding 
 to his approaching death, he said, 
 ' lie had often faced the enemy 
 amidst a shower of balls, and with 
 the devil before him, without shrink- 
 ing, and did not now fear to face 
 his God.' 
 
 As he passed through the Press- 
 yard, he exclaimed with an oath, ' I 
 wish a 44-pounder would now come 
 and cut me in two, rather than that 
 I should go into the hands of Jack 
 Ketch !' He made several other 
 observations with levity, in which 
 he was checked by Mr. Devereux, 
 the Catholic priest. 
 
 On quitting the prison he bid 
 good-bye to all he met, and evinced 
 great levity on the way to the dread- 
 ful spot. On arriving at the fatal 
 scene the mob expressed great in- 
 dignation, groans and hisses burst 
 from all quarters, in which the un- 
 fortunate man joined, hi a short 
 time the executioner had concluded 
 
202 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 his awful task, during which Cash- 
 man made repeated mad expressions 
 until the drop fell, and this world 
 closed on him for ever. 
 
 Such was the fate of a man who 
 had fought honourahly against the 
 enemies of his country ; and we hope 
 that the crime for which he suffered 
 was not deliberate or premeditated, 
 hut rather the result of momentary 
 frenzy and thoughtless desperation. 
 May his example operate as a 
 warning in deterring others from 
 mixing with or aiding in the pur- 
 suit of a mob, who are always as 
 cowardly in the face of legal force as 
 they are audacious in the absence of 
 opposition J 
 
 Several rioters were tried ami 
 convicted of minor offences ; but 
 the capital charge, as we have al- 
 ready stated, was substantiated 
 against no person engaged in the 
 transaction of the memorable 2d of 
 December, but the unfortunate John 
 Cashman. We shall, therefore, 
 close the account of the Spafields 
 riot with the trial of Watson, This- 
 tlewood, &c. for though these men 
 were acquitted, the evidence on the 
 part of the prosecution throws a 
 new and fearful light on the whole 
 affair, and serves to develop cir- 
 cumstances which otherwise would 
 appear mysterious and unaccount- 
 able. 
 
 JAMES WATSON THE ELDER, JAMES WATSON THE 
 
 YOUNGER, ARTHUR THISTLEWOOD, 
 
 THOMAS PRESTON, AND JOHN HOOPER, 
 
 INDICTED FOR HIGH TREASON. 
 
 After the military had dispersed 
 the rioters on the 2d of December, 
 1816, Dr. Watson, his son, and 
 Thistlewood, quitted London in 
 haste, and were pursuing their jour- 
 ney into the country when the pa- 
 trole slopped them at Highgate on 
 suspicion of their being highwaymen ; 
 what helped to confirm this opinion 
 was, the circumstance of a pistol 
 protruding itself from Dr. Watson's 
 breast, in consequence of which he 
 made him prisoner, but with consi- 
 derabledifficulty ; and in the squabble 
 which ensued, the younger Watson 
 and Thistlewood made their escape. 
 Some people coming out of a pub- 
 lic house at this instant, the doctor 
 was given in charge to them, while 
 the patrole went in pursuit of the 
 fugitives. During his absence the 
 doctor made an unsuccessful ef- 
 fort to regain his freedom, and in 
 the struggle stabbed one of his de- 
 tainers with a cane-sword. 
 
 For this offence or accident, Dr. 
 Watson was indicted at the Old 
 
 Bailey on Tuesday, January the 
 21st, 1817, charged under the cut- 
 ting and maiming act; hut the 
 counsel for the prosecution having 
 stated the case, the judge who pre- 
 sided suggested the necessity of 
 stopping it, as the indictment could 
 not be supported. 
 
 The doctor was acquitted, but 
 not liberated, for a charge of great 
 magnitude was suspended over his 
 head, which, at length, descended in 
 the form of an accusation for high- 
 treason. 
 
 The government had received in- 
 formation of a formidable, or at 
 least a dangerous, conspiracy, in 
 which Dr. Watson and others were 
 stated to be deeply implicated. 
 The parties were, in consequence, 
 apprehended ; and, along with the 
 doctor, were committed, being state 
 prisoners, to the Tower. 
 
 A bill being found by the grand 
 jury, Watson, Thistlewood, Pres- 
 ton, and Hooper, were brought up 
 from the Tower to the Couit of 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 203 
 
 Kind's Bench, on the 1 7th of May, 
 1817. They severally pleaded not 
 guilty, and the privilege of choosing 
 their counsel being- granted them, 
 they were carried back to the Tower 
 until the 9th of June, when they 
 were put upon their trial for high- 
 treason. 
 
 Doctor Watson was the first ar- 
 ranged, and the others were removed 
 from the dock, as they were to be 
 1ritd separately. We shall give 
 only the testimony of the principal 
 witnesses and the charge of the 
 judge, as these combine all the 
 particulars of the case. The trial 
 occupied the court for seven days, 
 and excited a degree of interest sel- 
 dom known in this country, where, 
 Ihank God, the number accused of 
 high treason is small indeed. 
 
 A number of witnesses were exa- 
 mined to prove the active part taken 
 by Dr. Watson in procuring the Spa- 
 fields meeting, as well as his conduct 
 on the 2nd of December. The 
 evidence given amounted only to 
 the facts we have already stated, and 
 part of the circumstances hereafter 
 detailed by John Castles, whose tes- 
 timony we shall give : — 
 
 The statement of this man is 
 the more worthy of record, inas- 
 much as it exhibits an instance of 
 the most extraordinary and fright- 
 ful innate depravity. He confesses 
 that early in life, abandoning all 
 pursuits of humble and honest in- 
 dustry, he had subsisted by shuffling 
 and dishonest means, and had 
 scarcely set foot on the threshold of 
 manhood, before he was twice ap- 
 prehended for passing forged bank- 
 notes, and on each occasion escaped 
 | he punishment due to his crimes, 
 by turning evidence against his as- 
 sociates, whereby two of them were 
 brought to the gibbet, and another 
 transported for life, — that he was 
 afterwards concerned in a base and 
 treacherous transaction witha French 
 
 prisoner of war, and, continuing his 
 career of crime, deserted his lawful 
 wife, and became the bully of a 
 brothel, and the paramour of its 
 mistress. On joining the revolu- 
 tionary committee, he gloried in 
 being the most sanguinary and 
 blood-thirsty amongst them, and in 
 urging them forward to the enlarge- 
 ment and commission of those crimes 
 which, again to screen himself from 
 well -merited punishment, he after- 
 wards denounced. 
 
 On contemplating the evidence 
 of this worthless man, the feelings 
 that naturally force themselves upon 
 the mind, are horror and distrust at 
 the individual, and regret that the 
 ends of public ju-stice could not be 
 obtained without recourse to so cri- 
 minal and contemptible an agent. 
 
 John Castler, being sworn, was 
 examined by Mr. Gurney, and de- 
 posed to the following effect : — 
 
 ' He knew the prisoner Watson 
 perfectly well. Had not any pro- 
 mise of pardon for giving his evi- 
 dence. Also knew Thistlewood, 
 Preston, and Hooper, perfectly well. 
 That he became acquainted with 
 the prisoner Watson about three 
 weeks or a month before the first 
 meeting at Spafields took place; in 
 the month of October. Had seen 
 him at the Cock in Grafton Street, 
 where he went frequently to meet 
 a .society called the Spenceans. 
 Never saw him at any other place 
 but at those meetings. Watson in- 
 troduced himself by saying, it was 
 a very easy matter to upset govern- 
 ment, supposing it was handled in 
 a proper manner. Met Watson and 
 Preston by appointment the night 
 following, at the Mulberry Arms, 
 Moorfields, at a meeting of a so- 
 ciety of Spenceans, of the same 
 kind as those who met at the Cock. 
 There were other persons present, 
 and among them vomitr Watson, 
 Hooper, Thistlewood, the two 
 
204 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Evans s, father and son, nnd one 
 John Harrison. He (Castle) after 
 the meeting broke up, walked away 
 with the elder Watson, who again 
 observed, that it was a very easy 
 matter to upset government, pro 
 vided a few good fellows would act 
 together. He then said, that he 
 had drawn out a plan that would 
 debar the cavalry from acting, by 
 interrupting the horses, and that he 
 had got several people who had so- 
 licited at different houses, and that 
 they had formed a committee which 
 was sitting, to devise the best 
 modes and plans. He inquired 
 where Castles lived, and promised 
 to call the next morning, and show 
 him the plan. 
 
 ' In pursuance of this appoint- 
 ment, he called at the lodging of 
 Castles on the following Sunday 
 morning, and produced several pa- 
 pers, one of which was a plan of the 
 Tower, and another a plan of the 
 machine, which he had described on 
 the Thursday before, for obstruct- 
 ing the cavalry. It was to run 
 upon four wheels, with sharp knives, 
 which wpre to he on each side, and 
 spikes in the middle. The knives 
 were to be something like scythes, 
 and placed horizontally. There 
 were also several other drawings 
 of the Tower-bridge, and different 
 places and entrances about the 
 Tower. He then/ continued 
 Castles, ' asked me how many 
 men I could bring; and how many 
 I knew ? I told him I knew a 
 great many, but I did not know 
 whether they would act when put 
 to the test; he begged I would 
 exert myself as much as I could. 
 I told him that I was a smith, and 
 that I had nothing but my little 
 business to live on ; but he said 
 never mind that, they would find 
 something better for me than that; 
 they had plenty of money for every 
 fchiof. We then made another ap- 
 
 pointment, and I met him at one 
 Newton's. Similar conversation took 
 place there, and he said they had 
 got a committee, consisting of five; 
 namely Harrison, Preston, Thistle- 
 wood, and his son, and himself; 
 and that 1 should be made one of 
 the generals, and head a party of 
 pikemen, and oilier men, and that I 
 should hear further in a few days, 
 and might consider myself as one 
 of the committee from that time; 
 that I should make the sixth, and 
 they would not have any more. 
 
 ' Shortly afterwards I met the 
 elder Watson, and we went to King 
 Street barracks, and across the 
 Park, to a small magazine in Hyde 
 Park, where the powder is kept, l<> 
 examine the whole of the avenues, 
 and determine which was the best 
 place for setting fire to the barracks. 
 There was also one Skinner with 
 us, but he left us in the Park, and 
 Watson said he thought that Skin- 
 ner had been a cleverer man than 
 he was; that he intended to have 
 made an officer of him, but he found 
 him not at all calculated, as he had 
 not any cultivated idea whatever. 
 
 • About this time I was intro- 
 duced to Thistlewood by one John 
 Harrison. Thistlewood asked mo 
 how much money it would take to 
 make a few hundred pikes, and how 
 long it would take me. I told him 
 it would entirely depend on their 
 size, and the steel or iron they 
 should he made of. He said they 
 should be about nine or ten inches 
 long, and I told him they would 
 come to about fourpence, or four- 
 pence halfpenny a pound. He. 
 wished me to make one as a pat- 
 tern, and I told him I would ; but 
 that I had no place to make them 
 in, and Harrison replied that he 
 knew a person who would lend me 
 the use of his forge. Hooper and 
 Harrison went with me to a little 
 shop in a cellar, kept by a man of 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 205 
 
 the nameofBentley, in Hart Street. 
 I asked him to allow me to make 
 use of this forge to make a pike, to 
 put round a rabbit-warren or fish- 
 pond. He told me, if I would look 
 <iiit a piece of iron, he would make 
 it himself; and, when done, it was 
 given me, and I brought it away. 
 I took that pike in the course of 
 the day to one Randall's, where I 
 met the two Watsons, Thistlewood, 
 Harrison, and Hooper, and Watson 
 said it was a famous instrument. 
 He afterwards wrote upon a paper 
 the name of the house, No. 9, Grey- 
 stoke Place, where the committee 
 met. I had been to Paddington 
 with Thistlewood the night before, 
 among the navigators, for the pur- 
 pose of seeing how many men we 
 could get together out of employ, 
 and the spirit of them. We found 
 a great number of them, and treated 
 them with some beer; and they said 
 that they were out of employ, 
 and wished for a good row, that 
 they would rather be killed, as they 
 had nothing lo do; we intimated to 
 them that we wanted them for a 
 job, and wished to know how many 
 we could collect together, and whe- 
 ther they wanted fur any thing in 
 particular. They said they could 
 get five hundred or six hundred in 
 the course of a very few hours any 
 morning they chose, there were 
 such a number of them out of em- 
 ploy. 
 
 ' After this, we called at a public 
 house in Long Acre, and another in 
 Vinegar Yard, which the soldiers 
 who attend the theatres use. and we 
 treated them with beer. We asked 
 them how they were treated by 
 their officers, and what their pay 
 was. One of them, a Yorkshire- 
 man, spoke rather violently against 
 the government. The conversation 
 was about their pay, and the num- 
 ber of them being very ill-treated, 
 from being discharged without pen- 
 
 sions, after fighting so many years 
 for their country. 
 
 * Thistlewood and I afterward* 
 went to a house called the Fox- 
 under-the Hill, in the Adelphi, and 
 found three great quantities of coal- 
 heavers and people who work upon 
 the Thames. We got into conver- 
 sation with twenty or thirty who 
 were out of employ, said we wanted 
 them in the course of a few days, 
 and asked how many we could get 
 together; they said that every 
 morning we could see fifty or sixty 
 of them at the different wharfs and 
 stairs. 
 
 ' When we separated, I went to 
 other places, to see how many I 
 could get together that were out of 
 employ, and if I could get any one 
 more violent than another, 1 took 
 down his name, and communicated 
 it to Thistlewood. 
 
 ' A day or two afterwards, the 
 committee, namely, the two Wat- 
 sons, Thistlewood, Preston, and my- 
 self, met at the house in Greystoke 
 Place, to deliberate upon the best 
 mode of setting fire to the barracks, 
 and getting all the men we possibly 
 could together. A pike was pro- 
 duced, and Thistlewood said that it 
 was a famous weapon, and gave 
 orders to have two hundred and 
 fifty made immediately by Bentley. 
 Dr. Watson and I reported that we 
 had been to inspect the barracks, to 
 see how many avenues could be set 
 on fire at one time, and that we had 
 thoroughly inspected both the Port- 
 man Street and the King Street 
 barracks. The object of our going 
 there was to see how many avenues 
 there were, so that there could be a 
 regular calculation made when we 
 met tin Sunday, how much com- 
 bustibles would be necessary to set 
 the whole on fire, to prevent the 
 soldiers getting out. A general 
 meeting was appointed of the whole 
 six of the committee, at Greystoke 
 
206 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Place, to arrange the whole of the 
 business, and how it was to be con- 
 ducted in each way ; and we met 
 on Sunday, previous to which J 
 paid part of the money to Bentley 
 for the 250 pikes, and ordered them 
 to be made off-hand as soon as pos- 
 sible. When we met, Thistlewood 
 produced a map of London. It was 
 marked out which were the best 
 roads to take; the men who were 
 to be collected together at the dif- 
 ferent harracks and places to be at- 
 tacked. The whole of the com- 
 mittee were to act as generals ; to 
 have their several stations ; and 
 were to attack the separate barracks 
 at one given time and moment. 
 Watson proposed Thistlewood as 
 th« head general. Thistlewood and 
 young Watson were to take the 
 guns and two field-pieces that were 
 in the artillery-ground in Gray's 
 Inn Lane ; Preston was to attack 
 the Tower ; Harrison the artillery- 
 barracks near the Regent's Park ; 
 and I was to set fire to the King 
 Street Barracks, and either to take 
 the men prisoners, or kill those 
 that might attempt to escape ; the 
 elder Walson was to set fire to the 
 Portland Street barracks. We were 
 to attack the whole of those places 
 at a given hour, and set them on 
 fire at one in the morning ; any 
 person we met we were to take 
 them, and make them join us — such 
 as gentlemen's servants; and coach- 
 men were to be taken from their 
 carriages, and those who could ride 
 were to have the horses, which were 
 to form a cavalry, and the coaches 
 and carriages were to be used to 
 barricade the entrances. After I 
 had set fire to the King Street bar- 
 racks, and after we had seen that 
 all were in flames, and that none 
 had made their escape, I was to 
 meet the elder Watson at the top of 
 Oxford Street. Harrison was to 
 join us with the artillery, which he 
 
 was to bring from the barracks by 
 the Regency Park, and as soon as 
 that was done, there was to be a 
 volley fired, to let the remainder 
 know we had got possession of the 
 artillery. Piccadilly gate was to 
 be fastened arid chained, and a party 
 stationed there to fire upon the 
 horse if they attempted to come 
 from the barracks, and then to pro- 
 ceed towards Charing Cross and 
 Westminster Bridge, and barricade 
 there all the avenues upon that side, 
 to prevent them coming round by 
 Chelsea and that way, and then 
 young Watson "and Thistlewood, 
 after getting possession of the guns, 
 were to break open all the oil-shops 
 and gunsmiths'-shops, in which they 
 could find either combustibles or 
 arms. They were then to blockade 
 Chancery Lane and Gray's Inn 
 Lane to St. Giles's, where Thistle- 
 wood was to make his grand stand. 
 One gun was to be pointed up Tot- 
 tenham Court Road, and the other 
 up Oxford Street. 
 
 ' Preston, if he had not suc- 
 ceeded in taking the Tower, was to 
 barricade London Bridge, to prevent 
 the artillery coming from Woolwich. 
 He was then to barricade While- 
 chapel, to prevent any troops com- 
 ing from the country that way ; and 
 then, when he had a body sufficient 
 the main body was to have met at 
 the Bank. 
 
 ' After this arrangement had been 
 made, Watson calculated how much 
 combustibles it would take for every 
 avenue, such as sulphur and spirits 
 of wine, and how much they would 
 cost. He said they would come to 
 one hundred pounds. Thistlewood 
 said, " Let us not spare a hundred 
 pounds; let us roast them weli." 
 Watson replied, that it would burn 
 so rapidly, and the stench would bo 
 so strong, that it would stifle tlitm 
 in a few minutes. Young Walson 
 and I were appointed co look after 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 207 
 
 a house between the Kin? Street 
 and the Porlman Street barracks, 
 to lodge the combustibles and arms 
 in. We were to take it as an oil 
 and colour-shop, so thai there should 
 be no suspicion but thai it was for 
 a shop, when we were taking in the 
 combustibles. 
 
 ' The attack upon the barracks 
 was to have been on the Saturday 
 night or Sunday morning, between 
 the 9th and 10th day of the month, 
 as upon Saturday night there would 
 be a great number of people going 
 about drunk. It was then arranged 
 thai we should have a committee of 
 common safety, to be called toge- 
 ther if we had got the better of the 
 soldiers. If the soldiers joined us, 
 we were to be called together, and 
 to form a new parliament; the 
 greatest part of the names were 
 mentioned by Watson and Thistle- 
 wood. These were Sir Francis 
 Burdett, the lord-mayor, Lord Coch- 
 rane, Mr. Hunt, Major Cartwright, 
 Gale Jones, Roger O'Connor, 
 Fawkes, of Bainbridijje, Yorkshire, 
 a person of the name of Brookes, 
 Thompson, of Holborn Hill, the 
 two Evans's, and Watson the elder, 
 and Thistlewood. A proclamation 
 was to be issued immediately we 
 had got the better, announcing that 
 the new government was to he 
 established, and a bounty of one 
 hundred pounds was to be offered 
 to the soldiers, or double pay for 
 life, as they chose, if they would 
 join us. 
 
 ' Things being so far settled, 
 and several meetings having been 
 held at public houses in Spitalfields, 
 and other places, it was at length 
 finally determined to call a public 
 meeting, to see how many people 
 could be called together. The place 
 talked of was Spafields ; and young 
 Watson and Thistlewood went out 
 to look at the ground, leaving us 
 (the committee) silting. They re- 
 
 ported that it was a famous place, 
 being so near to the Tower and the 
 Bank that they could get into the 
 town, and take them by surprise. 
 A placard was to be stuck up upon 
 the walls, and hand-bills were to 
 be distributed about, amongst the 
 mechanics and the lower orders of 
 the people, such as those at Pad- 
 dingtou, Spitalfields, Petty France, 
 and in the Borough, amongst all the 
 factories. The bill was drawn up, 
 read, and unanimously agreed to, 
 and it was to be put into the States- 
 man newspaper as soon as we could, 
 as the meeting was to be called on 
 Friday, the 15th of November. 
 Thistlewood produced a ten-pound 
 note to get the bill printed, and to 
 pay me as much out of the remain- 
 der as would pay for the pikes. 
 Thistlewood asked who would un- 
 dertake to get a waggon to speak 
 from; he did not address himself 
 particularly to me, but I undertook 
 to get it. We were to have a flag 
 of three colours, green, red, and 
 white, with the motto, " Nature, 
 Truth, and J ustice /" and I under- 
 took to carry it. I also went to 
 Paddington to engage half a dozen 
 navigators to have placards fasten- 
 ed on their backs on pasteboard, 
 and I met the two Watsons next 
 morning at a coffee-shop in Kings- 
 gate Street, High Holhorn, to re- 
 ceive the money, to fetch away the 
 pikes, and to buy two nail-bags to 
 put them in. Watson gave his son 
 five one-pound notes for the pur- 
 pose. When Watson and I went 
 to the printer for the bills, he said 
 that he was afraid it was dangerous 
 to print them, that he was afraid he 
 might get himself into trouble, and 
 therefore he would rather have no- 
 thing to do with them : he had got 
 nearly two hundred finished, and he 
 would destroy them. His wife, and 
 several of us, and a gentleman who 
 was with him, and another who 
 
$08 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 came in afterwards, all wanted to 
 persuade him to let us have them, 
 and we should cut his name off so 
 that he should not get into any 
 harm. He said "No," he would have 
 nothing to do with them, and that 
 he should destroy them. It was 
 then resolved that Watson the elder 
 should go to one of the name of 
 Seale, a printer in Tottenham Court 
 Road, to see if he would print the 
 bills, and he returned, and reported 
 that there would be two hundred 
 and fifty copies ready by eight 
 o'clock on Wednesday morning. 
 Letters were then written to Sir 
 Francis Burdett and Mr. Hunt, to 
 invite them to attend the meeting. 
 
 ' By this time we found it neces- 
 sary to give up our plan of burning 
 the barracks, in consequence of hav- 
 iug met with more difficulty than 
 was anticipated in getting posses- 
 sion of the house intended for the 
 depository of the combustihles, but 
 having obtained a promise from Mr. 
 Hunt that he would preside at the 
 ensuing meeting, it was settled that 
 we (the committee) should be on 
 the spot previous to his arrival, and 
 that the two AVatsons and Preston 
 should address the mob, and if we 
 saw the spirit of the people was 
 ready to act, we were to jump down, 
 and head them into the town. There 
 wpre six cockades, and some flags 
 prepared, and those cockades were 
 to be placed in our hats or bosoms, 
 and if the mob called out for wea- 
 pons, we were to tell them that we 
 should soon find them weapons : 
 for, at that time, there was scarcely 
 a gun-smith's shop in London which 
 had not been inspected, to see what 
 number of guns it contained. We 
 were to proceed to the Bank, and 
 take it by surprise, and to place 
 men upon the roof to destroy the 
 soldiers if they should attempt to 
 retake it: they were not only to 
 get to the top of the Bank, but also 
 
 upon the tops of the surrounding 
 houses, and to get glass bottles, 
 and every thing that would kill or 
 hurt; the whole of the Bank hooks 
 were to be brought out, and burnt, 
 in order to do away with the na- 
 tional debt. 
 
 ' On the morning of Friday, the 
 15th of November, being the day 
 of the first Spafields' meeting, I 
 went to Thistlewood's lodgings, in 
 Southampton Buildings, and re- 
 ceived the colours and six cockades 
 from Thistlewood, in the presence 
 of Mrs. Thistlewood and her son, 
 and I went off to the meeting, car- 
 rying the colours in my bosom, and 
 the staff to fix them on, in my 
 hand. When the business of the 
 meeting had commenced, and Hunt 
 had got on the top of a coach to 
 address the mob, Thistlewood de- 
 sired me to hoist the colours; I 
 took them out of my bosom, and 
 tied them on to the staff, as I stood 
 upon the box of the carriage. A 
 motion was afterwards made for us 
 to remove to the house, and I then 
 handed them to some person in the 
 one pair of stairs room. Several 
 speeches having been addressed to 
 the populace, the meeting was ad- 
 journed to the Monday fortnight ; 
 and we got into a hackney-coach to 
 return. I shewed the colours out 
 of the window, and the horses were 
 taken out by the populace, and we 
 were drawn along, but had not pro- 
 ceeded many yards, till by some 
 means or other we were run against 
 a wall, and we all got out. 
 
 ' Preparations were now made 
 for the second meeting, fixed for 
 the 2d of December, and young 
 Watson and myself were sent out to 
 collect subscriptions for defraying 
 the expenses, and also for the pur- 
 pose of inspecting gunsmiths' shops, 
 and to see where the arms and am- 
 munition were situated about the 
 Tower, and amongst the various 
 
KNAFP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 209 
 
 wharfs and gun-wharfs, and those 
 gentlemen who serve the ships, 
 such as ship-chandlers and ship- 
 brokers, to ascertain where balls, 
 canister, and grape-shot, might 
 he found, and what quantity there 
 was. We also examined the oil- 
 shops where there were any com- 
 bustihles, such as oil, turpentine, 
 and such things, and regularly re- 
 ported to the committee every night 
 what was done. 
 
 ' Among other things, it was 
 proposed, at one of the meetings of 
 the committee, that we would ttet a 
 couple of hundred young women to- 
 gether, and dress them in white, to 
 carry small flags and cockades, or, 
 if we had money sufficient, to dress 
 them all alike, for the purpose of 
 walking first, in order to take off' 
 the attention of the soldiers. 
 
 ' We were all actively employed 
 in distributing bills, announcing the 
 meeting for the 2d of December, 
 and in going from one public house 
 to another amone: the soldiers and 
 labouring men, to prevail on them 
 to come in large bodies to I he meet- 
 ing, that we might calculate on 
 their assistance in any active mea- 
 sures we might take, and I hired a 
 waggon to be taken to Spafields, 
 for the purpose of forming a stage 
 from which we could conveniently 
 address the meeting. Young Wat- 
 son and myself were also sent out 
 in different directions to purchase 
 pistols and other arms for our own 
 use, and I succeeded in procuring 
 some at a very low price. Flags 
 and cockades to be exhibited at the 
 meeting were prepared, and deliver- 
 ed into my care. 
 
 'On the morning of the day of 
 meeting, we assembled at the Black 
 Dog, in Drury Lane, and among 
 other arrangements then made, it 
 was settled, that I should give the 
 colours to Hooper to tie them on 
 the staff, and if any of the civil 
 
 VOL. IV 
 
 power inquired what they were. 
 we were immediately to shoot them, 
 as we did not care for the civil 
 power, if we could only keep the 
 soldiers off; if any officers or ma- 
 gistrates were to interfere, we \v< it; 
 to shoot them or run them through. 
 There were a number of slugs ami 
 bullets put into an old stocking, 
 and tied in an old dirty white hand- 
 kerchief, and put in the possession 
 of Keens to take to the wtigg-ou. 
 I tied the flag on the staff, and de- 
 posited it in the waggon myself, 
 and. giving it in charge to Hooper, 
 proceeded to Dean Street, where I 
 found Keens wrapping up a banner, 
 bearing the inscription, " The brave 
 Soldiers are our Friends, treat 
 them kindly," in a couple of old 
 blankets; I left him to take it to 
 the waggon, and saw no more of 
 him. I then went to the place 
 where I was ordered, viz, to Lon- 
 don Bridge, to meet the smiths, 
 but I found every thing perfectly 
 quiet, and no person that I knew. 
 I then proceeded to Tower Hill, 
 where I found the Tower gates 
 shut, and an extra sentry on. I 
 went up to a soldier, and asked 
 why the gates were shut, up, and he 
 said it was ou account of the meet- 
 ing. I proceeded towards the Bank, 
 and there found some difficulty in 
 getting in, as the gates were shut, 
 and then went on to Little Britain, 
 where 1 heard a shouting, and met 
 a great mob, and the first persons I 
 saw were Dr. Watson, with his dirk- 
 stick, undrawn, and Thisllewood. 
 I asked Watson where his son James 
 and the rest of them was. He said, 
 "To the Tower, first to the Tower, 
 make haste, otherwise we shall be 
 too late." They went on, and I 
 soon lost sight of them ; in a short 
 time afterwards I saw Keens, aad 
 he told me what had taken place in 
 Spafields, and that he had been 
 in the waggon, and that he was 
 111 
 
210 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 afraid he Lad left the blankets and 
 balls in the waggon. We after- 
 wards overtook Mr. Hunt going 
 towards Spafields ; he was in a 
 landau ; and I stopped him and 
 asked him why he was so late ; he 
 inquired what, was the matter; I 
 answered, that Dr. Watson had 
 gone to attack the Tower. Keens 
 and myself went afterwards towards 
 the Tower, and stepped into a gun- 
 smith's shop, and stopped some time. 
 After that, I saw young Watson 
 close by the Bank, at the back of 
 the Exchange; he had in his hand 
 a drawn sword, and was encourag- 
 ing the mob to follow him. A great 
 many were firing in the air : there 
 were about two hundred men and 
 boys. 
 
 ' I then left young Watson, and 
 went to Tower Hill, where I saw 
 old Watson and Thistlewood ; they 
 went up close to the Tower rails, 
 and seemed to be addressing them- 
 selves to the soldiers without the 
 walls of the Tower, or across the 
 walls of the Tower, but I was not 
 nigh enough to hear what was said. 
 They then turned up the Minories 
 to go to Spafields, to get a greater 
 force, as the soldiers did not seem 
 to take any notice of them. On 
 proceeding up the Minories with 
 the mob, Watson called upon them 
 to stop, for when near the top, thirty 
 or forty soldiers met them, and the 
 mob threw down their arms, and ran 
 away. I walked forward with the 
 soldiers as if I had nothing to do 
 with it, till the soldiers had passed 
 me, and then returned back again, 
 and went down towards Tower Hill. 
 At the corner of Mark Lane, I 
 went into a little public house, and 
 stopped until nearly dark, when I 
 went to No. 1, Dean Street, where 
 1 arrived about six or half past six 
 o'clock. 1 found there the two 
 Watsons, Preston, and Thistlewood : 
 the "elder Watson and Thistlewood 
 
 began to pack up their linen, as if 
 going away. I inquired where they 
 were going to, and Thistlewood 
 said, they were going a little way 
 in the country, as he had got a 
 house in the country, and we should 
 hear from him in the course of a 
 day or two. I inquired what had 
 become of Hooper, and he said, 
 Hooper was taken with the colours, 
 and that some of us must expect to 
 be taken. He asked me if I had 
 shot my pistols oft'. He said he was 
 going into the country, and we 
 should hear of him at the Red Hart 
 in Shoe Lane, by the name of John 
 Williams. I asked him if young 
 Watson had shot any body, and 
 he said they did not know, but 
 that he was perfectly well satisfied 
 that the people were not ripe enough 
 to act. We parted a little after; he 
 and the two Watsons went away to- 
 gether about seven o'clock, but I 
 stopped at the public house until 
 near dark.' 
 
 On his cross-examination it ap- 
 peared that this wretch was a 
 government spy, and that his 
 morals admirably fitted him for 
 such an employment. There were 
 few crimes, short of murder, wit'i 
 which he was not made to charge 
 himself. 
 
 On the close of the case for the 
 prosecution Mr. Wetherell proceed- 
 ed to comment on the evidence which 
 had been given, in a strain of argu- 
 mentative eloquence which evinced 
 at once the deep lawyer and bril- 
 liant advocate. 
 
 On the 6th day Mr. Hunt and 
 several other witnesses were called, 
 whose testimony went to impeach 
 the credit of Castles and others 
 for the prosecution, after which 
 counsel was heard for the Dri- 
 soner, and the attorney-general 
 spoke in reply. 
 
 Watson having declined to make 
 any defence after the ability dis- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 211 
 
 played by his counsel, the Lord 
 Chief Justice Ellenborough pro- 
 ceeded to charge the jury, who, 
 after a short consultation, returned 
 a verdict of acquittal — a verdict 
 which must have proceeded from 
 the very natural suspicion the 
 jury entertained of Castles' testi- 
 mony. 
 
 As the two Watsons, father and 
 son, made a notorious figure at this 
 period, we make the following ex- 
 tract from a cotemporary, who seems 
 to have been well informed : 
 
 ' Dr. Watson had much reason to 
 complain of the frowns of fortune. 
 He was born near Boston in Lin- 
 colnshire, and married in early life 
 a woman of respectable family, by 
 whom he had sixteen children. He 
 was a man whose professional charac- 
 ter stood rather high among his 
 patients ; but the expensts of so 
 large a family operated as a bar to 
 his advancement in life. Having 
 failed of establishing himself in the 
 country, he removed to London, de- 
 termined to push his fortune there, 
 and commenced in Newcastle Street 
 in the Strand, where he resided a 
 few years, much respected by his 
 neighbours, but where he failed 
 
 through the pressure of tie times 
 ami the poverty of the neighbour- 
 hood. In the midst of his distress, 
 his goods were seized for debt, and 
 a miserable bed torn from under a 
 favourite daughter, who lay expir- 
 ing in the arms of death, and who 
 shortly after, surrounded by starva- 
 tion and misery, yitlded up this life 
 of sorrow and of trouhle for one, we 
 trust, of eternal happiness and 
 peace. 
 
 'During the above period, Dr. 
 Watson's eldest son was with a Mr. 
 M'Phinn, an apothecary at Bath, 
 from whence he went to Mail- 
 borough, where his wild and un- 
 manageable temper induced a be- 
 lief that his mind was rather disor- 
 dered. 
 
 * After quitting Newcastle Street, 
 Dr. Watson and his family became 
 wanderers from lodging to lodging. 
 The excess of domestic affliction, 
 combined with poverty and distress, 
 had rendered him desperate; and, 
 abandoning his professional pursuits, 
 he gave himself up wholly to his 
 wild political theories, became a 
 thorough Spencean, agreed with 
 the cobbler Preston, and all the ra- 
 dical desperadoes of the age.' 
 
 ROGER O'CONNOR, ESQ. 
 
 INDICTED FOR ROBBING THE MAIL. 
 
 This gentleman, though of re- the low, through which they may ex- 
 tired habits, has had the misfortune pect to come off honourably, if not 
 to be almost perpetually before the guilty. 
 
 public, and sometimes in situations Mr. O'Connor traces his ancestry 
 
 and under circumstances very in- to the last king of Ireland, and has 
 
 consistent with his rank or fortune, uniformly evinced an extraordinary 
 
 Although Mr. O'Connor has been attachment to his native country, 
 
 most honourably acquitted on more Whether the links of genealogy are 
 
 occasions than one, we shall make unbroken or not is of little conse- 
 
 no apology for introducing his case quence; for the individual must, be 
 
 here; for, as all men are liable to judged by his actions, and not by 
 
 be accused of mal-practices, it is sa- his name or pretensions. Mr. O'Con- 
 
 tisfactory to know, that there is but nor, though not an Irish monarch, 
 
 one legal ordeal for the high and which some of his countrymen say 
 
212 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 he ought to be, * is certainly an in- 
 dependent Irishman. His educa- 
 tion was that of a gentleman; his 
 profession that of the law ; and his 
 fortune ample, being at least four 
 thousand pounds a year. 
 
 The reader may recollect the 
 case of Arthur O'Connor, which we 
 have already given. That gentle- 
 man was brother to the subject of 
 this sketch ; and the principles for 
 which Arthur was prosecuted were 
 sspposed to be those of bis elder 
 brother, Roger. Accordingly we 
 find him apprehended, on the sus- 
 picion of treason, at his seat of 
 Connor-ville, in the county of Cork, 
 in 1796, and from that year to 1803 
 he may be said to have been a state 
 prisoner; for he was no sooner li- 
 berated than he was again arrested, 
 and passed, a state shuttlecock, se- 
 veral times between the Irish and 
 English ministers. 
 
 During these peregrinations he 
 displayed great firmness, and, on 
 the coast of Ireland, actually saved 
 the lives of the officers in whose cus- 
 tody he was. Refusing the terms 
 accepted by bis brother, and the 
 other state prisoners, in 1798 he 
 was transmitted to Fort George, in 
 Scotland, and, at length, was libe- 
 rated from prison, on condition that 
 he should reside in Middlesex, for 
 the absurd timidity of the govern- 
 ment apprehended his influence in 
 Ireland too much to permit his re- 
 turn ; and when they did comply 
 with his earnest solicitations, it was 
 on condition that he should not vi- 
 sit the south, where his name was 
 supposed to be a tower of strength. 
 In consequence of this prohibition 
 Mr. O'Connor had to dispose of his 
 
 family mansion, and choose another 
 place of residence. He became the 
 purchaser of Dangan, in the county 
 of Mealh, the estate of the Marquis 
 of Wellesley, where he continued 
 to live engaged in agriculture and 
 literary pursuits, never mixing in 
 politics; and, although the intimate 
 friend of Sir Francis Burdett, he 
 has never appeared to give either 
 the baronet or his friends any sup- 
 port, though possessed of large pro- 
 perty in England. 
 
 O'Connor was what is called in 
 Ireland a marked man; that is, he 
 was one whose movements the mi- 
 nions of power watched closely, and, 
 consequently, in a country where 
 the gentry are all connected with 
 the powers that be, he was not re- 
 garded with much respect. Almost 
 every assizes exhibited a case in 
 which O'Connor was either a wit- 
 ness, a plaintiff, or a defendant ; and 
 wherever his name appeared, angry, 
 discussion was sure to follow, 
 though his fearless independence, 
 and well-known courage, kept it 
 within proper bounds. 
 
 For several years his name, ex- 
 cept when introduced at the assizes, 
 was almost forgotten, until the year 
 1817, when a most extraordinary 
 charge was exhihited against him; 
 nothing less than an accusation of 
 having robbed the Gal way mail five 
 years before. 
 
 Two notorious characters, named 
 Ozcen and Waring, were apprehend- 
 ed for a robbery in 1817, tried in 
 Dublin, and found guilty. They 
 received sentence of death, and the 
 day of execution was appointed ; 
 but before the fatal hour arrived 
 they charged Mr. O'Connor with 
 
 * In a humorous little work, lately published by Mr. Moore, entitled, ' Memoirs 
 of Captain Rock,' the etymology of the name is thus accounted for : H for Roger, 
 O C for O'Connor, and K for King, i. e. Roger, O'Connor King. This is a double-edged 
 satire, for it ridicules at once the supposed pretensions of the individual, and the folly 
 of etymologists. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR. 213 
 
 being the captain of the banditti who dress from that gentleman, then in 
 
 had robbed the Gal way mail. Tbe Newgate, entitled " Third Attempt 
 
 circumstances which they detailed upon the Life of O'Connor." In 
 
 were so minute, that O'Connor was this pamphlet he attributes, per- 
 
 apprehended, and the two approvers haps justly, the prosecution to a 
 
 received the royal pardon, to qualify conspiracy against his life; but 
 
 them as witnesses against the per- when he insinuates that govern- 
 
 sons accused, for O'Connor's stew- ment, from political motives, brought 
 
 ard, named M'Keon, was also in- all their power and influence to give 
 
 eluded in the charge. effect to the charge, we can hardly 
 
 The robbery of the Galway mail suppose it possible, though we are 
 
 had taken place in 1812, ten miles ready to admit that the gentlemen 
 
 from O'Connor's residence at Dan- of the post-office, as they were 
 
 tjan ; but the mail-bags, and some bound to do, supposing him guilty, 
 
 of the fire-arms, were subsequently did all in their power to convict 
 
 found in the demesne, a circum- him. 
 
 stance which, when combined with Mr. O'Connor's trial came on at 
 
 others,* served to give a probability Trim, August the 5th, 1817, the pri- 
 
 to the charge of Owen and Waring. soner having been removed thither.by 
 
 The arrest of O'Connor upon such habeas corpus, from Newgate. The 
 a base charge produced an extraor- court was crowded to excess, and 
 dinary sensation, not only in Ire- O'Connor, with his friend Sir Fran- 
 land, but in England, which was cis Burdett, were allowed to sit 
 considerably heightened by an ad- within the bar. 
 
 * An extraordinary robbery took place at Dangan in 1813. We extract the parti- 
 culars from the Irish papers, and can vouch for their authenticity ; for they were 
 afterwards fully proved in evidence when an action was brought to recover the sum lost 
 from the county : — 
 
 ' Mr. Roger O'Connor, of Dangan, in the county of Meath, for which place he 
 pays an annual rent of one thousand five hundred pounds to Colonel Burrowes, who 
 resides in London, has been in the habit of refusing to pay his rent at any place but on 
 the premises. A Mr. Francis Gregory, agent to Colonel Burrowes, after some preli- 
 minary discussion with Mr. O'Connor, employed Mr. Doyle, postmaster of Trim, to 
 receive the latter half-year's rent. On the 28th ult. Mr. Doyle went to Dangan for 
 this purpose : at the gate he was. accosted by a person, who said he was stationed 
 there to give Mr. O'Connor immediate notice of his approach ; and Mr. Doyle fol- 
 lowed him into the house, where he found Mr. O'Connor and his son Roderick ; when 
 Mr. Doyle entered, O'Connor desired his son to withdraw. He then proceeded to pay 
 Mr. Doyle the rent, amounting to seven hundred and fifty pounds, and which was 
 chiefly in one-pound notes. Mr. Doyle observed upon the inconvenience of that mode 
 of payment, and requested the use of pen and ink to mark the notes. This was re- 
 fused : Mr. Doyle, after counting the notes, left the house — and within thirty yards of 
 it, and before he had got to the stable, he was attacked from behind by two persons in 
 disguise, whoses faces were masked ; they knocked him down, tied a handkerchief 
 over his face, robbed him of the money he had just received, and some silver of his 
 own ; and having bound his legs with a cord, and forced a sack over his head, they 
 left him. During the whole transaction, the robbers never uttered a word. No person 
 whatever having come to his assistance, Mr. Doyle remained for some time before he 
 was able to extricate himself. On his return to the house he saw a lady, to whom he 
 mentioned how he had been treated. Shortly after Mr. O'Connor arrived, who ex- 
 pressed great surprise at the robbery. Mr. Doyle then took his departure. The robbeiy 
 having been committed at eleven o'clock in the day, the necessary steps are in pro- 
 gress to levy the money upon the county of Meath. We have every reliance that the 
 gentlemen of that vicinity will use their best exertions to discover the persons engaged 
 in this most mysterious transaction.' 
 
214 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Several witnesses having proved 
 tlie robbery of the mail on the 2d of 
 October, 1812, and the conviction 
 of Richard Waring for the said rob- 
 bery, Michael Owen, the chief in- 
 former, was called. 
 
 He stated that he had been a 
 labourer in the employ of Mr. O'Con- 
 ner, at Dangan, and that previous 
 to the robbery he was asked by his 
 master if he would join in robbing 
 the Galway mail ; he said that he 
 would; and that Mr. O'Conner pro- 
 cured him and others arms ; that 
 they repaired to the turnpike 
 gate at Cappagh Hill, stopped the 
 mail, shot the guards, and robbed 
 the coach and passengers ; that on 
 their arrival at Dangan Mr. O'Con- 
 nor met them — hoped they had had 
 ' good luck,' and then in a private 
 part of the demesne proceeded to di- 
 vide the booty, which amounted to 
 three hundred and fifty pounds 
 each — that O'Connor took his por- 
 tion, and obtained two hundred 
 pounds more from two of the robbers, 
 to whom he had afforded previous 
 protection. 
 
 Owen further stated he had been 
 twice tried for the robbery — once 
 on the capital charge, and at ano- 
 ther time for passing some of the 
 stolen notes; that he had been re- 
 cently found guilty of a robbery 
 in the county of Dublin, and sen- 
 tenced to death, and that he ob- 
 tained his pardon for having given 
 information against Mr. O'Connor. 
 On bis cross-examination he ad- 
 mitted that he could not tell th<i 
 number of robberies he had com- 
 mitted, they were so many. 
 
 After the examination of other 
 witnesses, Sir Francis Burdett de- 
 posed to his knowledge of the pri- 
 soner, to whom he gave a high cha- 
 racter for honour, principle, and in- 
 tegrity. The jury, without retiring, 
 gave a verdict of — Not Guilty, and 
 the court rang with approbation. 
 
 ' I have suffered much,' said O'Con- 
 nor, ' but what would I not suffer 
 for a day like this ?' 
 
 Mr. O'Connor, being thus tri- 
 umphantly acquitted, commenced a 
 prosecution of Waring for perjury. 
 Waring's trial came on at Green 
 Street, Dublin, October the 30th, 
 1817; and the post-office, as if still 
 believing in his statement, employ- 
 ed the most eminent counsel to de- 
 fend him. From Mr. O'Connor's 
 evidence it appeared that he had 
 more than once given Owen and 
 Waring sjood characters, when ou 
 their trial for robberies; and it was 
 proved that he had evinced great 
 solicitude for them at one of the 
 Trim assizes. This suspicious at- 
 tachment of Mr. O'Connor for such 
 abandoned ruffians as murderers 
 and mail-coach robbers produced its 
 effect upon the jury; but what help- 
 ed to throw complete discredit on 
 Mr. O'Connor's evidence was the 
 fact, elicited on his cross-examina- 
 tion, that he did not believe in the 
 Jewish dispensation, or the Chris- 
 tian atonement. This acknowledg- 
 ment of his infidel opinions created 
 abuzz of disapprobation; and, when 
 the acquittal of the prisoner was 
 announced, it seemed to give great 
 satisfaction; so fickle is the opi- 
 nion of the multitude, that a word 
 will convert their applause into con- 
 demnation ! 
 
 In this case there appears some- 
 thing very strange and unsatisfac- 
 tory ; but, as we are unable to pene- 
 trate the mystery ■which must for 
 ever environ it, we leave our readers 
 to draw their own conclusions. One 
 word, however, is necessary. Mr. 
 O'Connor was acquitted by a jury, 
 and is therefore to be considered 
 innocent; while it is very possible 
 that his apparent solicitude for such 
 wretches as Owen and Waring 
 might have arisen from the purest 
 humanity, and active friendship 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 21o 
 
 for Hie unfortunate portion of his Since 1817 Mr. O'Connor has 
 
 countrymen, with whose destiny he published the ' Chronicles of Eii,' 
 
 boasts to have connected himself, and, if we believe himself, he was. 
 
 At all events, let it not be supposed at the time of his trial, engaged on 
 
 that we 'set down aught in malice/ a work on the Bible. It has not yet 
 
 either in respect to Mr. O'Connor appeared, and, it is to be hoped, 
 
 or his prosecutors. never will. 
 
 JAMES ASHCROFT THE ELDER, JAMES ASHCROFT THE 
 YOUNGER, DAVID ASHCROFT, & WILLIAM HOLDEN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 Since the murder of the Marr the greater villain, for lie added hy- 
 
 family the public mind had not been poeiisy to his other crimes. He 
 
 so shocked by any dreadful atrocity was the principal of a society that 
 
 as that for which these malefactors met for religious edification; and so 
 
 so deservedly suffered. imposing was his affected piety, 
 
 These men had for several years that his instructions were preferred, 
 
 subsisted by plunder and gaming; by a respectable family, to those of 
 
 for although brought up to the trade a sincere clergyman of the Esta- 
 
 of weavers, they had long declined blished Church. David Ashcroft, 
 
 seekin"- their livelihood by an honest and Holden, held similar tenets, and, 
 
 pursuit of that business. James no doubt, were influenced by the doc- 
 
 Ashcroft the elder, father of James trines acted upon by the father and 
 
 Ashcroft the younger, and brother son. 
 
 of David Ashcroft, had formerly It was necessary that we should 
 been in the Methodist connexion, have stated these particulars, be- 
 but had been expelled by the mem- cause they serve to explain the iu- 
 bers of that persuasion for immoral fatuated wickedness of these men, 
 conduct. He was quite a fanatic, in denying to the last the justice of 
 and was fully persuaded that his that sentence which followed the 
 faith was such that he could work verdict of twelve honest men ; and, 
 miracles, and that, having once at- indeed, there was not a man in 
 tained the perfection of grace, he the country who read the evidence 
 never could again fall; conse- against them who did not rejoice in 
 quently, he imagined that be could their conviction and punishment, 
 offend Heaven with impunity — a These atrocious monsters became, 
 doctrine at once extravagant and from long acquaintance with ini- 
 ridiculous, and seems, in this in- quity, so familiari ed to crime, that 
 stance, to have operated on the dis- they, at length, committed, in the 
 turbed intellects of this man, in a very face of day, a deed which is 
 way which doubtless contributed to without a parallel for cool and deli- 
 his crimes. He once, to illustrate berate turpitude. They resolved to 
 the fanatic doctrine of faith only, rob the house of Mr. Littlewood, at 
 thrust his hand and arm into the Pendleton, near Manchester; and as 
 fire, to show that they would not this gentleman and his wife spent 
 burn; but the experiment did not every Saturday in Salford, where 
 succeed, and the effect of the scorch- they had a grocer's shop, the ruf 
 ing was such that he lost a joint. fians chose Saturday, April the 
 
 James Ashcroft, the son, was 26th, 1817, to effect their purpose, 
 
 worthy of such a father, but appears About the hour of two o'clock in 
 
216 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the day they gained an entrance, 
 when, horrid to relate! they but- 
 chered two defenceless females — one 
 a Mrs. Marsden. aged seventy-five, 
 and the other an interesting girl, 
 not more than twenty, the only per- 
 sons in the house. After this atro- 
 cious and unprovoked deed, they 
 lobbed the house of one hundred and 
 sixty pounds in money, and some 
 few valuables. 
 
 When a discovery of the murder 
 took place in the evening, nothing 
 could surpass the sensation it ex- 
 cited ; and as the apprehension of 
 the monsters who perpetrated it was 
 desired by all, some individuals came 
 forward, and deposed to having seen 
 the Ashcrofts, and two other men, 
 lurking about Pendleton on the day 
 of the murder. In consequence of 
 this information, the three Ash- 
 crofts, Holden, and a man named 
 John Robinson, were taken into 
 custody, and brought to trial at 
 Manchester, September the 5th, 
 1817. Against Robinson nothing 
 criminatory appeared, and, of course, 
 he was acquitted. 
 
 After the jury were sworn, the 
 elder Ashcroft flung up his hand, 
 with a theatrical air, and exclaimed, 
 • Not Guilty !' The others followed 
 his example, and a number of wit- 
 nesses were sworn. 
 
 William Mortimer saw the pri- 
 soners on Friday morning, April 
 the 25th, at the Crown and Anchor 
 public house; and Martha Bake, the 
 hostess, observed them in secret 
 conversation, as if plotting about 
 something of importance. 
 
 Several witnesses corroborated 
 each other as to their having seen 
 the prisoners together, and separate, 
 on Saturday, in the neighbourhood 
 of Pendleton. 
 
 Hannah Tatterson lives with Mr. 
 Watkins, the Quaker, next door 
 neighbour of Mr. Littlewood. She 
 saw Hannah Partington at half past 
 
 twelve on the 26th of April ; the 
 shutters of the kitchen window were 
 then open, but at two o'clock she 
 observed they had been shut. 
 
 Mary Hallows was passing by 
 the kitchen window between one and 
 two o'clock, as she was going for 
 water, and swears positively that she 
 saw Holden sitting in the kitchen. 
 She afterwards identified him among 
 several others, when before the ma- 
 gistrate. 
 
 Harriet Towel, at half past four, 
 went to Littlewood's, and seeimr the 
 kitchen shutters closed, she looked 
 under them, and saw Mrs. Marsden 
 sitting on a chair, with her head 
 sunk on her breast, as if she had 
 been dead. The dresser was sprin- 
 kled with blood. She returned at 
 seven, and, seeing the old woman in 
 the same position, she gave the 
 alarm. 
 
 Mr. Littlewood returned home on 
 the evening of the 26th of April, at 
 eight o'clock. He gained access to 
 his house through an upper window, 
 by the help of a ladder, and, on 
 going into the kitchen, found Mrs. 
 Marsden dead in her chair, and 
 Hannah Partington lying dead un- 
 der the dresser. One hundred and 
 sixty pounds that he had in the 
 house were gone. The kitchen was 
 covered with blood. Hannah Part- 
 ington were a very handsome girl — 
 she had no sweetheart; he was sure 
 she had not. 
 
 A surgeon proved that the women 
 came by their death in consequence 
 of blows inflicted with a poker and 
 a cleaver, which fractured the skull, 
 and focred it in on the brain. 
 
 Ely Dyson, a weaver, was passni"; 
 by Mr. Littlewood's house a little 
 before four, and saw James Ash- 
 croft the younger, David Ashcroft, 
 and Holden, coming out of the gate, 
 with bundles in their hands. He 
 was certain these were the persons, 
 because he looked very sharp at 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NSWGATE CALENDAR. 217 
 
 them, in consequence of their look- 
 ing sharp at him. He afterwards 
 pointed them out from among se- 
 veral others, in the gaol-yard. 
 
 Several other witnesses deposed 
 to having seen them on the road, 
 and others saw David Ashcroft 
 coining out of the gate. 
 
 Two witnesses saw James Ash- 
 croft, the younger, on the play- 
 ground at Manchester, in the even- 
 ing, when heexliihited one hand full 
 of notes, and another full of gold 
 and silver. 
 
 The officer who apprehended the 
 whole party found nothing on the 
 prisoners except a few notes and 
 some small pieces. There was no 
 attempt to prove these to have be- 
 longed to Mr. Liltlewood. 
 
 William Collins, through miscon- 
 ception, had been confined on a 
 charge respecting a horse and cart, 
 in the lock-up. James Ashcroft 
 the elder was also there. Collins 
 told him his whole case, and Ash- 
 croft, in return, made him acquaint- 
 ed with his. Ashcroft stated the 
 whole particulars of their movements 
 about Pendleton, previous to the 
 robbery ; he remained at the back 
 of a hedge while the others went in, 
 and was to give a signal if he saw 
 any one approach the house. 
 
 Several witnesses were then call- 
 ed, who corroborated the statement 
 made to Collins by the elder Ash- 
 croft, respecting their di lie re nt 
 movements. 
 
 The case for the prosecution here 
 closed, and the prisoners severally 
 addressed the Court, protesting their 
 innocence: after which a few wit- 
 nesses for the defence were called ; 
 but their testimony was va»ue, and 
 their own characters doubtful. 
 
 The Chief Baron summed up the 
 evidence in a very luminous address 
 of more than an hour and a Imif. 
 Towards the conclusion of it, David 
 Ashcroft begged to be allowed to 
 
 say something farther. The Chief 
 Baron said it was quite irregular, 
 but he would certainly indulge him. 
 He then threw out many incoherent 
 charges against the evidence for the 
 prosecution, and begged to have 
 Mr. Wright, a magistrate, and Mr. 
 Wilherton, a constable, examined to 
 contradict Mary Hallows. 
 
 The judge said he would allow 
 it, but insisted that Mr. Williams, 
 the counsel for the Ashcrofts, and 
 Mr. Starkie, the counsel for Holdeu, 
 should be sent for. 
 
 After a considerable interval Mr. 
 Williams appeared without wig or 
 gown, and after he had conversed 
 for a considerable time with his 
 lordship and with the prisoners, 
 David Ashcroft said he would leave 
 the case as it was to God Almighty, 
 who he hoped would direct his 
 lordship and the jury to do justice. 
 
 James Ashcroft, the elder, then 
 ejaculated — 'O! may God, by his 
 Holy Spirit, inspire the jury to per- 
 ceive the truth, and to give a true 
 verdict, for we are all innocent of 
 this murder.' 
 
 The Chief Baron—' I'll listen to 
 any thing for which you can offer 
 evidence; but you must not be al- 
 lowed to make speeches of that 
 kind.' His lordship then concluded 
 by a very impartial and solemn 
 peroration. 
 
 The jury in two minutes returned 
 their verdict James Ashcroft the el- 
 der, David Ashcroft, James Ashcrolt 
 the younger, and William Holdeu 
 —Guilty. John Robinson — Not 
 Guilty. 
 
 James Ashcroft the elder. — ' This 
 is murdering us in cold blood. Cod 
 will reveal this injustice. I pray 
 earnestly that he would now send 
 two angels to declare upon that table 
 who committed this murder. We 
 are innocent, and I will declare so 
 to the last.' 
 
 David Ashcroft invoked God, and 
 
218 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 protested his innocence in the same 
 manner. 
 
 James Ashcroft the younger. — ' If 
 1 must suffer (ieatli for a crime I ne- 
 ver committed, I implore your ho- 
 nour to look in mercy on my poor 
 wife and children. (Here a tremen- 
 dous shriek burst from a female in 
 the crowd, who, it was found, was 
 his unfortunate wife.) 
 
 William Holden. — 'Silence, si- 
 
 ence ; 
 
 (Aim 
 
 inj 
 
 one arm towards 
 
 heaven and the other towards his 
 earthly judge) — There is a God 
 yonder who knows that we are in- 
 nocent, and who will make amends 
 for this.' 
 
 The Chief Baron here directed 
 the business of the Court to be pro- 
 ceeded will), and the prisoners again 
 repeated their protestations of inno- 
 cence, and declared all the evidence 
 against them to be perjuries and lies. 
 
 The awful sentence of death was 
 then pronounced. They were or- 
 dered for execution on the Monday 
 following. The judge declared, 
 that no sensible person, who had 
 heard the evidence, could have a 
 doubt of their guilt; that he owed 
 it to justice to say, that he consi- 
 dered the verdict the only one an 
 intelligent jury could have returned. 
 
 The moment sentence was pro- 
 nounced, James Ashcroft, the elder, 
 waved his right hand, with a white 
 bundle in it, over his head, and ex- 
 claimed aloud, ' Glory to God !' 
 
 David Ashcroft said he hoped 
 God would not allow the injustice 
 done to them to he always unknown. 
 
 James Ashcroft, the younger, 
 said he would meet a higher judge 
 with a conscience clear of this 
 guilt. 
 
 William Holden vociferated in a 
 wild tone, ' There is Mr. Nadin, 
 and there is Mr. Fox (attorney for 
 the prosecution), and before they 
 leave the earth God will punish 
 them.' 
 
 Thus were these terrific culprits 
 hurried away from the bar, while 
 every person in Court was pene- 
 trated with a chilling horror at such 
 a dreadful scene. 
 
 The trial lasted from eight in the 
 morning till eight at night. 
 
 After their condemnation these 
 wretched men still persisted in as- 
 serting their innocence, and every 
 appeal to them to acknowledge their 
 guilt, even with reference to the 
 awful moment so fast approaching, 
 the pangs of which might be mi- 
 tigated by relieving their minds 
 from the load of crime under which 
 they laboured, was fruitless and 
 ineffectual ; they seemed influenced 
 by the most determined feelings of 
 unrelenting obduracy, which they 
 reconciled to themselves by fanati- 
 cism and superstition. 
 
 On the 8th of September, pur- 
 suant to sentence, they were led to 
 the fatal scaffold. Precisely at a 
 quarter past twelve, the door, lead- 
 ing from the castle to the scaffold, 
 opened, and William Holden, a 
 strong-built, middle-sized , and 
 grey-headed man, was led forth, with 
 his hands pinioned both at the wrists 
 and elbows: before the cap was 
 placed on his head, he turned round 
 to the immense multitude of specta- 
 tors, and, with a firm and loud voice, 
 said, ' I am innocent of the crime 
 for which I am to suffer as the child 
 unborn. May God take away all 
 my sins as 1 am innocent of this 
 murder.' The cap was then drawn 
 over his face, and the rope tied about 
 his neck. 
 
 David Ashcroft was stationed 
 next him. He spoke to this effect, 
 with frequent repetitions of the same 
 observations — ' I am glad to see so 
 many persons now looking on, as I 
 testify to them that we are all igno 
 rant of this crime. I do protest to 
 you all, before God, that we are all 
 innocent. Every one that tsow sees 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 219 
 
 me is as guifty as I am. I woulJ 
 not say so if we had any connexioi 
 in any way with the concern ; but 
 I declare before God that we are 
 perfectly innocent, for which I bless 
 God. My prayer to God is, that all 
 our persecutors may be forgiven. 
 May God bless the town of Man- 
 chester. I know that many thirst- 
 ed for our blood, but they have sorer 
 hearts than we have. We forgive 
 them, and may God give bis Holy 
 Spirit to the town of Manchester. 
 I pray earnestly that we may be the 
 last innocent persons to suffer from 
 this castle. May God find out the 
 true murderers; and may you see 
 them suffer in this place, and hear 
 the confession of their guilt. I am 
 now, I trust, going to glory, and I 
 would not, for the whole world, die 
 with a lie in my mouth. We are all 
 innocent.' 
 
 Here Holden exclaim d, ' I can 
 answer only for myself. I am in- 
 nocent.' 
 
 James Ashcroft the younger, who 
 had, in the mean time, been brought 
 out, and on whom the cap and rope 
 had been put, cried out, ' We are 
 all innocent !' 
 
 David Ashcroft continued : ' And 
 now may the grace of God be with 
 you all, now and for ever. Amen.' 
 The cap was now put on his face, 
 and the rope was tied round his 
 neck. He was a good-looking man. 
 
 James Ashcrnfl the elder, a tall, 
 thin, grey-headed man, came out 
 last; when in front of his son, he 
 kissed him with much earnestness, 
 then took his station by his side, 
 but said not a word. 
 
 They were all pinioned at the 
 wrists and elbows. They joined 
 the clergyman afterwards in repeal- 
 ing the Lord's Prayer quite loud. 
 David Ashcroft continued praying : 
 — ' Lord, take away my sins, and 
 save my soul, for the merits <>f 
 Jesus Christ.' Holden repeated the 
 same expression. All four then 
 began to sing, David Ashcroft re- 
 peting, line after line, as they 
 sung : 
 
 ' I'll praise my Maker with my breath ; 
 And, when my voice is lost in death, 
 My days of praise shall ne'er be past, 
 While life and thought and ' 
 
 The drop fell, their voices instantly 
 ceased, and they swung round in the 
 same direction. David Ashcroft's 
 mouth being uncovered, his tongue 
 was seen swollen and thrust half out 
 on the upper side of his mouth. 
 Old Ashcroft never moved a Jiiub. 
 The young men quivered in the 
 convulsions of death about a mi- 
 nute alter they had been thrown 
 off. There was scarcely a tearless 
 eye among the crowd, while many 
 of the women wept aloud. 
 
 PATRICK DEVAN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF THE LYNCH FAMILY. 
 
 An extraordinary spirit of vin- which has not been yet altogether 
 
 dictiveness seems to be inherent in eradicated, and the disturbed state 
 
 the lower orders of Ireland. Re- of the country, in which opposite 
 
 venge has such charms for them, parties take retributive justice into 
 
 that an injury is remembered and their own hands, 
 retaliated alter the absence of years ; At the same time there appears in 
 
 and, if of a religious or political this sanguinary and vindictive spirit 
 
 nature, centuries are not sufficient a strange principle of wild fidelity 
 
 to erase it. No doubt this arises and barbarian honour. It is not a 
 
 from their former state of clanship, brother that revenges the death or 
 
220 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 wrongs of a brother ; a father those very honestly, but very imprudently, 
 
 of a son; or a son those of a father, informed the priest that many who 
 
 The whole clan or association take belonged to the association were 
 
 that duty formally on themselves, then in the chapel; and made such 
 
 and seldom desist until their ideas significant allusions, that the con- 
 
 of justice are satisfied. We find the gregatiou readily knew them, though 
 
 same principle acted upon in Scot- no name was mentioned, 
 
 land, when that country was less This was in the month of Octo- 
 
 civilized than at present. her, 1816, and in a few nights alter 
 
 The case of Devan illustrates Wild Goose Lodge, a most retired 
 
 these remarks, and proves that re- spot, the residence of Lynch, was 
 
 ligion has no influence over the burned to the ground, and, horrid to 
 
 baneful practice. All the parties relate, the whole family, consisting 
 
 concerned were Roman Catholics, of eight persons, perished in the 
 
 and Devan was noway related to ruins. The next Sunday the priest, 
 
 those whose deaths he was so despe- in all the awe and ceremony of his 
 
 rate in revenging. church, proceeded to pass sentence 
 
 In 1816, a respectable farmer, of excommunication on the foul per- 
 named Lynch, in the county of petrators of this horrid deed. The 
 Louth, had his house attacked by a person who responded Amen to the 
 band of ruffians, who carried off heavy denunciation of the priest 
 some arms. Lynch prosecuted them was Devan, who thus wilfully in- 
 to conviction for a burglary and voked maledictions on his own head, 
 robbery, and they were executed ac- Devan, being in apprehension of 
 cordingly. Lynch being a brave an arrest, quitted that part of the 
 old man, the magistrates of the country, and travelled to the south, 
 county gave him arms* to defend This movement increased the sus- 
 himself, in case his house should be picion against him, and a reward 
 again attacked. was offered for his apprehension ; 
 
 The illegal association, to which but no discovery of his retreat took 
 
 the persons executed had belonged, place until one of his letters to his 
 
 now determined to revenge upon father fell into the hands of a ma- 
 
 Lvnch the death of their comrades, gistrate, from which he learned that 
 
 Their meetings were held in a little Devan was working at the dock, in 
 
 chapel at Stonestown, of which Dublin. Proper officers were now 
 
 Devan had the key, as he always dispatched in pursuit of him, and in 
 
 officiated as clerk, being a school- a few days he was taken into cus- 
 
 uiaster in the village. On this oc- tody. 
 
 casion he appears to have been very On the 19th of July, 1817, he 
 
 active, and zealously urged the tie- was indicted at the Louth assizes, 
 
 cessity of sacrificing Lynch to the for the murder and burning of the 
 
 mams of their comrades. What Lynch family. The main points of 
 
 stimulated these atrocious villains the case were sworn to by Bernard 
 
 to a more speedy execution of their MTIroy, who in his evidence ac- 
 
 diabolical revenge, was the circum- knowledged to his having been with 
 
 stance of Lynch, the Sunday before Devan and Gubby at the burning of 
 
 he was murdered, having stood up Lynch's house. The desperate gang 
 
 in chapel, after mass, to second the assembled, to the number of forty, at 
 
 censure of the priest on those who Stonetown chapel, about half past 
 
 joined in illegal associations. Lynch nine at night, and proceeded from 
 * The Romau Catholics, ia Ireland, are not allowed to carry arms. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 221 
 
 thence to the scene of destruction. 
 The party were joined on their way 
 by about sixty other persons, and 
 the whole spread themselves round 
 the house to prevent Lynch or his fa- 
 mily escaping. Other evidence prov- 
 ed the guilt of the prisoner, and the 
 jury immediately found him Guilty. 
 
 Devan heard his sentence without 
 being the least moved. He assert- 
 ed his innoceuce to the very mo- 
 
 ment of his going to the place of 
 execution, but then acknowledged 
 his guilt. He was hung on a beam 
 suspended from two chimneys of the 
 house that were remaining in the 
 ruins of Lynch's farm. He prayod 
 very devoutly, and acknowledged his 
 guilt to the last. The only thio? 
 which gave him concern was hi* 
 being hung in chains opposite to his 
 father's house. 
 
 JAMES HARRY, alias HARRIS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE. 
 
 Guilt was brought home to this 
 man by a succession of circum- 
 stances which at once established 
 his crime, and showed the finger 
 of Providence visibly pointing out 
 the murderer, whose deep-laid 
 schemes of secrecy could not 
 shelter him from the punishment 
 awarded by justice. 
 
 Harry, alias Harris, lived in the 
 parish of Dixtone, in Monmouth- 
 shire. For fourteen years he had 
 been from home, and during his ab- 
 sence his wife supported herself 
 by attending women lying-in and 
 by sewing. After his return they 
 lived very unhappily ; and it ap- 
 peared that the wife had a most ag- 
 gravating tongue, and Harry was 
 not blessed with much patience. 
 
 On Sunday, the 30th of March, 
 1817, Mrs. Harry was seen, as usual, 
 at church, and subsequently at her 
 own cottage, dressed in her accus- 
 tomed gown, shawl, &c. : bat next 
 morning she was missing. Harry 
 said she had been called up during 
 the night, and he expressed much 
 surprise at her not appearing during 
 the ensuing week. At length, the 
 murdered remains of the unfortunate 
 woman were found buried in an ad- 
 joining wood, and from attending 
 circumstances suspicion fell upon 
 Harry, who was apprehended, and 
 brought to trial, August the 15th, 
 
 1817, at the Monmouth assizes, 
 when it was satisfactorily proved 
 that he had murdered his unfortu- 
 nate wife ; and, for concealment, had 
 buried her in an adjoining wood. 
 
 On the following Monday this 
 wretched man paid the forfeit of his 
 existence on the gaol of Monmouth, 
 in the presence of several thousand 
 spectators. No sooner was the un- 
 happy culprit convinced that he had 
 no mode of escape, than he sunk 
 into a sullen apathy. His brother, 
 his son, and his friends, were alike 
 regarded by him as obtrusive, and 
 were forbade his presence. Avarice 
 seemed to be his ruling passion, 
 and the loss of the trifling property, 
 in amassing which he had derived 
 so much pleasure, seemed to have 
 solely occupied his mind. At length, 
 by the exertions of the chaplain, he 
 was induced to confess his guilt. 
 He admitted the justice of his sen- 
 tence, and acknowledged the fact 
 of his having murdered his hapless 
 wife, under circumstances, however, 
 he said, on her part, of great ag- 
 gravation. It appeared, from his 
 statement, that he killed her on the 
 Sunday night by a blow on the 
 temple with some heavy instrument, 
 but not the stone produced on the 
 trial ; and when her spirit had tied 
 for ever, he employed himself in 
 cleaning up those traces of the dt«d 
 
222 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 which her flowing blood produced. 
 Having at length partially accom- 
 plished this work, he secreted the 
 body under the bed, and in the 
 garden buried some of those clothes 
 with which he had been performing 
 his terrific labours. — Thus matters 
 rested till the succeeding niuht, 
 when he went forth to the Cross 
 
 Wood side, and there dug the 
 grave, in which be immediately 
 deposited the remains of the de- 
 ceased, hoping that by the course 
 of conduct which be had adopted 
 he should avert suspicion, until he 
 should be enabled to depart froin a 
 spot which his conscience rendered 
 peculiarly terrible. 
 
 JEREMIAH BRANDRETH, WILLIAM TURNER, AND 
 
 ISAAC LUDLAM, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON. 
 
 In an introductory paragraph to 
 our account of the Spafields' riot we 
 took occasion to mention the most 
 prominent causes of public discon- 
 tent; and though these had partially 
 disappears in 1817, still the im- 
 
 tices we refer the reader to the Par- 
 liamentary Reports of 1818. 
 
 Of Oliver, it is supposed, the 
 three unfortunate men, who form the 
 subjects of this case, were victims ; 
 for the contemptible insurrection 
 
 pulse given to disaffection continued which they headed originated among 
 to operate for a considerable time, the peasantry of Pentridge, South- 
 being protracted by the injudicious, wingfield, and Wingfield Park, in 
 if not unconstitutional, resort of go- Derbyshire, the last places in Eng- 
 vernment to the base system of land that could be suspected of be- 
 spies and informers, who no doubt coming the scene of treason and re- 
 fanned that flame of disloyalty which hellion ; and, therefore, it is rational 
 had nearly caused a traitorous ex- to conclude that no ordinary decep- 
 plosion in the county of Derby, tions were practised on them to 
 more formidable and appalling than cause a departure from their peaceful 
 that for which Br.mdreth and his habits and contented homes. The 
 ill-fated companions suffered. country is fertile and picturesque; 
 No doubt the seeds of disloyalty, the population thin and scattered ; 
 at this period, had been sown through and the inhabitants simple, indus- 
 the kingdom with a strange indus- trious, and affectionate. How these 
 try, and that the infatuated popu- became the willing instruments of 
 luce were too accessible to opinions villainy, we are unable to state; but 
 of a dangerous tendency ; but was it has been fully ascertained that 
 it wise, was it humane, to take ad- they were deluded by those who 
 vantage of their ignorance and de- were in correspondence with Oliver, 
 lusion, to hurry them upon illegal and who consequently were his 
 proceedings, that their crimes might dupes. 
 
 qualify a few of them for that punish- Jeremiah Brandreth, better known 
 
 ment which was to be inflicted only by the name of the Nottingham 
 
 for the purpose of warning others of Captain, was one of those original 
 
 their danger, and deterring the in- characters for which nature had 
 
 fatuated by exhibiting the decapi- done much, and education nothing, 
 
 tated victims of the law? The vile Of his parents, or early habits, we 
 
 agent of government, in the north- know nothing; for on these sub- 
 
 »rn districts, was a wretch named jects he maintained a studied silence, 
 
 Oliver, for whose history and prac- and since his execution nothing cal- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 238 
 
 eulated to remove our ignorance on 
 these points has come to our know- 
 ledge. All we know with certainty 
 is, that he had been in the army, 
 and that his wife, and three children, 
 resided at Nottingham, where he 
 was compelled to apply to the parish 
 officers for occasional support. 
 
 The figure and countenance of 
 this man were subjects well adapted 
 for the wild and impassioned pencil 
 of Salvator Rosa, and would not 
 have been unsuitable to stand pro- 
 minent in a group of mountain ban- 
 ditti. His age was not more than 
 six-and-twenty ; yet he evidently 
 possessed an influence of command, 
 and resolution, irresistible to com- 
 mon men. His eye was black and 
 piercing, and his whole face indi- 
 cated a character of daring intre- 
 pidity, and decision of no ordinary 
 kind. Those who had seen him 
 declared that it was no wonder that 
 ordinary men looked on him with a 
 kind of awful respect, not unmixed 
 with dread; for he might have sat 
 for the picture Lord Byron has 
 drawn of the ' Corsair.' 
 
 ' But who that chief 1 — his name on every 
 shore 
 
 Is famed and feared — they ask, and know 
 no more. 
 
 With these he mingles not but to com- 
 mand, 
 
 Few are his words, but keen his eye and 
 hand.. 
 
 ' His nanw appals the fiercest of his crew, 
 
 And tints each swarthy cheek with sal- 
 lower hue ; 
 
 Still sways their souls with that command- 
 ing art 
 
 That dazzles — leads — yet chills — the vul- 
 gar hear... [train 
 
 What is that spell, that this his lawless 
 
 Confess and envy — yet oppose in vain? 
 
 What should it be that thus their faith 
 can bind ] 
 
 The power, the nerve, the magic of the 
 mind! 
 
 Linked with success — assumed and kept 
 with skill 
 
 That moulds another's weakness to its 
 will— 
 
 Wields with their haids — but still to these 
 
 unknown, 
 Makes even their mightiest deeds appear 
 
 his own. 
 
 ' Unlike the heroes of each ancient race, 
 
 Demons in act, but gods at least in face. 
 
 In Conrad's form seems little to admire, 
 
 Though his dark eye-brow shades a glance 
 of fire. 
 
 Robust, but not Herculean — to the sight 
 
 No giant frame sets forth his common 
 height ; 
 
 Yet in the whole — who paused to look 
 again, 
 
 Saw more than marks the crowd of vulgar 
 men — 
 
 They gaze and marvel how — and still con- 
 fess 
 
 That thus it is, but why they cannot guess. 
 
 Sun-burnt his cheek — his forehead high, 
 and pale, 
 
 The sable curls in wild profusion veil. 
 
 ' There breathe but few whose aspect 
 
 could defy 
 The full encounter of his searching eye. 
 
 ' There was a laughing devil in his sneer, 
 That roused emotions both of rage and 
 
 fear ; 
 And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, 
 Hope withering fled— and Mercy sigh'd 
 
 farewell.' 
 
 Such was the man who might have 
 done honour to a better cause, had 
 fortune afforded him the opportu- 
 nity. His companions, though not 
 more fortunate, were less remark- 
 able. William Turner lived in the 
 village of Southwingfield, where he 
 erected, with his own hands, a neat 
 stone cottage for his parents ; his 
 character was unimpeachable until 
 this insurrection, and his only fault 
 was that of being too partial to 
 drink, under the influence of which 
 he lost all sense of prudence, and 
 all power of control. 
 
 Isaac Ludlam had, until this 
 event, also possessed the esteem of 
 his neighbours. He inherited some 
 property from his father, and had 
 rented some farms; but, speculating 
 too high, he became unfortunate, 
 in consequence of which he assigned 
 
224 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE 
 
 all liis effects to his creditors. He 
 then endeavoured to support him- 
 self and family, consisting of a wife 
 and twelve children, by providing 
 and carting stones for house-build- 
 ing. In the severe pressure of the 
 times this resource failed him, and, 
 in an evil hour, this grey-headed 
 old man joined in Brandreth's des- 
 perate attempt. Ludlam regularly 
 attended the Methodist meeting, 
 and, in the absence of a preacher, 
 conducted the prayers and praise of 
 the people. 
 
 These unfortunate men acted un- 
 der complete illusion. Formal state- 
 ments of the number of the disaf- 
 fected were given them, as well as 
 the quantity of arms and ammunition, 
 &c. accompanied with flattering 
 pictures of the liberty, happiness, 
 and wealth, which were to wait upon 
 success. 
 
 On the 5th of June, Brandreth 
 came from Nottingham to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Pentridge, to take com- 
 mand of the rebel forces ; and on 
 the 9th, they proceeded on their 
 march for Nottingham, where it 
 was reported several thousand anxi- 
 ously waited their coming, that they 
 might unite in forwarding a revolu- 
 tion. Their numbers were truly 
 contemptible, not exceeding forty 
 or fifty ; yet, small as they were, 
 they committed several excesses, 
 and Brandreth shot one harmless 
 man. It was during the night tliey 
 commenced operations ; and next 
 morning, on the approach of a score 
 of cavalry, they precipitately fled, 
 leaving their arms promiscuously 
 scattered behind them. Several 
 were then apprehended, and several 
 more the two or three ensuing days, 
 Brandreth among others. 
 
 To try these thoughtless rebels, 
 a special commission was issued, 
 which was opened at Derby, Octo- 
 ber the 15th, 1817. Brandreth 
 was the first put on his trial ; and 
 
 as the evidence against him was 
 conclusive, he was, of course, found 
 Guilty. Turner and Ludlam were 
 also convicted, as well as a young 
 man named Weightman, whose sen- 
 tence was afterwards commuted to 
 transportation. Justice being now 
 satisfied, twelve men pleaded Guilty, 
 and the remainder were discharged. 
 Those who pleaded guilty received 
 sentence of death, but were after- 
 wards respited. 
 
 The unfortunate Brandreth, on 
 being removed to prison, after his 
 conviction, although he exhibited a 
 manly firmness, was, nevertheless, 
 much affected. The other prisoners 
 thronged around him in anxious sus- 
 pense to hear his fate. He uttered 
 the single and appalling word — 
 Guilty ; and, in a moment, a perfect 
 change was visible in the counte- 
 nances of those whose fate was un- 
 decided. 
 
 Brandreth throughout his con- 
 finement seemed to have entertained 
 a confident expectation of acquittal, 
 and this hope appears to have rested 
 solely on the supposed impossibility 
 of identifying him, as he was a 
 total stranger in that part of the 
 country, and had, from the time of 
 his committal, allowed his beard to 
 grow, which completely shaded his 
 whole face. The singular cast of 
 his features, however, aided by the 
 peculiar and determined expression 
 of his eye, rendered his identity 
 unquestionable; and almost every 
 one of the witnesses swore to the 
 person of the ' Nottingham Cap- 
 tain.' This wretched man, both be- 
 fore and after his conviction, evinced 
 the utmost propriety of conduct. 
 He appeared calm and happy, and 
 exhibited great firmness in the con- 
 templation of his unhappy fate. 
 
 His companions in misfortune, 
 however, evinced much less forti- 
 tude ; for each appeared the very 
 picture of despair. They attributed 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 22S 
 
 their melancholy situation to Bran- 
 dreth, and a man, named Bacon, 
 who seems to have evaded the pu- 
 nishment merited by his crime. 
 
 November the 7th, 1817, was the 
 
 day appointed for the execution of 
 
 Brandreth, Turner, and Lwilain. 
 
 k a quarter before twelve, the 
 
 lUidle was drawn up at the door of 
 the prison, into which Brandreth 
 got ; and proceeded immediately to 
 the scaffold. He looked coolly 
 
 round upon the immense multitude 
 of spectators, and in a load and 
 firm voice said ' God bfoss you all, 
 and Lord Castlereagh !' He stood 
 resolute and silent, whilst the exe- 
 
 cutioner adjusted the rope; and at 
 twenty-five minutes before one the 
 drop fell, and he was launched into 
 eternity; after hanging half an 
 hour, the body was cut down and 
 laid on the bench. The cap was 
 removed from the head ; and the 
 neck having been pressed close on 
 the block, the executioner struck 
 the blow, and the head was at once 
 detached from the body. The head 
 fell into the basket ; and the hang- 
 man, seizing it by the hair, held up 
 the ghastly countenance to the 
 populace, exclaiming, ' Behold the 
 head of the traitor, James Bran- 
 dreth !' 
 
 ABRAHAM THORNTON, 
 
 TRIED FOR THE MURDER OF MARY ASHFORD. 
 
 This most extraordinary case, nesses, that the unfortunate deceased 
 from the great interest it universally went, on the evening of the 26th of 
 excited, and the strength of the May, 1817, to a dance at Tyburn, 
 evidence against the prisoner, a few miles from Birmingham. The 
 though that evidence failed to con- prisoner, who was there, admired 
 vict him, added to the unparalleled her figure and general appearance 
 heinousness of the crime which he, and was heard to say, ' 1 have beei 
 t can scarcely be doubted, com- intimate with her sister, and I will 
 milted, is almost unequalled by any have connexion with her, though it 
 of the atrocities which it has been should cost me my life.' He ac- 
 our painful duty to record. companied her from the dancing- 
 Abraham Thornton was a well- room, and was seen with her at a 
 'brined, powerful man, the son of a stile ahout three o'clock in the 
 respectable builder, and by trade a morning. At four she called at. 
 
 bricklayer. He was indicted, at 
 the Warwick assizes, in August, 
 1817, for the murder, after having 
 violated the person, of Mary Ash- 
 
 a friend's, in good spirits. On her 
 leaving Erdington, between four 
 aid five in the morning of the 27th, 
 the fatal deed was done : the loot- 
 
 ford, a lovely and interesting girl, steps of a man and woman were 
 who fell a victim to the imprudence traced from the path through a 
 tf going to a country dance unat- harrowed field, by which she was 
 tended, and trusting herself to the goinu: towards Langley. These toot- 
 protection of a stranger. Her cha- marks, which exhibited proofs or 
 racter was unsullied, and the sur- running and struggling, led to a spot 
 geon who opened her body bore where a distinct impression of the 
 evidence to her virgin innocence up human figure, and a large quantity 
 to the period of the fatal event. of coagulated blood, were discover- 
 It appeared from the statement ed ; in the same place were seen the 
 of the counsel for the prosecution, marks of a man's knees and toes 
 which was borne out by nuinerouswit- From that spot the blood was d is* 
 
 VOL. IV. 112 
 
926 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 tinctly traced for a considerable 
 space towards the |iit where the 
 body was found, and it appeared 
 plainly as if a man had walked along 
 the footway carrying a body, from 
 the extremity of which the blood 
 dropped. At the edge of the pit, 
 her shoes, bonnet, and bundle, were 
 found, but only one footstep could 
 be seen there, and that was a man's. 
 It was deeply impressed, and seemed 
 to be that of a man who thrust one 
 foot forward to heave the body he 
 had in his arms into the pit. There 
 were marks of laceration upon the 
 body, and both her arms had the 
 marks of hands, as if they had press- 
 ed them with violence to the 
 ground. 
 
 By his own admission Thornton 
 was with her at four o'clock, and 
 the marks of the man's shoes in the 
 running corresponded exactly to 
 his. By his own admission, also, he 
 was intimate with her; and this ad- 
 mission was made not before the ma- 
 gistrate, nor till the evident proofs 
 were discovered on his clothes: her 
 clothes too afforded most powerful 
 evidence. At four in the morning 
 she called at a friend's, Hannah 
 Cox, and changed her dancing dress 
 for that in which she had gone to 
 Birmingham. 
 
 The clothes she put on there, and 
 which she had on at the time of her 
 death, wereall over blood and dirtied. 
 The surgeon stated that the coagu- 
 lated blood could not have proceed- 
 ed except from violence. 
 
 The case, therefore, appeared to 
 he, that Thornton had paid attention 
 to her during the night; shown, per- 
 haps, those attentions which she 
 miijht naturally have been pleased 
 with ; and afterwards waited for her 
 on her return from Erdington, and, 
 after forcibly violating her, threw 
 her body into the pit. 
 
 The prisoner declined saying any 
 thing in his defence, stating that 
 
 he would leave every thing to his 
 counsel, who called several witnesses 
 to the fact of his having returned 
 home at an hour which rendered it 
 very improbable, if not impossible, 
 that he could have committed the 
 murder, and traversed the distance 
 from the fatal spot to the places in 
 which he was seen, in the very short 
 time that appeared to have elapsed; 
 but it was acknowledged that there 
 was considerable variation in the 
 different village clocks ; and the 
 case was involved in so much diffi- 
 culty, from the nature of the defence, 
 although the case for the prosecu- 
 tion appeared unanswerable, that 
 the judge's charge to the jury oc- 
 cupied no less than two hours. ' It 
 were better,' he said in conclusion, 
 ' that the murderer, with all the 
 weight of his crime upon his head, 
 should escape punishment, than 
 that another person should suffer 
 death without being guilty ;' and 
 this consideration weighed so power- 
 fully with the jury, that, to the sur- 
 prise of all who had taken an inte- 
 rest in this awful case, they return- 
 ed a verdict of Not Guilty, which 
 the prisoner received with a smile 
 of silent approbation, and an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt at concealment of 
 the violent apprehensions as to his 
 fate by which he had been inwardly 
 agitated. 
 
 ile was then arraigned, pro 
 forma, for the rape ; but the coun- 
 sel for the prosecution declined of- 
 fering evidence on this indictment, 
 and he was accordingly discharged. 
 
 Thus ended, for the present, the 
 proceedings on this most brutal 
 and ferocious violation and murder; 
 but the public at large, and more 
 particularly the inhabitants of the 
 neighbourhood in which it had been 
 committed, were far from consider- 
 ing Thornton innocent, and sub- 
 scriptions to defray the expense of a 
 new prosecution were entered into. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 227 
 
 On an investigation of the circnm- On the 6th November, the ap- 
 stances. the secretary of state grant-* pellant, attended by four counsel, 
 
 ed his warrant to ths sheriff of War- appeared in court, when the coun- 
 
 wick to take him into custody on an sel for Thornton stating that they 
 
 appeal of murder, to be prosecuted had not had time to prepare for a 
 
 by William Ashford, the brother case of such importance and novelty, 
 
 and heir at law of the deceased. He the proceedings were adjourned to 
 
 was accordingly lodged ill Warwick the 17th, on which day the prisoner 
 
 gaol, until removed to London by availing himself of a barbarous pri- 
 
 habeas corpus, the proceedings on vilege extended to him by the an- 
 
 the writ of appeal being held in the tiquated and absurd law under which 
 
 Court of King's Bench in West- lie stood appealed, demanded trial 
 
 minster Hall. by zcager of battle.* The folly of 
 
 * When the privilege of trial by battle is claimed by the appellpe, the judges have 
 to consider whether, under the circumstances, he is entitled to the exercise of such 
 privilege ; and his claim thereto having been admitted, they fix a day and place for 
 the combat, which is conducted with the following solemnities : — 
 
 A piece of ground is set out, of sixty feet square, enclosed with lists, and on one 
 side a court erected for the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, who attend there 
 in their scarlet robes ; and also a bar is prepared for the learned sergeauts at law. 
 When the Court is assembled, proclamation is made for the parties, who are accord- 
 ingly introduced in the area by the proper officers, each armed with a baton, or staff" 
 of an ell long, tipped with horn, and bearing a four-cornered leather target for de- 
 fence. The combatants are bare-headed and bare-footed, the appellee with his head 
 shaved, the appellant as usual, but both dressed alike. The appellee pleads Not 
 Guilty, and throws down his glove, and declares he will defend the same by his 
 body ; the appellant takes up the glove, and replies that he is ready to make good the 
 appeal, body for body. And thereupon the appellee, taking the Bible in his right 
 hand, and in his left the right hand of his antagonist, swears to this effect : — • 
 
 " Hear this, O man, whom I hold by the hand, who callest thyself [John], by the name 
 of baptism, that I,whocall myself [Thomas], by the name of baptism.did not feloniously 
 murder thy father, [William] by name, nor am any way guilty of the said felony. So help 
 me God, and the saints ; and this 1 will defend against thee by my body, as this Court 
 shall award." 
 
 To which the appellant replies, holding the Bible and his antagonist's hand, in the 
 same manner as the other: — 
 
 "Hear this, O man, whom I hold by the hand, who callest thyself [Thomas], by 
 the name of baptism, that thou art perjured, because that thou feloniously didst mur- 
 der my father, [William] by name. So help me God, and the saints ; and this I will 
 prove against thee by my body, as this Court shall award." 
 
 Next, an oath against sorcery and enchantment is taken by both the combatants, 
 in this or a similar form. " Hear this, ye justices, that I have this day neither ate, 
 drank, nor have upon me, neither bone, stone, nor grass ; nor any enchantment, sor- 
 cery, or witchcraft, whereby the law of God may be abased, or the law of the devil 
 exalted. So help me God and his saints." 
 
 The battle is thus begun, and the combatants are bound to fight till the stars ap- 
 pear in the evening. 
 
 If the appellee be so far vanquished that he cannot or will not fight any longer, lie 
 shall be adjudged to be hanged immediately : and then, as well as if he be 
 killed in battle, Providence is deemed to have determined in favour of the truth, and 
 his blood shall be attainted. But if he kills the appellant, or can maintain the fight 
 from sun-rising till the stars appear in the evening, he shall be acquitted. So also, 
 if the appellant becomes Kcreant, and pronounces the word craven, he shall lose his 
 liberam kgtm, and become infamous ; and the appellee shall recover his damages, and 
 shall be for ever quit, not only of the appeal, but of all indictments likewise of the 
 same offence. There are cases where the appellant may counterplead, and oust the 
 appellee from his trial by battle : these are vehement presumption or sufficient proof 
 that the appeal is true : or where the appellant is under fourteen, or above sixty years 
 of age, or is a woman or a priest, or a peer, or, lastly, a citizen of London, because 
 the peaceful habits of the citizens were supposed to unlit them for battle. 
 
228 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 thus admitting that ' right should 
 follow might' was particularly ob- 
 vious in this case, for whilst the 
 appellee was an athletic man of great 
 muscular power, the appellant was 
 of a delicate frame, and quite un- 
 equal to a personal combat with 
 such an antagonist. 
 
 The revival of this obsolete law 
 gave rise to repeated arguments of 
 counsel on both sides, which were 
 adjourned from time to time till the 
 16th April, 1818, when the judges 
 delivered thtir opinions seriatim, 
 the substance of which was, that sit- 
 ting there to administer the law, 
 not as they wished it to be, but as 
 they found it, they considered the 
 defendant entitled to claim trial by 
 wager of battle, and the decision ot 
 the Court was, * That there be trial 
 by battle unless the appellant show 
 reason why the defendant should not 
 depart without day.' 
 
 On the 20th, time having been 
 asked by the appellant's counsel, 
 
 the matter was finally disposed of ; 
 the judgment of the Court being 
 * that the defendant be dis- 
 charged from this appeal, and that 
 he be allowed to go forth without 
 bail.' 
 
 Though the rigid application of 
 the Utter of the law a second time 
 saved this wretched man from pu- 
 nishment, nothing could remove 
 from the public mind the conviction 
 of his atrocity. Shunned by all who 
 knew him — his very name become 
 an object of terror — he, in a tew 
 months, attempted to proceed to 
 America; but the sailors of the ves- 
 sel in which he was about to em- 
 bark refused to go to sea with such 
 a character on board. He, however, 
 succeeded in a subsequent attempt 
 by disguising himself, and thus was 
 his country relieved from the pre- 
 sence of one who was more than 
 suspected of as large a load of mo- 
 ral crime as ever disgraced it in the 
 form of a human being. 
 
 CHARLES 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE IHURDEKOF M 
 
 Two murders, similar in atrocity 
 and mystery to that of the Marrs, 
 '«ere committed at Greenwich on 
 the 8th of February, 1818, on the 
 bodies of Mr. Bird, aged eighty- 
 three, and his housekeeper, Mary 
 Simmons, aged forty-four. 
 
 Mr. Bird had resided for many 
 years in Greenwich, where he car- 
 ried on the business of a tallow- 
 
 HUSSEY, 
 
 U. HIRD AND HIS HOUSEKEEPER. 
 
 chandler, in which he acquired 
 sufficient property to enable him 
 to retire, and live on his income, 
 arising from houses, and money in 
 the funds. His wife died in 1816, 
 and from that time no person re- 
 sided with him but his housekeeper. 
 He had been a most constant at- 
 tendant at Greenwich church, and 
 was always in his place as soon as 
 
 Besides the folly which on the very face of this proceeding must be obvious to every 
 reader, namely, that ' right should follow might,' there are other absurdities which 
 must tend to make it equally unpalatable to an enlightened age. For instance, if 
 the appellant be the widow of the murdered person, and in just indignation should 
 proceed against bis murderer, yet if she should marry before the appeal comes into 
 court, then she can have no redress against the slayer of her first husband, because., 
 in the eye of our old legislators, one man was as good as another; and as she was 
 thus supposed to have taken compensation into her own hands, she was not entitled 
 to receive any from the law. Again, though the appellee, if found guilty, would be 
 out of the reach of pardon from the Crown, yet the appellant might sell his liff. to him 
 for any sum which he chose to ask. This last mode of estimating a man's life like 
 tbsit of an ox or a sheep, was a remnant of the most barbarous ages, and is still to b» 
 found among many tribes of African and Iudiau savages. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 229 
 
 service began, accompanied by bis 
 housekeeper. On Sunday morning, 
 the 9th of February, it was noticed 
 by the beadle of the parish, and 
 others, that they were not in their 
 seats in Ihe church as usual. At 
 the conclusion of the service this 
 circumstance excited some alarm, 
 which was considerably heightened 
 when the neighbours discovered 
 that Mr. Bird's house had not been 
 opened, though it was then noun. 
 The beadle and others knocked at 
 the door, but, receiving no answer, 
 they concluded that something 
 dreadful must have taken place, 
 and therefore forced an entrance 
 through the back part of the pre- 
 mises/ 
 
 On entering the bouse a most 
 shocking spectacle presented itself. 
 The body of the housekeeper was 
 1 v 1 1 1 u: in the passage on its lace in a 
 revolting state, her skull having 
 been driven in, and fractured in a 
 most inhuman manner; the honid 
 act had been perpetrated with a blunt 
 instrument. 0:i proceeding from 
 this scene of blood, one equally 
 horrible presented itself. in a 
 parlour adjoining the passage, the 
 body of Mr. Bird was lying on its 
 back, with his arms stretched out, 
 and his head more fractured than 
 that of his housekeeper, evidently 
 willi the same iiwstruaaent, employed 
 by a powerful man. 
 
 As Mr. Bird had been in the 
 regular habit of retiring to bed at 
 ten o'clock every night, the murder 
 must have been perpetrated before 
 that hour; and, as the housekeeper 
 always kept the hall-door chained, 
 the murderer must have gained ad- 
 mittance under some false pretence, 
 and, no doubt, the moment he enter- 
 ed the work of death commenced. 
 The body of the unfortunate woman 
 was literally swimming in blood, as 
 well as that of her master, who, it 
 was supposed, had been reading, as 
 
 a book lay on the table, whilst one 
 of his hands held his spectacles. 
 
 On proceeding up stairs it was 
 found that plunder was the object 
 of the murderer, for the keys of the 
 drawers and boxes had been pro- 
 cured from the pockets of the de- 
 ceased, as they were stained with 
 blood, and the different apartments 
 rifled. What property had been 
 carried away could not he ascer- 
 tained, as it was not known what 
 amount of money Mr. Bird kept in 
 his house. A secret drawer had 
 remained untouched, where a sum 
 of thirty-one pounds was found ; but 
 whatever other money had been in 
 the house was carried off. Some 
 silver spoons, a silver ladle, &c. 
 were also missing. 
 
 Mr. Smith, the magistrate, was 
 in attendance on the spot, to act 
 with prompitude, in case any sus- 
 pected person had been discovered, 
 but there appeared no one to whom 
 suspicion could attach. On the 
 dreadful and distressing intelligence 
 being communicated to Mr. Bird's 
 son, he hastened to the house, when 
 the overwhelming grief and dis- 
 traction, with which he was agitated 
 on viewing the mangled body of his 
 deceased father, can be better 
 imagined than described. 
 
 The horrid discovery created a 
 very considerable degree of alarm, 
 and Mr. Bicknell, a respectable 
 solicitor, who resided at Greenwich, 
 sent off an express to the public 
 office, Bow Street, on receipt of 
 which proper officers were sent down 
 to examine the premises, and to 
 endeavour to discover the murderer 
 or murderers. 
 
 An inquest was held on the 
 bodies of the deceased, without 
 giving any clue to the perpetrator 
 of the horrid deed ; and on the fol- 
 lowing Saturday the remains of Mr. 
 Bird and his housekeeper were de- 
 posited in the churchyard of Green- 
 
230 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 wich, amidst an immense concourse 
 of spectatois. 
 
 During the three succeeding 
 weeks several persons were appre- 
 hended on suspicion, but nothing 
 material could be alleged against 
 them. At length a complete dis- 
 covery took place, and the murderer 
 was pointed out by his own sister, 
 who showed, on this occasion, a 
 Roman love of justice. This woman 
 was married to a man named God- 
 win, and resided, with her husband, 
 at Peckham. About a week after 
 the murders had been committed, 
 her brother, Charles Hussey, came 
 to her house, and said he was going 
 to see his brother, who resided at 
 Basingstoke. He went to a box of 
 his under a bed, and took something 
 out; she supposed it was money, 
 for he had sixty-seven pounds left 
 him four days after the murders 
 were committed, by a sister, who 
 cut her throat, in Queen Street, 
 Cheapside, where she had lived. 
 Hussey told his sister he should 
 return in a week, but he did not do 
 so for nearly a fortnight. She 
 then said to him, « Oh, Charles ! I 
 have been so uneasy during your 
 absence, I have had such frightful 
 dreams, and could not think what 
 detained you.' He replied, ' Why, 
 what could cause you to dream ?' 
 and appeared greatly agitated. 
 After he had gone away Mrs. God- 
 win said to her husband, ' I think 
 there is something in Charles's box 
 there should not be;' his behaviour 
 caused her to say so ; and with one 
 of iier own keys she opent-d the box, 
 when the 6rst things that met her 
 eye were a pair of watches, which 
 herself and husband suspected to 
 have belonged to the late Mr. Bird. 
 Their suspicion was confirmed by 
 Hussey not returning according to 
 promise, and, with a detestation of 
 so black a crime which did thetn 
 infinite honour, they repaired to 
 
 Greenwich, and give information of 
 the circumstance. 
 
 Another box of Hussey's was 
 brought, soon after the murders, to 
 a Mrs. Goddard, who resided at 
 Deptford ; and as this woman's sus- 
 picions were excited by some in- 
 quiries made after Hussey, she 
 opened the box, and found in it 
 property she supposed to have be- 
 longed to She late Mr. Bird. Officers 
 were sent for, and on searching the 
 trunk, they found a silver wine- 
 strainer, a soup-spoon, two shirts, 
 three pair of sheets, a white jean 
 jacket, stained with blood in several 
 places, especially about the right 
 hand pocket ; a pair of gaiters, 
 made of drab cloth, with blood upon 
 the buttons of them ; a piece of 
 new shirting, which was very bloody, 
 and a glazed hat. In the same 
 trunk were found several articles of 
 silver plate, which proved to have 
 been Mr. Bird's property. It was 
 remarkable that this trunk was only 
 corded, not locked, and that Hussey 
 never called to inquire after it from 
 the time it had been deposited with 
 Mrs. Goddard. 
 
 From Deptford the officers pro- 
 ceeded to Mrs. Godwin's house, at 
 Peckham, where, in addition to the 
 watches, they found, in the box, 
 five one-pound Bank of England 
 notes, and two two-pound notes, all 
 marked with Mr. Bird's initials. 
 In the same box they found Hussey's 
 discharge from the East India Com- 
 pany's service, which contained a 
 description of his person. 
 
 In consequence of these disco- 
 veries no doubt remained but that 
 Hussey had been the principal, if 
 not the only, perpetrator of the foul 
 murders. Diligent inquiry was ac- 
 cordingly made after him; but it 
 was found that he had, with the 
 consciousness of guilt, absconded. 
 More than twenty of the most active 
 metropolitan officers weie dispatch- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 231 
 
 ed in every direction, and others 
 sent to distant parts of the country. 
 Advertisements were inserted in all 
 the principal newspapers, describing 
 his person, and offering large re- 
 wards for his apprehension. 
 
 The exertions of the regular 
 police were not, however, crowned 
 with their usual success, and the 
 circumstances under which he was 
 secured may almost be considered as 
 accidental, being taken in Oxford- 
 shire by a publican, who happened 
 to have read the advertisement 
 describing his person. 
 
 John Poulton, the man who ap- 
 prehended the prisoner, stated that 
 he kept a public house in Deddin<r- 
 ton, and was the constable. He 
 read the Oxford newspaper, in which 
 he saw the prisoner advertised. 
 Soon after nine o'clock, he saw the 
 prisoner pass his house; and his 
 person answering the description 
 given, he followed him. The wit- 
 ness asked a neighbour to accom- 
 pany him ; they followed the pri- 
 soner to a farm-yard, which he 
 supposed was a thoroughfare, and, 
 finding it was not so, returned 
 again ; he was then convinced the 
 prisoner was a stranger, and he went 
 up to him, and said he must go 
 with him, as he had strong suspicion 
 he was the man adverstised. The 
 prisoner, after some hesitation, con- 
 fessed his name was Charles Hussey. 
 On his taking him to his house, he 
 proceeded to search him, and found 
 a watch and a pocket-book, with a 
 ring in it, part of the property stolen 
 from the late Mr. Bird's house. 
 The prisoner denied any knowledge 
 of the murders or robbery, but ad- 
 mitted being in possession of the 
 stolen property. * 
 
 The magistrate told the prisoner 
 it would be necessary for him to 
 account for being' possessed of the 
 things which had been stolen. 
 
 The prisoner said, that between 
 four and five o'clock on the Sunday 
 
 afternoon after the murders, he saw 
 a man get over a wall into Mr. 
 Smith's grounds at Greenwich, and 
 run; he followed him, and saw him 
 put down a bundle against a large 
 tree and leave it there, and then 
 run again : curiosity led him to the 
 spot, and he opened part of the 
 bundle, and saw two watches and 
 the handle of a silver soup-ladle. 
 He left the bundle then as he found 
 it. On the Saturday afternoon fol- 
 lowing he went to the spot again, 
 and found the bundle against the 
 tree exactly in the same state as 
 when he left it. The bundle con- 
 sisted of three watches, a silver 
 soup-ladle, a silver wine-strainer, 
 four sheets, six or eisjht shirts, six 
 rings, a quantity of old silver coins, 
 two two-pound Bank of England 
 notes, and three one-pound notes. 
 The rimjs were wrapped up in rags. 
 There was no wearing apparel in 
 the bundle. His motive for ab- 
 senting himself was, that he was 
 ashamed to return back, after having 
 such things in his possession, mean- 
 ing Mr. Bird's stolen property* and 
 not coming forward at the time to 
 tell of it. He was asked if he had 
 any thing to say respecting the 
 charges that were made against him ; 
 he replied, ' No, he had nothing to 
 say on the subject.' He was told wit- 
 nesses would attend against him at 
 the next examination, and it would 
 be heard what they had to say 
 against him ; he replied, * Very 
 well, sir.' 
 
 Mr. Poulton was bound over to 
 [rive evidence at the prisoner's trial, 
 at the assizes for Kent. 
 
 The prisoner, during the whole 
 of the examination, betrayed no par- 
 ticular emotion. After his exami- 
 nation he was ironed strongly, aim 
 conveyed to the House of Cor- 
 rection. 
 
 Hussey had been originally ? 
 sailor in the East India Company's 
 service, from which he was dis- 
 
232 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 charged, when he became a servant, 
 and lived in that capacity with a 
 Mr. Stevens, at Greenwich, not far 
 from the house of Mr. Bird. Pre- 
 vious, however, to the murders, 
 Hussey had been discharged, and 
 was, at the time, out of place. 
 
 In person, Hussey was tall, his 
 hands and feet remarkably large, and 
 his countenance pallid, mild, and 
 humane. His appearance, when 
 placed at the bar, was apparently 
 that of a person above his rank in 
 life. 
 
 July the 31st, 1818, Hussey was 
 indicted at the Maidstone assizes 
 for the wilful murder of Mr. Bird 
 and his housekeeper. The dreadful 
 deed was fully brought home by evi- 
 dence, certainly circumstantial, but, 
 at the same time, most satisfactory 
 and conclusive. It was proved that 
 the hammer with which the murders 
 were committed had been taken 
 from a cooper several days before, 
 and that it was afterwards found in 
 a pond, into which the assassin had 
 thrown it. With this cooper Hussey 
 had been intimate, and was almost 
 daily at the house, where he kept 
 his trunk until subsequent to the 
 murders, when he had it removed to 
 his cousin's, Mrs. Goddard, at Dept- 
 ford. It was also proved that 
 Hussey belonged to a ' Society of 
 Odd Fellows,' and that he did not 
 join them the night of the murders 
 until near ten o'clock. The pro- 
 
 prietor of the house where the Oay 
 Fellows met, being asked whether 
 Hussey appeared any way agitated 
 when he saw him, replied, ' He 
 might, but I did not observe him 
 for he is the last man in the world, 
 from his general character and 
 habits, whom I should suspect of 
 either dishonesty or murder.' The 
 remainder of the evidence only con- 
 firintd the facts we have already 
 narrated, and the case for the pro- 
 secution having closed, Hussey was 
 called on for his defence. 
 
 He declared his innocence, and 
 gave a confused account of the 
 manner in which he was employed 
 the night of the murder; but his 
 criminality was too plain to be 
 doubted, and, accordingly, he was 
 found Guilty. 
 
 He suffered August 3d, 1818, on 
 Pennenden Heath, near Maidstone, 
 the usual place of execution for the 
 county of Kent. He made no con- 
 fession, except that when asked by 
 the Rev. Mr. Argles if he knew who 
 did the deed, he replied with eager- 
 ness, ' I do, I do.' 
 
 Soon after Hussey's execution 
 the Rev. Mr. Rudge published some- 
 thing like a confession of the wretch- 
 ed man, which, at first, served to 
 unsettle the opinions of many re- 
 specting his guilt. A gentleman 
 at Greenwich, however, soon showed 
 the falsehoods and inconsistencies 
 of this ' confession.' 
 
 DR. LAURENCE HYNES HALLORAN, 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR FORGING A FRANK. 
 
 This unfortunate gentleman w<is of our readers will doubtless think 
 
 a scholar and a clergyman. For disproporlioned to his offence, when 
 
 many years he was head of a semi- they hear that his crime was that of 
 
 nary where some of the brightest having forged the frank of a letter 
 
 characters of the day had received whereby he defrauded the Post- 
 
 the rudiments of a classical educa- office of ten pence, 
 tion. Yet this venerable preceptor, When placed at the bar of the Old 
 
 in the winter of life, was transported Bailey, September the 9th, 1 818, and 
 
 with felons to Botany Bay for seven asked the usual question by the clerk, 
 
 years — a punishment which some he addressed the Court as follows :— 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 233 
 
 * My lord, owing to the long 
 period of my confinement on this 
 charge, upwards of twenty months, 
 the death during that period of the 
 only witness who could substantiate 
 my innocence, the exhaustion of my 
 pecuniary resources, and my conse- 
 ntient inability to employ counsel, 
 or have the advantage of profession- 
 al advice, I have no alternative left 
 me but to plead guilty to the offence 
 with which I am charged.' 
 
 Mr. Baron Graham advised him 
 to consider well the effect of his 
 plea. 
 
 He replied : ' My lord, I have no 
 alternative ; I stand here unarmed 
 and defenceless against a phalanx 
 of powerful opponents arrayed 
 against me, and determined to pro- 
 
 secute. It would be a waste of 
 your lordship's time to plead not 
 guilty. 1 must persist in my plea.' 
 
 His plea was then recorded, and 
 he was ordered from the bar. 
 
 September the 30th he was 
 brought up to receive sentence, 
 when he addressed the Court at con- 
 derable length, reflecting severely 
 on the motives which influenced the 
 prosecution, and urging the impro- 
 bability that a man not in a state 
 of actual infatuation would volun- 
 tarily commit such an offence as 
 that laid to his charge for the sake 
 of tenpence, and that not to pass 
 into his own pockets, but into that 
 of the promoter of the prosecution. 
 
 He was then sentenced to seven 
 years' transportation. 
 
 The Abduction of Miss Crockatt. 
 
 SAMUEL DICK, 
 
 CONVICTED OF AN ABDLCTION AND RAPE. 
 
 The barbarous practice of for- Dishonoured women are too often 
 cildy carrying off females prevails induced to bestow their hand on the 
 in Ireland to a shameful extent, ravisher, and thus the success of 
 
234 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 oue villain stimulates the lust and 
 avarice of twenty. The law, which 
 visits this crime with death, has 
 not been sufficient to abolish so base 
 and abominable a practice, as the 
 Irish newspapers are, from time to 
 time, filled with details of cases of 
 abduction. 
 
 The robber may plead necessity, 
 and the murderer provocation ; but 
 the wretch who deliberately invades 
 the chastity of a female whom he 
 wishes to make his wife, is not only 
 without any excuse whatever, but 
 betrays such a total absence of manly 
 feeling that we know not any of- 
 fender whose crime deserves a more 
 speedy and capital punishment. 
 Such a monster should be hurried, 
 with a fearful precipitancy, out of 
 society; for he has given proof that 
 he is unfit for the company of virtu- 
 ous and honourable men, by deli- 
 berately attempting to debase what 
 all the world regards as sanctified 
 and pure. Among the lower orders 
 in Ireland, and sometimes among 
 those of a higher rank, this practice 
 is not looked on in the light it de- 
 serves. Indelicate and gross minds 
 can see no moral turpitude in an ab- 
 duction which terminates in mar- 
 riage; but, as female purity is the 
 vital essence of morality in society, 
 whoever invades that source of all 
 our virtues, and all our happiness, 
 should be hunted down as a monster 
 that preyed upon the dearest inte- 
 rests of man. Besides, it is a crime 
 fearful, not only in its consequences, 
 but in its commission. Family an- 
 guish must proclaim its commence- 
 ment; virgin screams announce its 
 completion ; and protracted .grief 
 seal its guilt; for how can that wo- 
 man, though a wife, ft el happy, 
 who is liable to have the ' slow un- 
 moving finger of scorn ' pointed at 
 her, as one that had been ' disho- 
 noured among men?' 
 
 Samuel Dick was one of those 
 contemptible wretches, wno would 
 
 arrive at wealth through the char- 
 nel-house of lust, where his own 
 sister stood the officiating goddess. 
 His case is one of revolting indeli- 
 cacy and deep-laid villainy. We 
 shall give it in the words of the 
 counsel retained to prosecute him 
 at the Carrickfergus assizes, March 
 the 21st, 1818. 
 
 ' The prisoner, Samuel Dick, 
 stands indicted for the forcible ab- 
 duction and subsequent defilement 
 of Elizabeth Crockatt, the prosecu- 
 trix. She is a young woman of re- 
 spectable family in Derry ; and 
 upon the death of her father she 
 became possessed of about two thou- 
 sand six hundred pounds : this pro- 
 perty, her youth, being scarcely 
 seventeen, and her personal attrac- 
 tions, had been the causes of two 
 different atrocious outrages, for the 
 purpose of obtaining possession of 
 them. In August last, upon the 
 Sabbath day, while returning from 
 the meeting, she was forcibly car- 
 ried off, and taken to Ballymena, 
 where she was rescued by her bro- 
 ther and her uncle. On their return 
 home, her mother, alarmed for her 
 safety, sent her for some time to 
 reside within a few miles of Stew- 
 artstown, with a Mr. Matthew 
 Fairservice. On the night of the 
 3d of November, Mr. Fairservice's 
 family were invited to spend the 
 evening at Mr. Henry's, where the 
 prosecutrix met Miss Jane Dick, 
 sister to the prisoner, and who is 
 related to the prosecutrix. The 
 prosecutrix, with Mr. Robert Fair- 
 service, his sister, and Miss Dick, 
 then went from Mr. Henry's upon 
 the car to a ball at a Mr. Park's, 
 where she danced the greater part 
 of the night. While at Mr. Park's, 
 Miss Dick invited prosecutrix to 
 Stewarlstown, which she declined. 
 When they had got on the car, Ro- 
 bert Fairservice drove rapidly to- 
 wards Stewartstown, without pay- 
 ing any attention to the remon- 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 235 
 
 strances of the prosecutrix ; when 
 in Stewartstown, they drove to the 
 prisoner's house, where she saw the 
 prisoner: after breakfast Miss Dick 
 asked Miss Fairservice and the pro- 
 secutrix to go to Dungannon with 
 her, as she wished to make some 
 purchases. She was prevailed upon, 
 and did go into Dungannon; re- 
 mained shopping there until the 
 evening; returned to Stewartstown, 
 dined in the prisoner's house ; and 
 about nine or len o'clock the prose- 
 cutrix was asked by Miss Dick to 
 go out to the next door to assist her 
 in purchasing some thread ; and the 
 distance being so trifling, she did 
 not think even of putting on her 
 bonnet. When out of the hall-door, 
 she was forcibly seized by some per- 
 son, and put into a chaise in which 
 was the prisoner, who caught her 
 by the arm ; when in the carriage, 
 she found her cloak and bonnet had 
 been previously placed there, which 
 was sufficient proof of the pre-con- 
 certed plan. The prosecutrix, the 
 prisoner, with Miss Dick, and the 
 other person, were driven to Lurgan, 
 a distance of twenty miles, before 
 
 day-light in the morning, the pri- 
 soner Dick guarding the prosecutrix 
 with a pistol ! After some time she 
 wa9 again put into the chaise, and 
 driven to the house of a person 
 named Swayne, where, after hav- 
 ing wept and fasted the whole day, 
 she was prevailed upon to go to bed 
 with Miss Dick. From the fatigue 
 she had suffered the two preced- 
 ing nights, joined to the anxiety 
 of mind she had undergone, she fell 
 asleep; and found, on awaking, 
 that in place of Miss Dick being her 
 bed-fellow, the prisoner at the bar 
 was. The next morning the pri- 
 soner attempted to soothe the pro- 
 secutrix by promises of marriage, 
 and went to Dr. Cupples, of Lis- 
 burn, to procure a license, leaving 
 his sister and the other person to 
 watch over her till his return : in spite 
 of them, she contrived to escape to 
 the house of a Mr. English, where 
 she was protected until delivered 
 into the hands of her uncle.' 
 
 This statement being supported by 
 the evidence, the jury without he- 
 sitation found the prisoner Guilty — 
 Death. 
 
 JOHN DRISCOL, WILLIAM WELLER,& GEORGE CASHMAN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FORGERY. 
 That the punishment of death circulation, were the inducement to 
 dots not deter from the commission hundreds who embarked in this dan- 
 of crime is very evident in cases of gerous trade ; and though they knew 
 forgery ; for though an offence the consequence of detection, yet 
 rarely pardoned, yet its progressive each hoped he was the fortunate 
 increase had now become an un- one who was to escape. This is 
 doubted fact, at once alarming and the ' flattering unction' which every 
 melancholy. In 1814 the number criminal lays to his soul, and no 
 of detected one-pound forged notes fact can more forcibly illustrate the 
 on the Bank of England was impolicy of capital punishments. 
 10,342; in 1815, 14,095; in 1810, At this period, 1818, the victims 
 21,860; in 1817, 21,421; and of forgery were more than ordinarily 
 from the 1st of January to the I Oth numerous. Days were occupied 
 of April, 1818, 8,937. The faci- at the Old Bailey with their trials 
 lity of imitating the Bank of Eng- and convictions only ; while New- 
 land notes at this period, and the gate was crowded to excess with 
 ease with which they were put into those who waited, in horrid sus- 
 
236 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 pense, for the Recorder's report. 
 The public mind, ever alive to sym- 
 pathize with the unhappy, took the 
 alarm, and felt great indignation at 
 the conduct of tlie Bank, who, they 
 thought, should have procured a 
 bank-note, impossible to imitate by 
 the ordinary process of engraving. 
 
 In consequence of this general 
 complaint, a committee of scientific 
 men sat to examine all specimens 
 that might be submitted to them by 
 artists. Many curious engravings 
 from copper, wood, &c. were sent 
 in, but none of these, it seems, 
 though some of them were ingenious 
 and beautifully executed, were of a 
 nature that would warrant their 
 adoption, as engravers were found 
 who could exactly imitate them in a 
 few days. From this itappears nothing 
 could be fabricated, but what could 
 be imitated by ingenious villainy. 
 
 At the same time, it must be ob- 
 served that the public were too 
 easily imposed upon ; for most of 
 the forgeries were so indifferently 
 executed that the least attention 
 would be sufficient to detect the 
 counterfeit. It was a very erroneous, 
 though very prevalent, opinion, that 
 the Bank had a private mark by 
 which they instantly detected a 
 forgery. They had not, nor could 
 not have, any such distinguishing 
 mark. 
 
 Another complaint was, that the 
 Bank had no right to assume the 
 office of prosecutor, when they ne- 
 ver sustained any loss. But it was 
 necessary for them to protect the 
 public, among whom their paper 
 passed with as much facility as the 
 current coin of the realm, and in 
 discharging this duty they incurrtd 
 incredible expense.* 
 
 * An account of the number of persons prosecuted by the Bank for forgery, or for ut- 
 tering or possessing forged notes, from the 1st of January, 1798, to the 1st of January, 
 1819 ; stating where prosecuted, and the total expense incurred each year on account 
 of such prosecutions up to the 1st of October, 1818, being the latest period to which 
 the account could then be made up, was laid before parliament about this time, of 
 which the following is a brief abstract. 
 
 In the year 1798 the prosecutions took place in four counties ; the number amounted 
 to twelve, and the expense was 4,1301. 18s. 
 
 Year. 
 
 
 Counties, 
 
 
 Prosecutions. 
 
 
 Expense. 
 
 1799 
 
 . 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 15 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 ^5,705 
 
 10 
 
 1800 
 
 - 
 
 14 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 44 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 12,75.3 
 
 7 6 
 
 1801 
 
 . 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 54 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11,349 
 
 18 7 
 
 1802 
 
 . 
 
 20 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 63 
 
 . 
 
 
 15,618 
 
 19 1 
 
 1803 
 
 . 
 
 7 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3,861 
 
 1 6 
 
 1804 
 
 . 
 
 5 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 25 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6,148 
 
 3 4 
 
 -805 
 
 . 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 28 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9,873 
 
 1 7 
 
 1806 
 
 . 
 
 6 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 10 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 2,849 
 
 17 9 
 
 1807 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 45 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11,844 
 
 12 3 
 
 1808 
 
 . 
 
 13 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 S4 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 8,136 
 
 16 7 
 
 1809 
 
 . 
 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 68 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 16,414 
 
 9 3 
 
 1810 
 
 ■ 
 
 15 
 
 . 
 
 m 
 
 29 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8,070 
 
 19 9 
 
 1811 
 
 . 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 m 
 
 33 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 7,236 
 
 12 6 
 
 1812 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 64 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15,752 
 
 1 5 
 
 1813 
 
 . 
 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 65 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15,306 
 
 17 1 
 
 1814 
 
 . 
 
 12 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 47 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10,952 
 
 10 11 
 
 1815 
 
 . 
 
 17 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 63 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 13,818 
 
 13 3 
 
 1816 
 
 . 
 
 22 
 
 .- 
 
 - 
 
 120 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 25,971 
 
 8 11 
 
 1817 
 
 . 
 
 25 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1*2 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 29,910 
 
 4 1 
 
 1818 
 
 . 
 
 26 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 242 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 34,357 
 
 7 
 
 Next to Midd] 
 
 ?sex, 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 presents 
 
 the greatest r 
 
 umb 
 
 er of prosecutions : indeed, 
 
 during the first half of the years 
 
 here 
 
 quoted, the 
 
 number prosecuted at Lancaster con- 
 
 siderably exceeded jhose tried at the 
 
 Old Bailey. 
 
 
 
 
 
 if'ioiu another 
 
 paper presentei 
 
 1, includ 
 
 ng the 
 
 same 
 
 peri 
 
 3d, from January, 1798, to 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 237 
 
 Thepublic voice, in some measure, 
 prevailed ; the Bank was compelled 
 to change its mode of proceeding, 
 and allow the accused to plead 
 guilty to a minor charge, which 
 subjected them to transportation, 
 whereas the evidence against them 
 would have proved the capital 
 charge. Numbers availed them- 
 selves of this privilege, and even 
 those who traversed were tried only 
 on the minor charge ; a course ren- 
 dered absolutely necessary from the 
 number of convictions, as the public 
 could not, at the time, have en- 
 dured the spectacle of twenty or 
 thirty persons suspended on the 
 gallows for passing forged notes. 
 In that case, indeed, the satirist 
 might exclaim : — 
 
 ' Scarce can our fields, such crowds at Ty- 
 burn die, 
 
 With hemp the gallows and the fleet sup- 
 ply.' 
 
 Driscol, Weller, and Cashman, 
 were three of those, however, on 
 whom the law was allowed to take 
 its course. They were tried, on 
 separate charges, at the Old Bailey, 
 September the 12lh, 1818, and were 
 individually convicted of having 
 sold forged notes. Driscol pleaded 
 guilty at first, but was prevailed 
 upon to alter his plea. The wit- 
 nesses against them were two per- 
 sons of bad character, but there 
 was no doubt of their guilt. Whe- 
 ther they had been entrapped into 
 the crime is not exactly known. 
 Driscol was an illiterate Irish la- 
 bourer, and likely to be operated 
 on by a designing villain; but 
 Weller and Cashman were old of- 
 
 fenders, and could not be suspected 
 for dupes. Cashman was a Jew, and 
 had not long returned from the hulks. 
 
 The fate of these men was no 
 sooner known with certainty, than 
 a meeting was held in the ' Bread 
 Sticet Ward,' where a petition in 
 their behalf was agreed to. They were 
 also induced to apply themselves to 
 the fountain of mercy. These applica- 
 tions proved, ho we ver,unavailing, and 
 the unhappy men were left to their 
 fate. A man of the name of Wil- 
 liams was to suffer with them, and 
 he and Weller received the sacra- 
 ment on Sunday, when the Rev. 
 Mr. Cotton preached a very appro- 
 priate sermon. Driscol, being a 
 Ionian Catholic, did not attend, and 
 Cashman, being a Jew, was visited, 
 in his cell, by members of his per- 
 suasion, who were constant in their 
 attentions. It is a custom with the 
 Jews to watch every motion of a 
 brother, for some hours before the 
 fatal moment arrives. Ten men 
 sat up with Cashman the whole of 
 the night. The visits during the 
 day were all cheerfully received, 
 with the exception of those from a 
 wife or child, which sometimes 
 broke in upon the train of medita- 
 tion from which so much relief had 
 been obtained. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, December 
 the 15th, 1818, at five o'clock, the 
 usual apparatus, preparatory to the 
 execution of criminals, was moved 
 to the front of the debtors'-door of 
 New irate. From this moment to 
 the time of execution the crowd in- 
 creased till the Old Bailey and all 
 the avenues to it were completely 
 
 January, 1819, it appears, that Bank forgeries have increased in number from 1,102 
 to 30,476, and, in value, from 8,1391. to 36,3011. The account stands thus :— 
 
 Total Number. Total Net Value. 
 
 Vear 1798 - - 1,602 - £ 8,139 
 
 1818 - - 30,476 - 36,301 
 
 There is a curious disproportion here between the value, as compared with the num- 
 ber, in these two cases : which is explained by the fact, that in the first of the years 
 «juoted,thcre were 139 forged notes above 201. ; and in the last only one above that value. 
 
'23S 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 filled. At half past seven the sheriff 
 entered the inner yard, when the 
 prisoners, Driscol, Weller, Williams, 
 and Casmhan, had their irons knock- 
 ed off. At eight o'clock the bell 
 tolled as usual, and the prisoners 
 were brought out. 
 
 A Quaker lady (Mrs. Ripley) 
 had been admitted to the prisoners, 
 and had taken much pains to give 
 them religious instruction ; she was 
 with them again by six o'clock on 
 Tuesday morning, by their own de- 
 sire. Driscol was the first who 
 mounted the platform, which he did 
 in a most hurried manner, and with 
 great agitation. Having ascended 
 it, he gazed wildly around upon 
 the spectators, and once or twice 
 pushed his cap from his mouth. 
 Weller was the next ushered to the 
 scaffold, and he exhibited a consi- 
 derable portion of firmness. Wil- 
 liams followed. Cashman, alias 
 Emanuel, followed : he was a Jew, 
 and by the tenet of the Mosaic reli- 
 gion was not permitted to sleep dur- 
 ing the night; he was attended by 
 a priest of his own persuasion, and 
 Mrs. Ripley, who manifested great 
 anxiety for his future state. She 
 accompanied him even to the scaf- 
 fold, but there her feelings over- 
 came her, and she burst into tears. 
 The priest who attended him fur- 
 nished the executioner with a pecu- 
 liar kind of cap, which was substi- 
 tuted for the ordinary one used upon 
 such occasions. By a quarter past 
 
 eight, all the malefactors were ar- 
 ranged, Driscol labouring under 
 great emotion and agitation. The 
 Mosaic priest, the Rev. Mr. De- 
 vereux, and the Rev. Mr. Cotton, 
 continued for a few minutes address- 
 ing prayers to the delinquents, 
 when Mr. Cotton gave the signal, 
 and thus they were launched into 
 eternity. — Immediately upon the 
 unfortunate culprits being launched 
 off, some of the populace vociferated 
 —'Shame! shame! Murder! mur- 
 der ! !' — After hanging the usual 
 time, their bodies were cut down, 
 and given over to their friends for 
 interment. — The Rabbies who at- 
 tended Cashman were permitted to 
 cut him down. They took away the 
 rope along with the body. Shortly 
 after, a great crowd of Irish, men, 
 women, and children, applied for 
 the body of Driscol, which they 
 bore away with the usual custom of 
 howling. The bodies of the other 
 two were taken into the prison, to 
 be delivered to their friends. 
 
 So much had been apprehended 
 from the public indignation on this 
 occasion, that the Bank had a body 
 of guards down lest an attack mis»ht 
 be made, by the mob, upon that 
 establishment. Within the walls of 
 Newgate preparation had also been 
 made to resist any attack, and si- 
 milar precaution was manifested in 
 other places. Happily no disturb- 
 ance took place on the melaucholy 
 occasion. 
 
 JOHN KINNEAR, MOSELY WOOLF, AND LEWIS LEVY, 
 
 CONVICTED OF CONSPIRACY. 
 
 The commercial world affords 
 great opportunities for knaves to 
 practise their impositions in, but we 
 are not aware that it has ever been 
 subjected to a more extensive system 
 of fraud than that effected by the 
 trio whose names head the present 
 article. 
 
 These dishonest sons of Israel 
 were reputed merchants in London, 
 and contrived for several years to 
 keep up a tolerable character. They 
 were in extensive trade, and kept 
 separate concerns, turning each in 
 business something like three hun- 
 dred thousand pounds a year. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 230 
 
 Willi the profits resulting from 
 tliis trade they were, liowever, dis- 
 satisfied, and resolved to grow rich 
 hy speedier means. They origi- 
 nated three mercantile houses, and 
 placed as proprietors in them three 
 men, who were, in fact, merely 
 paupers. The first was John Meyer, 
 a Jew, who kept a house on Tower 
 Hill, for the reception of sailors. 
 This man they supplied with money, 
 gave him a character, and reported 
 him as a merchant of an inexhaust- 
 ible capital. The next was Henry 
 Weiller, a German Jew, who, having 
 served under Napoleon, came, in 
 18 J 6, to England, with ten francs 
 in his pocket. This fellow they 
 dressed up, and instructed him to 
 represent himself as a foreign mer- 
 chant. Weiller having been once in 
 business in Paris, and being known 
 to a respectable house there, he pro- 
 cured a letter of recommendation to 
 a London banker. By this means 
 he established his credit, and began 
 to pass bills with amazing rapidity. 
 
 Having these two houses under 
 their control, they wanted another, 
 and in the formation of this they 
 shewed the greatest skill ; for they 
 established it in such a manner, as 
 to procure goods to a large amount, 
 without creating suspicion. They 
 took a Jew boy, named Joseph 
 Leigh, who had been once or twice 
 tried at the Old Bailey, and repre- 
 sented him as the son of a Dutch 
 merchant. I,evy then called upon 
 a man named Reeves, who had been 
 known in the Manchester trade, 
 but who had been unfortunate in 
 business, though his character stood 
 yet high at Manchester. To him 
 Levy represented Leigh as a youth 
 well acquainted with the Continental 
 trade, and stated that his father, 
 being a wealthy man, proposed 
 giving him a thousand pounds, pro- 
 vided he could get a person to join 
 him who understood the country 
 
 trade of England. Reeves con- 
 sented to become his partner, and 
 articles of partnership, with a great 
 shew of candour, were drawn up 
 between them. The one thousand 
 pounds was then handed to Reeves, 
 and lodged at a banker's. Levy 
 also lent them five hundred pounds, 
 and appeared a very good friend. 
 He introduced Reeves to Meyer, 
 as well as to Weiller, and recom- 
 mended his dealing with them, as 
 they generally traded on ready 
 money. Reeves readily became 
 their dupe. He made a circuit of 
 the manufacturing countries, being 
 supplied with the loan of one thou- 
 sand pounds, and sent home goods 
 to the amount of thirty-three thou- 
 sand pounds, for which he paid by 
 bills on Meyer. Before the con- 
 clusion of his business, however, he 
 was informed that Meyer had ab- 
 sconded ; and, on hastening to 
 London, he found himself not pos- 
 sessed of a shilling, all the goods he 
 had purchased having been sold, on 
 their arrival, to Meyer. 
 
 A disclosure now took place, and 
 it was found that these fictitious 
 houses had practised the vilest im- 
 positions. Weiller was sent out of 
 the way, but, being apprehended in 
 Holland, he was brought back, and 
 made a bankrupt of. On his exa- 
 minations it was discovered that 
 Kinuear, Woolf, and Levy, were 
 the contrivers of the fraud, and, in 
 consequence of this information, 
 they, with several others, were in- 
 dicted for a conspiracy Meyer and 
 several others who were implicated 
 escaped detection, but the three 
 leaders in, and contrivers of, the 
 scheme were brought to justice in 
 the Court of King's Bench, April 
 the '20th, 1819, before Lord Chief 
 Justice Abbott and a special jury. 
 
 Reeves, Leigh, and Weiller, were 
 the principal evidence against them, 
 and Tfter an investigation of two 
 
240 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 days they were found guilty. No 
 sooner was the verdict made known, 
 than the vast crowds who waited for 
 the decision manifested the greatest 
 satisfaction. A man named Le Vay, 
 who was indicted with them, was 
 acquitted. The trial disclosed the 
 means by which they proem ed 
 credit. One of the fictitious housi s 
 served to give a character to the 
 others, while at the same time they 
 played into each other's hands, by 
 drawing and discounting bills, ac- 
 cepting and negotiating drafts, &c. 
 &c. The goods thus dishonestly 
 procured were shipped off to Hol- 
 and, India, &c. on Levy's ac- 
 count. 
 
 On the 30th of April a motion 
 was made for a new trial, on the 
 ground of the jury having dispersed 
 and slept at home, no officer being 
 sworn to keep them together, or 
 prevent their intermixing with the 
 multitude. The Court, however, 
 decided that the mere separation of 
 the jury was no ground for setting 
 aside the verdict, unless some im- 
 proper tampering with them could 
 be shown, the Court having a dis- 
 cretion to allow the jury to disperse. 
 The application was, therefore, re- 
 fused, though it was the opinion of 
 some leading counsel that a new 
 trial would have been granted in 
 consequence of this irregularity. 
 
 On the 14th of May they were 
 
 brought up to receive judgment, 
 when two affidavits were put in on 
 the part of the defendants, statiug 
 that the deponents had Keen two of 
 the jurymen, on the first night of 
 the trial, conversing with Mr. 
 Harmer and Mr. Adams, the solici- 
 tors for the prosecution. In answer 
 to these, affidavits of the jury, the 
 above gentlemen, &c. were put in, 
 denying that any such intercourse 
 had taken place; also two affidavits 
 of the owners of the houses, where 
 the deponents on the part of the 
 defendants stated themselves to re- 
 side, stating that no such persons 
 lived there; whence they were sup- 
 posed to be fictitious names. 
 
 The sentence of the Court was, 
 that John Kinnear should be im- 
 prisoned in the gaol of Ilchester 
 for two years ; that Lewis Levy 
 should he imprisoned in the gaol of 
 Gloucester for two years, and pay a 
 fine of five thousand pounds; that 
 Mostly Woolf should be imprisoned 
 in the House of Correction, Cold- 
 Bath Fields, for two years, and pay 
 a fine often thousand pounds: and 
 that Levy and Woolf should be 
 farther imprisoned till those fines 
 were paid. Levy had sent lar<je 
 quantities of goods to India, obtain- 
 ed by this conspiracy, and the Court 
 considered that from the sale t;f 
 those £oods he might obtain remit- 
 tances to pay his tine. 
 
 ROBERT JOHNSTON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR ROBBEKY. 
 
 The extraordinary circumstances Edinburgh, where he spent the first 
 
 attending the execution of this un- part of his life without reproach. 
 
 fortunate man give his case a me- His parents were poor, and Robert 
 
 lancholy interest. Our readers, was employed as a carter. In his 
 
 doubtless, recollect the singular twenty-fourth year he got into bad 
 
 conduct of the Edinburgh mob, at company, and was engaged in the 
 
 the execution of Porteous. A scene, robbery of a chandler in Edinburgh. 
 
 if possible, more disgraceful, occur- Being apprehended he was brought 
 
 red on the present occasion. to trial, with two others, and found 
 
 Robert Johnston was a native of Guiltv. His companions had their 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 241 
 
 sentence commuted to transporta- 
 tion, hut on Johnston the law was 
 destined to be put in force. 
 
 December the 30th, 1818, was 
 the day appointed for his execu- 
 tion, when it accordingly took place, 
 but under circumstances of a very 
 extraordinary nature. A platform 
 was erected at one of the windows 
 of the New North Church, in the 
 Lawn Market. On the platform 
 was a q n ad rang ular table, on which 
 the criminal was to stand, and which 
 was to be lowered in order to leave 
 him suspended. An immense crowd 
 was assembled. The unfortunate 
 culprit was brought from the lock- 
 up-house to the place of execution 
 about twenty minutes before three 
 o'clock, attended by two of the ma- 
 gistrates, the Rev. Mr. Tait, Mr. 
 Poiteous, chaplain of the gaol, se- 
 veral city officers, and the public 
 executioner. After spending some 
 time iu prayer with the clergyman, 
 Johnston mounted the platform with 
 alacrity, looked boldly round him, 
 and gave the signal. But nearly 
 a minute elapsed before the table 
 could be forced down ; and after it 
 was got down, the perpendicular fall 
 was so short, that the unhappy 
 man's toes were still touching the 
 surface, so that he remained half- 
 standing, half-suspended, and strug- 
 gling in the most dreadful manner. 
 It is impossible to find words to ex- 
 press the horror which pervaded 
 the crowd, while one or two persons 
 were at work with axes beneath the 
 scaffold, iu the vain attempt to hew 
 down a part of it beneath the feet 
 of the criminal. The cries of hor- 
 ror from the populace continued to 
 increase with indescribable vehe- 
 mence ; and it is hard to say how 
 long this horrible scene might have 
 lasted, had not a person near the 
 scaflold, who was struck by a po- 
 liceman, while pressing onward, 
 cried out 'Murder!' Those who 
 VuL. IV. 
 
 were not aware of the circumstance 
 imagined that this cry proceeded 
 from the unhappy Johnston. A 
 shower of stones, taken from the 
 loose pavement on the streets, com- 
 pelled the magistrates and the po- 
 lice to retire iu a moment. A cry 
 of ' Cut him down — he is alive/ 
 succeeded, and a person, genteelly 
 dressed, sprung upon the platform, 
 cut the rope, and the culprit fell 
 down in a reclining position upon 
 the scaffold, after having hung about 
 five minutes. 
 
 A number of the crowd broke 
 through the railing, and took pos- 
 session of the platform, where they 
 lifted up Johnston, took the ropes 
 from his neck and arms, and the 
 cap from off his face, which they 
 threw among the multitude below ; 
 they then loosened a part of his 
 clothes, and finding him alive, de- 
 liberately carried him off towards 
 the High Street; while another 
 parly tore the coffin prepared for 
 the criminal to pieces, and threw 
 the fragments against, the windows 
 of the church, endeavouring also to 
 demolish the fatal apparatus, which, 
 however, was found too strong for 
 them to accomplish their object. A 
 lieutenant of police was severely 
 cut on the head with a stone ; about 
 tin of the officers were more or less 
 hurt by the mob; and the execu- 
 tioner, who was for some time in 
 their hands, suffered severely, in 
 the mean time the police-offie< is 
 rallied in augmented force, and re- 
 took the criminal from the mob at 
 the head of Advocates' Close. The 
 unhappy man, half alive, stripped of 
 part of his clothes, and his shirt 
 turned up, so that the whole of his 
 naked back and upper part of his 
 body was exhibited, lay extended 
 on the ground in the middle of the 
 street, in front of the police-office. 
 At last, after a considerable inter- 
 val, some of the police-officers, lay- 
 113 
 
242 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 ing hold of him, dragged him trail- 
 ing along the ground, for about 
 twenty paces, into the office, where 
 he remained upwards of half an hour, 
 while he was attended by a surgeon, 
 bled in both arms, and in the tem- 
 poral vein, by which suspended 
 animation was restored ; but the 
 unfortunate man did not utter a 
 word. In the mean time a military 
 force arrived from the castle under 
 the direction of a magistrate. The 
 soldiers were drawn up in tlie street 
 surrounding the police-office and 
 place of execution. 
 
 Johnston was then carried asfain 
 to the scaffold. His clothes were 
 thrown about him in such a wav, 
 that he seemed half naked, and 
 while a number of men were about 
 him, holding him up on the table, 
 and fastening the rope again about 
 his neck, his clothes fell down, hi 
 a manner shocking to decency. 
 While they were adjusting bis 
 clothes, the unhappy man was left 
 vibrating, upheld partly by the 
 rope about his neck, and partly by 
 his feet on the table. At last the 
 table was removed from beneath 
 him, when, to the indescribable 
 horror of every spectator, he was 
 seen suspended, with his face un- 
 covered, and one of his bands broke 
 loose from the cords with which it 
 
 should nave been tied, and with his 
 fingers convulsively twisting in the 
 noose. Dreadful cries were then 
 heard from every quarter. A chair 
 was brought, and the executioner 
 having mounted upon it, disengaged 
 by force the hand of the dying man 
 from the rope. He then descended, 
 leaving the man's face still uncover- 
 ed, and exhibiting a dreadful spec- 
 tacle. At length a napkin was 
 thrown over his face. Shouts of 
 'Murder,' and 'Shame, shame/ 
 broke from the crowd : Johnston was 
 observed to struggle very much; 
 but his sufferings were at an end in 
 a few minutes. The soldiers re- 
 mained on the spot till the body 
 was cut down ; and, as it was then 
 about dusk, the crowd gradually 
 dispersed. 
 
 The bleeding of the unfortunate 
 culprit by a surgeon, with the view of 
 restoring animation, was, we appre- 
 hend, an illegal torture, as by it 
 the poor wretch was made to suffer 
 a double death. it is true the au- 
 thorities did not call in the sur- 
 geon ; but it. is equally true that 
 they did not prevent, when they 
 niiilht, the surgical process. The 
 whole proceedings were afterwards 
 properly investigated, and those to 
 whom blame was attached were 
 punished. 
 
 HENRY STENT, 
 
 CONVICTED OF STABBING HIS WIFE. 
 
 This is another of those melan- in the adjoining house, and was up- 
 
 choly cases, arising from the viola- on terms of family intimacy with 
 
 tion of the sacred duties of wedded them. By what means he first ac- 
 
 life, which have furnished matter quired an influence over the mind of 
 
 for our criminal courts. the unhappy woman does not ap- 
 
 Stent was a respectable butcher, pear, but the following is a speci- 
 
 residing at Pimlico, about twenty- men of the arts which" he used to 
 
 eight years old, and at the time of induce her to desert the man whose 
 
 his wife's guilty intercourse had confidence she had already abused. 
 been married about seven years. A short time previous to the elope- 
 
 The destroyer of their peace was a ment, Mrs. Stent had beenaf- 
 
 fellow named Sweeting, who resided fficted with an indisposition which 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 243 
 
 rendered country air desirable. She game of cards, while liis wife re- 
 was in consequence sent to the turned home, packed tip nil the 
 house of an uncle of her husband, moveables on which she could lay 
 a farmer within three miles of Ux- her hands, clothes, plate, and 
 bridge, where she was repeatedly money, and removed them loan- 
 visited by Sweeting, both publicly other place; after which she re- 
 aml privately, and from whence he , turned and finished the eveninsr in 
 endeavoured by evcrv possible argu- the most convivial manner. The 
 meut to induce her lo elope, urgiirg next morning she eloped. 
 his illicit passion with unceasing About thiee weeks after, Sweet- 
 violence. Still i however, she re- iny returned to his wife in the dead 
 sisted bis importunities. Whether of night, and demanded what money 
 he bad at that time accomplished she bad in ber possession. She de- 
 her seduction does not appear, but, nied that she bad any; but he per- 
 in order to work upon her mind, sisted that she bad, and insisted 
 and to incline ber lo place a more upon having it. The poor woman 
 implicit belief in the strength of urged the proximity of ber confine- 
 his unnatural affection, be went meut, and the calls of ber other 
 through the farce of banging him- children. He was, however, deaf 
 self to a tree in the neighbourhood, to these arguments; be shut the 
 as if in despair at ber cruelty, door, and with dreadful threats 
 From tiiis perilous situation be took forced ber to strip herself, and from 
 especial care to be providentially her stays ripped sixty pounds, with 
 relieved ; be next pretended to which he went off. His unhappy 
 quench the flame by which he was wife was soon afterwards seized 
 devoured in the canal; but here, with the pains of child-birth, and 
 too, he contrived to be rescued was delivered; hut Nature gave 
 from the crime of self-destruction. way to the full tide of misery which 
 
 These feats were performed ano- had burst upon ner, and she be- 
 nymously; he would not disclose came raving mad. Her neighbour 
 his name, or the cause of bis con- Stent was sent for, to assist in 
 tempt of life ; hut be took care that clothing her in a strait waistcoat, 
 Mrs. Stent should not remain in and in an hour afterwards she died 
 ignorance of the ordeals through in his arms, lur death being soon 
 which he had passed ; and at length followed by that of her helpless in- 
 the poor woman became so alarmed fant. Another child died shortly 
 by these occurrences that she re- after, and whatever property re- 
 turned to town. In a few days af- mained was soon dissipated in the 
 terwards she fled from hei husband; necessary expenditure of the fn- 
 anri her fate remained involved in nerals, and the support of the sur- 
 obscurity, except that Sweeting was viving children, who were subse- 
 suspected to be the partner of ber quently removed to the parish work- 
 flight, as he had disappeared fiotn house. 
 his home about the same time. What were the sensations of the 
 
 Sweeting had four children iiv- gunry father when this heart-rend- 
 ing, and his wife was far advanced ing talereached bis ears it isimpos- 
 in pregnancy with a fifth. On the sible to say ; but if a shadow of feel- 
 evening previous to the elopement, ing remained in hisbosom, his misery 
 Mr. and Ms. Stent were invited to could not be less than his crime ; 
 meet a par*y at Sweeting's house, nor could the partner of his flight 
 who, after tea, engaged Stent in a and the participator iu his infamy 
 
244 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 be less exposed to the honors of 
 remorse. 
 
 The guilty woman, and her in- 
 famous paramour, tied to France, 
 f om whence it appears they return- 
 ed to England very soon afterwards, 
 and then sailed to America. The 
 unnatural bonds of licentious attach- 
 ment have, however, but a very 
 weak hold, either of the slaves or 
 the victims of its lawless influence, 
 and Mrs. Stent found full soon that 
 she was fated to add to the list of 
 dupes and outcasts. In a foreign 
 country, far removed from the reach 
 of help, cut off by her own act from 
 protector or friend, she fatally felt 
 the extent of her crime. He who 
 had seduced her from home, from 
 husband, and from fame, treated 
 her as the wretch he had made her, 
 while to the poignancy of her bo- 
 dily sufferings were superadded the 
 mental torments produced by a de- 
 spairing consciousness of guilt. 
 
 At length remorse, mingled per- 
 haps with somewhat of real peni- 
 tence, induced the wretched woman 
 to think of returning home, to throw 
 herself at the feet of her injured 
 husband, and to make some atone- 
 ment by her future conduct for the 
 deep and irreparable injuries she 
 bad committed. Her sated seducer 
 gladly availed himself of the oppor- 
 tunity of getting rid of the degrad- 
 ed being who had now become a 
 burden to him, arid readily agreed 
 to her return; first extorting from 
 her a promise that she would for 
 ever conceal the circumstance of 
 his being the partner of her flight, 
 and fiercely threatening that, if she 
 ever disclosed the fact, he would 
 return and cut her throat. 
 
 The siiip in which she took her 
 passage to England encountered 
 severe storms, but Providence was 
 pleased to save her from a watery 
 grave, to endure sufferings more 
 appalling. On her arrival at Liver- 
 
 pool she look the stage to London; 
 and being set down at the Saracen's 
 Head Inn. Snow Hill, retired to a 
 room, from whence, in the wild 
 frenzy of conscious guilt and hope- 
 less despair, she addressed the fol- 
 lowing letter to her injured hus- 
 band : — 
 
 'August 5, 1819. 
 
 ' Henry — You, no doubt, will be 
 offended at my writing to you, one 
 that I have used so ill ; but, believe 
 me, I have considered of my crime, 
 and will repent, if possible. Oh, 
 Henry ! I have suffered more than 
 1 can tell you in crossing the seas ; 
 there was nothing but storms and 
 trouble, and the ship was lost. But 
 you, perhaps, already know that I 
 have put my trust in God for safety 
 in crossing them again, and have 
 got sale to England owce more, to 
 throw myself at your feet, and im- 
 plore your pity, if you cannot par- 
 don me ; but oh! for one moment 
 consider before my doom is fixed. 
 Indeed, I am penitent, and sorry 
 for my sins, and hope you will hear 
 my prayer for mercy, as well as 
 that God which I have offended. 
 But if my story was told by any 
 other than me, you would see what 
 a villain he was. If you find you 
 cannot forgive — but oh! that 
 thought makes me tremble— do not 
 let my dear father and mother know 
 you have heard of me, for that 
 would bring their trouble afresh to 
 their minds (that is, if their lives 
 are spared), and I hope I have not 
 got that to answer for. 
 
 •All I wish is, to pass the re- 
 mainder of my days in obscurity, 
 or in the workhouse, if you think 
 proper, or in any other place; do 
 not desert me — for God's sake, do 
 not. I have come from America, 
 landed on Tuesday morning, and 
 at night left Liverpool ; and this 
 morning got to the Saracen's Head, 
 where [ shall await your answer 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 245 
 
 with t lie greatest distress. If you 
 phase to lei me have some of the 
 (lollies I left, as 1 have not a gown 
 to wear. Oh ! Henry, think well he- 
 fore you say what shall he my fate; 
 only ask your own heart. Do not 
 tell any body that you know of my 
 being in England, but think what 
 a journey for a lone woman to take. 
 1 do not know when you will get 
 this, but, if you can, let me know 
 to-night what is to be my lot. In- 
 deed, I will he content on bread 
 and water, if I can but obtain your 
 forgiveness. Oh ! Henry, be not 
 deaf to my prayers ; I know it is a 
 crime I have often heard you say 
 you never would forgive; only 
 write to say you will pnrdou me, 
 and do what you like after; but do 
 not let any of my friends know lli,it, 
 I have wrote to you — grant me that 
 request, if you cannot grant any 
 more. Let me know, for I had 
 only two pounds live shillings to 
 bring me to London. 
 
 ' Maria Stent. 
 
 ' One o'clock.' 
 
 The frightful part of our tale 
 now advances. Stent had felt 
 deeply the wound that had been 
 inflicted on him; he had felt the 
 desolation of his domestic fire-side; 
 he had known the want of the anxi- 
 ous attendant, in those moments 
 of worldly care from which no hu- 
 man being is exempt ; and had 
 vainly sought for repose upon his 
 « widowed bed of fire.' He had wit- 
 nessed, too, the death-bed of the 
 wife of his wife's seducer, and seen 
 her helpless infants struggling in 
 the last agonies of mortal disease, 
 or stretching out their little bands 
 in supplication for food, while their 
 unnatural father was squandering 
 in licentiousness that which should 
 have placed them out of the reach of 
 want. At length, unexpected and 
 unannounced, the prime agent of 
 all his sufferings was, as it were, a 
 
 his feet, and full and ample means 
 of vengeance within his grasp. In 
 a state of frenzy, he hurried to the 
 inn from whence his wretched wife 
 had dispatched the letter which 
 had newly lighted up the smother- 
 ing embers of his fury ; was shown 
 into the room wherein she was sil- 
 ting ; and instantly commenced a 
 fierce and bloody attack with a 
 knife upon her person. Fortunately, 
 her screams of terror and cries for 
 mercy were heard by the attendants, 
 who rushed into the room time 
 enough to save her life, though 
 dreadfully cut and mangled in the 
 bloody encounter. 
 
 The fury of the unhappy man 
 evaporated with the knowledge of 
 bis having punished the offender 
 against the honour of his bed and 
 his peace of mind ; he calmly sur- 
 rendered himself into the hands of 
 justice, and was conveyed, without 
 a struggle, to the Giltspur Street 
 Compter, from whence he imme- 
 diately dispatched a letter to his 
 sister, acquainting her with what 
 had passed. 
 
 The next morning he underwent 
 an examination at Guildhall, pre- 
 viously to which a certificate was 
 produced from the house-surgeon 
 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 
 stating that Mrs. Stent had passed 
 a good night and was considered 
 out of danger, but not able to un- 
 dergo an examination at present. 
 
 Few particulars transpired on 
 this examination beyond what we 
 have already staged. On entering 
 the room the waiter and porter of 
 the inn found him stabbing her with 
 great violence in the throat. He 
 then said, ' I have accomplished 
 my purpose; I wish for nothing 
 but to suffer; I know I shall sutler ' 
 The wife replied, ' Yes, you have, 
 Henry, and I freely forgive you ; 
 come and kiss me.' The prisoner 
 .hen knelt down and kissed he* 
 
246 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 twice, which she returned, saying, 
 * I hope the law will not take hold 
 of you ; you are the hest of hus- 
 bands, and I am the verv worst of 
 wivfs, and 1 hope my fate will be 
 a warning to ail bad wives ' She 
 was then taken on a shutter to the 
 hospital, and in her way thither 
 she was continually calling on her 
 dear Henry, wishing him to kiss 
 her, and begging him to give her 
 his hand. The knife with which 
 the bloody deed was committed was 
 one of the common sticking-knives 
 for killing calves, and was covered 
 with blood up to the hilt; the point 
 arid the edtje appeared turned, as 
 if it had struck against a bone. 
 Five stalls were inflicted; one on 
 her arm, another on her hand, a 
 third on her breast, a fourth on the 
 right side, and a fifth in her neck. 
 
 The prisoner was remanded for fur- 
 ther examination from time to time 
 until his wife, whose recovery was 
 very slow, was able to appear and 
 give her evidence, as the mode of 
 committal would have been dif- 
 ferent in case of her death. 
 
 Both Mrs. Slent and her father 
 declared their intention not to pro- 
 secute. This, however, could make 
 no difference as to the course of 
 justice; fur the king would become 
 the prosecutor, and the evidence of 
 Mrs. Stent might be altogether dis- 
 pensed with. As, however, from 
 the fact of the prisoner having been 
 in the room with his wife ten mi- 
 nutes before an alarm was given, a 
 doubt might arise as to the cause of 
 the assault, which might operate 
 favourably for the prisoner, the 
 magistrate was bound to take cog- 
 nizance of the offence, and it was 
 indispensable that Mr. Stent should, 
 at all events, be committed for trial. 
 Mrs. Stent beiny; at length pro- 
 nounced sufficiently recovered to be 
 able to appear in public and give 
 lit. evidence, the final examination 
 
 took place at Guildhall, on Wednes- 
 day, the 18th of August. This 
 being previously known, so creal a 
 concourse of persons collected that 
 before eleven o'clock all the ave- 
 nues to the justice-room were com- 
 pletely stopped up. 
 
 Mis. Stent, accompanied by her 
 father and sister, came from the 
 hospital in a coach. Her appear- 
 ance was by no means interest uiir ; 
 she was short of stature, bad light 
 blue eyes, small nose, and fair 
 complexion. She looked remarkably 
 pale, and was more annoyed than 
 fatigued by the curiosity of the sur- 
 rounding spectators ; her voice and 
 manners were remarkably mild and 
 fascinating. 
 
 Heniy Benwell, Esq. the house- 
 surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hos- 
 pital, was first examined. He stated 
 that Maria Stent was brought to the 
 hospital between six and seven 
 o'clock on the evening of Thursday 
 the 5th of Auirust inst. ; he saw 
 her directly; she was very faint 
 and cold, but perfectly sensible. 
 On examining her, he found she 
 had received several wounds; there 
 were three on her neck and riyht 
 breast, one on her right arm, one 
 on her right side, and one on her 
 left thumb. One wound on the 
 neck had penetrated the windpipe, 
 and that on the side had penetrated 
 the right lobe of the lu::gs; from 
 this last-mentioned wound she bled 
 most profusely. This wound, and 
 that which had injured the windpipe, 
 were the most serious; the others 
 were small and of little consequence. 
 He at first apprehended consider- 
 able danger; Mrs. Stent, however-, 
 continued getting better till the 
 Sunday morning following, when he 
 was called up at seven o'clock, in 
 consequence of an attack of inflam- 
 mation on his patient's lungs; from 
 this, however, she had now reco- 
 vered : the wounds were not vet 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 247 
 
 perfectly healed, but he considered 
 her now out of danger. He had not 
 seen the knife with which the stabs 
 were i>iven, but from all appearances 
 liny must have been made by a 
 sharp instrument. 
 
 Mrs. Stent next underwent exa- 
 mination. When the alderman in- 
 formed her it was necessary she 
 should be sworn, she replied mildly, 
 but firmly, ' Very well, Sir.' After 
 taking the oath, she stated, in 
 answer to the different questions 
 put to her, that she was the wife of 
 the prisoner; that she arrived in 
 London from Liverpool on the day 
 in question; that she wrote a let- 
 ter to her husband, and that he 
 came to her at the Saracen's Head 
 about six o'clock in the evening, 
 that she was so agitated on seeing 
 her husband that she could recollect 
 nothing after she saw him, till she 
 found herself undressed in the hos- 
 pital. In giving this evidence, she 
 was particularly guarded in not say- 
 in t; too much, making no extrane- 
 ous observations, but coufininir her 
 answers strictly to the questions, 
 and frequently giving them in a 
 single word ; as, when asked how- 
 she found herself when she came 
 to her recollection, she replied, 
 'Wounded.' When asked, 'Where ?' 
 she said, ' Principally in the neck.' 
 She persisted, when re-questioned, 
 that she had no recollection of any 
 thins: that passed in the interview 
 with her husband. 
 
 Mr. Beecher, Mrs. Stent's father, 
 declined to be hound over, and 
 Hirdsfield, the rfficer who took the 
 prisoner into custody, was then 
 bound over as the prosecutor. Mr. 
 Beecher agreed to be answerable 
 for the appearance of his daughter. 
 Stent was then finally committed 
 for trial, but was permitted to re- 
 main in the Compter instead of being 
 sent to Newcate. 
 
 During his confinement Mrs. 
 
 Stent had several interviews with 
 him in the Compter, in which he 
 seemed carefully to avoid any tiling 
 like the appeamnce of returning 
 affection. At neither of these visits 
 did she venture the slightest allu- 
 sion to her own misconduct, or her 
 husband's severity ; seeming aware 
 that he still remained too much ir- 
 ritated against her. — On the 17lh 
 September, 1819, his trial took 
 place at the Old Bailey, when the 
 evidence confirmed what had trans- 
 pired on the several examinations. 
 Mrs. Stent was plainly dressed, 
 wore a large Leghorn hat, which 
 tended much to conceal her features, 
 and appeared greatly agitated. On 
 being questioned by Mr. Justice 
 Best, she entreated that she might 
 not be called on to give evidence 
 against the best of husbands; he, 
 however, told her that it was his 
 duty to ask some questions wltich 
 she was bound to answer. To tlfese 
 questions she replied as she had 
 done on her examination, nearly in 
 monosyllables, and persisted that 
 she had no recollection of any thing 
 that passed during the interview 
 with her husband till she found her- 
 self in bed at St. Bartholomew's 
 Hospital. 
 
 The prisoner left his case to his 
 counsel, and a vast number of wit- 
 nesses appeared to his character, 
 who stated that they had known 
 him for many years, and had al- 
 ways believed him to he a kind- 
 hearted, humane, good-natured man 
 as any in existence, and a particu- 
 larly affectionate and indulgent hus- 
 band. 
 
 Mr. Justice Best explained the 
 law upon the subject. Fiom the 
 evidence detailed, and which he 
 should again read over to them, no 
 doubt could remain on the mind of 
 any unprejudiced person that the 
 ciiine charged upon the prisoier 
 came within the provisions of (hat 
 
248 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 most excellent act of parliament in- 
 t-oduceJ by the late lamented Chief 
 Justice of the King's Bench, for the 
 protection of the subject's life. 
 Though it did not appear in evi- 
 dence upon the present occasion, 
 the fact, however, might be fairly 
 assumed, that Mrs. Stent, the un- 
 happy woman who appeared before 
 them on that day, had forsaken her 
 husband, and, by proving unfaith- 
 ful to his bed, had inflicted upon 
 him the most poignant anguish, the 
 most acute suffering, that a man de- 
 voted to a wife could possibly en- 
 dure. This, however, could by no 
 means be admitted as a justification 
 of his crime. The law of the land 
 upon this subject proceeded upon the 
 same principles as the religion of 
 the country, which was Christianity. 
 If a husband detected his wife in the 
 very fact, in flagrante delicto, as 
 it were, and that at the moment he 
 plunged some deadly weapon into 
 nc r bosom, so as to occasion death, 
 it would not be considered murder. 
 The law, like the relisjiou of the 
 country, making fair allowance for 
 the frailties of human nature, consi- 
 dered the husband, with such pro- 
 vocation immediately before his 
 eyes, as no longer under the guid- 
 ance of reason, and of course not 
 accountable for his acts. Here, 
 however, the circumstances wire 
 quite different. A considerable time 
 had elapsed since the elopement of 
 the first witness, and on her return 
 he manifested those symptoms of 
 epentance— that appearance of re- 
 
 turning affect on — which might well 
 be supposed to disarm vengeance, 
 and prevent that ferocious purpose 
 which the prisoner appeared to have 
 deliberately contemplated. Even 
 while her blood was flowing from 
 the wounds he had inflicted, she 
 still entreated him to kiss her, and 
 in that kiss conveyed a pardon to 
 her assailant. Under circumstances 
 such as these, the law did not admit 
 of the same excuse as when a hus- 
 band detected his wife in the very 
 fact. Sufficient time having been 
 given for cool reflection on one side, 
 and for repentance on the other, 
 the law, proceeding on the same 
 principle as the benign religion 
 which it imitated, did not allow 
 vengeance to be inflicted with im- 
 punity. After some further obser- 
 vations, which the learned judue 
 delivered with great talent and feel- 
 ing, he summed up the evidence at 
 leJinth. 
 
 The jury then retired, and, alter 
 consulting for about half an hour, re- 
 turned with a verdict of Guilty, but 
 recommended the prisoner strongly 
 to mercy, on account of his good 
 character. 
 
 Mr. Justice Best. — The recom- 
 mendation shall certainly be for- 
 warded. 
 
 A petition, most numerously and 
 r< spec tably signed was presented 
 to the Prince Regent, on behalf of 
 Stent, who, in consideration of ali 
 the circumstances, was irraciouslv 
 pleased to commute ths sentence of 
 death for two years' imprisonment. 
 
 HENRY HUNT, 
 
 IMPRISONED FOR A HIGH MISDEMEANOUR. 
 
 Henry Hunt was the most po- confidence or the applause of the 
 
 pular demagogue that appeared in people. Like W r ilkes, too, he was 
 
 England during the reiun of George the occasion of several deluded peo- 
 
 the Third, except Wilkes; and, pie losing their lives, while he hira- 
 
 like his prototype, he appears to self escaped with a comparatively 
 
 have been totally undeserving the trifling punishment. 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 24i> 
 
 Hunt was born at Widdington, in 
 the parish of Upavon, near Salis- 
 bury Plain, on the 6lli of Novem- 
 ber, 1773. His father was a very 
 respectable farmer, and the family 
 was of ancient standing Young 
 Henry was sent to school, where he 
 learned the rudiments of a classical 
 education, being intended for the 
 church ; but at sixteen he altered 
 his mind, and became a farmer ; in 
 the business of which he soon ob- 
 tained a great proficiency. Being 
 the eldest of six children, he was 
 treated with great confidence by his 
 father, whose principles he imbibed ; 
 and, as these were church and state, 
 young Runt was a violent loyalist, 
 and mortally hated that party whose 
 politics he subsequently embraced. 
 
 A threatened invasion beinjz then 
 talked of, Hunt enrolled himself in 
 the Everlv corps, of the com- 
 niandtrs of which he tells some 
 ridiculous anecdotes, not very cre- 
 ditable to either their honour or 
 their courage. In 1796 this corps 
 refused to leave their own county in 
 case of an invasion, and Hunt, being 
 a stout loyalist, and indignant at 
 their baseness, flung his sword, &c. 
 at bis commander's feet, having 
 first made his maiden speech, in the 
 hope of inducing his comrades to 
 volunteer; but his eloquence failed 
 to inspire cowards with courage. 
 
 His conduct on this occasion 
 being highly applauded, he was so- 
 licited by several corps to join them, 
 atid he accepted the offer of Lord 
 Bruce, into whose corps he entered. 
 The next year, however, he was 
 dismissed, this body of cavalry 
 having happened to give offence to 
 the noble commander, by shooting 
 some pheasants on his estate. Hunt, 
 being at this lime a man of property, 
 bis father having died, took the 
 letter of dismissal in high dudgeon, 
 and, riding to the place of parade, 
 challenged Lord Bruce to right a 
 
 duel. His lordship, not expecting 
 such a rencontre, put spurs to his 
 horse, and fairly run away ; but, in 
 a few days, moved, in the Court of 
 Kind's Bench, for a criminal infor- 
 mation against Hunt, who, in con- 
 sequence, was fined one hundred 
 pounds, and imprisoned six weeks 
 in the King's Bench. During his 
 confinement he associated with some 
 of those who had imbibed the prin- 
 ciples of the French Revolution, 
 and Hunt, on his return home, found 
 himself a complete democrat. 
 
 Previous to this time he had got 
 married, against his father's wishes, 
 to an inn-keeper's daughter, for 
 whom he had formed a most roman- 
 tic and violent attachment. With 
 this lady, however, he lived only 
 five years ; for, in 1802, he seduced 
 another man's wife, with whom he 
 eloped from Brighton. In praise 
 of this unfortunate woman Hunt 
 is grossly fulsome, and impudently 
 avows, in his ' Memoirs,' the love 
 he bore her; and dwells, with rap- 
 ture, on the happiness he found in 
 her society, for she was living with 
 him in 1824. His indignant and 
 insulted wife refused to live any 
 longer with him, and he made on 
 her, if we believe himself, a settle 
 ment of three hundred pounds a 
 year, allowing her to keep her two 
 daughters, the son remaining with 
 the father, under the tuition, of 
 course, of the kept mistress. Hunt, 
 in extenuation of his conduct, al- 
 leged his love, his infatuation, &c. 
 and while he unblusbingly avowed 
 his unprincipled baseness, he wish- 
 ed his countrymen to believe that 
 in their cause he was inflexible, — 
 that he, who could not be just to 
 his own family, would be just to the 
 public — Proh pudor ! 
 
 The high prices of farming pro- 
 duce enabled Hunt, about this lime, 
 to keep a splendid establishment. 
 He had several hunters, and a ken- 
 
250 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDA 
 
 Del full of dosrs, aiid pursued with 
 eagerness all llie sports of t he field, 
 living in the style of a country gen- 
 tleman, and kept a private house in 
 Bath, where he resided during the 
 winter months. 
 
 While in Bath he formed an ac- 
 quaintance with the son ofabrew-er, 
 who deluded him into a partner-hip, 
 and Hunt absolutely lost eight thou- 
 sand pounds in a brewing concern 
 at Bristol, and this was t he first 
 occasion of his becoming acouainted 
 with the people of that city. 
 
 In 1804 he first attended a public 
 meeting, which was held at De- 
 vizes, respecting the conduct of 
 Lord Melville; and, in the next 
 year, he first affixed his name to a 
 public address, calling on the inha- 
 bitants of Wiltshire to oppose the 
 corn laws. Having once embarked 
 in politics, he was ever restless, and 
 on every possible occasion he forced 
 himself upon public notice with of- 
 ficious zeal. In 1807 he thrust 
 himself forward at Bristol, to prc- 
 pose an Irishman, named Sir John 
 Jarvis, as a tit representative for 
 that city. 
 
 About this time his noisy inter- 
 ference on all public questions drew 
 upon him a host of enemies, parti- 
 cularly among his own neighbour's, 
 who forbade him to sport upon their 
 grounds; and, as no gentleman would 
 hunt with him, he was obliged to 
 dispose of his stud of horses. On 
 one occasion he committed a trifling 
 trespass, o:> which an action was 
 bioutrht against him, when he ef- 
 fectually pleaded his own cause, 
 and, encouraged by success, he de- 
 termined from that day forward lo 
 dispense with the assistance of 
 counsel. 
 
 In 1809 he held the first meeting 
 for reform, for by this time he had 
 become a disciple ofCoblxtt. In 
 1811 he took a large farm in Sus- 
 sex, called Row Cant, where he con- 
 
 tinued to reside for one year, a 
 expiration of which he Sidd it, 
 went to live at Mid die ton Cottage, 
 which is situaled on the Western 
 Road, three mil. s from Andover. 
 
 In 1812 he stood twice candidate 
 fur Bristol, but was defeated by a 
 large majority. On each occasion! he 
 was opposed by the venerated Sir 
 Samuel Romilly ; and that he failed 
 each time excited no regret among 
 the friends of the country. This 
 year he also became a liveryman of 
 London, and from that time Guild- 
 hall has been often favoured with 
 bis presence. Me now attended al- 
 most every public meeting through- 
 out the country, and gradually be- 
 came the idol of the mob, to whose 
 comprehension bis speeches were 
 admirably adapted. His patriotism, 
 however, proved injurious to his 
 private affairs, for we find, in 18 lo, 
 he had overdrawn his account with 
 his bankers, who refused to advance 
 hii!i any more money. 
 
 In 1816 be attended the notorious 
 meeting in Spafields, where he 
 acted as chairman; ami it is but jus- 
 tice to say that he held no previous 
 communication with Tbistlewood 
 and his colleagues, except fir the 
 purpose of expunging the offensive 
 matter contained in their resolu- 
 tions. 
 
 Hunt, having several times en- 
 tertained the mob in Palace Yard, 
 thought him-elfquite popular enough 
 in Westminster to oppose Sir Frn- 
 cis Burdett, at the general election 
 in 1818. The experiment did not, 
 however, succeed, as, at the termi- 
 nation of the poll, he counted only 
 forty-one votes. 
 
 The principles of radicalism, in 
 1819, had reached their zenith, and 
 the sober part of the community 
 begin to have apprehensions of the 
 levelling spirit which was abroad. 
 At this crisis Hunt stood conspicu- 
 ous a-> a leader, and officiated as 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 251 
 
 chairman at a meeting held in Smith- the meeting had been opened, a 
 field, more numerously attended body of yeomanry cavalry entered 
 t 1 an bad ever been known before the ground, and advanced with 
 Hi* conduct on this occasion was drawn swords to the stage; their 
 without reproach, and the reformers commanding officer called to Mr. 
 regarded him as their best and Hunt, who was speaking, and told 
 firmest champion. him that he was his prisoner. Mr. 
 An event, however, soon occurred, Hunt, after enjoining the people to 
 which gave him still greater no- be tranquil, said that he would rea- 
 t<»riety. The Manchester reformers, dily surrender to any civil officer 
 y\ ho had posted up notices of a meet- who should exhibit his warrant ; and 
 ing to be holden on the 9lh of Au- he was taken into custody by a con- 
 gust, for the purpose of proceeding stable. Several other persons were 
 to the election of a representative, apprehended. Some of the yeo- 
 as at Birmingham,* were informed manry now cried out, ' Have at 
 hy the magistrates that, as the ob- their flags !' and they began tostrike 
 ji ct of the proposed assemblage was down the banners in the waggon, as 
 unquestionably illegal, it would not well as others which were raised in 
 bo suffered to take place. In con- various parts of the field. A scene 
 sequence of this determination, they of dreadful confusion arose; num- 
 relinquished the design ; and issued hers were trampled under the feet of 
 notices of a meeting," for the avow- men and horses; many persons, 
 edly legal object of petitioning for a even females, were cut down by sa- 
 reform in parliament, on the ] 6th of bres ; some were killed, and the 
 August. An open space in the town, number of'^maimed and wounded 
 called St. Peter's Field, was select- amounted to between three and four 
 ed as the place of assembly ; and hundred. In a very short time the 
 never, upon any former occasion of ground was cleared of its former oc- 
 a similar nature, was so great a cu pants, and military patroles were 
 number of persons known to be pre- stationed in the principal streets of 
 sent. Some hours before the pro- the town tc preserve tranquillity, 
 ceedings were to commence, large Much difference of opinion has 
 bodies began to march in from the ever since prevailed on this subject ; 
 neighbouring towns and villages, and, perhaps, the Manchester meet- 
 formed five deep, many of them ing is one of those events, upon 
 armed with stout staves, and pie- which, in all its variety of details, 
 serving a military regularity of step, historians will never be found to 
 Each body had its own banner, agree. Whether the Riot Act were 
 bearing a motto ;, and, under a white actually read is still a moot point : 
 silk flag, two clubs of female re- the reformers and their friends insist 
 
 that it was not; the magistrates 
 and their adherents contend that it 
 Probability seems to favour 
 
 was. 
 
 formers appeared. The numbers 
 collected were estimated at sixty 
 thousand. A band of special con- 
 stables, stationed on the ground, the latter opinion; and certainly 
 disposed themselves so as to forma the affirmative of a proposition is 
 line of communication from a house more easily established than its ne- 
 ve here the magistrates were silting gative. The whole appears to hate 
 to the stage or waggon fixed lor the taken place within ten minutes, by 
 orators. Soon alter the business of which time the field was entirely 
 
 * The people of Birmingham had some time before elected S : r Charles '"olseley as 
 ir legislatorial attorney, or representative# 
 
2>2 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 cleared of its recent occupiers, and 
 filled with different corps of infantry 
 and cavalry. Hunt and his col- 
 leagues were, after a short examina- 
 tion before the magistrates, con- 
 ducted to solitary cells, on a charge 
 of high treason. On the following 
 day notices were issued by the ma- 
 gistrates, by which the practice of 
 military training, alleged to have 
 been carried on in secret, by large 
 bodies of men, for treasonable pur- 
 poses, was declared to be illegal. 
 Public thanks were, by the same 
 authority, returned to the officers 
 and men of the respective corps en- 
 gaged in the attack ; and, on the 
 arrival in London of a dispatch from 
 the local authorities, a cabinet coun- 
 cil was held, the result of which 
 was the return of official letters of 
 thanks to the. magistrates, for their 
 prompt, decisive, and efficient mea- 
 sures for the preservation of the 
 public tranquillity ; and to all the 
 military engaged, for the support 
 and assistance afforded by them to 
 the civil power. 
 
 The circumstances of the Man- 
 chester case turned out to be such, 
 that government, by the advice of 
 the law officers of the crown, found 
 it expedient to abandon the threat- 
 ened prosecution of Mr. Hunt aiftl 
 his colleagues for high treason. 
 Those persons were accordingly in- 
 formed that they would be proceeded 
 against for a conspiracy only, which 
 might be bailed ; but Mr. Hunt re- 
 fused to tjive bail, even, as he said, 
 to the amount of a single farthing: 
 some of his friends, however, liberat- 
 ed him. On his return from Lan- 
 caster to Manchester, Hunt was 
 drawn about two miles by women, 
 and ten by men. In fact, his return 
 wis one long triumphal procession, 
 waited upon by thousands, on horse, 
 on foot, and in carriages, who hail- 
 ed him witJi continued shouts of 
 applause 
 
 The sensation produced through- 
 out the country by this fatal busi- 
 ness was intense. Hunt's conduct 
 was universally applauded, and he 
 received the thanks of nearly every 
 county in England. Those who 
 opposed him on principle now for- 
 got their enmity, and hailed him as 
 the uncompromising champion of 
 Liberty. His entry iuto London 
 was public, and some of the first 
 characters of the day honoured him 
 with their presence, whilst hundreds 
 of thousands welcomed him with 
 deafening applause. 
 
 The agitation had hardly subsided 
 when true bills were found against 
 Hunt and others, and their trials 
 came on at York, and continued, 
 without intermission, for fourteen 
 days, during which time Hunt dis- 
 played powers of intellect and acute- 
 ness of perception which even Ins 
 friends did not suspect him to be 
 possessed of. He was found Guilty, 
 however, and ordered to be brought 
 up to the Court of King's Bench for 
 sentence, before the passing of 
 which he moved, in person, for a 
 new trial. Although he argued with 
 all the tact, and ability of the most 
 experienced lawyer, his motion was 
 refused, and he was sentenced to 
 two years and a half imprisonment 
 in llcbester gaol. 
 
 He had not been long incarcerated 
 when he brought to light a system 
 of the most infamous cruelty which 
 had been practised on the unfortu- 
 nate inmates of that dreadful Bas- 
 tile by the barbarous gaoler. Mr. 
 Hunt himself, being treated with 
 great cruelty, addressed a letter to 
 Mr. Justice Bay ley, detailing cases 
 of atrocious cruelty. 
 
 The question was, at length, 
 brought before the House of Com- 
 mons, and an inquiry followed. 
 Hunt substantiated all Ids charges, 
 and. the inhuman gaoler was dis- 
 missed and punished, while the 
 
KNAPPac BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 26o 
 
 country rung with the praise of his 
 accuser's manly conduct. 
 
 The two years ami a half having 
 expired, Mr. Hunt was liberated, 
 •ind once more made his public en- 
 try into London. But the times 
 had charmed ; the public prosperity 
 had banished discontent, and he 
 was attended on this occasion by 
 none of that popular enthusiasm 
 which accompanied him on his 
 former visit. He made several at- 
 tempts to arouse the lethargy of his 
 partisans, but failing, he very wisely 
 betook himself to his private duty. 
 
 Li 1819 he had introduced roasted 
 corn as a substitute for coffee, and 
 his son superintended the manufac- 
 tory during his imprisonment. On 
 his liberation he opened several 
 houses for the sale of this economi- 
 cal article; and, in 1824, he added 
 to his business of roasting corn 
 by commencing a manufactory of 
 blacking. The name of the once- 
 popular demagogue might then be 
 seen ' rubric on the walls ;' and, 
 from being an opponent of the Whigs 
 and Tories, he became the humble 
 rival of Day and Martin. 
 
 ARTHUR THISTLEWOOD, RICHARD TIDD, JAMES INGS, 
 WILLIAM DAVIDSON, AND JOHN THOMAS BRUNT, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON. 
 
 On the morning of Thursday the assembled at a cabinet dinner; and 
 24th of February, 1820, the metro- a meeting of this kind, at Lord Hai- 
 poiis was thrown into the greatest rowby's, in Grosvenor Square, being 
 consternation by the fearful intelli- announced in the newspaper for 
 gence that a conspiracy to assassi- Wednesday, the 23d of February, 
 nale the whole of his majesty's Thistlewood resolved to avail him- 
 ministers, and overturn the govern- self of this opportunity for the exe- 
 ment, had been discovered and cution of his purpose. Contempti- 
 • rustrated the preceding evening, ble as his means were for effecting 
 In all the leading places in and aiy political change in the govern- 
 about London, a proclamation was ment, they do not appear to have 
 exhibited, offering a reward of one been so totally inadequate to the 
 thousand pounds for the apprehen- consummation of his immediate eli- 
 sion of the notorious Arthur Thistle- ject as to render its success alto- 
 wood, who had been formerly in- gether improbable. The plan, as- 
 dieted with Dr. Watson on a detailed in the confession of one of 
 charge of high treason. On the the conspirators, seems to have 
 present occasion, in addition to the been, that a man should proceed 
 crime of high treason, he was to Lord Harrowby's residence with 
 
 charged, with that of murder, and the 
 heaviest penalties were denounced 
 against all who should either har- 
 bour or conceal him. 
 
 It had been known to ministers, 
 for some time previous, that an at- 
 tempt at their assassination was 
 meditating, and that Thistlewood 
 was at the bottom of it. After 
 
 a letter, and when the door was 
 opened, his companions should rush 
 in, bind, or, in case of resistance, 
 kill the servants, and occupy all 
 the avenues of the house, whilst a 
 select band were to proceed to the 
 chamber where the ministers were 
 assembled, and massacre the whole 
 indiscriminately. To increase (he 
 weighing various plans, the couspi- confusion, hand-grenades were pr< - 
 laiors determined on accomplishing pared, which it was intended cho.M 
 th-ir object when the ministers were be thrown lighted into the several 
 
254 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 rooms ; anil one of the parly en- 
 gaged to bring away the heads of 
 Lord Castlereagh and Sidmouthin a 
 bag which he had provided for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Thus far the conspirators might 
 probably have carried their plans into 
 tried; but of the scheme for a ge- 
 neral revolution, which these men, 
 whose number never exceeded thirty, 
 appear seriously to have considered 
 themselves capable of accomplish- 
 ing, we cannot seriously speak. 
 Among other arrangements the 
 Mansion House, selected, we sup- 
 pose, for its proximity to the Bank, 
 was fixed upon for the ' palace of 
 the provisional government.' 
 
 The place chosen for the final or- 
 ganization of their proceedings, and 
 for collecting their force previous 
 to immediate action, was a half di- 
 lapidated tenement in an obscure 
 street called Cato Street, near t lie 
 Edgware road. The premises were 
 composed of a stable, witli a loft 
 above, and had been some time un- 
 occupied. The people in the neigh- 
 bourhood were ignorant that the 
 stable was let, till the day fixed 
 upon for the perpetration of their 
 atrocious purpose, when several 
 persons, some of whom carried sacks 
 and other packages, were seen to 
 go in and out, and carefully to lock 
 the door alter them. 
 
 The information upon which mi- 
 'listers proceeded, in frustrating the 
 schemes of the conspirators, was de- 
 rived from a man named Edwards, 
 who pretended to enter into their 
 views, for the purpose of betraying 
 Ihem. Odious as is the name of a 
 spy, ministers only did that, in 
 listening to this man's testimony, 
 which any individual would have 
 done under similar circumstances, 
 for we cannot for one moment sup- 
 pose them capable of hiring this 
 man to destroy a few poor wretches, 
 without resources of any kind, and 
 
 from whom nothing could have been 
 apprehended. It is more than pro- 
 bable, however, that such a man 
 would overact his part, and create 
 much of the mischief he was em- 
 ployed to prevent : indeed it was 
 affirmed by Thistlewood that Ed- 
 wards first suggested the attempt 
 to him, and had supplied him with 
 small sums of money for the pur- 
 chase of arms. 
 
 Thus accurately informed of the 
 intentions of the conspirators, mea- 
 sures were promptly taken for their 
 apprehension. A strong body of 
 constables and police-officers, sup- 
 ported by a detachment of the 
 guards, were ordered to proceed to 
 Cato Street, under the direction of 
 Mr. Birnie, the magistrate. On ar- 
 riving at the spot they found that 
 the conspirators had taken the pre- 
 caution to place a sentinel below, 
 and that the only approach to the 
 loft was by passing up a ladder, and 
 through a trap-door so narrow as 
 not to admit more than one at a 
 time. Ruthven led the way, fol- 
 lowed by Ellis, Smitheis, and 
 others, of the How Street patrnle, 
 and on the door being opened thev 
 discovered the whole gang, in num- 
 ber between twenty and thirty, 
 hastily arming themselves. There 
 was a carpenter's bench in the' 
 room, on which lay a number <>f 
 cutlasses, bayonets, pistols, sword- 
 belts, and a considerable quantity 
 of ammunition. Ruthven, upon 
 bursting into the loft, announced 
 himself as a peace-officer, and call- 
 ed upon them to lay down their arms. 
 Thistlewood stood near the door 
 with a drawn sword, and Smilhers 
 advanced upon him, when the for- 
 mer made a lunge, and the unfor- 
 tunate officer received the blade in 
 his breast, and almost immediately 
 expired. 
 
 About this time the guards, who 
 had been delayed in consequence of 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 265 
 
 entering tiie street at the wrong 
 end, arrived under Captain Fitz- 
 cliireiice, and mounted the ladder; 
 hut as the conspirators had extin- 
 guished the light, fourteen or fifteen 
 of them, among whom was Thistle- 
 wood, succeeded in making their 
 escape. After a desperate conflict, 
 in which peace-officers and military 
 had to contend with a hand of as- 
 sassins, in their ohscure den, and 
 in utter darkness, nine were secured, 
 viz. Ings, Wilson, Bradburn, Gil- 
 christ, Cooper, Tidd, Monument, 
 Shaw, and Davidson, and convey- 
 ed to Bow Street, with a great num- 
 ber of pistols, blunderbusses, swords, 
 and pikes, a large quantity of 
 ammunition, and a sack full of hand- 
 grenades. 
 
 The same sources of information 
 which led to the detection of the 
 conspiracy disclosed the hiding- 
 place of Thistlewood. Instead of 
 returning to his own lodgings in 
 Slanhope Street, Clare Market, he 
 proceeded to an obscure house, No. 
 8, White Street, Little Moorfields. 
 Thither, at nine o'clock on Thurs- 
 day morning, the 24th of February, 
 Lavender, and others of the patrol, 
 were dispatched, and after planting 
 a guard at the back and front, to 
 prevent escape, they entered a room 
 on the ground floor, in which Thistle- 
 wood was discovered in bed, with his 
 breeches and stockings on. In his 
 pockets were found some ball-car- 
 tridges and flints, the black girdle, or 
 belt, which he was seen to wear in 
 Cato Street, and a sort of military 
 silk sash. 
 
 He was conveyed to Bow Street 
 in a hackney-coach, where a short 
 examination was taken by Mr. Bir- 
 nie, who then sent him to Whitehall, 
 to be examined by the privy coun- 
 cil, before whom he was conducted at 
 two o'clock. 4e was still hand- 
 cuffed, but mounted the stairs with 
 alacrity. On entering the council- 
 
 chamber he was placed at the fool of 
 the table, when ll. e Lord Chancellor 
 informed him that he stood charged 
 with the twofold crime of treason 
 and murder; and asked him whe- 
 ther he had any thing to say for 
 himself. He answered, that he 
 should decline saying any thing on 
 that occasion. 
 
 Thistlewood was then remanded 
 to prison, and several arrests hav- 
 ing been made in the course of the 
 week, the whole of the prisoners 
 were brought to Whitehall on the 
 3d of March, when Thistlewood, 
 Monument, Brunt, Inus, Wilson, 
 Harrison, Davidson, and Tidd, were 
 committed to the Tower as stale 
 prisoners. The other persons charged 
 were remanded to Cold Bath Fields. 
 
 A special commission having been 
 issued for the trial of the Cato 
 Street conspirators, they were ar- 
 raigned at the Old Bailev on Sa- 
 turday, April the 15th, 1820. The 
 following were their names, Arthur 
 Thistlewood, William Davidson (;i 
 man of colour), James Inys, John 
 Thomas Brunt, Richard Tidd, James 
 Wilson, John Harrison, Richard 
 Bradburn, John Shaw Strange, 
 James Gilchrist, and Charles Cooper, 
 making eleven in the whole. 
 
 These were indicted, first, for high 
 treason, and, subsequently, for the 
 murder of the unfortunate Smithers. 
 The indictment contained many 
 counts, and the whole of the pri- 
 soners pleaded Not Guilty. 
 
 Counsel having been appointed 
 for the prisoners, according to the 
 statute, and the other necessary 
 forms having been gone through, 
 Thistlewood received intimation 
 that his trial would be proceeded 
 with on Monday morning, the pri- 
 soners having agreed to be tried se- 
 parately. 
 
 On Monday morning, April the 
 17th, at nine o'clock, Arthur This- 
 tlewood was accordingly placed at 
 
256 KNAPP& BALDWIN * NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the bar. He locked pale, but evinced 
 his usual firmness. The jury hav- 
 ing been sworn, and the indictment 
 read, the attorney-general slated 
 the case at great length, and twenty- 
 five witnesses were examined in sup- 
 port of the prosecution, among whom 
 were several accomplices, whose 
 testimony was satisfactorily corro- 
 borated. Some of those who appear- 
 ed to give evidence had been appre- 
 hended on the fatal night in Cato 
 Street, but were now admitted wit- 
 nesses for the crown. Alter a trial 
 which occupied the Court four days, 
 Thistlewood was found Guilty of 
 high treason. He heard the verdict 
 with his wonted composure, seeming 
 to have anticipated it; for when it 
 was pronounced he appeared quite 
 indifferent to what so fatally con- 
 cerned him. 
 
 The evidence against Tidd, Ings, 
 Davidson, and Brunt, differed little 
 from that upon which Thistlewood 
 was convicted, and they were of 
 course found Guilty. Th< ir trials, 
 being separate, occupied the Court 
 six days. On the evening of the 
 tenth day the six remaining prison- 
 ers, on the suggestion of their coun- 
 sel, pleaded Guilty, having been 
 permitted to withdraw their former 
 plea, by which they escaped capital 
 punishment. 
 
 On Friday, April the 28th, the 
 eleven prisoners were brought up 
 to receive sentence. When the 
 usual question was put to Thistle- 
 wood by the clerk of arraigns, he 
 pulled a paper from his pocket, and 
 read as follows : — 
 
 'I am asked, my lord, what I 
 have to say that judgment of death 
 should not. be passed upon me ac- 
 cording to law. This to me is 
 mockery — for were the reasons I 
 could oiler incontrovertible, and 
 were they enforced even by the 
 eloquence of a Cicero, still would 
 tne vengeance of my Lords Castle- 
 
 reagh and Sidmouth be satiated 
 oidy in the purple stream which 
 circulates through a heart more en- 
 thusiastically vibrating to every 
 in pulse of patriotism and honour, 
 than that of any of those privileged 
 traitors to their country, who lord 
 it over the lives and property of the 
 sovereign people with barefaced im- 
 punity. The reasons which I have, 
 however, 1 will now state — not that 
 I entertain the slightest hope from 
 your sense of justice or from your 
 pity. — The former is swallowed up 
 in your ambition, or rather by the 
 servility you descend to, to obtain 
 the object of that ambition — the 
 latter i despise; justice I demand; 
 if I am denied it, your pity is no 
 equivalent. In the first place, 
 
 ' I protest against the proceedings 
 upon my trial, which I conceive to 
 be grossly partial, and contrary to 
 the very spirit of justice; but, alas! 
 the judges, who have heretofore 
 been considered the counsel of the 
 accused, are now, without excep- 
 tion, in all cases between the crown 
 and the people, the most implacable 
 enemies of the latter — In every 
 instance, the judges charge the 
 jury to find the subject guilty, nay, 
 in one instance, the jury received 
 a reprimand, and that not in the 
 genteelest terms, for not strictly 
 obeying the imperious mandate from 
 the bench. 
 
 ' The Court decided, upon my trial 
 to commit murder rather than de- 
 part in the slightest degree from its 
 usual forms ; nay, it is with me a 
 question, if the form is usual which 
 precluded me from examining wit- 
 nesses to prove the infamy of Adams, 
 of Hieden, and of Dwyer. Ere the 
 solicitor-general replied to the ad- 
 dress of my counsel, I applied to 
 the Court to hear my witnesses : the 
 court inhumanly refused, and i am 
 in consequence to be consigned to 
 the scaffold. Numerous have been 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 the instances in which this rule of 
 conrt has heen infringed, hnt to 
 have infringed in my case, would 
 have been to incur Hie displeasure 
 of the court and to forfeit every as- 
 piring hope of promotion — A few 
 hours hence, and I will he no more 
 — but the nightly breeze which will 
 whistle over the silent grave that 
 shall protect me from its keenness, 
 will bear to your restless pillow the 
 memory of one who lived but for his 
 country, and died when liberty and 
 justice had been driven from its 
 confines, by a set of villains, whose 
 thirst for blood is only to be equalled 
 by their activity in plunder. 
 
 ' For life, as it respects myself, 
 I care not — but while yet I may, I 
 would rescue my memory from the 
 calumny which I doubt not will be 
 industriously heaped upon it, when 
 it will be no longer in my power to 
 protect it. 
 
 ' I would explain the motives 
 which induced me to conspire against 
 the ministers of his majesty, and I 
 would contrast them with those 
 which these very ministers have 
 acted upon in leading me to my 
 ruin. — To do this, it will be neces- 
 sary to take a short review of my 
 life for a few months, prior to my 
 arrest for the offence for which { 
 am to be executed, without a trial, 
 or at least, without an impartial one 
 by a jury of my peers. 
 
 ' 'Tis true the form, the etiquette, 
 of a trial has been gone through, 
 but I challenge any of the judges 
 on the bench to tell me, to tell my 
 country that justice was not denied 
 jne in the very place where justice 
 only should be administered. — I 
 challenge them to say that I was 
 fairly tried — I challenge to say if I 
 am not murdered — according to the 
 etiquette of a court (falsely denomi- 
 nated) of justice I had witnesses in 
 court to prove that Dwyer was a 
 villian beyond all example of atro- 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 city. — I had witnesses in court to 
 prove that Adams was a notorious 
 swindler, and that Hieden was no 
 better; these were the three wit- 
 nesses ; indeed almost the only ones 
 against me, but the form and rules 
 of court must not be infringed upon 
 to save an unfortunate individual 
 from the scaffold. 
 
 ' 1 called those witnesses at the 
 close of Mr. Adolphus's address to 
 the jury, and before the solicitor- 
 general commenced his reply, but 
 the court decided, that they could 
 not be heard. — Some good men 
 have thought, and I have thought 
 so too — that before the jury retired, 
 all evidence was in time for either 
 the prosecutor or the accused, ans» 
 more particularly for the latter- 
 nay, even before the verdict was 
 given, that evidence could not he 
 considered too late — Alas ! such 
 people drew their conclusion from 
 principles of justice only — they ne- 
 ver canvassed the rules of court 
 which have finally sealed my un- 
 happy doom. 
 
 ' Many people who are r-cquainl- 
 ed with the bare-faced manner which 
 I was plundered by my Lord Sid- 
 month, will perhaps, imagine that 
 personal motives instigated me to 
 the deed — but I disclaim them. My 
 every principle was for the pros- 
 perity of my country — my every 
 feeling— the height of my ambition 
 was the welfare of my starving coun- 
 try. I keenly felt for their miseries 
 — but when their miseries were 
 laughed at, and when because they 
 dared to express those miseries, 
 they were cut down by hundreds, 
 inhumanly massacred and trampled 
 upon, when infant babes were sabred 
 in their mothers' arms, nay when 
 the breast from whence they drew 
 the tide of life, was severed from 
 the body, which supplied that tide 
 — My feelings became too intense, 
 too excessive for endurance, aird I 
 
 114 
 
258 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 resolved on vengeance — I resolved 
 that the lives of the instigators 
 should be the requiem to the souls 
 of llie murdered innocents. 
 
 ' In this mood I met with George 
 Edwards, and if any doubt should 
 remain upon the minds of the public 
 whether the deed I meditated was 
 virtuous or contrary, the tale I will 
 now relate will convince them, that 
 in attempting to exercise a power 
 which the law had ceased to have — 
 I was only wreaking national ven- 
 geance on a set of wretches un- 
 worthy of the name or character of 
 men. 
 
 'This Edwards, poor and penny- 
 less, lived near Picket Street, in the 
 Strand, some time ago, without a 
 bed to lie upon, or a chair to sit in. 
 Straw was his resting-place; his 
 on l\ covering a blanket. Owing to 
 his bad character, and his swindling 
 conduct, he was driven from thence 
 by his landlord. It is not my in- 
 tention to trace him through his 
 immorality : suffice it to say, that 
 he was, in every sense of the word, 
 a villain of the deepest atrocity. 
 His landlord refused to give him a 
 character: some short time after 
 this, he called upon his landlord 
 again, but mark the change in his 
 appearance, dressed like a lord, in 
 all the folly of the reigning fashion. 
 He now described himself as the 
 right heir to a German Baron, who 
 had been some time dead ; that 
 Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth 
 had acknowledged his claims to the 
 title and property, had interfered in 
 his behalf with the German govern- 
 ment, and supplied him with money 
 to support his rank in society. From 
 this period I date his career as a 
 government spy. 
 
 ' He got himself an introduction 
 to the Spenceans, by what means I 
 am not aware of; and thus he be- 
 came acquainted with the reformers 
 n general. When I met with Ed- 
 
 wards, after the massacre at Man- 
 chester, he described himself as very 
 poor; and after several interviews, 
 he proposed a plan for blowing up 
 the House of Commons. This was 
 not my view: I wished to punish the 
 guilty only, and therefore I de- 
 clined it. He next proposed that 
 we should attack the ministers at 
 the fete given by the Spanish am- 
 bassador. This I resolutely opposed ; 
 because the innocent would perish 
 with the guilty : besides, there were 
 ladies invited to the entertainment, 
 and I, who am shortly to ascend the 
 scaffold, shuddered with horror at 
 the idea of that, a sample of which 
 had previously been given by the 
 agents of »overnmentat Manchester, 
 and which the ministers of his ma- 
 jesty applauded. Edwards was ever 
 at invention ; and at length he pro- 
 posed attacking them at a cabinet 
 dinner. I asked where were the 
 means to carry his project into ef- 
 fect ? He replied, if I would accede, 
 we should not want for means. He 
 was as good as his word : from him, 
 notwithstanding his apparent pe- 
 nury, the money was provided for 
 purchasing the stores which your 
 lordships has seen produced in court 
 upon my triyl. He, who was never 
 possessed of money to pay for a pint 
 of beer, had always plenty to pur- 
 chase arms or ammunition. Amongst 
 the conspirators, he was ever the 
 most active ; ever inducing people 
 to join him, up to the last hour ere 
 the undertaking was discovered. 
 
 ' I had witnesses in court, who 
 could prove they went to Calo 
 Street by appointment with Ed- 
 wards, with no other knowledge or 
 motive than that of passing an even- 
 ing amongst his friends. I could 
 al>o have proved, that subsequent 
 to the fatal transaction, when we 
 met in Holborn, he endeavoured to 
 induce two or three of my com- 
 panions to set fire to houses and 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 239 
 
 buildings in various parts of the 
 metropolis. I could prove that, 
 subsequent to that again, he endea- 
 voured to induce men to throw 
 hand-grenades into the carriages of 
 ministers, as they passed through 
 the streets ; and yet this man, the 
 contriver, the instigator, the en- 
 trappcr, is secured from justice and 
 from exposure by those very men 
 who seek vengeance against the 
 victims of his and their villainy. — 
 To the attorney and solicitor-ge- 
 neral 1 cannot impute the clearest 
 motives; their object seems to me 
 to have been rather to obtain a ver- 
 dict against me than to obtain a full 
 and fair exposition of the whole 
 affair, since its commencement. If 
 their object was justice alone, why 
 not bring him forward as a witness, 
 if not as an accomplice ; but no, they 
 knew that by keeping Edwards 
 in the back ground, my proofs, 
 aye, my incontrovertible proofs of 
 his being a hired spy, the suggestor 
 and promoter must, according to 
 the rules of court, also be excluded, 
 ' Edwards and his accomplices 
 arranged matters in such a manner 
 as that his services might be dis- 
 pensed with on the trial, and thus 
 were the jury cut off from every 
 chance of ascertaining the real truth. 
 — Adams, Hieden, and Dwyer were 
 the agents of Edwards, and truly 
 he made a most admirable choice, 
 for their invention seems to be in- 
 exhaustible. With respect to the 
 immorality of our project, I will 
 just observe, that the assassination 
 of a tyrant has always been deemed 
 a meritorious action. Brutus and 
 Cassias were lauded to the very 
 skies for slaying Caesar ; indeed, 
 when ary man, or any set of men 
 place themselves above the laws of 
 their country, there is no other 
 means of bringing them to justice 
 than through the arm of a private 
 individual. If the laws are not strung 
 
 enough to prevent tin m from mur- 
 dering the community, it becomes 
 the duly of every member of that 
 community to rid his country of its 
 oppressors. 
 
 ' High treason was committed 
 against the people at Manchester, 
 but justice was closed against the 
 mutilated, the maimed, and the 
 friends of those who were, upon 
 that occasion, indiscriminately mas- 
 sacred. The prince, by the advice 
 of his ministers, thanked the mur- 
 derers, still reeking in the gore of 
 their hapless victims. If one spark 
 of honour, if one spark of indepen- 
 dence still glimmered in the breasts 
 of Englishmen, they would have 
 rose to a man. Insurrection then 
 became a public duty ; and the 
 blood of the victims should have 
 been the watch-word to vengeance 
 on theii murderers. The banner of 
 independence should have tioated 
 in the gale ihat brought their wrongs 
 and their sufferings to the metropo- 
 lis. Such, however, was not the 
 case — Albion is still in the chains 
 of slavery. I quit it without regret 
 —I shall soon be consigned to the 
 grave — My body will be immured 
 beneath the soil whereon I first 
 drew breath — My only sorrow is, 
 that the soil should be a theatre for 
 slaves, for cowards, for despots. My 
 motives, I doubt not, will hereafter 
 be justly appreciated. — I will there- 
 fore now conclude, by stating that 
 I shall consider myself as murdered, 
 if I am to be executed on the ver- 
 dict obtained against me by the re- 
 fusal of the court to hear my evi- 
 dence. 
 
 ' I could have proved Dwyer to 
 be a villain of the blackest dye — 
 for since my trial, an accomplice of 
 bis, named Arnold, has been capi- 
 tally convicted at this very bar, for 
 obtaining money under circum- 
 stances of an infamous nature. 
 
 ' I seek not pity j I demand but 
 
260 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 justice. I have not had a fair trial, 
 and upon- that ground I protest that 
 judgment ought not to be passed 
 against me.' 
 
 The lord chief justice, during the 
 reading of this address, more than 
 once interposed, to prevent the 
 prisoner from either seeking to jus- 
 tify assassination, or slandering the 
 characters of witnesses who had ap- 
 peared to give evidence in that 
 court. The prisoner, however, pro- 
 ceeded to read till he had finished 
 what had been written on the paper 
 in his hand. His manner was rapid 
 and confused ; and the mode in 
 which he pronounced several words, 
 gave abundant evidence that this 
 paper was not his own composition. 
 Mr. SIkIIou then put the same 
 question to Davidson, who spoke, 
 and with great vehemence, and 
 much gesticulation, nearly as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 ' My lords, you ask me what I 
 have to say why I should not re- 
 ceive judgment to die for what has 
 been said against me ? I answer 
 that I protest against the proceed- 
 ings in this trial in toto. In the 
 first place, I always thought that in 
 a court of justice, the balance of 
 justice was held with an even hand. 
 But this has not been the case witli 
 me ; 1 stand here helpless and 
 friendless. I endeavour to shew 
 that the evidence against me was 
 contradictory and incredible, and I 
 hoped I had made an impression on 
 the gentlemen in the box; but the 
 moment I was done, the attorney- 
 general got up and told them, that 
 the evidence was pure and uncon- 
 taminated, and to this I may add, 
 that Baron Garrow almost insisted 
 that they should pronounce me 
 guilty. I would ask, has any per- 
 son identified me but the officers? 
 who, every one knows, have at ail 
 times been instrumental in the death 
 of innocent persons. I do not now 
 
 plead for my life; 1 know I must 
 fall a victim to the vengeance of my 
 enemies. But in what manner have 
 I been guilty of high treason? It 
 would seem I was a silent spectator; 
 none of the witnesses impute to me 
 a single observation. Now is this 
 probable? I had always got a great 
 deal to say for myself, consequently 
 I was not the person who would 
 stand by without uttering a word ; 
 and yet such has been the testimony 
 of Adams. Then, with regard to 
 the blunderbuss, I have already ex- 
 plained that this was not mine, and 
 that I acted in that affair entirely 
 as the agent of Edwards. I have 
 also declared how I came by the 
 sword, and I now declare upon my 
 soul which will shortly appear be- 
 fore its Maker, that I never made 
 any blow at any man, or discharged 
 any carbine. As for Munday, the 
 man who swore that I had a long 
 sword, with a pair of pistols in my 
 girdle, who is he ? He is a poor la- 
 bouring man who comes here for his 
 day's pay and his victuals, to swear 
 away the life of a fellow-creature, 
 and to suport the unfounded charge 
 against me that I meant to assassinate 
 his majesty's ministers. I appeal 
 to any man, whether it is upon such 
 evidence the life of an innocent man 
 is to be sacrificed? But even sup- 
 posing, for the sake of argument, 
 that the lives of his majesty's mi- 
 nisters were threatened, it did not 
 follow that this was to extend to the 
 king himself. In a passage of 
 Magna Charta, it was ordained, 
 that twenty-five barons should be 
 nominated to see that the terms of 
 the charter were not infringed ; and 
 if it was found his majesty's mi- 
 nisters were guilty of such infringe- 
 ment, then four barons were to call 
 upon them for redress. If this were 
 not granted, then the four barons 
 were to return to their brethren, by 
 whom the people were to be called 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 •2(it 
 
 together to take up arms, and assert 
 their rights. Such an act was not 
 considered, in old limes, as an act 
 of treason towards the king', how- 
 ever hostile it might he towards his 
 ministers. But this does not apply 
 to me. 1 had no intention of joining 
 in any scheme whatever, either to 
 put down my king, or to murder Ids 
 ministers. I was entrapped hy Gold- 
 worthy and Edwards, in order, for 
 some private purposes of their own, 
 that they might have my life sworn 
 away. I have no objection to tender 
 my life in the service of my country ; 
 nut let me at least, for the sake of 
 my children, save my character 
 from the disgrace of dying a traitor, 
 for my children only do I feel, and 
 when I think of them I am deprived 
 of utterance — I can say no more." 
 
 Mr. Sheltou, having put the same 
 questions to lugs, he said : — 
 
 ' My lords, — I have very little to 
 say. My abilities will not allow me 
 to speak. It Mr. Edwards had not 
 got acquainted with me, I should 
 not he here; he came to me, unfor- 
 tunately, when I had no business, 
 nor no means of getting a living for 
 my family. I entered into the con- 
 spiracy only through him, and it 
 was oidy necessity, and the want of 
 the means to support my wife and 
 family, that brought me here. It 
 is only through Edwards that I 
 shall lose my life, i do not mind 
 dying, if you will let that man come 
 forward, and die with me on the 
 scaffold. It was through him I was 
 going to do that which.. I must al- 
 low, was of a most disgraceful and 
 inhuman nature. On the other hand, 
 his majesty's ministers conspire to- 
 gether and impose laws to starve me 
 and my family and fellow-country- 
 men ; and if I was going to assas- 
 sinate these ministers, I do not see 
 that it is so had as starvation, in 
 my opinion, my lord.' 
 
 Here Mr. Shclton began to ad- 
 
 dress the prisoner Brunt hut Ijigs 
 said : 
 
 'I am not done. And there is 
 another thing, my lord ; a meeting 
 was called at Manchester, undei 
 the protection of the law of Eng- 
 land, for which our forefathers died, 
 and which King John signed in the 
 open air. This meeting was called 
 under the protection of that law, for 
 the people to petition parliament to 
 give them their rights; but, pre- 
 vious to the business of the meet- 
 ing, the Manchester yeomanry rode 
 in among them, and cut down men, 
 women, and children, in a manner 
 that was a disgrace to the very 
 name of Englishmen. These yeo- 
 men had their swords ground before- 
 hand, and I had a sword ground 
 also, but I do not see any harm 
 in that. I shall suffer, no doubt ; 
 but I hope my children will live to 
 see justice done to their bleeding 
 country. I would rather die like a 
 man than live like a slave. I am 
 sorry I have not the power to say 
 more ; I shall therefore withdraw.' 
 
 John Thomas Brunt was next 
 called upon, and spoke as follows : — 
 
 ' My lords and gentlemen, — I 
 am precluded from saying m ch: 
 I had intended to have committed 
 to writing my defence, but I have 
 been denied pen, ink, and paper — 
 as such, what I have io state will 
 be very short. In the first place, 
 whatever impression I made on the 
 jury yesterday was knocked down 
 by the solicitor-general, who ap- 
 pears to me, by his sophistical elo- 
 quence, to be capable of making the 
 worst of crimes appear a virtue. And 
 next, with regard to Edwards, to 
 whom I alluded before, and to whose 
 machinations I have at last fallen a 
 dupe : he once before nearly en- 
 trapped me when a cabinet dinner 
 was given, I believe, at the Earl of 
 Westmoreland's. He said he had 
 part of the men mustered, but t!i?re 
 
262 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 was not sufficient. He had like to 
 have hooked me in then, but I hap- 
 pened not to go to the house. No 
 doubt that Hieden was in that plot 
 for me; it was held at the Scotch 
 Arms. Of all the infamous charac- 
 ters on earth, Edwards is the worst; 
 and jet he has been kept altogether 
 out of the view of the Court. I 
 protest against the verdict which 
 lias been pronounced against me. 
 For my life, if it was sacrificed in 
 the cause of liberty, 1 care not a 
 farthing; but it is galling to have it 
 sworn away by a set of villains who 
 thirst after blood, merely for the 
 sake of personal gain. Edwards is 
 far more worthy of punishment than 
 any of us. He it was that furnished 
 the arms — and he it was that goaded 
 us on to our own ruin. He always 
 spoke well of me, and said, if he 
 hud a hundred such men as me, he 
 would be satisfied. He knew I was 
 not a sliuttle-cock, to be bandied 
 about at pleasure. He knew he 
 could put confidence in rny word, 
 and that I would perish before I 
 shrunk from what 1 undertook. 
 (The prisoner then went on in a 
 strain of strong invective against 
 the witness Adams. After which 
 he referred to the two Monuments. 
 These two persons had been de- 
 scribed by the solicitor-general, as 
 having had no communication with 
 each other, and yet having agreed 
 "n all respects in their testimony. 
 Was this the fact ? No, for three, 
 weeks previous to the trials, they 
 met twice a day at I lie Tower, re- 
 hearsed their story, and thus were 
 enabled to tome forward quite per- 
 fect in their respective pails. He 
 next adverted to the character of 
 his apprentice Hale, and was cast- 
 ing strong reflections on his con- 
 duct) — when 
 
 The chief justice said he could 
 not suffer such observations to be 
 made under such circumstances. 
 
 Brunt begged pardon, but said 
 he stated nothing but facts. He 
 next adverted to the conduct of 
 Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth ; 
 ' They,' he said, ' had been the 
 cause of the death of millions, and 
 although he admitted he had con- 
 spired to put such men out of the 
 world, still he did not think that 
 amounted to high treason. He was 
 one of those who would have been 
 satisfied with taking off the cabinet 
 ministers; but the verdict against 
 him, of intending to depose his ma- 
 jesty, he contended, was utterly at 
 variance with truth and justice. He 
 had never contemplated any such 
 consequence. He was neither a 
 traitor to his king nor to his coun- 
 try ; nor would he suffer any man, 
 in his presence, to speak irrever- 
 ently of his sovereign. In undertak- 
 ing to kill Lord Castlereagh, Lord 
 Sidmouth, and their fellow mi- 
 nisters, he did not expect to save 
 his life — he was determined to die 
 a martyr in his country's cause, and 
 to avenge the innocent blood shed 
 at Manchester. 
 
 In conclusion, he said, ' he was 
 willing to suffer fur the acts which 
 he had contemplated; but it grirved 
 him to think that he was to suffer 
 for a crime of which he was inno- 
 cent, namely, High Treason. On 
 these grounds, he protested against 
 the verdict of the jury, as contrary 
 to law and justice.' 
 
 Richard Tidd was the next called 
 upon. He spoke as follows : — 
 
 ' My lords and gentlemen, being 
 only found guilty so late last 
 nisiht, I have not had an op- 
 portunity to make up any defence. 
 All I can say is, and I positively 
 swear it, that the evidence that 
 has come before you, with the ex- 
 ception of that of Captain Fitz- 
 clarence, is utterly false.' 
 
 James Wilson said, ' I am not 
 gifted with the power of talking 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 203 
 
 much, but I mean to say, that I was 
 certainly drawn into this by Ed- 
 wards.' 
 
 John Harrison. — ' 1 likewise say 
 I was brought into it by Edwards.' 
 
 John Shaw Strange. — ' I have 
 this much to say to the evidence of 
 Brunt's apprentice, likewise that of 
 Adams, I declare solemnly to God 
 they are both perjured villains.' 
 
 James Gilchrist — ' What I shall 
 say in the presence of my God and 
 you is, that till the Wednesday 
 evening- at four o'clock I knew no- 
 thing about this business. I was 
 going to look for work, and I had 
 neither money nor bread. So I went 
 to what I was told was to be a sup- 
 per of the radicals. (Here the pri- 
 soner was overcome by his feelings.) 
 At six o'clock I met C. Cocper, 
 who was the only man I knew, and 
 I borrowed an half-penny of him, 
 which, with another, enabled me to 
 get a penny worth of bread, and this 
 I eat very sweet. I wish I may 
 never come out of this place if I tell 
 false. We then went into the stable 
 and up stairs, where there was some 
 bread and cheese. I took an old 
 sword and hewed down the loaf, of 
 which others who were as hungry 
 as me, partook. I then asked what 
 all these arms were about, and when 
 I heard, I was so shocked that I 
 determined to get away as fast as I 
 could. Soon after the officers and 
 soldiers came, and I thought it my 
 duty to surrender. I now stand 
 here convicted of high treason, after 
 I served my king and country for 
 twelve years, and this is the recom- 
 pcuce. Oh, God ! — I have nothing 
 more to say.' 
 
 Charles Cooper said, he had much 
 to say, but his friends thought it 
 would be imprudent. He said, ' he 
 could only declare that he was not 
 guilty of the crime imputed to 
 him.' 
 
 ! Mchiisl again came foiward, and 
 
 said, 'he was very willing to give 
 up his life if it could save that of a 
 fellow-creature. He had already 
 tendered it to save one of the pour 
 men by his side. He never thought 
 of such a thing as to take any man's 
 life.' 
 
 The crier of the court now pro- 
 claimed silence iu the usual manner, 
 while sentence of Death was passing 
 upon the prisoners: — 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice then pro- 
 ceeded to address the prisoners se- 
 verally by their respective names, 
 making a distinction between those 
 who had withdrawn their pleas of 
 •Not Guilty,' and pleaded 'Guilty,' 
 and those who had been convicted 
 by juries of their country. If any of 
 them should ultimately have their 
 lives spared, which he trusted would 
 be the case, he hoped they would 
 always bear in mind that they owed 
 that life to the benignity and merci- 
 ful disposition of their sovereign, 
 aided and seconded also by the 
 merciful dispositions of tho>e very 
 persons upon whom they had con- 
 templated the foul crime of assas- 
 sination. One of them, Arthur 
 Thistlewood, had upon his trial 
 proposed to call certain witnesses, 
 whom the Court had refused to 
 hear. This refusal was according 
 tu the due course of justice, as it 
 was administered in this country. 
 The witnesses whom he proposed to 
 call, were for the purpose of im- 
 pugning the testimony of a man of 
 the name of Dwyer, and no other. 
 His learned counsel had previously 
 called witnesses to the same effect. 
 It could not be allowed to him, ac- 
 cording to the ordinary course of 
 proceedinir, to do more. Indeed, 
 even if he had been allowed so to 
 do, it could have b**en productive 
 of no advantage, because his case 
 did not depend upon the evidence of 
 that witness alone. This observa- 
 tion was confirmed by the fact, that 
 
264 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 in subsequent cases, where the evi- 
 dence of Dwyer was altogether 
 omitted, a similar verdict of guilty 
 was returned. Some of them had 
 thought fit to say much of the cha- 
 racter of a person who had not ap- 
 peared as a witness upon this occa- 
 sion. The Court could proceed only 
 upon the evidence which was brought 
 before it. Of the person, therefore, 
 to whom they alluded, or of the 
 practices of which he had been 
 guilty, they could have no know- 
 ledge. Upon the testimony, how- 
 ever, which had been adduced against 
 them, there was abundantly suffi- 
 cient to induce a jury of their coun- 
 try to come to a conclusion that the 
 whole of them had taken an active 
 part in the crimes imputed to them 
 in the indictment. From all that 
 had appeared in the course of these 
 trials, as well as from much of that 
 which they had then heard, it was 
 plain to see, that they did not em- 
 hark in their wicked designs until 
 they had first suffered their minds 
 to he corrupted and inflamed by 
 those seditious and irreligious pu- 
 blications, with which, unhappily 
 for this country, the press had but 
 too long teemed. He did not make 
 these remarks to aggravate their 
 guilt, or to enhance the sufferings 
 of persons in their situation. He 
 made them as a warning to all who 
 might hear of their unfortunate fate, 
 that they might benefit by their 
 example, and avoid those danger- 
 ous instruments of sedition, by which 
 their hearts and minds were inflamed, 
 and by which they were drawn from 
 every feeling of morality, — from 
 every sense of obligation towards 
 their Creator, and of justice towards 
 society- The treason of which they 
 were charged and found Guilty, 
 was that of compassing and imagin- 
 ing to levy war against his majesty, 
 for the purpose of inducing him to 
 change his measures and ministers; 
 
 the first step towards effectingwhich, 
 was to have been the assassination 
 of the cabinet ministers. They had 
 endeavoured now to complain of 
 the testimony of those persons who 
 had been examined as witnesses on 
 the part of the prosecution. Some 
 of them were accomplices in their 
 guilt. It had here happened, as it 
 had upon other occasions, that the 
 principal instruments in the hands 
 of justice, were the partners of their 
 wickedness ; and he trusted that 
 circumstance would have its due 
 weight and consideration with all 
 those who became acquainted with 
 their situation, and with the circum- 
 stances of their trial. He hoped, 
 that for the sake of their own per- 
 sonal safety, if they could not be 
 restrained by any other considera- 
 tion, that they would abstain from 
 evil communications, and from evil 
 connexions, such as had brought 
 the prisoners to the unhappy posi- 
 tion in which they stood. Some of 
 them had avowed their intention to 
 have taken away the lives, and to 
 have steeped their hands in the 
 blood of fourteen persons, to many 
 of them unknown — a crime of a 
 character so black, that it was hi- 
 therto without parallel in the his- 
 tory of this country, and he hoped 
 it would remain unparalleled here- 
 after. (His lordship here seemed 
 considerably agitated.) It now, he 
 said, only remained for him to pass 
 upon them the awful sentence of the 
 law ; but before he did so, he ex- 
 horted them, he implored them, to 
 employ the time yet left to them in 
 this life, in endeavouring, by pray- 
 er, to obtain mercy from that Al- 
 mighty Power, before whom they 
 would shortly appear. The mercy of 
 H eaven might be obtained by all those 
 who would unfeignedly and with hu- 
 mility express contrition for their of- 
 fences, and seek that mercy through 
 the merits of their blessed Redeemer. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 265 
 
 His lordship having once more 
 solemnly exhorted the prisoners to 
 repentance, pronounced the awful 
 sentence of the law in the following 
 words : — 
 
 ' That you, and each of you, be 
 taken from hence to the gaol from 
 whence you came, and from thence 
 that you be drawn upon a hurdle to 
 a place of execution, and be there 
 banned by the neck until you be 
 dead ; and that afterwards your 
 heads shall be severed from your 
 bodies, and your bodies be divided 
 into four quarters, to be disposed of 
 as his majesty shall think fit. Aid 
 may God of his infinite goodness 
 have mercy upon your souls!' 
 
 The Crier said aloud ' Amen !' 
 
 On the following Monday the 
 execution of Thistlewood, Ings, 
 Brunt, Davidson, and Tidd took 
 phice opposite the debtors' door, 
 Newgate. With the exception of 
 Davidson, they refused all religious 
 consolation, and when on the scaf- 
 fold, Thistlewood, who was the first 
 brought out, turned away with mark- 
 ed indifference from the ordinary. 
 
 Tidd was next summoned. He 
 proceeded to shake hands with all 
 but Davidson, who had removed 
 himself at a small distance from the 
 rest. 
 
 At the moment Tidd was going 
 out, Ings seized him by the hand, 
 crying out with loud laughter, 
 ( Come, give us your hand '.—Good 
 by !' Nature began to assert her 
 claims in Tidd's bosom : a tear 
 glistened in his eye; and he faintly 
 murmured something about his 
 ' Wife and daughter,' as some un- 
 derstood. Ings, with the most 
 alarming levity of manner, said, 
 ' Come, my old cock-o'-wax, keep 
 up your spirits: it will all be 
 over soon !' Tidd appeared to 
 squeeze his hand, and then actually 
 attempted to run up the steps to 
 the scaffold. In his haste or agita- 
 
 tion he stumbled; but speedily re- 
 covered himself, and ran upon the 
 scaffold in the most harried man- 
 ner; and when there, he appeared 
 as if he actually stamped his feet, 
 as if in the act of affecting to run 
 with eagerness to his grave! He 
 was received by the surrounding 
 multitude with loud cheers, which 
 he returned by repeated bows ; and 
 with some apparent wish to return 
 them in the same manner in which 
 they were given; but this wish, if 
 he really entertained it, he re- 
 pressed. 
 
 Whilst the executioner was tying 
 the rope round his neck, he ap- 
 peared to recognize some friend in 
 an adjoining window ; and he nodded 
 to him, with an appearance of «reat 
 familiarity and ease. He repeatedly 
 turned round and surveyed the mul- 
 titude on every hand. He then 
 looked down upon the coffins be- 
 hind him, and attempted to smile 
 with indifference and contempt of 
 them. He repeatedly sucked at an 
 orange he held in his hand ; as also 
 did Thistlewood to one in his. He 
 also requested that his eyes might 
 yet be uncovered, and whilst the 
 executioner was adjusting the rope 
 round his neck, he assisted him, aad 
 told him to place the knot in a cer- 
 tain direction, as if thereby better 
 calculated to hasten the termination 
 of bis dying pains. It is almost 
 needless to remark, that Mr. Cot- 
 ton's tender of service was rejected 
 by Tidd, as they had been by This- 
 tlewood before. 
 
 Ings was the next summoned. 
 From his first leaving the Press 
 Yard he manifested the most de- 
 termined obduracy. He laughed 
 without the least apparent thought 
 of what he was going to suffer; and 
 whilst in the lodge he sucked an 
 orange, and sang, or rather scream- 
 ed, 
 
 ' Oh ! give me Death or Liberty !' 
 
266 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 to wliicli Brunt, who stood near him, 
 rejoined, 'Aye, to be sure: it is 
 better to die free than to live like 
 slaves.' 
 
 On being earnestly and charitably 
 desired to turn their attention to 
 more serious subjects, and to recol- 
 lect the existence of a God, into 
 whose presence they would soon be 
 ushered, Brunt said, 'I know there 
 is a God,' and lugs, agreeing to 
 this, added, ' that he hoped he 
 would be more merciful to them 
 than they were then.' 
 
 Just as the hatch was opening to 
 admit him to the steps of the scaf- 
 fold, lie turned round to Brunt, and 
 smiling, shook him by the hand, 
 and then with a loud voice cried 
 out, ' Remember me to Xing George 
 the Fourth ; God bless him, and may 
 he have a long reign !' Then re- 
 collecting that he had left off the 
 suit of clothes in which he had been 
 tried ; hut which, alter his convic- 
 tion he had exchanged for his old 
 slaughtering jacket, because, as he 
 said, he was resolved that Jack 
 Ketch should have no coat of his, 
 he desired his wife might have what 
 clothes he had thrown off. He then 
 said to Mr. Davies, one of the turn- 
 key's, " Well, Mr. Davies, I am 
 going to find out this great secret.' 
 
 He was again proceeding to sing 
 
 ' Oh ! give me Death or Liberty !' 
 
 when he was called to the platform, 
 upon which he leaped and bounded 
 in the most frantic manner. Then 
 turning himself round towards Smith- 
 field, and facing the very coffin that 
 was soon to receive his mutilated 
 body, be raised his pinioned hands, 
 as well as he could, and leaning 
 forward with savage energy roared 
 out three distinct cheers to the peo- 
 ple, in a voice of the most frightful 
 and discordant hoarseness. But, it 
 was pleasing to remark, that these 
 unnatural yells of desperation, which 
 
 were evidently nothing more than 
 the ravings of a disordered mind, or 
 the ebullitions of an assumed cou- 
 rage, were not returned by the 
 motley mass of people who heard 
 them. 
 
 Turning his face towards Ludgale 
 Hill, he bowed, and cried out, 
 'Here's the last remains of James 
 lugs !' And again sung aloud, 
 preserving the well known tune of 
 that song as much as possible, 
 
 ' Oh ! Give me Death or Liberty ! 
 ' Oh ! Give me Death or Liberty !' 
 
 Observing some persons near him, 
 and amongst them one who was 
 taking notes, he said, ' Mind, I die 
 an enemy to all tyrants. Mind, 
 and put that down !' Upon viewing 
 the coffins, he laughed, and said 
 ' he would turn his back on death. 
 Those coffins are for us, I suppose.' 
 
 At this time Tidd, who had been 
 just spoken to by Thistlewood, was 
 heard to remonstrate with logs, 
 and to tell him not to make such a 
 noise; adding, 'we can die without 
 making a noise,' upon which lugs 
 for a moment was silent; but soon 
 burst out afresh, asking the execu- 
 tioner not to cover bis eyes, as he 
 wished to see as long as he could. 
 At another time he said, ' Mind 
 you doitw*dl — pull it tight;' or, as 
 some heard it. ' Do it tidy.' He 
 also requested to have a greater 
 length of rope to fall ; and that at 
 last his eyes should be tightly band- 
 aged round, with a handkerchief 
 which he held in bis band. 
 
 Upon the approach of Mr. Cotton 
 to this poor hardened man, he re- 
 jected his pious services ; but cried 
 out, as if sarcastically, ' I hope 
 you'll give me a good character, 
 won't you, Mr. Cotton ?' 
 
 Davidson was the next summoned; 
 and it is truly gratifying to state 
 the difference that marked the cha- 
 racter and conduct of him who had 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 267 
 
 derived his fortitude to face death, 
 and all its awful preparations, from 
 other principles and sources than 
 those from whence the re^t appeared 
 to have horrowed their wild courage 
 and daring. 
 
 Davidson's whole soul had been 
 absorbed in reflections respecting a 
 future state, and his own condition 
 in that 'unknown country ' which 
 he was now going to enter; and he 
 was remarked to walk with a firm 
 and steady step from the lodge to 
 the platform, which he ascended 
 without the least apparent emotion 
 of fear; but witli all that respectful 
 humiliation which such a condition 
 to which he had reduced himself 
 was calculated to inspire. His lips 
 moved in prayer, yet he gently 
 bowed to the people before him. He 
 joined with great fervour in the 
 prayers with Mr. Cotton, and made 
 no request to have his eyes unco- 
 vered; but was evidently labouring 
 to prepare himself for bidding an 
 eternal adieu to a world of which he 
 had ceased to bean inhabitant; and 
 to hasten to one into which he had 
 hope and confidence he should be 
 received with comfort. 
 
 The last summoned to the fatal 
 platform was Brunt; and when the 
 proper arrangements had been made 
 the fatal signal was given, and the 
 wretched men were launched into 
 eternity. Alter hanging half an 
 hour the disgusting ceremony of de- 
 capitation took place. 
 
 Five of those who pleaded Guilty 
 were transported for life, and Gil- 
 christ, who though taken amongst 
 the rest in the loft in Cain Street, 
 had, it appeared, been induced to 
 go there in total ignorance of the 
 atrocious purpose for which the as- 
 semblage took place, received his 
 majesty's pardon. 
 
 Having thus acquainted the reader 
 with the particulars of the horrid 
 Cato Street plot, we shall proceed 
 
 to give a brief biographical sketch 
 of the principal performers in the 
 revolting drama. 
 
 Arthur Thistlewood was a native 
 of Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, and 
 was born in 1770. His father was 
 a land-steward to an ancient family 
 in that neighbourhood, and main- 
 tained through life an unblemished 
 character. Arthur was placed early 
 in life under an eminent school- 
 master, to he educated as a land- 
 surveyor. This pursuit he subse- 
 quently abandoned, and evinced a 
 great predilection (or indolence and 
 pleasure. Through the interests of 
 his friends, at the age of twenty- 
 one, he obtained a lieutenancy in 
 the militia, which he subsequently 
 exchanged for one in a marching 
 regiment. 
 
 Soon after this he married a 
 young lady of properly, her fortune 
 being ten thousand pounds. This 
 step, so promising in the outset, 
 was pregnant with future troubles. 
 Thistlewood imagined her fortune to 
 be at her own disposal ; but it was, 
 in fact, so settled that she was en- 
 titled to the interest only during her 
 life, and at her death the principal 
 reverted to her relations. Sixteen 
 months after marriage this lady died 
 in childbed, and Thistlewood was 
 left without a shilling of her pro- 
 perty. 
 
 At the commencement of the re- 
 volutionary war, Thistlewood ac- 
 companied his regiment to the West 
 Indies, where he soon gave up his 
 commission, and proceeded to Ame- 
 rica. From America he sailed for 
 France, and arrived there soon after 
 the fall of the tyrant Robespierre. 
 In Paris be became initiated in all 
 the doctrines of the revolutionists, 
 and actually entered the French ser- 
 vice, and was at several battles. 
 Although a man of but middling 
 talent, he had a considerable know- 
 ledge of military taitics; was a 
 
268 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 good swordsman, and possessed un- 
 deniable courage. His habitual 
 hatred of oppression involved liim 
 in many disputes, and it is but 
 justice to say that most of these re- 
 dound to bis credit. After the peace 
 of Amiens lie returned to England, 
 and found himself possessed of a 
 considerable estate, which accrued 
 to him on the death of a relative; 
 but his evil genius still accompanied 
 him. He sold this property to a 
 person at Durham for ten thousand 
 pounds, who becoming a bankrupt 
 before the money was paid, Thistle- 
 wood found himself again reduced 
 to comparative poverty. 
 
 Thisllewood's father and brother, 
 both of whom resided in Lincoln- 
 shire, now took a farm, and stocked 
 it for him; but, in consequence of 
 high rent and taxes, he found him- 
 self an annual loser by the specu- 
 lation, and of course abandoned 
 agriculture. , 
 
 Previous to this, however, he had 
 been married to his second wife, 
 Miss Wilkinson, of Horncaslle, a 
 woman who perfectly coincided in 
 the political opinions of her hus- 
 band. 
 
 Driven from the country, he re- 
 paired to London with his wife, and 
 contracted an acquaintance with the 
 Spenceans. A propensity to gam- 
 ing seems to have been the first step 
 to his ruin. In early life he lost 
 considerable sums at tiie hells of 
 London, and this vicious habit did 
 not abandon him in his later years, 
 as it was well known the gaming- 
 table was his only resource against 
 the pressing demands of his family ; 
 and precarious indeed must have 
 been the subsistence derived from 
 such a vile pursuit. 
 
 In London his constant compa- 
 nions were the Watsons, Evans's, 
 &e. ; and the consequence of this 
 connexion the reader may leain by 
 a reference to the case of Dr. Wat- 
 
 son. His acquittal at that time, on 
 the charge of high treason, seems 
 not to have taught him more pru- 
 dence. He had been scarcely re- 
 leased from incarceration when he 
 sent a challenge, to fight a duel, to 
 Lord Sid mouth; the consequence of 
 which was a motion in the Court of 
 King's Bench, and Thisllewood was 
 sentenced to six months' impiison- 
 ment in Horsham Gaol. 
 
 Before this last confinement his 
 dress was genteel, and his air that 
 of a military man; but, after his 
 release from Horsham Gaol, his 
 dress indicated extreme poverty. 
 His coat was threadbare, and his 
 shoes broken. Of this he appeared 
 sensible ; for, in passing through 
 the streets, he either walked very 
 quickly or ran in haste, apparently 
 with the design of avoiding obser- 
 vation. 
 
 Oppressed by poverty, and insti- 
 gated by revenge and want, he for- 
 got the lessons misfortune should 
 have taught him; he listened to the 
 sanguinary suggestions of the vil- 
 lain Edwards, and entered but too 
 eagerly into the trap that was laid 
 for him. The police watched Ins 
 movements, and his every word and 
 action were known to the secretary 
 of state. Strange, indeed, was the 
 infatuation he laboured under; and, 
 if we look upon him as perfectly 
 sane, his conduct must appear un- 
 accountable. He had already been 
 the dupe of a government spy, and 
 might easily have seen a second 
 edition of Castles in Edwards. But 
 the wretched man was occasionally 
 supplied with money, and his case 
 being desperate, danger, in his. eyes, 
 lost its forbidding aspect. The 
 jaws of destruction were extended 
 before him, and he rushed upon his 
 fate with all iis honors staring him 
 in the face. A man. of such a san- 
 yiiinaiy disposition was not fit to 
 live; and, though we may depre- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 2/39 
 
 cale the means used to draw dim 
 into treason, we must rejoice that 
 his punishment purtred society of 
 one of its most dangerous mem- 
 bers. 
 
 Thisllewood was in his person 
 tall and thin ; his countenance was 
 dark, but by no means expressive, 
 unless when impressed with that 
 gloomy malignity in which he too 
 often indulged. He had no issue 
 by either of his wives, but a natu- 
 ral son took leave of him the day 
 before execution. 
 
 The following lines are said to 
 have been written hy him while un- 
 der sentence of death in Newgate : — 
 
 ' Oh ! what a twine of mischief is a 
 statesman ! 
 
 Ye furies ! whirlwinds ! and ye treach'rous 
 rocks ! 
 
 Ye ministers of death ! devouring fires ! 
 
 Convulsive earthquakes ! and plague- 
 tainted air ! 
 
 Ye are all mild and merciful to him ! !' 
 
 Richard Tidd was born at Gran- 
 tham, in Lincolnshire, in 1775. 
 He was apprenticed to Mr. Cante, 
 of Grantham, but quitted his situa- 
 tion at sixteen years of age. He 
 then went to Nottingham, where be 
 lived two years and a half; from 
 thence he came to London, where 
 he resided till 1803; when, having 
 voted for Sir Francis Burdett, at the' 
 Middlesex election, without being a 
 freeholder, he tied to Scotland to 
 avoid prosecution for perjury, a re- 
 ward of one hundred pounds being 
 at the time offered for his appre- 
 hension. In that country he re- 
 mained five years. 
 
 On his return from the north he 
 went to live at Rochester, where 
 for some time he worked at his 
 trade of shoemaker. Having again 
 returned to London, he was encaged 
 in the conspiracy for which Colonel 
 Despard suffered ; but a temporary 
 absence from town preserved him 
 from sharing the same fate. 
 
 His last stay in town commenced 
 
 on the 10th of March, 1ft 1 8. From 
 that time he attended all Mr. Hunt's 
 meetings, public and private, and 
 was present at all the subsequent 
 radical meetings. He was intro- 
 duced to Edwards by Brunt, at his 
 own residence, Hole-in-lhe-Wall 
 Passage, Baldwin's Gardens Ed- 
 wards's assumed violence suited his 
 disposition, and he eagerly closed 
 with every proposition, however 
 desperate. 
 
 It was a most extraordinary cir- 
 cumstance that he had constantly 
 an impression on his mind, for the 
 last twenty years, that he was to 
 be hanged, as he frequently ex- 
 pressed to his wife that he should 
 die on the gallows. He was, un- 
 happily, too good a prophet; and 
 thus a life of irregularity terminated 
 in the most ignominious manner. 
 
 Tidd, during the war, enlisted 
 into more than half of the regiments 
 under the crown, and received the 
 different bounties. It is astonish- 
 ing how he escaped detection ; he 
 was always in disguise when he en- 
 listed, and as soon as he had obtained 
 the bounty he deserted. When he 
 had spent the money he enlisted 
 into another regiment. 
 
 It will be evident from this ac- 
 count, that the statements of his 
 uniform good character and conduct 
 published at the period of his first 
 arrest, for the crime of which he 
 was ultimately found guilty, were 
 put forth by some zealous friend, to 
 produce a favourable impression on 
 the public mind in his behalf. 
 
 Tidd was forty-five years of age 
 at the time of his execution, and 
 left a wife, a daughter, and a bro- 
 ther, to deplore his fate. 
 
 James lugs was the son of a 
 respectable tradesman in Hamp- 
 shire. He commenced business as 
 a butcher at Portsmouth, where he 
 married ; at which time he had a 
 handsome property, consisting of 
 
270 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 several houses, and some money in 
 the funds. 
 
 Trade growing bad at the termi- 
 nation of the war, and his property 
 having decreased, some of his te- 
 nements were sold, and he came up 
 to London in 1818, with a little 
 ready money, produced by the sale 
 of a house, and opened a butcher's 
 shop at the west end of the town. 
 He could, however, get no business, 
 and in a few months gave up the 
 shop; and, with a few pounds he 
 had led, he opened a coffee-shop in 
 Whitechapel, 
 
 Business becoming dull there, lie 
 was involved in great distress, and 
 at last was compelled to pawn his 
 watch to enable him to send his 
 wife and children down to Ports- 
 mouth to her friends, to prevent 
 their starving in London. 
 
 At the coffee-house in White- 
 chapel he sold, besides coffee, poli- 
 tical pamphlets. Having given up 
 the shop, and finding that there was 
 no prospect of supporting himself 
 and his family with credit, he yave 
 himself up to despair. He had 
 read the different Deistical publica- 
 tions during the time he sold 
 pamphlets, and, from being a church- 
 man became a confirmed Deist. 
 
 He was a most affectionate hus- 
 band and father; and his desperate 
 situation, no doubt, was a principal 
 cause of his joining the Cato Street 
 
 plot. 
 
 Edwards, Adams, Thistlewood, 
 ami Brunt, had frequently visited 
 lugs during the time he kept the 
 coffee and pamphlet shop ; and, 
 when he was in more desperate cir- 
 cumstances, he became a fitter com- 
 panion for pei sons engaged in such 
 an atrocious crime as the one for 
 which he suffered the sentence of 
 the law. 
 
 For some w<eks before the Cato 
 Street discovery, lugs was in the 
 utmost distress, quite penniless, 
 
 and the money he was supplied with 
 to subsist upon was given him by 
 George Edwards. logs was also 
 supplied with money by the same 
 person to take an apartment, where 
 arms and ammunition muld be safely 
 placed. He took a room in the 
 house where Brunt lodged, and thi- 
 ther the greater part of the ammu- 
 nition and arms was conveyed by 
 Edwards, Adams, and himself; in- 
 deed it was the depot of the con- 
 spirators. 
 
 This unfortunate man left a wife 
 and four children to deplore his ig- 
 nominious death. 
 
 William Davidson was bom in the 
 year 1786, at Kingston, in Jamaica, 
 and was the second son of Mr. At- 
 torney-General Davidson, a man of 
 considerable legal knowledge and 
 talent. His mother was a native of 
 the West Indies, and a woman of 
 colour. 
 
 He was sent to England when 
 very young, for the purpose of re- 
 ceiving an education suitable to the 
 rank of his father, and his own 
 prospects. 
 
 Having learned the first rudi- 
 ments of education, he was sent to 
 an academy, where he studied ma- 
 thematics ; and after some time he 
 was apprenticed to a respectable 
 attorney at Liverpool, at whose 
 office he remained near three years, 
 when he became tired of confine- 
 ment, and ran away from his mas- 
 ter. He entered on board a mer- 
 chantman, and on the first voyage 
 was impressed. He arrived in Eng- 
 land about six months afterwards, 
 and wrote to his father's friend a 
 supplicatory letter. His father's 
 friend sent for him, and, at his 
 own particular desire, apprenticed 
 him to a cabinet-maker in Liver- 
 pool. 
 
 Davidson, though a man of co- 
 lour, had a prepossessing person, 
 and was upon the point of marriage 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 271 
 
 to the daughter of a respectable 
 tradesman at Liverpool; but her 
 friends prevented the match. Being 
 somewhat disappointed, he deter- 
 mined to leave England, and visit 
 his relatives at Kingston, in Ja- 
 maica. 
 
 He took a passage on board of a 
 West-India merchantman, and on 
 his voyage again experienced the 
 misfortune of being impressed into 
 the king's service. He took the 
 first opportunity of running away 
 from the vessel on its arrival in 
 port ; and, having obtained some 
 money from his friends, he got work 
 at his trade as a journeyman. 
 
 About twelve months after his 
 mother allowed him two guineas a 
 week, which was paid him regularly 
 through her agent. Davidson was 
 employed by Mr. Bullock, a cabinet- 
 maker, at Litchfield, and was a most 
 excellent workman. 
 
 Willi his mother's allowance he 
 was able to live and dress very gen- 
 leelly ; and the company he kept 
 was highly respectable. By some 
 accident he met atLitchfield a young 
 lady of the name of Salt, who had 
 at her own disposal, when of age, 
 the sum of seven thousand pounds. 
 He paid his addresses to her with 
 her mother's permission, but her 
 father disapproving of the inter- 
 course, the match was broken off, 
 and the young lady subsequently 
 married another; an event which 
 filled Davidson with great affliction. 
 
 Having received twelve hundred 
 pounds from his mother, he entered 
 into an extensive way of business 
 at Birmingham ; but being, from the 
 disappointment in his marriage with 
 Miss Salt, rendered quite unsettled 
 in his mind, he did not attend to 
 his business, and in a short time 
 the whole of his money was ex- 
 pended. 
 
 Alter his failure he came to Lon- 
 don, and was employed as a jour- 
 
 neyman by a cabinet-maker. He 
 affected a great deal of sanctity; 
 attended a Methodist meeting-house, 
 and became a teacher in a Sunday 
 school; but his conduct towards 
 one of the female scholars being far 
 from decorous he fell into dis- 
 repute. 
 
 He subsequently entered into 
 business for himself at Walworth, 
 and then married a Mrs. Lane, the 
 widow of a respectable man, who 
 had left her with four small chil- 
 dren. For a short time he appeared 
 to be doing well ; at length, trade 
 falling off, he was obliged to remove 
 to London, and take a lodging in 
 Mary-le-bone. 
 
 On Ihe Sunday night, when Da- 
 vidson parted, for the last time, with 
 his distressed wife, he expressed 
 himself very strong against Lord 
 Sidmouth. 
 
 After he had kissed her, he said, 
 ' If I should belrav a weakness 
 when I come out on the scaffold, I 
 hope the world will not attribute it 
 to cowardice, but to my intense 
 feelings for you and my dear chil- 
 dren. Farewell, love ! pray that 
 God will take mercy on me, and 
 receive my soul !' Mrs. Davidson 
 then left him. 
 
 This unfortunate woman was left 
 with six children ; four by her for- 
 mer husband, and two fine boys by 
 Davidson, both under four years of 
 age. 
 
 John Thomas Brunt was born in 
 Union Street, Oxford Street, Lon- 
 don. His father, a tailor, appren- 
 ticed him at the age of fourteen to 
 Mr. Brooke's, a lady's shoemaker, 
 in Union Street He served Mr. 
 Brookes till he was eighteen years 
 of age, when, his father dying, his 
 mother purchased the remainder of 
 his time, and his indentures were 
 given up to her; and he supported 
 his mother for some years by his 
 labour. 
 
272 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one years 
 he articled himself to learn the boot- 
 closing ; and, in a short time, be- 
 came an excellent workman. A 
 prize-boot once exhibited in the 
 shop of a tradesman in the Strand 
 was made by him. When he was 
 twenty-three years of age he mar- 
 ried a respectable young- woman, 
 named Welch. On the 1st of May, 
 1806, sbe brought him a boy, who 
 was fourteen years of age on the 
 day his unfortunate father suffered 
 the sentence of the law. Brunt was 
 thirty-eight years of age. 
 
 Edwards, whose name so fre- 
 quently occurs in the foregoing 
 pages, had been originally a mo- 
 deller, and kept a little shop in 
 Fleet Street, where he sold plaister 
 of Paris images. His poverty had 
 been always apparent until a few 
 months previous to the Cato Street 
 plot, when there is no doubt he ac- 
 cepted the wages of sin, and became 
 a government spy. For this office 
 he appears to have been admirably 
 adapted, being shrewd, artful, and 
 unprincipled. His former acquaint- 
 ance with the Spenceans procured 
 him the confidence of some of its 
 deluded members; and through 
 them he got acquainted with Tliis- 
 tlewood and the others. These des- 
 perate men he occasionally supplied 
 with money, often to purchase the 
 means of supporting life, and more 
 frequently to procure instruments of 
 death. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Cato 
 Street business was got up by Ed- 
 wards; he furnished the means of 
 providing the destructive instru- 
 
 ments, and actually made the gre- 
 nades himself; and when Thistle- 
 wood had escaped from Cato Street, 
 Edwards conducted him to the 
 lodgings where he was next day ap- 
 prehended. 
 
 Immediately after the execution 
 of the unfortunate traitors, several 
 persons made depositions before Al- 
 derman Wood, stating the many 
 attempts of Edwards to seduce them 
 from their allegiance. The worthy 
 alderman applied to the secretary of 
 state to have the villain apprehend- 
 ed, but. he refused to interfere. A 
 motion was made in the House of 
 Commons a few nights afterwards 
 by the same alderman, but nothing 
 was done. Recourse was next had 
 to the civil power, and the grand 
 jury of Middlesex returned a true 
 bill against Edwards, upon which a 
 reward of one hundred pounds was 
 offered for his apprehension ; but 
 he could not be found, having been 
 sent, as was supposed, to our colony 
 of New Brunswick. 
 
 However our indignation may lie 
 excited by the conduct of that in- 
 famous wretch, Edwards, the events 
 with which he was connected fur- 
 nish us with an useful Jesson— 
 Never to trust the man who attempts 
 to instil principles contrary to reli- 
 gion, virtue, peace, or loyalty ; for 
 such a man cannot have our inte- 
 rests at heart. But, above all, 
 the reader henceforth should recol- 
 lect that the violent demagogue or 
 factious friend of liberty may be a 
 Castles or an Edwards, and there- 
 fore should avoid them. 
 
 JACOB MAGENNIS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR SHOOTING A CONSTABLE. 
 
 This culprit was a native of Ire- port, where his restless disposition 
 
 bind, and by trade a weaver. In ltd him to associate with the re- 
 
 1816 he came to England, and formers, who at this period were 
 
 worked at his business at Stock- extremely violent. Magennis seems 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 273 
 
 to have been an enthusiast in the 
 cause, and constantly attended the 
 sermons of a disaffected man named 
 Harrison, who was subsequently 
 tried, convicted, and punished, for 
 having- preached sedition. The 
 pulpit should never be converted 
 into a rostrum for popular declama- 
 tions ; for religion and politics have 
 no necessary connexion. This Har- 
 rison kept a school at Stockport, 
 and officiated on Sundays as a dis- 
 senting clergyman, in which ca- 
 pacity, it is to be apprehended, he 
 did much mischief. 
 
 The magistrates of Stockport be- 
 came alarmed at the doctrines pub- 
 licly preached by this reverend 
 demagogue, and issued a warrant 
 for his apprehension ; but, being 
 aware of their design, Harrison left 
 Stockport. A bench warrant was 
 then procured, and a constable 
 named Birch was sent to execute 
 it. He did so, and on the 23d of 
 July, 1819, brought the divine a 
 prisoner to Stockport; and, for se- 
 curity, kept him confined in his 
 (Birch's) house. 
 
 t was no sooner known that the 
 idol of the mob was in custody, 
 than a number of people collected 
 in a very tumultuous manner about 
 the ccnstable's bouse. Alarmed for 
 his safety, Birch went out by a 
 back door, with the determination 
 of consulting a magistrate concern- 
 ing his duty, but had not proceed- 
 ed far when a man named Bruce ac- 
 costed him. Having known this 
 man before, Birch stopped to speak 
 with him ; and, while in conversa- 
 tion, he received the contents of a 
 pistol, fired over Bruce's shoulder 
 by Jacob Magennis. 
 
 In the concision that ensued 
 Magennis made his escape, and 
 passed over to Ireland, where he 
 was apprehended, and brought to 
 Chester gaol. Bruce was also taken 
 into custody on the charge of aid- 
 ing and assisting, as it was sop- 
 posed he acted in concert with Ma- 
 gennis and another man, who could 
 not be identified, though only the 
 three were by at the transaction. 
 Bruce was a stranger at Stockport, 
 not having lived in it more than a 
 few months, during part of which 
 time he acted as usher in Harrison's 
 school, and latterly had taken a 
 school on his own account. He 
 also kept a nightly school, where 
 people were taught tomake speeches. 
 His manners and address were, how- 
 ever, far above that of his noisy 
 pupils. 
 
 Birch's wound happily did not 
 prove mortal ; and on the trial, 
 which took place on the 8th of 
 April, he was able to give his evi- 
 dence. The Jury found both Guilty, 
 and when the verdict was pro- 
 nounced, Magennis declared that 
 Bruce was innocent; for it was 
 he (Magennis) who fired the 
 pistol. 
 
 Bruce was afterwards respited, 
 and finally received the royal par- 
 don, for it appeared he was not 
 guilty ; but Magennis underwent 
 the awful sentence of the law at 
 the time appointed. He was a man 
 of strong capacity, but uneducated. 
 He employed his few last days \u 
 writing bis life, which he desired 
 to be published ; but it never waa. 
 He met his fate with fortitude, and 
 was sincerely penitent. 
 
 JOHN SCANLAN, ESQ. AND STEPHEN SULLIVAN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MKS. SCANLAN. 
 
 This is a most affecting case, barons atrocity. John Scanlan was 
 
 and displays the utmost depravity of a highly respectable family in the 
 
 of heart, as well as the most bar- county of Limerick, Ireland, aud 
 
 vol. iv. 1 15 
 
274 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 allied to persons of the first dis- 
 tinction. Soon after the peace he 
 was discharged, oh half- pay, from 
 the army, in which he had held the 
 commission of a lieutenant. Sulli- 
 van had been a soldier under him, 
 and having been also discharged, 
 he accompanied Scanlan in the ca- 
 pacity of a servant. He was also 
 a native of Limerick, and though 
 not more than thirty-two years of 
 age, was much older than his mas- 
 ter, who had not attained twenty- 
 five. 
 
 Young Scanlan, on his way to 
 Limerick, where he proposed re- 
 siding, stopped for some time in 
 Dublin, where he found an oppor- 
 tunity of ingratiating himself into 
 the favour of a thoughtless but 
 lovely uirl of fifteen years of age, 
 the niece of a Mr. Conery, a rope- 
 uuker. 
 
 The gentlemanly appearance and 
 polished address of Scanlan, when 
 aided !>y his protestations of love 
 and tenderness, flattered the vanity 
 of the poor girl ; but still she would 
 not listen to him on any but honour- 
 able terms. She acknowledged her 
 partiality, and charged him, if he 
 was sincere, to make her his wife. 
 To this proposal he affected to con- 
 sent, after some conditions had been 
 agreed on : these were that she was 
 to keep her marriage a secret from 
 her uncle, lest his friends should 
 hear of it — an event which he 
 seemed to regard as pregnant with 
 ruin to him. 
 
 The foolish girl consented to all 
 he chose to enjoin, and in an evil 
 hour quitted the roof of her kind 
 uncle, carrying off with her one 
 hundred pounds in notes, and twelve 
 guineas in gold. He pretended to 
 act honourably, and carried her be- 
 fore an excommunicated priest, who 
 joined their hands in wediock. Scan- 
 ian resorted to this man, thinking 
 the ceremony, when performed by 
 
 him, not obligatory ; but in this 
 he was mistaken, for he soou after 
 learned that, according to the laws 
 of Ireland, a marriage so celebrated 
 is valid. 
 
 The fugitive lovers quitted Dub- 
 lin, and took up their abode in the 
 romantic village of Glin, situated 
 on the banks of the river Shannon, 
 on the Limerick side. Scarcely,' 
 however, had the honeymoon passed 
 over their heads, when it appears 
 Scanlan formed the dreadful resolu-; 
 tion of getting rid of his wife. Her 
 beauty, her love, her innocence, 
 appealed to him in vain ; he per 
 sisted in his resolution, and too 
 fatally carried it into effect. 
 
 It appears he was prompted to 
 the dreadful deed by avarice and 
 ambition : his sister, who had been 
 married to a nobleman in the county 
 of Limerick, apprized himof a match' 
 she was forming for him with an 
 heiress of wealth and beauty, and 
 requested his acquiescence. Know- 
 ing that he could not avail himself 
 of the proposed advantage while his 
 wife (for she was legally his wife) 
 was alive, he determined that she 
 should not long remain an obstacle 
 to his advancement to rank and 
 opulence. 
 
 Sullivan was his confidantthrough- 
 out the whole affair, and to him vvas 
 intrusted the execution of his atro- 
 cious plan. Scanlan had purchased 
 a pleasure-boat, in which they used 
 to take excursions on the Shannon 
 Of this amusement his wife was very 
 fond, and it was during one of these 
 moments of recreation, while she 
 should be impressed with the beauty 
 of the scenery, that the monsters re- 
 solved to rob her of that life which 
 bloomed so exquisitely on her youth- 
 ful and animated cheek. 
 
 One evening in the July of 1819, 
 Scanlan affected to he called from 
 home on business, but desired his 
 wife to make Sullivan amuse her 
 
KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 275 
 
 for an hour on the river in the boat, from her mouth. Horrid and de- 
 
 With this request she complied; and formed as was her once-lovely per- 
 
 Sullivan, hy his master's directions, son, still it was instantly recognised, 
 
 got ready to execute their horrid when the murderers endeavoured to 
 purpose. Having provided a club fly from justice. Of their guilt 
 to knock out her brains, and a rope there could be no doubt ; they were 
 and stone to tie to the body to sink seen together in the boat; Sullivan 
 it, he proceeded down the river, had sold the murdered girl's clothes, 
 This man was treated by his master ami he and his master had quar- 
 and mistress with great familiarity, relied about some money, in which 
 so that he was not obliged to keep quarrel Scanlan had been accused 
 that distance so necessary to good of the murder, 
 order, but used every freedom con- Sullivanescaped for twelve months 
 sistent wilh respect. When the the pursuit of justice ; but Scanlan 
 boat had drifted to a secluded inlet, war, almost immediately apprehend- 
 Sullivan prepared to execute his ed, though he had resolved never to 
 purpose: he raised the club in a be taken alive. The following Au« 
 menacing position, and was about gust be was tried at the assizes; 
 to strike, when the lovely creature, and, being found Guilty, Baron 
 thinking heonly intended to frighten Smith, to his immortal honour, or- 
 her, gave him a smile of such inno- dered him for almost instant execu- 
 cent sweetness and simplicity, that tion, lest the powerful interest of 
 the assassin was disarmed. He his family should procure a respite, 
 dropped the instrument of destruc- if he left him even the period usually 
 tion. conducted bis mistress home, allowed to criminals convicted of 
 and told his unfeeling master that murder. The time allotted Scanl-iti 
 he had not strength to execute his to live was too short to admit a 
 commands. messenger going toDublin and back 
 The horrid resolution was post- again, and consequently he was ex- 
 poned, but not abandoned. A few eculed, to the satisfaction of all 
 evenings after, Scanlan, accompa- lovers of justice, 
 nied by his wile and Sullivan, went Twelve months after, his guilty 
 out in the boat as usual; but the servant met a similar fate. Before 
 unfortunate woman was never seen his execution he made a full con- 
 alive after. Scanlan returned to his fession, from which the above par- 
 lodgings, and said that for misbe- Oculars are partly taken. Such was 
 having he had shipped Ellen (his the powerful influence of Scanlan's 
 wife's name) on board some vessel, family, that, though they could not 
 the captain of which had taken her avert his fate, they succeeded in 
 under his protection. This story keeping it a secret from a large 
 was disbelieved, and a few days dis- portion of the community, for they 
 covered their guilt — the corpse of had influence enough to prevent an 
 the murdered Ellen was washed insertion of his case in all the Li- 
 ashore, mutilated in a most shock- merick newspapers; and conse- 
 ing manner. The legs were broken quently it remained unknown, ex- 
 in several places, one arm had been rept in the immediate neighbour- 
 knocked off entirely, and a rope hood of the transaction, 
 was tied round her neck. Her The trial of Sullivan, however, 
 skull was fractured in a thousand revealed his own and his master's 
 pieces, her eyes knocked out of her guilt, and proved that, in tlrs coun- 
 head, and nearly all her teeth forced try, neither wealth nor power can 
 
276 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 turn aside the sword of justice, or we are persuaded, furnished the 
 
 make the criminal less abhorrent, author of the ' Tales of Irish Life' 
 
 though he should have great and with the idea of 'The Poor Man's 
 
 wealthy friends. Daughter.' 
 The circumstances of this case, 
 
 JAMES LIGHTFOOT, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF THOMAS MAXWELL. 
 
 The guilt of this young man was quite twenty-one. In the neigh- 
 established with irresistible cer- bourhood of Cumwhitton lived a 
 tainty, and other circumstances tailor, named Maxwell, who, with 
 which transpired after his execution hia son, Thomas Maxwell, an ami- 
 leave no doubt of his having perpe- able youth of eighteen, worked for 
 trated the crime for which he suf- all tlie people in the place. Thomas 
 fercd. Yet, untainted with either se- and Lightfoot were inseparable com- 
 dition or infidelity, which are often panions, whenever leisure permitted 
 forced to account for moral pheno- their being together; yet this youth, 
 mena, independenlof theirinflueuce, generally beloved and esteemed by 
 Lightfoot solemnly protested his in- all who knew him, was treacherously 
 uocence with his last breath, and assassinated by Lightfoot, for no 
 (surrendered his life on the scaffold other discoverable motive but that 
 ■with a coolness and fortitude that of robbing him of fifteen shillings, 
 •would be celebrated in a martyr. four of which he had himself paid 
 
 This malefactor's case shows that him a few minutes before, 
 a man conscious of a deadly crime Country tailors generally go from 
 can ilie with all the appearance of house to house to work, and are Ire- 
 innocence, apparently pious, and quently obliged to give servants and 
 fceeniingly impressed with the truth poor people credit until such time 
 of Christianity, which excludes the as they can get money. The 20th 
 liar and the impenitent from the joys of May, in Cumberland, is the day 
 of Heaven. We cannot find, even in for hiring and paying servants their 
 the full view of dissolution, a refu- wages; and this too is the time 
 tation or confirmation of any system when country tradesmen expect to 
 of opinions, so contradictory are the get their money. On the eve of this 
 operations of the human mind. day, in 1S20, Thomas Maxwell, 
 
 James Lightfoot was one of nine- being going his annual round to his 
 
 teen children by the same parents, customers, called at Mr. Leach's, 
 
 thirteen of whom were living at the where he was kindly received, as 
 
 time of his execution. His father, indeed he was everywhere. Hav- 
 
 who had been accidentally killed in ing smoked a pipe, he went to the 
 
 1816, was a poor man, aud hischil- barn where Lightfoot was threshing, 
 
 dren had all to earn their bread by to trive him a smoke. While in the 
 
 laborious industry, and were gene- barn Lightfoot asked his master for 
 
 rally employed as servants by far- four shillings, which he gave to 
 
 niers in Cumberland, in which Maxwell, being that sum in his 
 
 county they all resided. debt. After a little lime the youth 
 
 James, in 1820, lived with a far- took his departure, signifying his 
 
 mer, named Leach, at Cumwhitton, intention to cross a ford, which was 
 
 and had got married about twelve situated a few hundred yards from 
 
 months before, his age not being Mr. Leach's house. His way lay 
 
KNAFP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 277 
 
 through a plantation, and here it 
 was that he was murdered. 
 
 Immediately after his departure 
 Lightfoot entered the kitchen, and 
 took out a loaded gun, although he 
 nad been repeatedly told not to 
 touch it. Shortly after, a report of 
 a gun was heard in the plantation 
 through which Maxwell had to pass, 
 and Light foot, who had been missed 
 fioin the barn, was seen running 
 towards the house in a crouching 
 manner, as if he wished not to he 
 seen. His master had entered the 
 house before him, and, though 
 angry at seeing the gun in his hand, 
 he forbore to speak, as Light foot was 
 to leave his service the next day. 
 
 The fatherof the murdered youth, 
 alarmed for his son's absence, was 
 inquiring next morning for him; 
 and apprehensive, as the river was 
 much swoln, that he might have 
 been drowned, he had it dragged 
 for the body- Notwithstanding all 
 thepoorman'sexertions and anxiety, 
 the deceased was not found for a 
 week, so secluded was the place 
 where the mangled remains had 
 been deposited. Suspicion immedi- 
 ately fell upon Light foot, and when 
 taken into custody his exclamation 
 betrayed his guilt; for when the 
 constable arrested himhis first words 
 were — 'What! me murder Tom 
 Maxwell on Friday !' The reply 
 of the officer was pointed — ' You 
 know the day better than I do.' 
 When taken before the coroner he 
 said to the father of the deceased, 
 ' Do you think I would murder your 
 son for fifteen shillings?' Fifteen 
 shillings was the exact sum the 
 poor boy had about him ; for before 
 he left his father's house his sister 
 saw him put eleven shillings into his 
 purse, which, with the four received 
 
 from Light foot, made the fifteen 
 shillings. The purse was found 
 empty, lying beside the mangled 
 remains of the unfortunate boy. 
 
 On the 16th of August, 1820, 
 Lightfoot was brought to trial at 
 Carlisle, and was found Guilty, after 
 a protracted inquiry into "his case. 
 The evidence against him was con- 
 clusive, though circumstantial; and 
 the learned judge (Bay ley) con- 
 curred in the verdict of the jury, 
 though in his charge he had men- 
 tioned every thing that bore in 
 favour of the prisoner, saying that 
 a verdict of acquittal would in>t 
 establish the innocence of the ac- 
 cused, but imply that the evidence 
 was not sufficient to convict him. 
 
 Lightfoot, on being removed from 
 the bar, declared that he was a mur- 
 dered man, being perfectly innocent 
 of the charge imputed to him. An 
 idea that the denial of his guilt 
 would diminish the disgrace brought 
 upon his family was probably the 
 motive of his obstinate protestations 
 of innocence. His mother visited 
 him the day before execution, and 
 indirectly encouraged him to deny 
 his crime, by saying, 'You are in- 
 nocent, James ; keep up a good 
 heart.' Yet this woman was well 
 aware of his guilt; for the Sunday 
 after the murder had been com- 
 mitted, and before any one had 
 been accused, she was heard to ex- 
 claim, in a fainting fit, 'My son 
 has murdered a man !' Ligbtfoot's 
 wife brought forth her first child 
 about the lime he perpetrated the 
 murder, and so shocked was the 
 poor woman on hearing the charge 
 against her husband, that she had 
 not recovered at the time when he 
 was ignominiously launched into 
 eternity. 
 
278 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 JAMES NESBETT, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MR. PARKER AND HIS HOUSEKEEPER. 
 
 A murder was committed in the flames; they were soon extinguished, 
 town of Woolwich, on Friday night, Neither Mr. Parker nor his servant 
 March the 3d, 1820, not exceeded, could be found. Every exertion 
 in point of atrocity, by any which was now turned towards suppressing 
 stain the calendar of crimes in this the flames in the parlour, which were, 
 country. It bears a striking re- extending to the room above. A 
 semblance to that perpetrated by hole was cut in the floor of the bed- 
 Hussey ; for the victims were an chamber, through which water was 1 
 old «enlleman and his housekeeppr, poured; and by this means, added 
 a Mr. Thomas Parker, aged seventy, to the incessant playing of the en- 
 and Sarah Brown, about forty-five gines without, the danger was sub- 
 years old. dued. In a short time the parlour 
 
 Mr. Parker had been a working door was thrown open, a man be- 
 
 jeweller in London, where he made longing to the artillery entered, and 
 
 a foitune sufficient to enable him to perceived a heap of something lying 
 
 retire to Woolwich, where he had behind the door; he attempted to 
 
 resided for twenty-three years. His lift it up, when he found it to be 
 
 house was situated in Mulgrave part of a human body. A second 
 
 Place, Red Lion Street, at a short body, which proved to be that of a 
 
 distance from the Artillery Bar- female, was found stretched in the 
 
 racks. same place, although not so much 
 
 Mr. Parker was an inoffensive burnt. A further investigation of 
 gentlemanly man, very much re- the premises now took place,when it 
 spected by the whole neighbour- was perceivedthatblankets had been 
 hood. At one o'clock on Saturday nailed up against every window, as 
 morning, the sentinel on duty at the if to conceal the appearance of the 
 north arch of the Artillery Barracks flames within. Fire had been coin- 
 observed a dense smoke rising from municated in three different places- 
 Mr. Parker's house. He gave an the parlour, on the ground floor, 
 alarm; stveral of the artillerymen the bed-chamber on the first floor; 
 rushed forth, and found the flames and the bed-chamber on the second 
 bursting from the parlour window, floor. The drawers about the house 
 The men rapped at the door with were found standing open, and arti- 
 ureat violence, but no answer was cles of apparel were lying about, 
 returned. The cry of' Fire' spread ; In the kitchen, some silver utensils 
 
 two engines arrived on the spot, and 
 commenced playing into the win- 
 dow. The men then forced the 
 street door, and rushed into the 
 
 were strewed on the floor. At break 
 of day the bodies of Mr. Parker 
 and his servant were examined. 
 The former was burnt nearly to a 
 
 passage. From thence they went cinder ; the left leg and foot, on 
 up stairs into the front room on the which there was a black silk stock- 
 first floor; here the ravages of the ingand a shoe, only remained entire, 
 fire were perceptible ; the furniture The skull, however, although the. 
 ol a bed had been partly consumed, flesh was burnt off, remained whole, 
 In the bed itself there was no ves- and afforded convincing testimony 
 tige of a human being. The men of murder : on the left side, towards 
 then ran into the bed-room on the the back, there was a terrific frac- 
 secoud floor, which was found in ture. The woman lay stretched 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 2/9 
 
 upon her face ; Iter apparel was 
 partly consumed ; and her hair, 
 which was long, was spread in di- 
 shevelled locks about her. A horri- 
 ble wound, inflicted apparently with 
 a blunt instrument, appeared over 
 her eye, and at the back of her 
 head were three deep fractures. 
 
 Several suspicious persons were 
 taken up, hut nothing appearing to 
 criminate them, they were dis- 
 charged. At length the real mur- 
 derer was apprehended at Ports- 
 mouth, an. I several articles of Mr. 
 Parker's property were found in his 
 possession, particularly two watches, 
 some silver spoons, a silver ladle, 
 &c. 
 
 The person apprehended went at 
 Portsmouth by the name of James 
 Watson, but his real name was 
 James Ne*bett. This malefactor 
 had been in the artillery for twenty- 
 three years, and afier his discharge 
 lived in Woolwich, where his wife 
 kept a chandler's shop. They had 
 five children ; the eldest eighteen, 
 and the youngest at this time only 
 sixteen months old. Nesbett him- 
 self followed that vicious and dan- 
 gerous occupation — smuggling ; 
 bringing lace, silk, &c. from France, 
 and canying hack other contraband 
 goods from this country. In pur- 
 suit of this traffic he stopped some 
 time at Portsmouth, where he co- 
 habited with a girl of the town, 
 who was afterward? the principal 
 witness against liirn. 
 
 While sleeping with this girl she 
 observed him to be very much 
 troubled in his mind, as he fre- 
 quently started in his sleep, and 
 soon times terrified her; so much 
 so, that she left him on that ac- 
 count only. He, however, allured 
 her back by presents ; ami, to ac- 
 count for the unnatural agitation in 
 his sleep, he told her that he had 
 killed two men in a duel, and one 
 woman with a blow , and also pro- 
 
 mised to communicate another im- 
 portant secret to her. 
 
 The life of this man seems to 
 have been composed of a succession 
 of crimes, but the amount of Ins guilt 
 will never be known. During his 
 last trip to France, a short time be- 
 fore he committed the treble crime 
 of murder, arson, and burglary, he 
 seduced a young girl of a respect- 
 able family; and, having brought 
 her to this country, he abandoned 
 her to ail the horrors ot her situa- 
 tion. She had the virtue, however, 
 to acknowledge her error, and seek 
 protection from her friends. 
 
 Nesbett, when he first visited 
 Portsmouth, appeared to have good 
 sight; but after the murdt r he wore, 
 whenever he appeared abroad, spec- 
 tacles — the identical pair he Lad 
 taken from Mr. Parker. In addi- 
 tion to the spectacles, he wore dif- 
 ferent dresses to disguise himself; 
 but, notwithstanding all his cau'ion, 
 he was known, and apprehended ; 
 not, however, without much diffi- 
 culty, for he attempted to shoot the 
 officers, having a case of pistols 
 loaded to the muzzle. Fortunately 
 he was prevented from firing, and 
 thus was preserved from having an 
 additional murder to answer for. 
 
 When brought to Woolwich the 
 people received him with a shout of 
 exultation — a circumstance which 
 affected him very much ; it quite 
 overcame him, and he was obliged 
 to be carried before the justices, 
 who were then sitting. He denied 
 the crime with which he was 
 charged; but after his committal 
 to Maidstone, he confessed that he 
 had been privy to it, having stood 
 sentinel at the door while the work 
 of destruction was going on inside. 
 His accomplices he stated to have 
 been old soldiers, whom he did not 
 know — a tale as improbable as un- 
 true ; for most likely he was him- 
 self the only person implicated. 
 
°80 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Nesbetl's tiial came on July the 
 28th, 1820, when his guift was esta- 
 blished hy a chain of circumstantial 
 
 evidence so conclusive, lhat the jury 
 did not hesitate many minutes about 
 their verdict. Nesbett's counte- 
 nance indicated great firmness of 
 purpose, but nothing of atrocity. 
 During his trial he showed great 
 fortitude and self-possession, which 
 was not disturbed bv his hearing 
 
 the awful sentence of the law, which 
 consigned him to an ignominious 
 death. 
 
 This wretched criminal was exe- 
 cuted according to his sentence on 
 Pennenden Heath, July the 31st, 
 1820. It is gratifying to know 
 that, in the interval which elapsed 
 between his condemnation and exe- 
 cution, he acknowledged the justice 
 of his sentence. 
 
 ROSALIE 
 
 INDICTED FOR 
 
 This lovely but ill-fated yirl was 
 a native of Switzerland. Her father 
 resided at Lausanne, and a young 
 gentleman of that town had paid his 
 addresses to her, contrary to the 
 wishes of her family, who had for- 
 bad him the house. His attentions, 
 however, were clandestinely con- 
 tinued lor a considerable length of 
 time, until Mademoiselle Curchod's 
 health becoming seriously affected, 
 her friends, guessing the secret, de- 
 termined to remove her far from the 
 cause of her indisposition, hoping 
 that, by change of scene, her health 
 would be restored, and that she 
 would forget the object of her at- 
 tachment. England was resolved 
 upon as the place of her sojourn- 
 ment. The prospect of so painful 
 a separation produced the strongest 
 sensation in the minds of the lovers. 
 An opportunity for a stolen inter- 
 view was found, and in the tumult 
 of ardent passion that event oc- 
 curred which, intheend, plunged the 
 unhappy object of ill-fated love into 
 the deepest affliction. She reached 
 England ; and the friends to whom 
 she was recommended thought that, 
 by employing her mind, the pur- 
 pose of her friends might be more 
 effectually accomplished, and they 
 therefore placed her at the board- 
 ing-school of a lady named Siffkin, 
 at Barking, in the capacity of French 
 
 CURCHOD, 
 
 CHILD-MURDER. 
 
 teacher. There she continued until 
 the month of December, 1819. In 
 the unhappy interval she experi- 
 enced the progressive symptoms of 
 approaching child-birth. On the 
 20th of December she was delivered 
 of a male infant unknown to the fa- 
 mily. In three days afterwards the 
 dead body of the infant was found 
 in a pan in her bed-chamber, and in 
 the result, after a coroners inquest, 
 she was consigned, in the prime of 
 youth, beauty, and finished accom- 
 plishments, to the horrors of a dun- 
 geon. The author of her sufferings 
 had been informed of the conse- 
 quences of their illicit intercourse 
 (but before they became exposed), 
 and had set out for England with 
 slender means, intending at all ha- 
 zards to unite his hand to hers in 
 marriage. He had arrived at Paris 
 in pursuit of his jouiney : but his 
 pecuniary funds being exhausted, 
 he was detained so long, that he 
 did not reach England until three 
 days after the victim of his attach- 
 ment had been committed. 
 
 At the ensuing spring assizes 
 she was indicted for the murder of 
 her child, and at the hour appointed 
 for her trial she was conducted into 
 court with the assistance of some 
 female attendants. Agitated in every 
 limb, and overwhelmed with grief, 
 she was almost carried into tin? 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 281 
 
 Jock, and seated on a chair. She 
 was attired in deep mourning, and 
 her face was completely concealed 
 with a veil, which, if even removed, 
 would not have heen enough to 
 satisfy the brutal curiosity of some 
 individuals in court, whose unfeel- 
 ing anxiety to behold the beauly of 
 her countenance called forth the in- 
 dignant animadversion of the judge, 
 who checked the inhuman indiffer- 
 ence to her awful situation. Her 
 
 head, during the whole time, was 
 bowed on her bosom. Nothing but 
 the contour of her elegant person 
 confirmed the opinion entertained of- 
 her cliarins. With great difficulty 
 she sobbed aloud, in French, that 
 she was not guilty. 
 
 Fortunately for her, the surgeon 
 who attended her during her illness 
 could not swear that the child had 
 been horn alive, and, consequently, 
 she was acquitted. 
 
 Mackcoull robbing the Minister of lus Watch on quitting the Pulpit 
 
 JAMES MACKCOULL, alien MOFFAT, 
 
 CONVICTED OF ROBBERY. 
 
 This was the most extraordinary Germany. In his nefarious schemes 
 offender of the age in which he lived; he was too successful ; he frequently 
 and, from the variety and extent of possessed such suras of money as, 
 his depredations, might becalled the under ollur circumstances, might- 
 robber of the world ; for while his as- have kept him independent — nay, 
 sociate, the notorious Huffey White, in affluence — during his life; but the 
 was unlocking the doors of his ma- curse of dishonesty pursued him, 
 jesty's subjects, Mackcoull was de- and he frequently was master of 
 fra tiding the natives of Holland and thousands without being able to en- 
 
282 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 joy tliem. Heaven seems only to 
 have prolonged his loathsome life, 
 for the. wise purpose of demonstrat- 
 ing to the world that ill-gotten 
 wealth will ruin the possessor's peace 
 of mind, and, ultimately, bring him 
 to shame, infamy, and destruction. 
 
 James Mackcoull, though he had 
 an honest father, wis educated a 
 thief, and from infancy was ini- 
 tiated into all the mysteries of pick- 
 ing pockets, shop-lifting, and house- 
 breaking. He was born in the parish 
 of St. Sepulchre, London, in the 
 year 1703. His father, Benjamin 
 Mackcoull, a man of unblemished 
 character,was a pocket-book linker; 
 but, being unfortunate in business, 
 be was appointed a city officer, in 
 which situation he continued until 
 his death. This poor man did all 
 in his nower to bring his children 
 up in honesty ; but, unfortunately, 
 bis praiseworthy exertions proved 
 abortive in consequence of bis wile 
 being a base unprincipled woman, 
 who might be said to have educated 
 her offspring for the gallows; for 
 though they all, except one, singu- 
 larly escaped such an ignominious 
 death, they are allowed to have 
 richly merittd it. 
 
 James had three sisters and two 
 brothers. The daughters emulated 
 the example of the mother, and 
 were, with her, frequently convicted 
 of petty crimes, being the most ex- 
 pert and notoiious thieves in Lon- 
 don. They all lived till within a 
 few years of James's death, not- 
 withstanding their abandoned and 
 vicious lives. The younger hrother, 
 Benjamin, was executed in 1786 for 
 street-robbery; but the eldest, John, 
 was always fortunate in eluding jus- 
 tice, though well known as a no- 
 torious character. He was fre- 
 quently tried for various offences, 
 but uniformly escaped conviction. 
 This extraordinary villain received 
 a more liberal education than any 
 
 other of the family, and served his 
 apprenticeship to a law-stationer. 
 Pie possessed some talents, ami 
 gave proofs of them on various oc- 
 casions. In 1810 he published a 
 volume, entitled 'Abusesof Justice/ 
 in which he very freely speaks of 
 himself; indirectly acknowledges his 
 previous crimes; but resolves to 
 abandon his evil ways in future. His 
 contrition, however,may be doubted; 
 for, in 1820, be was the proprietor 
 of two brothels in London, and of 
 the Apollo circulating library in 
 Worthing, Sussex. 
 
 James Mackcoull received a very 
 limited education, and could just 
 read and write. At school he was 
 frequently detected purloining the 
 play-things of other boys, and at u. 
 very tender age robbed a poor man 
 who sold cats' meat through the 
 streets. The young villain saw tie 
 vender of offal put bis money, as 
 he received it, into a bag which 
 hnng on the handle of his barrow, 
 and, watching his opportunity, when 
 the owner's back was turned he cut 
 the cord, and carried off the booty. 
 Emboldened by success he ventured 
 again and again, and soon asso- 
 ciated with gangs who are known to 
 infest .the entrances to theatres and 
 places of amusement, where they 
 are on the alert to snatch or steal 
 hats, bonnets, umbrellas, &c. &c. 
 
 The father, ignorant of the vi- 
 cious habits of the son, hound him 
 apprentice to a leather-stainer, in • 
 Clerkenwell; but James, encouraged 
 by the mother, adhered to his lormer 
 comrades, and soon gave occasion 
 to his master to discharge him. 
 
 He now became a notorious thief, 
 and, by shifting his quarters, con- 
 tinued to elude detection ; but, hav- 
 ing been engaged with another in 
 snatching the seals of a gentlemau's 
 watch in St. James's Park, they 
 were pursued, Mackcoull's com- 
 panion wap apprel ended, and him- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 283 
 
 self only escaped detection by 
 going at nit; tit on board the tender, 
 at Tower Hill, and entering as a 
 volunteer. 
 
 For two years he remained on 
 board the Apollo frigate, in the 
 character of an officer's servant, and 
 afterwards on hoard the Centurion, 
 in the same capacity. In the ab- 
 sence of temptation even a rogue 
 may be honest. Mackcoull acquired 
 so good a character in the navy, 
 that he was in a few years appointed 
 purser's steward, and in the course 
 of nine years saved a considerable 
 sum of money. In 1785 lie returned 
 to London, where, in a short time, 
 he dissipated ail his earnings in the 
 society of the dissolute and aban- 
 doned, and to repair his finances 
 had recourse to his former habits of 
 dishonesty. Mackcoull sooneclipsed 
 all his companions in iniquity, and 
 shone pre eminent as a pugilist, 
 horse-racer, cock-fighter, gambler, 
 swindler, and pickpocket. To carry 
 on his depredations with success 
 he assumed various characters, and 
 succeeded in all. Not even the 
 sanctuary of religion was free from 
 his desperate villauy ; for he fre- 
 quently went there to pick pockets, 
 and on one occasion deprived the 
 preacher of his watch, on his way 
 from the pulpit. The knowledge 
 and aculeness he displayed, as well 
 as the successful manner in which 
 he obviated discovery, procured lijm 
 among his vile associates the ap- 
 pellation of 'The Heathen Philo- 
 sopher.' 
 
 Being at Brentford during an 
 election, Mackcoull saw a self-im- 
 portant baker very busy among the 
 efec'ors, and observed him put a 
 bundle of notes into his side pocket. 
 Desirous of possessing the notes, 
 Mackcoull made various attempts, 
 but failed until the evening, when, 
 learning the baker's extreme pas- 
 sion for the science of astronomy, 
 
 he went into his shop and invitei 
 him out to view a strange alternat- 
 ing star. The baker declared he 
 would not lose the sight for fifty 
 pounds, and accordingly hastened 
 into the street, and, while he was 
 busy with his telescope viewing the 
 starry heavens, Mackcoull con- 
 trive! to ease him of the notes in 
 his breast pocket, after which he 
 quitted the spot and hastened to 
 London. 
 
 A thief, to use a vulvar adage, 
 throws out witu a shovel what he 
 brings in with a spoon ; or, in other 
 words, his improvidence is greater 
 than his precarious gains, and, in 
 addition to a thousand other appre- 
 hensions, he lives in continual dread 
 of want and poverty. Mackcoull, 
 notwithstanding all his address, was 
 in continual pecuniary embarrass- 
 ments, and when unsuccessful as a 
 pickpocket at the theatre, or a 
 lair, had to go to bed supperless. 
 His particular misfortunes seem to 
 have consoled, on various occasions, 
 his less notorious brethren, for it 
 has passed as a remarkable saying 
 among the thieving tribe, ' That the 
 best hand will miss at times, like 
 Jem Mackcoull.' 
 
 Mackcoull, in his twenty-eighth 
 year, married the mistress of a 
 brothel, and assisted her in furnish- 
 ing her house in Clifford's Inn Pas- 
 sage, which, in addition to its being 
 a receptacle for unfortunate women, 
 he made a depot for stolen property. 
 He planned several burglaries, but 
 was an actor in none. The stolen 
 property he always deposited in a 
 recess, formed by the shutting up 
 of a window, which he called Pitt's 
 picture, in allusion to the window- 
 tax. This secret recess was, how- 
 ever, detected by the ferrets of the 
 law, and Mackcoull was obliged to 
 take a trip to the West Indies, a 
 phrase he made use of to signify a 
 lemcval from London. His friends 
 
284 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 endeavoured to hush the business, 
 but their efforts failed, and Mack- 
 coull was compelled to quit the 
 country. 
 
 In 1802 he arrived at Hamburg-, 
 and took the name of Moffat. In 
 company with two others he affected 
 the air of a merchant, and pretended 
 to have lartre consignments from 
 England and Scotland. Of the 
 latter country he said he was a 
 native. He had recourse here to 
 bis former practices, and supported 
 himself by gaming, picking pockets, 
 and shop-lifting. He was no sooner 
 suspected in one towu than he re- 
 moved to another, but had to make 
 a precipitate retreat, in 1805, and 
 came home. In London he found it 
 not prudent to stop, and therefore 
 went to Edinburgh, where he arrived 
 the 10th of September, and called 
 himself Moffat. 
 
 In Scotland he followed his usual 
 practices, and, the better to conceal 
 his real character, pretended to fol- 
 low the business of a dyer of leather, 
 and took premises for the purpose, 
 into which skies were seen to be 
 taken, but no one ever saw any 
 coming out. A gentleman pick- 
 pocket was then a character un. 
 known north of the Tweed ; and 
 Mackcoull had so plentiful a 
 harvest, that he brought his wife 
 from London, and she passed in 
 Edinburgh for a genteel proper 
 woman. Being of a facetious turn, 
 full of anecdote, and not deficient in 
 low wit, Mackcoull was regarded 
 as an agreeable companion, and was 
 known in the different taverns and 
 coffee-houses as the good-humoured 
 red-faced Englishman. 
 
 In the beginning of November, 
 1806, William Begbie, porter to the 
 British Linen Company, was assas- 
 sinated in the entry leading to the 
 bank at Edinburgh, and robbed of 
 a bag containing five thousand 
 pounds. Though this daring mur- 
 
 der took place in clear day-light, 
 the perpetrator was never discover- 
 ed ; but subsequent events lead to 
 the presumption of Mackcoull being 
 the ruthless assassin. The large 
 notes, pay merit of which was stop- 
 ped, were afterwards found in a sp >t 
 frequented by Mackcoull, who no 
 doubt purposely left them there. 
 
 Until 1808 Mackcoull committed 
 his depredations with impunity ; 
 but about this period he was detect- 
 ed picking a gentleman's pocket in 
 the theatre ; for which offence he 
 wascommitted toprison; but, strange 
 to say, he was liberated without 
 beinji prosecuted. He now returned 
 to London, and concealed himself 
 for some time in the neighbourhood 
 of Somers Town, but again visited 
 Scotland the following year. On his 
 arrival he was apprehended for pass- 
 ing forged notes; but having artfully 
 got change of a five-pound note on 
 his journey in presence of a ftllow- 
 passenger, the latter, a respectable 
 man, came forward and procured 
 Mackcoull's liberation. After this 
 he visited Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, 
 ami Montrose, and during his mi- 
 grations met with a notorious cha- 
 racter named French, with whom he 
 agreed to rob one of the Scotch 
 banks, and they hastened to Lou- 
 don to procure the necessary imple- 
 ments. On their arrival French 
 was apprehended on a charge of 
 bnrglary, tried, and sentenced to 
 transportation for life, in accordance 
 with which he was sent to the 
 hulks. In consequence of this 
 event the robbery of the Scotch 
 banks was deferred. 
 
 Meeting with the notorious Huf- 
 fey White, whose case we have al- 
 ready given, Mackcoull agreed with 
 this expert housebreaker to rob the 
 Chester bank. White, having just 
 escaped fiom the hulks, was very 
 poor, so that Mackcoull had to pro- 
 vide for the expenses of the journey, 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 285 
 
 &c. White at the time lodged with 
 a blacksmith, named Scoltock, who 
 lived in Tottenham Court Road, and 
 who supplied him with the imple- 
 ments of housebreaking. Arrange. 
 incuts having been made with this 
 descendant of Vulcan, the villains 
 set off (or Chester, to reconnoitre, 
 desiring that the keys, &,c. should 
 be forwarded to them on a certain 
 day, directed to James Wilson. 
 
 Scoltock executed his order with 
 punctuality; but on the way the 
 box, in which the implements were 
 sent, yielded to the friction of the 
 coach, and one of the skeleton keys 
 protruded through an opening. An 
 officer being sent for, he concealed 
 himself in the office until Mackcoull 
 and White called, and then took 
 them into custody. When taken 
 before the magistrate, Mackcoull 
 said his name was James Martin, 
 and White said his was Evans. 
 Not being able to give an account 
 of themselves, they were committed, 
 May the 17th, 1810, to the House 
 of Correction, as rogues and vaga- 
 bonds. 
 
 Information of the transaction 
 being given at Bow Street, an officer 
 was dispatched to Chester, who soori 
 recognised this pair of notorious vil- 
 lains. White was tried the ensuing 
 assizes for being at large before the 
 expiration of his sentence, and was 
 condemned to death, but had his 
 sentence commuted to transporta- 
 tion for life. On the 10th of January, 
 1811, Mackcoull was discharged 
 from Chester Castle, and on his 
 arrival in London he met French, 
 who had made his escape from the 
 hulks, and they agreed to go and 
 put their former determination of 
 robbing a Scotch bank into execu- 
 tion. But as neither of them were 
 very expert at the business, they 
 resolved to release Huffey White 
 from the hulks, whose abilities in 
 this way were of a superior order. 
 
 They soon effected the escape of 
 White, and all three set off for Glas- 
 gow, Scoltock, as usual, promising 
 to send the necessary implements of 
 housebreaking alter them ; for which 
 he was to be paid when the job was 
 done ; indeed, so poor were the 
 parties, that French had to sell his 
 furniture to meet the expenses of 
 the journey. 
 
 On their arrival in Glasgow they 
 took lodgings in the house of a Mrs. 
 Stewart, ami gave their names as 
 Moffat, Stone, and Down, and spent 
 their time chiefly in smoking and 
 drinking, occasionally going out to 
 adjust their keys, &c. under the 
 pretence of fishing. The Paisley 
 Union Bank, in Ingram Street, was 
 the object of their attack; but on 
 the arrival of the implements they 
 found they could not open it. White, 
 olios Down, thought to obviate this 
 difficulty by making a pester key, 
 but neither v/ou!d this answer, and 
 Mackcoull had to set off to London 
 to give Scoltock the necessary in- 
 structions. On his return they were 
 too successlul, and robbed, one 
 Saturday night, the bank of Scotch 
 notes to the amount of twenty 
 thousand pounds, after which they 
 posted to London, changing a 
 twenty-pound note at every stage. 
 
 As the thieves had, on leaving the 
 Bank, locked the doors, the robbery 
 was not discovered until Monday 
 morning, when a person went in pur- 
 suit ot the fugitives, and traced 
 them to London. An officer from 
 How Street was I hen dispatched in 
 search of the robbers, and that even- 
 ing White was apprehended in Scol- 
 tock's house, where Mackcoull had 
 only a few minutes left him, to pro- 
 vide some wine. The implements 
 of housebreaking were found on the 
 prisoner, but no money; for on 
 their arrival in London Mackcoull 
 had deposited the»whole with the 
 noted pugilist, Bill Gibbous, wh-> 
 
286 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 acted as flash banker to such cha- 
 racters. There is no honour among 
 thieves. Mackcoull assured his com- 
 panions that the booty amounted 
 only to sixteen thousand pounds, 
 thus pocketing four thousand pounds 
 for himself. On the apprehension 
 of White, Mackcoull went into con- 
 cealment, and French, who dreaded 
 the ferrets of the law, sent for Mrs. 
 Mackcoull, and proposed, aslheonly 
 way to save tiieir lives, to return 
 the money to the bank, and thus 
 hush the business. To this she 
 consented, and her husband also ac- 
 quiesced with the view of making 
 his own fortune. His wife had been 
 an acquaintance of Sayer, an officer 
 who attended on the king, and 
 through him site procured a par- 
 don for her husband as well as for 
 White and French for escaping from 
 the hulks, on giving up the money 
 to the bank. To this proposal the 
 agents readily airreed ; but, when 
 Mrs. Mackcoull brought the notes, 
 they were found only to amount to 
 eleven thousand nine hundred and 
 forty-one pounds, with which the 
 gulled agents were obliged to return 
 to Scotland. 
 
 The pardon obtained for White 
 and French did not relieve them 
 from their former sentence of trans- 
 portation, ami, accordingly, White 
 was once more transmitted to the 
 hulks. French for a while kept out 
 of the waj ; but, meditating revenge 
 on Mackcoull for the part li3 had 
 acted, the latter contrived to have 
 him apprehended, and sent to New 
 South Wales. 
 
 Mackcoull, being now in posses- 
 sion of eight thousand pounds, had 
 it reported that he was gone to the 
 West Indies, when, in fact, he was 
 passing the notes in Scotland, in 
 the purchase of English bills. In 
 1812 he was arrested in a brothel 
 in London, having abandoned his 
 own wife for the charms of one 
 
 Mary Reynolds, who had turned 
 housekeeper, adns mistress, of a 
 brothel. Mackcoull was now trans- 
 mitted to Glasgow, where he arrived 
 the 8th of April, 1812, and wa» 
 committed to uaol. While here he 
 did not seriously deny the robbery, 
 but offered to make restitution to 
 the bank, and promised their agent 
 one thousand pounds, and gave them 
 a bill for four hundred pounds. 
 The bank not being at this time 
 prepared to substantiate his guilt, 
 he was discharged the following 
 July, and the agent of the bankers 
 absolutely received from Mr. Har- 
 mer, of London, the one thousand 
 pounds, which, however, Mackcoull 
 subsequently recovered by suit at 
 law from that able solicitor, he 
 having paid it without sufficient 
 authority. 
 
 Mackcoull now considered him- 
 self bevond all danger, and in com- 
 pany with one Harrison, a brother 
 of Mary Reynolds, made several 
 trips to Scotland, and purchased 
 commercial hills in the name of 
 James Martin, a merchant, and 
 everywhere introduced his friend 
 Harrison as a mo4 respectable 
 merchant. In 1812 he opened a 
 deposit account with Messrs. Marsh 
 and Co. hankers, in the name of 
 James Ihel, and had in their hands 
 at one period above two thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 In March, 1813, he again visited 
 Scotland to vend more of the stolen 
 notes, but was taken into custody, 
 and bills and drafts, in favour of 
 James Martin, to the amount of one 
 thousand pounds, which he had pur- 
 chased, taken from him. Owingr 
 however, to Mackcoull having run 
 his letters against his Majesty's 
 advocate, he could not again be 
 committed for the same offence, and 
 consequently he was discharged out 
 of custody, the bank, however, 
 holding the bills. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 287 
 
 On his return to London lie paid 
 a visit to liis wife: but an alterca- 
 tion ensuing, he struck her; for 
 -which he was, after being tried at 
 the Quarter Session, sentenced to 
 six months' imprisonment. While 
 in 'durance vile,' Huffey White 
 'died in his calling," an event which 
 gave Mackcoull much satisfaction, 
 as he apprehended great danger 
 when he heard of his old associate 
 being at large. 
 
 In 1815 he resolved to recover 
 the bills and drafts detained by the 
 magistrates at Edinburgh, and, as 
 they refused compliance with his 
 request by letters, he visited that 
 city in person, and demanded, in 
 the most insolent manner, the resti- 
 tution of what he called his pro. 
 perty. This being refused, he com. 
 menced an action against them, 
 which, more than any other case 
 that ever came before a courtof jus- 
 tice, proves the glorious uncertai nty 
 of the law ; for it continued to be 
 litigated for five years, and the 
 country, for the first lime, witnessed 
 the singular fact of an acknow- 
 ledged thief contending with per- 
 sons about the property he had ac- 
 tually stolen from them. 
 
 During, the progress of this pro- 
 tracted case, Mackcoull attended 
 the courts of lav/ in person, and 
 gave instructions to his agent. He 
 always conducted himself with the 
 greatest sang froid, and treated 
 with contempt and derision the 
 allusions made by counsel to his 
 character. At length it was ruled 
 that Mackcoull should be interro- 
 gated in person before the Court, 
 and after some hesitation he con- 
 sented. This circumstance was no 
 sooner known, than crowds flocked 
 to hear his examination, which lasted 
 for several days. He behaved in 
 the most cool and determined man- 
 ner; and when his absurd replies 
 elicited a laugh in court, he always 
 
 smiled with seeming self-approba- 
 tion. The account he gave of him- 
 self was that he traded as a mer- 
 chant, and that he chiefly transact- 
 ed business with one James Martin, 
 whose residence he could not tell. 
 He objected to many questions put 
 to him with the acuteness of a law- 
 yer, and replied to others with that 
 sarcastic grin which was peculiar 
 only to Cooke, in Richard III. 
 This was in 1819, and the session 
 rose without having come to any 
 decision. Mackcoull returned to 
 London in great spirits, to arrange 
 with his brother John about some 
 letters he bad, on his examination, 
 promised to write to Mr. James 
 Martin, who was obviously a ficti- 
 tious character. The following 
 letter and answer were then pre- 
 pared by John, and both, as was 
 afterwards proved, in his hand- 
 writing : — 
 
 'Edinburgh, 10f/i May, 1819. 
 
 'Dear Sir — I am still detained 
 here with that infernal suit against 
 the partners of the Paisley Union 
 Bank, whose agents here, while in 
 the act of themselves robbing that 
 bank with boih hands, have made 
 thyself a most unwilling instrument 
 in their hands, and art and part 
 guilty with them. The Lord Ordi- 
 nary, when I complain to him of 
 this, tells me, that they must not be 
 obstructed in their lawful avoca- 
 tions ; and how long I am to be 
 stuck up between the bank and their 
 agents, or, in other words, placed 
 between the hammer and the anvil, 
 will depend upon the ability of the 
 bank or of myself to continue the 
 litigation. For six years has this 
 process been most actively carried 
 on before Lord Gillies, Ordinary, 
 who they say is among the best of 
 the Scottish judges, without one 
 relevant averment, and without a 
 definitive judgment. Though his 
 lordship sees the most pointed 
 
288 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 charge of forgery made by meagainst 
 one of lite bank agents, and lias (be 
 admission of ail of tbem distinctly 
 slated upon bis record, of their hav- 
 ing robbed me by a prostitution of 
 the police law, he, nevertheless, re- 
 fuses judgment: — be has not energy 
 to direct them to return my money, 
 which the defender admits was forci- 
 bly taken from my person. 
 
 'His lordship, after six years' 
 litigation, is going to send the bank 
 defence to the Jury Court, namely, 
 that I and one White robbed with 
 false keys their bank; and this 
 pretty little defence, which the rhe- 
 toric of Mr. Erskine, the celebrated 
 Scotch counsel, who wrote on Black 
 of Inverkeithing's case, has spun 
 out in two thousand folio pages, em. 
 bracesallthat they have been speak- 
 ing about for the last six years. 
 Lord Gillies, fatigued with this non- 
 sense, has at last obliged tbem to 
 plead issuably, and to confine their 
 pleas to the fact of the robbery; 
 but, ere the bank can enter the Jury 
 Court, it has occurred to them as 
 proper, after so long an acquaint- 
 ance, to discover, from myself, ic/io 
 I am P where I come f torn ? what 
 business 1 follow ? and whether my 
 conduct, through life has been, like 
 theirs, honest and moral ? — It has 
 pleased the Scottish judges to in. 
 dulo-e their curiosity in all this, so 
 that the batik agents, as one of the 
 honourable judges expressed him- 
 self front the bench, miyht have an 
 Opportunity, from " his biographical 
 sketch," to trammel me before the 
 jury, in case the history of my life, 
 taken by surprise, and upon their 
 interrogatories, shall be incorrect. 
 This, you must know, is Scotch 
 law, and Scotch practice, and, I 
 may add, Scotch breeding ; and I 
 have, of course, submitted to three 
 several examinations before this in- 
 quisitorial court. These honour- 
 ables have now got my life and tra- 
 
 vels for these last sixteen years,, 
 touether with some account of your- 
 self ; for they have made, of neces- 
 sity, the discovery that you and I 
 have been most deeply connected 
 in business together. What this 
 biographical account may suggest 
 to ihe fertile mind of our modern 
 Cicero, whose grimaces in pleading 
 are really frightful, I know not ; 
 but, if you come to this country 
 soon, you had better empty your 
 pockets ere you cross the Tweed, 
 for greater ruffians never infested 
 Hounslow Heath than those who 
 have robbed me with impunity. I 
 have myself expended eight hun- 
 dred pounds in my attempts to get 
 my money from them, of which, 
 without the least dread or fear for 
 the consequences, they openly con- 
 fess in a court of law that they 
 robbed me ! I want a judgment in 
 terms of their own confession, and 
 that I cannot get. 1 never knew 
 what a court of inquisition was till I 
 came to Scotland. In my judicial 
 declaration, I was asked if I made 
 any entry, in any memorandum 
 book, of the money I received from 
 your cousin and Harrison ? " de- 
 clare, I daresay I did." Interrogat- 
 ed, What book I referred to, and 
 where it now is P "declare, I think it 
 wasa memorandum book for theyear 
 1815, which, 1 Miink, is now in the 
 hands of Mr. James Martin, but that 
 I am not sure." Being requested 
 to write Mr. James Martin to trans- 
 mit till his books, for the purpose of 
 being put into the hands of the 
 clerk of the process, " declare, that 
 he has no objection to write to Mr. 
 Martin, as desired, but he is sure 
 Mr. Martin will not pass the books 
 out of his hands." So you see 
 what has passed ; ami it lies with 
 you to say what I shall report to 
 the Lord Ordinary. The session 
 has risen, and will not again sit till 
 May, when I shall then use every 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 289 
 
 exertion in my power to gef away 
 with my property and with my cha- 
 racter from that court anil that 
 country where I now am, through 
 the medium of a jury. I have sa- 
 ciificed eight hundred pounds of 
 law expences. I have Inst six 
 years of my time, together with 
 the fatigue and trouhle of going and 
 returning to London, and hitherto 
 for no other purpose than to hear 
 myself abused. For these six years 
 my life has been made a burden to 
 me. Mr. Jamieson, who conducts 
 my suit, often tells me, what I be- 
 lieve to be true, that not a person 
 in the whole United Kingdom could 
 have manifested so much resolution 
 and firmness ; and he tells me that 
 not one case could so opportunely 
 occur to show the general distress 
 of the nation. God only knows 
 whether the practice is general ; if 
 so, 1 sincerely pity those who shall 
 run the hundredth part of the gaunt- 
 let f have done ; for it is a general 
 robbery. The Scots live like 
 fishes — the large devour the 
 small ! 
 
 ' If there is any truth in the story 
 about the bank being at all robbed 
 with false keys, it may, as I am 
 told, happen that this man White, 
 who is said to be my accomplice, 
 may turn out to be some Edinburgh 
 deacon or magistrate, with a gold 
 chain and cocked hat ; for it was 
 by them, along with the procurator- 
 fiscal, that my money was first of 
 all taken forcibly from my person, 
 under the pretence of a crime, hut 
 for the covered purpose of taking 
 my money. They have dropped 
 the charge, but detained my pro- 
 perty ! 
 
 ' You can have no conception to 
 what length corruption and oppres- 
 sion is gone in this part of the 
 United Kingdom ; and what is most 
 lamentable, the higher orders of 
 society are chiefly implicated in it : 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 this you will see from the advoca- 
 tion. In short, my good sir, all I 
 can tell is, that, after the most active 
 research which, daring the course 
 of six years, could be made after 
 roguery, all that is hitherto made 
 out is, that, of all of us concerned 
 in that fraudulent inquiry, there 
 is but one honest man among us, 
 and that is myself: they are all of 
 them chargeable, from the face of 
 the records, but one. But, put 
 jests aside, I have been shockingly 
 used ; and, if you can make a 
 step down this way, as a witness 
 for me at the jury trial, I shall 
 be well enough pleased* I am,' 
 &c. 
 
 [The reading of this le'.ter occa- 
 sioned a great deal of amusement 
 in court, from the grave folly in 
 which it is couched, particularly its 
 reflections on the Scotch couits.] 
 'And this,' continued the learned 
 counsel, i<* from an honest man, 
 demanding the surrender of his own 
 books !' He would now read the 
 answer of Mr. Martin, which was of 
 a ■ iece with the foregoing, and was 
 written according to the instructions 
 of JVlackcoull, by Mackcoull's own 
 brother. The jury would perceive 
 what a fraternal correspondence it 
 was : — 
 
 'April 13, 1819. 
 
 ' Sir, — Your application to me, 
 relative to the books in my posses- 
 sion, is so very strange and absurd, 
 that I am really at a loss to account 
 for it. In the name of reason, 
 what can the books have to do with 
 the bills taken or stolen from your 
 person ? It is but a short period 
 since you informed me that Sir Wil- 
 liam Forbes and the Commercial 
 Hank had declared they cancelled 
 the bills — and I am now told they 
 are not cancelled. What [am I to 
 think of this juggling ? If you re- 
 port truly, I do not only think, but 
 am justified in saying, Sir William 
 116 
 
21)0 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALEiNDAR. 
 
 Forbes and the Commercial Bankers 
 are a set of scoundrels, and the 
 greatest villains in existence ; and 
 certainly not deserving any credit 
 whatever. I shall, most assuredly, 
 report their conduct, not oi.Jy to the 
 bank directors of England, but post 
 them in every commercial town in 
 Europe. 
 
 ' Let these fellows have any hooks 
 belonging to me, or in my posses- 
 sion ! Certainly not. Pray let me 
 ask, how am I to know, when they 
 are in such villainous hands, what 
 use they may make o! theni to 
 answer their own ends and purposes? 
 Afterwards I may then be told by 
 some of the gang, " O, they are 
 honourable men, and would not do 
 so bad an action !" and so to be 
 cozened by their honourableships. 
 Although I am but a plain, blunt 
 Englishman, I know these sort of 
 honourables too well to trust them 
 with any thing they can construe 
 to make subservient to their pur- 
 pose. I would not, alter such 
 swearing, lying quirks, tricks, and 
 subterfuges as these honourables 
 have been guilty of, trust them with 
 the piece of tobacco paper now before 
 me. I therefore decidedly decline 
 having any thing to do with such 
 honourables, and wish to have no 
 other communication with them but 
 in a court of justice, where I coiild 
 scarcely even there think myself 
 safe (particularly iu a Scotch court, 
 where they are permitted to say 
 and swear what they please through 
 their agency.) 
 
 ' I shall be away from here in a 
 day or two, either for Berne or the 
 Italian States. 1 am exceedingly 
 ill, and have been for a long time ; 
 imbed my health is daily declining. 
 Your agent, Mr. Jamieson, certainly 
 knows what is best to be done with 
 these honourables ; and, therefore, 
 as there is no other alternative, you 
 must wait with patience the issue. 
 
 Trusting you are better in health 
 than I am, 1 remain 
 
 ' Your very sincere friend, 
 fSigned) ' James Martin.' 
 At the close of every session, 
 during the progress of the case, 
 Mackcoull went regularly to Lon- 
 don by sea; and returned in the 
 same manner, when the courts met. 
 On these occasions he was to be 
 seen in Edinburgh every evening at 
 a low public house, surrounded by 
 journeymen and apprentices, whom 
 be amused with Ids numerous de- 
 scription of Scotch bailies, lawyers, 
 and bankers, applying to them the 
 most ludicrous names and epithets 
 that could be devised, denouncing 
 against them vengeance and public 
 exposure. He was extremely gene- 
 rous, and was looked on by this 
 low company as a little king 
 
 During the summer sessions he 
 produced the letters supposed to be 
 to and from Martin, and, as if now 
 confident of success, he urged his 
 counsel to accelerate the business ; 
 but, as betore, the court rose without 
 coining to any decision. The bank 
 was at this time in a critical situa- 
 tion ; unless they proved Mack- 
 coull's participation in the robbery, 
 and that the bills, &c. were pur- 
 chased with notes stolen fiom the 
 bank, they would have to deliver 
 up to Mackcoull not only the bills, 
 &c but pay all attendant expenses, 
 besides the disgrace of losing the 
 action — an action unparalleled in 
 the annals of any court of Europe : 
 a public depredator — a convicted 
 rogue and vagabond — troingat large 
 in the metropolis, without any law- 
 ful employment, denouncing courts, 
 magistrates, and individuals, and 
 prosecuting with their own money 
 a respectable banking company, for 
 attempting to keep part of the pro- 
 perty of which he had robbed them. 
 But this was not all. Mackcoull's 
 intention, if successful, was to fol- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 291 
 
 low the decision with an action of 
 damages, in which it was the opi- 
 nion of many that he would also 
 succeed. 
 
 In Decetnher, 1819, Mackcoull 
 and his agent urged the matter so 
 strenuously, that the trial was fixed 
 for the 20th of February, 1820 ; and 
 the issue to he tried was, whether 
 Mackcoull was concerned in the 
 robbery. 
 
 To prepare for the trial, the bank 
 sent Mr. Donovan, an intelligent 
 officer in Edinburgh, from Glasgow 
 to London, to trace the route the 
 robbers had taken nine years before, 
 and to procure witnesses. Dono- 
 van was successful, and brought 
 down with him Scoltop, Mrs. Huffey 
 White, several waiters at inns, and 
 even Mrs. Mackcoull, who consented 
 to give evidence against her hus- 
 band. The most eminent lawyers 
 at the Scotch bar were engaged on 
 each side ; and on the morning of 
 the trial, May the 11th, 1820, every 
 avenue to the court was crowded to 
 excess, so intense was t he interest 
 excited by the case. The result 
 was against Mackcoull, for the wit- 
 nesses completely established his 
 guilt; and so unexpected was the 
 appearance of some of them to him, 
 that he frequently ran out of court, 
 and on seeing Scoltop actually 
 swooned away. 
 
 Mackcoull's career of villainy 
 was now near its end. On the 19th 
 of June be was indicted for the rob- 
 bery, in the High Court of Justi- 
 ciary ; and the same witnesses being 
 again examined, the jury returned 
 a. verdict of Guilty — Death. To- 
 wards the conclusion of the trial 
 Mackcoull often looked about him 
 with a kind of vacant stare, and 
 was observed frequently to mutter 
 and grind his teeth. When the ver- 
 dict was announced he gave a ma- 
 lignant grin : and, when sentence 
 was passed, he bowed respectfully 
 
 to the Court. On being carried 
 back to gaol his fortitude forsook 
 him, and he appeared overwhelmed 
 with despair. At this moment he 
 said whh emotion, ' Had not the 
 eye of God been upon me, such a 
 connected chain of evidence never 
 could have been brought forward !' 
 His spirits, however, soon returned, 
 and he received the number of visit- 
 ors, who were led by curiosity to see 
 him, with great cheerfulness. 
 
 Although he had treated his wife 
 with great unkindness, she now 
 came forward, and supplied him, 
 during his imprisonment, with every 
 necessary in piofusion. She also 
 made application for a reprieve ; and 
 whether from her exertion or not, 
 on the 14th of July, a respite arrived, 
 and in three weeks after a reprieve 
 during his majesty's pleasure. 
 
 All who visited Mackcoull did 
 not do so from mere curiosity. One 
 man went for the laudable purpose 
 of awakening in his mind some sen- 
 timents of religion, and to induce 
 him to repent of his manifold crimes, 
 as a necessary means of salvation. 
 This person was attached to the 
 Methodists, and one day brought 
 with him a friend, a missionary, 
 whom he introduced to Mackcoull. 
 The convict received his guests with 
 great politeness, and soon began to 
 question the missionary so closely 
 concerning his travels in Germany, 
 that he was glad lo fly to Poland 
 and Silesia; when, finding that 
 Mackcoull had not been there, he 
 began to expatiate on the ignorance 
 and barbarism of the people, whom 
 he represented as eating jackasses. 
 1 Hold ! hold !' said Mackcoull, ' I 
 do not believe you ; for, if they eat 
 asses, how the devil did you escape 
 being devoured ?' 
 
 Alter the month of August Mack- 
 coull fell into a natural decline, 
 which affected his mental faculties 
 so much that he became altogether 
 
292 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 silly and ehildish. He was haunted 
 in his sleep by frightful dreams and 
 visions, and frequently started up 
 with such dreadful cries, and hor- 
 rible expressions and impn cations, 
 that none of the other felons could 
 remain in the cell with him. hie 
 was visited occasionally, not only 
 by the regular ordinary of the gaol, 
 but also by several eminent divines, 
 to all of whom he behaved with be- 
 coming respect, but generally re- 
 fused or declined to enter with them 
 on religious subjects. Sometimes, 
 however, it is said, he attributed this 
 obduracy to the want of a religious 
 education, and the very slight ac- 
 quaintance he had witli the Bible. 
 Previous to his death he was so 
 much emaciated that those wlio saw 
 him at the trial could not again re- 
 cognize him ; while, from the time 
 of his conviction, it was remarktd 
 that his hair began lo change co- 
 lour. At that period it was jet 
 black, but in the course of three 
 months it became silver grey. He 
 died in the county gaol of Edin- 
 burgh, on the 22d (lav of December, 
 1820, and was decently interned, at 
 the expense of his wife, in the 
 Calton burying-ground. 
 
 Thus terminated the mortal exis- 
 tence of a man who eeemed destined 
 by Nature for a better fate. That 
 he possessed abilities which, with 
 honest and industrious application, 
 might have rendered him a useful 
 member of society, cannot be de- 
 nied : but it is difficult to overcome 
 the effect of early impressions — he 
 was reared and nurtured in ahot-bed 
 of vice. He felt no spur, no in- 
 
 centive, to virtue ; and he impli- 
 citly followed the impulse of a pol- 
 luted conception. His whole life 
 may thus be considered as one un- 
 interrupted career of villany, almost 
 without a parallel. That he did not 
 expiate his crimes on a gibbet, was 
 merely owing to circumstances which 
 are nut worth explaining; but, dur- 
 ing the period of his imprisonment, 
 he suffered many deaths. Of the 
 fatal tree he spoke without fear ; 
 but the dread of a future tribunal 
 paralized his understanding. He 
 saw and trembled at the approach 
 of that unerring shaft which io 
 earthly ruler could control ; while 
 the horrors of his mind, by affect- 
 ing the nervous system, accelerated 
 his dissolution. The retrospect of 
 his life often obtruded itself with 
 new modifications of insupportable 
 reflection — the prospect of futurity 
 he could only contemplate with fear- 
 ful apprehension. He felt the 
 wakening of a seared conscience, 
 from which there was no retreat. 
 He crawled about, grinding his 
 teeth ; his intervals of slumber were 
 broken and interrupted with the 
 most frightful visions, and he saw 
 the hairs of his head become grey 
 with anguish ! The picture is too 
 horrible to finish. To Religion he 
 was a stranger, a total stranger, in 
 this hour of need : he felt not her 
 soothing influence — he cherished 
 not the hope of forgiveness or 
 mercy. Unhappy man ! he looked 
 to God as to a cruel and vindictive 
 ruler, at whose hands he could only 
 expect the full punishment of his 
 crimes: his resignation was despair ! 
 
 FREDERICK WHITE, 
 
 CONVICTED OF HIGHWAY ROBBERY. 
 
 The extraordinary escape of this would otherwise be unworthy. It 
 
 young man from an ignominious appeared on his trial that he was 
 
 death demands a notice, of which present at a fire in Wardour Street 
 
 the circumstances of his conviction Soho, on the 30th of November' 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 293 
 
 1820, when a gang of pickpockets, 
 the usual attendants at such scenes, 
 among other depredations made an 
 attack upon an individual in the 
 crowd, and succeeded in robbing 
 him of his chain and seals. White, 
 who was near enough to witness the 
 transaction, was seized by the per- 
 son robbed, charged with the Iheft, 
 and taken in custody to the watch- 
 house. As he was entirely alone, 
 he could do no more than declare 
 his innocence, which was attested at 
 the time by a stranger, who fol- 
 lowed him to the watch-house. The 
 complainant and the guardians of 
 the night naturally enough suspect- 
 ed this voluntary witness for an ac- 
 complice, and discredited his testi- 
 mony : White, however, who knew 
 its truth, begged of him ' to come 
 tomorrow for him.' He accordingly 
 attended at the police-office in the 
 morning, and obtained precisely the 
 same credit he had gained the pre- 
 vious evening. White was, there- 
 fore, fully committed : the grand 
 jury found the bill against him on 
 Wednesday, December the 5th ; and 
 on the Friday following he was 
 brought to his trial, and capitally 
 convicted. The only evidence of 
 importance against him was that of 
 the prosecutor, who swore to his 
 person, and that he kept pulling, 
 and made a screw to get the watch 
 out at the time he (the prosecutor) 
 had hold of him. Two persons who 
 had accompanied the prosecutor to 
 the fire did not see the robbery, 
 being then at some distance, but 
 assisted in securing and conveying 
 the prisoner to the watch-house. 
 The stranger who had previously 
 appeared as the prisoner's witness, 
 made it his business to examine the 
 list at the Old Bailey ; and without 
 any communication with, or solici- 
 tation from, White or his friends, 
 again tendered his evidence on his 
 behalf. His testimony was, that 
 
 the prosecutor, after declaring his 
 loss, seemed much confused, and 
 stood two minutes or more before 
 he laid hold of any body : that pre- 
 sently after there was a great rush 
 of all the mob ; the prisoner was 
 seized, and he followed him to the 
 watch-house to say he did not think 
 the prosecutor could swear to the 
 man, as he was greatly confused, and 
 appeared much intoxicated. The 
 prosecutor being auaiii called, de- 
 clared he was sober at the time; 
 and this testimony being corrobo- 
 rated by his two companions, who 
 both declared he was perfectly so- 
 ber, the stranger of course was dis- 
 credited, and the conviction of the 
 prisoner necessarily followed. 
 
 The unhappy youth concealed 
 his actual situation from his friends, 
 in the delusive hope that some 
 chance would save both him and 
 them the exposure, till it was too 
 late ; for, strange as it may appear, 
 his first communication to his mo- 
 ther of his awful situation was not 
 made until the morning on which 
 the grand jury found the bill against 
 him ; and so little acquainted were 
 his friends and himself of his dan- 
 ger, or the common means of avert- 
 ing it, that a learned gentleman, a 
 relation of the family, and who 
 might have rendered him great as- 
 sistance, was left wholly unacquaint- 
 ed with the tacts of the case till the 
 trial was over. 
 
 Such was the situation of the 
 youth when his unhappy fate at- 
 tracted the attention of Mr. Sheriff 
 "Waithman, who ascertained, from 
 undoubted testimony, the previous 
 good character and conduct of the 
 prisoner himself, and the respecta- 
 bility of his parents, with whom he 
 resided, in the neighbourhood of the 
 fire, to which his curiosity unlortu- 
 nat 1\ led him. 
 
 That he was unconnected with 
 the gang by whom the robbery was 
 
294 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 committed is obvious, from the cir- 
 cumstance that, although there were 
 ten or twelve of them together, the 
 prisoner used no endeavours lo es- 
 cape ; riot the slightest attempt was 
 made to rescue him ; nor had ho 
 heen visited during the whole of his 
 imprisonment by any persons but 
 those of his family, or their im- 
 mediate friends. The fact, how- 
 ever, was put beyond doubt by the 
 affidavit of a respectable gentle- 
 man, who was wholly ignorant of 
 White's unfortunate situation, but 
 who, when referred to, depossd (in 
 corroboration of a statement previ- 
 ously made by the prisoner) that he 
 was passing near the spot on the 
 night of the fire, and within a few 
 minutes of the time of the rob- 
 bery ; that he there saw and spoke 
 to White; that he was entirely 
 alone, and no person whatever in 
 company or conversation with him. 
 
 The stranger, who so persever- 
 ingly appeared on the prisoner's 
 behalf was proved, by evidence most 
 satisfactory, to be a young man of 
 character residing with his mother, 
 and in no way acquainted with 
 White or any of his family ; and 
 the veracity of bis testimony was 
 established by the voluntary decla- 
 rations of eight or ten respectable 
 individuals, all of whom agreed as 
 to the intoxication of the prosecutor 
 on the evening in question ; which, 
 added to the state of confusion 
 such an attack was likely lo occa- 
 sion, left no doubt but that he must 
 have been mistaken in the person 
 of the prisoner. 
 
 In the pjosecution of his inquiries 
 Sheriff Waithman judged it impor- 
 tant to ascertain the grounds upon 
 "which the verdict of the jury was 
 founded ; and in answer to a letter 
 on that subject, addressed by him 
 to the foreman, he received a de- 
 claration, signed by all the jury, 
 that their verdict was given upon 
 
 the conviction that the prosecutor 
 and his companions were sober at 
 the time of the robbery, and their 
 disbelief of the evidence of the wit- 
 ness to the contrary, whom they 
 viewed in the light of an accom- 
 plice rather than a disinterested 
 Person, as he stated himself to be. 
 
 These concurrent testimonies in 
 the youth's favour were communi- 
 cated to Lord Sidmouth as they 
 were obtained ; but, to the great 
 surprise of the sheriff, an obstacle 
 of a serious nature presented itself 
 at the outset of his exertions. A 
 petition had been delivered at the 
 office of the secretary of state for 
 the home department, purporting 
 to be signed by the prisoner, in 
 which he confessed bis guilt, and 
 acknowledged the justice of his sen- 
 tence. It has, however, been subse- 
 quently established, by the most in- 
 dubitable testimony, that, although 
 this petition had been drawn up 
 under an impression generally en- 
 tertained in the prison that a denial 
 of guilt would be considered as an 
 imputation upon the court and the 
 jury, and render all applications for 
 mercy unavailing, the prisoner, fully 
 aware of this circumstance, could 
 by no entreaty be prevailed upon to 
 acknowledge guilt, even for the 
 chance of saving his life. A pious 
 fraud was therefcre committed, and 
 the prisoner's name affixed to the 
 petition by his brother, without his 
 knowledge or consent. 
 
 Lord Sidmouth, the home secre- 
 tary, received these communications 
 with caution, wot giving the sheriff 
 any hope of a pardon, but deter- 
 mined to submit the whole to the 
 consideration of Mr. Baron Garrow, 
 before whom the prisoner whs tried; 
 who gave it as his decided opinion 
 that if such evidence had been 
 brought forward at the trial, the 
 jury would have found the prisoner 
 not guilty. Lord Sidmouth had 
 
KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 295 
 
 now no hesitation in recommending 
 dim as a fit object for tlie roval cle- 
 mency, and he was of course dis- 
 charged. 
 
 At the same time witli White a 
 youth named Harley, was liberated 
 from Newgate on his majesty's free 
 paidon. The circumstances of 
 his case are singular and remark- 
 able. 
 
 Harley was convicted at the Ja- 
 nuary sessions, 1821, of a street 
 robbery nearNorthnmberlandHouse, 
 on Monday, the 11th of December, 
 1820. The proseculor was sur- 
 rounded and hustled by fifteen or 
 twenty fellows, and had his watch 
 forcibly taken from him. He seized 
 one of the gang, but the others fell 
 upon him directly, rescued their 
 companion, and then beat the pro- 
 secutor unmercifully* 
 
 He subsequently described the 
 dress and person of the man who 
 robbed him ; and, upon that de- 
 scription, Harley was taken into 
 custody. He was put into a room 
 with ten or twelve others, and the 
 prosecutor, when sent by the offi- 
 cers, recognized him immediately. 
 The evidence of the prosecutor, on 
 the trial, was positive and direct. 
 He saw the prisoner pull the watch 
 from him, and hand it to another. 
 When asked if he was sure of his 
 person, he replied, ' If he was 
 tarred and feathered all over, ex- 
 
 cept his face, I could swear to 
 
 rum. 
 
 Harley, in his defence, attempted 
 to prove an alibi; but as his wit- 
 nesses were the inmates of a brothel, 
 where he had actually been at the 
 time, they received no credit, and 
 he was found Guilty, and received 
 sentence of death. 
 
 Fortunately for him the prose- 
 cutor swore that he knew his person 
 previous to the time of the robbery, 
 having had Harley pointed out to 
 him as a notorious thief on a cer- 
 tain Saturday ; on which day, it 
 afterwards appeared, Harley had 
 been in custody on another charge. 
 This fact was brought under the 
 cognizance of the secretary of state, 
 and it appeared that another per- 
 son, exactly resembling Harley, 
 both in person and dress, was known 
 as a hustler, a respite followed of 
 course; and the prosecutor stating 
 that he swore to him on the pre- 
 sumption of his being the person so 
 pointed out, a free pardon was ob- 
 tained. 
 
 Between White and Harley there 
 was no similarity, further than their 
 innocence of the crime for which 
 they had been convicted. White 
 was a youth of correct morals and 
 virtuous habits, but Harley was 
 known as a bad character ; and, on 
 his hair-breadth escape, he returned 
 to his former vicious companions. 
 
 JOHN THOMPSON AND JOHN BARNICOAT, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF WILLIAM HANCOCK. 
 
 There is every reason to believe every possible doubt which the 
 
 that the latter of these unfortunate case admits of, and we do not know 
 
 men died innocent of the crime for why the witnesses tor this unhappy 
 
 which he suffered. In proof of this man, who proved a complete alibi, 
 
 opinion we have, in addition to his were considered unworthy of credit, 
 
 own dying declaration, the testi- They differed certainly from each 
 
 mony of his guilty companion on other in immaterial facts ; but when 
 
 the falal gallows. Jurymen should have two men, without previous 
 
 always bear in mind that the communication, given precisely the 
 
 accused is entitled to the benefit of same account of a trivial occurrence!* 
 
290 KNAPP & BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 On the night of the 12th of Au- 
 gust, 1820, several robberies, and 
 one murder took place, on the high- 
 way, near Helston, in Cornwall. 
 A man named Jose, and his wife, 
 were robbed and wounded, and an- 
 other man, named William Hancock, 
 was shot, and treated so unmerci- 
 fully that he died a few days after. 
 Previous to his death, however, Bar- 
 nicoat was brought before him, when 
 he declared that he was one of the 
 men who robbed him, and identified 
 him as the man who struck him with 
 a long pole after he had been shot. 
 Bamicoat denied this, upon which 
 the dying man asked him, ' How he 
 could say so, as he stood oyer him, 
 and threatened to knock his brains 
 out.' Hancock also identified John 
 Thompson as one of the villains 
 who had attacked him. 
 
 In consequence of Hancock's dy- 
 ing declaration, Bamicoat, John 
 Thompson, and his brother, Thomas 
 Thompson, were committed to gaol, 
 and brought to trial, March the 
 30th, 1821. Bamicoat produced 
 witnesses to prove an alibi, bul as 
 they contradicted each other in 
 parts of their testimony, they were 
 disbelieved, and a verdict of guilty 
 was pronounced against Bamicoat 
 and John Thompson. Thomas 
 Thompson was acquitted, the declar- 
 ation of the murdered Hancock not 
 having included him. Bamicoat 
 was in his twenty-fourth year, and 
 Thompson only in his seven- 
 teenth. 
 
 On Monday, April 2, 1821, 
 these two miserable youths under- 
 went the awful sentence of the law 
 at Launceston. About half past nine 
 they were lead to the scaffold, which 
 was erected in the Castle Green, 
 
 adjoining to the gaol. Bamicoat 
 manifested a considerable degree of 
 firmness ; but it was found neces- 
 sary to support Thompson, who was 
 placed on a chair on thedrop.Whilst 
 standing on the fatal platform, the 
 chaplain asked Barnicoat if he still 
 persisted in his declaration of being 
 innocent of the offences for which 
 he was about to suffer. He ie- 
 plied, with much earnestness, that 
 he did ; adding, that he knew mo 
 more about the attack on Jose, or 
 the murder of Hancock, except 
 what he had heard of them, than 
 the child unborn, and that he was 
 at home in bed during ihe whole of 
 the night on which the attacks took 
 place. For the truth of his asser- 
 tions respecting his innocence he 
 solemnly appealed to Thompson, 
 who was now beside him, and about 
 to suffer with him. Thompson con- 
 firmed the declaration of Barnicoat, 
 as far as came under his own know- 
 ledge. He declared that Bamicoat 
 was not pr« sent at either the attack 
 on Jose or the murder of Hancock, 
 nor did he know any thing of them ; 
 the persons concerned were himself, 
 his brother William, and Thomas 
 Dawe ; that Da we was the person 
 who shot both Mrs. Jose and Han- 
 cock ; and that it was he himself 
 who "carried the pole, and who beat 
 Haticock after he fell : the pole he 
 had was the handle of a pike. The 
 necessary preparations being com- 
 pleted, the chaplain spent a few 
 minutes in prayer with the culprits, 
 and then withdrew ; almost imme- 
 diately after, Barnicoat gave the 
 signal previously agreed on, and 
 with his companion was launched 
 into eternity, in presence of a great 
 concourse of spectators. 
 
KNAPP Sc BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 297 
 
 BRIDGET BUTTERLY AND BRIDGET ENNIS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MISS THOMPSON. 
 
 Murder becomes doubly re- 
 volting when perpetrated by a fe- 
 male, and receives its last hue of 
 enormity when committed without 
 provocation. These malefactors were 
 natives of Dublin, and Butter! y had 
 been servant with Captain Peck, 
 who resided at Portland Place on 
 the banks of the canal, north of the 
 city. The captain's wife, Mrs. Peck, 
 author of several novels, did not 
 live with her husband, but he kept 
 under his protection a young lady 
 named Thompson, alias Bailis, a 
 native of England. Butteiley states 
 that while in Captain Peck's service 
 she had improper connexion with 
 her master, and on being turned 
 out of his service she became jealous 
 of Miss Thompson, andconsequently 
 wished to do her some harm. 
 
 It is but justice to state that 
 Captain Peck denied having had 
 any improper connexion with But- 
 terly, but she declared to the con- 
 trary a few minutes before her exe- 
 cution, and it is not likely that on 
 the verge of the grave she would 
 persist in a falsehood, which served 
 no purpose but to ad. I to the infamy 
 of her own memory. 
 
 After leaving the service of Cap- 
 tain Peck she went to lodge with 
 one O'Brien, in Summer Place, 
 where she had Ennis for a fellow 
 lodger. The latter, after some time, 
 proposed visiting England — the 
 common resource of all the vaga- 
 bond Irish, from the Giants' Cause- 
 way to Cape Clear. Butlerly con- 
 sented, and offered to provide funds 
 for the journey by robbing the house 
 of Captain Peck. This was agreed 
 to, and on the 28th of March, 1821, 
 they watched the house until they 
 saw the captain go into town, 
 when Butterly went up and knocked 
 at the door. Miss Thompson re- 
 
 ceived her with great kindness, 
 shook her by the hand, and look her 
 into the parlour, where Butterly 
 took up a child of two years old, 
 and btgan to caress it. In a few 
 minutes Ennis knocked at the door, 
 and on gaining admission she de- 
 sired Butterly lo put a handkerchief 
 round Miss Thompson's mouth, to 
 prevent her from giving alarm. 
 Butterly immediately did as desired, 
 and dragged the poor young lady 
 down stairs into the kitchen, where 
 she kept her until Ennis had pro- 
 cured the trunk and writing desk, 
 in which was money to a consider- 
 able amount. 
 
 Ennis on going away cried out 
 from the top of the kitchen stairs, 
 ' Butterly, don't injure the young 
 lady on your life.' But she had 
 no sooner closed the door after her, 
 than jealous furv took possession of 
 the atrocious wretch, and she took 
 up the poker, with which she struck 
 Miss Thompson on the head, and 
 repeated her blow until life was ex- 
 tinguished. The sight of death 
 seems to have softened the savage 
 barbarity of her heart ; for, with an 
 unaccountable impulse, she took up 
 the mangled body in her arms, and 
 wished that she could again infuse 
 life into that once beauteous form. 
 But as this was now impossible she 
 thought of her own safety, and ran 
 up stairs. In the hall she met Miss 
 Thompson's child ; kissed it, and 
 carried it into the parlour, after 
 which she took her departure. On 
 going to her lodgings she was 
 alarmed by not finding Ennis at 
 home, and suspecting that all was 
 not right she became dreadfully 
 agitated. 
 
 In the mean time, Captain Peck's 
 servant, who had followed her mas- 
 ter to the market, returned, and not 
 
298 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 gaining immediate admission looked for Ennis had returned soon after 
 
 down the kitchen window, where Butterly, and deposited these things 
 
 she saw her mistress lying on the in her room. 
 
 floor. Giring the alarm, the door These wretched women were no 
 
 was forced open, when the robbery sooner committed to prison than 
 
 and minder were quickly made they acknowledged their guilt, am!, 
 
 known, and thousands flocked to through tin* influence of thepiiest 
 
 Portland Place, to inform them- 
 selves of a fact which at first ap- 
 peared too atrocious for belief with- 
 out occular demonstration. 
 
 who attended them, Captain Peck 
 was put in possesion of the re- 
 mainder of his money. On the first 
 of the following May they were 
 
 The sensation produced in Dub- tried and convicted, and on Monday 
 lin by this mid-day murder was the 4th were executed in front of 
 intense; the youth and beauty of Kilmaiuham gaol, amidst an irn- 
 tlie deceased deeply affected all who mense concourse of spectators, 
 saw her mangled remains ; and, for- Soon after they had been turned off, 
 tunately for the ends of justice, the a butcher's dog got into the circle 
 culprits did uot long enjoy th< ir ill- kept clear about the fatal drop by 
 acquired wealth. Ennis went to a the dragoons, who attended for 
 grocer in Great Britain Street, and that purpose. One of these men 
 having ordered some tea tendered a made a cut of his sword at the dog, 
 note, which she called a pound-nole, who immediately attacked his horse, 
 for payment. The grocer, whose and in the confusion which ensued 
 name was M'Gloin, seeing that it the people imagined that the soldiers 
 was a ten pound-note, questioned had charged the people. The con- 
 her, and finding that she became sequence was a simultaneous move- 
 alarmed he sent for a peace-officer, ment to yet away, and in the bur r 
 and had her taken into custody, a young man was trampled to death, 
 The note was soon identified by and several persons were danger- 
 Captain Peck, and Ennis having ously hurt. The wretched culptits 
 mentioned her lodgings, the officers on the morning of execution con- 
 proceeded thither, when they found fessed the crime for which they were 
 Butterly, with part of the money, as about to die, and appeared truly 
 well as the trunk and writing-desk ; penitent. 
 
 DAVID HAGGART, alias JOHN WILSON, alias JOHN MOR- 
 RISON, alias BARNEY M'COUL, alias JOHN M'COLGAN 
 
 alias DANIEL O'BRIEN, alias THE SWITCHER, 
 
 EX3CUTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 David Haggart was born at a 
 farm-town called the Golden Acre, 
 near Cannon Mills, in the county of 
 Edinburgh, on the 24th of June, 
 1801. His father was a game- 
 keeper; but as his family increased, 
 he followed the occupation of a dog- 
 trainer, and was much taken up in 
 accompanying gentlemen on shoot- 
 in? and coursing excursions. On 
 these occasions David was employed 
 
 to assist in keeping the kennel, and 
 the gentlemen who had their doi^s 
 in training took great notice of him, 
 and never failed giving him a few 
 shillings for paying particular at- 
 tention to their dogs. 
 
 He was also, when very young, 
 taken to the Highlands for two sea- 
 sons to carry the bag during the 
 shooting time, and as be was al 
 ways a merry boy, the sportsmen 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 299 
 
 took a liking to him, and sent liim 
 home with plenty, so tliat he never 
 wanted the means of indulging him- 
 self in childish follies. — In these 
 habits and these indulgences an in- 
 telligent observer of human nature 
 at on re discovers, not the seeds of 
 his vices, for they had their deep- 
 rooted origin in human depravity, 
 but the soil that pushed them for- 
 ward lo such an early and awful 
 maturity. Perhaps there is nothing 
 in every point of view more injurious 
 to young persons, than a profuse 
 supply of pocket money in propor- 
 tion to their circumstances and sta- 
 tions in life. It takes off every 
 stimulus to industry, and every in- 
 centive to frugality; promotes a 
 spirit of selfishness, pride, and con- 
 tempt of authority ; exposes to the 
 snares of evil company ; multiplies 
 the wants, and consequently enhances 
 the privations of future life, or leads 
 to unjust means of avoiding them. 
 
 David Haggart acknowledged, 
 that although he was so much em- 
 ployed in assisting his father in his 
 husines, his education was not neg- 
 lected. His father early instructed 
 him iu religion ; — but while pursu- 
 ing a course of life so replete with 
 temptations to vice, it seemed 
 only like building with one hand 
 and pulling down with the other. 
 Children are not merely to be told 
 the way in which they should go — 
 but ' trained up' to go in it ; — they 
 thould not only be brought up in 
 the nurture, but in the admonition 
 of the Lord. Discipline must be 
 carefully exercised, as well as in- 
 struction diligently imparted. In 
 addition to domestic instruction, 
 David was sent to school, where he 
 acquired considerable knowledge of 
 English grammar, writing, and arith- 
 metic. He appears to have been a 
 sharp active lad, and was always 
 the leader of his schoolmates, both 
 in learning and in sports. He did 
 
 not recollect ever losing his place 
 in the class lor deficiency in a< quir- 
 ing Ins lessons, but was often punish- 
 ed for playing truant. — This is ail 
 offence which hoys at school too 
 seldom look upon in the light of a 
 crime. Many a boy, who would 
 feel ashamed of being detected in 
 what he considered a mean disho- 
 nourable action, will speak with 
 great self-approbation of the adroit- 
 ness with which he managed an 
 enterprise of this nature ; and too 
 often parents are found thoughtless 
 enough to encourage such conduct 
 by making a laugh of it. and even 
 relating their own feats of child- 
 hood. A little consideration of the 
 bad principles thus called into exer- 
 cise, and the exposure of bad com- 
 pany incurred, would certainly check 
 such erroneous conduct. 
 
 At about ten years of age, the 
 subject of this narrative was seized 
 with a fever, and on his recovery 
 did not return to school, but staid 
 to assist his father in his business, 
 and thus terminated his education 
 for a considerable time. A trifling 
 accident having occurred at home, 
 through fear of punishment from his 
 father, he came to the resolution of 
 quitting his house ; and from that 
 fatal hour he dated the commence- 
 ment of his sinful career. Perhaps 
 he miuht, with great propriety, have 
 gone back to that in which he first 
 slily staid away from school, and 
 spent the hours with sinful com- 
 panions in forbidden sports. A boy 
 who had never been guilty of dis- 
 obedience and artifice at school, 
 would scarcely, on account of a small 
 accident at home, have taken at 
 once the rash step of forsaking a 
 father's house. Young people ! — 
 the distinction is not unimportant ; 
 if you wish always to shudder, as 
 you now shudder at the thought of 
 the second step in vice, take care to 
 shrink from the first. 
 
300 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 At this time David observes lie feeling himself tired, proposed to 
 
 had formed no wicked acquaintances; mount the beast, and return home ; 
 
 perhaps he confined this epithet his companion did not object, and 
 
 to those who had taken the same they set off at full gallop. The ani- 
 
 flagrant steps in vice to which he mal was very restive, and threw 
 
 afterwards attained. A well-taught them several times. On reaching 
 
 youth will apply it lo ail who are home they lodged him in a donkey 
 
 capable of disobedience to parents, hut, and kept him there several 
 
 artfulness, and irreliftiori. Being da>s, until traced by the owner, 
 
 of a bold and fearless disposition, who threatened to have them both 
 
 even at this early period of life, he punished, but was appeased by the 
 
 committed several depredations. The neighbours. Haggait declared that 
 
 first of these was stealing a bantam he had no intention of stealing the 
 
 cock, the property of a poor wo- pony, but having once taken the 
 
 man : young Haggart took a fancy notion of getting a ride home, he 
 
 to it on account of its great beauty, was determined to avail himself of 
 
 and offered to buy it, but the owner the opportunity, and was afterwards 
 
 would not part with it ; so he got at a loss how to return the beast, 
 another cock, set the two a fighting, Shortly after this adventure, he 
 
 and ran off with his ill-gotten prize, went to attend Leith Races, in July, 
 
 He also tried shop-lifting, and car- 1813; he had no previous intention 
 
 ried off the till of a poor woman, of committing depredations, but 
 
 He knew and felt all this was wrong : merely to idle a few days, and 
 
 but fully employed in vice, he took amuse himself. But ' Satan finds 
 
 no time to be sorry or repent; be- some mischief still for idle hands to 
 
 side, he falsely and wickedly ar- do ;' and David Haggart was not 
 
 gued that it was of no use for him the first, who on a race ground was 
 
 to repent, for he must fulfil his fate, led into vices and follies of which 
 
 There is not a more dreadful delu- he had no previous intention or idea, 
 
 sion, nor one perhaps that the great In the close of the week, being in a 
 
 enemy of souls more frequently im- state of intoxication, he fell in with 
 
 poses upon wicked men, than that a recruiting party at the raees, and 
 
 of charging their sins and miseries got enlisted in the Norfolk militia, 
 on fate. Often have these dan-er- He soon learnt to beat the drum, 
 
 ous sentiments been uttered, and and afterwards to blow the bugle 
 
 still oftener indulged : — ' It was my horn ; he liked the red coat and ihe 
 
 lot to get among bad companions, soldiering well enough for a while, 
 
 and so fall into wicked wajs.' 'If but soon became tired of it; he 
 
 I am doomed to go on to my ruin, found the confinement disagreeable, 
 
 it is in vain to strive against it.' and the pay too small for bis extra- 
 
 ' If I am to be saved at last, some- vagant ideas. In about a year the 
 
 thing will turn up for my conver- regiment was ordered to England 
 
 sion.' What can have a stronger to be disbanded ; and haung made 
 
 tendency than sentiments like these interest with his commanding officer, 
 
 to harden men in their sins ? he got his discharge in Edinburgh, 
 
 Haggart's next adventure was in and returned to the house of his fa- 
 accompanying a lad, with whom he ther, who again kindly put him to 
 had been very intimate, on a visit school, where he continued about 
 to a relation, six miles from Edin- nine months, and obtained a farther 
 burgh. They saw a pony crazing knowledge of arithmetic and book- 
 on the road side, when Haggart, keeping. He was then bound ap- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 301 
 
 prentice to Cockbum and Baird, 
 millwrights and engineers, for the 
 period of six years. ' I had now,' 
 said Haggart, ' reflected on my past 
 follies, and formed a resolution of 
 following my new business with 
 honesty and zeal.' He applied him- 
 self closely to work for about two 
 years, and acquired the good opinion 
 oi his masteis, and perhaps inspired 
 his afflicted parents with hopes of 
 his permanent reformation. At this 
 time he was entrusted to pay in and 
 draw considerable sums of money at 
 the bank, and appears to have acted 
 with fidelity towards his masters ; 
 but at length he contracted an in- 
 timacy with several very loose cha- 
 racters, and was often engaged in 
 disgraceful adventures in the streets 
 at night ; but they were in some 
 degree limited, by his parents im- 
 posing on him the salutary restric- 
 tion of keeping early hours, as also 
 by his ignorance of houses for the 
 reception of stolen goods. The 
 affairs of his employers becoming 
 involved, David was thrown on his 
 parents; idleness exposed him afresh 
 to temptation, and he pursued his 
 former ill-habits with wretched pro- 
 ficiency and success. He was very 
 fond of company, and having now 
 greater opportunities of gratifying 
 his propensities, he continually fre- 
 quented dances and raffles, where 
 he mingled in the society of both 
 sexes of the most dissolute charac- 
 ter. In less than three months 
 from the time that young Haggart 
 obtained unrestricted liberty to at- 
 tend his sinful pleasures, he found 
 himself, at the early age of sixteen, 
 plunged into such a state of vice 
 and wretchedness, that his mind 
 could not endure reflection. He 
 spent whole nights in the streets, 
 or in worse places : every thing he 
 saw, or heard, or did, was wicked ; 
 his nights and his days were evil ; 
 he could not bear to look at his 
 
 relations, and growing at last im- 
 patient of the restraint of living in 
 his father's house, he formed the 
 resolution of shifring his scene of 
 action. Among his wretched asso- 
 ciates, he had formed a great in- 
 timacy with Barney M'Guire, an 
 Irishman, considerably older than 
 himself; of a bold, enterprising spi- 
 rit, of great bodily strength, and a 
 most dexterous pick-pocket. In- 
 structed by this veteran in the arts 
 of wickedness, they agreed to travel 
 to England together, and share the 
 fruits of their unlawful occupation. 
 It was when in company with, and 
 encouraged by the daring acts of 
 this man, that he first attempted to 
 pick a pocket in open day-light ; 
 and he it observed, this attempt was 
 made on a race ground, and on the 
 person of a gentleman who had been 
 very successful in his bets. Haggart 
 was so eager on his prey as to pull 
 out the pocket alontj with the 
 money, and nearly upset the gentle- 
 man, who turned quickly round and 
 examined his hands ; but the booty 
 was already passed to his companion 
 in wickedness, and the gentleman 
 appeared satisfied of his innocence, 
 but said some one had picked his 
 pocket. The produce of this achieve- 
 ment was eleven pounds. 
 
 From Portobello, Haggart and 
 his wicked companion proceeded to 
 Jedburgh, and thence to Kelso 
 to attend St. James's fair. They 
 repaired to the ground soon after 
 breakfast, where they continued un- 
 til dark. Having observed a man 
 who had some horses for sale, and 
 who had a bulk, apparently notes, 
 in his breast pocket, Haggart came 
 up to price a good looking horse, 
 while Barney acted as his assistant. 
 A discussion arising respecting the 
 animal's age, the jockey, eager to 
 satisfy them, held the jaws of the 
 animal and shewed his teeth, and 
 while his arms were raised, Barney 
 
302 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 contrived to ease him of the con- 
 tents of his pocket, which, however, 
 contained only nine pounds. Hag- 
 gart immediately requested to see 
 the horse's pares, and on the jockey 
 complying they made off when his 
 hack was turned. During the day 
 they committed other depredations, 
 particularly on a gentleman whom 
 If aggart watched all day. 
 
 Soon after Dumfries fair invited 
 the attention of the youny; plun- 
 derers: here they remained three 
 weeks; but M'Guire being already 
 known there as an old offender, kept 
 , in close, and the prosecution of their 
 schemes of plunder was committed 
 toHaggartand a brother of M'Guire, 
 and as he also was a well-known 
 pickpocket, Haggart kept at a dis- 
 tance from him, and never spoke to 
 him in the streets. What a wretched 
 thing must it be, that regard to 
 personal safety compels these chosen 
 companions in vice, these partners 
 in the gains of iniquity, to disavow 
 and avoid each other in the presence 
 of their fellow-creatures .' 
 
 Beside collecting about seven 
 pounds in silver, (perhaps much of 
 it from persons whom the loss mi^ht 
 sink into deep distress,) Haggart, 
 observing a person going about in 
 quest of change for a ten-pound 
 note, followed him into the shop of 
 a hosier, under pretence of purchas- 
 ing goods, but in fact for the pur- 
 pose of plundering the unsuspecting 
 stranger. He secured his booty, and 
 decamped ; and the day following 
 started with his companions to 
 Annan, and thence to Lockerby, 
 where a fair was about to he held. 
 
 Here, at an inn, they got them- 
 selves into company wiih a farmer 
 and drover, both pitttty much in 
 liquor, and in consequence inclined 
 to quarrel. Of these circumstances 
 the villains took advantage. Hag- 
 gart fanned the flame of contention, 
 and urged them on to fight ; at 
 
 length they rose and stripped ; 
 M'Guire, under pretence of dissuad- 
 ing and separating, irritated them 
 the more, and involved them in a 
 general scuffle, during which Ha°:- 
 gait got from the farmer's coat his 
 pocket- book, containingtwenty-three 
 pounds ; than rang the bell in a vio- 
 lent passion, paid the reckoning, 
 abused the waiter for putting them 
 into a room with such company, and 
 decamped. Well did the wise man 
 observe, ' Who hath woe ? Who hath 
 sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? 
 Who hath babbling? Who hath 
 wounds without cause ? Who hath 
 redness of eyes ? — They that tarry 
 long at the wine — they that go to 
 seek mixed wine/ 
 
 The plunderers nextproceeded on 
 foot to Langholm, again to the fair. 
 There a gentleman, apparently a 
 dealer in cattle, whom > oung 
 M'Guire had seen with a pocket- 
 book containing a large quantity 
 of bank-notes, was fixed on as the 
 object of their attack. They watch- 
 ed an opportunity, and while Hag- 
 gart, apparently by accident, turn- 
 ed over the left breast of his coat 
 on his arm, Barney M'Guire diverted 
 his attention by a question relative 
 to some sheep just by, and young 
 M'Guire took from him his pocket- 
 book. This was passed to Barney, who 
 immediately made off; the others re- 
 mained a minute or two, and after- 
 wards walked slowly away to avoid 
 suspicion. 
 
 On joining Barney, he showed 
 them the pocket-book, stuffed with 
 cambric paper, and laughed at his 
 brother for giving them so much 
 trouble about nothing; but on get- 
 ting alone with Haggart, he showed 
 him the prize, which amounted to two 
 hundred and one pounds. This is 
 not the first instance in which Hag- 
 gart and M'Guire conspired to cheat 
 the younger M'Guire of his share of 
 the booty ; such meanness and trea- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 303 
 
 cilery in persons of their character 
 cannot excite much surprise ; but it 
 must he exceedingly humiliating to 
 these sharks of the earth, thus to be 
 made a prey to eacii other, and it is 
 a contradiction of the foolish boast of 
 ' honour among thieves.' Haggart 
 observes, that he never was happier 
 in his life than when he fingered all 
 this money ; but adds, he thought 
 sore about it afterwards, when he 
 was ill and likely to die. — Ah, 
 the pleasures of sin are but for 
 a season ! at the last they bite like 
 a serpent, and sting like an adder. 
 About half an hour after the above 
 adventure, they saw, to their great 
 surprise and terror, a police-officer 
 running about, but he did not see 
 them; they immediately took a post 
 chaise, and set forward on the road to 
 Annan, leavingword with theirland- 
 lord that theywere gone to Dumfries. 
 Next day they went on to Carlisle, 
 and remained there about a month, 
 amusing themselves by riding about 
 through the days, and passing the 
 evenings in gambling houses and 
 dancing rooms. Here Haggart ac- 
 quired great proficiency in the use 
 of cards, dice, and billiards, beside 
 a number of legerdemain tricks. 
 Oh ! had this ingenuity and appli- 
 cation been directed to the pursuit 
 ol some rational and innocent science, 
 in all probability a youth of Hag- 
 gart's abilities would have insurtd 
 to himself an honest independence, 
 and become a useful and honourable 
 member of the community, instead 
 of its pest and disgrace. 
 
 During their stay in Carlisle, 
 they attempted to pick a gentle- 
 man's pocket of a gold watch and 
 seals, but the watch being secured 
 in the pocket, disappointed them ; 
 the gentleman accused them of their 
 intention, but they overp'>wered him 
 ■with abuse, and he left them. He, 
 however, watched them into their 
 lodging, and the same evening their 
 
 trunk and portmanteau were secured 
 by constables. To avoid being 
 taken themselves, they shifted their 
 abode to the house of one who ap- 
 pears to have been a comrade in 
 iniquity- Next morning, finding 
 their stock of clothes reduced to 
 what they had on, they went to a 
 respectable merchant tailor, and 
 were measured for suits of superfine 
 clothes. He had them ready in 
 two days, when they called for 
 them ; and under pretence of want- 
 ing some other articles, while the 
 master left the room a moment to 
 fetch them, the sharpers took up 
 their new clothes and made off, 
 taking the next stage for Kendal. 
 At this place is held one of the 
 finest horse markets in England: 
 here, under pretence of dealing for 
 horses, they robbed a gentleman of 
 forty-three pounds, and hastened 
 next day to Morpeth, where a fair 
 was shortly to be held. Here they 
 fell in company with some others of 
 their own profession, and strength- 
 ened each other's hands in sin; they 
 engaged in two hazardous adven- 
 tures — picking one gentleman's 
 pocket of fifteen pounds, and snatch- 
 ing seventeen pounds out of the 
 hands of another, who was bargain- 
 ing for a horse. It is painful to 
 observe, that at this place they fill 
 in with a constable or police-officer, 
 who had formerly been acquainted 
 with Barney ; they renewed their 
 acquaintance with a familiarity and 
 confidence which too clearly proved 
 the connexion that often subsists 
 between characters of these de- 
 scriptions. They next proceeded 
 to Newcastle, where they obtained 
 lodgings in the house of a respect- 
 able private family, and remained 
 there a month, assuming the false 
 names of Wilson and Arkison, and 
 passing for gentlemen travelling on 
 pleasure. It appears they were ad- 
 mitted to the intimate society of 
 
304 KNAPP db BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 this family, and were allowed to to Durham, to attend a fair, they 
 attend the young ladies to the came to a house in a lonely place, 
 theatre, and other places of public and determined to break into it. 
 amusement. Who but must shudder They entered it by a window, and 
 at the perilous situation in which met a strong resistance from the 
 these young f?males were placed ? master of the house ; but, having 
 and what a lesson of caution is con- knocked him down, they succeeded 
 veyed both to young persons and in binding him hand and foot, and 
 those who have the charge of them, gauging him with a handkerchief, 
 against forming habits of intimacy The rest of the family, being fe- 
 with persons whose character they males, were too much terrified to 
 are not thoroughly acquainted with ! interrupt them, and they proceeded 
 While their thoughtless companions to rifle the property. Having taken 
 supposed them intent only on amuse- about thirty pounds, they went to 
 ment, these adepts in iniquity, like Durham, where Haggart was a p pre- 
 lum to whose service they had de- bended the next day ; but having 
 Toted themselves, were in reality changed his clothes, and consider- 
 * jjoing about, seeking whom they ably disguised himself, the man 
 might devour.' On one occasion, whose house they entered could not 
 observing a gentleman whom they identify him: he was accordingly 
 supposed might afford them aeon- liberated, and returned to Newcastle, 
 siderable booty, Barney, under pre- Id two or three days they were 
 tence of indisposition, left his com- both apprehended, and carried back 
 panions, attacked the stranger, and to Durham ; having on the same 
 robbed him of thirty-three pounds, clothes in which they had corn- 
 Other similar adventures put them mitte-d the burglary, the man whom 
 in possession of about seventy they had robbed immediately recog- 
 pounds, yet this sum did not defray nised them, and was bound over to 
 their expences by fourteen pounds : prosecute. They were tried under 
 no, for he that worketh iniquity the feigned names of Morrison and 
 4 earneth wages to put into a bag Arkison, and were found guilty, 
 with holes.' and sent back to prison, in order to 
 
 One circumstance that occurred be brought up for sentence of death 
 
 at Newcastle must not be wholly at the end of the assizes, 
 
 unnoticed, because it proves that They lost no time in contriving 
 
 the society of gamblers is often that their escape, and after long delibe- 
 
 of swindlers, cheats, profane and ration with their fellow-prisoners, 
 
 quarrelsome persons ; and that gam- resolved on the attempt. They set 
 
 bling not unfrequently leads to the to work on the wall of their cell, and 
 
 commission of these crimes. Hag- got out to the back passage, when 
 
 gart and his companions were at a the turnkey made his appearance, 
 
 house for receiving stolen goods, They seized him, took his keys, 
 
 gambling with the bully of the bound and g'^gg^d him : having 
 
 house, from whom they gained about gained the back yard they scaled 
 
 three pounds ; he became enraged, the wall, but Barney and another 
 
 and swore an oath that they should prisoner fell, after {raining the top : 
 
 not leave the house with his money ; by this time the alarm was given, 
 
 on which a severe scuffle ensued, and they were both secured, 
 
 which had well nigh ended in blood- Haggart having made his escape, 
 
 shed and murder. returned to Newcastle, in company 
 
 In January, 1818, on their way with a Yorkshireman (most probably 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 305 
 
 one who had escaped from prison 
 with him), where he obtained a tool 
 with which to assist M'Guire in 
 making his escaoe ; and they were 
 returning to Durham when they 
 were pursued by two officers, who 
 got close to them on a wild part of 
 the road unobserved. Just as they 
 were springing on Haggart, he laid 
 one of them low with his pistol, and 
 left him, uncertain whether he had 
 his murder to answer for, but believ- 
 ing that li is aim was but too true; 
 and that was indeed the case. The 
 Yorkshireman knocked down the 
 other, and they then proceeded to 
 Durham ; where, in the night time, 
 Haggart, by means of a rope ladder, 
 got over the back wall of the gaol, 
 and conveyed the spring saw to 
 M'Guire, who made his escape that 
 same night, by cutting the iron bars 
 of his cell window, and followed 
 Haggart to Newcastle, and thence 
 accompanied him to Berwick-on- 
 Tweed, Dunse, and Coldstream, 
 where they lodged at a house for 
 receiving stolen goods; in the even- 
 ing they stripped a drover of nine 
 pounds, and removed next day to 
 Kelso. It is mentioned in this and 
 in several other instances, that the 
 persons they attacked were more or 
 less in a state of intoxication : let 
 this be a warning against that com- 
 mon, but disgraceful and ruinous 
 vice ; — -intoxication renders a person 
 an easy prey both to ill-designing 
 men and to the great tempter, who 
 is ever on the watch to catch un- 
 wary souls. 
 
 At Kelso they made a similar at- 
 tack on the person of a farmer, but 
 he had his eyes about him, and, de- 
 tecting Barney in the act of bring- 
 ing his money out of his pocket, he 
 seized him by the collar, and a ter- 
 rible scuffle ensued. The farmer, 
 who was very powerful, still retained 
 his grasp ; a mob soon gathered ; 
 Haggart escaped by flight, but 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 M'Guire was secured, and impri- 
 soned for three months. 
 
 Being now left without an asso- 
 ciate, Haggart returned to New- 
 castle, where he resided four months, 
 in the house of his old friend, Mrs. 
 
 A : during his stay theie, one 
 
 of the young ladies was married to 
 a respectable shopkeeper, on which 
 occasion Haggart took the lead in 
 conducting the festivities of the 
 wedding. About two months of the 
 time ILiggart supported himself by 
 gambling, in the same low and 
 vicious society he had before fre- 
 quented. One evening, having ac- 
 companied one of the Miss A 's 
 
 to the theatre, on their return, a 
 gentleman much in liquor attempted 
 to insult the young lady; struggling 
 in her defence, Haggart contrived to 
 pick the pocket of his antagonist of 
 nineteen guineas. On another oc- 
 casion he observed a person at the 
 gambling-house also much intoxi- 
 cated, whom he watched out of the 
 house; affected accidently to jostle 
 him, and stripped him of thirty- 
 three pounds. Soon after, attempt- 
 ing to take a gentleman's gold 
 watch, he was detected and pursued, 
 but made his escape by back ways 
 home. He attempted nothing far- 
 ther in Newcastle ; but in the month 
 of June took leave of his hostess 
 and her daughters, with much re- 
 gret on both sides. For the kind- 
 ness and friendship manifested to- 
 wards him by the family, Haggart 
 expressed great gratitude, and ob- 
 served, ' Little did they know the 
 person whom they had so long har- 
 boured in their house, and intro- 
 duced to most of their acquaint- 
 ances and relations, under the name 
 of Mr. John Wilson.' 
 
 On returning to Edinburgh Hag- 
 gart employed himself, in connexion 
 with a new associate, in shop- 
 lifting. The goods thus obtained 
 were disposed of for a quarter of 
 117 
 
306 KNAPP& BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 their value, and the servant of ini- 
 quity experienced the pinchings of 
 poverty — so expensive is vice, and 
 so insatiable the desire of forbidden 
 goods. With his new companion 
 (Henry) Haggart next visited Perth, 
 where they accosted a Highland 
 farmer,already intoxicated — invited 
 him to take some more liquor, and 
 robbed him of nine pounds. 
 
 A day or two after this Haggart 
 was seized with violent illness, and 
 returned to Edinburgh: after a few 
 days, finding himself somewhat re- 
 covered, he strolled out at dusk, 
 and assisted some old companions in 
 their iniquitous pursuits ; he was ac- 
 cidentally seen by GeorgeM'Conner, 
 an old apprentice of his father's, 
 who had faithfully promised if ever 
 he met with him to bring him home. 
 He succeeded in inducing him to 
 return to his father, by whom he 
 was gladly and kindly received ; 
 and he promised faithfully to remain 
 with his parents, and apply himself 
 to his old business of a mill-wright ; 
 but when asked where he had been, 
 or how employed, would give no 
 satisfactory answer. He remained 
 at home two or three days, and then 
 resolving to pass the night at a 
 house of ill-fame, which he had be- 
 fore frequented, he took two guineas 
 from the collar of his coat, where 
 he was in the habit of concealing 
 his ill-gotten treasures, and was 
 proceeding on his guilty purpose, 
 when he was seized with such a 
 shock of sickness as obliged liim to 
 take to his bed. During his illness, 
 which lasted four weeks, feelings of 
 remorse operated greatly upon him ; 
 he trembled at the thought of being 
 cut off in the midst of such wicked- 
 ness, and called to give an account 
 of all his crimes; to use his own 
 words, ' I felt that I was such a 
 sinner, that I was ashamed to ask 
 forgiveness either from God or man, 
 and such a stranger of late to reli- 
 
 gious instruction, that I had no 
 words for prayer ; I was altogether 
 without hope.' Oh ! that these 
 feelings had been deep and abiding 
 enough to drive the sinner to seek 
 mercy, pardon, and purity from the 
 blessed Jesus, who is exalted at 
 God's right hand, a Prince and a 
 Saviour, to give repentance and re- 
 mission of sins ! but without his 
 grace softening and changing the 
 heart, terrors alone will not prevail 
 to work an abiding change in the 
 character. * Can the Ethiopian 
 change his skin, or the leopard his 
 spots ? No more can they that are 
 accustomed to do evil, learn to do 
 good.' When Haggart recovered, 
 the thoughts of repentance soon left 
 his mind, and even while in a weak 
 and feeble state he recommenced 
 shop-lifling. Let sinners beware of 
 stifling their convictions and break- 
 ing off their purposes of repentance, 
 lest (according to our Lord's awful 
 and expressive words) the evil spirit 
 that seemed to withdraw for a while 
 should return, bringing with hint 
 other spirits more wicked than him- 
 self; and so the last state of that 
 man should be worse than the first. 
 
 Though Haggart returned to his 
 old practices, he so far kept up ap- 
 pearances at home, by never being 
 out after eight o'clock in the even- 
 ing, and seldom more than half an 
 hour at a time, that his parents 
 thought he could not be doing any 
 thing wrong, and pleased themselves 
 with the hope of his reformation. 
 
 One evening he accompanied a 
 lad, named John Steel, to Leith, 
 and went into a shop to buy some 
 tobacco, not intending at that time 
 to practise his profession ; when, to 
 his surprise, Steel snatched the roll 
 of tobacco from the woman's ha d 
 who was serving it, and ran off. 
 Haggart was taken so unawares by 
 this trick, that he made no attempt to 
 run away till seized by the woman's 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 307 
 
 son, to whom he dealt a violent blow, 
 sent him reeling on the ground, and 
 ran off. The pursuit soon became 
 general ; he was overtaken, and con- 
 veyed to the police-office ; he was 
 examined for this and for sime 
 other offences before the sheriff; 
 there was not sufficient proof against 
 him, but he was detained in gaol 
 till he could obtain bail for his ap- 
 pearance at any time within six 
 months. On being released he 
 went to his father's, where he was 
 kindly received ; he put such a good 
 face upon his projects, that his too 
 partial parents could not credit his 
 guilty intentions. His next ad- 
 venture was at shop-lifting, in com- 
 pany with two infamous female 
 companions ; he disposed of his 
 booty at the house of an acquaint- 
 ance, and hastened home to hed 
 soon after seven o'clock in the 
 evening. His father and mother, 
 who had been out, came in shortly 
 afterwards, and asked of his sister 
 where he was, and whether he had 
 been out ? She replied that he had 
 not, and that he was in bed. This 
 was very mistaken, as well as sin- 
 ful kindness : she was indeed quite 
 ignorant of what he had been about, 
 and concealed what she did know to 
 prevent any reproof from his pa- 
 rents for going out contrary to iheir 
 orders ; but the watchfulness and 
 reproofs of kind and careful parents 
 were far rather to be desired than a 
 continuance in sin undetected and 
 unreproved. However, he was next 
 morning taken up, and one of those 
 hardened wretches who invited him 
 to the commission of the crime, ap- 
 peared as evidence against him. 
 He stoutly denied any knowledge of 
 the affair, and offered to prove an 
 alibi; his parents were called, who 
 proved his being in bed at a quarter 
 past seven, and who believed he 
 had not been out all the preceding 
 evening : thus was their veracity 
 
 exposed to be called in question by 
 the improper means used hy their 
 daughter to conceal her brolher's 
 disobedience. The magistrates re- 
 leased him on the word of Lis 
 father, whom they knew to be an 
 honest man, hut expressed their 
 fear that his son was a rogue. 
 
 He remained very quietly at his 
 father's for about Ihree weeks, when 
 he was again taken up ; his other 
 female companion, having been se- 
 cured, had divulged every thing. 
 However, on cross-questioning her, 
 he so puzzled her that the judge put 
 no faith in her evidence, and he was 
 only ordered to find hail. He then 
 remained at his father's till Fe- 
 bruary, 1819, when one night he 
 met a former companion in vice, 
 who enticed him to his old trade of 
 a pick-pocket. Next day they 
 started in company for IVJussel- 
 burgh, and the same evening plun- 
 dered the shop of a merchant tailor 
 of two pieces of superfine cloth, 
 and some other articles; this valu- 
 able prize they exchanged, when in 
 liquor, for a small sum. 
 
 Having now again deserted his 
 father's house, and involved him- 
 self in the society of the most 
 vicious and abandoned of both 
 sexes, Haggart became yery care- 
 less and shabby in his dress and 
 appearance, and was engaged in 
 various petty, disgraceful scuffles : 
 at length he was taken up, and 
 brought before the same magistrates 
 from whom, in the former instance, 
 lie had escaped so easily. One of 
 them thus addressed him — ' Hag- 
 gnrt, you are a great scoundrel, and 
 the best thing 1 can do for you, to 
 make a good boy, is to send you to 
 Biidewell for sixty days: — bread 
 and water, and solitary confine- 
 ment.' He was immediately re- 
 moved from the bar, and conducted 
 to his doleful cell ; whence, about 
 ten days after, he was again brought 
 
308 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 before the magistral es on another 
 charge. For this he was sentenced 
 to other sixty days' imprisonment. 
 Although fully conscious of his 
 guilt, lie stiffly denied the charge ; 
 and, with the most hardened impu- 
 dence, told the judge, that if he 
 diet! in Bridewell they would be at 
 the expense of burying him. 
 
 After four months' imprisonment 
 he was released, in July, and re- 
 turned to his father's, where he 
 lived quietiy a few weeks, and re- 
 cruited his strength. 
 
 The time of his confinement had 
 been spent, not in penitent reflec- 
 tions on his past sinful course, and 
 humble resoluiions of amendment, 
 but in projecting new schemes of 
 vice with an associate in prison. In 
 the month of September I hey set 
 out together on their unlawful en- 
 terprises, and were soon joined by 
 two more abandoned characters of 
 each sex, and pursued their trade 
 in company. At Aberdeen races, 
 among other offences, Haggart stole 
 a watch, and pussed it to one of his 
 companions (Graham), who took it 
 to his lodgings, and hid it in the 
 draught hole at the back of the 
 grate. That very night a mason 
 was employed to put in another 
 grate, when the watch was dUco- 
 vered, and taken to an officer of 
 justice, who went immediately in 
 search of them. They were all 
 sentenced to imprisonments of dif- 
 ferent lengths ; the magistrate ex- 
 pressing his regret at seeing so 
 many good-looking lads going on 
 in the ways of 7ice and ruin. 
 
 After two months, Haggart and 
 one of his companions, named (or 
 nick-named) Doctor Black, were 
 released, when they immediately re- 
 commenced their courses of vice, 
 especially in the shop-lifting way. 
 Having stolen a pedlar's pack, and 
 several other articles of linen dra- 
 pery and hosiery, Haggart assumed 
 
 the character of a pedlar, and tra- 
 velled the country to dispose of his 
 ill-gotten goods. After this he re- 
 turned to Edinburgh, where he re- 
 mained till January, 1820, com- 
 mitting depredations of every de- 
 scription, both there and at Leith ; 
 especially robbing private houses of 
 large quantities of piate. On the 
 1st of March he was arrested at 
 Leilh, in company with an accom- 
 plice named Forest. The offendeis 
 made a desperate resistance, but 
 were at length secured and com- 
 mitted for trial. On the evening <>f 
 the 27th of March, having obtained 
 a small file, Haggart cut the irons 
 from bis legs, then forced up the 
 door of his cell, and got into the 
 passage. He then set to work 
 upon a very thick stone wall, 
 through which he at length made a 
 hole, and got on the staircase just 
 as the clock struck twelve. He had 
 still the outer wall to penetrate, on 
 which he fell to work with great 
 caution, lest he should be heard by 
 the person who was appointed to 
 watch him all night. Whilst he 
 was working at the wall this person 
 came several times to the door of 
 his cell, which was just below. 
 Having made considerable progress, 
 he returned to the room where bis 
 companion Forest was, and brought 
 him to his assistance; he also awoke 
 one of the debtors whom he knew, 
 and obtained his assistance in re- 
 moving his hand-cuffs, having all 
 along been working with them upon 
 him. After great labour and vio- 
 lent pain they succeeded in wrench- 
 ing the chain in two pieces, He 
 then renewed his operations on the 
 outer wall, and, having removed a 
 large stone, got out a few minutes 
 before five o'clock in the morning. 
 When he gained the outside stair be 
 saw a man coining towards him, and, 
 supposing him to be an officer in 
 pursuit of him, he leaped over the 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 30 f J 
 
 back of the stair; but recollecting 
 that Forest had yet to get out, he 
 prepared to give the man battle, 
 lest he should attempt to seize 
 forest; but the man said to him, 
 'Run, Haggart, run; I wont touch 
 you.' Forest came out, he took 
 hold of his hand, and ran off at full 
 speed, palling him along with him. 
 Here one cannot but pause, to re- 
 gret that such abilities, industry, 
 perseverance, and self-denial, had 
 not been exerted in obtaining an 
 honest livelihood, rather than in 
 escaping a just punishment. 
 
 It is distressing to relate, that 
 the very evening of their escape, 
 they returned to their detestable 
 trade. But indeed they had re- 
 duced themselves to a sort of wilful 
 necessity, having no other means 
 of subsistence. Let no one flatter 
 himself that in the ways of vice, he 
 may say to himself, ' Thus far shalt 
 thou go, and no farther ;' no ! the 
 first step in vice almost necessarily 
 draws on an hundred more, and im- 
 pels the sinner on to destruction. 
 At Dumfries they were joined by 
 two Irishmen of their own guilty 
 profession, T. M'Colgan, and Felix 
 Donnelly, the former of whom suf- 
 fered the awful sentence of the law 
 at Glasgow, for housebreaking, a 
 few months before Haggart. How 
 short is the course of vice! and how 
 truly has it been said, • Vice has 
 had more martyrs than godliness.' 
 
 These companions in guilt at- 
 tended at Dalbeattie fair, where 
 they gained fourteen pounds, and 
 on their return to Dumfries took 
 several purses and watches from the 
 door of the circuit court, which was 
 then sitting; and one evening about 
 eight o'clock, Haggart entered the 
 house of a Mrs. Graham, and took 
 thence a very large quantity of 
 plate, which he disposed of to a 
 wretch of the same name (though 
 of course not connected) with the 
 
 lady from whom they were stolen. 
 At Dumfries he metwith his old as- 
 sociate, Barney M'Guire, whom he 
 had not seen for two years. The 
 remainder of the party were taken 
 a few days afterward ; so Haggart 
 and M'Guire resolved to leave 
 Dumfries for Carlisle ; but going 
 into a shop, M'Guire was seized by 
 an officer in mistake for Haggart, 
 whose great coat he had on : by 
 this mistake he escaped for a short 
 time, but had not gone abt.ve six 
 miles on the road, when he was 
 pursued and taken, after a stout re- 
 sistance. Haggart was brought 
 back to Leith, where he was fully 
 committed to the gaol, and indicted 
 to stand trial before the High Court 
 of Justiciary on the 12th of July, 
 for one act of housebreaking, eleven 
 acts of theft, and one act of prison- 
 breaking. Of the house-breaking 
 he was acquitted, it appearing that 
 he got in at an open window ; but 
 was brought in guilty of theft, and 
 remanded to gaol without getting 
 any sentence. After lying there 
 some time, he was indicted to stand 
 his trial at Dumfries, for the affair 
 in which he had been there con- 
 cerned with Graham. 
 
 M'Guire was sentenced to four- 
 teen years transportation, and they 
 parted with great regret. 
 
 On the 6th of September, Hag- 
 gart was removed in a chaise, at- 
 tended by two officers, from Edin- 
 burgh to Peebles, where he was kept 
 two days in the gaol : this was long 
 enough for him to form a plan of 
 escape; which had nearly succeeded. 
 The iron frame of his window was 
 only fixed with lime ; he tore up 
 one of his blankets, tied one end to 
 the window bars, and the other to 
 the door of his cell ; he then got a 
 short wooden spoke off part of his 
 bedstead, and began twisting the 
 centre of the blanket; by this means 
 he would soon have pulled out the 
 
310 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 window, but the blanket was so rot- 
 ten, that it broke as soon as he laid 
 any stress upon it. Being disap- 
 pointed in his plan, he plastered up 
 the lime which he had removed so 
 neatly, that it was not observed by 
 the turnkey. A part of the torn 
 blanket he wrapped round bis body 
 for future use, little anticipating 
 the awful purpose it would be after- 
 wards turned to. He proceeded to 
 Dumfries, and on the 1 1th of Sep- 
 tember was taken into court for 
 trial. For some cause his trial did 
 not go on, and lie was sent back to 
 prison ; there he became acquainted 
 with a youth named John Dunbar, 
 who was just sentenced to seven 
 years' transportation, and after 
 some caution they entered into a 
 scheme for making their escape. 
 
 During the short time that Hag- 
 gart was in the gaol at Dumfries, 
 several respectable persons noticed 
 him, and kindly interested them- 
 selves in his behalf. One of these 
 amiable and excellent females, who 
 delight to mitigate the horrors of 
 imprisonment, and to attempt the 
 instruction and reformation of the 
 guilty, frequently called at the pri- 
 son, and behaved very kindly to 
 him ; but her kindness appears to 
 have had no beneficial effect on his 
 callous heart. 
 
 With one person, whom he styles 
 « a very respectable man,' Haggart 
 was allowed to tamper in order to 
 his escape ; he gave him the plans 
 of four keys.as there were four doors 
 between him and his liberty, and 
 expected from him such assistance 
 as should enable him to regain it. 
 Certainly the epithet was grossly 
 misapplied ; no one can be respect- 
 able who does not honour justice ; 
 and no one who respects the laws 
 of God, can wilfully violate, or aid 
 another to violate, those of his 
 country. Having also a spring-saw, 
 by means of which he could cut 
 
 away any iron that opposed his pro- 
 gress, Haggart felt himself secure 
 of liberty, but was drawn into an- 
 other scheme with Dunbar, careless 
 whether or not it succeeded ; the 
 prosecution of which however led to 
 the horrid deed for which he suffered. 
 His cell was opposite to that of 
 Edward M'Grory, who was then 
 under sentence of death for robbery, 
 and was afterwards executed ; an- 
 other prisoner, named Laurie,under 
 sentence of transportation, was in 
 the cell adjoining. One night he 
 asked llaggart through the wall, 
 ' You that have been at gaol-break- 
 ing before, how do you think this 
 could be broke ?' Unwilling to trust 
 him, Haggart replied, ' I don't 
 think it could be broke at all ;' al- 
 though at the same time he knew 
 to the contrary. Laurie then stated 
 his plan of getting a stone tied in a 
 handkerchief, and some morning 
 when they were all in the passage 
 together, to knock down Hunter, 
 the head-gaoler, and take the keys 
 from him. Tothis Haggart objected, 
 saying, if he never should get his 
 liberty, he never should strike the 
 Serjeant for it, because he thought 
 he could accomplish it in a better 
 and easier way : — this was, in the 
 absence of Hunter, to gag Thomas 
 Mori in the turnkey, in a closet, at 
 the head of the stairs, just opposite 
 the cage door, take the keys from 
 him, and let all the prisoners out. 
 Laurie still insisted on getting a 
 stone, saying that although they 
 could gag Morrin, they had still all 
 the debtors to get through. Hag- 
 gart refused to get the stone, but 
 told him to try Dunbar.who agreed ; 
 and next day when John Keid, a 
 prisoner, was passing along the 
 yard, he asked him for a stone to 
 break a flint. As soon as Dunbar 
 got tlie stone, he gave it to Laurie, 
 who fixed it at the bottom of a bag 
 made for pulling up things out ot 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 311 
 
 the yard, out of the piece of blanket 
 that Haggart had brought from 
 Peebles. The next thing was to 
 cut off the irons of M'Grory and 
 Laurie; the spring-saw would soon 
 have accomplished this, but Hag- 
 gart was determined to keep it se- 
 cret for his own purposes, ill case 
 of failure. He, therefore, with the 
 assistance of a file, made a small 
 saw out of a table-knife, which he 
 had procured from a prisoner lately 
 released. This he passed to Laurie, 
 and then to M'Grory, and on the 
 morning of the 10th of October, 
 which Haggart denominated the 
 blackest day of his life, he spoke 
 through to both of them, and the 
 attempt was agreed upon. About 
 ten o'clock, Robert Simpson, an- 
 other prisoner, was put into the cage 
 with Dunbar and Haggart ; they 
 told him their plans, and al- 
 though he was to be dismissed the 
 next day, he said he would join 
 them, and accompany Haggart; 
 who however, made no reply, deter- 
 mining, if he escaped, to be off 
 alone. He afterwards observed 
 Simpson and Dunbar whispering in 
 a corner of the cage, and suspected 
 some plan to betray him. About 
 twelve o'clock they saw Hunter 
 leave the prison, and heard that he 
 was gone to the races. Soon after, 
 Morrin brought in two ministers to 
 visit M'Grory, and they were lock- 
 ed into the cell with him. When 
 one o'clock came, although the 
 ministers were not gone away, the 
 culprits resolved to delay no longer, 
 but proceed in their criminal enter- 
 prise. Haggart concealed himself 
 in the closet at the head of the 
 stairs, where he had previously 
 placed the bag with the stone. 
 Dunbar then called Morrin to come 
 up, and let out the ministers ; he 
 came up the stairs with a plate of 
 soup for M'Grory. When he got 
 to the top, he shut the cage door, 
 
 and Haggart burst upon him from 
 the closet ; the pushing open of 
 the door knocked I lie plate out of 
 his hand. Haggart struck him one 
 blow with the stone, dashed him 
 down stairs, and without the loss 
 of a moment, took the key of the 
 outer door from his pocket. Hag- 
 gart declares that he gave but one 
 blow with the stone, and immedi- 
 ately threw it down ; Dunbar picked 
 it up, but it appears that no more 
 blows were given, and that Morrin 
 must have received his other wounds 
 in falling. 
 
 Dunbar was standing over him, 
 apparently rifling for the key which 
 Haggart had already secured. Simp- 
 son had hold of Motrin's shoulders, 
 and was beating his back upon the 
 stairs, when Haggart rushed past 
 them, crossed the yard as steadily 
 as he could, took out the key, and 
 opened the door. On getting out 
 he ran round great part of the town ; 
 Dunbar overtook him, and at that 
 moment they saw an officer coming 
 directly up to them. They wheeled 
 round, and ran, but in a moment 
 Haggart had the mortification of 
 seeing his fellow adventurer secured. 
 He at first thought of rushing in 
 among them to rescue him, but the 
 crowd was too great to make the 
 attempt; so he consulted only his 
 own safety, and ran nearly ten 
 miles in less than an hour. He then 
 got on the high road to Annan, 
 when he saw a post-chaise at full 
 gallop almost within twenty yards 
 of him ; upon this he threw off his 
 coat, and leaped a hedge into a 
 field where some persons were em- 
 ployed in digging potatoes. They 
 all joined the officers who had got 
 out of the chaise in pursuit of him ; 
 he fled across the field with amazing 
 speed, and made for Cumlangau 
 wood. The pursuers followed him 
 into the wood, but he kept conceal- 
 ed close to the edge, and although 
 
312 KNAl J P & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 they were very near liim, lie thus 
 eluded their pursuit. 
 
 He then made for Annan, got 
 through it before the alarm spread, 
 and concealed himself in a hay 
 slack a mile or two on the Carlisle 
 road. There he remained all night, 
 and most of the day following, when 
 he heard a woman ask a hoy if the 
 lad was taken that had biokeii out 
 of Dumfries gaol. He replied, 'No; 
 but the gaoler died at ten o'clock 
 last night.' These words struck 
 him to the soul — his heart died 
 within him, and he lay a good while 
 in a state of insensibility. On com- 
 ing to himself, he could scarcely 
 believe that he had heard them, for 
 the possibility of poor Motrin's 
 death had never entered into his 
 mind. He came out of the stack, 
 and resolved to proceed, whatever 
 should be the consequence. Seeing 
 a scare-crow in the tield, he stripped 
 it, put on the clothes, and thus 
 proceeded. That night he slept in 
 a hay-loft; in the morning a man 
 came in to fill the horserack, and 
 was within a foot of him, but did 
 not observe him, he being con- 
 cealed amongst the hay. He over- 
 heard the man converse with an- 
 other in the stable about him, ob- 
 serving that he was one of the most 
 awful characters that ever lived ; he 
 had before broken all the gaols in 
 Scotland except Dumfries, and had 
 broken that at last ; the other re- 
 plied, he wished he might keep 
 away, for it would not bring back 
 the poor man's life, and he felt 
 much for Haggai t's fat her, whom he 
 knew. 
 
 About eight o'clock he started 
 unnoticed from his place of con- 
 finement, and pursued his weary way 
 to Carlisle, where he found the whole 
 town in an uproar about him. He 
 assumed the name of Barney 
 M'Coul, by which he had formerly 
 been known there, and obtained a 
 
 lodging and some food, the first he 
 had tasted since leaving Dumfries ; 
 next day he procured a change of 
 dress, and some women's garments, 
 in which he determined to prosecute 
 his journey. He travelled by ni-jht, 
 lurking in wild places or in planta- 
 tions daring the day time, till he 
 arrived at Newcastle, where he re- 
 mained about twelve days, dressed 
 in woman's clothes, and fell in with 
 a former associate, whom he joined 
 in new acts of robbery. 
 
 One evening he came out for the 
 purpose of going to the theatre — 
 and was it possible that a guilty 
 wretch like him, his conscience cor- 
 roded with blood, should feel any 
 disposition or power to seek amuse- 
 ment ? — Oh, yes! — diversion is the 
 world's universal recipe for drown- 
 ing both remorse and apprehension; 
 it is recommended in every case of 
 mental distress and depression. 
 Under the slighter wounds of con- 
 science, the sinner resorts to amuse- 
 ment, and cannot do without its de- 
 lusive exhiliiation ; and when at the 
 borders of despair, he still dies to 
 his old remedy, which seldom fails 
 to stupify the feelings, and harden 
 the heart, though it can never, ne- 
 ver effect a cure. 
 
 As Haggart came out, he espied 
 John Richardson, the police-officer 
 before mentioned ; and so close was 
 he upon him, that the cape of Hag- 
 gart's coat touched his shoulder; 
 however, he passed on without ob- 
 serving him. He had no hesitation 
 in telling his companion how closely 
 he whs pursued, for he himself had 
 several times tscuped from prison, 
 and was one whom Haggart had as- 
 sisted in releasing from the Lock- 
 up-house in Edinburgh. He imme- 
 diately determined to return to 
 Scotland, as he knew they would 
 not suspect him of going where he 
 was so well known. He walked out 
 of the town with a bundle contain- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 313 
 
 ing »> s different suits of clolhes. 
 The Berwick coach soon overtook 
 him ; he got outride, and arrived at 
 Berwick without molestation ; there 
 he remained about a week, watching 
 the arrival of the coaches, both to 
 observe the movements of the police 
 respecting himself, and also occa- 
 sionally to pick the pockets of the 
 passengers. After this he returned 
 to Edinburgh in the coach, with 
 another inside passenger, whom lie 
 intended to rob, but falling into 
 conversation, they became so in- 
 timate that he had not the heart to 
 do it. 
 
 Haggart professed himself quite 
 a stranger to Edinburgh, and at a 
 loss where to put up. His new 
 friend recommended him to a tavern, 
 at the door of which he had stolen 
 many a watch. There they re- 
 mained together several days, Hag- 
 gart, under pretence of indisposi- 
 tion, declined to accompany his 
 friend in walking out, or to places 
 of public amusement ; in private 
 visits to houses of disgrace and ini- 
 quity, he was less scrupulous. After 
 a few days, he said he was obliged 
 to proceed to Glasgow, and took 
 leave of his friend, who had known 
 him by the name of Mr. John Wil- 
 son. He took his portmanteau, and 
 marched along the street in open 
 day-light, and remained some days 
 longer concealed in the city with an 
 acquaintance, keeping close within 
 doors all day, and walking out at 
 dusk disguised in woman's clothes. 
 He visited several of h.s acquaint- 
 ance, and among the rest saw his 
 poor father, but did not let him 
 know his plans or his residence. 
 One night, venturing out in Ins 
 own clothes, he saw an officer of 
 the police, their eyes met each 
 other ; Haggart's heart shrunk for 
 a moment, and but a moment. He 
 plunged his hand into his breast 
 pocket as if for a pistol. The officer, 
 
 who knew him too well to engage 
 him alone, ran away, as did also 
 Haggart, but in another direction. 
 He then got some plate and other 
 articles which he had concealed in 
 a garret where he formerly lodged, 
 and having exchanged them into 
 money, determined first to go to 
 the north of Scotland, then take a 
 tour to the west, and to go to Ire- 
 land. During his stay in and about 
 Edinburgh, he picked up an ac- 
 quaintance, with whom he went in 
 company to Anstrulher, St. Andrews, 
 Cupar-Fife, and Dundee. There 
 he gave Thomson the slip, took 
 lodgings, and procured a suit ot 
 sailor's clothes, determining to do 
 something in the wayof his business. 
 Passing by a jeweller's shop, he 
 observed two gold watches hanging 
 among many other metal ones ; he 
 thrust his hand and took them. He 
 soon outran the crowd that pursued 
 him, threw on his white gnat coat 
 over his sailor's clothes, and returned 
 to the spot, where several persons 
 who came together to lament the 
 'eweller's loss, soon had good reason 
 to lament their own ; for in a few mi 
 nutes he picked their pockets to the 
 amount of eighteen pounds, besides 
 a watch, &c. After this he took a 
 circuitous return to Edinburgh. 
 There he began to reflect why he 
 had come back a<rain to a place 
 which was the scene of all his 
 earliest bad habits, and where also 
 danger was most to be apprehended, 
 as he knew there was a price upon 
 his head ; he resolved to pursue his 
 guilty traffic that night, and leave 
 the town for ever, early the next 
 morning. Accordingly, he went 
 back to Newhaven, and stopped 
 within doors all day; but still han- 
 kering after the scene of his vices, 
 his gains, and his pleasures, he re- 
 turned to Edinburgh in the after- 
 noon. The first thing that struck 
 his eye was a hill posted up, offer- 
 
314 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 ing a reward of seventy guineas for 
 his apprehension. The folly of 
 haunting a place where he was so 
 well known, struck him afresh ; he 
 walked to Leith, and got into a 
 boat which was setting sail for King- 
 horn ; then went on to Perth. Dur- 
 ing his stay there, the illuminations 
 and other rejoicings for the Queen's 
 acquittal, afforded him an opportu. 
 nity of exercising his trade. He 
 got four silver watches, and a gold 
 one, besides a considerable sum of 
 money. Next day be started for 
 Dunkeld, to attend a fair with two 
 associates, where he robbed a farmer 
 of about nine pounds. At Dundee 
 he stole from a gentleman's house 
 three dozen of table spoons ; and 
 at Kenmore fair, thirty-nine pounds 
 from a Highland farmer. After 
 practising also at Cupar-Fife fair, 
 he parted with his companion, and 
 went alone to Arbroath lair, where 
 he took a purse containing twenty- 
 two guineas, but having seen an 
 Edinburgh officer, be did not think 
 it safe to remain in Arbroath all 
 night, so started inside the first 
 coach to Perth ; cheated the guard 
 of nis fare, and joined an old ac- 
 quaintance, James Edgy, at his 
 lodgings. Next evening, as he was 
 sitting in his lodgings with Edgy 
 and a female companion, two con- 
 stables came in upon them ; ' Gen- 
 tlemen,' said Haggart, ' you are in 
 a mistake,' and ringing the bell, de- 
 sired the landlord to show the gen- 
 tlemen into a room. One cf them 
 said, ' Oh no, it is you we want ;' 
 be then very unconcernedly asked 
 them their business ; they in reply 
 asked his name, and he theirs, 
 which they refused to give. The 
 landlord observed to Haggart that 
 they were police men ; on which he 
 told them he would call and ac- 
 quaint the magistrate of their con- 
 duct, and in the mean lime if they 
 did not make off, threatened them 
 
 with a horse-whipping ; thus in- 
 timidated, they left the room : Hag- 
 gart conveyed his female companion 
 out of the house, and in a few mi- 
 nutes the officers returned with their 
 staves of office, which they pre- 
 sented, and n quired Haggart and 
 Edgy to go before a magistrate. 
 To this Haggart made no objection, 
 and rang for his great coat ; but 
 just as the landlord was retiring to 
 fetch it, he bounced up, saying, 
 ' Oh, I believe it is in my own bed- 
 room, I'll get it myself;' and retir- 
 ing by the back door, he made off 
 as, fast as he could, to the mortifi- 
 cation of the policemen, and the 
 astonishment of his landlord, who 
 had often trusted him with the keys 
 of his drawers, and every thing in 
 his house. Being thus deprived of 
 his lodgings, he went to one of the 
 most profligate houses in the town, 
 where he remained a day or two, 
 and then went with Edgy and an- 
 other to Glanmis fair. Seeing a 
 farmer with a considerable sum of 
 money about him, they determined 
 on attacking him ; but as two other 
 persons joined him, Edgy and Smith 
 shrunk off, and persuaded Haggart 
 also to relinquish the attempt; but 
 he was determined to persevere, and 
 ultimately succeeded in his design. 
 He took twenty-eight pounds from 
 the farmer, for whicli two oilier per- 
 sons were taken up and lodged in 
 Forfar gaol, whom Haggart declared 
 were truly innocent of it. He then 
 returned to Perth, paid his reckon- 
 ing to Mr. Taylor, liis unsuspecting 
 landlord, whom he found with his 
 wife in tears on his account. He 
 told them he was immediately going 
 to leave town, but remained some 
 days, during which he got forty-five 
 pounds at one adventure in the 
 market, and saw several pick- 
 pockets taken close by his side. 
 Next day he went witli Kdgy to 
 Glasgow ; they made up Iheir minds 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 315 
 
 to go to Ireland, and went on board, 
 when Haguart saw a person who 
 liad been confined for debt in Edin- 
 burgh gaol when he was there. How- 
 ever, he concealed himself in one of 
 the sailor's cribs, and passed un- 
 noticed. On one occasion, when 
 lie was sitting in the fore cabin, a 
 gentleman came below, looked closely 
 at all the passengers, and fixed his 
 eje particularly on Haggart. He 
 soon after went on shore at Lamlash. 
 Haggart suspected something bad, 
 and was inclined to leap overboard, 
 it being a dark night, thinking that 
 the hest way of escape. The gen- 
 tleman was left behind at Lamlash, 
 and Haggart afterwards learned who 
 be was, and that he wrote about 
 him to Dumfries. ' It was well/ 
 he observed, ' that his suspicions 
 were unknown to him at the time, 
 for he went on shore at black night, 
 and he could but too easily have 
 put him overboard.' On landing in 
 Ireland, Haggart and Edgy rambled 
 over the town of Belfast for two 
 days in one continued state of in- 
 toxication. Edgy being well known 
 in Belfast, was soon taken for some 
 old offmce, but Haggart pursued 
 his guilty trade from place to place. 
 When he first arrived at Belfast 
 from Scotland, he saw Robert Piatt, 
 who had been confined in Dumfries 
 gaol while he was there. Plait was 
 taken for stealing in Diunmore 
 market, on a day that Hagsjart also 
 was there, and with a view of getting 
 his liberty, gave information that 
 he had seen Haggart the murderer 
 there. The officers, dazzled with 
 the information of reward for taking: 
 him, seizeil every one of whom they 
 had the slightest suspicion; while 
 he was in a public-house, two lads 
 were taken sitting close beside him. 
 Little did he suspect what they 
 were after, when in a few minutes 
 Plait peeped in at the door, and in- 
 stantly four officers sprang in, seized 
 
 him, and carried him before a ma- 
 gistrate. On being asked his name, 
 he replied in a rich brogue, ' Why 
 sure, and it's John M'Colgun.' The 
 officers began to suspect themselves 
 mistaken. Haggart kept up the 
 deception by his broad Irish brogue, 
 professing himself a native of Ar- 
 magh, and as never having been in 
 Scotland. However, the magistrate 
 ordered three yeomen to sit up with 
 him all night, together with the 
 officers, in the court room ; and re- 
 tired, having witnessed a strict 
 search of his person, on which no- 
 thing was found but a thirty. shilling 
 note, and some silver. 
 
 He now thought it was all over 
 with him, and determined to make 
 a desperate struggle to gain his 
 liberty, or perish in the attempt. 
 He plied his attendants with plenty 
 of drink, and they were very cml 
 to him. About eleven o'clock, he 
 prevailed upon them to allow an 
 acquaintance to bring him some 
 supper. When the person came, 
 he asked leave to speak to her a 
 minute behind the boxes in the 
 court, where there was a large win- 
 dow. They granted his request, 
 and taking a sudden leap ; he sprang 
 through the window, and alighted 
 upon the street, without being 
 either cut by the sjlass, or hurt by 
 the fall. He crossed the street to 
 an opposite entry, and immediately 
 saw the whole of his keepers below 
 the window staring at each other, 
 not knowing what to do. They all 
 went off to follow him ; be took 
 the road for Belfast, and soon got 
 there, having run fifteen Irish miles 
 in two hours and a quarter. He 
 travelled from place to place, tax- 
 ing each as he went for his disho- 
 nourable and unjust maintena ce. 
 After remaii ing a week or two in 
 Dublin, he paid three pounds ten 
 shillings for his passage to America, 
 but afterwards changed his mind, 
 
316 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 and lost his passage, rather than 
 cross the Atlantic. Soon after this 
 he fell in with a pick-pocket, named 
 O'Brien, and they agreed to go in 
 company. On the quay of Dublin 
 they saw some persons looking at a 
 number of horses just arrived in a 
 Tessel from England. Among others, 
 a man very singular in his dress and 
 appearance, which bespoke poverty 
 and meanness. Haggart was not a 
 little surprised to hear him offer 
 eighteen guineas for a horse, and 
 immediately beyan speculating on 
 what part of his person this sum 
 might be deposited. After some 
 experiment, he found it in a greasy 
 coat pocket, which hung behind un- 
 protected ; the frail duffle of his 
 coat having given way to the rough 
 hand of time. It proved to contain 
 ninety-five guineas in gold, beside 
 bank-notes. A few days afterwards, 
 they took fifty-four pounds at the 
 theatre door; alter which they 
 changed their dress, and, in com- 
 pany with two girls, hired a jaunt- 
 g car, and a boy to drive them, 
 
 in 
 
 and took a tour through the coun- 
 ties of Farmanagh, Cavan, and 
 Derry. They were a month on their 
 excursion, and spent upwards of a 
 hundred and ninety pounds. On 
 their return, being much reduced, 
 Haggart started for King's county 
 on foot, leaving his clothes in 
 Dublin. 
 
 AtMullinger market he picked a 
 fanner's pocket, and would have 
 been apprehended, but for the con- 
 nivance of a constable. At Tulla- 
 more fair he picked the pocket of a 
 pig-drover, who afterwards accused 
 him of the fact, but Haggart hav- 
 ing concealed the property very 
 secmely, took a high ground, and 
 insisted on his going before a ma- 
 gistrate for the accusation and as- 
 sault. The judge heard the case, 
 and said that the pig-drover was 
 liable to punishm nt, but recom- 
 
 mended Haggart to withdraw his 
 complaint, as it was evident his ill 
 usage had arisen from mistake, that 
 he knew him to be an honest man, 
 and he had been a great loser al- 
 ready. The poor man therefore was 
 severely reprimanded, apologized 
 to Haggart, who declared himself 
 satisfied, and withdrew. After fresh 
 acts of dishonesty and riot, Hag- 
 gart at length left Newry with an 
 intention to take a shipping for 
 France. He got as far as Castle 
 William, when he heard of a fair 
 about six or eight miles distance, 
 where he resolved to attend and 
 practise his profession for the last 
 time in the British dominions. It 
 was indeed the last time: for the 
 measure of his iniquities was well 
 nigh full, and his long-delayed pu- 
 nishment was about to overtake 
 him. 
 
 At this place he picked the 
 pocket of a pig-drover, and had 
 just time to conceal the money in 
 the collar of his coat, when he was 
 seized by the drover and two of his 
 companions. Having been strictly 
 searched, none of the property was 
 found upon him, but the drover per- 
 sisted in his accusation, and made 
 oath before a magistrate ; conse- 
 quently Haggart was committed to 
 Downpatrick gaol to stand trial at 
 the next assizes. The society and 
 practices of this place were horrible 
 beyond description. . Having re- 
 ceived their supply of provisions 
 for three days, the male prisoners 
 blocked out the gaolers, by digging 
 tip the stones of the floor, and 
 placing them against the door, and 
 broke their way to the wretched 
 women in confinement, with whom 
 they remained two days, giving way 
 to every kind of wickedness. After 
 spending this time in the most riot- 
 ous manner, they were secured. 
 Haggart was locked up closely in 
 his cell, and k< pt ii confinement 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 317 
 
 till the day of his trial. Mis re- 
 flections on this scene shall be 
 given in his own striking words: — 
 ' Of all the scenes of my short and 
 evil life, none ever came up to the 
 gaol of Downpatrick. A prison is 
 the blackest and wickedest place in 
 the world. Many a poor hoy is 
 brought to the gallows at last, be- 
 cause his first offence is punished 
 by imprisonment. This teaches 
 him evil ways ; whereas if he hail 
 been well flogged and sent home to 
 his parents, he might have turned 
 out a good man. I cannot say that 
 my bad habits were learned in a 
 gaol, but I am sure they were con- 
 firmed there.' During his impri- 
 sonment he sent for the drover, and 
 made up the matter with him, by 
 returning his money and two guineas 
 additional, to engage him to say 
 nothing against him on his trial. 
 Haggarl's account of his trial is so 
 singular, that it will be the best 
 given in his own words : — 
 
 • On the 29th of March I was 
 put to the bar, and the indictment 
 being read over, I said I was not 
 guilty, and demanded a copy of my 
 indictment, but it was refused me. 
 The drover and another man were 
 brought against me in evidence. 
 The drover kept, his word, and swore 
 he did not know whether I was the 
 boy or not who took the money. 
 The other witness was sure that I 
 was the person that was taken up 
 for it. This closed the evidence ; 
 and, while the judge was addressing 
 the jury, the gaoler prompted me to 
 speak for myself. I immediately 
 rose, and asked liberty to speak a 
 word for myself. The judge re- 
 plied, "■ Surely." 
 
 « I then addressed the jury nearly 
 as follows : — " Gentlemen, I hope 
 you will look well into this case, 
 and not return a thoughtless ver- 
 dict, which w>uld involve an inno- 
 cent man, by ruining his character, 
 
 and depriving him of his liberty. 
 Gentlemen, I acknowledge that I 
 have been perfectly proved to be the 
 person who was apprehended at 
 Clough, on suspicion of picking 
 this man's pocket; but you see 
 clearly that none of his property 
 was found upon me, and more than 
 that, the man himself has sworn in 
 your presence that he is not certain 
 whether I was the person or not. 
 Taking this simple statement into 
 your deliberate consideration, I feel 
 perfectly confident of receiving a 
 verdict of acquittal from you. 5 
 
 * The judge then asked me, 
 *' Don't you come from Armagh, 
 sir ? and have you not a father and 
 a brother ?" 
 
 ' I answered that I had both. 
 
 ' " All of your own profession- — ■ 
 pick -pockets ?'' replied the judge. 
 
 ' I said he was perfectly mis- 
 taken, for neither they nor I were 
 ever guilty of such a thing. I was 
 right as to them, but I will leave 
 the world to judge with what truth 
 I spoke of myself. The judge, in 
 an angry tone, said, " Will you 
 hold up your face and tell me that, 
 sir ? Was you not tried before me 
 ten days ago at Dundalk, and about 
 four years ago at Can ickfergus ? I 
 know you well, and all your family." 
 
 ' I declared that I never was be- 
 fore in a court in my life till then ; 
 and sure enough I never was before 
 him. 
 
 1 He then addressed the jury 
 He said that it did not signify whe- 
 ther they were clear of my being 
 guilty of the present crime, for he 
 could assure them that 1 was an old 
 offender ; and, at all events, to re- 
 turn a verdict of guilty of felony at 
 large. I sprung up, and declared [' 
 was getting no justice, and said 
 there was no proof of my being a 
 felon ; and added, •' How can I be 
 brought in as a felon, when not a 
 single witness has made oath to it?" 
 
318 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 ' The judge, in a violent rage, 
 said that he would make oath, if 
 necessary ; and the jury in a mo- 
 ment returned a verdict of "Guilty 
 of felony at large." I was then sen- 
 tenced to seven years' transporta- 
 tion ; but the judge at the same 
 time telling me, that if I would pro- 
 duce my father, and show to him 
 that he had mistaken me, he would 
 change the sentence to twelve 
 months' imprisonment. J told him 
 i would rather go abroad than let 
 my friends know any thing about 
 the matter; that he was sending me 
 amon^ pick-pockets, where I would 
 likely learn the art mvself; and the 
 first man's pocket I would pick on 
 my return would be his. 
 
 ' 1 have been twice tried for my 
 life in Scotland. The first time I 
 got more than justice, for I was ac- 
 quitted; the second time I got jus- 
 lice, fur I was convicted. But in 
 Ireland I got no justice at all ; for 
 at Downpatrick there was none to 
 speak for me but the judge, and he 
 spoke against me.' 
 
 If this statement he correct, it is 
 astriking and singularcircumstance, 
 that he who had by his own artifices, 
 or by the mistakes of others, es- 
 caped his ju*t punishment, should 
 at last be reserved to il by a sen- 
 tence which bore the appearance of 
 mistake, if not of injustice. How- 
 ever man may be mistaken or de- 
 ceived, ' verily there is a God that 
 judgeth in the earth — and though 
 hand join in hand, the wicked shall 
 not always go unpunished.' 
 
 HaL'gart was removed to the gaol, 
 and in the afternoon the magistrate 
 of Drunmore, who had formerly 
 examined him, came into the press 
 yard, where he was walking among 
 the other prisoners. He instantly 
 distinguished him, and asked him 
 it he ever was in Drunmore ? Hag- 
 gart replied, ' Yes, twenty times ; 
 * Bridget Butterly 
 
 he then asked if he recollected him, 
 or bribing a constable, and breaking 
 away ? ' No !' replied the hardened 
 liar, ' I have never seen you, or 
 been in custody in Drunmore in my 
 life.' ' Did you ever take the name 
 of John MCulgau?' ' No, nor do 
 I know what you mean,' was the 
 reply. The gentleman then told 
 the turnkey that if they did not iron 
 him, he would be oil' in half an hour. 
 He was accordingly loaded with 
 irons, and remained in that state 
 three days, when he was removed 
 to Kilmainham gaol, where he was 
 put among the convicts of every de- 
 scription. 
 
 He soon thought of making: his 
 escape by digging through the back 
 wall, with the assistance of several 
 others, having first secured the 
 entrance of their apartment ; but 
 some of the prisoners gave in- 
 formation, and Haggart being the 
 first man who made his appearance 
 through the hole, got a severe blow; 
 the others rushed after him, but 
 having still a high wall to get over, 
 they were all secured by a party of 
 soldiers, and locked up in their 
 cells. A few hours after this, Mag- 
 gait called out of his cell window 
 to two young women* accused of 
 murder, in Dublin. He felt much 
 for their situation, and shivered 
 when he looked at them, his own 
 hands having been stained with 
 blood. He gave them (as he ex- 
 presses it) such serious advice, as 
 a poor guilty wretch could. They 
 were afterwards condemned and exe- 
 cuted. While in conversation with 
 them, the cell door opened, and the 
 turnkey found fault with him for in- 
 terfering with them, and bade him 
 be silent. Haygart replied he would 
 not be silent, as he was saying no- 
 thing improper, and he felt much 
 interested for these poor creatures, 
 whose situation was so much like 
 and Bridget Ennis. 
 
K.NAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 319 
 
 his own. Some insolence succeed- 
 ed 011 the one part, and perhaps 
 some ill-nature on the other, and 
 it resulted in his being handcuffed 
 and confined will) a horrible iron 
 instrument fitted on his head, from 
 the fio: t bar of which an iron tongue 
 entered his mouth and prevented 
 his speaking. This, which Haggart 
 considered an arbitrary and cruel 
 exercise of power, excited only op- 
 position, an I the moment it was re- 
 moved, he resumed his scat on the 
 window of ^iis cell, and remained 
 there the rest of the day, singing 
 the most profane songs he couid 
 think of. Even the fear of the iron 
 helmet of Kilmainham could not 
 keep him quit t. 
 
 But something awaited him far 
 worse, and which, had he known, 
 would have made his heart tremble, 
 hard and wicked as it was. Next 
 morning the prisoners, consisting 
 of some hundreds, were taken down 
 into a yard, and ranked in companies 
 of twenty each. In a few minutes, 
 John Richardson, the police-officer 
 from Scotland, made his appearance, 
 accompanied by the two gaolers and 
 turnkey ; a terrific sight to Hag- 
 gart ! He passed through all the 
 ranks, and the second time stopped, 
 and, taking Haggart's hand, said, 
 ' Do you know me, David ?' — 
 ' What does the man say ?' asked 
 Haggart, in a master-piece of Irish 
 brogue, turning at the same time to 
 the gaoler, who said 'Don't you know 
 him ?' ' Troth and by my sow!/ re- 
 plied Haggart, ' I know nothing at 
 all, at all, about him.' The officer 
 persisted that he knew him ; and he 
 was conveyed to the condemned 
 yard ; the gaoler telling him, if he 
 was a Scotchman, he was greatly 
 mistaken ; for that he had the 
 brogue as well as any boy in Ireland. 
 He was then taken to the police- 
 office, and heavily loaded with 
 irons. An iron belt was fixed -ound 
 
 his waist, with his wrists pinioned 
 to each side of it ; a chain passed 
 from the front of the belt and joined 
 the centre of a chain, each end of 
 which was padlocked round his 
 ancles, and a chain passed from 
 each wrist to each ancle. In this 
 dreadful (but by his own hardened 
 and daring conduct necessary) state 
 of torture and confinement, he was 
 conducted to Dumfries. The officers 
 treated him with the utmost tender- 
 ness and humanity, but he obsti- 
 nately kept up his pretended igno- 
 rance for a considerable time. 
 
 On their approach towards Dum- 
 fries, which was in the dark, there 
 were many thousands of people on 
 the road, many of them with torches 
 in their hands, waiting his arrival ; 
 and at the gaol it was scarcely pos_ 
 sible to get him out of the coich for 
 the multitude, all crowding for a 
 sight of Haggart the murderer. 
 — Some discovered sorrow, and some 
 terror ; but whose could equal his 
 own ? He plunged through them 
 all, rattling his chains, and making 
 a great show of courage, but owned 
 that bis heart wns shaken at the 
 thought of poor Morrin. As he 
 went up the stairs to the cells, he 
 had to pass the very spot where he 
 struck him ; and oh ! confessed 
 the guilty murderer, ' it was like 
 fire to my feet!' Oh! that sinners 
 would remember this when tempted 
 to commit sin ; though at the mo- 
 ment it may be sweet and pleasant, 
 yet at the last it shall sting as a 
 serpei t, and bite like an adder. It 
 has been well observed, ' if we had 
 as much fore-sight as we have after- 
 wit, we should not easily be drawn 
 into sin.' And why have we not? Be- 
 cause the love of sin blinds our eyes 
 and hearts, that they should not 
 discern its natural tendency. 
 
 After remaining at Dumfries three 
 weeks, where the greater part of 
 his Irish irons were removed, and 
 
J20 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 he was twice examined by the 
 sheriff, he was removed to Edin- 
 burgh, and indicted to stand his 
 trial for the murder of Thomas 
 Morrin. His trial came on June 
 11th: many witnesses were ex- 
 amined against liim; some of them 
 gave an incorrect testimony, but 
 Haggart freely allowed that per- 
 haps they were only mistaken, and 
 that he was fully as wicked as they 
 represented him ; hut there was one 
 witness by whom he felt himself 
 injured. This man knew the whole 
 of their plans, and ought to have 
 testified that, their object was li- 
 berty, not murder. ' However/ 
 said Haggart, ' this would have 
 made no difference, for it was the 
 pleasure of God Almighty that I 
 should come to an end.' — We will 
 again use his own words: 
 
 ' All that man could do, was done 
 for me at my trial, and I had good 
 hopes till the judge began to speak; 
 but then my spirits fell, for his 
 speaking was sore against me. I 
 did not altogether despair when I 
 saw the jury talking together; but, 
 oh ! when *bey said Guilty, my 
 very heart broke ; hut I was even 
 then too proud to show my feelings, 
 and I almost hit my lip through in 
 hiding them. When the judge was 
 passing the awful sentence, I turned 
 dizzy, and gasped for breath. They 
 say 1 looked careless ; but they 
 could not see within me. I did not 
 know what happened or where 1 
 was. I thought of every thing in a 
 minute; I thought of my father — 
 I thought of my mother, who had 
 died of a broken heart ; — I thought 
 of escape, and very near made a 
 plunge oyer the heads of the crowd ; 
 then I could have cried out.' 
 
 The judge adverted to some par- 
 ticular circumstances iu his case, 
 which pointed out especially for a 
 public example. Not only, he ob- 
 served, was it impossible he should 
 
 escape the common penalty due to 
 the unnatural crime of murder; but 
 that all Scotland might know that 
 the law would most decidedly avenge 
 the violence done to keepers of bis 
 Majesty's prisons, the Court had 
 doomed the prisoner to expiate the 
 crime in the city of Edinburgh. 
 His lordship earnestly exhorted him 
 to call in the assistance of the mi- 
 nisters of religion : solemnly warn- 
 ing him that if he did not seek par- 
 don at the footstool of divine mercy, 
 in deep repentance for all his sins, 
 there was another and more terrible 
 day of reckoning reserved for him, 
 in that state upon which he was 
 about to enter. It is most distress- 
 ing to add, that, under warnings 
 so solemn, and in circumstances so 
 awful, he still discovered the most 
 depraved insensibility and contempt. 
 He adds, ' When the sentence was 
 over, I gathered my thoughts, and 
 my heart was as hard as ever, for I 
 said, " Well ! the man that is born 
 to be hanged, will not be drowned ;'* 
 this was very wicked' — wicked in- 
 deed, but, alas ! too common, and 
 little thought of; as though his 
 destiny impelled him to a course 
 of life that should terminate in this 
 dreadful end. Such a necessity, 
 the God of Justice, Holiness, and 
 Mercy, never put on any of his 
 creatures. No ; the voice of his 
 word and of his dispensations ever 
 is — (oh, that sinners would regard 
 it!)—' As 1 live, saith the Lord, I 
 have no pleasure in the death of a 
 sinner, but rather that he should 
 turn from his wickedness and live; 
 turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?' 
 But to return to Haggart's ac- 
 count of his feelings. After bein°- 
 brought back to the gaol, the wick- 
 edness of his heart was still great, 
 and he had so little thought of his 
 awful situation, that he made the 
 following foolish verses, expressive of 
 his hardened and unsubdued spirit:-— 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 321 
 
 • Able and willing, you will find, 
 Though bound in chains, still free in 
 
 mind ; 
 For with these things I will never be 
 
 grieved, 
 Although of freedom I am bereaved. 
 
 ' In this vain world there is no rest, 
 And life is but a span at best ; 
 The rich, the poor, the old, the young, 
 Shall all lie low before its long. 
 
 ' I am a rogue, I don't deny, 
 But never lived by treachery ; 
 And to rob a poor man, I disown, 
 But them that are of high renown. 
 
 ' Now, for the crime that I am con- 
 demned, 
 The same I never did intend ; 
 Only my liberty to take, 
 As I thought my life did lie at stake. 
 
 ' My life, by perjury was sworu away, 
 
 I will say that to my dying day. 
 
 Oh, treacheious S ■-, you did me 
 
 betray, 
 For all I wanted was liberty. 
 
 ' No malice in my heart is found, 
 
 To any man above the ground, 
 
 Now, all good people, that speak of me, 
 
 You may say, I died for liberty. 
 
 • Although in chains you see me fast, 
 No frown upon my friends you'll cast, 
 For my relations were not to blame, 
 And 1 brought my parents to grief and 
 
 shame. 
 
 ' Now, all you ramblers in mourning go, 
 For the prince of ramblers is lying low ; 
 And all you maidens, who love the game, 
 Put on your mourning veils again. 
 
 ' And all your powers of music chaunt 
 To the memory of my dying rant j 
 A song of melancholy sing, 
 Till you make the very rafters ring. 
 
 ' Farewell, relations, and friends also, 
 
 The time is nigh that I must go ; 
 
 As for foes, I have but one, 
 
 But to the same 1 have done no wrong.' 
 
 ' These wild and wicked thoughts/ 
 he afterwards said, ' soon left me. 
 Every body was kind to me. How 
 this happens I cannot tell, for from 
 my infancy my hand has been 
 against every man, and I never saw 
 a human being 1 without trying- to do 
 them a harm. This kindness is an 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 awful lesson to me now ; but it has 
 done me great good, for it is the 
 sorest punishment I have met with 
 yet in this world. I have been 
 visited by several clergymen ; they 
 have prayed much with me and for 
 me. I told them I had no words to 
 pray, but they taught me, made me 
 read my Bible, and gave me hopes 
 of mercy in heaven — at least such 
 hopes as a poor miserable wretch 
 like me can have, for my sins stick 
 close to me. 
 
 A clergyman, who visited him 
 says — ' For nearly a fortnight after 
 his condemnation he appeared to be 
 in the most hardened and unfeeling 
 state of mind ; but the pious admo- 
 nitions he received roused him at 
 last from his insensibility. When 
 asked how he felt with respect to 
 his soul and eternity, the answer he 
 gave was, that he was sure he did 
 not feel as he ought to feel, and he 
 complained that his heart was like 
 a stone. He then inquired if there 
 were any instances in the Scripture 
 of persons who had committed a 
 crime similar to his ; and he was 
 directed to the case of David, of 
 Manasseh. of Peter who denied 
 Christ, of the dying thief, and the 
 persecuting Saul, who thought that, 
 by putting people to death, he was 
 verily doing God service. That 
 passage in Ezekiel was also men- 
 tioned to him, " I will take away 
 the heart of stone, and give him a 
 heart of flesh." These passages 
 had a wonderful effect on him, and 
 seemed to make a deep impression. 
 He began to consult his Bible, and 
 from that time his conviction be- 
 came powerful, strong, and perma- 
 nent, and his mind was very evi- 
 dently much enlightened. 
 
 ' He was particularly exhorted to 
 examine himself whether his re- 
 pentance was sincere, and not to 
 rely on false hopes ; or suppose, be- 
 cause the thief was pardoned in hi« 
 118 
 
322 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 dying- moments, that therefore he 
 might expect the same. When he 
 was asked whether his repentance 
 did not arise more from the un- 
 happy circumstances in which he 
 was placed, than from a sense of 
 having offended God, and trans- 
 gressed his holy law, he candidly 
 acknowledged that he was afraid he 
 was more influenced by the former 
 than the latter. 
 
 ' He desired a friend to go to his 
 father, and to tell him that he died 
 in the faith of Christ, his Redeemer. 
 Indeed, he frequently exclaimed, 
 " Why should I complain of my 
 sufferings when I consider what 
 Christ has undergone for me ?" 
 And he declared on the morning of 
 his execution that he would not 
 wish to escape, if the prison doors 
 were open, as his death was the 
 only atonement he could make in 
 this world for the violated laws of 
 God and man. 
 
 • Early on the morning of his 
 execution, David Haggart joined 
 earnestly in devotional exercise 
 with his ministerial attendant. 
 After the chaplain of the gaol had 
 prayed, one of the officers of justice 
 appeared, and requested all the per- 
 sons present to retire, as he had 
 something to communicate to the 
 unhappy prisoner. Haggart imme- 
 diately exclaimed, in a hurried tone, 
 " Oh ! I suppose it is the execu- 
 tioner." His firmness for a mo- 
 ment abandoned him, and he walked 
 rapidly across the cell, with his 
 arms folded, and with deep despair 
 strongly painted on his counte- 
 nance. He speedily, however, re- 
 gained his composure; and when 
 
 the executioner did appear, at once 
 allowed his arms to be bound. He 
 was then removed to a hall in the 
 lower part of the lock-up-house, 
 where he was received by two of 
 the clergymen of Edinburgh and 
 the magistrates. After prayers the 
 procession proceeded to the scaf- 
 fold. The conduct of the unfortu- 
 nate youth there was in the highest 
 degree becoming. While the bene- 
 ficial influence of religion was ap- 
 parent in his whole demeanour, his 
 natural firmness of character never 
 for a moment forsook him. He 
 kneeled down, and uttered an ear- 
 nest prayer; and, after addressing 
 a few words of deep and anxious 
 exhortation to the great multitude 
 by whom he was surrounded, he 
 met his fate with the same intre- 
 pidity which distinguished all the 
 actions of his short, but guilty and 
 eventful life, having just completed 
 his twentieth year.' He was exe- 
 cuted at Edinburgh, July the 18th, 
 1821. 
 
 Haggart, after his condemnation, 
 wrote the history of his short and 
 wicked life, which was subse- 
 quently published for the benefit of 
 his father, who he requested might 
 receive any profit arising from it, 
 for the purpose of educating his 
 younger brothers and sisters. The 
 foregoing particulars are taken from 
 this singular piece of auto-biography, 
 which evinced a strong, though un- 
 cultivated mind ; which, if it had 
 been directed to laudable pursuits, 
 could not fail to have placed the 
 writer in an honourable station in 
 society. 
 
 JOHN M'NAMARA AND THOMAS MALONY, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MRS. TORRENS. 
 
 In 1821, and for one or two through the country by night, die 
 
 years before it, the south of Ireland 
 was in a very disturbed state. 
 Bands of lawless banditti roved 
 
 tating laws to the peaceable inha- 
 bitants, and inflicting summarv ven- 
 geance on all who refused obedi- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 323 
 
 ence to their arbitrary mandates. 
 Among- those who opposed their 
 proceeding's was a gentleman named 
 Torrens, who resided at Mondella, 
 in the county of Limerick, not far 
 from the city. In March, 1821. 
 his house was attacked by a band 
 of nocturnal marauders, whom he 
 beat off in a most gallant manner, 
 killing- several of the party. 
 
 Mr. Torrens's bravery on this 
 occasion made him obnoxious to the 
 Whiteboys ; and apprehending- dan- 
 ger from their known vindictive 
 spirit, he removed to Adare, where 
 he held a farm, which, after his 
 removal, he frequently visited. On 
 Sunday, the 10th of June, 1821, 
 Mr. Torrens and his amiable and 
 heroic wife dined at the farm-house, 
 and were returning- in the evening 
 to Limerick, by a well-known and 
 frequented path, but had not pro- 
 ceeded far, when a man crossed a 
 stile and presented a letter to Mr. 
 Torrens, who was about to read it, 
 when he received a blow of a stone, 
 and at the instant another ruffian 
 leaped over the wall and attacked 
 him. Mr. Torrens was unarmed, 
 and must have fallen under the ruf- 
 fians, had not Mrs. Torrens rushed 
 to his assistance and extricated him, 
 exclaiming*, ' Come off my hus- 
 band's body, you villains !' Mr. 
 Torrens was for a while stunned ; 
 and on looking- about he saw his 
 heroic wife eng-aged in a personal 
 contest with one of the assassins, 
 who had a stick which she rescued 
 from him, and ran with it to her 
 husband. The battle was then re- 
 newed, and Mr. Torrens was imme- 
 diately eng-ag-ed with the man who 
 first attacked his wife, and both came 
 to the ground, Mr. Torrens making- 
 such g-ood use of the stick that it 
 broke with the force of his blows. 
 At this time Mr. Torrens saw the 
 other assassin eng-ag-ed with his wife, 
 and heard him cry out to his com- 
 
 rade, ' Tom, come aw?y '' Tom 
 obeyed with some difficulty ; and as 
 the other fellow was going- from 
 Mrs. Torrens, her husband saw him 
 wipe something- like a knife or 
 dag-g-er. 
 
 The unfortunate lady immediately 
 ran to her husband, but said little ; 
 her bosom was streaming- with 
 blood ; and, in a few minutes she 
 became convulsed and expired, for 
 the cowardly assassin had stabbed 
 her to the heart. Mr. Torrens, 
 thoug-h bathed in blood, from the 
 effect of fifteen wounds, contrived 
 to crawl to a cottag-e, where he fell 
 senseless on a bed ; so dreadful was 
 one of the wounds in his neck, that 
 his breath came through the incision 
 it made. 
 
 The cottager, whose name was 
 Switzer, found Mrs. Torrens a 
 corpse ; and, by strict medical care, 
 her surviving husband was gradually 
 restored to partial health ; but his 
 constitution was seriously affected 
 by the wounds he had received. 
 
 To discover and apprehend the 
 assassins was now the business of 
 justice, and in a short time, Malony 
 and M'Namara were taken into cus- 
 tody. These men were labourers, 
 and perpetrated the foul deed in 
 conformity with that baneful system 
 of confederacy which had, at this 
 time, bound the deluded peasantry 
 together. Against Mr. or Mrs. 
 Torrens these assassins had no indi- 
 vidual cause of enmity, but had, 
 in obedience to their bandit laws, 
 attempted the life of both, and had 
 too fatally succeeded as to one of 
 them. The fate of Mrs. Torrens 
 excited universal regret. Her 
 amiable conduct in private life had 
 endeared to her a number of friends, 
 while her heroic fidelity to her 
 husband, and the manner of her 
 death, secured respect for her me- 
 mory. 
 
 When Malony and MNamara 
 
324 KNAFP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CADENDAR. 
 
 were brought before Mr. Torrerts, 
 thatgentleman immediately recog- 
 nized M'Namara as the man who 
 had handed him the letter, and 
 Malony as the murderer. They 
 were consequently committed to 
 prison, and, a short time before 
 the assizes, Maloney made a full 
 
 confession of his guilt. Their 
 trial came on at Limerick, De- 
 cember the 17th, 1821, when they 
 were convicted by an impartial 
 jury ; and on the next day but 
 one, were executed, when they 
 behaved as became their awful 
 situation. 
 
 Hayward Waltzing with a Lady pJ QuaLity. 
 
 SAMUEL DEN MORE HAYWARD, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR BURGLAItV. 
 
 Few men better deserved the 
 appellation of the * Modern Mac- 
 heath' than the unfortunate Hay- 
 ward, the incidents of whose short 
 life deserve to be recorded,asafFord- 
 
 deliver messages for the piisoners 
 in the King's Bench, who regarded 
 him as a boy of great promise. 
 Indeed, it was a general remark 
 in the whole neighbourhood that 
 
 ing not only a view of his own cha- Samuel had all the appearance of 
 racter, but a powerful lesson to a • gentleman's child.' 
 youth. Flattered by the early notice thus 
 Samuel Denmore Hayward was shown him, he indulged higher no- 
 born in October, 1797. His father lions than could possibly be grati- 
 
 was an industrious journeyman 
 currier, who resided in the Bo- 
 rough of Southwark ; and, being 
 very poor, he allowed his son to 
 
 fied by following the humble busi- 
 ness of his father, and, accordingly, 
 he procured himself to be bound an 
 apprentice to a tailor. But busi- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 325 
 
 ness was not his forte; he disliked 
 the confined ideas of trade, and as- 
 pired to a higher station in society 
 than that usually attained by a 
 tailor. At the expiration of the 
 first year his master was glad to 
 cancel his indentures ; and, thus 
 freed from further restraint, young 1 
 Hayward became waiter in the New 
 York Coffee House, near the Royal 
 Exchange. 
 
 This situation did not exactly 
 accord with his ambition, but it 
 answered his purpose ; it afforded 
 him an opportunity of exhibiting his 
 fine person and mixing with gentle- 
 men, though in the humble capa- 
 city of an attendant. In dress, too, 
 he could partially indulge his vanity, 
 and this was not the least induce- 
 ment to his entering this menial oc- 
 cupation. While here his address 
 and pleasing deportment gained him 
 universal esteem, and attracted the 
 observation of Dr. Hughson, who 
 was then compiling his celebrated 
 ' History of London,' and residing 
 in Furnival's Inn. The doctor ad- 
 mired his politeness and attention, 
 and, convinced that he was a lad of 
 parts, took him home to assist him 
 in collecting materials for works on 
 which he was then engaged. 
 
 The road to an honourable career 
 in life was now opened to his ambi- 
 tion, and he seems to have laudably 
 availed himself of the opportunity ; 
 for he not only acquitted himself re- 
 putably in his new engagement, but 
 applied industriously to the culti- 
 vation of his mind. He acquired 
 a complete knowledge of the French 
 and Italian languages, both of 
 which he spoke with great fluency ; 
 and also became a proficient in music, 
 for which he had a natural taste. 
 He played on several instruments 
 with elegance and skill, and, in 
 short, was deficient in none of those 
 polite accomplishments so necessary 
 to a man of fashion. He remained 
 
 with the doctor about five years, 
 and then entered the service of 
 Captain Blanchard, with whom he 
 travelled over the greater part of 
 Europe. His new master was too 
 indulgent, looking upon Hayward 
 rather in the light of a companion, 
 until the genteel lacquey, tired of 
 being an attendant, sighed to ex- 
 hibit himself as a principal in the 
 gay and frivolous scenes he had wit- 
 nessed at a respectful distance. 
 
 Buoyed up with inflated notions 
 of his own personal importance, he 
 quitted the service of Captain 
 Blanchard, and made his first step 
 towards ruin, by returning to Lon- 
 don, where he assumed the charac- 
 ter of a gentleman, and trusted to 
 his wit and abilities for the means 
 of supporting his apparent rank in 
 society. Apprehensive that his 
 origin might be discovered, he en- 
 tirely cast off all his former ac- 
 quaintances and relatives, and pre- 
 tended to be a young man of family 
 and consequence. The better to 
 disguise himself, he assumed a mi- 
 litary appearance, and having the 
 air of a dashing young officer, easily 
 imposed himself on fashionable so- 
 ciety as belonging to the Commis- 
 sariat Department. 
 
 Hayward, though now only twen- 
 ty-one years of age, had read much, 
 and was an acute observer of cha- 
 racter. He had remarked that 
 very superficial qualifications, when 
 aided by appearance, were sufficient 
 passports to the fashionable world, 
 who are ' still deceived by orna- 
 ment,' and determined to make a 
 progress in the fluttering and heart- 
 less scene, he set about the neces- 
 sary preparations. Nature had been 
 prodigal to this vain young man ; 
 his person was elegant ; his features 
 animated, intelligent, and hand- 
 some ; and his dress, being in the 
 first style, fully accorded with the 
 form it clothed. 
 
S26 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Thus qualified by nature and art, 
 he had only to present himself at 
 the door of the Temple of Fashion 
 to secure a ready admission. His 
 polished manners, superior address, 
 and handsome person, soon secured 
 him the esteem of the ladies, while 
 his military air, sporting* phrases, 
 and unblushing" confidence, procured 
 him the friendship of the gentle- 
 men. In a very short period he 
 was regarded as one whose society 
 was worth courting-, and whose 
 presence could add to the attrac- 
 tions of a drawing-room. The 'vo- 
 luptuous melodies of Moore ' he 
 sang- with rich and tasteful sweet- 
 ness, while his execution on the 
 flute was little, if at all, inferior to 
 the performance of the celebrated 
 Drouet. Such an addition to a 
 fashionable party was not to be 
 dispensed with. Hayward was in- 
 vited by the dowag-er and the duke, 
 the lord and the baronet, the dis- 
 sipated and the wealthy, and, in a 
 few months, he had run the complete 
 circuit of fashionable life. In the 
 morning- he was to be seen paying- 
 a visit to one of the squares in the 
 west end ; in the middle of the day 
 escorting- ladies, of the first distinc- 
 tion, to the Exhibition ; and, in the 
 evening-, encompassed by eleg-ance 
 and beauty at the.Opera. 
 
 The doors of respectable families 
 were thrown open to him ; and it is 
 a melancholy truth that innocent 
 and lovely females were introduced 
 to this unprincipled scoundrel by 
 their unsuspecting- fathers and bro- 
 thers. Is it, therefore, to be won- 
 dered at, that so many distressing- 
 and immoral scenes take place in 
 hig-h life, since so little caution is 
 shown ? Whatever is most estimable 
 mankind g-uards with most care ; 
 but fashion reverses this as well as 
 most other thing-s, and thought- 
 lessly exposes the purity and inno- 
 cence of unthinking- females to the 
 
 polluting- contact of every villain 
 who has art enough to worm him- 
 self into what is called polished 
 society. 
 
 The amatory epistles received by 
 Hayward from the fair sex, during" 
 his short career, amounted to up- 
 wards of three hundred. These 
 were found in his trunk on his ap- 
 prehension, but, from a proper feel- 
 ing- of delicacy, were not made 
 public. The frail writers, no doubt, 
 on hearing- of the circumstance, were 
 sufficiently punished for their indis- 
 cretion and credulity. We shall 
 g-ive one of these billet-doux, 
 which ' wafts a sig-h from Indus to 
 the Pole/ as a specimen ; and we 
 can assure the reader it is one of 
 the least objectionable : 
 
 ' Mrs. 's compliments to 
 
 Mr. Hayward, and if he will have 
 the politeness to accompany her to 
 the Royal Academy, it will not 
 only prove his attention and kind- 
 ness, but she will possess the ad- 
 vantages resulting- from his g-ood 
 taste and knowledge of the works 
 of the first artists of the day. A 
 corner of her carriage is also at his 
 service. Mr. H. must not refuse. 
 
 ' S. Hayward, Esq. 
 
 But Hayward was a general lover 
 — a perfect man of gallantry. The 
 lady, the courtezan, and the ser- 
 vant maid, by turns, claimed his 
 attention, as his roving eye fastened 
 on their charms. He was to be seen 
 at Almack's joining in the volup- 
 tuous waltz with some honourable 
 miss of the west end, or sporting a 
 toe in a quadrille with a woman of 
 the town at places of inferior note. 
 Hayward danced with ease and 
 elegance, and wherever he exhibited 
 himself was sure to elicit applause ; 
 and, as the man was egregiously vain, 
 most probably he did not care 
 much whether the commendations 
 came from elegant females or vicious 
 prostitutes. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 327 
 
 To support this gay and dissi- 
 pated life required means, and as 
 Hayward was without any, he had 
 resource to the gaming- table. The 
 profits of play proving- inadequate 
 to his necessities, he made the gam- 
 bling-house subservient to his wants 
 by imposing forged notes on the fre- 
 quenters of those scenes of vice. 
 He was soon, however, detected and 
 literally kicked out; when, finding 
 himself excluded, he became the 
 visitor of smaller hells, where less 
 notorious wretches play for shillings 
 instead of pounds. The gradations 
 of the vicious are regular and rapid ; 
 from the gamingtable to the brothel, 
 and from the brothel to the gallows. 
 Hayward, in less than a twelve- 
 month, found himself obliged to 
 resort to the basest means for 
 support ; and as his character began 
 to develop itself, he found himself 
 shut out from families which he had 
 lately visited. In his best day he 
 was a passer of forged notes, was 
 known to have stolen the money 
 out of several tills, having insinuated 
 himself into the bars for that pur- 
 pose ; and was suspected of having 
 picked pockets ! To what base 
 means will not the man resort who 
 sets out in life with an assumed 
 character ! 
 
 Hayward, whilst running his 
 career of fashionable life, attracted 
 the notice of a beautiful young crea- 
 ture, who was the mistress of a su- 
 perannuated, but wealthy, general. 
 Such an opportunity was not to be 
 lost. He paid her the most marked 
 attention, and she acknowledged his 
 gallantry ; he became a petticoat 
 pensioner ; indeed, he might be said 
 to be in keeping, as he lived for 
 several months upon the purse of 
 this woman, who evinced for him the 
 most extravagant affection. By her 
 he had one child, unknown, of 
 course, to the amorous veteran ; 
 but, neglecting her charms for some 
 
 other unfortunate woman, she 
 became jealous, and banished him 
 from her presence. 
 
 It is a melancholy truth that, in 
 this modern Babylon, thousands 
 are found, in the shape of men, who 
 subsist on the prostitution of unfor- 
 tunate females, whose nocturnal and 
 vile earnings are spent by these 
 wretches, known by the name of 
 ' fancy-men.' Hayward became one 
 of these, and shared the sinful gains 
 of more than one prostitute. What 
 a degradation ! A young man of 
 such talents and acquirements as 
 those possessed by Hayward, need 
 never descend to vice or meanness. 
 In this country, abilities like his are 
 sure to be appreciated, and fair in- 
 dustry is certain of reward. Laud- 
 able endeavours seldom fail to 
 procure, at least, the necessaries of 
 life, while all the arts and schemes 
 of the swindler are insufficient to 
 keep him from starving. He may, 
 indeed, be momentarily successful ; 
 but his career is always short. Hay- 
 ward, with all his address, was 
 driven, in less than three years, to 
 the utmost distress ; and a little 
 before he committed the crime for 
 which he suffered, he had no means 
 of raising the price of his bed but 
 by forcibly snatching the shawl from 
 off a girl of the town, and running 
 away with it. 
 
 A sharper is compelled to be al- 
 ways on the alert, and avail him- 
 self of every opportunity to aug- 
 ment his finances. While Hayward 
 was immersed in pleasure, he did 
 not omit to profit by the conse- 
 quence derived from his associating 
 with men of rank ; and tradesmen, 
 seeing him in company with their 
 wealthy customers, could not refuse 
 him credit. Jewellers supplied him 
 with trinkets for his girls, and 
 tailors dressed him out in the first 
 style of fashion. It is needless to 
 say that he owed hundreds and never 
 
328 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 paid a halfpenny. An anecdote 
 or two will illustrate at once his 
 address and assurance. 
 
 Passing- one day by the shop of 
 a Mr. Spurling, jeweller, 42, Judd 
 Street, Brunswick Square, Hay- 
 ward's eye was attracted by a flute 
 with silver keys. He went in and 
 asked the price ; finding- it six 
 guineas, he lamented that he had 
 only four pounds and ten shillings 
 in change about him, which he laid 
 on the counter, and desired the in- 
 strument to be sent to his lodgings, 
 when he would pay the remainder. 
 Before taking his leave, he astonish- 
 ed the jeweller by producing on 
 the flute some of the finest notes 
 he ever heard; and, having thus 
 secured his ear, he took occasion to 
 mention some noblemen whom he 
 should recommend to Mr. Spurling's 
 shop. The jeweller, believing him 
 to be a man of fashion, was flattered 
 by his patronage, and instantly 
 sent home the flute; and, when 
 Hay ward called the next day, let 
 hirn have a gold watch worth forty 
 guineas. 
 
 At another time Hayward was 
 dptected in attempting to pass a 
 forged ten pound note. The shop- 
 keeper took him before the sitting 
 alderman at Guildhall, when he ex- 
 pressed himself hurt at the suspi- 
 cion, and assuring the magistrate 
 that being a gentleman a little 
 addicted to play, the note in ques- 
 tion came into his possession that 
 way the preceding night, at one of 
 the gambling-houses in St. James's, 
 where the worthy alderman must 
 know such notes are sometimes im- 
 properly and dishonourably imposed 
 upon gentlemen, he told this plau- 
 sible story with so much polished 
 ease and unembarrassed counte- 
 nance, that the magistrate dismissed 
 the complaint, and the shopkeeper, 
 thinking himself wrong, apologised 
 for his conduct. 
 
 Hayward had not been on the 
 town more than a twelvemonth 
 when he found a short absence from 
 London necessary, as his character 
 had got wind. On learning that 
 some of his acquaintance, in the 
 neighbourhood of Russell Square, 
 had gone to the Isle of Wight on 
 on excursion of pleasure, he resolved 
 to follow them. The difficulty of 
 an introduction was no obstacle to 
 one whose life was artifice, and 
 who rather depended on accident 
 than design. He started for the 
 Isle of Wight in the style of a first 
 rate man of fashion, and was re- 
 ceived with warmth on his arrival, 
 as one who could contribute to the 
 amusement and pleasure of those 
 circles in which he had been before 
 the delight. He was now upon a 
 new scene, which afforded ample 
 scope for the exercise of his talents, 
 and he did not allow them to lie 
 dormant. He entered with spirit 
 into every party; was esteemed the 
 best shot among the sportsmen ; 
 and acknowledged the most accom- 
 plished suitor by the ladies. His 
 talents astonished the islanders ; 
 for he seemed as much at home in 
 remarking on the scenery of the 
 place as in commenting on a piece 
 of Mozart's music. 
 
 Such an agreeable and accom- 
 plished companion as Hayward 
 must have been interesting, had he 
 possessed true notions of honour 
 and integrity : and if he had not 
 been led away by his vanity and 
 dissipation, he might now ha/e 
 formed an advantageous connexion 
 among the circles he visited But 
 pleasure and dissipation left him no 
 time for reflection ; and thus his 
 want of thought prevented him 
 from securing his own independ- 
 ence, and saved some elegant fe- 
 male from having to deplore an un- 
 fortunate alliance. 
 
 While he remained here he be 
 
KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 329 
 
 came the intimate friend of a gen- 
 tleman who, with his son and 
 daughter, were making- a tour of 
 the island. Hayward's conversa- 
 tion was so agreeable, that they 
 solicited his company on the excur- 
 sion. He agreed, and during their 
 progress the young lady gave him 
 marked encouragement, which he 
 probably might have availed himself 
 of, were it not for one of those 
 fortunate circumstances which some- 
 times preserves innocence and dis- 
 comfits the wicked. While he was 
 one day engaged in pointing out the 
 beauties of some local scenery, 
 several strangers passed by, and 
 among them Hayward espied one of 
 the gamblers who had formerly 
 detected him in the act of imposing 
 forged notes on the blacklegs of St. 
 James's. The unexpected appear- 
 ance of this person, at such a 
 moment and in such a place, acted 
 on Hayward like an electric shock, 
 and completely overpowered him. 
 Dreading exposure, he became much 
 agitated, made a hasty apology, 
 and, abruptly quitting his compa- 
 nions, returned to London. The 
 upright man is never surprised ; but 
 the guilty one is, like the timorous 
 hare, alarmed at even the ' rustling 
 of the brake.' 
 
 On his return to the metropolis 
 he entered once more on his vicious 
 course, and was to be seen nightly 
 in the saloons of the theatres ac- 
 companied by dashing cyprians, or 
 found at some free arid-easy, sur- 
 rounded by dishonest characters, 
 with whom he now began to asso- 
 ciate. He was no longer a welcome 
 visitor at the fashionable squares, 
 as his deceptions had been in most 
 instances discovered, and in one or 
 two places he was treated rather 
 unceremoniously. 
 
 Soon after his return from the 
 Isle of Wight he became acquainted 
 with a lady, who, living separately 
 
 from iier husband, had an allow- 
 ance of twelve hundred pounds a 
 year. Hayward soon insinuated 
 himself into her favour, and for a 
 time found her a most convenient 
 banker. This absurd woman had 
 long passed the ' hey-day of her 
 youth,' yet she was so vain that her 
 purse was at Hayward's command 
 in return for the encomiums he 
 bestowed on her person ; for no 
 further impropriety took place be- 
 tween them than a kind of ridicu- 
 lous coquetry. This lady recom- 
 mended her sentimental admirer to 
 lodgings iu her neighbourhood ; but 
 his landlady not getting her rent in 
 due time, she took the advantage of 
 Hayward's absence to inspect his 
 wardrobe. Not meeting with any 
 thing but a few collars, a pair of 
 false ancles, and some paint for his 
 cheeks, she concluded that all was 
 not right, and that if her lodger 
 was a captain, as he pretended to 
 be, he must have been long on half 
 pay, for he appeared nearly as 
 distressed as the lieutenant who so 
 much interested my uncle Toby and 
 Corporal Trim. Accordingly on 
 his return, she intimated a wish to 
 be paid her rent ; but the mock 
 captain replied in terms so disagree- 
 able that she locked him out that 
 night, and refused him further ad- 
 mission into her house. His friend, 
 the liquorish old lady, paid the rent 
 next morning, to avoid an application 
 to her husband on the business. 
 
 His landlady had more causes 
 than one for lamenting having let 
 Hayward into her house, for he 
 endeavoured to seduce her daugh- 
 ter ; and, failing in his object, he 
 spread reports so injurious to the 
 young lady's character, that a gen- 
 tleman who had been paying his 
 addresses to her declined to per- 
 severe in his suit. Hayward was 
 but too successful in deluding young 
 women. At this time he seduced a 
 
330 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 girl of a respectable family, who 
 had some money in the funds, and 
 when her little property had been 
 spent he abandoned her, leaving 
 her pregnant and pennyless ; an 
 act which, in a moral point of view, 
 deserved death more than the crime 
 for which he suffered. This trans- 
 action coming to the ears of his 
 female friend, she, either from jea- 
 lousy or indignation, shut the door 
 in his face, and desired her servants 
 to admit him no more. 
 
 Hayward had by this time be- 
 come too well known at all the 
 places of fashionable resort to at- 
 tempt practising his impositions 
 there any more, and, in consequence, 
 he was obliged to resort to the 
 lowest and basest means of pro- 
 curing the means of subsistence. 
 At one time he ran away with a 
 bundle of gloves off the counter of a 
 hosier, and subsisted for some time 
 by disposing of articles, made of a 
 newly- discovered metal, for gold. 
 Some hinted, after his death, Uiat 
 they suspected him of a crime of 
 disgusting atrocity ; but of this 
 there appears no proof. 
 
 Disowned and degraded, his ca- 
 reer was rapidly drawing to a close, 
 and, as he began to descend, he 
 became more vile and infamous. 
 One night he took a dashing cy- 
 prian to one of the hotels which 
 abound near Leicester Fields, and 
 having treated her to supper, wine, 
 &c. she considered him a perfect 
 g-entleman, until the next morning, 
 when, under pretence of stepping 
 out to his agent, he forgot to re- 
 turn, and left the unfortunate crea- 
 ture in pawn for the bill, which she 
 discharged by pledging her watch, 
 &c. A few nights after she met 
 him in the saloon of Covent GarJen 
 Theatre, and among other reproaches 
 told him he was well known as a 
 passer of forged notes, and that she 
 would have the pleasure of seeing 
 
 him hanged, — a prognostication 
 which even then deeply affected him. 
 
 In the spring of 1821, Hayward 
 accidentally fell into company with 
 a young lady, to whom he repre- 
 sented himself as a young man of 
 family and fortune ; and the credu- 
 lous girl believing him, he obtained 
 permission to visit her, at the house 
 of her mother, in Somers' Town. 
 This lady, whose name was Steb- 
 bings, imprudently admitted Hay- 
 ward to pay his addresses to her 
 daughter ; and while he affected the 
 utmost attachment, he was only 
 making his observation on her house 
 and premises, that he might give 
 information to a desperate ^ang of 
 housebreakers, with whom he had 
 now connected himself. 
 
 Having observed where the valu- 
 ables and money were placed, Hay- 
 ward and his companions met and 
 concerted the plan of operation. In 
 addition to the regular organized 
 housebreakers, there was a young 
 man, named Elkins, an artist, who 
 had become acquainted with Hay- 
 ward, and who at the time lodged 
 with him. 
 
 On the night of the robbery they 
 met at a public-house, in Somers' 
 Town, and after twelve o'clock pro- 
 ceeded to the back of Mrs. Steb- 
 bings's house. Hayward then gave 
 the housebreakers, five in number, 
 the necessary directions ; and he 
 and Elkins remained in the brick- 
 field behind, while the others went 
 to work. The robbers succeeded 
 but too well, and brought out their 
 booty without having excited any 
 alarm ; but Hayward discovering 
 that they had left a valuable article 
 behind them, he re-entered the 
 house with them, and brought it 
 away. His avarice on this occasion 
 was the cause of his apprehension ; 
 for, by the time they had returned, 
 after the second visit, a watchman 
 had, in his rounds, come near the 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 331 
 
 place where they were, and, seeing 
 bundles with them, resolved to bring" 
 them to an account. On his ap- 
 proach they fled, and Hayward 
 threw away a parcel, in which seve- 
 ral articles of plate were tied up ; 
 but the watchman being nearer to 
 him than the others, he succeeded 
 in apprehending him. On being 
 taken to the watch-house, several 
 articles of Mrs. Stebbings's property 
 were found on his person. Next 
 morning this lady identified the 
 property, and went away without 
 knowing who was the robber — a 
 circumstance which seemed to dis- 
 appoint Hayward ; as he expected, 
 had she seen him, she would have 
 declined to prosecute. 
 
 A female, named Mary, who lived 
 with Hayward as mistress, having 
 called at the lock-up-house, was 
 traced back to her lodgings, where 
 Elkins was found sitting at the fire, 
 and he was immediately taken into 
 custody. This young man soon 
 turned king's evidence to save him- 
 self, but as he only knew Hayward, 
 an offer of pardon was held out also 
 to the latter, if he would deliver up 
 his more guilty companions to jus- 
 tice : this he indignantly refused, 
 and was accordingly fully com- 
 mitted ; Mrs. Stebbings resolving 
 to prosecute, though two hundred 
 pounds had been offered, by a secret 
 agent, if she would forbear. 
 
 A report of the transaction having 
 appeared in the newspapers, the 
 young lady who lived with the 
 general, commiserating Hayward's 
 unfortunate situation, applied for 
 permission to see him ; but being 
 in the first instance refused, she 
 contrived to let him know that she 
 forgave him, and, during the re- 
 mainder of his short life, supplied 
 him with money to meet al' his de- 
 mauds. 
 
 In prison he manifested the same 
 minute regard to his appearance 
 
 that he had done through life, and 
 dressed every day with as much 
 exactness as if he was about to 
 figure in Bond-street. Again he 
 was advised to deliver up his guilty 
 companions to justice, but he posi- 
 tively refused. In Newgate, he as- 
 sumed all his former consequence ; 
 and, lest his origin should be known, 
 he told Mr. Brown, the governor, 
 that he had no relation living. 
 His composure never for a moment 
 forsook him ; and, though he knew 
 he had a very narrow chance of 
 escape, he seemed but little af- 
 fected. 
 
 Various endeavours were made to 
 induce Mrs. Stebbings to forbear 
 prosecuting, but all was unavailing ; 
 and the indictment having been 
 found, Hayward was put upon his 
 trial at the Old Bailey. His appear- 
 ance in court excited the greatest 
 surprise ; his dress was rich and 
 elegant, and he appeared more like 
 a man about to enter the drawing- 
 room than one going to be tried for 
 his life. He affected all the ease 
 and grace of a polished gentleman, 
 and every thing about him bespoke 
 inordinate vanity and self love, 
 which predominated over the terrors 
 of approaching infamy and destruc- 
 tion. He seemed, during the trial, 
 to have but one apprehension — lest 
 it should come out that he was of 
 mean origin ; and took an indirect 
 way to establish a belief that he was 
 the character he had assumed, by 
 lamenting, on his defence, that he 
 did not then see in court some of 
 the officers who had known him in 
 the Commissariat department. He 
 had subpoenaed several characters of 
 distinction ; but knowing how little 
 they could say in his behalf, he had 
 not the assurance to call them. 
 
 The principal witness against him 
 was Elkins. This young man was 
 a sculptor, and possessed great in- 
 telligence. He gave a clear account 
 
332 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 of the burglary, and of course esta- 
 blished Hayward's guilt, against 
 whom a verdict was delivered. A 
 coachman was tried along with him, 
 on the charge of having aided the 
 robbers in removing the goods, the 
 housebreakers having got into his 
 coach and drove off, leaving Elkins 
 to shift for himself. This man was 
 acquitted, as the uncorroborated 
 evidence of an accomplice is not 
 sufficient to convict. 
 
 The verdict, when first pro- 
 nounced, appeared to have affected 
 Hayward very much ; but he imme- 
 diately recovered his self-possession, 
 and on retiring from the bar made 
 a graceful bow to the court. 
 
 On being brought up, at the end 
 of the sessions, to receive sentence, 
 his appearance and demeanour ren- 
 dered him peculiarly distinguishable 
 from his fellow-culprits ; and by the 
 attention he paid to the unhappy 
 females who were among the num- 
 ber, he seemed to forget his own 
 wretched situation. 
 
 After condemnation, this unfor- 
 tunate young man laboured to keep 
 up the delusion as to his respecta- 
 bility and high connexions, but he 
 was stripped of his borrowed plu- 
 mage; for his poor father, having 
 seen the name of his son in the 
 public papers, became alarmed, and 
 repaired to Newgate to ascertain 
 whether his fears ' forebode him 
 right.' He sent in his name, but 
 Hayward refused to see him, saying 
 that he must be under a mistake, as 
 his father was not living. The go- 
 vernor of Newgate, however, was 
 struck with the anguish of the mi- 
 serable parent ; and desiring him 
 and his wife to come on a certain 
 day, he introduced them into the 
 press-room, where Hayward was 
 walking, without communicating his 
 intention to either party. On catch- 
 ing each other's view, they, for a 
 moment, stood transfixed with sur- 
 
 prize and horror ; then wild excla- 
 mations of emotion burst from each, 
 as they rushed to embrace ; while 
 convulsive sobs expressed the anguish 
 of their feelings. Hayward beat 
 his forehead, exclaiming, ' Oh ! 
 father, forgive your wicked and 
 undutiful son. I have abandoned 
 and disowned you, but you have not 
 forgotten me in my afflictions ;' and 
 he repeatedly prayed to God to spare 
 his life, to afford him the opportu- 
 nity of showing his gratitude to his 
 father, and atone for his past trans- 
 gressions. 
 
 The interview lasted for a consi- 
 derable time, and it was with diffi- 
 culty they were separated ; when 
 the wretched father set about mak- 
 ing every possible exertion to save 
 the life of his unhappy son. Indeed 
 Hayward, from the strong solicita- 
 tions in his favour, indulged in the 
 hope of a commutation of his sen- 
 tence to transportation until the 
 Saturday before his execution, when 
 he learned the dreadful fact that he 
 was included in the number that was 
 doomed to suffer, every application 
 in his behalf having failed. 
 
 From the moment of his awful 
 fate being communicated to him he 
 evinced a proper spirit of resigna- 
 tion, and attended the chapel on 
 Sunday, to hear his condemned 
 sermon, in a suit of full mourning ; 
 his hair was tastefully arranged, 
 and his irons were kept up by a 
 black leather belt and buckle. He 
 received the sacrament with great 
 devotion, after which he returned 
 to his cell. The next day he was 
 visited by about forty gentlemen, 
 whose houses he had been in the 
 habit of frequenting, and who could 
 not believe, without ocular demon- 
 stration, that it was Sam Hayward 
 who was about to suffer the igno- 
 minious sentence of the law. On 
 Tuesday morning, November the 
 27'h, 1821, he enteied the press- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 333 
 
 yard in the most gentlemanly man- 
 ner; and, though he looked pale 
 and feverish, advanced to the block 
 to have his irons knocked off with a 
 firm step. During- this operation 
 he was supported by the sheriff and 
 the ordinary, to the former of whom 
 he returned thanks for the interest 
 he expressed in his fate. On being- 
 asked how he felt, he replied, ' As 
 a man ought to feel who had vio- 
 lated the laws of God and his coun- 
 try.' Hayward evinced a sincere 
 spirit of contrition, and appeared 
 grateful for the pious attention of 
 the ordinary. In a few minutes the 
 prison bell announced that he had 
 but a few minutes to live, when, 
 casting- his eyes around, he asked, 
 * Is there not a poor female to suf- 
 fer ?' Being- answered in the affir- 
 mative, he exclaimed, ' Oh ! gra- 
 cious God, have mercy upon her !' 
 He then advanced towards the place 
 of execution with a firm tread, and, 
 while his miserable companions were 
 tying- up, he leaned his head upon 
 his hand. From the dreadful agony 
 of this moment he was aroused 
 by the executioner, when, having 
 bowed to all around, he mounted 
 the scaffold with astonishing firm- 
 ness : his youth and gentlemanly 
 appearance excited universal com- 
 miseration from an immense crowd 
 of spectators. His dreadful situa- 
 tion seemed to penetrate his soul, 
 and, as if willing to escape from the 
 anxious gaze of the multitude, he 
 requested the executioner to pull 
 the cap over his eyes. He prayed 
 most fervently until the drop de- 
 scended, when he was launched into 
 eternity. 
 
 Joseph South, for uttering a 
 forged ten pound note, and Anne 
 Norris, for robbing a man at a house 
 of ill-fame, suffered with Hayward. 
 
 Such was, and ever will be, the 
 termination of an ill-spent life. 
 
 Hayward possessed talents tliat 
 might, with laudable exertion, have 
 placed him in a situation of honour- 
 able independence ; but, as all the 
 gifts of nature were perverted by 
 him, he reaped the consequence — a 
 short and miserable life, which ended 
 ignominiously, but without securing 
 oblivion ; for the infamy of his me- 
 mory has survived his breath, and 
 casts back its stigma upon his name 
 and family. Let not unthinking 
 youth be led from the even and 
 peaceable paths of integrity and 
 virtue by the alluring invitations of 
 the vicious, who draw so pleasing 
 a picture of gay and fashionable 
 life ; for be it remembered that, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Colquhoun, twenty 
 thousand individuals awake every 
 morning in this vast metropolis, 
 without knowing where they shall 
 lay their heads at night, or where 
 they are to procure the necessaries 
 of the day. These are not the 
 children of virtuous poverty, whose 
 misfortunes arise from circum- 
 stances beyond their own control, 
 but deluded and mistaken beings, 
 most of whom probably are the vic- 
 tims of vanity and dissipation ; and 
 who, rejected by society, have no 
 means of supporting an infamous 
 and miserable existence, but by 
 preying upon the honest and 
 industrious part of the commu- 
 nity. 
 
 We must here repeat, what we 
 have frequently said before, that 
 virtue and rectitude have the ad- 
 vantage of deceit and villainy, even 
 as regards the happiness of this 
 world ; and, in support of this 
 remark, we can refer to the case be- 
 fore us. The reader may estimate 
 the abilities of Hayward, and can 
 picture the miseries of his short 
 career of vice ; and then say what 
 would have been the reverse had 
 he followed an opposite line of con- 
 
334 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 duct. We have no doubt but the 
 conclusion will be in accordance 
 with the old adage, which says, 
 ' Honesty is the best policy.' In 
 
 that vile pursuit, where the talents 
 of Hayward failed to prosper, let 
 no unthinking- young- man flatter 
 himself that he shall succeed. 
 
 WILLIAM WELSH, EDWARD DOOHERTY, LAURENCE 
 WELSH, AND WILLIAM MARTIN, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MR. HOSKINS. 
 
 The trial of these atrocious of- 
 fenders disclosed such a scene of 
 unparalleled iniquity, that we shall 
 g-ive it in full. Thomas Hoskins, 
 Esq., for whose murder these male- 
 factors suffered, was a young man, 
 of a most respectable family in the 
 county of Limerick. In resisting a 
 party of Whiteboys, in 1821, who 
 had beset his father's house, he 
 brought upon himself the vengeance 
 of these illegal banditti ; and on 
 the 27th of July, in the same year, 
 he was barbarously murdered, in 
 the face of day-light, on his return 
 from Newcastle, in the county of 
 Limerick. 
 
 For twelve months, the savage 
 assassins escaped the pursuit of 
 justice ; and some of them never 
 have been apprehended. The two 
 Welshes, Dooherty, and Martin 
 were taken into custody in the 
 eummer of 1822, and brought to 
 trial at Limerick, on the 1st day of 
 August. The case for the prosecu- 
 tion being stated, Patrick Dillane, 
 an informer, was called and exa- 
 mined : — 
 
 Witness saw Mr. Thomas Hos- 
 kins once ; believes that he is now 
 dead ; saw him this time twelvemonth 
 at the west of Barna-Hill ; he was on 
 horseback ; knows where Mr. Pa- 
 trick Hayles lives at Cragg, right 
 well ; he rode a mule, and a little 
 boy accompanied him, who ran away 
 when he heard the shots fired ; 
 heard the boy's name was Crowly ; 
 William Welsh, Laurence Welsh, 
 
 Edward Dooherty, Patrick Neil, 
 not as yet taken, James Welsh, 
 not taken, and William Martin, were 
 with the witness ; on seeing Mr. 
 Hoskins the party divided ; Martin, 
 Dooherty, William Welsh, and wit- 
 ness, stationed themselves at the 
 sand-pit ; the others were under 
 the bridge, which was forty paces 
 from his party; Mr. Thomas Hos- 
 kins was coming in the direction of 
 Newcastle ; Drohedeena Solus is 
 the Irish name of the bridge ; Mr. 
 Hoskins was near the bridge when 
 first the witness saw him, and from 
 where witness was stationed he 
 heard the shots fired from under 
 the bridge ; two shots were fired, 
 but they did not take place ; James 
 and Laurence Welsh fired first at 
 Mr. Hoskins ; witness was in front 
 of him. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell. — Did you see 
 them fire : how do you know that ? 
 
 Witness. — No other men were at 
 the bridge, but those spoken of; 
 Mr. Hoskins was half way in the 
 direction of the sand-pit, when wit- 
 ness ran out with his gun when he 
 heard the shots from the bridge , 
 witness then fired at young* Mr. 
 Hoskins, and desired a man named 
 Hartnett to be off; witness's shot 
 took place when he fired at Mr. 
 Hoskins ; Hartnett made off ; he 
 shot Mr. Hoskins in the arm and 
 breast ; they were small slugs in 
 the gun, and the mule fled ; the 
 slugs were lead ; he had beat into a 
 rod, and then cut it with a chisel 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 335 
 
 into small slug's ; Mr. Hoskins fell ; 
 after which he ran up a mountain at 
 the right hand side, in the direction 
 of Newcastle ; he then went on his 
 knees to where there was gravel, and 
 begged his life. 
 
 Court. — Who was it pursued 
 him ? — All of us. 
 
 Witness and party then overtook 
 Mr. Hoskins ; he was on his knees 
 begging his life ; there was a hole 
 with gravel near it ; that precise 
 spot he showed to Mr. Percy, chief 
 constable, and to Mr. Vokes ; it 
 was on this spot that Bill Welsh 
 struck him with thebut-end of a gun, 
 which was broke near the head from 
 the blow. 
 
 [Mr. Hoskins, father to the late 
 unhappy young- gentleman, placed 
 his head on his hands, and seemed 
 to be in the most acute agony — an 
 awful stillness pervaded the Court.] 
 
 The gun was a peculiar one ; wit- 
 ness lent the gun to one Jack Mur- 
 phy, which, when he saw it with 
 Welsh on the mountain, he asked 
 him where he got the gun ; it was 
 a left-handed gun, as the lock was 
 at this side. Edward Dooherty, 
 one of the prisoners, fired a pistol 
 down through the body of Mr. Hos- 
 kins as he lay on his face and hands ; 
 it was about the loins he shot him ; 
 he had received no other wound but 
 the one witness fired ; it was the 
 third shot ; witness then took his 
 watch and five tenpennies from his 
 pocket; thinks he would know the 
 watch; saw chains, &c, belonging 
 to it; a ring was on the seals. 
 
 [Here the watch was handed to 
 the witness. It was a small watch, 
 chased on the back, gold, a plain 
 curved chain, one seal and a ring. 
 The witness viewed the watch 
 closely.] 
 
 Witness. — To the best of his be- 
 lief it is the same watch he took 
 from Mr. Hoskins ; sold it about a 
 month afterwards to one Hanlon 
 
 for ten shillings ; shewed it first to 
 Daniel Doody, who was also pre- 
 sent when it was sold; the ring was 
 not to it when sold ; gave the ring 
 to Peggy Clifford, wife to George 
 Reidy ; shewed her the watch ; the 
 party separated after the murder, 
 and went towards Fournavulla ; 
 after separating. Bill and Laurence 
 Welsh went with the witness : the? 
 others faced to Rathcahill ; Martm 
 Dooherty, otherwise Sladdy, and 
 James Welsh, not on his trial, Neill, 
 not on his trial, went to Fournavulla ; 
 witness and family went to Kelly's 
 to drink whiskey ; witness heard 
 the police and army ; went off, and 
 no one with him ; but met William 
 Welsh before break of day, and 
 they both went into one Curtin's 
 house. 
 
 To the Court. — Curtin was in bed 
 when he went there. 
 
 Witness put his gun into a rick of 
 turf on the mountain ; saw no one 
 else hide his arms ; Laurence Welsh 
 lives near Fournavulla ; Kelly lives 
 near the Strand ; the distance be- 
 tween the two houses is twenty 
 paces only ; witness never since saw 
 the left-handed gun ; left Curtin's 
 house after breakfast, and left the 
 house first ; it was about four o'clock 
 in the evening when first he saw 
 Mr. Hoskins ; knows one James 
 Fitzmaurice ; knows Martin Shee- 
 han ; saw Sheehan the same day of 
 the murder ; Sheehan 1 s wife and 
 children were within ; no one else 
 was along with witness at the inter- 
 view ; left the party on the hill 
 while he was at Sheehan's ; Lau- 
 rence Welsh told witness that Shee- 
 han would direct him to Fitzmaurice; 
 the latter could tell whether Mr. 
 Hoskins was coming on or returning 
 to Newcastle that day ; he could 
 not see the prisoners from Shee- 
 han's house, but could by going 
 about forty yards from the house 
 see the men on the hill ; saw Fits- 
 
336 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 maunce ; was at Sheehan's about an 
 hour and a half before the murder 
 took place ; Fitzmaurice lived round 
 the hill ; went back again to the 
 party ; they questioned him as to his 
 seeing 1 Fitzmaurice and what he said; 
 witness said he saw him, and Mr. 
 Hoskins was returning 1 home ; saw 
 Mr. Hoskins coming along; he was a 
 mile and a half distant ; as soon as 
 witness met him, he fired on him 
 from the sand-pit heard Mr. Haye's 
 son was along with Mr. Hoskins ; 
 saw the white trowsers ; ran down 
 to meet him ; saw a boy with a 
 bundle of rushes facing Sullivan's 
 house before he fired the shot ; 
 whistled to a man digging to go in 
 quickly — he did so, and was work- 
 ing in his shirt, and left his spade ; 
 don't know the man's name, and 
 never saw him ; a rick of turf was 
 between him and his view before the 
 shot was fired : witness showed 
 the place, but did not go to the 
 spot ; it was to Mr. Percy and 
 Mr. Vokes he showed the situation 
 where he called out to the man ; 
 heard the horsemen coming in the 
 direction of Furnavulla a little after 
 nightfall, when he threw himself 
 into a ditch. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. O'Con- 
 nell. — Did you live three or four 
 years with Walter Fitzmaurice, Cap- 
 tain Rock ? — I was the first that was 
 called Captain Rock at that time. 
 I was christened so by a school- 
 master. 
 
 I should be glad to know who 
 that worthy disciple is ? — His name 
 is Morgan : it was he christened 
 me ; was once or twice examined 
 about the murder ; was not examin- 
 ed yesterday, nor the day before ; it 
 was Mr. Vokes who brought him into 
 court. 
 
 Was he hander and feeder ? Wit- 
 ness swears he don't know whether 
 he told it yesterday or the day be- 
 fore, nor the last week, nor the last 
 
 fortnight, nor the last month, nor 
 the last two months, but told it 
 when he gave his information ; told 
 it within the last three months ; 
 did a month ago, when giving in- 
 formation : knew Walter Fitzmaurice 
 was in the house where he was; 
 witness was carried to Newcastle in 
 a hack ; he showed the spot where 
 the murder was committed ; on the 
 way he told every word of it ; it is 
 not a fortnight ago since he told 
 every word of it. 
 
 Mr. 0' ConnelL— What harm did 
 the young gentleman you murdered 
 ever do you ? — He was a nice young 
 gentleman, and he never owed him 
 any rent. 
 
 Was it not you that set hi?n ? — 
 Yes. 
 
 Was it not you that went in order 
 to find when he was coming home, 
 when you coolly and deliberately 
 murdered him ? — I was at the mur- 
 dering him. 
 
 Would you not have fired at the 
 man in the garden whom you desir- 
 ed to go in, if he refused doing 
 so ? — I might fire at him, and 
 would make him go in if he did 
 not. 
 
 Were you not the first who shed 
 the blood of this young gentleman ? 
 —Yes. 
 
 Did you then believe that there 
 was a God? — I am sure of it : sorry 
 for it. Sorry for it ? — Sorry that 
 there is a God. 
 
 Witness was brought up the last 
 assizes to be arraigned at the dock 
 behind him, and postponed his 
 trial. 
 
 Don't you think if you were tried 
 for the offence you were arraigned 
 for last assizes, that you deserved 
 to be hanged for it? How long 
 after you postponed your trial was 
 it you gave information ? — Two 
 months. So then you gave in- 
 formation with the rope about your 
 neck ? — I did it with a pious view 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 for what I had done — I love piety. 
 Didn't you know Galvin, who was 
 tried for Mr. Hoskins's murder, was 
 .nnocent ? — I did. Aud Mr. Vokes 
 fed the witness, and paid them for 
 that prosecution ; didn't you hear 
 he had a narrow escape, and that 
 one Anglim swore also against him ? 
 — I heard he had a narrow escape. 
 Didn't you hear that Galvin was 
 sworn to particularly, by having- a 
 mark on his cheek ? — Knew Galvin 
 was innocent. Witness gave the 
 gun to Murphy ; had often two 
 guns, but had only one that time ; 
 forced these guns from other people. 
 Did Mr. Vokes tell you you would 
 be examined ? — He told me to tell 
 nothing but the truth. And if you 
 didn't swear, Vokes would hang 
 you ? — I deserved to be hanged. 
 Is there a greater villain in the 
 creation than you are ; were you 
 not the first to draw his blood ? 
 didn't grant him mercy, when he 
 implored it from your hands ! Yet 
 you knew Galvin was innocent, why 
 not come forward then ? Did you 
 think, if Galvin was hanged, it 
 would be murder ? — At that time 
 he intended to give himself up. But 
 you let the trial go on ; and only 
 for Mr. Ashe's testimony, he would 
 have been hanged, notwithstanding 
 the cross-examination that gentle- 
 man underwent. It was after Gal- 
 vin's trial he was christened Cap- 
 tain Rock ; and never at that period 
 told Mr. Vokes he had a notion of 
 giving information ; he thought no- 
 thing of spilling blood ! Heard 
 there was a large reward for giving 
 information. About how many times 
 did you deserve to be hanged ? — 
 Several times. You are a pious 
 man ! Now give me in a lump how 
 many times ? — Often ; don't know 
 how often ; if that which he fired 
 at Mr. Hoskins was the shot, did 
 not take effect so as to kill him. 
 Give me no if or and — give me yes 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 or no — do you think you are a 
 murderer ? If you stop there until 
 midnight, you must give an answer : 
 I ask you, in your own mind, don't 
 you think you are a murderer ? — 
 I went there with that intent — the 
 shot I fired didn't kill. Well, that is 
 one answer. Remember you are 
 sworn — sworn with blood upon your 
 hands ! Do you think you are a 
 murderer ? 
 
 Court. — Do you think or not 
 whether you are a murderer? — I 
 think I am. 
 
 Mr. 0' Connell.—\ should not 
 have got the answer had the Court 
 not interfered. 
 
 How much money did you get ? 
 — I got fifty shillings. 
 
 What for ? — I was hired to com- 
 mit the murder ! — was put up ! 
 
 Mr. O'Connelt. — Oh, go down, 
 go down ; I'll not ask you another 
 question. 
 
 The indignation and awful feeling 
 which prevaded the court lasted a 
 considerable time. 
 
 Alexander Hoskins, Esq. examin- 
 ed by Mr. White. — The watch wag 
 handed him, and asked whether he 
 ever saw it ; said the last time he 
 saw it was in his son's possession ; 
 his son occasionally wore a ring, 
 which sometimes he attached to the 
 seal. 
 
 Several other witnesses were ex- 
 amined, whose evidence was con- 
 clusive against the prisoners. For 
 the defence two witnesses vainly en- 
 deavoured to prove an alibi in favour 
 of Martin. The other three had no 
 evidence to offer. 
 
 His lordship charged the jury in 
 this important case at very great 
 length. The jury retired for half 
 an hour, when they returned and 
 brought in a verdict of Guilty 
 against all the prisoners. 
 
 After the clerk of the crown asked 
 the prisoners, in the usual way, why 
 judgment of death should not b» 
 119 
 
338 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 pronounced, &c. Martin declared 
 to God he was not guilty. — Lau- 
 rence Welsh, in an emphatic man- 
 ner, and lifting- his hands in a decla- 
 matory style, said, ' he who swore 
 against them committed the murder, 
 and brought them into it.' 
 
 His lordship, in a most feeling 
 and impressive manner, passed the 
 awful sentence of death. In his 
 charge he particularly alluded to the 
 enormity of the offence, and trusted 
 that the prisoners would occupy the 
 
 few hours they had to live in prayer 
 and devotion. His lordship ordered 
 them for execution on Saturday, 
 their bodies to be given for dissec- 
 tion. 
 
 The awful sentence of the law 
 was carried into effect on the ap- 
 pointed day : and it is to be lament- 
 ed that justice could not be ad- 
 ministered without releasing the 
 wretch Dillane from a similar fate, 
 which he appears to have richly 
 merited. 
 
 DANIEL DOODY. JOHN CUSSEN, alias WALSH, JAMES LEAHY, 
 
 MAURICE LEAHY, WILLIAM DOODY, DAVID LEAHY, 
 
 DANIEL RIEDY, WILLIAM COSTELLO, AND 
 
 WALTER F1TZMAURICE, alias 
 
 CAPTAIN ROCK, 
 
 CONVICTED OF ABDUCTION. 
 
 It was the opinion of Dr. John- 
 
 son that many of the romantic tales 
 of the middle ages had their origin 
 in truth, and that the absolute dis- 
 tress of females might, in all pro- 
 bability, have called for the insti- 
 tution of ' knight errantry.' To 
 protect the defenceless is a natural 
 impulse, which has its foundation 
 iu the sympathies of our nature ; 
 but when a female, young, beauti- 
 ful, and innocent, is the victim of 
 oppression, there is no man, with 
 common feelings, who would not 
 risk his life to snatch her from des- 
 pair and misery. In this happy 
 country there are few instances of 
 abduction ; but in Ireland this un- 
 manly crime, as we have already 
 noticed, is too prevalent. The dis- 
 tracted state of certain parts of the 
 country gives aid to the schemes of 
 unprincipled ruffians, acting on the 
 presumption that injured females, 
 when degraded and dishonoured, 
 would of necessity save the violators 
 of their innocence from ignominy 
 by a marriage — the only means, 
 they suppose, left them to escape 
 
 from unmerited shame. The per- 
 sons thus forcibly carried away are 
 generally the daughters of opulent 
 farmers — a fact which clearly shows 
 the mercenary views of those who 
 commit so base and cowardly an 
 outrage on the most defenceless part 
 of the creation. 
 
 Among the many outrages of this 
 nature was one on the person of 
 Miss Honora Goold, a young lady 
 remarkable for her personal beauty. 
 She lived in the house of her mo- 
 ther, at Glangurt, in the county of 
 Cork, and had two sisters older 
 than herself, she being scarcely 
 sixteen, and a brother. On the 4th 
 of March, 1822, about twelve 
 o'clock at night, their dwelling was 
 attacked by an armed banditti, who, 
 on threatening to burn the house, 
 were admitted. One of the fero- 
 cious ruffians burst into Miss Ho- 
 nora's apartment, and asked if she 
 was the eldest Miss Goold. She 
 replied in the negative, and said 
 that her sister was on a visit in 
 Cork. The inquirer then with- 
 drew, and, having searched several 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 339 
 
 other apartments, returned, followed 
 by five or six others, and repeated 
 his interrogation, which he, how- 
 ever, answered himself in the affir- 
 mative ; and then desired her to 
 arise and dress herself. At the 
 suggestion of one of the party they 
 withdrew outside the door, to allow 
 a compliance with their orders. 
 
 The young lady had no hesitation 
 in obeying their mandate ; for she 
 very naturally preferred being up 
 and dressed in the presence of such 
 ruffians. She had scarcely put on 
 her clothes, however, when one of 
 them reentered, seized the scream- 
 ing girl in his arms, and bore her 
 out of the house, where a horseman 
 was waiting to receive her. Before 
 this stranger she was placed, in 
 spite of all her cries for mercy ; and 
 the party, having obtained their 
 prize, set off at full speed, bending 
 their course towards the Galties, a 
 range of mountains between the 
 counties of Cork and Limerick. At 
 the distance of several miles they 
 halted and procured a pillion, and 
 then compelled her to ride behind 
 the unknown leader of this atrocious 
 band. In her eagerness to escape 
 she fell several times during their 
 progress ; and having continued her 
 screams all the time, one of the 
 ruffians threatened to murder her 
 unless she desisted. 
 
 By day light they had entered the 
 recesses of the Galties, and several 
 of the party having occasionally 
 dropped off, she was conducted by 
 the few that remained to the house 
 of David Leahy, a substantial 
 farmer. 
 
 The leader of this outrage was a 
 young man named Brown, of a 
 respectable family, and who had re- 
 ceived an education which should 
 have rendered him incapable of 
 such base and unmanly conduct. 
 The elder Miss Goold was entitled, 
 on her marriage, to a large fortune ; 
 
 and Brown, hoping to possess him- 
 self of it, resolved to carry off the 
 young lady. Being disappointed 
 by the precipitancy and mistake of 
 his assistants, he determined to 
 make sure of the lovely victim who 
 had fallen into his power, knowing 
 that the opulence of her family 
 could make him independent, pro- 
 vided he could insure the consent of 
 the astonished girl he had forcibly 
 carried off. With virtuous indigna- 
 tion she repulsed his fulsome ad- 
 vances, and begged the protection 
 of Mrs. Leahy, in whose parlour 
 she now was : but, strange to say, 
 this mother of children connived at 
 the ruin of her unprotected guest. 
 
 Foiled in his direct attack, Brown 
 had recourse to an expedient, which, 
 for the honour of human nature, we 
 would wish never to record, did not 
 impartial justice demand an honest 
 discharge of our duty as faithful 
 narrators of criminal occurrences. 
 It was proposed, immediately after 
 breakfast, that Miss Goold should 
 take some rest. A bed was in the 
 parlour, and she was directed to 
 repose upon it. This, indeed, after 
 the fatigue of the night, was most 
 desirable ; but to her utter asto- 
 nishment, the family, in which were 
 two females, left the room, at the 
 same time locking the door upon 
 herself and Brown. The monster, 
 in spite of her intreaties and 
 screams, proceeded to undress her, 
 and insisted on sleeping beside her 
 The reader need not be told the 
 rest — the purity of female inno- 
 cence was grossly violated in the 
 person of this young and lovely 
 creature; and her destroyer arose 
 from his bed of lust the polluter of 
 one whose peace of mind neither 
 the world's sympathy nor the world's 
 wealth could restore. 
 
 The friends of Miss Goold, who 
 comprised the wealth and respecta- 
 bility of the county of Cork, set in- 
 
»40 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 stantly about recovering 1 the injured 
 lady. The pursuit was continued 
 from day to day for three weeks, 
 and the vigilance of her friends was 
 only evaded by removing- the poor 
 afflicted creature from cabin to 
 cabin, and from the house of one 
 farmer to that of another. One 
 day she was kept on the bleak 
 mountain, and had the anguish to 
 see her friends at a distance, while 
 she was prevented from flying to 
 them by a ruffian who stood sentinel 
 over her with a loaded pistol. 
 
 Abused, insulted, and almost ex- 
 hausted with fatigue, this delicate 
 female resolutely refused to sanction 
 the presumption of her destroyer; 
 and at the conclusion of three weeks 
 she was placed, by her ferocious 
 guards, in a poor cabin on the road 
 side, where her friends might find 
 her. When discovered, she was in 
 a most deplorable condition, being 
 literally unable to walk, stand, or 
 sit. It took seventeen hours to re- 
 move her thirteen miles, the distance 
 from her mother's house ; but, when 
 once restored to home and its enjoy- 
 ments, her recovery was rapid, and 
 in a short time her health was esta- 
 blished as well as it was possible to 
 be, under all the circumstances of 
 her affecting case. 
 
 From the description of the ban- 
 ditti received from Miss Goold, se- 
 veral of the party were apprehended. 
 Brown, the guilty contriver of the 
 whole, escaped out of the country ; 
 and Walter Fitzmaurice, alias Cap- 
 tain Rock, evaded the pursuit of 
 iustice for a considerable time, but 
 at length surrendered himself to a 
 magistrate. The men whose names 
 are mentioned above, with the ex- 
 ception of Costello and Fitzmaurice, 
 were brought to trial at Limerick, 
 on the 29th of July, 1822. Miss 
 Goold appeared to give evidence, 
 dressed in deep mourning, and her 
 narralive, which she delivered with 
 
 modest dignity, procured he* *.he 
 willing sympathy of a crowded court. 
 The prisoners were found guilty — 
 Death ; but the three Leahys and 
 Cussen were subsequently dis- 
 charged, on a point of law operating 
 in their favour. 
 
 On the 23d of August following, 
 Walter Fitzmaurice, better known 
 at the time as Captain Rock, plead- 
 ed Guilty at the Cork assizes, and. 
 along with Costello, who was found 
 Guilty on the solitary evidence of 
 Miss Goold's brother, who swore to 
 having seen him on the night of Uie 
 abduction, received sentence of 
 Death. 
 
 On the ensuing Saturday, Cos- 
 tello underwent the awful seutenee 
 of the law r , but Fitzmaurice was 
 respited, something having arisen 
 in his favour, principally on the 
 ground of his having pleaded guilty 
 in consequence of the judge refusing 
 to put off his trial in the absence of 
 a material witness. Costello, to 
 the last, declared his innocence, not 
 only of the crime for which he was 
 convicted, but of any connexion 
 whatever with the White Boys. 
 
 The history he gave of his mis- 
 fortune to persons who conversed 
 with him in the gaol, previous to 
 going out to execution, was this : — 
 He was a relative of Brown's, and 
 was workman to him for five years, 
 up to September, 1821 ; when he 
 left him for the purpose of assist- 
 ing his brother, whose wife then 
 died, leaving a large family. He 
 continued in the practice of habits 
 of industry, and, as he declared 
 on the scaffold, knew nothing of 
 Miss Goold's abduction till the 
 morning after. He slept, he as- 
 serted, on that night, and it was 
 endeavoured to be established on 
 the trial, with his brother; and Fitz- 
 maurice, who pleaded guilty, was 
 frequently afterwards heard to ee- 
 clare the innocence of this unfortu- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 341 
 
 nate man. Before going 1 out to ex- 
 ecution, lie observed to a person in 
 the gaol — ' Are not these queer 
 laws that make a man's life depend 
 on the oath of one witness ?' He 
 also asked this person whether he 
 thought there was much pain in the 
 punishment he had to undergo, but 
 being assured there was not, and 
 that it was only instantaneous, it 
 afforded him great consolation. The 
 only thing that he seemed to appre- 
 hend was the first sight of the hang- 
 man, and the tying up of his arms ; 
 but being reasoned with on these 
 points, he acquiesced in their pro- 
 priety, and assumed his usual firm- 
 ness ; and when the executioner 
 came to tie his arms, he put them 
 so far back that the tightness be- 
 came extremely painful to him in 
 his progress to the gallows. His 
 
 manner of going to and at the place 
 of execution was such as to awaken 
 the sympathy and to excite the 
 astonishment of all, even of those 
 who guarded him, some of whom 
 were observed to shed tears. He 
 was firm to the last ; and in him 
 was observable that unpresumirig 
 confidence which could arise from 
 no other source but the innocence 
 of his heart, and his conscious free- 
 dom from the crime for which he 
 suffered. His attention to the cler- 
 gymen who accompanied him showed 
 him to be deeply impressed with 
 feelings of true piety : he died 
 blessing his prosecutors, and beg- 
 ging the prayers of the people. 
 He was a well-looking man, with 
 rather a soft and open countenance, 
 and had nothing daring or deter- 
 mined in his appearance. 
 
 JOHN SMITH, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF A FEMALE. 
 
 This offender was a native of 
 Ireland ; and had been, as he him- 
 self expressed it, ' a roving blade.' 
 In 1822 he resided at Greenwich, 
 where he cohabited with a woman 
 of loose character ; and suspecting 
 her of infidelity, in a fit of jealousy 
 he stabbed her in the throat. She 
 died of the wound, and he was con- 
 victed of murder at the next Maid- 
 stone assizes. 
 
 Immediately after sentence had 
 been pronounced on him he sent 
 for a gentleman of Maidstone, and 
 with a vehement injunction, desired 
 him to make public what he called 
 a history of his life, at the same 
 time putting into his hand a scrap 
 of paper. The surprise of the 
 gentleman may be conceived, when, 
 on examining the paper, he found 
 it to contain a precise history of the 
 place of Smith's birth — his propen- 
 sities — and, finally, his motive for 
 committing' the murder, described 
 in doggrel verse, which exhibit an 
 
 extraordinary instance of mental 
 abstraction, in a man of seventy- 
 eight years of age, under the awful 
 sentence of death. Although the 
 production of an illiterate mind, it 
 is truly astonishing how Smith 
 could abstract himself from his 
 situation so as to produce them. 
 They may be regarded as a literary 
 curiosity, and the levity of the 
 concluding lines is not the least 
 remarkable of the whole. 
 
 The following is copied from the 
 origirial literatim et verbatim. 
 
 ' In the County of Wicklow I was born'd 
 
 but now in Maidstone die in scorn 
 
 I once was counted a roving blade 
 
 but to mv misfortune had no trade 
 
 women was always my downfall 
 
 but still 1 iiked and loved them all 
 
 a hundred I have had in my time 
 
 when I was young and in my prinit* 
 
 women was always my delight 
 
 but when I got old they did me slight 
 
 a woman from London to me came 
 
 she said with You I would fain remain 
 
 if you will be constant III be true 
 
 I never want no Man but You— 
 
342 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 and on her own Bible a Oath did take 
 
 that she never would me forsake 
 
 and during the lime that I had Life 
 
 she would always prove a loving Wife 
 
 and by tli3t means we did agree 
 
 to live together she and Me — 
 
 but soon her vows and Oath did break 
 
 and to another Man did take 
 
 Which she fetch'd home with her to lay 
 
 and that proved her own destiny 
 
 So as Jack Smith lay on his bed 
 
 this notion strongly run in his Head 
 
 then he got up with that intent 
 
 to find her out was fully bent [broke 
 
 swearing if he found out her Oath she'd 
 
 he stick a knife iuto her throat 
 
 then to the Cricketers he did go 
 
 to see if he could find it out or no 
 
 not long been there before she come in 
 
 with this same fellow to fetch some Gin 
 
 then with A Knife himself brought in 
 immediately stab'd her under llie Chin 
 and in five minutes she was no itiore 
 but there laid in her purple gore 
 Now to conclude and end my song 
 they are both dead dead and goue 
 they are both gone I do declare 
 gone they are but God knows where — ' 
 
 On Monday, December the 23d, 
 1822, Smith was executed on Pen- 
 nenden Heath. He appeared truly 
 penitent, and attributed the misfor- 
 tunes of his life to his licentious 
 propensities. He prayed aloud and 
 very fervently until the drop fell 
 about twelve o'clock. 
 
 ROBERT HARTLEY, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR WILFULLY STABBING. 
 
 The ruthless deeds of this young- 
 offender almost rival those of the 
 notorious Avershaw. Robert Hart- 
 ley was convicted at the Maidstone 
 Assizes, on the lGtli of December, 
 1822, of wilfully stabbing - Captain 
 Owen, of the Belleroijhon convict 
 ship, lying- at Sheerness, on the 
 29th of the preceding August, 
 where Hartley was confined as a 
 transport. 
 
 Some days before his execution 
 he confessed to the Rev. Mr. Winter 
 that he had been concerned in 
 upwards of two hundred burglaries 
 in Kent, Essex, Surrey, Middlesex, 
 Hampshire, Hertfordshire, York- 
 shire, Westmorland, Durham, Lin- 
 coln, and Norfolk. He had been 
 confined in sixteen different prisons, 
 besides undergoing several examina- 
 tions at the different police-offices ; 
 and had gone by the following 
 names : — Robt. Stainton, Alexander 
 Rombollen, George Grimes, Robert 
 Wood, William Smith, George 
 Crog-gington, and Robert Hartley. 
 
 Hartley's father formerly kept an 
 inn (the Sir John Falstaff) at Hull, 
 in Yorkshire. He was put to school 
 in that neighbourhood ; but his 
 
 conduct there was so marked with 
 depravity, and so frequently did he 
 play the truant, that he was dis- 
 missed as unmanageable. He then, 
 although only nine years of age, 
 began with pilfering and roboing 
 gardens and orchards, till at length 
 his friends were obliged to send him 
 to sea. He soon contrived to run 
 away from the vessel in which he 
 had been placed, and, having 
 regained the land, pursued his old 
 habits, and got connected with 
 many of the principal thieves in 
 London, with whom he commenced 
 business regularly as a housebreaker, 
 which was almost always his line of 
 robbery. 
 
 Hartley acknowledged that, from 
 his earliest days, he was of a most 
 vindictive and revengeful spirit. He 
 had been punished when at school, 
 and in revenge contrived to get 
 from his bed in the nig-ht, and 
 destroy the whole of the fruit 
 trees, and every plant and shrub in 
 his master's garden. At another 
 time, having robbed a neighbour's 
 garden, he was detected and punished, 
 when, in order to wreak his ven- 
 geance, he set fire to the house in 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 343 
 
 the night, which was nearly de- 
 stroyed, tog-ether with its inmates. 
 He had adopced a plan to escape 
 from his father's house in the nig-ht 
 time without detection, which was 
 done by means of a rope ladder that 
 he let down from his bed-room win- 
 dow ; and, after effecting- his rob- 
 beries, he used to return to his room 
 in the same way. 
 
 Hartley had once before received 
 sentence of death, and was not 
 respited till within a few hours of 
 the usual time of execution ; he was 
 then sent to Botany Bay, from 
 whence he contrived to make his 
 escape, and afterwards entered on 
 board one of his Majesty's ships in 
 the East Indies. Whilst at this 
 station he was removed to the hos- 
 pital on shore at Bombay, on ac- 
 count of sickness ; but even in this 
 state he could not refrain from 
 thieving. His practice was to scale 
 the walls of the hospital in the even- 
 ing-, and way-lay the natives, whom 
 he contrived to rob by knocking 
 them down with a short stick, and 
 then seizing- their turbans, in which 
 their wealth was usually deposited. 
 
 While on this station a g-entleman 
 on board the ship missed a box of 
 pearls, and suspicion falling- on a 
 native Indian, he was put on shore 
 and dreadfully tortured, his fing-ers 
 and toe-nails being- torn out to make 
 him confess. A few days before 
 Hartley's execution he confessed 
 that he stole the pearls, and secret- 
 ed them in a crevice in the ship's 
 side, whence they had slipped to the 
 bottom, and he could not recover 
 them. He wrote an account of this 
 circumstance to the commander of 
 the ship, who came to Maidstone 
 immediately, and recog-nised him as 
 having- been eng-ag-ed as an offi- 
 cer's servant on board, and Hartley 
 assured him that the pearls still re- 
 oiained in the place where he had 
 secreted them. 
 
 Hartley acknowledged that he 
 was an accomplice in the murder 
 of Mr. Bird and his housekeeper, 
 at Greenwich, for which murder 
 Ilusseywas executed in 1818, but 
 that neither himself nor Hussey 
 were the actual murderers. Hart- 
 ley obtained admission into the 
 house by presenting a note at the 
 door, when himself, with Hussey 
 and another person, whom he 
 
 named, , rushed into the 
 
 house and shut the door. Hartley 
 instantly ran up stairs to plunder 
 the drawers, and whilst there he 
 heard a loud cry for mercy. He 
 went to the top of the stairs, aud 
 saw Hussey pull Mr. Bird's house- 
 keeper to the floor, whilst 
 
 struck her repeatedly with a ham- 
 mer. Hartley ran down stairs, and 
 saw Mr. Bird lying dead on his 
 back. The sight so affected him, 
 that he immediately threw on the 
 table two watches which he had 
 secured, and ran out of the house, 
 and never saw Hussey afterwards, 
 nor had he any share in the plunder. 
 
 Happy would it have been had his 
 hands always been as free from blood, 
 as he confessed that he afterwards 
 met a gentleman on the highway, 
 and shot him dead ; after which he 
 took from his person a watch and 
 seventy-five pounds. 
 
 Hartley was also witness to an- 
 other scene of murder which oc- 
 curred in one of his midnight rob- 
 beries. Himself and a companion 
 had entered the house of a gentle- 
 man, who, being alarmed, seized the 
 poker, and made towards Hartley, 
 who snapped a pistol, which missed 
 fire. The gentleman seized him by 
 the collar, and dragged him to the 
 floor, when Hartley's companion 
 plunged a knife into his heart, and 
 he fell deatt upon Hartley. Two 
 ladies had followed the gentleman 
 into the room, and, at the horrid 
 sight, they instantly fainted, whilst 
 
o44 KNAPP fk. BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Hartley and his companion made 
 their escape. He has also fre- 
 quently confessed that the mur- 
 derer of Mrs. Donatty was the 
 
 abovementioned , whom 
 
 he represented to be a most 
 blood-thirsty villain. 
 
 In one of his midnight excursions 
 with two of his companions, he had 
 a narrow escape of his life. They 
 had packed up the principal part of 
 the plate in the lower rooms, when 
 one of his companions with horrid 
 oaths, declared that he would pro- 
 ceed up stairs ; in attempting- which 
 he was shot dead at the side of 
 Hartley, who, with his other com- 
 panion, made a hasty retreat. This 
 circumstance only served to harden 
 him in iniquity, as he acknowledged 
 that he was totally devoid of fear or 
 natural affection. Feeling's of re- 
 morse were, however, awakened a 
 few days before his trial, by an 
 affectionate letter from his sister, 
 imprisoned for debt, whom he had 
 robbed of two hundred pounds, by 
 forging a power of attorney ; by 
 which he obtained possession of a 
 legacy of that amount, which had 
 
 been bequeathed to her by a distant 
 relation. 
 
 He looked forward to the time of 
 his execution with astonishing- cool- 
 ness ; and, in order that he mig-ht 
 have the day continually before him, 
 he had drawn a circle on paper, to 
 form a kind of dial, with an index 
 pointing- to the number of days yet 
 remaining- ; and this index he moved 
 daily, as the days of life decreased. 
 This monitor he fastened ag-ainst the 
 wall of his cell.where it was constant- 
 ly in view. He was twenty- five years of 
 age. and about five feet six inches hig-h. 
 
 On Thursday morning, January 
 the 2d, 1823, this hardened offender 
 underwent the awful sentence of the 
 law, on Pennenden Heath, near 
 Maidstone. From the time of his 
 condemnation to the evening pre- 
 ceding his execution he behaved in 
 the most impenitent manner, stating 
 his disbelief in a future state, and 
 disregarding the pious exhortations 
 of the chaplain. He was wont to 
 speak of his wicked deeds with ex- 
 ultation, and appeared to be totally 
 lost to all sense of moral rectitude 
 and religious feeling. 
 
 JOHN KEYS, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR PARRICIDE. 
 
 Happily a crime of this enormity 
 occurs but seldom ; too many are 
 wicked, but few, thank God, are 
 found unnatural enough to destroy 
 the source of their own being, by 
 imbruing their hands in the blood of 
 a parent. 
 
 John Keys lived with his father, 
 a poor farmer, in Enniskillen, Ire- 
 land. His eldest brother was absent 
 in the army, and John had received 
 a part of the little farm as his in- 
 heritance, it being a common thing 
 there to divide the land among the 
 children. On the 23d of April, 1822, 
 John and his father went out in the 
 fields to make a ditch. They ap- 
 
 peared in great harmony ; came 
 home, dined together, and afterwards 
 went again to their work. 
 
 In the evening John returned 
 without his father, and being asked 
 where he was, said he had gone to 
 the mountain to look after the goats. 
 The old man not having appeared 
 that night, the same question was 
 repeated by his sister next morning, 
 when he prevaricated, and said that 
 his father had gone to look for his 
 brother, who was in the army. 
 
 Suspicion was now excited. A 
 brother of the deceased came and 
 commenced a search, when the body 
 was fauna buried in a ditch. The 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 545 
 
 skull exhibited marks of violence, 
 ami no doubt remained but the son 
 had murdered his father with the 
 spade, and afterwards buried him. 
 The parricide was at this moment 
 seen walking- by the side of a neigh- 
 bouring- lake, and the people ran to 
 apprehend him. With conscious 
 g-uilt, when he saw them approach 
 he ran into the water up to his 
 neck, saying-, ' You want to accuse 
 me of murdering- my father — I will 
 not endure to be pointed at as the 
 murderer of my father.' At this 
 time no one had accused him. His 
 uncle entreated him to come out of 
 the water, and surrender himself, 
 but he refused. When the people 
 would withdraw a little he came 
 out, but the moment they attempted 
 to close upon him he ran in ag-ain, 
 leaving- nothing- visible but his head. 
 In this posture he was proceeding 
 to make his will, determined to 
 drown himself sooner than surren- 
 der, when a man arrived who could 
 swim, and who quickly broug-ht him 
 out of his watery position. Being- 
 taken to the house of a mag-istrate, 
 he told the constable that his bro- 
 ther had come to him the day before 
 
 the parricide, and persuaded him to 
 join him in murdering- their father, 
 that they mig-ht share the farm be- 
 tween them. 
 
 Keys was broug-ht to trial at En- 
 niskillen on the 21st ofMarch, 1823, 
 and found g-uilty on the clearest evi- 
 dence. After sentence had been pro- 
 nounced he acknowledg-ed his g-uilt, 
 and completely exonerated his bro- 
 ther, and all other persons, from any 
 participation in his crime. He com- 
 mitted the dreadful act in conse- 
 quence of a trifling- dispute with his 
 father, and had accused his brother 
 in the vain hope of being- admitted 
 as king-'s evidence. 
 
 At the place of execution he re- 
 peated the confession of his g-uilt, 
 and exculpated all others from any 
 participation. He was little more 
 thau twenty years of ag-e, and had 
 been broug-ht up in total ignorance 
 of all religious duties. During- his 
 confinement he had profited by the 
 school opened in the g-aol, and had 
 listened attentively to the pious in- 
 structions of the chaplain. Keys, 
 being- a Protestant, was attended 
 by a minister of the established 
 church. 
 
 JOHN NEWTON, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE. 
 
 Be master of thy ang-er,' said with impunity; she avenges herself 
 
 the sag-e of Corinth ; and certainly 
 a more important advice was never 
 given to individuals ; for how much 
 of domestic misery is attributable to 
 the violent and brutal passions of 
 masters of families, who exercise in 
 their own houses the most despotic 
 and cruel conduct. It is a melan- 
 choly truth, that too many females 
 have their lives made miserable by 
 the unfeeling conduct of those who 
 had pledged themselves, in the eyes 
 of Heaven, to ' love, cherish, and 
 protect,' these sweeteners of life. 
 But humanity is not to be outraged 
 
 on her insulters, by making their 
 homes miserable ; and that which 
 would otherwise be the scene of 
 gladness and affection, becomes the 
 seat of anger and unremitted con- 
 tention. 
 
 John Newton was an opulent 
 farmer, who resided at Severn Hall, 
 near Bridgenorth. He had been 
 married for several years to an 
 amiable woman, who had brought 
 him a smiling and youthful progeny. 
 His unfortunate consort was in the 
 habit of experiencing great violence 
 from her unfeeling husband ; and, if 
 
cAG 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 we may judge from his last act, he 
 was a mere brute in a human form. 
 
 On the 12th of January, 1823, a 
 man named Edwards, a tinman at 
 Bridgenorth, brought in his account 
 to Mr. Newton, for whom he was 
 in the habit of working-. There was 
 an article charged for which Mrs. 
 Newton had received money to pay, 
 and being- called into the parlour by 
 her husband, she did not deny the 
 fact, but stated having- disposed of 
 the money in the purchase of some- 
 thing- else for the use of the house. 
 He g-ot into a great passion, blus- 
 tered, and swore that he would give 
 her a complete threshing. Mr. Ed- 
 wards, with a view of pacifying him, 
 offered to erase the item, which was 
 for a mere trifle, sooner than have 
 any thing unpleasant occur about 
 it ; but he still persisted in his de- 
 termination of beating his unfortu- 
 nate wife, who had been all day 
 busied in baking and brewing, and 
 who was at the time five months 
 g-one with child. 
 
 About eight o'clock in the even- 
 ing Mr. Edwards went away : before 
 doing so he passed through the 
 kitchen and shook hands with Mrs. 
 Newton, who appeared dejected, but 
 not ill. Newton stopped him for a 
 few minutes at the door, and as he 
 was about to depart he turned round 
 to bid her good night, but she had 
 quitted the kitchen. ' Oh ! she's 
 gone to hide herself,' said the hus- 
 band, 'as she knows what she has 
 to expect.' On this Edwards re- 
 monstrated with him, and told him 
 that, if he beat his wife, he would 
 never speak to him again. 
 
 The counsel of his friend had no 
 effect on the brutal wretch ; for im- 
 mediately on Edwards leaving the 
 house, he proceeded to put his 
 threats into execution, and beat and 
 kicked the unfortunate woman in an 
 unmerciful manner. The children 
 made such a dreadful outcry, that 
 
 the servant-maid heard them, at foui 
 fields distance, exclaiming, ' Oh ! 
 dear, dad, do not !' This girl then 
 hastened home, and found her mis- 
 tress lying in her blood across the 
 hearth- stone. The carter came in 
 about the same time, and the poor 
 woman took him by the hand, say- 
 ing, ' God bless you ! I take mv 
 leave of you !' Newton all this time 
 did not attempt to send for a doctor, 
 but kept teazing his miserable wife, 
 by asking her, ' Who is the greater 
 rogue, you or I ?' 
 
 The wretched woman was then 
 carried to bed, and the carter went 
 to fetch a doctor, who, on arriving, 
 gave her some laudanum, and then 
 went away, without having clearly 
 ascertained the extent of her inju- 
 ries. This man's conduct was really 
 very culpable, as physicians after- 
 wards gave it as their opinion that, 
 with proper treatment, she might 
 have recovered. 
 
 Newton, before he went to bed, 
 came into his wife's room, and be- 
 gan to teaze her anew; when the 
 woman, who was taking care of her, 
 very properly desired him to go to 
 bed, and defer what he had to say 
 until a fitter opportunity. At one 
 o'clock the wretched woman ex- 
 pired ; and on this being communi- 
 cated to her husband he jumped out 
 of bed, and set off for a doctor. The 
 suddenness of his wife's death seems 
 to have brought him to a proper 
 feeling, for he was heard to exclaim 
 that he would give the whole world 
 to have her back again. 
 
 In a few days a coroner's inquest 
 was held on the body ; and, as he 
 dreaded inquiry, he manifested great 
 anxiety to suppress the most mate- 
 rial evidence. The coroner, whose 
 name was Whitcomb, seems to have 
 culpably entered into his views, and 
 corruptly endeavoured to procure a 
 verdict which would acquit Newton 
 of the murder. But the jury were 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 347 
 
 dissatisfied with the coroner's expla- 
 nation ; and being* unjustly prevented 
 from seeing* the body, returned the 
 following* verdict : — ' Died by bleed- 
 ing; but how caused is to us 
 unknown.' ' That is,' said the 
 coroner,* ' by the visitation of God.' 
 ' No,' replied the jury, ' that is not 
 what we mean ;' and the verdict 
 was recorded as given in. 
 
 The neighbours were, however, 
 dissatisfied with this verdict ; they 
 applied to a magistrate, and Newton 
 was committed. His trial came on 
 at Shrewsbury on the 22d of March, 
 1823, and the foregoing facts 
 being substantiated, he was found 
 Guiltv. 
 
 Newton, who was a robust man, 
 about forty, seemed little affected 
 
 during his trial ; but when the Indge 
 proceeded to pass on him the awful 
 sentence of the law, he appeared 
 bewildered — looked wildly about — 
 moved, as if involuntarily, up and 
 down the dock, and once or twice 
 attempted to turn away. When 
 the learned judge had concluded, 
 he remained at the bar, as if in 
 expectation of something being done 
 for him, and resisted the attempts 
 to take him away. When they began 
 to force him away, he cried out 
 wildly ; and after being carried out, 
 it was some time before his lamen- 
 tations ceased to appal the court. 
 
 He suffered at Shrewsbury next 
 day but one, and manifested on the 
 platform a proper feeling of piety 
 and resignation. 
 
 We are a loss 
 credulity of a great bulk of the 
 people with the dissemination of 
 knowledge which is admitted to 
 have latterly taken place. Every 
 ignorant empiric who proclaims the 
 virtue of his nostrums through the 
 
 JONATHAN COOK, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR A RAPE ON A CHILD. 
 
 to reconcile the quacks ; but every village in the 
 country is cursed with one of these 
 wretches, who publishes, with un- 
 blushing effrontery, forged testimo- 
 nials of his healing powers. The 
 harm done by these vile impostors 
 is incalculable ; they kill hundreds 
 
 country seems to procure abundant of their miserable patients through 
 
 customers, alias dupes ; for, to the 
 disgrace of modern times, the sale 
 of quack medicines has increased, as 
 appears from the return of stamp 
 duties in 1823, to the House of 
 Commons. In London, we have 
 hundreds of these base men, called 
 
 absolute ignorance, and corrupt 
 others by the scandalous debauchery 
 of their lives. To the credulous who 
 have been duped, and the incredulous 
 who think these remarks over- 
 strained, we recommend the perusal 
 of the following* case. 
 
 * The conduct of VVhitcomb on this important occasion was so glaring a dereliction 
 of duty, that the county determined to prosecute him ; and accordingly, on the 29th 
 of the ensuing July, he was found Guilty, at the Shrewsbury Assizes, of the following 
 charges : — ' That, disregarding the duties of his office, and seeking to pervert the 
 course of justice for his private gain, did, before the swearing of the jury, take a 
 secret examination of several witnesses — that he had an interview with Newton, whom 
 he knew to he suspected of the murder of his wife, and corruptly agreed with him 
 to persuade the jury that he was not the cause of his wife's death — that, contrary to 
 the evidence of the surgeon, he endeavoured to persuade the jury that Mrs. Newton's 
 death proceeded from a natural cause — that he dismissed, in furtherance of his design, 
 thirteen of the jurors — that he corruptly returned an erroneous verdict — and, finally, 
 that he neglected calling certain witnesses, whose evidence he knew was of the utmost 
 importance ; at the same time refused to let the jurors see the body of the deceased, 
 well knowing that it exhibited great marks of violence.' These charges were fully 
 proved, and Whitcomb was dismissed from his office, . fined, and imprisoned. 
 
348 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 Jonathan Cook lived at Calne, 
 near Salisbury, and practised among 
 the country people as a quack doctor. 
 On the 14th of May, 1823, he went 
 to the house of a labouring- man 
 named Lawrence, who had a son 
 under his care. After inquiring 
 about his patient, Lawrence's wife 
 showed him a swelling under the 
 chin of her little girl, aged nine 
 years. Cook said he could cure it, 
 but it was necessary that he should 
 provide some herbs, and requested 
 to have the assistance of the little 
 girls, the eldest of whom was only 
 twelve years old. The unsuspecting 
 mother readily gave her consent, 
 and the villain led the poor children 
 to a solitary field, at a mile distance, 
 where he forcibly violated the person 
 of the eldest, having first made a 
 similar attempt, which proved abor- 
 tive, on the youngest. 
 
 The poor children on their return 
 appeared agitated and ill, and being 
 questioned by their mother, com- 
 municated what had taken place. 
 What added to the diabolical crime 
 was the circumstance of the wretch 
 having communicated to his victim 
 acertain abominable disease, of which 
 she had not been cured when she 
 gave evidence against her violator. 
 
 With the greatest effrontery the 
 villain called next day on the dis- 
 tracted mother, and being accused 
 of the fact, flatly denied it ; but on 
 the poor woman going out to call 
 her husband, he made off, and was 
 not apprehended for a month 
 after. 
 
 Cook was brought to trial at 
 Salisbury on the loth of July, 1823, 
 when the victim of his abominable 
 passion appeared against him. She 
 seemed an intelligent modest child, 
 and excited a general sympathy 
 throughout the court. The wretch 
 had the impudence to cross-examine 
 her, with a view to show that, she 
 consented, but her evidence was 
 direct and conclusive, and the jury 
 found him Guilty, on which the 
 judge immediately passed on him the 
 awful sentence of the law, advising 
 him to apply for mercy in another 
 world, for none could be extended 
 to him here. 
 
 He was a man of about twenty- 
 eight years of age, of robust make, 
 and dressed like a creditable farmer. 
 He heard his sentence with compo- 
 sure, and bowed to the court on 
 leaving the bar. He underwent, in 
 a few days, the awful sentence of 
 the law. 
 
 PHILIP STOFFEL AN 
 
 EXECUTED FOR THE MU 
 
 On Tuesday night, April the 8th, 
 1823, a most inhuman murder was 
 committed at Clapham, on the body 
 of Mrs. Elizabeth Richards, a widow 
 of seventy-five years of age. The 
 unfortunate lady had resided for 
 thirty years in the same house at 
 the above town, where she was 
 greatly respected by the neighbours. 
 She kept no servant, and had no 
 inmate but an elderly lady named 
 Bell. The latter was in the habit of 
 going out in the evening to attend 
 a place of religious worship, and 
 had done so on the one in question. 
 
 D CHARLES KEPPEL, 
 
 RDER OF MRS. RICHARDS. 
 
 A few minutes after eight o'clock, a 
 neighbouring woman coming to see 
 Mrs. Richards found her dead, lying 
 on her back in the parlour, with an 
 apron stuffed into her mouth. On 
 examination it was found that 
 robbers had perpetrated the dreadful 
 deed, as the pockets of the deceased 
 had been violently torn from her 
 side, her watch and some money 
 taken, as well as several articles of 
 wearing apparel. The villains, how- 
 ever, had missed the principal object 
 of their attack, for a large sum of 
 money had escaped their search, 
 
KNaPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 349 
 
 being" coucealed in a room up stairs. 
 The poor old woman had been left, 
 by age, only two teeth, and one of 
 these was forced down her throat by 
 the violence with which the wretches 
 had thrust the apron into her mouth, 
 with the view, no doubt, of prevent- 
 ing- her from giving - alarm. A paper 
 parcel was found in the hall, on 
 which was written ' Mrs. Bell, hat 
 Mrs. Richards, Clapham.' 
 
 The sensation produced by this 
 unprovoked murder was so great, 
 that a public meeting 1 was called in 
 a day or two at Clapham, and a 
 reward of two hundred guineas of- 
 fered for a discovery of the mur- 
 derers. The active officers of 
 Union Hall police-office in the course 
 of a week apprehended a suspicious 
 character, Philip Stoffel, nephew to 
 Mrs. Richards, a ruffianly-looking* 
 fellow of about twenty years of ag-e. 
 When brought to the police office he 
 denied all knowledge of the crime 
 with which he was accused ; but, 
 being- requested to write ' Mrs. Bell 
 at Mrs. Richards,' &c. he wrote the 
 word hat for at, in a hand precisely 
 the same as the superscription on 
 the parcel found after the murder. 
 Seeing" himself detected he exclaim- 
 ed. ' It is of no use — I was at the 
 murder!' He then, unsolicited, 
 gave a full account of the whole 
 transaction, and acknowledged who 
 were with him at the time. Pre- 
 viously, however, to this confession, 
 another of the gang, named Thomas 
 Scott, a rat-catcher, was in custody, 
 and had been admitted king's evi- 
 dence. In his confession, which 
 gave a minute account of the whole 
 transaction, he stated that the rob- 
 bery was planned by Stoffel, who 
 called in the aid of himself, Keppel, 
 and Pritchard, but that the murder 
 was the act of Keppel alone, Stoffel 
 particularly desiring that they would 
 not hurt her. Whilst Scott was 
 giving the parcel to Mrs. Richards, 
 who went into the room to read the 
 
 direction, Stoffel walked in gently, 
 and said, ' My good old lady, we 
 don't want to hurt you ; we only 
 wish for you to be quiet.' She 
 exclaimed 'Oh Lord! oh dear!' 
 when Stoffel put his hand upon her 
 mouth, and the other two men com- 
 ing in, he desired Keppel to hold 
 her whilst he went up stairs, as he 
 knew best where the money was, but 
 not to hurt her. They then proceed- 
 ed to rifle the house of all they could 
 get at, but did not break any locks, 
 for fear of alarming the people in 
 the next house. Though Mrs. Rich- 
 ards did not move, Scott declared 
 that he did not think that she was 
 dead, but only that she had fainted. 
 Inconsequence of the information 
 contained in Scott's confession, the 
 officers went in pursuit of Keppel 
 and Pritchard ; and, after having 
 travelled from Gravesend to Ports- 
 mouth, they succeeded in appre- 
 hending Keppel, who was disguised 
 in a smock-frock, &c. Keppel and 
 Pritchard were by trade bricklayers, 
 but had led a most abandoned life 
 among the lowest prostitutes about 
 Westminster. Pritchard, we are 
 sorry to say, escaped the pursuit of 
 justice, as he was never apprehend- 
 ed. Keppel denied all knowledge 
 of the murder, and behaved in the 
 most hardened manner. 
 
 Stoffel had every expectation of 
 being admitted a king's evidence ; 
 but ho was not so fortunate, being 
 arraigned along with Keppel at the 
 Croydon assizes, July the 25th, for 
 the murder of Mrs. Richards. The 
 evidence against them was conclu- 
 sive ; for the confession of Stoffel, 
 and the corroborated testimony of 
 the accomplice, Scott, left no doubt 
 whatever of their guilt. 
 
 The verdict having been recorded, 
 Mr. Sergeant Onslow put on the 
 black cap, and proceeded to pass the 
 awful sentence. 
 
 Stoffel, though his appearance was 
 more savage than that of Keppel, 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 did not exhibit the same careless 
 hardihood. The latter, on leaving 
 the bar, had the audacity to apostro- 
 phise the judge as a bloody old 
 rogue, and damned him and his 
 bloody laws tog-ether. Such con- 
 duct, under such circumstances, ex- 
 hibits a depravity which we are 
 almost ashamed to record. 
 
 On Monday morning-, July the 
 28th, these desperate young- men un- 
 derwent the sentence of the law, on 
 the top of Horsemong-er Lane g-aol. 
 The trag-ic scene was witnessed by 
 a prodigious crowd of people, eag-er 
 to g-et a g-lance of the miserable 
 culprits. Until the preceding even- 
 ing- they manifested the utmost in- 
 difference ; and employed themselves 
 on Saturday with tossing- halfpence. 
 Keppel was the most hardened ; and 
 when brought into the chapel on 
 Sunday morning he appeared still 
 inexorable ; rolled his eyes from 
 one side to the other, and kept 
 picking his fingers, until he brought 
 
 blood through the quick. The pious 
 exhortations of the worthy chaplain, 
 however, brought them to a sense 
 of duty, and they behaved after- 
 wards with that decorum which be- 
 came their unhappy situation. 
 
 The mother of Stoffel was left, by 
 the will of Mrs. Richards, two hun- 
 dred pounds, and the remainder of 
 seven hundred pounds, her whole 
 property, was divided among other 
 relatives. The fate of Stoffel holds 
 out an awful warning to vicious 
 young men, who are not yet irre- 
 coverably lost to virtue, as it shows 
 the dangers to be apprehended from 
 abandoned associates, for whose 
 crimes and deeds the law justly 
 makes their companionsaccountable. 
 Though Stoffel suffered for a crime 
 of which he did not contemplate the 
 commission, for he particularly re- 
 quested that no injury should be 
 done to his aunt, he did not less de- 
 serve death for nutting her in 
 danger. 
 
 JAMES WILSON, 
 
 CONVICTED OF AN ATTEMPT TO COMMIT INCEST. 
 
 It was a maxim amongst the 
 Romans, that no law should exist 
 against persons guilty of parricide, 
 upon the principle that such a crime 
 could not exist. It might also be 
 a maxim in the English law that 
 no punishment should be assigned 
 to those who were guilty of incest, 
 upon the presumption that nature 
 could not be so grievously violated. 
 Some persons, however, in the shape 
 of human beings, have been found so 
 depraved and infamous as to trample 
 upon the laws of God and nature. 
 But we don't know if the long 
 catalogue of crime exhibits a more 
 abominable wretch than James 
 W'ilson, who, at the age of sixty, 
 was convicted of attempting to 
 commit a rape on his own daughter. 
 
 This hoary sinner was a watch- 
 case maker, and resided in North- 
 
 ampton Row, Clerkenwell. In 1819 
 his wife died, leaving two daughter 
 and a son, the age of the eldest girl, 
 named Sarah, not being, at the 
 time, more than fifteen years. She 
 was a most interesting girl, and 
 was serving her apprenticeship to 
 the dress-making business. The 
 unnatural father, abandoning the 
 powerful suggestions of nature, be- 
 gan, soon after his wife's death, to 
 take indecent liberties with his 
 daughters, but particularly the 
 eldest, who was four years older than 
 her sister. In the room where they 
 slept were two beds, and it was the 
 constant practice of the incestuous 
 brute to get into the bed of his 
 children and strive to accomplish 
 his revolting purpose. Happily 
 they were success Ail in resisting 
 the base attack ; and he only desist- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 3.5 [ 
 
 ed from persecuting- them when they 
 threatened to expose him. At such 
 times he would protest most so- 
 lemnly to annoy them no more ; but, 
 notwithstanding", in a few days he 
 would repeat the offence, soliciting 
 Sarah, like-a lover, to submit to his 
 embraces. The villain seemed as 
 anxious to pervert their minds as to 
 debase their bodies ; for when his 
 eldest girl used to reproach him for 
 his unnatural conduct, he told her 
 it was the tyrant laws of custom, 
 and not those of nature, which 
 bound her to resist. When repelled, 
 as he always was, his conduct was 
 most cruel. Sometimes, in resisting 
 his violence, she had swooned 
 away; but always succeeded in 
 thwarting his revolting designs. 
 Frequently did the poor girl implore 
 him, on her knees, to desist, remon- 
 strating with him, that his conduct 
 was unnatural, but he only laughed, 
 telling her the Almighty saw no 
 harm in it, and to obey his inclina- 
 tions was no crime. 
 
 As the eldest girl grew up, not 
 liking to ruin her father by an 
 exposure, she quitted him and went 
 to service, leaving him ignorant of 
 her place of residence. He found 
 her out, however, and prevailed on 
 her to return home, invokingHeaven 
 that his arms might drop off if ever 
 he would attempt to molest her 
 ag-ain. The poor girl suffered her- 
 self to be prevailed on, and she went 
 home, but. had not been long there, 
 when he renewed his base attempts. 
 On the 17th of December, 1823, 
 he threw her on the floor, and was 
 proceeding to the most indecent 
 liberties, when she resisted, scratch- 
 ed his face, and cried out for help, 
 on which he desisted for that time ; 
 but in a day or two resorted again 
 to the same offence. 
 
 By this time Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 
 in whose house Wilson lodged, 
 became acquainted with his conduct, 
 they questioned the poor girls, for 
 
 both had been similarly prosecuted ; 
 and, having heard the tale of their 
 sufferings, took lodgings for them, 
 unknown to their father, and when 
 they got Wilson out of their houst 
 brought them back, and treated 
 them with the utmost kindness ; for 
 their situation and virtues had en- 
 deared them to all who knew them. 
 
 The enraged monster of a parent, 
 dreading- the consequence of expo- 
 sure, which it was natural for him 
 now to expect, issued the following 
 hand-bill, evidently for the purpose 
 of cloaking his infamy: — 
 
 ' Left their home, two girls, the 
 eldest between eighteen and nine- 
 teen, and the youngest about four 
 teen. There is little doubt but that 
 they have been enticed away from 
 their home and duty by wicked 
 advisers, the eldest having absented 
 herself once before to associate with 
 the basest of mankind, who spend 
 their time in wickedness and drunk- 
 enness. She is capable of the basest 
 insinuations, even to disgrace her 
 father, who has from her infancy 
 worked hard to support her.' The 
 bill then went on to describe the 
 dress of the fugitives, and threat- 
 ened to punish whoever should 
 harbour them after this notifica- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Smith, under whose protec- 
 tion the g-irls were, now recommend- 
 ed an application to the magistrates 
 Wilson was accordingly brought up 
 to Hatton Garden police-office, 
 where his two daughters exhibited 
 charges against him. Being asked 
 what he had to say to the appalling 
 narrative delivered by his indignant 
 children, he threw himself into a 
 • heatrical posture, and exclaimed, 
 " It's as false as hell — that elder 
 g-irl is a felon and a prostitute, and 
 capable of the worst action.' — 
 Finding that these accusations avail- 
 ed -him nothing, he turned round 
 witlh an air of defiance, and said, 
 with great emphasis, * They are 
 
OO'l 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 not my daughters, they are only my 
 children by adoption.' 
 
 The magistrates, apprized that 
 this assertion was as false as the 
 other part of his defence, rose from 
 their seats with disgust, and declared 
 that they had heard enough to satisfy 
 them of the infamy of his disposition. 
 He was accordingly ordered to find 
 bail. 
 
 Wilson was indicted at the Mid- 
 dlesex sessions, September the 18th, 
 1823, charged with having repeat- 
 edly attempted to ravish his own 
 daughter. The prosecutrix was 
 greatly affected during the trial ; 
 she sobbed aloud frequently, and 
 appeared an object of general com- 
 passion. She was an interesting 
 looking girl, and gave her evidence 
 with natural and becoming modesty. 
 Her revolting narrative was sub- 
 stantiated by several other witnesses, 
 who had long been aware of Wilson's 
 conduct, some of whom had seen the 
 poor girl struggling in the embraces 
 of her father. 
 
 Wilson, being called on for his 
 
 defence, said the whole was a base 
 story to ruin him ; that his daughter 
 had robbed him, and that she had 
 been turned away from her situation 
 for being a thief and a whore. 
 
 This accusation was instantly 
 repelled. Hermaster came forward 
 and gave her the highest possible 
 character, saying that neither him- 
 self or her mistress would ever have 
 parted with her, had she not gone 
 away herself on the suggestion of her 
 father. Several other persons gave 
 her the highest character for modesty 
 and properdeportment. Itwas proved 
 that she was Wilson's daughter. 
 
 The jury instantly found the 
 wretch Guilty, and he was sentenced 
 to twelve months' imprisonment — a 
 punishment by no means propor- 
 tioned to his crime. By our laws 
 an attempt to commit murder is 
 punished in the same manner as it 
 the deed had been perpetrated ; 
 surely, then, by analogy, an attempt 
 to commit a rape should be visited 
 in the same way as if the offence had 
 been actually committed. 
 
 THOMAS CHARLES F1TZHUE SANDON, ESQ. 
 
 TRANSPORTED FOR FRAUD. 
 
 Had this offender possessed as 
 many virtues as he claimed Chris- 
 tian names, we should not have to 
 state his villanies in the ' Newgate 
 Calendar.' We are at a loss which 
 to estimate most, the extreme credu- 
 lity of the prosecutor or the impu- 
 dent frauds of Sandon. 
 
 In April, 1822, Edward Putland, 
 who had been a timber and coal 
 merchant, was committed to the 
 King's Bench prison, being indebted 
 to sundry creditors in the sum of 
 five or six hundred pounds. In the 
 same prison was kept, in ' durance 
 vile,' Mr. Sandon, whose polite 
 address and easy confidence procured 
 him a speedy admission to the 
 friendship of Mr. Putland, who, 
 good eaey man,' quickly unbosom- 
 
 ed himself to his new acquaintance. 
 Sandon affected the utmost kindness, 
 and frequently conversed with Mr. 
 Putland respecting the hardships of 
 his confinement. Seeing him so 
 desirous of being restored to his 
 family, Sandon called him into his 
 room, on the 13th of June, and 
 said, that, commiserating his situa- 
 tion, he had applied, in his behalf, 
 to a worthy friend named Green, 
 who had such influence in the com- 
 mercial world that he could get his, 
 Putland's, business immediately set- 
 tled for thirty pounds, and added, 
 that he expected Green that very 
 evening to call on him. 
 
 Mr. Putland expressed his sur- 
 prise that Mr. Green could get his 
 business settled for so trifling a sum. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 ' Aye,' replied Sandon, ' if it were 
 as many thousands it would make 
 no difference, so peculiar and ex- 
 tensive is his influence.' Putland 
 having - no money, Saudon said his 
 acceptance would do, and a bill of 
 exchange was soon after drawn for 
 the thirty pounds. 
 
 Under various pretences Sandon 
 artfully contrived, from time to time, 
 to defraud his credulous dupe of 
 different sums of six pounds, nine 
 pounds, fourteen pounds, and seven- 
 teen pounds, which were chiefly fur- 
 nished by Mrs. Putland, who, 
 anxious for her husband's discharge, 
 
 put herself to the greatest distress 
 to raise the money. 
 
 On the full disclosure o. Sandon's 
 villany he was tried at the Surrey 
 Sessions, and found guilty on the 
 29th of July, 1823. The chairman 
 declared it the most atrocious fraud 
 he had ever met with, and sen- 
 tenced him to seven years' trans- 
 portation. 
 
 Sandon was a man of education 
 and polished address, but such was 
 his propensity to wickedness, that 
 he had been frequently tried for the 
 most petty frauds, and had once 
 stood in the pillory. 
 
 Thurtell, when nearly overpowered, cutting Weare's throat. 
 
 JOHN THURTELL AND JOSEPH HUNT, 
 
 CONVICTED OF MURDER. 
 
 For cold-blooded villany in the 
 mode of its conception and plan- 
 ning, and in the cool ferocity of its 
 perpetration, this murder stands 
 almost alone; and the sensation it 
 
 VOL. iy. 
 
 created throughout tne country was 
 such, that no recent atrocity can be 
 at all compared with it. 
 
 To the vice of gaming, and its 
 associations with boxers and black- 
 120 
 
354 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 leg-s, this tragical event owed its 
 origin. John Thurtell, the principal 
 actor, was the son of a respectable 
 and worthy man, Alderman Thur- 
 tell, of Norwich. Early in life he 
 went to sea, and on his return ob- 
 tained a lieutenant's commission in 
 the German Leg-ion, then serving* in 
 Portugal. He also served in Spain, 
 and was at the storming- of St. Se- 
 In 1821 he was residing- 
 
 bets, were also held there ; and it 
 was therefore considered in a great 
 measure as the focus of pug-ilistic 
 intellig-ence. At the time spoken 
 of, John Thurtell one day accosted 
 the landlord at his door in Bow 
 Street, and said he knew that he 
 was better acquainted than most 
 people with fig-hting- men, and had 
 therefore waited upon him to ask if 
 he could recommeud two men who 
 
 at Norwich as a bombasin manu- <} could be depended upon to fig-ht ? 
 
 facturer, and came to London to 
 receive four hundred pounds for 
 g-oods which he had sold to a re- 
 spectable house, and which, on his 
 return, he was to pay among- his 
 creditors. Instead of doing- so, 
 however, he propag-ated a story 
 that, as he was walking- along- a 
 lonely spot, • near Norwich, he was 
 stopped by footpads, and robbed of 
 it; but his creditors did not hesi- 
 tate to tell him that he had invented 
 this tale for the purpose of defraud- 
 ing- them ; and, to avoid their im- 
 portunities, he set off for London, 
 in company with a girl, with whom 
 he lived for some time. Here he 
 commenced business, in conjunction 
 with his brother Thomas, but soon 
 faded. On the 26th of January, 
 1823, their premises in Wailing- 
 Street were burnt down, which they 
 were accused of doing- wilfully, for 
 the purpose of defrauding- the fire- 
 office, being* insured for two thou- 
 sand pounds, when their loss was 
 not more than one hundred pounds.* 
 John Thurtell's first introduction 
 to what is called 'the London ring-' 
 was at the Brown Bear public- 
 bouse, in Bow Street, in 1820, at 
 which time that house was much 
 frequented by the boxing- fraternity 
 and their patrons ; several fig-hts 
 were made there, and the money 
 deposited. Dinners to celebrate 
 victories, and to pay and receive 
 
 cross. The landlord told him i 
 was an odd question from a strang-er 
 and he could g-ive him no informa 
 tion upon such a subject, even if h 
 knew him intimately. 
 
 From this time Thurtell becam 
 a constant visitor at the house, am 
 was introduced to several ' sporting 
 men,' who were in the habit of 
 meeting- there. There was a room 
 at the back of the premises, detach- 
 ed from the house, where hig-h play 
 was frequent ; and here Thurtell 
 lost three hundred pounds ; but 
 Weare was not present. The g-ame 
 was blind hookey, or hazard — a 
 g-ame, perhaps, which affords a bet- 
 ter opportunity for the dexterous to 
 play upon the unwary than almost 
 any other. The whob three hun- 
 dred pounds were won in a very 
 short space of time. Thurtell was 
 extremely angry at his loss, but his 
 new friends contrived to conciliate 
 him. 
 
 It happened that about that time 
 matches were on the tapis between 
 Hickman (the Gas Man) and Oli- 
 ver, and Randall and Martin. 
 Hickman and Martin were under 
 training- at Wade's Mill, in Hert- 
 fordshire ; and John Thurtell was 
 found to be so g-ood a flat, that it 
 was determined to g-et him down to 
 that place, gratify his vanity, by 
 allowing- him to assist in the train- 
 ing-, and fleece him of whatever 
 
 • On the 3d of June, 1824, after the execution of John Thurtell, Thomas wai 
 found guilty of having set tire to these premises. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 355 
 
 cash he might have left. Weare 
 was appointed as the plant upon 
 this occasion — that is, he was to 
 come down as a stranger to all par- 
 ties, and so to conduct himself as 
 to appear to be a good subject for 
 fleecing-. The plan answered com- 
 pletely. Weare was pitted at play 
 against Thurtell, who was suffered 
 to win at first, but finally lost ano- 
 ther three hundred pounds. He 
 was afterwards played upon again 
 in London ; and these repeated 
 losses irritated him so much, that 
 he made use of threats which alarm- 
 ed the fraternity, and it was thought 
 best to adopt some mode of concili- 
 ation. After some consultation it 
 was agreed upon that a cross should 
 be fought between two of the pugi- 
 lists then 'matched — namely, Ran- 
 dall and Martin — and that Thurtell 
 should share in the profits. An at- 
 tempt was at first made to buy over 
 Randall, but that pugilist was proof 
 against all their offers ; and their 
 attention was next turned to Mar- 
 tin, with whom, it is well known, 
 they succeeded. One bet of eleven 
 hundred pounds to six hundred gui- 
 neas was made at a masquerade at 
 the Opera House with a celebrated 
 sporting character, and Thurtell 
 had his share of the six hundred 
 guineas. 
 
 From this time he became aban- 
 doned to all the vices of gaming, 
 and was known as the constant com- 
 panion of unprincipled gamblers, 
 who live only by the folly and sim- 
 plicity of their dupes. 
 
 The circumstances attending the 
 horrible murder of Mr. Weare are 
 so fully detailed in the speech of 
 Mr. Gurney, who stated the case 
 for the prosecution on the trial, 
 which took place on the 5th of Ja- 
 nuary, 1824, that it is unnecessary 
 to do more than give it at length. 
 
 The deceased, said Mr. Gurney, 
 whose murder was the subject of 
 
 the present inquiry, was the late 
 Mr. William Weare — a man, it 
 was said, addicted to play, and 
 connected with gaming-houses. — 
 The prisoner at the bar, John 
 Thurtell, had been his acquaint- 
 ance, and in some practices of play 
 had, it was said, been wronged by 
 him, and deprived of a large sum 
 of money. The other prisoner, 
 Hunt, was described as being a 
 public singer, and also known to 
 Mr. Weare, but not in habits of 
 friendship with him. Probert had 
 been in trade as a spirit-dealer, and 
 rented a cottage in Gill's Hill Lane, 
 two or three miles from Elstree. 
 The cottage of Probert was select- 
 ed, from its seclusion, as a fit spot 
 for the perpetration of the murder. 
 Probert was himself much engaged 
 in London, and his wife generally 
 resided at the cottage, which was 
 a small one, and fully occupied in 
 the accommodation of Mrs. Probert, 
 her sister (Miss Noyes), some 
 children of Thomas Thurtell's (the 
 prisoner's brother), and a maid-ser- 
 vant and bov. The deceased having- 
 been invited by John Thurtell to 
 this place to enjoy a day or two's 
 shooting, the prisoner Thurtell met 
 the deceased at a billiard-room, 
 kept by one Rexworthy, on the 
 Thursday night previous to the 
 murder ; where they were joined 
 by Hunt. On the forenoon of the 
 Friday, the deceased was with Rex- 
 worthy at the same place, and said 
 he was going for a day's shooting 
 into the country. Weare went 
 from the billiard- rooms between 
 three and four o'clock to his cham- 
 bers in Lyon's Inn, where he eat a 
 chop dinner, and afterwards packed 
 up, in a green carpet bag, some 
 clothes, and a change of linen, such 
 as a journey for the time he had 
 specified might require. He also 
 took with him, when he left his 
 chambers, in a hacknev- coach, 
 
356 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 which the laundress had called, a 
 double-barrelled gun, and a back- 
 gammon box, dice, &c. He left 
 his chambers in this manner before 
 four o'clock, and drove first to 
 Charing" Cross, and afterwards to 
 Maddox Street, Hanover Square ; 
 tbsss* he proceeded to the New 
 Road, where he got out of the coach, 
 but returned after some time, ac- 
 companied by another person, and 
 took his things away. At this 
 time, Thomas and John Thurtell 
 had need of temporary concealment, 
 owing to their inability to provide 
 the bail requisite to meet a charge 
 of misdemeanour ; and Probert had 
 procured for them a retreat at Tet- 
 sall's, at the sign of the Coach and 
 Horses, in Conduit Street, where 
 they remained for two or three 
 weeks previous to the murder. On 
 the morning- of Friday, the 24th 
 of October, two men, answering 
 in every respect to the description 
 of John Thurtell and Hunt, went 
 to a pawnbroker's in Marylebone, 
 and purchased a pair of pocket- 
 pistols. In the middle of the same 
 day, Hunt hired a gig, and after- 
 wards a horse, under the pretence 
 of going to Dartford, in Kent : he 
 also inquired where he could pur- 
 chase a sack and a rope, and was 
 directed to a place over Westmin- 
 ster Bridge, which, he was told, 
 was on his road into Kent. Some- 
 where, however, it would be found 
 that he did procure a sack and 
 cord ; and, the same afternoon, he 
 met at Tetsall's Thomas Thurtell 
 and Noyes. Some conversation 
 took place at the time between the 
 parties, and Hunt was heard to ask 
 Probert if he ' would be in it,' — 
 meaning what they (Hunt and John 
 Thurtell) were about. Thurtell 
 drove off from Tetsall's between 
 four and five o'clock to take up a 
 friend, as he said to Probert, ' to be 
 killed as he travelled with him :' 
 
 an expression which Probert said at 
 the time he believed to have been 
 a piece of idle bravado. He request- 
 ed Probert to bring down Hunt 
 in his own gig. In the course of 
 that evening the prisoner Thurtell 
 was seen in a gig, with a horse of 
 an iron-grey colour, with a white 
 face and white legs. He was first 
 seen by a patrol, near Edgeware , 
 beyond that part of the road he was 
 seen by the landlord of a public- 
 house ; but from that time of the 
 evening, until his arrival at Pro- 
 bert's cottage on the same night, 
 they had no direct evidence to trace 
 him. Probert, according to Thur- 
 tell's request, drove Hunt down in 
 his gig, and, having a better horse, 
 on the road they overtook Thurtell 
 and Weare in the gig, and passed 
 them without notice. They stop- 
 ped afterwards at some public-house 
 on the road to drink grog, where 
 they believed Thurtell must have 
 passed them unperceived. Probert 
 drove Hunt until they reached 
 Phillimore Lodge, where he (Hunt) 
 got out, as he said by Thurtell's 
 desire, to wait for him. Probert 
 from thence drove alone to Gill's 
 Hill cottage, in the lane near which 
 he met Thurtell on foot, and alone. 
 Thurtell inquired — Where was 
 Hunt, had he been left behind ? 
 and added, that he had done the 
 business without his assistance, 
 and had killed his man. At his 
 desire, Probert returned to bring 
 Hunt to the spot, and went to 
 Hunt for that purpose. When 
 they met, he told Hunt what had 
 happened. * Why, it was to be 
 done here !' said Hunt (pointing to 
 a spot nearer Phillimore Lodge), 
 admitting his privity, and that he 
 had got out to assist in the com- 
 mission of the deed. When Thur- 
 tell rebuked Hunt for his absence, 
 * Why,' said the latter, ' you had 
 the tools.' ' They were no good,' 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 357 
 
 replied Thurtell : '■ the pistols 
 were no better than pop-guns : I 
 fired at his cheek, and it glanced 
 off.' Weare then ran out of the 
 gig, cried -for mercy, and offered to 
 return the money he had robbed 
 him of. Thurtell pursued him up 
 the lane, and, finding the pistol 
 unavailing, attempted to cut his 
 throat with a penknife ; and ulti- 
 mately killed him by driving the 
 barrel of the pistol into his head, 
 and turning it in his brains, after 
 he had penetrated the forehead. 
 Such was the manner in which 
 Thurtell described himself to have 
 disposed of the deceased. A gig 
 was about that time heard to drive 
 very quickly past Probert's cottage. 
 The servant-lad expected his mas- 
 ter, and thought he had arrived ; 
 but he did not make his appearance. 
 Five minutes after that period cer- 
 tain persons, who happened to bo 
 in the road, distinctly heard the re- 
 port of a gun or pistol, which was 
 followed by voices, as if in conten- 
 tion. Groans were next heard, 
 which became fainter and fainter, 
 and then died away altogether. — 
 The spot where the report of the 
 pistol and the sound of the groans 
 were heard was Gill's Hill Lane, 
 near the cottage of Probert. Thur- 
 tell arrived at about nine o'clock in 
 the evening at Probert's cottage, 
 having set off from Conduit Street 
 at five o'clock ; and though he had 
 been seen on the road in company 
 with another person in the gig, yet 
 it appeared that he arrived at the 
 cottage alone, having in his posses- 
 sion the double-barrelled gun, the 
 green carpet bag, and the back- 
 gammon board, which Mr. Weare 
 took away with him. He gave his 
 horse to the boy, and the horse 
 appeared to have sweated, but to be 
 then in a cool state, which corrobo- 
 rated the fact that he had stopped a 
 good while on his way. The boy 
 
 inquired after Probert and Hunt, 
 and was told that they would soon 
 be at the cottage. At length a 
 second gig arrived, with those two 
 persons in it. They rode, while 
 Thurtell, who went to meet them, 
 walked with them. Probert went 
 into the house. Neither Thurtell 
 nor Hunt was expected by Mrs. 
 Probert. With Thurtell she was 
 acquainted ; but Hunt was a stran- 
 g-er, and was formally introduced to 
 her Having supped on some pork 
 chops, which Hunt had brought 
 down with him from London, they 
 went out, as Probert said, to visit 
 Mr. Nicholls, a neighbour of his ; 
 but their real object was to go to 
 the place where the body of Weare 
 was deposited. Thurtell took them 
 to the spot down the lane, and the 
 body was dragged through the 
 hedge into the adjoining field, where 
 they effectually rifled the deceased 
 man, — Thurtell having informed 
 his companions that he had, in the 
 first instance, taken part of his pro- 
 perty. They then went back to the 
 cottage. Thurtell, before he went 
 out, placed a large sponge in the 
 gig ; when he returned he went to 
 the stable, and sponged himself with 
 great care, and endeavoured to re- 
 move the spots of blood, many of 
 which were distinctly seen by Pro- 
 bert's boy. In the course of the 
 evening Thurtell produced a gold 
 watch, without a chain. He also 
 displayed a gold curb chain, which 
 might be used for a watch, when 
 doubled ; or, when single, might be 
 worn round a lady's neck. On pro- 
 ducing the chain, it was remarked 
 that it was more fit for a lady than 
 a gentleman ; on which Thurtell 
 pressed it on Mrs. Probert, and 
 made her accept it. An offer was 
 afterwards made, that a bed should 
 be given to Thurtell and Hunt, 
 which was to be accomplished by 
 Miss Noyes resigning her bed, 
 
358 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 and sleeping- with the children. 
 This was refused, Thurtell and 
 Hunt observing- that they would 
 rather sit up ; Miss Noyes, there- 
 fore, retired to her own bed. Some- 
 thing, however, had raised sus- 
 picion in the mind of Mrs. Pro- 
 bert ; in consequence of which 
 she did not go to bed, or undress 
 herself. She went to the window, 
 and, looking out, saw that Probert, 
 Hunt, and Thurtell, were in the 
 garden. It would be proved that 
 they went down to the body, and, 
 finding it too heavy to be removed, 
 one of the horses was taken from 
 the stable. The body, enclosed in 
 a sack, was then placed across the 
 horse ; and stones having been put 
 into the sack, the body, with the 
 sack, was thrown into the pond. 
 Mrs. Probert distinctly saw some- 
 thing heavy drawn across the gar- 
 den where Thurtell was. The 
 parties then returned to the house ; 
 and Mrs. Probert, whose fears and 
 suspicions were now most power- 
 fully excited, went down stairs, and 
 listened behind the parlour door. 
 The parties proceeded to share the 
 booty and Thurtell divided with 
 them to the amount of six pounds 
 each. The purse, the pocket-book, 
 and certain papers which might lead 
 to detection, were carefully burned. 
 They remained up late ; and Pro- 
 bert, when he went to bed, was 
 surprised to find that his wife was 
 not asleep. Hunt and Thurtell 
 still continued to sit up in the par- 
 lour. The next morning, as early 
 as six o'clock, Hunt and Thurtell 
 were seen in the lane together. 
 Some men who were at work there 
 observed them, as they called it, 
 * grabbling' for something in the 
 hedge. Being spoken to by these 
 men, Thurtell observed, ' that it 
 was a very bad road, and that he 
 had nearly been capsized there 
 last night.' The men said, * I 
 
 hope you were not hurt.' Thurtell 
 answered, ' Oh ! no, the gig was 
 not upset,' and then went away. 
 These men, thinking something 
 might have been lost on the spot, 
 searched, after Thurtell and Hunt 
 were gone. In one place they 
 found a quantity of blood, further 
 on they discovered a bloody knife, 
 and next they found a bloody pistol 
 — one of the pair which were pur- 
 chased by Hunt. That pistol bore 
 upon it the marks of blood and of 
 human brains. The spot was after- 
 wards still further examined, and 
 more blood was discovered, which 
 had been concealed by branches 
 and leaves ; so that no doubt could 
 be entertained that the murder had 
 been committed in this particular 
 place. On the following morning, 
 Saturday, the 25th of October, 
 Thurtell and Hunt left Probert's 
 cottage in the gig which Hunt had 
 come down in, carrying away with 
 them the gun, the carpet bag, and 
 the back-gammon board, belonging 
 to Mr. Weare. These articles 
 were taken to Hunt's lodgings, 
 where they were afterwards found. 
 When Hunt arrived in town on 
 Saturday he appeared to be un- 
 usually gay : he said, ' We Turpin 
 lads can do the trick. I am able 
 to drink wine now, and I will 
 drink nothing but wine.' He 
 seemed to be very much elevated 
 at the recollection of some success- 
 ful exploit. It was observed that 
 ThurtelPs hands were very much 
 scratched ; and some remark having 
 been made on the subject, he stated 
 that they had been out netting 
 partridges, and that his hands got 
 scratched in that occupation. On 
 some other points he gave similarly 
 evasive answers. On the Saturday, 
 Hunt had a new spade sent to his 
 lodgings, which he took down to 
 the cottage on Sunday." When he 
 got near Probert's garden, he told 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 359 
 
 that individual that he had brought 
 it down to dig a hole to bury 
 the body in. Ou that evening 
 Probert visited Mr. Nicholls, and 
 the latter said to him that some 
 persons had heard the report of a 
 gun or pistol in the lane on Fri- 
 day evening, but he supposed it 
 was some foolish joke. Probert, 
 on his return, stated this to Thur- 
 tell and Hunt, and the information 
 appeared to alarm the former, who 
 said, he feared he should be 
 hanged. The intelligence, how- 
 ever inspired them all with a 
 strong desire to conceal the body 
 effectually. Probert wished it to 
 be removed from his pond ; and 
 Thurtell and Hunt promised to 
 come down on the Monday, and 
 remove it. On Monday, Thurtell 
 and Hunt went out in the gig, and 
 took with them Probert's boy, 
 whom they carried to various 
 places, and finally lodged the boy 
 at Mr. Tetsall's, in Conduit Street. 
 On the evening of that same Mon- 
 day, Hunt and Thurtell went 
 down to the cottage. Hunt en- 
 gaged Mrs. Probert in conversa- 
 tion, while Thurtell and Probert 
 took the body out of the pond, put 
 it into Thurtell's gig, and then 
 gave notice to Hunt that the gig 
 was ready. In this manner they 
 carried away the body that night ; 
 but where they took it to Probert 
 did not know. It appeared, how- 
 ever, that the body was carried to 
 a pond near Elstree, at a consider- 
 able distance from Probert's cot- 
 tage, and there sunk, as it had 
 before been in Probert's pond, in 
 a sack containing a considerable 
 quantity of stones. Hunt and Thur- 
 tell then went to London. The re- 
 port of the pistol in the lane on the 
 Friday evening, and the discovery 
 of the blood in the field, had led to 
 great alarm among the magistracy. 
 Inquiry was set on foot, and Thur- 
 
 tell, Hunt, and Probert were appre- 
 hended. It was found that Hunt 
 had adopted a peculiar mode of con- 
 cealing his identity ; for when he 
 was hiring the gig, and doing vari- 
 ous other acts connected with this 
 atrocious proceeding, he wore very 
 long whiskers, which, on the Mon- 
 day after the murder, he had shaven 
 off. Strict inquiries were made by 
 the magistrates, but nothing was 
 ascertained to prove to a certainty 
 who was murdered. The body was, 
 however, found on the Thursday, in 
 consequence of Hunt having- given 
 information as to the place where it 
 was deposited. Some of these cir- 
 cumstances, Mr. Gurney observed, 
 would depend on the evidence of an 
 accomplice ; for Probert, though not 
 an accomplice before the murder, 
 was confessedly privy to a certain 
 part of the transaction — to the con- 
 cealment of the body, and conse- 
 quently of the murder : but he 
 would so confirm him in every 
 point, as to build up his testimony 
 with a degree of strength and con- 
 sistency which could not be shaken, 
 much less overturned. He would 
 prove by other witnesses besides 
 Probert, that Thurtell set out with 
 a companion from London, who 
 did not arrive at the ostensible end 
 of his journey ; that he had brought 
 the property of that companion to 
 Probert's house, the double-barrelled 
 gun, the back-gammon board, and 
 the green carpet bag ; that some 
 time before he arrived at the cot- 
 tage the report of a gun or pistol 
 was heard in Gill's Hill Lane, not far 
 from the cottage ; that his clothes 
 were in a bloody state ; and that, 
 when he was apprehended, even on 
 the Wednesday after the murder, he 
 had not been able to efface all the 
 marks from his apparel. Besides 
 all this, the jury would find that in 
 his pocket, when apprehended, there 
 was a penknife which was posi- 
 
360 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 tively sworn to as having 1 belong- 
 ed to Mr. Weare, and also the fel- 
 low pistol of that which was found 
 adjoining the place where the mur- 
 der was committed — the pair hav- 
 ing been purchased in Marylebone 
 Street by Hunt. These circum- 
 tances brought the case clearly 
 home to Thurteil. Next as to Hunt. 
 He was charged as an accomplice 
 before the fact. He hired the gig, 
 and he procured the sack. The 
 gun, travelling-bag and backq-am- 
 mon-board, were found in his lodg- 
 ing. These constituted a part of 
 the plunder of Mr. Weare, and could 
 be possessed only by a person parti- 
 cipating in this crime. Besides, 
 there was placed about the neck of 
 Probert's wife, a chain, which had 
 belonged to Mr. Weare, and round 
 the neck of the murdered man there 
 was found a shawl, which belonged 
 to Thurteil, but which had been 
 seen in the hands of Hunt. 
 
 The collateral circumstances were 
 proved by a variety of witnesses. 
 
 Ruthven the officer, in the course 
 of his examination, deposited on 
 the table a pistol, and a pistol key, 
 a knife, a muslin handkerchief spot- 
 ed with blood, a shirt, similarly 
 stained, and a waistcoat, into the 
 pockets of which bloody hands had 
 been thrust. A coat and a hat 
 marked with blood were also pro- 
 duced. These all belonged to Thur- 
 teil, and he looked at them with an 
 eye of perfect indifference. Ruthven 
 then produced several articles be- 
 longing to the deceased — the gun, 
 the carpet-bag, and his clothes. 
 
 Symmonds the constable, when 
 sworn, took from his pocket a white 
 folded paper, which he. carefully 
 undid, and produced to the court 
 the pistol with which the murder 
 had been committed. It was a blue 
 steel-barrelled pistol, with brass 
 about the handle ; the pan was open, 
 as the firing had le f t it and was 
 
 smeared with the black of gunpow- 
 der and the dingy stain of blood. 
 The barrel was bloody, and in the 
 muzzle a piece of tow was thrust, to 
 keep in the horrid contents, the 
 murdered man's brains. Against 
 the back of the pan were the short 
 curled hairs, of a silver hue, which 
 had been dug from the man's head, 
 and were glued to the pan firmly 
 with crusted blood. 
 
 Probert's evidence was as follows : 
 ' I occupied a cottage in Gill's 
 Hill Lane six months before October 
 last ; my family consisted of Mrs. 
 Probert, a servant maid, and a 
 boy ; in the month of October, 
 Miss Noyes lived with us, and two 
 children of Thomas Thurteil, a 
 brother of the prisoner's. I have 
 been for some time past acquainted 
 with the prisoner John Thurteil ; he 
 had often been down to my cot- 
 tage sporting with me ; he knew 
 the road to my cottage, and all the 
 roads thereabouts well. Gill's Hill 
 Lane, in which my cottage stood, 
 was out of the high road to St. 
 Alban's, at Radlett ; my cottage 
 was about a quarter of a mile from 
 the high road, and fourteen miles 
 and a quarter from Tyburn turnpike. 
 In the latter end of October, the 
 prisoner, John Thurteil, lodged at 
 Tetsall's, the Coach and Horses, 
 in Conduit Street ; Thomas Thur- 
 teil lodged there also. They were 
 there every day that week. On 
 Friday the 24th, I dined at Tetsall's 
 with John Thurteil and Hunt ; 
 Thomas Thurteil and Noyes were 
 there also. After dinner, Thurteil 
 said something to me about money. 
 Four days previous to the 24th, 
 1 borrowed ten pounds from John 
 Thurteil ; he then said, you must 
 let me have it back on the Thurs- 
 day or Frida» ; on the Thursday 
 I saw him at Mr. Tetsall's, and he 
 asked me if I had got the ten 
 pound* ; I told him I had not ; I had 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 361 
 
 not collected any money. He said, 
 " I told you I should want it to- 
 day or to-morrow, else it will be 
 three hundred pounds out of my 
 pocket ; but if you will let me have 
 it to-morrow, it will answer the 
 same purpose." On the same day 
 (Friday) I paid him five pounds. I 
 borrowed five pounds of Mr. Tet- 
 sall ; that was after dinner. He 
 then said, " I think I shall go down 
 to your cottage to-night; are you 
 going- down ?" and asked me if I 
 could drive Hunt down. I said 
 " yes." He said, " I expect a 
 friend to meet me this evening- a 
 little after five, and if he comes I 
 shall g-o down. If 1 have an op- 
 portunity I mean to do him; for he 
 is a mart that has robbed me of 
 several hundreds." He added, " I 
 have told Hunt where to stop ; I 
 shall want him about a mile and a 
 half beyond Elstree. If I should 
 not g-o down g-ive Hunt a pound," 
 which I did. Hunt had just come 
 in, and Thurtell said, " There, Joe, 
 there's a pound ; if Probert don't 
 come, hire a horse ; you know where 
 to stop for me." I do not know 
 that Hunt made any answer ; I 
 grave him twenty shilling's in silver. 
 Thurtell left the Coach and Horses 
 a little after five in a horse and 
 chaise ; it was a grey horse ; I after- 
 wards set off in my own g-ig-, and 
 took Hunt with me. When I came 
 to the middle of Oxford Street, 
 Hunt, by my request, g-ot out of 
 the g-ig- to purchase a loin of pork 
 for supper. When we came to the 
 top of Oxford Street, Hunt said, 
 '• This is the place Jack is to take 
 up his friend at." In our way 
 down we overtook Thurtell, about 
 four miles from London. Hunt said 
 to me, " There they are ; drive by, 
 and take no notice." He added, 
 " It's all rig-ht ; Jack has g-ot him." 
 There were two persons in the g-ig- ; 
 Thurtell and another ; I passed 
 
 them and said nothing-. 1 stopped 
 at a public-house called the Bald- 
 faced Stag-, about seven miles from 
 London, two miles short of Edge- 
 ware. It was then, perhaps, a 
 quarter to seven. "When Hunt said 
 " It's all rig-ht," I asked him what 
 was the name of the man? Hunt 
 replied, " You are not to know his 
 name ; you never saw him ; you 
 know nothing- of him." I g-ot out at 
 the Bald-faced Stag-; I supplied the 
 house with spirits. Hunt walked 
 on, and said, " I'll not g-o in, be- 
 cause I have not returned the horse- 
 cloths I borrowed." I stopped about 
 twenty minutes ; I then drove on, 
 and overtook Hunt about a quarter 
 of a mde from Edg-eware. I took 
 him up, and we drove to Mr. 
 Clarke's, at Edg-eware, where we 
 had a g-lass of brandy and water. 
 A little further on, in Edg-eware, we 
 bought half a bushel of corn, and 
 put it in the gig. Hunt then said, 
 '* I wonder where Thurtell is ; he 
 can't have passed us ?" We drove 
 on to the Artichoke, kept by Mr. 
 Field, and got there within about 
 eight minutes of eight. Neither I 
 nor Hunt got out. We had four 
 or five glasses of brandy and water, 
 while we waited for the express 
 purpose of Thurtell coming up; we 
 stopped more than three quarters 
 of an hour at Elstree. We went 
 about a mile and a half, to Mr. 
 Phillimore's Lodge, to wait for 
 Thurtell. Hunt said, " I shall wait 
 here for John Thurtell ;" and he 
 got out on the road. I drove on 
 through Radlett, towards my own 
 cottage ; when I came near my own 
 cottage, within about a hundred 
 yards, I met John Thurtell ; he was 
 on foot ; he says, " Hallo ! where's 
 Hunt?" I said I had left him wait- 
 ingnear Phillimore's Lodge for him ; 
 John Thurtell replied, "Oh ! I don't 
 want him now, for I have done the 
 trick." He said he had killed his 
 
362 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 friend that he had brought down 
 with him ; he had ridded the coun- 
 try of a villain, who had robbed 
 him of three or four hundred 
 pounds !" I said, " Good God ! I 
 hope you have not killed the man ?" 
 and he said, " It's of no consequence 
 to you, you don't know him ; you 
 never saw him, do you go back and 
 fetch Hunt, you know best where 
 you left him \" I returned to the 
 place where I left Hunt, and found 
 him near the spot where I left him. 
 Thurtell did not go. I said to Hunt, 
 when I took him up, " John Thur- 
 tell is at my house — he has killed 
 his friend ;" and Hunt said, " Thank 
 God, I am out of it; I am glad lie 
 has done it without me ; I can't 
 think where the devil he could 
 pass ; I never saw him pass any 
 where, but I'm glad I'm out of it." 
 He said, "This is the place where 
 we were to have done it" (meaning 
 near Phillimore's Lodge). I asked 
 him who the man was, and he said, 
 " You don't know him, and I shall 
 not tell you :" he said it was a man 
 that had robbed Jack of several 
 hundred pounds, and they meant to 
 have it back again. By that time 
 I had reached my own house ; John 
 Thurtell stood at the gate ; we 
 drove into the yard. Hunt said, 
 " Thurtell, where could you pass 
 me?" Thurtell replied, " It don't 
 matter where I passed you, I've 
 done the trick — I have done it." 
 Thurtell said. " What the devil did 
 you let Probert stop drinking at 
 his d — d public-houses for, when 
 you knew what was to be done ?" 
 Hunt said, " I made sure you were 
 behind, or else we should not have 
 stopped." Having taken the loin of 
 pork into the kitchen, and given it 
 to the servant to cook for supper, 
 I went into the parlour and intro- 
 duced Hunt to Mrs. Probert; he 
 had never been there before. Thur- 
 tell followed immediately ; we had 
 
 stopped in the yard a little time 
 before we went in. I returned to 
 the parlour, and told Mrs. Probert 
 we were going to Mr. Nicholls's to 
 get leave for a day's shooting ; be- 
 fore we went out, Thurtell took a 
 sack and a cord with him. We 
 then went down the lane, I carried 
 the lantern ; as we went along 
 Thurtell said, " I began to think, 
 Hunt, you would not come." 
 Hunt said, *' We made sure you 
 were behind." I walked foremost ; 
 and Thurtell said, " Probert, he is 
 just beyond the second turning." 
 When he came to the second turn- 
 ing he said, " It's a little further 
 on." He at length said, " This 
 is the place." We then looked 
 about for a pistol and knife, but 
 could not find either ; we got over 
 the hedge and there found the body 
 lying- ; the head was bound up in a 
 shawl, I think a red one (here the 
 shawl, already produced, was shown 
 to witness) , I can't say that is 
 the shawl. Thurtell searched the 
 deceased's pockets, and found a 
 pocket book containing three five 
 pound notes, a memorandum book, 
 and some silver. John Thurtell 
 said, " This is all he has got, I took 
 the watch and purse when I killed 
 him." The body was then put 
 into a sack head foremost ; the sack 
 came to the knees, and was tied 
 with a cord ; it was the sack John 
 Thurtell had taken .out of the gig ; 
 we then left the body there, and 
 went towards home. Thurtell said, 
 " When I first shot him he jumped 
 out of the gig and ran like the 
 devil, singing out that he would 
 deliver all he had, if I'd only spare 
 his life." John Thurtell said, " I 
 jumped out of the gig and ran after 
 him ; I got him down, and began 
 to cut his throat, as I thought, close 
 to the jugular vein, but I could not 
 stop his singing Out ; 1 then jam- 
 med the pistol into his head ; I 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 363 
 
 gave it a turn round, and then I 
 knew I had done him." He then 
 said to Hunt, " Joe, you ought to 
 have been with me, for I thought 
 at one time he would have got the 
 better of me. These d — d pistols 
 are like spits, they are of no use." 
 Hunt said, " I should have thought 
 one of those pistols would have 
 killed him dead, but you had plenty 
 of tools with you ;" we then re- 
 turned to the house and supped. 
 In the course of the evening, after 
 supper, John Thurtell produced a 
 handsome gold watch, with a gold 
 chain attached to it. He took off 
 the chain and offered to make Mrs. 
 Probert a present of it, saying it 
 was more fit for a lady than a 
 gentleman. Mrs. Probert refused 
 for some time, but at length accep- 
 ted of it. He put the watch and 
 seals in his pocket. As we had no 
 spare bed that night, I said that 
 my sister would sleep with Thomas 
 Thurtell's children, and that Thur- 
 tell and Hunt could have her bed. 
 They answered, they would sleep 
 on the sofa Hunt, who is a pro- 
 fessional singer, sang two or three 
 songs after supper. Mrs. Probert 
 and Miss Noyes went to bed be- 
 tween twelve and one. When 
 they were gone, John Thurtell took 
 out a pocket book, a purse, and 
 a memorandum-book, the purse 
 contained sovereigns ; I can't say 
 how many. He took 15/. in 
 notes from the pocket-book, and 
 gave Hunt and myself a 51. note 
 and a sovereign each, saying — 
 " that's your share of the blunt." 
 There were several papers in the 
 books ; they and the purse and 
 books were burnt ; a carpet bag 
 was opened. Thurtell said it had 
 belonged to the man he had mur- 
 dered ; it contained wearing appa- 
 rel and shooting materials ; there 
 waj also a backgammon-board, con- 
 taining dice and cards, and a dou- 
 
 ble-barrelled gun in a cage. All 
 the things were taken away next 
 day in a gig, by Thurtell and 
 Hunt. After this, Thurtell said, 
 " I mean to have Barber Beau- 
 mont and Woods ;" Barber Beau- 
 mont is a director of a fire-office 
 with which John Thurtell had 
 some dispute ; Woods is a young 
 man in London who keeps com- 
 pany with Miss Noyes. It was a 
 general conversation, and I cannot 
 recollect the particulars ; he might 
 have mentioned other names, but 
 I can't recollect them. Thurtell 
 said to Hunt, " We must now go 
 out and fetch the body, and put it 
 in the pond." I said, " By G-d, 
 you shan't put it in the pond, you'll 
 be my ruin else." Thurtell said, 
 " Had it not been for the mistake 
 of Hunt, I should have killed him 
 in the other lane, and returned to 
 town and inquired of his friends 
 why he had not come." First, 
 only Thurtell and Hunt went out ; 
 when they came back, Hunt said, 
 " Probert, he is too heavy, we can't 
 carry him ; we have only brought 
 him a little way." Thurtell said, 
 "Will you go with us? I'll put 
 the bridle on my horse and fetch 
 him." I went out to the stable 
 with him, and left Hunt waiting 
 near the gate. Thurtell's horse 
 was brought out, and Thurtell and 
 I went down and brought the body 
 on the horse ; Hunt did not go 
 with us. We took the body to 
 Mr. Wardle's field, near my gate. 
 Hunt took the horse back to the 
 stable, and came back to the gar- 
 den : we dragged the body down 
 the garden to the pond, put some 
 stones in the sack, and threw the 
 body into the pond.. The man's 
 feet were perhaps half a foot above 
 the water ; John Thurtell got a 
 cord, threw it round the feet, and 
 gfave me the other end, and I drag- 
 ged it into the centre of the pond, 
 
364 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 and it sunk. We all three returned 
 to the cottage, and I went to bed 
 almost immediately. I found my 
 wife up ; next morning 1 , I came 
 down about nine o'clock. Thurtell 
 said, in presence of Hunt, that they 
 had been down the lane, to look for 
 the pistol and knife, but neither 
 could be found. They asked me 
 lo go down the lane and seek them 
 in the course of the day, which I 
 promised to do : but when I went 
 down the lane, I saw a man at 
 work near the spot. That morning 
 they went away after breakfast. 
 On Sunday they came down again ; 
 and Thomas Thurtell and Mr. 
 Noyes came also. Hunt brought a 
 new spade with him. He said it 
 was to dig- a grave for the deceased 
 that he brought it. Hunt returned 
 with the gig after setting down 
 Thomas Thurtell, and brought out 
 John Thurtell and Noyes. Hunt 
 was very dirtily dressed when he 
 came down, and went up stairs to 
 change. When he came back, he 
 was well dressed — in almost new 
 clothes. Hunt said the clothes be- 
 longed to the deceased ; he told 
 me he had thrown a new spade 
 over the hedge into my garden ; I 
 saw it afterwards. John Thurtell 
 and I walked to the pond. He 
 asked me, if the body had risen. 1 
 said no ; and he said it would lay 
 there for a month. In the after- 
 noon Hewart called, and I went 
 with him to Mr. Nicholls's. On 
 my return, I told Thurtell and 
 Hunt that Mr. Nicholls had told me, 
 that some one had fired a pistol 
 or gun off in Gill's Hill Lane on 
 Friday night, and that there were 
 cries of murder, as though some one 
 had been killed. He said it was 
 about eight o'clock, and added, " I 
 suppose it was done by some of 
 your friends to frighten each other." 
 John Thurtell said, " then I am 
 baked." I said, " I am afraid it's 
 
 a bad job, as Mr. Nicholls seems to 
 know all about it ; I am very sorry 
 it ever happened here, as I fear it 
 will be my ruin." Thurtell said, 
 " Never mind, Probert, they can 
 do nothing with you." I said the 
 body must be immediately taken 
 out of my pond again. Thurtell 
 said. " I'll tell you what I'll do, 
 Probert ; after you are all gone to 
 bed, Joe and I will take the body 
 up and bury it." Hunt was pre- 
 sent at this. I told them that 
 would be as bad, if they buried it 
 in the garden. John Thurtell said, 
 '■ I'll bury him where you nor no 
 one else can find him." As John 
 Thurtell was going into the par- 
 lour, Hunt said, " Probert, they 
 can do nothing with you or me, 
 even if they do find it out, as we 
 were neither of us at the murder." 
 Thurtell and Hunt sat up all that 
 night ; I, Noyes, and Thomas 
 Thurtell, went to bed. Thomas 
 Thurtell slept with his children. 
 In the morning, John Thurtell 
 and Hunt said they went to dig a 
 grave, but the dogs were barking 
 all night, and they thought some 
 one was about the ground. John 
 Thurtell said, " Joe and I will 
 come down tonight and take him 
 quite away, and that will be better 
 for you altogether." Thomas Thur- 
 tell and Hunt, and my boy, Addis, 
 went away in one chaise after break- 
 fast, and John Thurtell, Thomas 
 Noyes, and Miss Noyes in another. 
 The boy was sent to town to be 
 out of the way. That evening- 
 John Thurtell and Hunt came 
 again in a gig about nine ; they 
 took supper; after supper, John 
 Thurtell and I went to the stable, 
 leaving Hunt talking to Mrs. Pro- 
 bert. Thurtell said, " Come, let's 
 get the body up; while Hunt is 
 talking to Mrs. Probert, she will 
 not suspect." We went to the pond, 
 and got the body up; we took it 
 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 365 
 
 out of the sack, and cut the clothes 
 all off it. We left the body naked 
 on the grass, and returned to the 
 parlour j we then went to the sta- 
 bles, and John Thurtell went to his 
 g-ig-, and took out a new sack, and 
 some cord ; we all three returned 
 to the pond, put the body head- 
 foremost into the sack, and carried 
 it to the lower garden-gate, and 
 put it into the gig. I refused to 
 assist them in settling- the body in 
 the g-ig-. They went away. I 
 next morning 1 burnt some of the 
 clothes, and threw the rest away in 
 different places. I was taken into 
 custody on the Tuesday evening* 
 after they went away. 
 
 The following 1 was the substance 
 of Mrs. Probert's evidence : — 
 
 ' I remember the nig-ht of the 
 24th of October, when Mr. John 
 Thurtell and Mr. Hunt came to 
 Gill's Hill cottage, to have heard the 
 sound of a gig passing 1 my cottage. 
 It was about eight o'clock, I think. 
 The bell of our cottage was rung 
 nearly an hour after ; but, at that 
 ringing, nobody came into our house. 
 My husband came home that night 
 nearly at ten. I came down stairs, 
 and found in the parlour Mr. Pro- 
 bert, John Thurtell, and a strang-er, 
 whom my husband introduced to 
 me as Mr. Hunt. I saw John 
 Thurtell take out a gold chain, 
 which he showed to me. It was a 
 gold watch chain with a great deal 
 of work about it ; it was such a 
 chain as this, I think (the chain 
 was shown her). He offered to 
 make me a present of it ; I refused 
 it for some time, and at last ac- 
 cepted it (she was shown the box 
 and chain produced by the con- 
 stable at Watford). I recollect giv- 
 ing that box and the chain to the 
 constable, in the presence of the 
 magistrates. When I and Miss 
 Noyes went up stairs, we left John 
 Thurtell, Hunt, and Mr. Probert 
 
 in the room. I did not go to bed 
 immediately ; I went from my room 
 to the stairs to listen ; I leaned 
 over the banisters. What I heard 
 in leaning over the banisters, was 
 all in a whisper. What I heard at 
 first was, I thought, about trying 
 on clothes. The first I heard was 
 " This, I think, will fit you very 
 well." I heard a noise like a rust- 
 ling of papers on the table ; I heard 
 also something like the noise ot 
 papers thrown into the fire. I after- 
 wards went up to my own eham 
 ber. Out of doors I saw some- 
 thing ; I looked from my window, 
 and saw two gentlemen go from 
 the parlour to the stable ; they led 
 a horse out of the stable, and open- 
 ed the yard gate and let the horse 
 out. Some time after that I heard 
 something in the garden ; I heard 
 something dragged, as it seemed, 
 very heavily ; it appeared to me 
 to come from the stable to the 
 garden ; the garden is near the 
 back gate; it was dragged along 
 the dark walk ; I had a view of it, 
 when they dragged it out of the 
 dark walk ; it seemed very large and 
 heavy ; it was in a sack. It was after 
 this I heard the rustling of papers, 
 and the conversation I have de- 
 scribed. After the sack was dragged 
 out of the dark walk, 1 had a view of 
 it until it was half way down the 
 walk to the pond. I had a good view 
 of it so far. After this I heard a 
 noise like a heap of stones thrown 
 into a pit, 1 can't describe it any 
 other way ; it was a hollow sound. 
 I heard, besides what I have be- 
 fore mentioned, some further con- 
 versation. The first I heard was, 
 I think, Hunt's voice; he said, 
 " Let us take a 5/. note each." I 
 did not hear Thurtell say any 
 thing; then I heard another voice 
 say, " We must say there was a 
 hare thrown up in the gig on the 
 cushion — we must tell the boy so 
 
360 
 
 KNAPP & 3ALDWIN's NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 in the morning'." I next heard 
 a voice, I can't exactly say whose, 
 " We had better be off to town by 
 four or five o'clock in the morn- 
 ing-;" and then, I think, John 
 Thurtell it was, who said, " We 
 had better not go before eight or 
 nine o'clock ; and the parlour 
 door then shut. I heard John 
 Thurtell say also (I think it was 
 his voice), " Holding shall be 
 next." I rather think it was 
 Hunt who next spoke ; he asked, 
 "Has he (Holding) got money?" 
 John Thurtell replied, " It is not 
 money I want, it is revenge ; it 
 is," said John Thurtell, " Holding 
 who has ruined my friend here." 
 I did not at first understand who 
 this friend was ; I believe it meant 
 Mr. Probert, by husband. I can- 
 not say whether Holding had any 
 thing to do in the transactions of 
 my husband's bankruptcy. " It 
 was Holding," said John Thurtell, 
 " who ruined my friend here, and 
 destroyed my peace of mind." My 
 husband came to bed about half- 
 past one or two o'clock ; I believe 
 it was ; I did not know the hour 
 exactly.' 
 
 At the close of the evidence for 
 the crown, although, in answer to 
 his Lordship's inquiry, the jury de- 
 cided on going through the case, 
 they revoked that, decision at the 
 desire of John Thurtell ; who re- 
 spectfully pressed on their atten- 
 tion the long and harassing time he 
 had stood at that bar ; and begged 
 for a night's cessation to recruit his 
 strength previous to making his 
 defence. The Court therefore ad- 
 journed. 
 
 On the following morning, the 
 trial proceeded. 
 
 Ruthven and Thomas Thurtell 
 were recalled to be examined on 
 some trifling points ; and in a short 
 time, Mr. Justice Park informed 
 John Thurtell, that ne was ready 
 
 to hear any observations he had to 
 make. Thurtell, through the gaoler, 
 intimated, that he wished his wit- 
 nesses to be examined first ; but 
 this was refused, as being contrary 
 to the practice. 
 
 Thurtell then commenced his 
 defence ; — speaking in a deep, 
 measured, and unshaken tone, and 
 using a studied and theatrical 
 action. 
 
 ' My Lord, and Gentlemen of the 
 Jury. — Under greater difficulties 
 than ever man encountered, I now 
 rise to vindicate my character and 
 defend my life. 1 have been sup- 
 ported in this hour of trial, by the 
 knowledge that my cause is heard 
 before an enlightened tribunal, and 
 that the free institutions of my 
 country have placed my destiny in 
 the hands of twelve men, who are 
 uninfluenced by prejudice, and 
 unawed by power. I have been 
 represented by the press, which 
 carries its benefits or curses on 
 rapid wings from one extremity 
 of the kingdom to the other, as a 
 man more depraved, more gra- 
 tuitously and habitually profligate 
 and cruel, than has ever appeared 
 in modern times. I have been 
 held up to the world as the per- 
 petrator of a murder, under cir- 
 cumstances of greater aggravation, 
 of more cruel and premeditated 
 atrocity, than it ever before fell to 
 the lot of man to have seen or 
 heard of. 1 have been held forth 
 to the world as a depraved, heart- 
 less, remorseless, prayerless villain, 
 who had seduced my friend into a 
 sequestered path, merely in order 
 to despatch him with the greater 
 security — as a snake who had crept 
 into his bosom only to strike a sure 
 blow — as a monster, who, after the 
 perpetration of a deed from which 
 the hardest heart recoils with 
 horror, and at which humanity 
 stands aghast, washed away the 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 remembrance of my guilt in the 
 midst of riot and debauchery. You, 
 gentlemen, must have read the de- 
 tails which have been daily. I may 
 say hourly, published regarding* me. 
 It would be requiring more than 
 the usual virtue of our nature to 
 expect that you should entirely 
 divest your minds of those feel- 
 ings, I may say those creditable 
 feelings, which such relations must 
 have excited ; but I am satisfied, 
 that as far as it is possible for men 
 to enter into a grave investigation 
 with minds unbiassed, and judg- 
 ments unimpaired, after the ca- 
 lumnies with which the public 
 mind has been deluged — I say, I 
 am satisfied, that with such minds 
 and such judgments, you have this 
 day assumed your sacred office. 
 The horrible guilt which has been 
 attributed to me is such as could 
 not have resulted from custom, but 
 must have been the innate prin- 
 ciple of my infant mind, and have 
 " grown with my growth, and 
 strengthened with mv strength." 
 But I will call before you gentle- 
 men whose characters are unim- 
 peachable, and whose testimony 
 must be above suspicion, who will 
 tell you, that the time was when 
 my bosom overflowed with all the 
 kindly feelings ; and even my fail- 
 ings were those of an improvident 
 generosity and unsuspecting friend- 
 ship. Beware, then, gentlemen, 
 of an anticipated verdict. Do not 
 suffer the reports which you have 
 heard to influence your determi- 
 nation. Do not believe that a few 
 short years can have reversed the 
 course of nature, and converted 
 the good feelings which I possessed 
 into that spirit of malignant cruelty 
 to which only demons can attain. 
 A kind, affectionate, and religious 
 mother directed the tender steps of 
 my infancy, in the paths of piety 
 and virtue. My rising youtn was 
 
 guided in the way that it should 
 go by a father whose piety was 
 universally known and believed — 
 whose kindness and charity ex- 
 tended to all who came within the 
 sphere of its influence. After 
 leaving my paternal roof, I entered 
 into the service of our late revered 
 monarch, who was justly entitled 
 the " father of his people." You 
 will learn from some of my honour- 
 able companions, that, while I 
 served under his colours, I never 
 tarnished their lustre. The coun- 
 try which is dear to me I have 
 served. I have fought for her. 
 I have shed my blood for her. I 
 feared not in the open field to shed 
 the blood of her declared foes. 
 But oh ! to suppose that on that 
 account I was ready to raise the 
 assassin's arm against my friend, 
 and with that view to draw him 
 into secret places for his destruc- 
 tion — it is monstrous, horrible, in- 
 credible. I have been represented 
 to you as a man who was given to 
 gambling, and the constant com- 
 panion of gamblers. To this ac- 
 cusation, in some part, my heart 
 with feeling penitence pleads 
 guilty. I have gambled. I have 
 been a gambler, but not for the 
 last three years. During that 
 time I have not attended or betted 
 upon a horse-race, or a fight, or 
 any public exhibition of that na- 
 ture. If I have erred in these 
 things, half of the nobility of the 
 land have been my examples ; some 
 of the most enlightened statesmen 
 of the country have been my com- 
 panions in them. I have indeed 
 been a gambler — I have been an 
 unfortunate one. But whose for- 
 tune have I ruined ? — whom un- 
 done ? — My own family have I 
 ruined — I have undone myself ! 
 At this moment I feel the distress 
 of my situation. But, gentlemen, 
 let not this misfortune entice your 
 
36t 
 
 KNAPr & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 verdict against me. Beware of 
 your own feelings, when you are 
 told by the highest authority, that 
 the heart of man is deceitful above 
 all things. Beware, gentlemen, of 
 an anticipated verdict. It is the 
 remark of a very sage and experi- 
 enced writer of antiquity, that no 
 man becomes wicked all at once. 
 And with this, which I earnestly 
 request you to bear in mind, 1 
 proceed to lay before you the 
 whole career of my life. I will 
 not tire you with tedious repe- 
 titions, but I will disclose enough 
 of my past life to inform your 
 judgments; leaving it to your cle- 
 mency to supply whatever little 
 defects you may observe. You 
 will consider my misfortunes, and 
 the situation in which I stand — the 
 deep anxiety that I must feel — the 
 object for which I have to strive. 
 You may suppose something of all 
 this ; but oh ! no pencil, though 
 dipped in the lines of heaven, can 
 portray my feelings at this crisis. 
 Recollect, I again entreat you, my 
 situation, and allow something for 
 the workings of a mind little at 
 ease ; and pity and forgive the 
 faults of my address. The con- 
 clusion of the late war, which 
 threw its lustre upon the fortunes 
 of the nation generally, threw a 
 gloomy shadow over mine. I 
 entered into a mercantile life with 
 feelings as kind, and with a heart 
 as warm, as I had carried with me 
 in the service. I took the com- 
 mercial world as if it had been 
 governed by the same regulations 
 as the army. I looked upon 
 merchants as if they had been my 
 mess companions. In the trans- 
 actions I had with them, my purse 
 was as open, my heart as warm, to 
 answer their demands, as thev had 
 been to my former associates. I 
 need not say that any fortune, 
 however ample, would have been 
 
 insufficient to meet such a course of 
 conduct I, of course, became the 
 subject of a commission of bank- 
 ruptcy. My solicitor, in whom I 
 had foolishly confided as my most 
 particular friend, I discovered, too 
 late, to have been a traitor — a man 
 who was foremost in the ranks of 
 my bitterest enemies. But for this 
 man, I should still have been en- 
 abled to regain a station in society, 
 and I should have yet preserved the 
 esteem of my friends, and above all, 
 my own self-respect. But how often 
 is it seen that the avarice of one 
 creditor destroys the clemency of 
 all the rest, and for ever dissipates 
 the fair prospects of the unfortunate 
 debtor. With the kind assistance 
 of Mr. Thomas Oliver Springfield, 
 I obtained the signature of all my 
 creditors to a petition for super- 
 seding my bankruptcy. But just 
 then, when I flattered myself that 
 my ill fortune was about to close 
 — that my blossoms were ripening 
 — there came " a frost — a nipping- 
 frost." My chief creditor refused 
 to sign, unless he was paid a bonus 
 of 300/. upon his debt beyond all 
 the other creditors. This demand 
 was backed by the man who was 
 at the time his and my solicitor. 
 I spurned the offer — I awakened 
 his resentment. I was cast upon 
 the world — my all disposed of — 
 in the deepest distress. My brother 
 afterwards availed himself of my 
 misfortune, and entered into busi- 
 ness. His warehouses were des- 
 troyed bv the accident of a fire, as 
 has been proved by the verdict of 
 a jury on a trial at which the ve- 
 nerable judge now present presided. 
 But that accident, unfortunate as 
 it was, has been taken advantage 
 of in order to insinuate that he 
 was guilty of crime, because his 
 property was destroyed by it, as 
 will be proved by the verdict of an 
 honest and upright jury in an ac- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 369 
 
 tion for conspiracy, wliich will he 
 tried ere long before the chief jus- 
 tice of the King's Bench. A con- 
 spiracy there was— but where? 
 Why, in the acts of the proseeutor 
 himself, Mr. Barber Beaumont, 
 who was guilty of suborning wit- 
 nesses, and who will he proved to 
 have paid for false testimony. Yes; 
 this professed friend of the ag- 
 grieved — this pretended prosecutor 
 of public abuses — this self-appointed 
 supporter of the laws, who panders 
 to rebellion, and has had the auda- 
 city to raise its standard in the 
 front of the royal palace — this man, 
 who has just head enough to con- 
 trive crime, but not heart enough 
 to feel its consequences — this is the 
 real author of the conspiracy which 
 will shortly undergo legal investi- 
 gation.* To these particulars I 
 have thought it necessary to call 
 your attention, in language which 
 you may think perhaps too warm 
 — in terms not so measured, but 
 that they may incur your reproof. 
 But— 
 
 * The flesh will quiver where the pincers 
 
 tear, 
 ' The blood will follow where the knife 
 
 is driven.' 
 
 You have been told that I intended 
 to decoy Woods to his destruction ; 
 and he has said that he saw me iu 
 the passage of the house. I can 
 prove, by honest witnesses, fellow- 
 citizens of my native city of Nor- 
 wich, that I was there at that 
 time ; but, for the sake of an ami- 
 able and innocent female, who 
 might be injured, I grant to Mr. 
 Woods the mercy of my silence. 
 When, before this, did it ever fall 
 to the lot of any subject to be borne 
 down by the weight of calumny 
 and obloquy which now oppresses 
 me? The press, which ought to 
 be the shield of public-liberty, the 
 avenger of public wrongs — which, 
 above all, should have exerted it* 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 self to preserve the purity of its 
 favourite institution, the trial bv 
 jury — has directed its whole force 
 to my injury and prejudice; it has 
 heaped slander upon slander, and 
 whetted the public appetite for 
 slanders more atrocious; nay more, 
 what in other men would serve to 
 refute and repel the shaft of ca- 
 lumny, is made to stain with a 
 deeper die the villanies ascribed to 
 me. One would have thought, 
 that some time spent in the service 
 of my country would have entitled 
 me to some favour from the public 
 under a charge of this nature. But 
 no ; in my case the order of things 
 is changed — nature is reversed. 
 The acts of times long since past 
 have been made to cast a deepe 
 shadow over the acts attributed to 
 me within the last few days ; and 
 the pursuit of a profession, hitherto 
 held honourable among honourable 
 men, has been turned to the ad- 
 vantage of the accusation against 
 me. You have been told that after 
 the battle, I boasted of my inhu- 
 manity to a vanquished, yielding, 
 wounded enemy — that I made a 
 wanton sacrifice of my bleeding 
 and supplicating foe, by striking 
 him to the earth with my cowardly 
 steel ; and that, after this deed of 
 blood, I coldly sat down to plunder 
 my unhappy victim. Nay, more 
 ■ — that with folly indescribable and 
 incredible, I boasted of my barba- 
 rity as of a victory. Is there an 
 English officer, is there an English 
 soldier, or an Englishman, whose 
 heart would not have revolted with 
 hatred against such baseness and 
 folly ? Far better, gentlemen, 
 would it have been for me, rather 
 than have seen this day, to have 
 fallen with my honourable compa- 
 nions, stemming and opposing the 
 tide of battle upon the field of my 
 country's glory. Then my father 
 and my family, Ihough they would 
 121 
 
370 KNAPP & ISA LDWIN 's NEWGATE CALENDAR, 
 
 have mourned my loss, would have 
 blessed my name, and shame would 
 lint have rolled its burning fires 
 over my memory ! Before I recur 
 to the evidence brought against 
 my life, I wish to return my most 
 sincere thanks to the high sheriff 
 and the magistrates for their kind- 
 ness shown to me. I cannot but 
 express my unfeigned regret at a 
 slight misunderstanding which has 
 occurred between the Rev. Mr. 
 Lloyd, the visiting magistrate, and 
 my solicitor. As it was nothing 
 more than a misunderstanding, I 
 trust the bonds of friendship are 
 again ratified between us all. My 
 most particular gratitude is due to 
 the Rev. Mr. Franklin, whose kind 
 visits and pious consolations have 
 inspired me with a deeper sense of 
 the awful truths of religion, and 
 have trebly armed my breast with 
 fortitude to serve me on this day. 
 Though last, not least — let me not 
 forget Mr. Wilson, the governor of 
 the prison, and the fatherly treat- 
 ment which he has shown me 
 throughout. My memory must 
 perish ere I can forget his kind- 
 ness. My heart must be cold ere 
 it can cease to beat with gratitude 
 to him, and wishes for the pros- 
 perity of his family.' 
 
 Here the prisoner read, first, a 
 long written comment on the 
 weaker parts of the evidence ; in- 
 deed the decisive parts he left un- 
 touched. This paper was either 
 so ill-written, or Thurlell wa< so 
 imperfect a reader, that the effect 
 was quite fatal to the previous 
 flowery appeal to the jury: he 
 stammered, blundered, ami seemed 
 confused. He read next, from the 
 Percy Anecdotes, some very tedious 
 instances of the fallibility of circum- 
 stantial evidence. Then came the 
 peroration : — 
 
 ' And now, gentlemen, having 
 read those cases to you, am not I 
 
 justified in saying, that, unless you 
 are thoroughly convinced that the 
 circumstances before you are abso- 
 lutely inconsistent with my inno- 
 cence, I have a claim to your ver- 
 dict of acquittal ? Am I not jus- 
 tified in saying, that you might 
 come to the conclusion that all the 
 circumstances stated might be true, 
 and yet I be innocent ? 1 am 
 sure, gentlemen, you will banish 
 from your minds any prejudice 
 which may have been excited against 
 me, and act upon the principle that 
 every man is to be deemed inno- 
 cent until he is proved guilty. 
 Judge of my case, gentlemen, with 
 mature consideration, and remem- 
 ber that my existence depends upon 
 your breathl If you bring in a 
 verdict of guilty, the law after- 
 wards allows no mercy. If upon 
 a due consideration of all the cir- 
 cumstances jou shall have a doubt, 
 the law orders, and your own con- 
 sciences will teach you to give me 
 the benefit of it. Cut me not off" 
 in the summer of my life ! I im- 
 plore you, gentlemen, to give my 
 case your utmost attention. I ask 
 not so much for myself as for those 
 respectable parents whose name I 
 bear, and who must suffer in my 
 fate. 1 ask it for the sake of that 
 home which will be rendered cheer- 
 less and desolate by my death. 
 Gentlemen, I am incapable of any 
 dishonourable action. Those who 
 know me best, know that I am ut- 
 terly incapable of an unjust and 
 dishonourable action, much less of 
 the horrid crime with which I am 
 now charged. There is not, I 
 think, one in this court who does 
 not think me innocent of the charge. 
 If there be— to him or them I say, 
 in the language of the Apostle, 
 " Would to God ye were altogether 
 such as I am, save these bonds.'' 
 Gentlemen, I have now done. I 
 look with confidence to your deci- 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 371 
 
 sion, I repose in your hands all 
 that is dear to Ihc gentleman and 
 the man ! I have poured my heart 
 hefore you as to my God ! I hope 
 your verdict this day will he such 
 as you may ever after be ahle to 
 think upon with ;i composed con- 
 science; and thai jou will also 
 reflect upon the solemn declaration 
 which I now make — 1 am innocent ! 
 — So help me God ! ' 
 
 Hunt was next called upon for 
 his defence. His feeble voice and 
 shrinking manner were doubly ap- 
 parent, from the overwrought 
 energy which his companion had 
 manifested. He complained of his 
 agitation and fatigue, and requested 
 that a paper, which he held in his 
 hand, might be read for him ; and 
 accordingly the clerk of the arraigns 
 read it in a very feeling manner. 
 It was prudently and advisedly com- 
 posed ; and insisted strongly on the 
 magistt ales' promise, when he first 
 gave information on the subject. 
 
 When the paper was concluded, 
 Hunt read a few words on a part 
 of Probert's evidence, in a dejected 
 voice, and then leant his head upon 
 his hand. He was evidently wasting 
 away minute by minute. 
 
 Mr. Justice Park summed up at 
 great length. The charge to the 
 jury occupied several hours — and 
 the jury then requested leave to 
 withdraw. Hunt, at this period, 
 became much agitated, and as he 
 saw them about to quit the box, he 
 intrealed leave to address them — 
 hut on his counsel learning and 
 communicating to the judge what 
 the prisoner had to say, the jury 
 were directed to proceed to the con- 
 sideration of their verdict. 
 
 After an absence of twenty mi- 
 nutes, the jury returned, and their 
 foreman delivered a verdict of 
 Guilty. 
 
 The officer of the court thru said 
 — What have you, or either of you, 
 
 to say why sentence of death should 
 not pass on you ? 
 
 Thurtell — My Lord, before you 
 pass sentence, I pray you to take 
 into your serious consideration what 
 I say. I now, for the last time, 
 assert that I am innocent. I en- 
 treat a short delay in the execution 
 of the sentence you may pass, as I 
 have friends now at a distance, with 
 whom it is necessary that I should 
 transact some business. It is for 
 the sake of some friends that are 
 dear to me, that I ask this indul- 
 gence (here the prisoner seemed 
 affected, and shed a tear), not for 
 myself, for I am at this moment 
 ready ; my request, I hope your 
 Lordship will take into consideration ; 
 and beyond Sunday next is all I ask. 
 
 This request could not be acceded 
 to, and sentence was accordingly 
 passed in the usual form ; after 
 which the two prisoners shook 
 hands, and were removed to their 
 respective cells. Hopes were held 
 out to Hunt that, in consequence of 
 the information which he had given, 
 his sentence would be commuted 
 into transportation for life. 
 
 During Thursday afternoon, per 
 sous of all ranks were seen driving 
 into Hertford, by the desire of b< ing 
 present at the execution ; and in- 
 fluenced by an expectation that 
 some extraordinary declaration 
 won d be made by Thurtell in his 
 dying moments. All the inns were 
 completely filled, and many were 
 incapable of procuring beds. 
 
 At ten o'clock on Thursday 
 night, Thurtell intimated an 
 earnest wish that Hunt might 
 pass the night in his apart- 
 ment. Hunt was introduced ; he 
 was received by Thurtell with a 
 strong manifestation of cordiality. 
 Thurtell took him by the hand, and 
 said ' Joe, the past is forgotten. I 
 stand on the brink of eternity, and 
 we meet now only -is friends: It 
 
372 KNA.PF & BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 may be your fate to lose your life as 
 ignominiously as myself; but I lioj»e 
 the royal mercy will be extended to 
 you, and that you will live to repent 
 of your past errors, Although you 
 have been my enemy, I freely for- 
 give you.' Hunt, who had entered 
 the room with feelings bordering on 
 apprehension that some unfortunate 
 turn had taken place in bis affairs, 
 and that be was himself to suffer, 
 was suddenly relieved by this ad- 
 dress, and, squeezing Tburtell's 
 hand most vehemently, burst into 
 tears ; be then sat down by the 
 fire, and Thurtell and he eontinued 
 to pray and to read until one o'clock. 
 Soon after one, he shewed symptoms 
 of fatigue, and, laying himself on 
 the bed, uttered a fervent prayer to 
 the Almighty, for strength to meet 
 his approaching execution with the 
 firmness of a man, aud the resigna- 
 tion of a Christian. In a few mo- 
 ments afterwards he dropped into a 
 profound sleep. 
 
 On Friday morning, at day- 
 break, every road leading to Hert- 
 ford was thronged with travellers. 
 At half-past six, Mr. Wilson, the 
 jailor, entered Thurtell's room and 
 found him fast asleep. The prisoner 
 Hunt was also in a deep slumber. 
 Mr. Wilson, unwilling to disturb 
 their repose, retired, and at seven 
 o'clock returned again ; but the 
 wretched men were still asleep. 
 Mr. Wilson approached the bed of 
 Thurtell, and called him by name. 
 Thurtell started up, and for a mo- 
 ment seemed lost to his situation, 
 not even knowing where he was, 
 but his recollection quickly return- 
 ed. His breakfast was then brought 
 in : it consisted of some tea and 
 bread and butter, but he partook 
 only of the former, and that but 
 slightly. 
 
 At half-past eleven Thurtell and 
 Hunt were conducted into the 
 chapel. The Rev. Mr. Franklin 
 
 then administered the sacrament to 
 them. Thurtell read the appropriate 
 prayers in a distinct and audible 
 voice, and seemed fully impressed 
 with the importance of this solemn 
 rite. At its conclusion, Thurtell 
 turned round to the prisoner Hunt, 
 and grasped bis hand repeatedly, 
 and renewed, in the most forcible 
 terms, the assurance of his perfect 
 forgiveness of the past, and of his 
 being about to die in peace and 
 charity with all the world. The 
 chaplain and Mr. Nicholson retired 
 from the chapel, leaving Mr. Wilson 
 and the prisoner Thurtell alone : 
 Hunthadpreviouslybeen reconduct- 
 ed to his cell, overpowered by his 
 feelings. Mr. Wilson then turning 
 to Thurtell, said, ' Now, Thurtell, 
 as there is no eye to witness what 
 is passing between us but that of 
 God, you must not be surprised if I 
 ask you a question.'' Thurtell turn- 
 ed round, aud regarded him with a 
 look of surprise. Mr. Wilson con- 
 tinued — * if you intend to make any 
 confession, 1 think you cannot do it 
 at a better period than the present.' 
 Thurtell paused for a few moments. 
 Mr. Wilson then went on to say, 
 ' I ask you if you acknowledge the 
 justice of your sentence.' Thurtell 
 immediately seized both Mr. Wil- 
 son's hands, and pressed them with 
 great fervour within his own, and 
 said, ' I am quite satisfied. I forgive 
 the world ; I die in peace and charity 
 with all mankind, and that is all I 
 wish to go forth upon this occa- 
 sion.' 
 
 The chaplain then returned to the 
 prisoner, and offered him some fur- 
 ther words of comfort, asking him, 
 whether there was any thing he 
 could do to ease his mind with re- 
 spect to his family and friends. 
 Thurtell replied that he was anxious 
 the Rev. gentleman would write to 
 his father, and inform him of his 
 e\treme contrition, resignation, and 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 373 
 
 penitence, which Mr. Franklin pro- 
 mised faithfully to do. The unfor- 
 tunate man then uttered a short 
 prayer, that the minds of his family 
 might be strengthened under the 
 deep affliction tliey must feel, and 
 of which he had been the unhappy 
 author. 
 
 At twelve o'clock precisely, Mr. 
 Nicholson tapped at the door with 
 his wand, as the signal that the 
 hour of execution had arrived. 
 Thurtell then seized Mr. Franklin's 
 hands, and thanked him, not alone 
 for all the personal kindnesses for 
 which he was indebted to him, but 
 for that Christian spirit with which 
 he was about to depart this world. 
 The chapel door was then thrown 
 open, and the prisoner went forth 
 with a steady and assured step.- 
 He looked round with perfect calm- 
 ness. The distance from the chapel- 
 door to the door leading to the 
 scaffold was not more than ten yards, 
 and thither he was accompanied by 
 the chaplain, the under sheriff, Mr. 
 Wilson, an assistant of Mr. Wilson's, 
 and the upper turnkey. The church- 
 bell mournfully tolled as he ad- 
 vanced. On their arrival at the 
 door, Thurtell again squeezed Mr. 
 FYanklin's hand, and again exclaim- 
 ed ' God bless you, sir ; God bless 
 you.' He then mounted the steps, 
 preceded by the under-sheriff and 
 the executioner, and followed by 
 Mr. Wilson and the head turnkey. 
 
 Thurtell, on taking his station un- 
 der the gallows, looked round with a 
 countenance unchanged by the aw- 
 fulness of his situation. His manner 
 was firm aud undaunted, at the 
 same time that it betrayed no unbe- 
 coming levity. After regarding the 
 crowd for a moment, he appeared to 
 recognize an individual beneath 
 him, to whom he bowed in a friendly 
 manner. Previously to his mount- 
 ing the scaffold, he had begged that 
 as little delay as possible might 
 
 take place in his execution after his 
 appearance upon the platform. 
 
 His hands were confined with 
 handcuffs, instead of being tied with 
 cord, as is usually the case on such 
 occasions, and, at his own request, 
 his arms were not pinioned. He 
 wore a pair of black kid gloves. 
 The irons, which were very heavy, 
 and consisted of a succession of 
 chain links, were still on his legs, 
 and were held up in the middle by 
 a Belcher handkei chief tied round 
 his waist. 
 
 The moment he placed himseli 
 under the beam, the executioner 
 commenced by taking off his cravat. 
 He stood perfectly calm and un- 
 moved, holding out his neck in order 
 to facilitate the hangman's duty. 
 A white cap was then put upon his 
 head and drawn over his eyes ; this 
 cap was so thin, as still to afford 
 the wretched man a view of those 
 about him, and he continued to look 
 round in various directions. At 
 that moment the clock sounded the 
 last stroke of twelve. The rope 
 was then placed round his neck, and 
 while the executioner was attaching 
 the other end to the beam above, 
 Thurtell looked up, and, turning to 
 him, said, ' give me fall enough/ 
 The hangman replied, that he 
 might be assured he should have 
 plenty of fall, and that all would be 
 right. Thurtell next turned to 
 Mr. Wilson, and repeated the same 
 request, and that gentieman assured 
 him, that his wishes had been fully 
 attended to. All being now in 
 readiness, Mr. Wilson drew close to 
 the prisoner, and, squeezing his 
 hands, exclaimed, * Thurtell, God 
 Almighty bless you ;' the prisoner, 
 pressing his hands in return, re- 
 sponded, ' God bless you, sir.' 
 
 Mr. Wilson then stood back upon 
 some boards placed immediately 
 behind the drop, and the executioner 
 having previously retired, the under 
 
374 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 sheriff, with his wand, gave the last 
 fatal signal, the drop suddenly fell, 
 and the unhappy man was in an 
 instant launched into eternity. His 
 sufferings were but momentary, for, 
 with the exception of a few convul- 
 sive motions of his hands and legs, he 
 seemed to he deprived of all sensa- 
 tion. Thus perished, in an untimely 
 manner, a man, who, but for unto- 
 ward circumstances and the violence 
 of his passions, might have been the 
 pride of his family. 
 
 During the whole of this appalling 
 ceremony there was not the slight- 
 est symptom of emotion discernable 
 in his features ; his demeanour was 
 perfectly calm and tranquil, and he 
 behaved like a mar: acquainted with 
 the dreadful ordeal he was about to 
 pass, but not unprepared to meet it. 
 Though his fortitude was thus con- 
 spicuous, it was evident, from the 
 alteration in his appearance, that in 
 the interval between his conviction 
 and his execution, he must have 
 suffered much. He looked care- 
 worn ; his countenance had assumed 
 a cadaverous hue, and there was a 
 haggarduess and lankness about his 
 cheeks and mouth, which could not 
 fail to attract the notice of every 
 spectator. 
 
 The different accounts of this exe- 
 cution given at the time agreed in 
 stating that the crowd present show- 
 ed more than an ordinary degree of 
 
 sympathy on the occasion, as if 
 there was something in Thurtell's 
 case, that entitled him to peculiar 
 commisseration. It is difficult to 
 account for such extraordinary sen- 
 sibility, for never was there so foul 
 a deed committed. Some of the 
 public prints joined in the strange 
 lamentations for his fate, as if he 
 was hardly dealt with, and had a 
 claim on public compassion. He 
 was compassioned by some, because 
 he was a man of talent and educa- 
 tion, but this was an aggravation of 
 his guilt ; because, Irom the re- 
 spectability of his connexions, he 
 might have mixed in respectable 
 company. Every moment of Thur- 
 tell was commented upon, as if he 
 had in fact been a martyr to some 
 good cause ; and he was spoken of, 
 as if he were a hero, and not a great 
 delinquent. These observations 
 arise from the evil effects which 
 such morbid sensibility may have on 
 society at large, and young minds 
 in particular ; as if the more horrible 
 the crime, the more entitled to com- 
 passion is the person by whom it 
 was committed, when he becomes 
 an object of public example, and falls 
 by the hand of retributive justice. 
 
 Hunt, in consequence of the pro- 
 mise made him by the magistrates, 
 had his sentence commuted to trans- 
 portation for life, and was immedi- 
 ately sent to Botany Bay. 
 
 JOHN HILL WAGSTAFF, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR FOKGERY. 
 
 This young man belonged to a 
 highly respectable family, and for 
 some years carried on an extensive 
 trade, as a carpet-dealer, in Skinner 
 Street, Snow Hill. Being young, 
 thoughtless, and extravagant, he 
 soon dissipated property to some 
 amount, and in the beginning of 
 1823 his name appeared in the 
 Gazette. At the same time it was 
 
 discovered that he had endeavoured 
 to sustain his sinking credit by 
 fictitious bills, and apprehending u 
 prosecution for forgery, he sought 
 concealment. Not having surren- 
 dered as a bankrupt before the com- 
 missioners, he was outlawed, and 
 one hundred pounds offered as a 
 reward for his apprehension. 
 
 For eighteen months he remained 
 
KNAl'P & BALDWIN'S NEW GATE CALENDAR. 370 
 
 undetected ; but, swell was his des- 
 peration and folly, that lie again 
 repeated his fust offence, and de- 
 liberately forged a draft for two 
 hundred and fifty pounds. On Fri- 
 day night, March the 19lh, 1824, 
 Wagstaff slept at the OldHummums, 
 in Coveut Garden, and on Saturday 
 morning sent for a ticket porter, 
 who was accordingly brought him. 
 lie first sent the porter for a two- 
 shilling stamp to a shop in Long 
 Acre, and on his return gave him a 
 check for two hundred and fifty 
 pounds, purporting to be drawn by 
 William Ridley upon John Bond, 
 Sons, and Pattisall, bankers, in 
 'Change Alley, Cornhill, together 
 with a piece of paper, on which were 
 written directions for the porter to 
 go to the Bull Inn, in Aldgate, and 
 secure an inside place for him, in 
 the two o'clock coach, for Brighton. 
 Mr. Ridley, the supposed drawer 
 of the check, was the head of the 
 firm of Ridley and Co. carpet manu- 
 facturers, in Castle Street, Holborn ; 
 and these gentlemen had a private 
 mark on their checks, known only 
 to themselves and their bankers ; 
 consequently, when the porter pre- 
 sented the check received from 
 Wagstaff, the forgery was discovered, 
 though the signature was an ex- 
 tremely close imitation. 
 
 Mr. Pattisall, one of the partners 
 in the bank, now proceeded to the 
 Old Huniinums, but found Wagstaff 
 had gone out. An explanation took 
 place with the proprietor, and proper 
 jirections were given throughout the 
 house, respecting Wagstaff, if he 
 should return. 
 
 In the evening a hackney coach- 
 man called at the hotel, and in- 
 quired if the porter had brought 
 
 back any message. He was an- 
 swered in the affirmative, and that 
 the parcel was in the possession of 
 the proprietor until the gentleman 
 should call for it. In about hall an 
 hour afterwards Wagstaff drove up in 
 a coach to the door, and, as had 
 been previously arranged, was 
 shewn into a room where Bishop, 
 the officer, was waiting for him. 
 The latter asked him his name as 
 soon as he entered, and the other 
 replied, Samuel Tomkins, and said 
 he lived next door to the White 
 Hart, at Reigate. Bishop then 
 informed him of his situation, and 
 took him into custody. When se- 
 cured, the officer saw him endea- 
 vouring to put something into his 
 glove, which, upon examination, 
 proved to be a parcel of oxalic acid. 
 A phial filled with a solution of the 
 same destructive poison was taken 
 out of his pocket, from which it 
 would appear that the wretched 
 man bad meditated suicide in case 
 of detection. To guard against 
 such an event proper precaution was 
 taken. 
 
 Although several other charges 
 of forgery were made against him, 
 he was indicted only for this one, it 
 being deemed sufficient for the ends 
 of justice. On the Pith of the lol- 
 lowinff April he was arraigned at 
 the Old Bailey, and the fact of the 
 forgery being proved, he was found 
 Guilty— Death. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, June the 
 1st, 1824, this unfortunate man 
 underwent the awful sentence of the 
 Jaw in the Old Bailey, in the pre- 
 sence of an unusual concourse of 
 spectators, by whom his fate ap- 
 peared to be universally commisse- 
 rated. 
 
376 
 
 KNA1T & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 AMY GEORGE, 
 
 INDICTED FOR THE MURDER OF HER BROTHER. 
 
 Religious fanaticism has led, 
 in all ages, to much mischief both 
 private and public. In the early 
 times of Christianity there arose a 
 sect, the members of which went 
 about murdering children, who had 
 not obtained the age of seven years, 
 believing it meritorious to send 
 them to Heaven before they became 
 responsible for their own actions. 
 .Doctrines so repugnant to human 
 nature did not long find supporters ; 
 though fanaticism ever since lias 
 caused, in various ways, the shed- 
 ding of blood. There seldom has 
 occurred, however, an instance of 
 religious delusion more gloomy than 
 the one we are about to narrate. 
 
 Amy George, a young woman, 
 nineteen years of age, resided in the 
 house of her parents, at Redruth, 
 in Cornwall. They were in humble 
 circumstances, and of a religious 
 turn. They belonged to the Metho- 
 dist persuasion ; and Amy, having 
 attended one of their meetings call- 
 ed ' Revivals,' became considerably 
 disturbed, and under the idea of se- 
 curing the eternal happiness of her 
 little brother, a boy under seven years 
 of age, hanged him behind the door 
 with a silk handkerchief, on the 4th 
 of March, 1824. She did not at- 
 tempt to conceal her erime ; but 
 went up stairs to the apartment of 
 a fellow-lodger, and disclosed what 
 she had done. She was instantly 
 taken into custody, and brought to 
 trial at the ensuing assizes, which 
 took place at Launceston on the 
 1st of April. Several witnesses 
 having deposed to the fact of the 
 strangulation of the child, John 
 Cocking, the constable of Redruth, 
 gave the following testimony : e I 
 sat up with the prisoner at the bar 
 on the night cf the 4th of March. 
 She told me her mind had been im 
 
 pressed, for some time, that she 
 ought to commit a murder ; and 
 that on the Monday and Tuesday 
 before she committed the act, her 
 intention was to have murdered 
 her mother, but she endeavoured 
 to banish that idea from her mind, 
 and prayed to the Lord to take 
 the temptation from her ; but that 
 on the Thursday morning, while 
 she was at work at the mine, the 
 idea came upon her again with 
 greater force than before. In the 
 middle of the day, she went to get 
 her dinner at the boiling house, 
 where the girls generally dine. 
 After she got to the boiling house, 
 she recollected that she had seen 
 a boy, a stranger, standing by the 
 engine-house, near the shaft, or 
 mouth of a pit, and she then re- 
 gretted that she had not pushed 
 that boy into the shaft. Returning 
 home in the evening, a little be- 
 fore she came to a Methodist meet 
 ing, which stood in a back lane 
 she saw two children before her 
 at play, near another shaft along- 
 side the road, but she could not get 
 an opportunity of throwing one of 
 them into the mine, as she had 
 designed. She went to her own 
 house, and found her mother was 
 going to the meeting. On going in, 
 her mother said, " Your supper is 
 ready for you, Amy ; you can take it, 
 for I am going to the meeting, and 
 little Benny will remain at home 
 with you.'* The prisoner then 
 told me she felt glad that she was 
 going to be left alone with her 
 brother, as she would thus be able 
 to do the deed. She gave the 
 child part of her supper, and said 
 to him. " Should you like to go to 
 heaven, dear ?" She then rose 
 from the place where she was sit- 
 ting, and went to a line that was 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 377 
 
 hanging across the room, and took 
 from it a black silk handkerchief, 
 and coming towards the child, put 
 it round his neck, tying it, as she 
 thought, in a running knot. She 
 said to her brother " Is it too tight, 
 dear ?" The child looked up in 
 her face and smiled, and said "No." 
 She left the handkerchief round 
 his neck, and said, «' Go for a drop 
 of water for me, dear !" intending, 
 while the child was gone to a pail 
 in the room, and while his back 
 was towards her, to take him up 
 and hang him to a crook behind 
 the door. The hoy was rather 
 quicker than she expected, and she 
 meeting him took the water from 
 him, drank a little of it, and put 
 the cup on the table. She then 
 took her brother up with one arm, 
 and with the othtr hand put the 
 handkerchief over the crook, looked 
 him full in the face, and left the 
 room. I know there are the se- 
 veral shafts which the prisoner 
 spoke of. I am not a member of 
 the Methodist Society, but I have 
 attended a Revival meeting at 
 Redruth, which commenced about 
 three months since. A Revival is 
 termed an " out- pouring of the 
 spirit," and causes t he congregation 
 to cry aloud to the Lord for mercy. 
 The Revival continued at Redruth 
 for a month or six weeks. The 
 Revivals are held in the stated 
 places of worship of particular con- 
 gregations, and sometimes continue 
 open for three nights and days in 
 succession. I have been at Re- 
 vival ; those who are " convinced 
 of sin,'' as it is called, fall on their 
 knees, and with uplifted hands, 
 and their bodies working to and 
 fro, call as loud as they are able to 
 the Lord for help. Their ejacu- 
 lations are such as, " Oh ! Christ, 
 pardon me my sins — Oh ! Lord, 
 give me grace !" and a variety of 
 other expressions, adopted as the 
 
 zeal of the moment may suggest. 
 Their conduct was wild and extra- 
 vagant, and altogether out of the 
 mild and decent course of address- 
 ing the Almighty, usually ob- 
 served in places of worship. It 
 is generally called screeching for 
 mercy. There was usually a 
 preacher at the meetings, but not 
 always. The Revival is open by 
 night as well as day. There is no 
 appointment when the Revival is 
 to be held ; a congregation may 
 be met, and at prayers, when, per- 
 haps, some member will fall on his 
 knees and call aloud to heaven for 
 mercy; when this happens, the other 
 members are generally moved by the 
 same spirit, and the Revival com- 
 mences. This is called the " out- 
 pouring of the spirit," and con- 
 tinues till the preacher pronounces 
 a benediction, and tells his flock, 
 li the moment of conversion" is 
 come, and they may expect " a ray 
 of hope, of comfort, and joy.'' 
 The moment of the coming of the 
 " ray of hope" is uncertain, and 
 the congregation continue their 
 extravagant devotions till they are 
 " convinced" or " converted." It 
 is about ten years since there was 
 a Revival at Redruth before the 
 late one. The prisoner, in speak- 
 ing of the child, generally called 
 him the dear little Benny. 
 
 The unfortunate girl said nothing 
 in her defence, but in proof of the 
 aberration of her mind at the time 
 she committed the miserable deed 
 for which she stood indicted ; her 
 unhappy mother was called, and 
 gave the following evidence : — 
 
 * My daughter attended a Me- 
 thodist meeting at Redruth for 
 about seven weeks before the 
 death of my boy ; she also attended 
 the Revival. I went for her one 
 night, about half-past ten o'clock, 
 she having been there from two 
 o'clock in the day. On going iulo 
 
378 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 tl>e chapel, I found it extremely 
 crowded. IVly daughter caught a 
 sight of me, and immediately she 
 lifted up both her arms, and csdlecl 
 on her dear mother and father to 
 pr;iy to the Lord to help them, for 
 that they could not see the danger 
 they were in. I got her out of 
 I lie meeting as soon as I could, hut 
 she had lost her cloak, bonnet, 
 handkerchief, and pattens, and was 
 extremely <li^ordeted in her dress. 
 She had been moving from one 
 part of the meeting to the other, 
 and, in her unbounded zeal, had 
 dropped her clothes, and they were 
 trodden under foot. My daughter's 
 conduct, after attending the Revival, 
 was quite different to what it had 
 usually been. This was about 
 seven weeks before the dreadful 
 act was done. On another occa- 
 sion, she came home praying in a 
 horrible manner for the conversion- 
 of her father and mother. She 
 was then violently agitated. From 
 the commencement of the Revival 
 she never missed but one meeting. 
 See also attended prayer meetings 
 and class meetings. Before the 
 death of my son, I apprehended 
 my daughter would do me some 
 violence. On the Monday pre- 
 ceding, she came home and sat by 
 the fire, in a melancholy way, and 
 
 said u Mother, I am going out of 
 my mind.'' I spoke a few words 
 to pacify her, and she went to bed. 
 The next night she said she was 
 better, but she appeared very low. 
 On Wednesday night, on coming 
 home, she said to me, " I am tempt- 
 ed to murder my mother !" I said 
 I was surprised she should think of 
 murdering me ; and she said, " I 
 do." After she had said this, she 
 went to the Revival, and returned 
 between nine and ten. From 
 what she had said, I took the knives 
 and hid them, to prevent her doing 
 mischief to herself, me, or the 
 family. 
 
 " These symptoms I observed on 
 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednes- 
 day, and on the Thursday the child 
 was killed." 
 
 At the close of the evidence the 
 prisoner fainted, and was removed 
 into the air. Being in strong con- 
 vulsions her screams were heard for 
 nearly a quarter of an hour. When 
 she was re-conducted into court, 
 the judge charged the jury, who 
 immediately returned a verdict of — 
 Not Guilty, believing her to have 
 been insane at the time of the 
 murder. The Court ordered her to 
 be detained in custody, but assured 
 her friends that she would not he 
 kept long from them. 
 
 THE REV. JOHN CARROLL, 
 
 INDICTED FOR THE MURDER OF A CHILD. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Clergy 
 among other absurdities, arrogate 
 to themselves the power of work- 
 ing miracles ; and about the period 
 at which we are now arrived, there 
 appeared in Germany a Reverend 
 prince Hohcnlohe, who, it was said, 
 had performed some astonishing 
 wonders by the force of his prayers. 
 In England a Miss O'Connor, a 
 nun, had been cured of a swelling 
 in her arms, by the spiritual assis- 
 
 tance of the prince, and some en- 
 thusiastic women in Ireland fancied 
 that they were relieved by a similar 
 process. One young lady was re- 
 stored to her speech, having been 
 previously dumb ; and another li- 
 terally took up her bed and walked. 
 This German prince was either 
 a fanatic or an impostor, but the 
 Irish Catholics regarded him as a 
 saint, and accordingly solicited the 
 aid of his prayers on all possib'e 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAPc. 
 
 379 
 
 occasions. Hundreds, who ima- 
 gined themselves ill, were cured, 
 and many even swore to the truth 
 of the pretended miracles. The 
 effect of all this might have been 
 more deplorable, had not a melan- 
 choly event helped to open the 
 eyes of the people. A priest 
 named Carroll, who resided in the 
 barony of Foith, County of V\ ex- 
 ford, undertook to rival Hohenlohe, 
 and was supposed to be endow- 
 ed with the power of working mira- 
 cles. The delusive doctrine of his 
 church operating on a predisposition 
 to insanity, produced a diseased 
 mind, and when in this state he 
 killed a child name Catherine Sin- 
 nott, on the 9th of July, 1824, 
 while performing what he called a 
 miiacle. For this offence he was 
 indicted, at the Wexford assizer, 
 on the 4th of the following August. 
 A Catholic barrister, who acted as 
 his counsel on the occasion, has 
 inserted the following particulars of 
 this man's case in one of the peri- 
 odicals. 
 
 'This unfortuuateman (Carroll), 
 for he deserves no harsher appella- 
 tion, had from bis childhood astrong 
 predisposition to insanity. It was 
 with great difficulty that he suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining ordination. 
 His abberrations from reason, before 
 they amounted to actual madness, 
 were connected with the subject of 
 exorcism; and although every per- 
 son to whom he addressed his ar- 
 guments in favour of the expulsion 
 of devils, smiled at his extrava- 
 gance, they still could not help ac- 
 knowledging that he argued with 
 subtlety upon wrong premises, and 
 confessed that his applications on 
 various passages in the holy writings 
 were ingenious, however mistaken. 
 It was in vain that Father Car- 
 roll was told that the power of 
 Satan to possess himself of human 
 bodies ceased with the revelation of 
 
 Christian truth. He appealed to 
 the Acts of the Apostles, and to 
 incidents subsequent to the death of 
 our Saviour, to establish his favour- 
 ite speculation. A medical man, 
 with whom he was intimate, per- 
 ceived that the subject had laid 
 such a hole! upon his naturally ex- 
 citable imagination, that he resorted 
 to sedative medicines to avert the 
 progress of an incipient malady, 
 to which he had an organical pre- 
 disposition. As long as he followed 
 his physician's advice, he abstained 
 from any acts of a very extrava- 
 gant nature ; but unhappily before 
 the events took place, which formed 
 the ground of a capital prosecution, 
 he neglected to take his usual pre- 
 ventitives, and became utterly de- 
 ranged. He suddenly fancied him- 
 self endowed with supernatural au- 
 thority. This fantastic notion 
 seized upon him in the midst of di- 
 vine service; after the wild per- 
 formance of which, he rushed into 
 .the public road that led from the 
 chapel to his house, in search of an 
 object for the manifestation of his 
 miraculous powers. He was in- 
 formed that a labourer of the name 
 of Neifl was confined by illness to 
 his bed ; and being convinced that 
 he was possessed by an evil spirit, 
 proceeded to effect the removal of 
 the enemy. His singular demean- 
 our attracted the attention of the 
 passengers, who followed him to 
 Neill's cottage ; which he had no 
 soonerentered.than he precipitated 
 himself upon the sick man, and be- 
 gan his miraculous operations with 
 marvellous vigour. A severe pom- 
 melling was the process of exor- 
 cism, winch he regarded as most 
 effectual. This he put into imme- 
 diate and effectual practice. Neill 
 did not attempt to resist this athle- 
 tic antagonist of the devil. The 
 unhappy gentleman had determined 
 to take Beelzebub by storm. After 
 
380 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 a long assault, he succeeded in this 
 strange achievement, and having 
 informed the astonished by-standers 
 that he had taken the enemy pri- 
 soner, announced that he should 
 give him no quarter, but plunge 
 him into the Red Sea. The man- 
 ner of this aquatic ceremony was 
 described by one of the witnesses, 
 who endeavoured to illustrate it by 
 his gesture. After uttering various 
 cabalistic words, he whirled himself 
 in a rapid rotation, with his arms 
 outstretched, and then, suddenly 
 pausing and raising himself into an 
 attitude of importance befitting his 
 new authority, advanced with one 
 arm a-kimbo, and with the other 
 extended, looking, as the witness 
 expressed it, " as if he held the 
 devil by the tail," and marched 
 with a measured, pace and a mys- 
 terious aspect to a bridge upon the 
 river Slaney, where he buried the 
 captive demon in what he took for 
 the Red Sea. 
 
 * Not contented with this exploit, 
 he exclaimed that Neill had seven 
 more devils, which he was deter- 
 mined to expel from this peculiar 
 object of diabolical predeliction. 
 The operation was accordingly re- 
 peated with such success, that 
 Neill, after much strenuous expos- 
 tulation, leaped out of his bed, and 
 exclaimed that he was quite well. 
 This circumstance produced a deep 
 impression upon the crowd, amongst 
 whom there were some Protes- 
 tants ; and two of the latter, a Mrs. 
 Winter and her daughter, knelt 
 down and called upon the Lord to 
 assist Father Carroll in the per 
 petration of the next miracle, 
 which, encouraged by their pious 
 sympathies, he almost immediately 
 proceeded to commit. A poor wo- 
 man happened to pass along the 
 road, whom he had no sooner ob- 
 served, than he knocked her down, 
 aud pursued a mode of exorcism 
 
 similar to that which I have de- 
 scribed, with such effect, that one 
 of the spectators cried out for the 
 people to make way, " as he saw 
 the devil coming out." This 
 achievement only served to excite 
 the wretched maniac, and impel him 
 to another undertaking of the same 
 kind. He insisted " that the devil 
 had taken possession of Sinnott's 
 child." The circumstances which 
 I have detailed, and by no means 
 endeavoured to exaggerate, would 
 be merely ridiculous if they were 
 not the result of a malady which 
 humbles human nature : the inci- 
 dent by which they were succeeded 
 ought to make Democritus shed 
 tears. Sinnott had a child who had 
 been affected by fits, and over whom 
 the priest had been requested by its 
 mother to say prayers. This was 
 not only a natural, but I will add a 
 reasonable application. It is not 
 supposed by Roman Catholics that 
 the prayers of a clergyman are en- 
 dowed with any preternatural effi- 
 cacy ; but it is considered that 
 praying over the sick is a pious and 
 religious act. The recollection of 
 this fatal request passed across the 
 distempered mind of the madman, 
 who hurried with an insane alacrity 
 to Sinnott's cabin. It was composed 
 of two rooms upon the ground-floor, 
 in the smaller of which lay the little 
 victim. It was indeed so contract- 
 ed that it could not contain more 
 than two or three persons. The 
 crowd who followed the priest re- 
 mained outside, and were utterly 
 unconscious of what he was about 
 to do. The father of the child was 
 not in the house when Father Car- 
 roll entered it, and was prevented 
 by the pressure in the exterior room 
 from approaching him : and for 
 some time after the death of the 
 child was wholly unconscious of 
 what had taken place. 
 
 ' No ifl'orts whatever were made 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 381 
 
 to prevent his interference. He 
 was produced as a witness upon the 
 trial, and swore that it did not enter 
 his thoughts that Father Carroll 
 intended to do the child the least 
 harm. He could not, he said, even 
 see the priest. It is enough to 
 say, that after uttering a few feeble 
 cries, and calling upon its " mam- 
 my," every sound became extinct. 
 The madman had placed the child 
 under a tub, and life was extinguish- 
 ed. It may well be imagined that 
 the trial of this case excited a 
 strong sensation in the county 
 where the rebellion had raged with 
 its most dangerous fury, aud from 
 which it will be long before its re- 
 collections will have entirely passed 
 away. The Protestant parly, for- 
 getting that many of their owu sect 
 had taken a partial share in the pro- 
 ceedings, of which thay had been 
 at all events the passive witnesses, 
 exhibited a proud and disdainful ex- 
 ultation, and effected a deep scorn 
 for the intellectual debasement of 
 which they alledged this event to be 
 a manifest proof ; while the Catho- 
 lics disclosed a festered soreness 
 upon an incident which, they could 
 not fail to tell, was likely to expose 
 them to much plausible imputa- 
 tion.' 
 
 As these particulars, though 
 somewhat extenuated, are pretty ac- 
 curate, we shall only yive the evi- 
 dence of two of the witnesses on the 
 trial. 
 
 Philip Walsh, examined by Mr. 
 Fox. — Knows Sinnott; knew Ca- 
 therine Sinnott the child ; recollects 
 seeing Father Carroll at Sinnott's 
 house ; went to the house after 
 night-fall ; thinks it might have 
 been eleven o'clock when he went ; 
 went there and heard a noise inside, 
 and then went in ; the house was 
 full of people; saw Father Carroll 
 in the bed ; did not see the child at 
 that time; Carroll was sitting in 
 
 the bed and was saying something ; 
 he then got up on his feet, and 
 stood on the tub ; heard the child 
 cry, ' Mammy, mammy,' save me ; 
 saw the child, for the first time, 
 next morning ; the child was then 
 dead ; saw a tub in the room ; was 
 there before the tub was brought in ; 
 could not at that time get near the 
 bed, the crowd was so great, but 
 heard the people say the child was 
 in it ; heard Father Carroll call for 
 some water ; a bowl of water was 
 then brought in, but the priest de- 
 sired it to be taken away, and a tub 
 of water to be brought. The tub 
 was brought in by witness and 
 James Deverenx, one of the prison- 
 ers at the bar. Witness carried 
 the tub close to where Father Car- 
 roll was, when the priest desired 
 him to lift it on the bed. The 
 priest was at this time standing on 
 the bed ; when the tub was settled 
 on the bed, Father Carroll said 
 some words over it, and threw 
 some salt into the water ; the 
 priest then put his foot on the near 
 handle of the tub, and upset the 
 water, some part of it on his own 
 feet, and the rest on the bed ; the 
 tub was turned upside down ; the 
 priest then said with a loud voice, 
 ' Bury him, Jesus, in the depth of 
 the Red Sea/ meaning, as witness 
 believed, the devil ; he said this, 
 while he was overturning the tub ; 
 then the priest sat upon it, and 
 afterwards stood and danced on it ; 
 the child all this time was under 
 it ; the priest stayed in the house 
 till day-light. The priest ordered 
 the people out of the room, and he, 
 the witness, immediately went out; 
 the priest desiring them in a loud 
 voice not to touch his clothes, on 
 which the people rushed out fright- 
 ened, as they thought the devil 
 was then escaping ; saw the child s 
 leg, and supposes the body was 
 under the tub : saw the child dead 
 
382 KNAI'P & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 iu the morning ; it was Sinnott's 
 child ; looked into the room after 
 the priest turned the people out, 
 and saw the priest sitting on the 
 bed. 
 
 Thomas Sinuott, the father of 
 the child. — Had a daughter named 
 Catherine ; she is dead ; cannot 
 recollect precisely the day on which 
 she died ; it was on the night that 
 Father Carroll came to the house; 
 the cl.'ild was alive when Father 
 Carroll arrived. When witness 
 came into the house, he heard an 
 unusual noise ; he stopped and 
 listened for a while, and heard the 
 child crying. He made up to the 
 child but was stopped ; cannot 
 say by whom he was stopped. Saw 
 Father Carroll at the time ; saw 
 the bead of the child ; does not 
 know at what hour the child's de- 
 cease took place ; did not see it but 
 once ; saw it dead in the bed. 
 When he tirst came into the room, 
 he saw the head of the child ; 
 thought the child was frightened 
 by the noise. Some people de- 
 sired him to kneel down, which he 
 did ; all the people knelt down and 
 prayed ; saw the priest in the room 
 after the people bad departed. 
 The child was then dead ; he took 
 the child in his arms and showed 
 it to the priest. Father Carroll 
 desired him to lay it down on the 
 bed. Did not ask the priest why 
 he killed his child, as lie thought 
 he would return and bring it to 
 life. At four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing the priest called him into the 
 room, and he remained sitting with 
 him on the bed for about five 
 minutes. Father Carroll made no 
 observation to him on the death of 
 the child ; but, said the witness, 
 
 when I asked him what 1 was to 
 do, he said, resign it to the will of 
 God. 
 
 Two physicians were examined 
 for the defence, and it appearing 
 that Carroll was insane at the time 
 he committed the direful act, he was 
 of course acfjuitled. 
 
 Carroll's figure was tall and dig- 
 nified. A large black cloak with a 
 scai let collar was fastened with a 
 clasp round his luck, but not so 
 closely as to conceal the ample 
 chest, across which his aims were 
 loosely and resignedly foldtd. His 
 strong black hair was hound with a 
 velvet band, to conceal the recent 
 incisions made bv the surgeon in 
 his head. His countenance was 
 smooth and finely chiseled : and it 
 was observed by many that his fea- 
 tures, which, though small, wtre 
 marked, bore a minature resem- 
 blance to Napoleon. His colour 
 was dead and chalky, and it was 
 impossible to perceive the least play 
 or variety of emotion about the 
 mouth, which continued open, and 
 of the colour of ashes. On being 
 called to plead, he remained silent. 
 The Court was about to make an 
 inquiry whether he was ' mute of 
 malice/ when it was seen by a 
 glance of his eye, that he was con- 
 scious of the purport of the ques- 
 tion ; and by the directions ot his 
 counsel he pleaded Not guilty. 
 During the trial, which was con- 
 ducted with the most exemplary 
 moderation by the counsel for the 
 crown, he retained his petrified 
 and statute-like demeanour; and al- 
 though the heat was most intense, 
 the hue of his face and lips did 
 not undergo the slightest change. 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 383 
 
 ALEXANDER PIERCE. 
 
 EXECUTED FOR MUKdER. 
 
 Our preceding pages furnish ra- 
 ther too many proofs of the depra- 
 vity of human nature, but the pre- 
 sent case ' out-Herods-Herod' — it 
 is in fact monstrous ; and though the 
 occurrence, we are happy to say, 
 did not take plaoe in these king- 
 doms, yet, as the offender was a 
 British subject, the particulars of the 
 diabolical deed may not be consi- 
 dered out of place here. 
 
 In the November of 1823, Tho- 
 mas Smith, coxswain to the com- 
 mandant at Macquaire harbour, 
 Van Dieman's land,saw a signal-fire 
 on the beach near King's River, 
 and on going thither found Pierce, 
 who had some time before abscond- 
 ed from a gang ot convicts. He 
 requested to be taken back, and on 
 his arrival at the harbour, confessed 
 that he had murdered a convict, 
 named Cox, who had accompanied 
 him in his flight, for the purpose 
 of devouring his flesh. Being 
 brought to trial for the murder, he 
 was convicted, and sentenced to be 
 hanged, on Monday, June 21, 1824. 
 The evening before his execution 
 he made the following voluntary 
 confession : — 
 
 ' 1 was born in the ( county of 
 Fermanagh, in the north of Ire- 
 land. In the twenty-sixth year of 
 my age I was convicted of stealing 
 six pair of shoes, and received sen- 
 tence to be transported for seven 
 years ; I arrived in Van Dieman's 
 Land, on board the ship Castle 
 Forbes, from Sydney ; was assign- 
 ed as servant to John Bellenger, 
 with whom I remained about nine 
 months ; and was then, from miscon- 
 duct returned to the government 
 superintendaut. A few months 
 after, I was assigned to a man 
 named Cane, a constable, and staid 
 with him only sixteen weeks, when 
 
 an occasion obliged him to take me 
 before the magistrates, who ordered 
 that I should receive fifty lashes, 
 in the usual way, and again he re- 
 turned to Crown labour. After- 
 wards I was placed to serve a Mr. 
 Scattergood, of New Norfolk, from 
 whom I absconded into the woods, 
 and joined Latighton, Saunders, 
 Latton, and Atkinson, who were 
 then at large ; after ranging with 
 them three months, I surrendered 
 myself, upon a proclamation issued 
 by the lieutenant-governor, and 
 was pardoned. Shortly afterwards 
 I forged several orders, upon which 
 I obtained property. On hearing 
 that the fraud was discovered, I was 
 again induced to return into the 
 woods. But, within three or four 
 months, I was taken by a party of 
 the 43th regiment, brought to 
 Hobart Town, tried for the forge- 
 ries, found guilty, and sent to the 
 Penal settlement at Macquarie 
 harbour for the remained of my 
 sentence. I was not there more 
 than a month before I made my 
 escape with seven others, namely 
 — Dalton, Traverse, Badman, 
 Matthews, Greenhill, Brown, and 
 Cornelius. We all kept together 
 for ten days, during which time 
 we had no food except our kanga- 
 roo skin jackets, which we ate, be- 
 ing nearly exhausted with hunger 
 and fatigue. On the eleventh 
 night, we began to consult what 
 was best to be done for our preser- 
 vation, and made up our minds to 
 a dreadful result. 
 
 ' In the morning we missed 
 three of our companions — Dalton, 
 Cornelius, and Brown, who, we con- 
 cluded, had left us with the inten- 
 tion of going hack, if possible. We 
 then drew lots which of us five 
 should die ; it fell to Badmau's lot ; 
 
384 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 I went with one of the others to 
 collect dry wood, to make a fire, 
 during which time Traverse had 
 succeeded in killing Badman, and 
 had begun to cut him up. We 
 dressed part of the flesh immediate- 
 ly, and continued to use it as long 
 as it lasted. We then drew lots 
 again, and it fell to the fate of 
 Matthews. Traverse and Green hill 
 killed him with an axe ; we cut the 
 flesh from his bones, carried it on 
 and lived upon it as long as it last- 
 ed. By the time it was all eat, 
 Traverse, through fatigue, fell lame 
 in his knees — so much so, that he 
 could not proceed ; Greenhil! pro- 
 posed that I should kill him, which 
 I agreed to. We then made the 
 best of our way, carryinsf the flesh 
 of Traverse between us, in the 
 hope of reaching the Eastern set- 
 tlements while it lasted. We did 
 not, however, succeed, and I per- 
 ceived Greenhill always carried the 
 axe, and thought watched an op- 
 portunity to kill me. I was always 
 on my guard, and succeeded, when 
 he fell asleep, in tretting the axe, 
 with which I immediately dispatched 
 him, made a meal, and carried all 
 the remaining flesh with me to 
 feed upon. To my great disap- 
 pointment, 1 was afterwards many 
 days without food, and subsisted 
 solely upon grass and nettle-tops, 
 which I boiled in a tin pot that I 
 brought with me fiom the settle- 
 ment. At length I fell in with 
 some natives' huts, which, from their 
 appearance, the inmates had just 
 left, where I collected some entrail, 
 and bits of kangaroo, which afford- 
 ed me a meal. Two days after- 
 wards, when nearly exhausted, I 
 came in sight of a hut, which proved 
 to be M'Guire's, near the High 
 Plains. I staid there a fortnight, 
 and made up my mind to surrender 
 myself to Captain Wood, a magis- 
 
 trate on the river Clyde, but on 
 my way thither, I met Davis and 
 Churton, who were then despera- 
 does, and living at the Shannon 
 hut. They wished me to join 
 them, to which I agreed. In a few 
 weeks we were all taken, near Je- 
 richo, by a party of the 48th regi- 
 ment, and brought into Hobart 
 town gaol : Churton and Davis 
 were tried, found guilty of capital 
 offences, and suffered death. It 
 was my fate to be returned to the 
 penal settlement. I again made 
 my escape with Thomas Cox, who 
 eagerly pressed my departure, f 
 had irons on at the time : when we 
 had proceeded some distance, Cox 
 knocked them off with an axe he 
 had brought with him, and we 
 made the best of our way through 
 a thicket, which was very wet. 
 At night we tried to make a fire 
 but could not. We travelled ou 
 several days without food, except 
 the tops of trees and shrubs, until 
 we came upon King's river ; I 
 asked Cox, if he could swim; he 
 replied he could not ; I remarked, 
 that had I been aware of that, he 
 should not have been my compa- 
 nion ; we were enabled to make a 
 fire ; the arrangement for crossing 
 the river created words, and I kill- 
 ed Cox with the axe : I ate part 
 of him that night, and cut the 
 greatest part of his flesh up in order 
 to take on with me. I swam the 
 river with the intention of keeping 
 the coast round to Port Dalrymple, 
 my heart failed me, and 1 resolved 
 to return and give myself up to the 
 commandant. I threw most of the 
 flesh away ; one piece I carried in 
 my pocket, to shew the command- 
 ant that Cox was dead. I confess- 
 ed that I had killed him, and ac- 
 companied a party in a boat to 
 bring up his remains, which was 
 done.' 
 
KSAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 385 
 
 HENRY FAUNTLEROY, 
 
 EXFCLTED FOR FOIiGEllY. 
 
 The station in society of tliis 
 unfortunate man, and the lon^- 
 established respectability of the 
 banking-lionse in which he was the 
 most active partner, with the vast 
 extent of the forgeries committed, 
 gave to his case an intensity of in- 
 terest which has scarcely ever been 
 equalled. 
 
 On the 10th of September, 1824, 
 Henry Fauntleroy, of the firm of 
 Marsh, Stracey, Fauntleroy, and 
 Graham, bankers, in Berner's 
 Street, was apprehended in conse- 
 quence of its beinir discovered that 
 in September, 1820, 10,000/. 3 per 
 cent, stock, — standing in the 
 names of himself, J. D. Hume, and 
 John Goodchild, as trustees of 
 Francis William Bellis, — had been 
 sold out under a power of attor- 
 ney, to which the names of his 
 co-trustees, and of some of the 
 subscribing witnesses, were forged. 
 It was soon ascertained that the 
 extent to which this practice had 
 been carried was enormous, no less 
 than 170,000/. stock having been 
 sold out in 1814, and 1815, by the 
 same fraudulent meaus. 
 
 The payments of the banking- 
 house were immediately suspended, 
 and a commission of bankruptcy was 
 the result. 
 
 Mr. Fauntleroy's private conduct 
 became now the subject of general 
 conversation, and the newspapers 
 were daily filled with exagge- 
 rated statements of the depravity 
 of his habits. He was said to be 
 a licentious libertine, a deep game- 
 ster, and most profusely extrava- 
 gant ; but much of what was thus 
 stated was afterwards refuted. He 
 married a young lady, of a respect- 
 able, but not opulent, family, named 
 Young, who previously bore him a 
 child ; but though he was per- 
 
 VOL. IV, 
 
 suaded thus far to redeem her cha- 
 racter, he did not live with her after 
 the day of their union ; and to this 
 unhappy circumstance is probably 
 to be attributed much of that occa- 
 sional excess which was magnified 
 into the grossest libertinism. 
 
 It was for defrauding his wife's 
 family that he was executed, the 
 case selected by the bank for pro- 
 secution, being that of having 
 forged the name of Fiances Young, 
 spinster, to a power of attorney, 
 under which was sold the sum of 
 5000/. 3 per cent consols. 
 
 The trial took place on the 30lh 
 of October. At seven o'clock, the 
 doors leading to the Court House 
 of the Old Bailey were beset. 
 The jury being sworn, the clerk 
 read the first indictment, which 
 charged Henry Faunlltroy with 
 forcing a deed, with intent to 
 defraud Frances Youjjg of 5,000/. 
 stock, and with forging a power 
 of attorney with intent to defraud 
 the Bank. The Attornev-Geue- 
 ral, in his address to the jury, 
 described the prisoner as the acting 
 partner in the house of Marsh and 
 Co. in Berner's Street. Mr. Faunt- 
 leroy, the father of t'te prisoner, 
 became a partner at its establish- 
 ment, and continued such till his 
 death in 1807. At that p< riod the 
 prisoner was admitted into the con- 
 cern, and became the most active 
 member of it. In 1815, Frances 
 Young of Chichester, a customer 
 of the house, lodged in their hands 
 a power of attorney to receive the 
 dividends on 5,450/. 3 per cent, 
 consols. The dividends were re- 
 gularly received, hut soon afterwards 
 another power of attorney, author- 
 izing the prisoner to sell that 
 stock, was presented to the Bank, 
 and the sale was effected by him ; 
 122 
 
3SG 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 to this power the prisoner had 
 lorded the names of Frances 
 Young, and of two witnesses to 
 it. But the most extraordinary 
 part of the case was, that among 
 the prisoner's private papers, con- 
 tained in a tin box, there had been 
 found one in which he acknow- 
 ledged his guilt, and adduced a 
 reason for his conduct. The At- 
 torney. general then read the pa- 
 per, which presented the following 
 items, &c. : De la Place, 11,150/. 
 
 3 per cent, consols ; E. W. Young, 
 5,000/. consols ; General Young, 
 6,000/. consols ; Frances Young, 
 5,000/. consols ; H. Kelly, 6,000/. 
 consols; Lady Nelson, 11,905/. 
 consols; Earl of Ossory, 7,000/. 
 
 4 per cents. ; W. Boweu, 9,-100/. 
 4 per cents. ; — Parkins, 4000/. 
 consols. Sums were also placed 
 to the names of Mrs. Pelham, Lady 
 Ahoyne, W. R. and H. Fauulle- 
 roy, and Elizabeth Fauntleroy; 
 and the learned gentleman ob- 
 served, that all the sums were 
 added together, and the sum total, 
 120,000/. appeared at the foot of 
 this list in the prisoner's hand- 
 writing. The statement was fol- 
 lowed by this declaration : 
 
 " In order to keep up the credit 
 of our house, 1 have forged pow* 
 ers of attorney for the above sums 
 and parties, and sold out to the 
 amount here stated, and without 
 the knowledge of my partners. 1 
 kept up the payment of the divi- 
 dends, but made no entries of such 
 payments in our books. The Bank 
 began first to refuse to discount our 
 acceptances, and to destroy the 
 credit of our house : the Bank 
 shall smart for it.'' 
 
 The Attorney-General then 
 called his witnesses, who confirmed 
 in every point his statement of the 
 case. 
 
 On being asked what he had to 
 sfcy in his defence, the prisoner 
 
 read from a paper as follows : — 
 ' :Yly Lord, and Gentlemen of 
 the Jury — Overwhelmed as I am 
 by the situation in which I am 
 plactd, and being uninformed in 
 what manner 1 should answer the 
 charges which have been alleged 
 against me, 1 will endeavour to ex- 
 plain, so well as the poignancy of 
 my feelings will enable me, the 
 embarrassments of the Banking- 
 house in which I have been for 
 many years the active and only 
 responsible partner, and which have 
 alone led to the present investiga- 
 tion ; and although I am aware I 
 cannot expect to free myself from 
 the obloquy brought upon me by 
 my a;:xiety to preserve the credit 
 and respectability of the firm, still 
 I trust that an impartial narrative 
 of the occurrences will obtain for 
 me the commiseration of the well- 
 disposed part of the community. 
 
 ' Anticipating the Court will ex- 
 tend its indulgence to me, I will 
 respectfully submit such observa- 
 vations as 1 think will tend to remove 
 from influenced minds those im- 
 pressions, which, with sorrow I 
 say, must have been made upon 
 them by the cruel and illiberal 
 manner in which the public prints 
 have untruly detailed an history of 
 my life and conduct; hoping there- 
 from 1 may deserve your compassion, 
 although I may be unable to jus- 
 tify my proceedings, and secure my 
 liberation, by a verdict of the Jury, 
 yet they may be considered, in the 
 mercy of the Court and a discern- 
 ing public, as some extenuation ol 
 the crimes with which 1 stand ar- 
 raigned. 
 
 ' My father established the bank- 
 ing-house in 1792, in conjunction 
 •with Mr. Marsh, and other gentle- 
 men. Some of the partners re- 
 tired in 1794, about which time a 
 loss of '20,000/. was sustained. 
 Here commenced the difficulties of 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 38: 
 
 the house. In l7f)G, ISIr. Stracey and 
 another gentleman came into the 
 firm, with little or no augmenlation 
 of capital. — In 1800, 1 became a 
 clerk in the house, and continued so 
 six years, and although during 
 that time I received no salary, the 
 firm were so well satisfied with my 
 attention and zeal for the interest 
 and welfare of the establishment, 
 that I was handsomely rewarded by 
 them. In 1807 my lather died ; I 
 then succeeded him ; at this time I 
 was only twenty-two years of age, 
 and the whole weight of an exten- 
 sive but needy banking establish- 
 ment at once devolved upon me, 
 and I found the concern deeply in- 
 volved in advances to builders and 
 others, which had rendered a sys- 
 tem of discounting necessary, and 
 which we were obliged to continue 
 in consequence of the scarcity of 
 money at that time, and the necessi- 
 ty of making further advances to 
 those persons to secure the sums in 
 which they stood indebted. 
 
 i In this perplexed state the house 
 continued until 1810, when its em- 
 barrassments were greatly increased, 
 owing to the bankruptcies of Brick- 
 wood and others, which brought 
 upon it a sudden demand for no 
 less a sum than 170,000/. the 
 greater part being for the amount 
 of bills which our house had 
 either accepted or discounted for 
 those paities, since become bank. 
 rupts. 
 
 'About 1814, l8l5,andl8l6,from 
 thespeculations withbuildirs,bri<k- 
 makers, &c. in which the house 
 was engaged, it was called upon 
 to provide funds to near 100,000/. 
 to avert the losses which Mould 
 otherwise have visited it from those 
 speculations. In 1819, the most 
 responsible of our partners died, 
 and we were called upon lo pay over 
 the amount of his capital, although 
 the substantial resources of the 
 
 house were wholly inadequate to 
 meet so large a payment. 
 
 ' During these numerous and I ly- 
 ing difficulties, the house was near- 
 ly without resources, and the whole 
 burthen of management fading up- 
 on me, I was driven to a state of 
 distraction, in which I could meet 
 with no relief from my partners, and, 
 almost broken-hearted, 1 sought re- 
 sources where I could, and so long 
 as they were provided] and the cie- 
 dit of the house supported, no in- 
 quiries were made, either as to the 
 manner in which they were pro- 
 cured, or as to the sources from 
 whence they were derivtd. 
 
 ' In the midst of these calamities, 
 not unknown to Mr. Stracey, he 
 quitted England, and continued in 
 France, on his own private business, 
 for two years, leaving me lo struggle 
 as well as I could with difficulties 
 almost insurmountable. 
 
 ' Having thus exposed all the ne- 
 cessities of the house, I declare 
 thatallthe monies temporarily raised 
 by me, were applied, not in one iu- 
 slauce.for myown separate purposes 
 or expenses, but in every case they 
 were immediately placed to the cre- 
 dit of the house in JBerner's Street, 
 and applied to the payment of the 
 pressing demands upon it. This 
 fact does not rest on my assertion, 
 as the transact ions referred to are en- 
 tered in the books now in (be posses- 
 sion of the assignees, and to which I 
 have had no access since my ap- 
 prehension. These books, I under- 
 stood, are now in court, and will 
 confirm the truth of my statement ; 
 and to whatever account all the 
 sums may be entered, whether to 
 that of stock, or of Exchequer bills, 
 or to my private account, the whole 
 went to the general funds of the 
 banking-house. 
 
 ' I alone have been doomed to 
 suffer the stigma of all the trans* 
 actions; but, tortured as I have 
 
383 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 been, it now becomes an impera- 
 tive duty to explain to you, Gen- 
 tlemen, and through you to the 
 world at large, that the vile ac- 
 cusations heaped upon me, known to 
 be utterly false by all those who 
 are best acquainted with my private 
 life and habits, have been so heap- 
 ed upon me for the purpose of load- 
 ing me with the whole of the oblo- 
 quy of those transactions, from 
 which, and from which alone, my 
 partners were preserved from bank- 
 ruptcy. I have been accused of 
 crimes I never even contemplated, 
 and of acts of profligacy i never 
 committed ; and I appear at this 
 bar with every prejudice against 
 me, and almost prejudged. To 
 suit the purposes of the persons to 
 whom I allude, I have been repre- 
 sented as a man of prodigal extra- 
 vagance : prodigal indeed I must 
 have been, had I expended those 
 large sums which will hereafter be 
 proved to have gone exclusively to 
 support the credit of a tottering 
 firm, the miseries of which were 
 greatly accelerated by the drafts of 
 two of its members to the amount 
 of near 100,000/. 
 
 ' I maintained but two establish- 
 ments, one at Brighton, where my 
 mother and sister resided in the 
 season — the expences of which to 
 me, exclusive of my wine, were 
 within 400Z. per annum, and one at 
 Lambeth, where my two children 
 lived, from its very nature private 
 and inexpensive, to which I re- 
 sorted for retirement, after many a 
 day passed in devising means io 
 avert the embarrassments of the 
 banking-house. The dwelling- 
 house in Berner's Street, belonged 
 solely to my mother, with the ex- 
 ception of a library and single bed- 
 room. This was the extent of my 
 expenditure, so far as domestic ex- 
 penditure is coucernefl ; I am next 
 accused of being an habitual gam- 
 
 bler, an accusation which, if true, 
 might easily account for the dif- 
 fusion of the property. I am in- 
 deed a member of two clubs, the 
 Albion, and the Stratford, but never 
 in my life did I play in either, at 
 cards or dice, or any game of 
 chance ; this is well known to the 
 gentlemen of these clubs — and my 
 private friends with whom I more 
 intimately associated, can equally 
 assert my freedom from all habit or 
 disposition to play. It has been as 
 cruelly asserted, I fraudulently in- 
 vested money in the funds to answer 
 the payment of annuities, amount- 
 ing to 2,200/. settled upon females. 
 I never did make any such iuvest- 
 men : neither at home or abroad, in 
 any funds whatever, have I any 
 investment ; nor is there one 
 shilling secretly deposited by me 
 in the hands of any human being. 
 Equally ungenerous, and equally 
 untrue it is, to charge me with 
 having lent to loose and disorderly 
 persons large sums which never 
 have, and never will be repaid. I 
 lent no sums but to a very trifling 
 amount, and those were advanced 
 to valued friends. I can, therefore, 
 at this solemn moment, declare most 
 fervently, that I never had any ad- 
 vantage beyond that in which all 
 my partners participated in any of 
 the transactions which are now 
 questioned. They indeed have 
 considered themselves as partners 
 only in the profits, and I am to be 
 burthened with the whole of the op- 
 probium, that others may consider 
 them as the victims ot my extra- 
 vagance. I make this statement 
 not with a view to criminate others, 
 or to exculpate myself; but borne 
 down as I am by calamity, I will not 
 consent to be held out to the world 
 as a cold-blooded and abandoned 
 profligate, ruining all around me for 
 the selfish gratification of vice and 
 se suality, and involving even my 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEVVGA lii CALE.\ DAtl. mv 
 
 confiding partners in the general 
 destruction. 
 
 ' Gentlemen, I have frailties and 
 errors enough to account for. I 
 have sufferings enough, past, pre- 
 sent, and iu prospect, and if my 
 life were all that was required of 
 me, I might endure in silence, 
 though I will not endure the odium 
 on my memory, of having sinned to 
 pamper delinquencies to which I 
 never was addicted. Thus much 
 has been extorted from me by 
 the fabrications which have been 
 cruelly spread amongst the public ; 
 that very public, from whom the 
 arbiters of my fate were to be se- 
 lected. Perhaps, however, I ought 
 to thank the enemy who besieged the 
 prison with his slanders — that he 
 did so whilst my life was spared to 
 refute them, and that he waited not 
 until the grave to which he would 
 hurry me had closed at once on my 
 answer and my forgiveness. There 
 is one subject more connected with 
 these charges to which 1 am com- 
 pelled to advert, and I do so with 
 great reluctance. It has added to 
 the other charges made against me, 
 lest the world should think there 
 was any vice in which I was not an 
 adept. 1 have been accused of 
 acting treacherously towards the 
 female who now bears my name, 
 having refused to make reparation 
 until threatened by her brother, and 
 of having deserted her at a moment 
 when she had the greatest claim on 
 my protection. Delicacy forbids 
 me entering into an explanation oil 
 this subject further than to declare, 
 that the conduct I adopted on that 
 occasion was uninfluenced by the 
 interference of any individual, and 
 arose, as 1 then considered, and do 
 still consider, from a laudable and 
 honourable feeling on my part, and 
 the lady's brother, so far from com- 
 ing forward at the time alluded to, 
 ■was on service in the West Indies. 
 
 Could all the circumstances be ex- 
 posed, I feel convinced that every 
 liberal-minded man would applaud 
 niy determination, and 1 feel satis- 
 faction in stating, that the lady in 
 question has always been, and still 
 is, actuated by the best of feelings 
 towards me. 
 
 ' I have now to apologize to the 
 Court for having entered so much 
 at length into the statement of my 
 unfortunate case, and in conclusion 
 I have to express my perfect confi- 
 dence, that it will receive every fa- 
 vourable consideration at your 
 hands; and I fully rely that you. 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, will give 
 an impartial and merciful decision.' 
 Having finished reading the paper, 
 he sat down, and wept with much 
 agitation. Whilst the witnesses 
 to his character were under exa- 
 mination he leant his head on his 
 hand, in which his handkerchief was 
 so held as to cover his face, appa- 
 rently unwilling to be seen by his 
 former friends. Seventeen gen- 
 tlemen, of the greatest respecta- 
 bility, attested their high opinion of 
 his honor, integrity and goodness 
 of disposition, and that he was the 
 person whom, of all others, they 
 would have supposed incapable of a 
 dishonourable action. 
 
 In summing-up, the judge told 
 the jury, that as the evidence did 
 not shew the forgery to have been 
 committed within their jurisdiction, 
 they, being a London jury, would 
 have to decide on the count for ut- 
 tering, and after twenty minutes' 
 consideration they returned a ver- 
 dict — Guilty of Uttering — Death. 
 
 Every exertion was ns< d by Mr. 
 Fauntleroy's counsel, his case being 
 twice argued before the judges, but 
 both decisions were against him ; 
 and on the 30th of November, 1824, 
 his execution took place. The 
 number of persons assembled was 
 estimated at nearly 100,000 ! every 
 
3'JO 
 
 KNAPP& BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 window and roof which could com- 
 mand a view of the dreadful cere- 
 mony, was occupied, and places from 
 which it was impossible to catch a 
 glimpse of the scaffold, were block- 
 ed up by those who were prevented 
 by the dense crowd before them 
 from advancing further. 
 
 At a quarter before eight o'clock, 
 the sheriffs arrived at Newgate, and 
 proceeded immediately to the pri- 
 soner's room. The prisoner gently 
 bow d to them on perceiving that 
 they were prtS'bt ; but made no 
 observations. Besides the Ordinary 
 of Newgate, the Rev. Mr. Cotton, 
 there were the Rev. Mr. Springett 
 and Mr. Baker with the prisoner. 
 Mr, Springett had remained all night. 
 
 Mr. Fauntleroy was dressed in a 
 black coat, waistcoat, and trowsers, 
 with silk stockings, and shoes. 
 The demeanour ol the unhappy 
 man was perfectly compased. His 
 eyes continued closed, and no emo- 
 tion was visible in his countenance. 
 His appearance had undergone 
 
 little or no change since the trial. 
 The sheriffs moved forward, and 
 Mr. Spriniielt and Mr. Baker e.ich 
 took hold of one of the prisoner's 
 arms, and, thus accompanied, he 
 followed the sheriffs and the ordi- 
 nary. The prisoner never turned 
 his h<ad to the ri<jht nor the left 
 till he reached the foot of the 
 steps leading to the scaffold. The 
 moment he appeared on the scaffold 
 the vast erowd took off their hats. 
 In less than two minutes after the 
 criminal ascended the scaffold, 
 every thing was prepared for his 
 execution. Mr. Cotton now placed 
 himself before the prisoner, who 
 stood with his faee towards Lud- 
 gtte Hill, aid commenced reading 
 the passage — ' Yet, O Lord God, 
 most Holy ! O Lord, most Mig ity ! 
 holy and most merciful Saviour ! 
 deliver us not into the bitter pains 
 of eternal death. Thou knowesr, 
 Lord, the seciets of our hearts;' 
 towards tie conclusion of which 
 the trap-door fell. 
 
 CHARLES LYNN, 
 
 CONVICTKD OF KILLING. 
 
 This murder, as it appear d to unfortunate companion slept there. 
 
 have been committed without any 
 object or motive, excited a consi- 
 derable degree of curiosity. The 
 theatre f its perpetration was an 
 extensive chase, between Shenley 
 and Whaddon, in the county of 
 Buckingham. 
 
 I he prisoner and the deceased 
 
 On the following morning rhe pri- 
 soner and the deceased got upon 
 the Eclipse Birmingham coach, 
 with their luggage, and were driven 
 on the road towards Shenley Biook 
 End, which is within the limits of 
 Whaddon Chase. 
 
 On the trial, which took place at 
 
 had for a considerable number of Aylesbury, the circumstances of the 
 
 years worked together in a large murder were proved by George 
 
 distill' r at Vauxhall, near Lon- Beecham, a labourer, who staled, 
 
 don. They left their employment that he was at work uear Snells- 
 
 on the th of January, 18^5, well Copse, on the 7th of January 
 
 and on the 7th they arrived at last; two men passed, they were 
 
 Brick Hill, in the county of Bucks, going towards \Vhaddon; with, ss 
 
 and agreed to sleep at the Wh te was ditching up a hedge, a id did 
 
 Lion ; but the prisoner, who was a not notice their faces ; one had an 
 
 strai ger at Biick Hill, was absent umbrella, and the other a gun-case ; 
 
 fmm his lodgings at the White in about half an hour aft r, he 
 
 Lion, dining that night, though his heard alarming cries, which were 
 
KNAPP &. BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 391 
 
 not repeated, the sound came from 
 the copse. Witness immediately 
 got out of tlse diicli, and saw a man 
 striking with a gun something on 
 the ground ; tlie man held the 
 muzzle end in both his hands; lie 
 struck several times violently, until 
 the gun broke ; be continued the 
 blows, even after the gun broke ; 
 he then threw away the pit ce of the 
 gun, and walked backwards and 
 foi wards, a^ if looking at some- 
 thing; he walked a short distance, 
 and picked up a bundle, and came 
 towards witness. He pulled off his 
 clothes, and put on a large fustian 
 jacket and a hairy cap; be bad on 
 before a black bat, and a black 
 coat ; taking bis hat in his band, be 
 went towards Shenley Common. 
 Witness then went to the spot, and 
 there saw the deceased, the blood 
 was running very fresh from his 
 wounds. There was a gun broken 
 in two, a kerchief, and umbrella 
 lying by him. The witness gave 
 the alarm, and the prisoner was 
 taken running out of the copse ; on 
 witness running towards him, he 
 cried out, « What's your reward ?' 
 Witness asked him if be bad got 
 any fire-arms; the prisoner replied 
 ' No, for if be bad, lie would not be 
 laken by him or any man alive.' 
 He again asked witness about the 
 reward — 'the blood-money,' and 
 said, ' You would take your own 
 father's life for sixpence.' He then 
 said, it would break his friends 
 hearts, when they heard of this. A 
 Mr. Tarry asked, was the man in 
 the wood quite dead ? Prisoner said 
 he hoped he was. On the Siturday 
 after the murdtr, he was guarding 
 the prisoner, who was reading the 
 Bible, when he jumped up on a 
 chair, then on the table, and struck 
 himself down with violence ; his 
 head was cut severely. 
 
 Mr. Justice Gazelee informed the 
 prisoner, that if he had any thing 
 to s.ay to the jury, now was his 
 
 time, as his counsel could not 
 speak for him. 
 
 The prisoner, after standing mute 
 for some time, addressed the jury in 
 a very unconnected strain. He 
 said he could not work longer at 
 Burnett's, because his mind was un- 
 easy. He agreed to go with Abra- 
 ham Hogg to Liverpool. On the 
 Monday night he went out with 
 Abraham, and drank wine. They 
 got on the Liverpool coach at the 
 Saracen's Head, and a black man 
 (a sailor) on the top of the coach 
 gave him gin out of several bottles, 
 and made him drink it, and threw 
 the bottles away. Abraham and the 
 sailor whispered and chattered to- 
 gether, and they spoke to another 
 man in a \try suspicious manner. 
 One of them said, ' Oh, the job can 
 be done ;' and they intended to 
 murder him, he was sure. He told 
 Abraham that there was something 
 afloat, as be beard the men talking 
 together about some pit, and there 
 was a plan to murder him. Just 
 before he jumped off the coach be 
 beard the man planning something, 
 and be believed Abraham was con- 
 cerned, and he jumped off the coach, 
 as be had made up his mind to sleep 
 at a farm-hous' - ', rather than go on 
 and be murdered. Abraham fol- 
 lowed him, and be again told him 
 they intended to murder him ; but 
 Abraham said it was no such thing. 
 When Abraham got on the hill, he 
 said to him, *■ what do you do there I 
 you have entered into a plan to mur- 
 der me; yon shall die with me,' 
 and be struck him over the head, 
 and was afterwards taken. The rest 
 of the prisoner's address was a tissue 
 of incoherency, delivered without 
 any appearance of being feigned. 
 
 The jury retired to consider their 
 verdict, and on their return, the 
 Foreman said, ' Guilty of killing the 
 deceased, but we believe him insane 
 at the time.' 
 
39*2 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 CORNELIUS WOOD, 
 
 EXECUTED FOR A RAPE. 
 
 The charge for which this of- 
 fender underwent the awful sen- 
 tence of death is so frequently made 
 hy ahandoned females, either to ex- 
 tort money, or to force a man un- 
 willingly into a marriage, added to 
 which, the case so frequently rests 
 on the evidence of the female alone, 
 that the utmost caution is necessary 
 in the investigation. But when 
 clearly proved, there are few crimes 
 more deserving of an exemplary pu- 
 nishment. In this ease, the jury 
 were an hour and a half in delibe- 
 ration, and yet there was more cor- 
 roborative testimony than is usually 
 produced on similar investigations* 
 
 Cornelius Wood, aged 20, was 
 put to the bar at the Old Bailey, on 
 the 14th of January, 1825, charged 
 with having violated the person of 
 Mary Eyre, on the 7th of the pre- 
 ceding month of December. 
 
 Mary Eyre, a strong, coarse wo- 
 man, and by no means of a prepos- 
 sessing appearance, stated her age 
 to be 28 years, and gave her evi- 
 dence to the following effect: — I 
 am a servant out of place, residing 
 at No. 16, Cleveland-street, Fitz- 
 roy-square ; Jane Green lodged in 
 the same house with me. On the 
 7th of last month I asked her to 
 accompany me to Finchley, where I 
 had lived as a servant, and whither 
 I vvas going to get a character from 
 my former mistress. On our re- 
 turn, at about five o'clock in the 
 evening, we called at the White 
 Lion public-house, to inquire when 
 a stage would pass to town. The 
 landlord told me, there would be no 
 stage going for some time, but said 
 there was a aart at the door, in 
 which we might get a ride. He 
 spoke to the driver of the cart, 
 James Day, and he agreed to take 
 us. My friend and 1 got in, and 
 
 sat on the seat. There was another 
 man in the cart besides Day, but I 
 could not see who he was at this 
 time. I told the driver where I 
 was going, and that I wished to be 
 set down as near Tottenham-court- 
 road as possible. We drove on till 
 we came to the Wellington public- 
 house, on the Highgate-road, where 
 I had left a cloak in the morning. 
 Having got my cloak, I took my 
 seat again in the cart. The pri- 
 soner Wood then drove, and turned 
 the horse off the Highgate-road. 
 I asked why he did so, and he said 
 it was to avoid the turnpike. He 
 drove to a public-house, which I 
 have since understood to be the 
 Crown at Holloway. Day asked 
 me to treat him there, which I re- 
 fused. The other man got out of 
 the cart soon after, and I did not see 
 where he went. The cart then 
 stopped at another public-house, the 
 Cock, where Day again asked us to 
 treat him to some gin. I gave him 
 sixpence to get some, but he got 
 half-a-pint, and I gave him sixpence 
 more. The half pint was drank 
 between Day, the ostler of the 
 house, Mrs. Green, and myself. 
 Soon after this, Day said thai he 
 lived close by, and was going no 
 further. He told us to get out, and 
 poinled out the road to London. I 
 complained of his conduct as a gross 
 imposition, but we got out, and 
 proceeded towards town. Soon 
 after, another cart, with a grey 
 horse, came up, and I asked the 
 man to take us to town, as my com- 
 panion was very ill. While speak- 
 ing to the carter, another man came 
 up, and told him not to take us, 
 for that we were not going his way. 
 The man in the cart then drove 
 away. We walked on a little way, 
 when a man overtook us, and told 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 393 
 
 qs that the man in the cart had 
 taken us the wrong way. I said, 
 that a« my friend was very ill, I was 
 anxious to get to some place where 
 I might find a stage. The man 
 said, ' If you will go across a few 
 fields here, you will get into the 
 Hiuhgate-road, and find a stage in 
 a short time ;' and, at the same 
 time, he offered to accompany ns, 
 and show us the way. AVe thanked 
 him, and accepted the offer. Me 
 led us up a little lane. At this 
 time I did not suspect that he was 
 the man who had been with us in 
 the cart from Finchley. We went 
 over a stile, and into the fields, and 
 thence over a second stile. I com- 
 plained that it was so wet and muddy 
 that I should prefer returning. 
 Mrs. Green was close by me when 
 I said this. The man said, ' Do 
 not go back, there are tlie lamps at 
 a short distance, they are the lamps 
 of Tottenham-court-road.' I looked, 
 but could see no light. . While the 
 man was thus speaking, I observed 
 him, and then found he was one of 
 those who had been with us in the 
 cart. I am positive the prisoner is 
 the man. We went on till we came 
 to the third field, where there was 
 a kind of gap or bog, and I could 
 not get over it. The prisoner helped 
 me over it, and left my friend be- 
 hind. When I came into the field 
 I said, ' My good man, are you 
 jroinjr to show us the road or not ? 
 For God's sake show us the road.' 
 He then made use of some very in- 
 decent expressions to me, and I said 
 ' Oh, no !' and became very much 
 alarmed. The man then struck rne 
 in the forehead, and I fell ; he at- 
 tempted to keep me on the ground, 
 but I succeeded in getting again on 
 my feet. He struck me again and 
 again : I screamed and called < mur- 
 der,' and called Mrs. Green to assist 
 me, but she cried out that she could 
 not get through the place as she 
 
 believed she had hroken her leg. 
 Prisoner struck me often, and at 
 last my strength left me, and I 
 could resist no longer. [Here the 
 witness detailed the particulars of 
 the violence which had bet n ofFer< d 
 to her.] When the prisoner left 
 me, I missed my basket and shawl ; 
 the hasket contained two handker- 
 chiefs, a purse, with half a sovereign 
 and sixpence in it. I followed in 
 the direction which the prisoner 
 took, but could not g*t over the 
 hedge. I then saw him with his 
 hand in my basket. I called out 
 to him to assist me in getting out, 
 hut he said he could not help me, 
 as he himself was up to his knees 
 in water. At last I extricated my- 
 self, and he then threw the basket 
 to me, but my purse, shawl, and 
 handkerchiefs were gone. I return- 
 ed and assisted Mrs. Green to get 
 out. She was very ill. We both 
 called out ' murder !' until we could 
 call no longer, in the hope that 
 somebody would come to our assist- 
 ance. Mrs. Green could not get 
 out without my assistance : she was 
 stuck in the mire. At last we got 
 out of the field. I then turned round, 
 not knowing which way to go ; but 
 we walked on till we saw something 
 which turned out to be a cottage. 
 We knocked at the door, and an old 
 man came to the window, let us in, 
 and afterwards showed us the road. 
 We then met with a gentleman, who 
 hearing us crying very much, asked 
 us what was the matter. We told 
 him we had heen rohhed, and very 
 ill used. He then consented to see 
 us home. 
 
 Jane Green gave nearly the same 
 account of the transaction as that 
 given by the prosecutrix. 
 
 William Carroll, the poor old man 
 at whose cottage the prosecutrix and 
 her friend, Mrs. Green, had called 
 on the night of the robbery, corro- 
 borated their evidence as to their 
 
•,y4 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 complaints of ill usage when tliey 
 called on him, and as to their ap- 
 peal ance on that occasion. 
 
 James Day. — The prisoner was 
 in company with me the day we 
 came from Finchley to Holloway. 
 ltook him up at his own house that 
 morning, and he was with me all 
 clay, We took rp two women at 
 Finchley — that woman (pointing to 
 the prosecutrix), and another, a 
 smaller woman. We left the White 
 I jon ahout five o'clock, and came 
 on towards Highgate. We went 
 afterwards to the Cock. I then said 
 to the young women, that I was not 
 jjoinu- any further, and they went 
 on towards town. I missed Wood ; 
 he did not say !o me where he was 
 going. I saw no more of him that 
 night. It would have heen in his 
 
 way home to have gone with me, 
 and hy my house. 
 
 The ostlers at the Crown and 
 Cock identified the prisoner, and 
 other witnesses deposed to minor 
 circumstances. 
 
 When called on for his defence, 
 the prisoner strongly asserted his in- 
 nocence ; and his mother and sister, 
 who appeared to be very decent per- 
 sons, stated that he returned home 
 about ten o'clock on the evening 
 in question, and that they observed 
 no change of appearance in his dress 
 or manner. 
 
 The summing up by Mr. Justice 
 Holroyd occupied an hour and a 
 half, when the jury retired, and after 
 being absent a similar time, they 
 returned a verdict of Guilty, and 
 the prisoner was executed. 
 
 GEORGE ALEXANDER WOOD, AND ALEXANDER 
 WELLESLEY LEITH. 
 
 INOICTF.D FOR KILLING AND SLAYING. 
 
 It cannot argue much for the fellow much older and taller than 
 progress of knowledge and civiliza- himself, most culpably urging him 
 Lion, that of the upper classes of on till his death was the result ; 
 the existing generation so many are and yet there are some who call 
 patrons of pugilism, and proficients such scenes a fine display of Eng- 
 in the slang and blackguardism of lish spirit! — the true John Bullisin! ! 
 its professors ; whilst pugnacity and Fie on such brutes ! 
 disobedience prevail among the On the 9lh of March, 18*25, 
 rising generation at all our great George Alexander Wood, son of 
 public schools At Haylebury Col- Col. Wood, and nephew of theMar- 
 lege, those who are to take part in quis of Londonderry, and Alexander 
 the future government of our im- Wellesley Leith, were placed at the 
 mense empire in India, are them- bar at Aylesbury, charged with kill- 
 selves ungovernable •, the village of ing and slaying the Hon. F. Ashley 
 Harrow is kept in constant alarm hy Cooper, son of the Earl of Shaftes- 
 the riotous conduct of the boys in bury. The circumstances will be 
 the great school there ; and at Eton best explained as they appeared in 
 we have now to notice a melancholy evidence before the Coroner, 
 instance of young men of high On Sunday, the 27th of Fe- 
 connections adopting the worst bruary, about two o'clock, two young 
 practices of the lowest order of gentlemen, scholars at Eton, the 
 pugilists, by administering brandy Hon. F. A. Cooper and Mr. Wood, 
 to an exhausted combatant, a lad were in the play-ground, when some 
 not fifteen, and, during a contest words arose between them. From 
 of nearly two hours with a school- words they proceeded to blows, and 
 
KNAPP& BALDWIN'* NEWGATE CALENDAR. 395 
 
 had fought for several minutes, 
 when the captain came up and se- 
 parated them. It was subsequently 
 determined that they should meet 
 on the following afternoon, and ter- 
 minate their differences by a pugi- 
 listic contest. Many of the scholars 
 were present to witness the battle ; 
 the combatants stripped at four 
 o'clock on Monday afternoon, and 
 commenced fighting. Mr. Cooper 
 was under fifteen years, and his op- 
 ponent, who was half a head taller, 
 was near seventeen, Mr. Wood had 
 the advantage in point of strength, 
 but the quickness and precision of 
 Mr. Cooper was remarkable for one 
 so young, and he declared that he 
 would never give in. In the eighth, 
 ninth, and tenth rounds, he hecame 
 weak and exhausted, and it was 
 then evident he was not a match for 
 Mr. Wood, and he ought to have 
 been taken away. Some of the 
 4 hackers* had brought a quantity 
 of brandy in bottles into the field ; 
 and the second of Mr. Cooper hav. 
 ing, in the eleventh round, poured 
 a portion of it down Mr. C.'s throat, 
 he recovered his wind and strength. 
 The young men continued fighting 
 from four till nearly six o'clock, and 
 when they were in a state of ex- 
 haustion, they were plied between 
 the rounds with brandy. They 
 fought about sixty rounds ; and at 
 the end of the last round, Mr. 
 Cooper fell very heavily upon his 
 head, and never spoke afterwards. 
 He was carried oif l lie ground to his 
 lodgings, at the house of the Rev. 
 Mr. Knapp, by his brothers, who 
 were present at the fight. He was 
 put to bed ; but no medical assist- 
 ance was sent for till four hours had 
 elapsed ; shortly afterwards he ex- 
 pired. 
 
 At two o'clock on Tuesday, a 
 jury assembled to hold an inquest 
 on the body. The jury and coionei 
 proceeded to the huuse of the Rev. 
 
 Mr. Knapp, and viewed the body. 
 The temples, eyes, and upper part 
 of the cheek bones were very black, 
 and there were other external marks 
 of violence about the ribs, breast, 
 &c* The following evidence was 
 then taken : — 
 
 Christopher Teasdale. — I am a 
 student at Eton college ; I knew 
 the deceased; he is the son of Lord 
 Shaftesbury, and I know his antago- 
 nist, Mr. Wood, the son of Colonel 
 Wood. I saw them set-to about 
 the hour of four o'clock on Monday 
 afternoon. I saw r< peated blows, 
 during the fight, given to Cooper, 
 on different parts of the head ; I 
 remember, in one period of the fight, 
 a severe blow being given on his 
 temple ; the deceased instantly fell, 
 and lay on the ground about half a 
 minute. There were loud shouts 
 from Wood's party in consequence 
 of his being the best. It was a 
 fair fight; I saw no unfair advan- 
 tage taken. A young gentleman 
 named Leith seconded the deceased ; 
 the fight lasted above an hour; 
 the deceased's spirits were kept up 
 in a most extraordinary manner by 
 Leith giving him brandy in the 
 eleventh and subsequent rounds, I 
 remember that before the last round, 
 Wood said he wanted to go to his 
 tutor, Mr. Ottery, to attend his pri- 
 vate business (studies), and he 
 would make it up afterwards. Mr. 
 Leith, the second, said, that as Wood 
 wanted to go, he would appeal to 
 the deceased's party, and hear what 
 they had to say. The deceased's 
 party exclaimed, ' we will have an- 
 other round, we are in no hurry.' 
 The parties fought another round, 
 and the deceased at the conclusion 
 fell from a severe blow ; "Wood fell 
 heavily on him. After this round, 
 Wood said, ' he must go, and he 
 would make it up.' Leith advised 
 it to he made up on the spot, and 
 directly the proposition was made to 
 
:> l J6 
 
 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 make it up, the deceased fell back 
 senseless. VVood walked ap to the 
 deceased and lifted his hand. 1 did 
 not hear Wood say any thing. 
 
 Mr. O'Reilly, surgeon, of Wind- 
 sor. — 'I was called to see the de- 
 ceased last night ; he was dead be- 
 fore I arrived. There were several 
 contusions on the head ; the eyes 
 were black : there must have been 
 a rupture of some internal artery. 
 I opened the head, and found, under 
 the dura mater, a considerable ex- 
 travasation of blood, covering the 
 whole of the left hemisphere of the 
 brain, which was the cause of his 
 death. I believe it was not pro- 
 duced by anyblow that his opponent 
 gave him, but by a violent fall ; 
 and I am of this opinion from the 
 extent of the rupture, and the great 
 quantity of blood that issued there- 
 from. 
 
 Coroner. — Would his drinking a 
 great quantity of brandy have caused 
 such effects ? 
 
 Witness. — Certainly not. 
 
 Dorothy Large. — I am servant to 
 the Rev. Mr. Knapp, at whose 
 house the deceased boarded and 
 lodged ; lie was brought home by 
 some of the young gentlemen last 
 night, about ten minutes before six 
 o'clock ; he appeared as if he was 
 
 asleep, arid he was put to bed, and 
 1 asked his brother if I should send 
 for a doctor, and he told me there 
 was no occasion lor it, as the de- 
 ceased was fa->t asleep ; I went into 
 the room about seven o'clock, and 
 he was still asleep ; he was breath- 
 ing. About nine o'clock I found 
 him in the same state. His brother 
 said he was very comfortable, and 
 that I had no occasion to take any 
 further trouble, as he would see him 
 safe before he went to bed. The 
 deceased had his trowsers on, but 
 no shirt; he was wrapped in a 
 blanket. A little after ten o'clock, 
 the brother of the deceased came 
 down stairs, and said he was worse; 
 a surgeon was sent for. Mr. Moss, 
 a surgeon, first arrived; the de- 
 ceased had then ceased to breathe. 
 
 The verdict of the Coroner's jury 
 being manslaughter, the prisoners 
 were arraigned before Mr. Justice 
 Gazelee, who directed the several 
 witnesses to be called, but no one 
 answering he ordered their recog- 
 nizances to he estreated ; and, 
 there being no evidence, a verdict 
 of not guilty was returned. The 
 young gentlemen left the bar at- 
 tended by Lord Nugent, Colonel 
 Brown, Sir John Dashwood Kinrr, 
 and other distinguished persons. 
 
 INDICTED FOR SETTING 
 
 This case presents one of the 
 most extraordinary instances of 
 cross swearing ever witnessed, and 
 ' so positive was it on each side that 
 the jury were unable to determine 
 which party was entitled to credit, 
 and actually separated without 
 giving any verdict. 
 
 Edward M'Elroy, a coarse coun- 
 try lad, about twenty years of age, 
 was capitally indicted, on the 12th 
 of March, 1825, for settintr fire to 
 a car-house, belonging to David 
 
 EDWARD M'ELROY, 
 
 FIRE TO A CAR-HOUSE. 
 
 Woods, of Cardnffkelly, near Car- 
 rickmacross, in the rountv of Moo- 
 aghan, in the preceding month of 
 February. 
 
 David Woods deposed to the cir- 
 cumstances attending the burning 
 of his car-house, which took place 
 about 12 o'clock at night, when 
 the family were all in bed. Being 
 awoke, he heard a noise outside his 
 house, as of some persons stumbling, 
 in consequence of which he was 
 induced to rise out of bed ; and 
 
KNAPP & BALDWINS NEWGATE CALENDAR. 397 
 
 on going down stairs and opening 
 the hall-door, which he did quietly, 
 he beheld his car-house on fire, 
 and distinctly saw the prisoner 
 (M'Elroy) urging the Haines to- 
 wards the dwelling-house- 
 Thomas Woods, son to the pro- 
 secutor, stated, that, on hearing his 
 father call out that the car-house 
 was on fire, he ran out naked, and 
 saw the figure of a man at a dis- 
 tance, running from the flames. 
 He could not say who that person 
 was. 
 
 This was the case for the prose- 
 cution. 
 
 In defence, Charlotte Woods, 
 aged 18, the daughter of the pro- 
 secutor, appeared. She denied 
 that any attachment subsisted be- 
 tween her and the prisoner, and 
 then gave the following account of 
 the transaction, in coming forward 
 to declare which, she said, she was 
 actuated solely by a regard for 
 truth, and a desire to save an 
 innocent life. On the evening in 
 question, all the family, excepting 
 herself and a servant girl, whom 
 she called Ellen, went to bed 
 between 9 and 10 o'clock. She 
 usually slept in a small bed-room 
 on the ground floor, off the kitchen ; 
 the servant girl, who slept in the 
 same room, having some articles 
 of wearing apparel to mend, sat 
 up for that purpose, unknown to 
 her master and family, and she 
 (the witness) remained in the 
 kitchen assisting her, until about 
 half-past 1 1 o'clock, when, hear- 
 ing her father cough and make a 
 noise as if rising, she and the ser- 
 vant hurried into their bed-room, 
 extinguished the candle, and began 
 to undress ; for she Was afraid of 
 her father knowing that they had 
 been sitting up, as he had expressly 
 prohibited any of the family from 
 doing so She and the girl had 
 iust knelt down to their prayers, 
 
 when she heard a stool fall, and 
 her face being turned towards the 
 kitchen, into which a small window 
 looked, she observed her father 
 approaching the hie, fiom which he 
 took a lighted turf; she then 
 beckoned the servant to watch her 
 father, and the two followed him 
 fo the door, where they remained 
 concealed, and actually saw him 
 with his own hand set fire to the 
 car-house, he having first carefully 
 loosened the calf and pig, and set 
 them at liberty. On witnessing 
 such extraordinary conduct on the 
 part of her father, she and the 
 servant hastily returned to the 
 room, and crept into bed. She 
 then heard him close the kitchen 
 door and go up stairs, where he 
 remained about a quarter of an 
 hour, and then came down and 
 gave the alarm of fire. In addi- 
 tion, she related the particulars of 
 a conversation between h^r two 
 elder brothers, which she overheard 
 a night or two after the burning. 
 One of them remarked to the 
 other — ' It (speaking of the burn- 
 ing) was a good plan to put M'Elroy 
 out of the way :' on which he 
 replied, « Yes, but I doubt my 
 father will go too far — he must 
 perjure himself.' — She also said, 
 that, some days previous to the 
 burning, her father accused her of 
 being intimate with M'Elroy, and 
 told her that he would not sutler 
 any peison of such condition to 
 come near his house, or have any 
 acquaintance with his daughter. 
 Being cross-examined on this point, 
 she declared that she had no par- 
 ticular regard for the prisoner; 
 that tleie had been no intimacy 
 between them, nor Lad he ever 
 taken improper liberties with her; 
 that she always addressed him as a 
 servant, and looked on him only as 
 her father's servant. She admitted 
 that she now lived under the pro- 
 
K.VAI P it BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 tcction of the prisoner's rela'ions, 
 having left lier father's house 
 about a fortnight previously, at 
 which time she and the maid-ser- 
 vant, wiio accompanied her, gave 
 information of the foregoing facts 
 to a neighbouring magistrate. 
 
 The servant-girl corroborated, 
 in every particular, the statement 
 given by Miss Woods. 
 
 A tailor was examined to prove 
 an alibi for the prisoner. He 
 swore, that, on the ni^ht on which 
 the burning was said to have taken 
 place, the prisoner came to his 
 house to get a pair of small-clothes 
 mended ; and that the prisoner 
 remained in Ins house from sun-set 
 to sun-rise. 
 
 After the examination of these 
 witnesses, the counsel for the pro- 
 secution called 
 
 George Woods, son to the pro- 
 secutor, who said, he had heard 
 what was stated by his sister, re- 
 lative to a conversation between 
 him and his brother Thomas ; he 
 swore positively that no such con- 
 versation, nor any such words, ever 
 passed between them. Witness 
 slated, that an intimacy had sub- 
 sisted between his sister and the 
 prisoner, whom he discovered to- 
 gether one day, in aback room of a 
 house in Carrickmacross, in such a 
 situation as left rso doubt on his 
 mind of their improper intimacy. 
 
 Thomas Woods was then ex- 
 amined, relative to a conversation 
 sworn by his sister to have taken 
 place between him and his brother 
 
 George. He swore posilmly that 
 no such conversation had ever 
 taken place. 
 
 A girl, named Collins, also in 
 the service of the prosecutor, was 
 examined. She stated, that she 
 was in the kitchen on the night in 
 question, in company with Miss 
 Woods and the servant Ellen, and 
 swore positively, that they did not 
 remain there more than half an 
 hour after the family went to bed ; 
 that they merely washed their fed, 
 and did not sew or mend any part 
 of their clothes. She said, that 
 Miss Woods, Ellen, and herself, 
 then went into the bed-room off 
 the kitchen ; that they had all 
 three undressed, and were in the 
 act of praying, when the alarm of 
 fire was given by her master. She 
 denied all that the two others had 
 sworn respecting the conduct of 
 her master ; nothing of the kind 
 took place that she saw, nor could 
 it have taken place without her 
 seeing it. 
 
 Charlotte Woods and the girl 
 Ellen were confronted with the 
 last witness, and both adhered 
 firmly to what they had previously 
 sworn. 
 
 The judge proceeded to sum up 
 the evidence. 
 
 The jury remained closeted 
 duiing the night, and until the 
 afternoon of Thursday, when, not 
 having agreed on any verdict, they 
 were conveyed to the verge of tne 
 county, and there discharged in the 
 usual way. 
 
 HENRY SAVARV, 
 
 CONVICTED OF FORGERY. 
 
 This case, which was tried af. nevions, his father having been for 
 
 Bristol before Lord Gifford on the many years a banker of some con- 
 
 4th of April, 1825, had excited great sequence in that city. He was 
 
 attention in consequence ol the re- committed on I he 23rd of December, 
 
 spectabilily of the prisoner's con- and all who knew him declared t fat 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 be was appal ingly altered since his 
 imprisonment. He looked pale and 
 was evidently most feverishly agita- 
 ted. His age was thirty-three. 
 
 The offence was, that he had af- 
 fixed the name of William Pearson 
 to a note for 500/. dated Birming- 
 ham, 7th of October, 1824, with in- 
 tent to defraud the Bristol Copper 
 Company, no such person as Wil- 
 liam Pearson being in existence. 
 
 When asked by the Clerk of the 
 Arraigns, ' Henry Savary, how say 
 you ; are you guilty or not guilty ?' 
 the prisoner replied, ' Guilty.' 
 
 This answer was wholly unex- 
 pected by the Court, and it was 
 delivered in a firm and deliberate 
 tone. 
 
 Lord Gifford paused for some 
 moments, appearing to be taken 
 more by surprise than any body 
 else. He changed colour, and was 
 evidently much affected by the 
 painful duty he bad to perform. 
 His lordship at last said, earnestly 
 looking at the prisoner, ' Have 
 )ou well considered your answer?' 
 
 Prisoner. — I have. 
 
 Lord Gifford. — I trust no false 
 hopes have induced you to give that 
 answer ? 
 
 Prisoner replied something about 
 having deliberately pleaded as he 
 had ; but he was not distinctly 
 heard. 
 
 Lord Gilford again paused a few 
 minutes, and then said, ' Prisoner, 
 you had better consider a short time 
 before you resolve to persevere in 
 pleading guilty.' 
 
 The prisoner shook his head, re- 
 clined on bis hand, and auain co- 
 vered his face, agitated by grief, It 
 was intimated to the Court, that the 
 prisoner had no other answer to give 
 than what he had given. 
 
 Clerk of the Arraigns. — Shall I 
 enter the verdict, my Lord ? 
 
 The Recorder. — Wait a short 
 time. 
 
 The prisoner was taken frum the 
 dock, and in about five minutes he 
 was brought back by direction of 
 the judge. The prisoner appeared 
 to be much more collected, and 
 looked partially round the Court. 
 
 Lord Gifford. — { understand, 
 Henry Savary, you persist in plead- 
 ing guilty. 
 
 Prisoner. — I do, my Lord. (He 
 then again looked round the Court 
 somewhat collectedly, as if he bad 
 relieved his mind.) 
 
 Lord Gifford, having put on the 
 fatal black cap, then addressed 
 the prisoner : — Henry Savary, you 
 have pleaded guilty to the criine 
 of forgery charged against you, — 
 the forgery of a bill of exchange for 
 500/. and purporting to be the note 
 of W. Pearson, of Birmingham, and 
 with the intent to defraud the pro- 
 secutors in this case. You have, 
 I trust, well considered the conse- 
 quences of pleading guilty. I 
 trust no false hopes or expectations, 
 that by so pleading \ou should 
 avert the dreadful sentence which 
 it will be my painful duty to pro- 
 nounce on \ou, have induced you 
 to plead guilty. You were brought 
 up in commeicial pursuits, and you 
 followed them for a considerable 
 period in this respectable city, so 
 that you most ha- e been intimately 
 acquainted with them; you there- 
 fore could not but know the cala- 
 mitous consequences to commerce 
 which the crime of forgery is calcu- 
 lated to produce, as well as the 
 magnitude of the pen d results to 
 yourself. So essential is it to give 
 security to the circulation of bills 
 of exchange, so important is it in 
 this couuiry to give ground for 
 confidence in such transactions, 
 that it must have been impossible 
 for you, in your own experience, 
 not to have known and felt the 
 in'poi lance of such matters, and 
 the extent of injury calculated to 
 
400 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 be produced by tbe circulation of 
 forged instruments, whether ihe 
 names forged were those of existing 
 or non-existing persons. 
 
 Prisoner. — My lord, I was not 
 aware that to forge the names of per- 
 sons not in existence was criminal. 
 
 Mr. Smith, the prosecutor, who 
 was standing near the witness box, 
 most agitatedly attempted to address 
 the Court. ' My lord.' — 
 
 Mr. Palmer, one of the coun- 
 sel, — My lord, I believe evidence 
 can be adduced of some circum- 
 stances 
 
 Lord Gilford. — All these inter- 
 ruptions are really very irregular. 
 I must proceed, painful as is the 
 duty. It was impossible that you 
 should not know you were circu- 
 lating fictitious and fiaudulent 
 paper, and that the intention was 
 to deceive and defraud. You could 
 not be ignorant of those facts. It 
 is melancholy to think that you 
 should have so destroyed your own 
 character, and wounded the feelings 
 of others ; it is not, however, my 
 wish to add anything to the grief 
 that they must feel. But let me 
 renew my entreaty that you suffer 
 not yourself to be led away by any 
 delusive hopes or expectations. 
 The scene of this life must shortly 
 close upon you. Let me implore 
 you, then, to endeavour — not to 
 'Uone to society, for that, I tear, is 
 
 impossible, but — to secure your 
 peace with your Maker. And lit 
 me again say to you, that this 
 Court can hold out uo expectations 
 that the sentence which it is now 
 in v painful duty to pronounce on 
 you will not be carried into effect. 
 The sentence is — that you, Henry 
 Savary, be taken from hence to 
 the place from whence you came, 
 and thence to the place of execution, 
 and there be hanged by the neck 
 till you are dead. 
 
 The prisoner, on hearing the 
 latter words, seemed to lose all 
 power of breathing, and dropped 
 down his head. 
 
 Mr. Smith, one of the prosecu- 
 tors, who had before attempted to 
 address the Court, made way through 
 the crowd by the witness-box to- 
 wards the Bench, and very agi- 
 tatedly exclaimed — * My lord, as 
 the prosecutor, I recommend him to 
 mercy. I, the prosecutor, my lord, 
 recommend him to mercy, if mercy 
 can be shown. The consequences 
 of his crime were limited, the public 
 have suffered nothing — hardly any 
 thing.' 
 
 Lord Giflord leant back on his 
 seat, greatly affected ; but made no 
 reply. 
 
 The prisoner was then removed 
 from the dock, and his sentence 
 was afterwards commuted into 
 transportation for life. 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 executed for 
 
 It would indeed appear, from 
 this very singular case, that murder 
 is not allowed, even in this world, 
 to go unpunished. The reader 
 will recollect that on the trial of 
 Thurtell and Hunt, the principal 
 witness against the prisoners was 
 an approver of the name ot Pro- 
 bert— a man who had participated 
 in the plunder, and partially aided 
 
 PROBERT, 
 
 HORSE STEALING. 
 
 in the murder, of the unfortunate 
 Weare, but who then saved his 
 worthless life by turning king's 
 evidence. That man was the iden- 
 tical William Probert, whose case 
 we are now about to narrate. 
 
 On Friday night, February the 
 18th, 1825, long after the business 
 of the office had been concluded, 
 this notoiious character was brought 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 401 
 
 into Bow Street police-office, having view to lessen my past error that I 
 
 keen apprehended on a charge of unfortunately fell into, as there is a 
 
 horse stealing. It appeared that God on whom I alone rely for 
 
 the guiliy wretch, alter his (lis- mercy; but I do beg of the jury lo 
 
 charue from Hertford gaol, wander- banish all former unfortunate cir- 
 
 ed through the country without an cuinstances from their minds. It 
 
 object or a name. Puldic execra- cannot have escaped your notice, 
 
 tiofl every where pursued him, and my lord and gentlemen of the 
 
 his misery was no doubt great. At jury, that immediately after, and 
 
 length he found an asylum in the ever since my discharge from Hert- 
 
 house of his aged mother, who ford, the public animosity has been 
 
 lived at Ruarden, in Gloucester- kept alive against me by the public 
 
 shire. Within a few miles of this press, which has reached every part 
 
 Rlace resided a man of the name of ofEngland. Wherever I went, even 
 leredith, a miller, who was mar- to the remotest village throughout 
 ried to a distant relation of Pro- the kingdom, I was spurned as art 
 bert's. While paying her a visit outcast of society ; and the chief 
 the unprincipled villain saw and instrument which prevented my 
 admired a mare, the property of her obtaining employment, or indeed to 
 husband, and brought ihe animal to effect a reformation, was the public 
 London, where he disposed of her for press, which has not slackened to 
 twenty pounds. He assumed different follow, and portray me to the world, 
 names, but the miller having traced As the victim of prejudice, I could 
 his mare to London, succeeded in scarcely move from one place to 
 having the thief apprehended. another without seeing myself no- 
 For this offence Probert was put ticed in the daily papers. Those 
 on his trial at the Old Bailey on of my former friends, who might 
 the 7th of the following April, and otherwise have wished to continue 
 the evidence being gone into, he their services towards me, shrunk 
 read the following defence from a back from an apprehension of public 
 written paper. reprobation for being connected with 
 * My Lord, and Gentlemen of one such as myself. Every door 
 the Jury, — If I have this day plead- was shut against me, every hope of 
 ed not guilty to the indictment pre- future support blasted. My country 
 ferred against me, it is not that I had spared my life, hut individuals 
 wish by subtleties to evade or rendered that life of no value or 
 screen myself from the verdict and utility to me. I was hunted down 
 sentence which my country may like a wild beast of the forest. With 
 award against me, if convicted, but this desolation around me, and with 
 that 1 might have an opportunity these dreary prospects before me, I 
 to say something in this Court, to felt my fortitude forsaking me, and 
 evince to the public, that whatever I knew not what course to pursue, 
 may have been the unhappy cir- Heaven and myself only know what 
 cumstances of the latter days of my I suffered. I was a prey to the 
 life, I was not driven into my most heartrending care— I was a 
 present crime from depravity of prey to a deep and intense feeling, 
 disposition, hut from a species of the cause of which I trust it will 
 fatal necessity, which had placed not be necessary to refer to. I 
 me far beyond the reach of all appeal to you, my lord, and gen- 
 human assistance and charity. The tlemen of the jury, whether my 
 appeal I now make is not with a situation was not most deplorable; 
 ▼OL. IT. 123 
 
402 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR 
 
 [terhaps you will weigh in your own 
 mniiine breasts tlie miseries wliicli 
 surrounded me, and what you would 
 have done under similar circum- 
 stances. If you, gen lie men of the 
 jury, should observe any features 
 in my case deserving commisera- 
 tion, then I trust you will express 
 a sense of it to his lordship, and 
 recommend me to mercy ; and 
 should you, my lord, concur in the 
 same sentiments, then 1 humbly 
 pray that your lordship will recom- 
 mend me to the clemency of my 
 gracious sovereign, as no former 
 conviction appears on the record 
 against me. On my way from the 
 police-office to Newgate, my ears 
 were stunned with the horrid yells 
 of the populace, and my life threat- 
 ened. Indeed, my lord, and gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, since the cala- 
 mitous event that took place at 
 Hertford, I have been a lost man, 
 and at times on the eve of self-de- 
 struction. But the Almighty God 
 has sustained me under my heaviest 
 afflictions, and should his wisdom 
 direct that my life is to be spared, 
 the remainder of my days will be 
 spent in atonement for past errors 
 that I have fallen into. 1 hope I 
 have not intruded too long upon 
 your lordship's time. I felt it my 
 duty to stale lo your lordship and 
 gentlemen of the jury, how mise- 
 rable my life has been, and the 
 severe trials I have undergone since 
 my discharge from Hertford ; and 
 likewise my innocent wife has suf- 
 fered all privations, without comfort 
 and without a friend to assist her, 
 and even on the point of starvation ; 
 she having lately been brought to 
 bed with an increase to the family, 
 and no one to assist her in that 
 trying moment or to render her any 
 way comfortable. But, on the con- 
 trary, nothing but distress and 
 trouble ; and even at the present 
 £ime, destitute of friends and home. 
 
 Such, gentlemen of the jury, has 
 been, and is now, the situation of 
 my wife. Indeed, my lord, and 
 gentlemen of the jury, I have en- 
 deavoured to leave the country, and 
 several times offered to work my 
 passage over. But all my endea- 
 vours to accomplish my wishes 
 have been unsuccessful. For the 
 indulgence you have this day shown 
 to me, by attending to the address 
 I have now made, I fetl greatly 
 obliged ; therefore, I cannot help 
 reminding you, my lord, and gentle* 
 men of the jury, of the happiness I 
 once possessed, and was ever ready 
 to alleviate the distresses of my 
 fellow-creatures, and to contribute 
 to the support of charitable insti- 
 tutions. I hnpe I am more the 
 object of commiseration than that 
 of severe censure. I am aware, my 
 lord, and gentlemen of the jury, the 
 whole country is against me, but 
 that, I trust, will not bias your 
 mind ; as a trial by jurymen of my 
 country does credit to the wise laws 
 of the realm, and does not less re- 
 flect the same sensible feelings on 
 my own mind. I therefore trust, if 
 there should be any marks favour- 
 able in my case, you will give me 
 the benefit.' 
 
 He read the address with great 
 composure, but in somewhat a low 
 tone. The judge having charged 
 the jury, a verdict of Guilty was 
 instantly returned. 
 
 On the 13th of the same month 
 he was brought up to receive sen- 
 tence, when he prolested his inno- 
 cence so far as guilty intention 
 went, stated that he was driven to 
 the commission of the offence for 
 which he was about to receive 
 judgment by the greatest distress, 
 and alluded in a feeling manner to 
 the misery in which his wife and 
 children were placed. The recorder, 
 after observing that these topics 
 should be reserved for another place, 
 
KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 403 
 
 proceeded to pass the fatal sen- made some disclosure relative to 
 tenee. the persons who were said to have 
 Prohert continued in prison till heen missing a short time before 
 the 14th of June before the record- Weare's murder ; in justice, bow- 
 er's report was made to the king, ever, to the memory of the wretch- 
 and dining this long period he had ed man, it must he stated that there 
 indulged the most sanguine hopes are no grounds for believing him to 
 thai his life would he spared. On have been concerned in any tran- 
 being informed that he was ordered saction of a murderous nature but 
 for execution on the following that in which his own evidence at 
 Monday, he felt satisfied, he said, Hertford proves him to have been 
 that the public voice was in bis implicated. 
 
 favour, and that every one was sur- When he ascended the platform 
 prised at the decision of the privy on the fatal morning, the 20th of 
 council. When told by a gentle- June. 1825, his limbs were corn- 
 man who visited him that he sns- pletely palsied, and his agitation 
 tained his fate with less fortitude dreadful. Alter the noose was 
 than any of his companions in afflic- tied be moveil as far as he was 
 Hon, (ei^ht being left for execution able, ami turned himself, raising 
 out of thirty-seven reported,) he his hands in quick and tremulous 
 replied that that was not to be won- motion, and so continued till the 
 dered at, for they were conscious ordinary had taken his final leave, 
 of their guilt, ami knew they could and the falling of the platfoim 
 have supported themselves by other closed the sce:ie. 
 means than theft, but that he was His fellow sufferers were two 
 absolutely impelled by dire neces- men, named Sargeant and Harper, 
 sity to commit the art for which he for the same offeuce of horse steal- 
 was about to suffer death — he must big, and another, named Smith, for 
 have done it or starved. He so- burglary. The four others who 
 leinnly declared thai he was co - were at the same time ordered for 
 pletely ignorant of any circuni- execution met their fate on the 
 stances connected with the murder Monday following, 
 of Weare until alter it had been On this occasion the concourse 
 effected, and that the confession of of spectators was probably never 
 Hunt was in many of its points exceeded, the windows opposite 
 utterly false, particularly those being crowded as early as three 
 which related to his (Proberl's) wife, o'clock in the morning, and chiefly 
 It was thought that he could have with females. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 The reader is now in possession the total number committed for trial 
 
 of a record of the most remarkable in England and Wales was 93 718, 
 
 cases which have appeared in our viz. 78,918 males, and 14,800 f'e- 
 
 criiiinal courts during the last bun- males, against 12 426 of whom no 
 
 died and twenty five years, and we bills were found, 17,874 were ac- 
 
 cannot close the work without a few quilled, and of the remaining 03,418, 
 
 words on the frequency of capital no less than 7,770 were sentenced 
 
 punishment, and the still more ex- to death, of whom 579 were exeeu- 
 
 traordinary proportion of capital ted, or nearly an average of 83 an- 
 
 conviclions. In the seven years, nually. Large as this number is, it 
 
 from 1819 to 1825, both inclusive, is very small in compaiison with the 
 
404 KNAPP & BALDWIN'S NEWGATE CALENDAR. 
 
 extraordinary amount of those on 
 whom the awful sentence was pass- 
 ed, and the more so when we consi- 
 der that the proportion of capital 
 convictions would he still greater 
 did nol juries frequently find offend- 
 ers guilty of stealing- to the value of 
 thirty-nine shillings only, when the 
 property is proved to he worth ten 
 or twenty times that sum ; a pious 
 fraud to which they are driven hy 
 the sanguinary character of our 
 criminal code, even to the violation 
 of their oaths. 
 
 The offences made capita! by the 
 laws of England amount to about 
 223. Of these six were so made in 
 the course of the 150 years that 
 elapsed from Edward III. to Henry 
 VII.; thirty in the next 150 years, 
 from Henry VIII. to Charles II.; 
 and 187 in the last 150 years. 
 Taking another view of these enact- 
 ments, four offences were made 
 capital under the Plantagenets, 27 
 under the Tudors, 36 under the 
 Stuarts, and 156 under the family 
 of Brunswick. More offences were 
 made capital during the single reign 
 ol George III. than dining the reigns 
 of all the Plantagenets, Tudors, and 
 Stuarts, put together. There are 
 persons now living at whose birth 
 the number of capital offences did 
 not exceed 70, and during whose 
 lives such offences have been multi- 
 plied more than threefold. If we 
 inquire whether, with this increasing 
 seventy, crime has been kept under, 
 the answer is very much the reverse. 
 But the fact is, as we have already 
 shown, that this severity is more 
 nominal than real — that out of an 
 average of 1110 on whom the awful 
 sentence is annually passed in Eng- 
 land and Wales, the number exe- 
 cuted does not quite average S3. 
 Anion" those who are thus solemnly 
 exhorted to prepare for another 
 world, a very large proportion know 
 that their offence is one for which 
 
 the awful punishment is never in- 
 flicted. What beneficial effect, then, 
 can result from the mere ceremony ? 
 In the name of reason and common 
 sense what purpose can be answered 
 by keeping the statute bonk in tliis 
 state? The puuishiuf ut usually 
 substituted is transportation for life, 
 one winch, by those who have neither 
 character nor connexion in this 
 country, is not uufrequenllv antici- 
 pated with delight : and thus, whilst 
 the judge is most solemnly exhort- 
 ing the criminal to prepare for an 
 hereafter, his mind is perhaps em- 
 ployed in contemplating a voyage 
 of pleasure. It is only the other 
 day that an offender, on being sen- 
 tenced to transportation, thanked 
 the judge, with an appearance of 
 sincerity, tor sending him to a much 
 better country than this ! 
 
 We have already slated that the 
 number executed in the seven yea>s 
 of 1619 to 1825 was 579: their 
 offences were as follows. 
 Arson, and other wilful burning of 
 
 property . . .10 
 
 Burglary .... lt& 
 Caitle stealing • . .2 
 
 maliciously kilting . . 1 
 
 Coining . . . .5 
 
 Forgery, and uttering forged instru- 
 ments . . . .62 
 Horse stealing . . .21 
 Housebreaking in the day-time, and 
 
 larceny . . .9 
 
 Larceny in dwelling- bouses to the 
 
 value of 40s. . .27 
 Letters containing bank-notes, se- 
 creting and stealing . • 5 
 Murder .... 101 
 shooting at, stabbing, and ad- 
 ministering poison, with intent to 30 
 Rape, &c. . . . .31 
 Riot, &c. (remaining assembled wilh 
 rioiers one hour alter the pro- 
 c'aination under the Riot Act 
 had been read) . . 1 
 Robbery on the person, on the high- 
 way, and other places . . 95 
 Sacrilege . . . .2 
 Sheep-stealing . . .29 
 Sodomy . , . .15 
 Treason, high . . .5 
 
 Total number of persons executed . 57.9 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adams, Agnes 
 
 9 
 
 .Allen, tie imiiiii 
 
 76 
 
 Andrews, Rn Jiurd . . 
 
 SI 
 
 Armitage, Iliclia'd . 
 
 11 
 
 Aslurolt, James, ilie elder 
 
 215 
 
 Ashcroft, Janief, the younge 
 
 r . ib. 
 
 Ashcroft, Davjd 
 
 ih. 
 
 Ashlon, John . 
 
 142 
 
 Badcock, William 
 
 117 
 
 Raily, Arthur . 
 
 16 
 
 Baines, John, the elder . 
 
 98 
 
 Baines. John, the younger 
 
 ib. 
 
 Baines, Zachary 
 
 ib. 
 
 Bardie, Frederic, alias Peter 
 
 Wood 15 
 
 BarnicoaJ, John . . 
 
 295 
 
 Bailey, John 
 
 96 
 
 Beazev, Edward . . 
 
 10 
 
 Rellingha'ii, John 
 
 81 
 
 Btakrborough, William 
 
 98 
 
 Booth, William 
 
 93 
 
 Bowler, Thomas . 
 
 65 
 
 Bradloid, William . 
 
 170 
 
 Bradley, Adni'ral . . 
 
 148 
 
 Brady, R. alias Oxford Bob 
 
 117 
 
 Brandreih, Jeremiah 
 
 •iit 
 
 Brenwick, Maurice . 
 
 l 
 
 Britain, John 
 
 121 
 
 Broik, Thomas 
 
 19-2 
 
 Brook, James . . 
 
 98 
 
 Brook, Thomas 
 
 ib. 
 
 B'own, George . . 
 
 194 
 
 Browu, William . , 
 
 80 
 
 Brunt, John Thomas 
 
 253 
 
 Buckley, Edmund 
 
 1 
 
 Butlerly, Bridget 
 
 297 
 
 Callaghan Charles . . 
 
 1 S7 
 
 Cardoza, Antonio . 
 
 29 
 
 Carroll, Rev. John 
 
 318 
 
 Carson, Thomas 
 
 188 
 
 Cashmaii, George 
 
 235 
 
 Cashman, John , 
 
 196 
 
 Clayton, John 
 
 59 
 
 Cook, Jonathan . . 
 
 347 
 
 Cooper, Robert . . 
 
 76 
 
 Cwruweli, William . . 
 
 119 
 
 Costello, William 
 
 338 
 
 Cox, Jane 
 
 14 
 
 Crowi her, Joseph 
 
 99 
 
 Cuncieli, William • • 
 
 6* 
 
 Curchod, Rosalie 
 
 280 
 
 Cossen, John, alias Walsh 
 
 338 
 
 Davidson, William 
 
 3153 
 
 Davison, John, Esq. . 
 
 95 
 
 Dawson, Daniel . 
 
 67 
 
 Deane, Jonathan 
 
 98 
 
 Denton, John 
 
 136 
 
 apta 
 
 Devan, Patrick 
 Dick, Samuel 
 Dooiiy, Daniel 
 Doody, William 
 Dooherty, Edward . 
 Drew, Elizabeth 
 Driscol, John . 
 Duckworth, George 
 Eadon, John . . 
 
 Ellem, John 
 Ennis, Bridget 
 Fallan, James 
 Fauntleroy, Henry . 
 Fenning, Elizabeih . 
 Fitzmauiice, Walter, alias 
 
 Rock 
 Flemino, Patrick 
 Fletcher, Joseph 
 Folkard, John 
 Folkard, William 
 Foss, Thomas . 
 Fountain, Azubah 
 Gamage, Lieutenant 
 George, Amy 
 Graui, Jeremiah 
 Green, Mary 
 Haguart, David 
 Haigh, James . 
 Hall, Alexander 
 Halloran, Dr. Lawrence Hynes 
 Hannah, John . 
 Iiarrower, Captain George 
 Harry, James, alias Harris 
 Hariiey, Robert 
 Hartley, William 
 Hay, James 
 Hav, Job 
 Hale, N. 
 
 Hayward, Samuel Denmore 
 Heath, Luke 
 Hebbtrfield, William 
 Hill, John 
 Hill, S. . 
 Hirst, John 
 
 Hod^e, Hon Arthur Will 
 Holden, William 
 Holl.ngs, W. H. 
 Hulrowi, Susannah 
 Hooper, John 
 Howe, William, alias John 
 Hunt, Henry 
 Hunt, Joseph . 
 Hunier, Elizabeth 
 Hussey, Charles 
 James, John 
 Jarvis, Rebecca 
 
 in 
 
 lam 
 
 Wood 
 
 *19 
 
 v3i 
 
 333 
 
 ib. 
 
 834 
 
 168 
 
 235 
 
 98 
 
 A. 
 
 166 
 
 297 
 
 7 
 
 885 
 
 m 
 
 338 
 
 1 
 
 96 
 
 94 
 
 ib. 
 
 13T 
 
 112 
 
 69 
 
 376 
 
 185 
 
 W 
 
 98 
 
 SI 
 
 f.St 
 
 125 
 
 189 
 
 224 
 
 342 
 
 99 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 324 
 
 12S 
 
 48 
 
 79 
 
 891 
 
 17 
 
 6( 
 21/. 
 145 
 190 
 202 
 110 
 248 
 S5S 
 187 
 224 
 144 
 188 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Jemmet, William . . 
 
 61 
 
 Richardson, Joseph 
 
 12* 
 
 Jenkins, William 
 
 .59 
 
 Riedy, Daniel 
 
 338 
 
 Jesson, Thomas . . 
 
 165 
 
 Rowell, George Turner 
 
 H2 
 
 Lms, James . 
 
 253 
 
 Sandon, Thos. Chas. Fitzhue, Es 
 
 q. 352 
 
 Junchim .... 
 
 70 
 
 Savary, Henry . . • 
 
 397 
 
 Johnston, Robert 
 
 240 
 
 Sawyer, Will. am . . . 
 
 160 
 
 Ivey, John ". . • 
 
 7" 
 
 Scunlan, John, Esq. . . . 
 
 27 3 
 
 Kendall, Richard . . . 
 
 99 
 
 Seinple, Major J. G alias Lisle 
 
 151 
 
 Kenneti, Robert 
 
 115 
 
 Skene, George, Esq. . . 
 
 63 
 
 Keppel, Charles 
 
 318 
 
 Sligo, Marquis of . . . 
 
 72 
 
 Keys, John . . 
 
 34+ 
 
 Smith, John . . . 
 
 6i 
 
 Kinnear, John . . . 
 
 238 
 
 Smith, John . • 
 
 341 
 
 Lamb, John 
 
 96 
 
 Smith, Thomas . . • 
 
 97 
 
 Leahy, David . . , 
 
 338 
 
 Spreadbury, David . 
 
 1.8 
 
 Leahy, James 
 
 ib. 
 
 Stent, Henry . 
 
 242 
 
 Leahy, Maurice . . 
 
 ib. 
 
 Sioffel, Philip 
 
 348 
 
 Leary, James . . < 
 
 128 
 
 Stone, Sarah . . < 
 
 155 
 
 Levy, Lewis . . . 
 
 238 
 
 Sullivan, John . . 
 
 1 
 
 Leith, Alexander Wellesley 
 
 394 
 
 Sullivan, Stephen . • 
 
 273 
 
 Ltghtfoot, James 
 
 276 
 
 Swailow, John . • ■ 
 
 96 
 
 Lomas, John ... 
 
 74 
 
 Sweeny, James . • 
 
 1 
 
 Louth, Lord . 
 
 39 
 
 Symons, James . • 
 
 123 
 
 Ludlam, Isaac . . . 
 
 222 
 
 Symons, Nathan . . 
 
 ib. 
 
 Ltimley, John . . . 
 
 2 
 
 Tardit, Antonio . . 
 
 Ill 
 
 Lynn, Charles . . . 
 
 390 
 
 Taylor, William . . 
 
 76 
 
 Mackcouli, James, alias Moffat . 
 
 281 
 
 Thistle wood, Arthur . . 
 
 202, 253 
 
 Mat-key, Robtrt 
 
 194 
 
 Th. mas, C. . . ". 
 
 11 
 
 Mag. mus. Jacob 
 
 272 
 
 Thomas, Richard Valentine 
 
 4 
 
 Mugnis, Harriet . . . 
 
 42 
 
 Thompson, John . 
 
 295 
 
 Malouy, Thomas 
 
 322 
 
 Thornton, Abraham . . 
 
 225 
 
 Marsh, James . 
 
 186 
 
 Thorp, William . . 
 
 97 
 
 Martin .... 
 
 70 
 
 Thurtell, John 
 
 353 
 
 Mattin, William 
 
 33+ 
 
 Tidd, Richard 
 
 ib. 
 
 May, John Diew . . , 
 
 139 
 
 Tilling, Samuel 
 
 "8 
 
 M'Elroy, Edward . 
 
 322 
 
 Towers, Robert . . 
 
 92 
 
 M'llvena, Michael . 
 
 306 
 
 Townle_\ , William . . , 
 
 50 
 
 M'Nainara, John 
 
 126 
 
 Tucker, John . . 
 
 49 
 
 Mellor, George . . , 
 
 97 
 
 Turner, William 
 
 222 
 
 Mill'iigion . . . 
 
 70 
 
 Vaughan, George 
 
 194 
 
 Milnes, Charles . . 
 
 98 
 
 Wagstaff, John Hill . 
 
 374 
 
 Mitchell, James . . 
 
 143 
 
 Walker, John . . . 
 
 98 
 
 Morrey, Edith . . , 
 
 74 
 
 Walsh, Benjamin, Esq M. P. 
 
 44 
 
 jNlorris, Henry . 
 
 113 
 
 Watson, James, the elder 
 
 202 
 
 Moulds, WiHiam 
 
 4 
 
 Watson, James, the younger 
 
 ib. 
 
 Murdoch, John . . 
 
 166 
 
 Weller, Charles 
 
 154 
 
 Ne.shett, James . 
 
 278 
 
 Weller, William . . 
 
 2S5 
 
 Newton, John . . . 
 
 345 
 
 Welsh, Laurence . . 
 
 334 
 
 Nicholson, Philip 
 
 102 
 
 Welsh, William 
 
 ib. 
 
 Nugent, Thomas 
 
 94 
 
 White, Frederic 
 
 292 
 
 O'Connor, Roger, Esq. 
 
 211 
 
 While, Hiirt'uin, alias Huffey 
 
 99 
 
 Ogden, John 
 
 98 
 
 Whiting, Michael 
 
 38 
 
 Palm, Charles Frederick . 
 
 78 
 
 Whitmoie, Joint, alias Old Dasl 
 
 6 
 
 Pe.irce, Richard . 
 
 1 
 
 Williams, John 
 
 52 
 
 Pelham, John 
 
 192 
 
 Williams, 
 
 70 
 
 Pierce, Alexander . 
 
 383 
 
 Wilson, James 
 
 350 
 
 Power, Michael 
 
 192 
 
 Winter, Joseph Simmons . 
 
 76 
 
 Preston, '1 homas 
 
 202 
 
 Wood, Cornelius . 
 
 392 
 
 Probert, William 
 
 400 
 
 Wood, Geo. Alex. . . 
 
 391 
 
 Quin, William 
 
 149 
 
 Woolf, Moselv . 
 
 238 
 
 Radlord, Anne 
 
 158 
 
 Woollerton, Elizabeth 
 
 183 
 
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