The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1805-03-25 00:00:00

HORRID MURDERS. TORK LENT ASSIZES. On Saturday se'nnight the Crown bu.iness finish. ed At the Castle. It included tltc thr , ye following cAses of the most Hoaa.ets MuitOkt in the cata logue of human depravity. A hk.hild for poisoning bit wife; a r-n for hanging hia father ; and a mother for cutting open her infant child. We are indebted to a friend for an early copy of that excellent and cell.condutled [Wet-, The York lirrak. from which we have copied the following repurts of these shock. t ag offences. bot Hat; weed, late of the parish of Rotherham, in t he West Riding, single woman, was indiEled for the o ffal murder of her female bastard child. • Sarah Turner, the first Witness on the part of the p r oaecution, said she was fellow-servant with the ii , oner at the time she lived with Mr..Roodhouse, ef firockshouse, near Rotherham, into whose service the Prisoner entered in July last. She observed that the Prisoner was not well, but orly said she had got a cold at a boarding-school, and was not right. On . the 1 ,1(h of November, in the mo rni ng , she saw the " prisoner standing by the side of the sink, with symp toms tif labour upon her; but she still said she had got cold, and asked me to go and milk for her. I returned in half an hour, and saw her in an out house, and blood upon the floor and on her hands ; she was sitting with her hands upon her knees. 1 then asked her what she ailed ? She said she was poorly, and had taken some pills. She desired the Witaess to get her a mop and water to clean the place. and desired her to say nothing to any one. I sent the other servant in to her, who brought her into t he house, and we warmed her bed, and put her in. Upon telling the Prisoner that the other servant had gone to the out-house with a candle, she ex claimed, " I)—n her, what is she gone there for? she can find nothing." She said that the next day the Prisoner went horns to her aunt's ; and, upon cleaning out the Prisoner's room, she found a pen t knife with blood upon it, which she afterwards gave into the custody of her master. Phillis Cassel, another servant of Mr. Roodhouse. said, that she lived there at the time the • Prisoner di& and corroborated the evidence of the preceding Witness, with this addition, that there were ashes in the outhouse, which appeared to have been fresh removed. Mr Roodhouse said, that he and his wife went on the 29th of November last to the Prisoner's bed morn, and told her he was going for her mint, but die Prisoner requested that he would not go. The Witnese said, I am afraid you have had a chili ; to which she replied that she had slot ; if she had she did not know it. The Witness afterwards went for de Prisoner's aunt, who took her from the Wit ness's house on the day following. The Witness rodueed the knife, placed in his hands by Sarah Tamer, and had hart it sealed up ever since, and on which there were faint appearances of blood. Said, that accompanied hy Francis Norton, he found the child amongst the ashes ; it was cot open on the left side from the ear near to the navel, and its bowels all out : they sent for the surgeon, and, washing the b.rdy, they found a wound upon the temple, and one or two marks upon the face; it teemed a perfect child Francis Norton was Cal . .d to prove the finding of ' de child in the privy. James Witkinsun, surgeon, said. that on the Si slay of December last, he went to the house of Mr. Roodhouse to examine the body of au intent child. He found that its bowels were all out, but the body appeared to have arrived at the full period of birth ; 1 the nails and hair were perfeft, which could not' have been the case it a premature birth; the child was in length nineteen inches and a half. He found two small punctured wounds on the left side of the face, which might have been made with any sharp instrument ; a small cut on the left angle of the mouth, a small pen ture on the right shoulder, and an incision &.nn the right ear down to within an inch and a half,* the navel ; that the knife pro. duced could bare Waded, the operation ; found the Prisoner in such a state as women usually are upon a 'emit delivery. • Mr Foster, before whom the inquest was taken, proved the proceedings. and the examination of the Prisoner was produced and read in Court. Before Mr. Foster, the Prisoner confessed that she had borne the child, but had not murdered it; and that the reason of the knife being bloody was her having killed a fowl a day or two before. Here the evi dence for the prosecution closed. Mr. RAWL here observed to the Judge, that the prosecution had failed in its effeas upon the Pri soner ; in the first place, they had not brought forth any evidence to completely satis' y the minds of the Jury that she was not a married woman ; and in the second place, there was not a tittle of evidence that the child had been barn alivo. In answer to these objelions, the Learned Judge said, that though it was true there was no (tired evi dence of the Prisoner being a single woman, or that the child had been born alive, yet there was wrong, irresistible evidence of her being a single wo. man from her being in the capacity of a servant, which is not a very common thing to do when wo men get married, though it sometimes does so hap pen ; and she not bringing forward any evidence of her being aetually married at the time ; that. from these circumstances, he thought the presumption fair, that she was a single woman ; and, as to the want of evidence to prove that the child was born alive, he thought it peculiarly convincing that it was born alive, from the evidence of the surgeon. who said that he never saw a finer child in his life, and that it had come to the full pet and of birth ; if so, the ne cessary inference to be drawn is, that it was born alive ; and if it had been killed by the operation of birth, there would have been no necessity for those lacerations on its body, which had been stated. The Jury, after a short time. returned a verdict of and upon the. Judge preparing to pronounce sentence of death, the Prisoner went down upon her Lees, and in a manner which drew tearsfrom several who beheld her, she professed her innocence of the murder. and implored his Lordship for mercy. So continued were her solicitations for mercy, that it was some atm before his Lordship could obtain a hearing frs the Prisoner to pass sentence of death upon her; which he did in a manner she most solemn and effeetnig, giving her at the same time not the slightest hope of mercy. I he Prisoner was afterwards asked, whether she had any reason why the sentence of the law should not be executed upon her on Monday mitt ? and being particularly asked whether she was then pregnant ? she answered she did not know, and was not certain of it ; but, upon the evidence of the keeper of the House of CorreElion at Rotherham, and Mr. Samuel Wilson, chief Turnkey of York Castle, who told his Lordship that she had been kept separate, and that no person had been per mitted to visit Ira without their pres:nce; his Lot d ship told the Prisoner she had better tell the truth, for that she must undergo an examination which would lead to the truth or falsehood of what she said. In answer, she again fell down upon her knees, and got hold of the iron railing at the bar, which she would not leave until she was compelled by force. Agreeably to her sentence, she was executed on Monday last, and her body sent to the York County Hospital for dissi:Et:on. gobs Wilkins:nu, of I lolheck, in the borough of Leeds, in the West Riding, clothier, was indkted for the wilful . murder of I lannah Wilkinson, his wife. Ann Sporton sail she lived at llolbeck, near Leeds, about one hundred yards from the Prisoner's house ; that she knew the deceased, who worked at her (the Witness's) house. She believes the Pri soner and his wife had been married about eight or nine year, ; on the 12th day of hbvember, the day on which the Privin.l's wife died, she was in ap- parent good health and sp;rits, and came to her work about nine o'clock i❑ the morning ; she went to her dinner about noon, and returned abcut one o'clock.; when she :ia I :.oine ILIA, the Wit.:ess talk ed to the deceAsed, w.o gave ter no ans,ver ; this .was netween our and vv.+. I Ask rd tier what WAS the reason she did not speak ? she answered, " I am very poorly:" during which time ‘.he went out twice ; the last time site stop/le:I sn ling I went to her, and found her :.it crying,. When she came into the house, she said " w:nit has this rogu.! done to me lir she was very in her stomach !loth before and after she went tut. I got some oil and gave it her, and after that she welt from my house about two o'clock. I shot tly atter went to her house, and found her in bed very ill; I tin thought her so. ill that she could not long survive. 'I he sleceasesl said, " I am worse ind worse." She SAW tLe Prisoner, who came do•.cr stairs, and emp tied the utensil containing what d. ceased had thrown oil het stomach; when he came down stairs, lie came sharply ; he did not stop in the room ab•sve a minute or two ; he looked at the deceased, a:id said, " nhAt a face thou bast!" I said, " she might well have such a face." Upon my asking for a towel to wipe her face, he threw me one. Mary Rhodes said she knew the Prisoner and the deceased, from living next &or to them ; on the day the deceased died, she was passing by their window, and saw the Prisoner and his two children at dinner ; it was then about a quarter east eleven o'clock ; she saw the deceased that night between six and seven o'clock; their boy carve for her. The deceased was then lying upon the floor very ill, but quiet; she did not speak for some time; I got her into bed; this was about a quarter of an houi beton: she died. Has lived as neighbour to them about four years; they lived upon disagreeable terms, and were a very unhappy couple. Upon her cross-examination, she said she was not there when the deceased died ; nor was the Prisoner there when the Witness first went. Upon being asked by Mr. R•ist, whether she had ever had any words with iaer husband ? she answered, she certainly had had words with him, and hoped spin to have some. Hannah Alderson said she lived neighbour to the prisoner, and was in his house on the 1 2th of No vember, about six or seven o'clock in the evenin7, and saw the deceased. She corroborated the to sti ninny of the preceding witness as to her being ill, and being on the floor, and put to bed ; said she asked the deceased where her pain lay ; and she replied," all over me." I went to the bed-side to her, and she expired soon after. Mr. Teale, of Leeds, surgeon, was next examin ed. He said he was called upon to examine the de ceased on the Wednesday after her death. He said. that upon opening the stomach, he found the inter nal part in that state that left no room to doubt that she had died by poison. In several parts of the stomach he saw appearances of inflammation. In the internal coat of the stomach several parts were corroded ; upon minutely examining them, he was enabled to detect several small particles in small white grains, but their colour not quite clear, on account of the mucus ; he colleßed a sufficient number to submit them to the test of examination ; he submitted the whole, after being carefully clean ed, to hot iron nearly red ; the result was, that the whole exhaled in vapour, the smell of which fully convinced him that the substance had been white ar senic ; he had no doubt but it had been the cause of the deceased's death. The appearance of the deceased's stomach corresponded with white arsenic. He could discover before the experiment, that the deceased had died of corrosive poison. Upon ex amining the body, it appeared to be that of a healthy person. Upon being cross-examined by Mr. Rare!, he said, he did not perceive any swelling of the body, but that does not follow in all cases of poison.— The experiment, he said, was made at Dr. Hey's house, and in his presence. In making the ex?eri meat, he said, his attention was so intent upon se eming the smell, that he did not pay attention to the hue of the vapours. The Prisoner's depositions taken before the In quest were then read, and it appeared he had denied the charge. James Overton, of Leeds, deposed, that he was not acquainted with the Prisoner, but had seen him on the evening of the Saturday the tOth of Novem• ber, previous to the deceased's death. at the shop of Mr. Rayson, the druggist; when he came in he asked for three pennyworth of white mercury; the boy told him they had none. The Prisoner had two or three small fish in his hand, a -d said he wanted w put ..rsenic into their insides to lay them for rats. Witness asked him if rats liked fish ? he said they did. Mr. Rayson then came in, and he asked him for sonic arsenic, who likewise told him they had none. He saw the Prisoner on the l'uesday follow ing, when he was in custody, and he appeared to him to be the saline person that wasited to buy the arsenic. Upon his cross-examination, he said, that when he went to see whether he could idsaiify the person of • ~ _ . ") it the Prisoner, he went with the greatest caution of mind, and was not prepossessed that he was the per son who had bought the arsenic. He said, if he had Fern him in a crowd, he believes he should have known him. William Lucas said, he was apprentice to Mr. Wilson, a surgeon, at Leeds. and was now 17 years of age Oa the loth of November last, about six o'cl•ir in the evening, the Prisoner came into their shop ; they h 4.1 o,eii lighted the candles; the Pri soner had some in his hand, about three or four in number ; the Prisoner said he came for some white arsenic. The Witness said he told the Prisoner, " we sell to persons only whom we know, when we know what they are going to use it for." soner then sheaved the fish,and Witnesssold him some. Upon being asked whether the Prisoner was the man, he said he was sure he was. He said, "1 knew him as soon as I saw him ; I said, that is the man." He said, " What for?" I said, " I sold you three penny worth of a rsenic last Saturday." He then said, " My lad, thou bast got hold of a grand mistake ;" and asked me. " Do you know where I bought the fishes r I answered, " I did not." The Witness again repeated, tat he was certain the Prisoner was the man. 4. When I said that he via, the man, I observed that he changed countenance a good deal." Upon being cross-examined, he said it was com mon to use arsenic for the destrudion of rats ; for that they sold a great deal to a man who was a noted rat-catcher. Thomas Barrel, keeper of the prison at Leeds, tid, that he was with the last Witness when he identified the person of the Prisoner ; and that he had acknowledged to the Witness that he had been at Leeds that night. Here the evidence for the prosecution closed ; and the Prisoner, being called upon fur his defence, said that lie had not been in a druggist's shop on the night of which he was accused ; and that his wife did not by tie charge to him ; neither had any thing of the kind been proved ; for no one could say so. He said be was completely falsely accused. To his chaiaCrei were called Benjamin Stead, shoemaker, at Holbeck, Robert Walker, Paul Stead, and John 11;dgate. The Jury were not long in returning their verdift of Guille. The Judge then, in a most solemn manner, pro nounced the sentence cf death upon the Prisoner ; and upon pronouncing the last words " and may God have mercy upon your soul ;"—the Prisoner said, " I am not afraid of my soul." Agreeably to his sentence, he was executed on Monday last, and his body sent to the General In firmary at Leeds for disseCtion. Beirjamin Ottroyd, late of the parish of Sandal- Magna, in the county of York, labourer. was in dided for the wilful murder of Joseph Oldroyd, of Sandal-Magna aforesaid. The first Witness called was William Jagger. lie said, that he knew the deceased Joseph Old rnyd, who lived at Mill Thorp Grange, and that the Prisoner was the son of the deceased, and lived in the house with his father and mother. That the deceased had a small croft or close behind his house, which be saw the Prisoner walking in, at,out half past four o'clock, in the morning of the July last. lie said, " I went from home that day, but upon my return in the evening, about six o'clock, I went to the house of the deceased, and found him dead, and a wrinkle round his neck, which appeared to have been made by a rope; there were also several bruises about his back, on his thighs, private ports, and 3 lump of clotted hood in his mouth, and his tongue appeared to be bit through with has teeth." The next Witness. Sarah Jagger, wife of the last IVitness, said, that having heard of the deceased's death, she went to the house to see him ; and, upon inquiring of his wile where he was, she said, " My lass, I was not its the house when all this happened; if I had been in the house, I could have prevented all this; it is so sudden a thing, that folks will say we have killed him ; he is lying dead in the garden, with his head under the cherry-tree." The Witness said, she went and saw the deceased ; the Prisoner also went with her : she here described the appear ance of the deceased, the same as the preceding Witness. Lucy Key was next called. She corroborated the two former Witnesses as to the appearance of the deceased; and that site said to the deceased's ?Nile, 4 , Oh, Betty, what a right is this!" to which she replied, " Do not say aught about it." George Robinson corroborated the preceding wit nesses, as to the appearance and situation of the de ceased ; but thinks it impossible for him to have been hung upon the tree, which in the bole was but about nine inches round, and about four feet high. There was not a branch strong enough to hang himself upon. Said, 44 I asked the Prisoner what time in the morning the deceased went out of the house ?" and he replied, about eight o'clock in the morning. A brother of the deceased was there, who said to the Prisoner, " You have murdered him ; he has been hanged ; what have you done with the rope ?" The Prisoner replied, "Do you think I would kill my father ; I'll take care you do not fol low him to the grave, you grey-headed old rascal." The witness said, he was at the funeral of the de ceased, and on that day found a rope over a crook in the parlour ; that he carefully examined the tree, and found there were no marks upon it. Upon his cress-examination, he said he would not swear but that it was possible for him to have been hanged on one of the branches. Benjamin Trueman said, he saw the deceased af ter his death, but he had no rope about his neck, nor any appearance of one having been upon the tree ; and that the deceased could not have hung himself upon the tree without kneeling down, and the grass did not appear to be at all trampled upon. The Prisoner told this Witness, that the deceased was missing about eight o'clock in the morning; but the wite of the deceased told the Witness it was about eleven o'clock. John Filth, the Constable, said, he examined the Prisoner's house, and found two ropes suspended over a wooden pin, about five feet from the floor, and afterwards found a collar suspended over a strong nail, seven feet two inches, and seeing part Of a rope which was fastened to the collar, and which had cords tied round it, answer, particularly at one end of it, with that part of the rope fastened to the collar, he compared them together, and be lieves that the rope had been cut from that fastening to the collar. Jane Arnold said, she lived near the deceased. and about a year ago heard the prisoner say to his father, " D—n thy foul face, I hate to see thee !" and heard a great din in their house, as if the son was abusing his father. The Witness said, " I heard him say, D—n him, I could kill him as free ly as I ever ate a bit of bread.' " The deceased re plied, " I could swear my life against you." Has often heard them quarrel. Thomas Oldwell said, that he lives near where the deceased lived, and that about two days before the deceased's death, he was passing hie house, and heard the Prisoner abusing his father, apparently in A very great rage, and heard him repeat these words to his father, " Thou old foul-faced rogue and thief, I always told thee thou wart a fool and a Mr. Strait* ird says, he lived at Wakefield; that he took a plan of the house and premises of the de ceased; that the bole of the cherry-tree, against which the deceased was found, is four feet two inches high, and ten inches mind; one bough is six feet and a half from the ground, but hal no appear ance of the bark being in the least damaged, And thinks it impossible for the deceased to have hanged himself upon it. Mr. Thomas, of Wakefield, surgeon, was called. He described the appearance of a cord having been twitched round the neck of the deceased, and a mark under the left ear. Upon disseffing t h e neck, he found the trachea dislocated ; the wounds nu the body appeared to have been got by struggling against some hard substance, and could not have been infliCted by himself; it being clear that his death came by strangulatin. Elizabeth Oldroyd, the 'vile of the deceased, said, that About five o'clock in the morning of the day on which ht r la:sband died, he a eat with far to mik, and came jack with her ; when they had got home, he said to the Witness, " Platen you where . my box key is." I said, " I do not want k." He replied, ss You do not know how soon you may want it." He then lay down on the bed, and I went to get berries in the garden with my son. She said that nobody could get out of the house, or into it, without their seeing, and must have heard any noise or disturbance, if there had been any in the house. When they had been about two hours in the garden, and had got the berries, they came into the house. Upon being asked if the Prisoner bad stopped will• her the whole time she was in the garden ? she said —he did. When they came into tile h..ue., trey could not find the deceased until almost night, when they found him with his head lying against • the cherry tree. She said that she never said be fore the coroner or the magistrate•, " that she bad left her son in tie house bleeding of a cancer, at the time she went out to get th- Is arias." She her• son first found him, and took the rope ;TOlll 1):' . his neck. He was lying agairst the tree, on one side. She said she believed somebody Ilan got the rope. She said she had oriel taken a rofe from off !.er 11ns:sand's neck, when he has astempted to take his life. She said, " I believe that my husband de stroyed himself; because he has so of ,;, t.,ld me that he would." She said, she did not tell That to the Coroner. • The depositions taken before Mr. Brook, the Co roner, were then read, and first toe prisnner's. who said he was akine with his father when his m.r they went out to get berries ; and that there was no rope about his father's neck when he found him. Elizabeth Oldroyd's were then read, in wiiich she said that she had left the prisoner in the house when she went to get berries. After baying withdrawn for ahlut an hour, the Joey returned their verduf ot--ozotte. Upon the prisoner being asked. why sentenee of death should not be pissed upon him ? he deciand he WAS as innocent AS .1 child. 'rhe usui) scr ttece WAS then pissed on him; but, in co..sequer, of some objections, made by his Counsel, he is respited for the present. KENT' ASSIZES. MAIDITONS, Id ARCO 211. CROWN SIDE Before Mr. Jostle, Roots. V MURDER Elisabeth Barber was indided for the Murder of John Dennis Daly. Morgan Callagan said, he was a Pensioner at Greenwich Hospital, and koew Daly ati.) the O s lner, who lived together as man and wite ; on the 11th of Otelober last, the pri.(•ner a,.d her daughter went out; the witness staid at home with Daiy in his room. When the prisoner came back they had a pint of gin together. He staid with them tiet.l a little after eight. While 11, was with them they had a dispute about two seven shillings pieces, when she • took a case knife from the mantle piece, and said, she would have his life, it he did not give the moih'y to her. Daly was at that time sitting in an arm chair by the fire-place. When she took !he knife, the witness said, " Good night, I shall not stay here any longer ;" and went away. She had not at that time laid the knife down. Ann Ward lived in the room under the prisoner's room at Greenwich; she heals' a trampling over her head, as though of persons scuffling. This was half an hour before she heard the cry of murier I and she heard Mrs. Daly, the priso:.er, say, " I'll do it !”—PII do it !"—I will not put up with it !" In about half an hour afterwards she heard the pri soner open her doer and cry out " murder ! " bloody murder!" " My husband has stabbed him self, and is dead enough, will nobody come to my assistance r' The witness called the woman who lived underneath, in the kitzhen, and they both went up stairs with the prisoner. When they got up, they saw Daly sitting in a chair with his head hanging on his left shoulder, the bosom of his shirt was open, and the wound on his breast was washed very clean. The prisoner was all the time smoaking her pipe, very unconcerned indeed ; merely observing, that he had stabbed himself. The witness being fright ened went down stairs, Mrs. Barber, the pris net, followed them down, and continued smoaking at the bottom of the stairs. 1 Ann Stoughton knew Daly, and saw the prisoner on the 14th in the evening, before the college bell had done ringing ; the prisoner said, " In the name of God, Nanny, go up with me, I have done it, I have done it !" The witness implied, "In the name of God ! what have you done ?" She said she bad done mischief, and mischief she was bound for. The witness went up stairs with her, and. observing bet hands all over blood, she asked - -- What have .ked her, " What lave