The National Register. — London, England, 1819-10-31 00:00:00

OLD BAILEY, FRIDAY, OCT. 03. -..m..- The Recorder sit at nine this morning, and despatched s ~ , te hu , iiie,t before the Judges arrived. He sass attende4 foto Court by Mr. Sheriff Parkins, who soon after retired. wad did not make his appearance for the remainder of the day. On the:lt - rival of the Judtes,there being only one Sheriff (Rotiass dl l pre.eut, the junior . Judge, Mr. Justice Farb. via ushered 'urn C art by Mr. Under Sheriff Turner. CON VIC TION OF JOHN HoLMESBY FOR Tin MUROF.R OF HIS WIFE J-gin 114'wesbq was indieted•or the wilful murder of Ann }leitnesby, his woe, on the 28th of September, in the parish of St. John, Hackney, by strik ng her with an axe upo n . the head. of which wound she died. 'lhe unfortunate p:isoner %rat a mild looking decently dressed young man, and be haved himselt at the bar with great composure. He shook hands with some friends whom he recognised in front of the dock. Mr. WA troan opened the pleadings. Mr..ALLar ftated the case for the prosecution, and ele• tailed the nature of the evidence he had to adduce against the unfortunate prisoner, exactly as it was given in the tulluwing •yilence:— Thitl„ret witness was Esther Surrey, who gave her evi• deuce as follows:-1 am a single woman now residing at . the workhouse at ilomerton. In September list I lodged ill the same house with the prisoner it was his wife s fa ther's house. In the latter end of that month. I ne!itve the , 2gth, ins Tuesday. prisoner and his wife went out together *bout three o'clock so the day. rrhe pri.iiner here ex- Please you, my Lord, that's false.") I did not see them again until they returned about halt-past six o'clock its the evening; hut I do not know whether they came in both together or not. I first saw them at the stile talking . before the door with another man, where they stayed about a quarter of an hour before they entered the house; but the man did not come in; his name was John Lawrence, and the prisoner was very jealous of him, for he afters:, arils said 11,c had caught him *Lit evening with his wile; he said this when lie came in doors, and when lie had sow , : word, with the deceased, whom he called a w , and charged with being with this man; she ;tiied he was a liar. then asked her to go to bed ; she said 0 Yes." They both went into the bed room nice her, as I thought to go to red -They then both undronsed and went to bed. At th.s time the acceastd's little brother and sister were in the house in lied ; their father, who was a watchman, was out. I was . i t the act ut going to bed with the children, who slept in the adjoining room. Prisoner sob's atter came out from his wife v room into ou rs, and sat I,intwlf down on the sr.diere the children were. He said to me, Are you going to bed r ,My reply was. ° l believe I shall." ide then went back to los wife's room, and in a minute or two re turned, '4,4 sat again upon our bed undies ed, when I asked • him whether he wished to sleep with the children. His wife, who Wa4 in the neat room, and who could overhear him, to his wite's room, and then I heard a blow, as I thought, then Said, get up " He went back a second time from the sound, as if from his fig. I immediately got up and went to the door, and the little boy in the bed I had ju-t tootled roared out ' t Murder !" When I got to the door the prisoner came out from Ins wife's room, bearing an axe in his hand, and said, if the boy re:Evil out Murder again .'le would murder hint ; he hen retraned into his bedroom, still carrying the sac while he was there at that time I liecrd the deceased cry out very faintly, Lord have mercy upon nose - ' I thiak she said this about three times. The piisasier then came out into the room, and said he had dune for :rr, and should be hung. He then asked the little boy k..11C deceased's brother) for his father's money. and the boy bud !IC did not know where it was. he prisoner then tout ,) chisel, opened the father's box, and took away the money; aster that, he asked me for the pen and ink, with which lie w rote two notes, the paper of which he tore out of the baker's book. When he did this, he brought the.ani, and held it up to me, and said, that if we ever spoke a word.:* should be dead. He then said he must go away, and that he would go by the back door and listen, adding, if.he heard us speak a ord, he would come back and do for us. I gave an alarm as soon as I could at Alt. Coition's, over the way, the Ciooked Billet. Is was a moon-shining Eight. Croiscexamincd by Mr CI!RWOOD.-1 am no relation to the deceased, hut was a mere lodger in the Noose. They went out together on the ISth of September; whether they continued together or not I don't know, but the that I saw of them after was to the evening. when I saw alerts talking with another man, near a spot where there was a cow house. I dal judge from the tone that an angry conversa tion was passing between tir m. and I overheard prisoner taxing his wile with having caught her in a certain situation sv:th the man (Lawrence) in that cow-house. His words were—. I hate caught you in the fact.' This was outside the door; and the conversation wag confirmed angrily after t :icy entered the house, into which he shoved her so an angry Manner. Atter she had guile into the 'room, he came oust of it two or three times, and he seemed to be very up easy. I ovetheal d her say,to the prisoner that she was car • tied into the cow-house ny. Lawrence; the pi isoner replied, it she would swear a rape against the man be would take m uptu Worship street; she ropiied she would not do it I uid me hear hex say she loved his little finger better than her husband's whole body, nor that she would get up and go co Lawrence. Re-examincd.—The woman did say ss Len he accused her of twin a w—, that ,he was a liar. Thomas Soles, a boy ..bout twelve years of age, the hex t'.:er of the deceased, corrubor.sied si,c last witness's testi: stony. Robert Prescott. a constable, recollected the alarm of murder on the night in question; he repaired with Mr. Wiliam a neighbour, to the house where found near the door indoe two puddles of blood, and on turning hi* e‘ e tie SAM the deceased lying on her back in the bed. quite dead; on the eght side ..f the bed there was a great deal of btuud quite congealed. He then produced a I. rge ate, which he found in the children a hed-rooni ; it w..s full of wood on the track part when he found it. which was thick ;sod beasy r there was nu blood on thashaip edge of the 11141. Lb. boy Soles proved this to be his father's are- wh'cli was in the cup oaid under tha s,aurs. The Prisoner, when called upon fur his defence, spoke as follows, in a eery emulous tone: "On the !Woodsy, the dty before. I saw my wife, who went o u t loget el pail of wEer i and was put a lung time, on her return her fur be , i,g out, knowing she hat:linen doing wrung; tie todowing day she said she was going out, " suspecti ng • her to be going to act improperly, I followed her to t he cew•huuse, near which I saw lice with this John Lawrence; and on her return, when I accused her of it, she lads' You may be d—'d, and she would do as she liked THE NATIONAL REGISWEIt. The following day I to'd her I wanted to buy a pair of shoes, and asked licr to arcompany me; she refused and went off by herself halt an hour before. I sought her fur some time, and at length met her near Dishopsgate; she at first refused to go with me but ultimately consented, and soon after left me and when I came home she refused to tell me where she bad been; I was very angry and we had words all the time of tea. I told her I had not ;muter enough to get shoes, and she wanted me to go to Church strevt, Newington, where she said I might get them ; I went there, and found neither slvip nor shoes. On my retain I found her again from home, and tried for her in the coach yard, where she sometimes went to the men, but she was not there. I then went to the cow house. where I heard her lireathieg." lie then minutely described ihe situation in which be bound his wife with Law rence on the evening of the .28th of Septemlier ; her en treaties to he forgiven because the man forced her in; he stated hi: offer to prosecute the man her refti;al, decla ration that she loved th finger better than Its (t he husband's) whole body. He then admitted hi: having had a continued altercation with her in the bed-room, and his being at length provoked ; and in the height of her abuse of him,and threats to go out again to t:.e man whom she loved, and also her imprecations chat she would be tie death of him or herself; he then struck her since, twice, or thrice, with the axe which he nicked up in the room; and after hay• ing done so. he strew her head towards him and kissed her saying... Ami were once my comfort ; I have now been your death ; and you, my dear, will be the deaths cf me." He admitted his having taken the 11. from his father in-law's box, and threatene,; those in the horse not to stir. In the course of his address, which was rather long and in some parts unconnected, the prisoner more than once adverted to acts of infidelity on the part of his wife, which according ts) Jus . account, he was aware of before the night of the murder. He said she had been in the habit of going with married men in the neighhourhsied, and tLat he had long suspected her. On the night on which he. alleged. he bad detected Lawrence hind his (prisoner's) wife in the cow house, he said lie upbraided hers but afterwards consented to forgive her, and forget what. was passed, provided she a:ould go 4:id live with Lawrence or Tucker, or with any one else she loved bet er than himself, and not come to him any more. it also appeared from his statement, that the man l.averence) had joined them ; prizainer and his wife) before they got home from the cow-house. on 'he night in question, and had called for sonic drink for them, acknowledging that the whole trarisactiran with I.IIaULIKT . I wife was his (Law rence's) fault. Prisoner said he would not drink. btu (we think) only tasted it, and threw away the glass From ano ther part of his speech it appeared, that lie had on a former occasion been hound over to keep. the peace fur ill-treatment of his w This he alleged as a season for not striking her when she provoked him so, by saying, (as he. itsted,) that slit would do as site liked, and he might go and bc.d---d; for, he added. he was afraid shy would send him to prison. and let him rot there. From the whole of his defence, ad mitting it to be true, we could infer, that the life he and his wife had led before the melancholy conclusion of hers was a aolistant scene of quarrel and reconciliatani. On the present occasion lie rested his case chit fly on the great provocation he had received from one whom he said he loved so dearly. A litnniaer of witnesses were then called, who gave the PH. boner au excellent character for bumani y. Mr. Baron Wool) summed up the evidence to the Jury. and rema: keel, that had the ptisoner combatted the act of which he stood charged, at the moment he caught another man in adultery with his wife, then the law had humanely provided a palliation for his crime; but here the act was de liberately committed at a subsequent period, when the pas sions had Aline to cool. and therefore the prisoner had disen titled himself to the belie& he might otherwise have had in the eye of tire law. 'l•lie Jury, after +ix minutes deliberation, found the pri• -rity, and the Recorder immediately pronounced apon him. in the must solemn manner, the awful sentence of the law, which was, that lie be hanged on Monday neat. The pritp:.er bore .I.i. Lee with the utmost ctinposure, and retired from the bar in the act of coolly wiping the dust from the top of hi, hat. The Court was at an early hoar crowded, particularly with females. ALLEGED :".41Titin.R. flume , Lofi W3S lICILI Wit to the bar. charged with the wil ful murder of Anne Licivion. In this ease 'tbe particulars of wl.lch we have recently g;ven to the public in the account of the proceedings at the Coroner's inquest), bills of indictment had been sent to the Grand Jury, who threw them out for want of sufficient evi • dente. The prisoner. was .now. therefore, arraigned on Ahe Coroner's inquest. Mr ALLEY, who was retained by the parish (St. Mar tin's in the fields, we belive), stated the case to the Jury He described most or the circumstances as they weredetailed on the coroner's urest, added, that from the statement of the deceased, at a time when she must have believed she was dying. there was nothing elicited which could in any degree inculpate the prisoner. The learned gentleman was proceed ing, when Mr. - Justice Paris observed, he understood that he (Mr. Alley) had no eridence a g ainst the prisoner, but that which was adduced before the Conoter—no evidence which could bring home any thing to the prisoner. Mr. Att.ty said he had no such evidence, hut appeared there by direction of the guardians of the parish in which the verdict of the coroner's inquest had been returned. Mr Justice PARK sa'd, the parish had acted very properly in setting the inquiry on foot. Where blood had been shed, it was their duty to endeavour to find out the cause; but he and his learned brother (Mr Baron Weed ) had read the de positions taken before the Coroner, which he had no doubt were correctly given; and though he did not mean to clues' thin the motives whirls had induced the verd ct on that oc casion, yet he should observe, that fur any thing which ap pear-el, they might as well have named any other person in the kingdom as the prisoner. Under such circumstances,. and where there was no additional evidence to he offered, it would he °illy a waste of time to go on with the case. Mr ALLEY reneated, that he had no further evidence; and his Lordship told the Jury, that as there was no evidence, they must acquit the prisoner. A verdict of acquital was accordingly given,AMl recorded, and the prisoner was discharged. CasES OF FORGERY. Mr Set jeant Bose Kyl u e T appeared in Coort.and on his rata. tion severs, pr.soners were par to the Wt., secured of tattering forged notes. knowing them to be forged, (a capital offence), and also ot having in their pos•ession knowinglylforged notes, purporting to he of the Lank of kngtood, (ma offence which subjects the party, if convicted, to 14 years' trAnwortatton There were Its per‘ons in all. Of these the following per stip s pleaded potty to tbc minus oficucc, with the understand- OCT: et ing that the capital indictment wou'd be abandoned by the Bank The nature of their plea, and the punishment at tached to it. were clearly and humanely explained to each by Mr Baron Wood and Mr. Justice Park:—Willtam Turnbult, : dward Morwe, George Wilson, John Butler, George Wil liam, ,n, 14.-m:is Green, William Jones, John Green. DAM'S Ping, Isaac Tittevon. John Webster, and Timms. Dobbins. The following prisoners pleaded n ty to both offences, and of course remain fur trial :—Richard Jennings, James Harrison. Msry Anne Croft, John Bailey, Jas. Stubbs, and Thomas M'Dermot. I he 12 prisoners who hat' pleaded guilty to the minor of fence were then severally put to the bar, and given in charge on she capital indictment, when Mr. Serjeant Dos/.noun stated, that after their plea of guilty to the Ics.er ofience, it was not the wish of the-Bank to offer any evidence on the other charge. They were there fore each acquitted on Ili, indictment, and remanded for sen tence on the other. ARSON. Jane Co, A was put to the bar, charged with having on the 943 of October feloniously set fire to a certain house in the pa rish of St. Marylehoue, the property td Julio Campbell Esq. Mr WA Lroit D opened the case, and Mr. 1301.tatt:o sum! it to the Jury, on the part of the Sun roe office, who had insured the house George Wilkinson, r coachman, remembered the mornityg of the did of o;tuber. Lived near seyntour-place, and from his own door could see the house, No, 69: saw it on fire about 7 in the morning, the fire coming out of the first floor wind w. Went with sonic others to get the servant out. They went from wont to room, and in the back parlour they saw a bed, but did not perceive at that time any person in it. They went out; but were induced to return, when they found the prisoner in a state of insensibility. They spoke to her, but she did not answer. The corner of the bed was un tire. They took her away, and soon after returned to get a bed for her to be laid upon. After the fire was nearly extin guished, they went to sec how the prisoner was. She had then recovered in a great degree, and talked rationally, but was a little convulsed at times. He asked her.how the fire had happened, and she said that she was the only person guilty, and she knew she must suffer She added, that tier friends had all turned their backs upon her, that her charac ter was blasted, and she had no remedy whatever to get rid of all her enemies, but to be burned in the flames. Witness asked her whether she had been advised by any one. She said no; not in. particular; that every one was her enemy, and she wished to get rid of life. She had dune the act, an d us. one else was to biamc. She then described -the may in which she had set fire to the home. Elie got up about titre: o'clock, and took some laudanum and some holland& out of her master's cellar, and drank it She had cut up sonic sheets, and set fire to them, in the back kitchen. Cross-examined by Mr. CURWOOD.—Prisoner appeared like one deranged. What she said about setting Cite to the back kitchen could not be true, from all he had seen. Br the Cover.—She had some scratches un her throat, as if else had attempted tosnake away with herself. She Litt; nothing to him about diem. Mr. John North, a surgeon, , aw the prisoner on the morn ing in question. •Wm was a good deal convulsed at intervals, He examined her throat, and found a few very slight incl. noes, but they were of no consequence, being only mu d.c skis. In tke course .of an hoer or two after, he visited her again, and found her compara:ively tranquil. but s. ill much agitated Hire this witness corroborated the testimony of the former one, as to her coctes,ion of the fact of settin g Ste to the house. She denied that a soldier had any hand in the tratvaction ; but soon after added, that she could not tell the whole truth, for fear of the peop.e. Witnesizathered from some other parts of her coneenatiun that she had been ill. treated by her husband. :he told witness that she had at tempted to cut her throat, and the wound, bore the mark of a very sharp instrument. She also acknowledged to li,sviug taken-some laudanum. _ . _ In his cross-examination; Ise said,if called in to give his opi nion as to her sanity : he would hesitate in giving it under the circumstances of agitation in which she was. However, judging from what he had seen he could not say that she ap peared sane then She was sent to Marylcbone Infirmary. Mr. Guodger, the apothecary to the Marylebone Infirmary. saw tie prisoner when brought in there. She was then in a very stupid state. That might have been occasioned by lan• danum or other opiates. de saw her several times after, and she talked a great deal of nonsense. As soon as the effect if the laudanum had subsided, he had no doubt from her man ner that she was deranged she was insane upon one point. She always:magined that some persons w. re scandalising her, and sometimes she conceised that she was going to lose her head. Mrs. Frances Stowe knew the prisoner; used to pay her board wages for keeping Mr. Campbell's house t witness saw her in the li.firmary, where she confessed the had made away with some or the property, she told her where they were to be found. waness went to one of the hou•es, where she found a silver cream pot and anger tongs, and some tea spoons. Witness saw those articles, but.d4 not examine them; she went to ether places, but valid actuated asy.artieles of Mr. Campbell's property. Mr. Thomas Webb. the surgeon to the House of Correc tion in Cold Bath-fields. saw the prisooer wh nsheicamethere, and,every day whilst she was there; and to the best of his skill, she did LAI appear to he any thing deranged in bet mind. She appeared a good deal debilitat. din her bodily system. She had bsen sent from the I iifi wary to Cold Bath.Aelds house. The case had gone thus tar, and no legal ohketiou was made to the indictment, .when a gentleman of the name et Owen was called by the counsel for the prosecution. The uh. ject in calling this gentleman was to give legal proof that the house, ti , ,cribed in the indictment, was the property of •Jolin Campbell, Esq. Fur this purpose Mr. Lswen produced the probate of a will, made by a Mrs. Eliza Stapleford. in which the house, No. 69, Seymour-place. was bequeathed to Mr. Campbell. But the terms of the bequest ran thus—•• To her dear friend John G Campbell, Esq. ; ' whereas the indictment laid the house as the property of John Campbe I, Esq , with out any other name being {?refixed or added. Upon heating dds, Mr. Justice PARR stopped the evidence, and sent for Baron Wood, who had been out of Court for a short time. !laving consuitcd with Baren.Wood fir some minutes, Mr. Justice l'at k was suffering the case to proceed, when Mr. Cuswenna submitted, that the indictment could not stand. in consequence of the misnomer. The indictment chargeti the orisuner with having set fire to the house i,t John Campbell, Esq. • whereas it now appeared, that the house was the prup2 , ty oelohn Graham Campbell. This, he contend ed, must resider the indictment void, as if the prisoner was acquitted on it, she could not urge such acquittal as a plea in bar to auy future indictment which might describe the property as that of John Graham Campbell. It was held thiS