The Sun. — London, England, 1802-11-01 00:00:00

OLD BAILEY. roußnt DAY—SATURDAY, OCT. 30. MURDER lames Briscoe, larnes Denham,and Jarvis Baker, were charged with the murder of Thomas PaMphlin, by giving him a wound in the upper part of . the billy, with a knife, in Compton,street, Clerken well, on the 4th of Oftober last Mr. CoNsr and Mr. KNAPP were Catin.sel for the Pros'ecutioni Mr. ALLEY for two of the Pri soners, I3riseoe and Denham,_and Mr. KNOwLYs f6r Baker , against whom there was,very little evidepce. .Sheverian said, that he was servant .to a tripeman, and knew the deceased for about six months. Having met each other on the evening of the 4th of Oanber, they went to a public-house, and on coming away, the deceased, though not drunk, was somewhat the worse for liquor. They agreed to go home .together, anti he described the local "situation of the places they had to pass through. Qn coining near the , Harrow, public.home, in Compton-sneet, the Witnt;ss was a little wayjx fore the 'deceased, -anti .p'assed yoiing women ; one' at the door, and the whet. coming _out of a. green.shop, who.turrred,out to be cause of this fortunate transaCtion : the deceased caught hold of one of them ; he was not clear whether: he did it by design, or whethei• he missed his step, and" so fell against her. He heard her say, " I ;AM not one of that 'sort." The deceased' replied,'."l like you the better for that." He then heard the name of Jem called out ; on which he turned round to the deceased, and asked him to come along, home. He had scarcely spoke the words, when. three men sun rottnded the deceased ; he supposed them to come from the Harrow public-house. Briscoe was the first who closed 'with . Pan!phlin,' Smith followed, and Denham was .the next. - fie saw Briscoe make two or three blows :it Pamphlin with his fist,, as -he supposed ; but he could discern no more, as several others then came round him, and separated him from' his friend. Denhani was one of them. After "a short time, he was enabled to make 11:.s escape, and run' up Compton-street. He had. not got far when the deceased came running after him. He waited for him, when the deceased asked him (the Witness) boy ! , 'he came off? Witness replied, he 'only felt a bliiW he had received in his face, The deceasedo said, he had'not come off so •Well, for he felt his side exceedingly. sore. They, then 'parted, and went to their respective homes. On his- Cross-examination he denied that Briscoe was knocked down ; but said, that Pamphlin was a stout than, and twice as big as Briscoe. The language made use of to the two women, he ad mitted to he highLy indecent and scandalous. A Person wha.lodged.in the, same room with the deceased, described .the manner of his coming home on The night of the 4th of Otaoher ; lying down on, the•bed without pulling _off his olothes, • which in duced Ihe Witness, at first, to conclUde that he was in liquor. After remaining in that .manner for some 'time, the candle went our, and the . Witness cle3l ring ; Pamphlin to undress himself and•go,•to bed, he complained a good deal, and said he 'was not able. The Witness then got another candle, and heTping him to undress, observed that his side was very bloody, and that he had rece;ved, three wounds with Some sharp instrument, one on. the left side of the belly,. which appeared - to be the most severe, ano. chef in the right side of the belly, and the third in the back, just under the bladc.bone, in , comeguence - of which, he applied for the assistance of. a Surgeon, and the deceased was 'conveyed to an Hospital. The clothes of the deceased were then produced and exhibited. The jacket had a large cut in the back, near the shoulder, and the waistcoat and shirt, which were. .much clotted - with blood, had the marks. of the two wnunds given on each side of the belly. The cuts had all the appearance of having seen made by a knife. 'William-Smith was with the Prisoner on the 4th of OEtober, in the Harrow public_house, 'together with the Prisoner's wife aid her sister. About half past nine o'clock in the eV'ening, the girls , i,vent out to buy apples ; he followed soon after,. and saw two young men behaving exceeding impudent. to them, and using very gross language. Mrs. Briscoe went into the public-house, and called her husband, who iinmediaiely.came out, and pulled from his pocket a clasplenife, which he opened, and went up to one of the men." Denham followed with a knife that. opened like a razor. They both. cut - away at the men,, and made them 11y . . He did not see the men strike again. After they were gone, Briscoe re turned to the public-house, and, as he entered the door ) gave Jarvis Baker a knife ; exclaiming,— " Here, take the knife I have been using." lie knew the knife, for that afternoon as he and Briscoe were coining from Merlin's Cave, Briscoe said, he believed he• had. lost his knife; but on feeling his pockets - he found it there, pulled it out, and slimed it him. Witness, the Prisoners, and.the two girls, staid at the Harrow till eleven. While they were there, Brisce said, there had been a bloody row. He did not see Baker do any thing. • - The knife shown by Briscoe, he said, had a buck horn On being cross-examined, he admitted, that one of the women said to the deevased,'" We are not of your sort," and that he replied, he liked her the bet ter for it ; but the language; an the whole, •was very atrocious. He came out of the ,house for a certain occasion; before the women were ad dressed by Pampfilin, whom he did not see coin. ing up, as his back was to them at that time.— lie not himself interfere in the fray, and never said to any one„ that he had himself struck the de ceased, or given him the wound. He did not-see briscoe knocked dow - n, and at the-time the parties came out of the publie-hotsse, the two men, Pamph. lin and Shevenan; were' going away, and had got about a yard•and a half from the door, when they were assailed. The Witness had never ,seen the posting bills .offering a reward of sof. for the de teaion of the murderers ; if he had seen them it would have been to no purpose, as he could not LONDON : Yrinteci by !Mei-IA NA N M'hl I 1,1. A N, lot Pow-Strect, Covent-Garden); At the SyN-01 , 1 , lc No, f 12, S'trara; where Aavertifements, Orden Mrs. T3fiscoe's.evidence been of thfit nature, tbat it would tend to convict Denham, it might have been brought forward in support oE the charge, as the Lawyers for the Crown had it in their option to ipdift 'the Parties separately, in which case they might have the advantag'e of Mrs. Briscoe's tes.: timony against any one but her husband. If then, such was the case when evidence was to be given against a Prisoner, how much more strongly should the. principle which direEted the established rules of evidence to apply to the situation of aDefendaut, according to that maim of Law, "fortior est coif ditio defendentis?". The Prisoners had no option in the manner of their being' indided, and. if he suc ceeded, not in this application, the consequence - would be,. that. the Crown Lawyers, making the Indietment a'-joint one, deprived Denham of the strongest evidence he could produce in his defence. He further submitted, that his' proposal was a ma ter of indispensible necessity, from the difference subsisting between the present charge and .every other 'crime. Whatever was df.!ne now. would be irrevocable if the Parties - were Convicted, for the ACI of Parliament which enjoined that the sentence should be executed in 4.8 hours, left no . time for revision or future-consideration. . _ Mr. ,CONST and Mr. KNAPP replied to this, that when two Parties were associated in the same critne, the regular proceeding always must be to indict them jointly, but in , sn'doing, they were _not excluded -from the advantage of any eVidence the Law and rules of evidence-would otherwise have permitted. All the Prisoners were competent to make their, several-,challenges at alp .commekicement' of the trial ; the eWet of -.vhich would be, their - .being tried, separately. If that had been done by themselves or their COunsel,'Denham might have had all the benefit he could, expel to receive froM• Mrs: Briscoe's- testimony ; an if they let the op portunity go by, it was erroneous to suppose, that if there- should ' be any doubts in, the mind of the Judge, or any mistaken circumstances in the-ease, the Judie had not the same power of revising it as/ in any other, and therefore, that observation did not apply. Upon ,the .whole, they considered the application as'novel, unprecedented, and unneces. sary, such *as the Court could no' more. listen to, than to that for, a Special Yerdi;4, and ii:tended as an indired mode of exciting the compassion of the Jury ; .whereas, the Law could in no case permit a wkfe to be evidence either for or against her husband. „ Mr. Baron ? I'llomPsorst was averse to dispensing with . the wise and .established rules of Law, and could not think himself justified in admittinithe.evi. dence'oflVits. Briscoe, which the Learned Counsel himself h;;;.1 confessed must operate equally for. her hasha'nd tis for Denham. There Were, indeed, stances,,. where wives were allowed to give evidence in favOur.:of Prisoners joined in the same India :Dent with their husbands,- such as ib prove an alibi, lunacy,-. or something else_ whkh may be a sufficient defence, for one party, at the same time that it had no •connedion• whatever with the other. Mr. IitLEY . said he did not exped to sec him self so hardly doalt with on the part of his learned friends, as to find them sospeaing_that he wished `to take an indirea mode of exciting the compassion of the Jury. He scorned any such praaice, and ne. ver had, nor - ever would adopt it. he bowed with great deference- to the opinion intimated sby the Court, but hoped for its indulgence,if, having been called Upon for precedents, he took the liberty of quoting some few which occurred to him at themo ment, for he was in - a great measure unprepared, having been hastily applied to, by his present clients. The first case he would refer to, would be found in the Crown Reports; the "'King v. Peru," in a case which came on to be tried, according to the At of Parliament,' in Bristol, - before the Re corder, Ml. Gtaus, whom his Lordship knew to :be inferiorlo no person ,whateverin profound legal knowledge. - Mr. Perry was indiCfed for running away with, and marrying. an heiress against the form anti meaning of the stature. Mr.- EtisKiNE went down there, being specially detained ; and for • the defence called, Mrs. Perry, the wife of the Defendant, ' ,va o of course objeaed to by the . Counsel for the Crown, and, after very long and elabOrite arguments on bOth sides, Mr. Gt BBS de cid.ed that sl,e was a. competent Witness, and, on her testimony, her husband was acquitted. The prin ciple - on 'whieh Mr. GIB BS decided„ was thatin whieh he now applied for the adinisSion of Mrs. Briscoe, being ex necessitate rei n ' the strongest of all principles. The second precedent . he would refer to, occurred in 'the trial of Lord AIiDi,EY and his servant, for committing a rape upon his Lady, who was alloWed to give her evidence in proof of that abominable crime. The third he would refer to,Was that of accused a.persono committing on his 'wife , f a crunen non nomznandum, under ‘,vluch`he was cob_ . vied 'solely 'upon her testimony. TheSe three admissions of such witnesses, and, .he had no doubt, thai, had he tithe to inquire for authorities, - he would find them pretty numerous, were made ex necessitate rei. h ivns . that also on which he grounded his application, for he conceived the case to be perfeettly novel; For, on as certain cause,'in which he was .engaged,; he once, had the industry to travel through - all the books and cases he could find. on this subjea, from the Revolution to , the present, time ; and he was ready to assert,. that. he had'not met with any similar to the present. The • case then being quite new required a . departUre from the usual pradiee, and it was no 'subversion:of an cient rules to adopt* here a new one, which Would be more applicable to all the circumstances. 'Mr. Baron THomrsox said, that in the cases re ferred' to, the' wife was admitted only in proof of personal injury, of which there could be no other' evidence. He had a very great resped for. the Judge alluded to (Mr. GfEas), in the Bristol cause quoted, but he believed, the ground of his admitting Mrs. Perry's evidence, was, that, had she been 'forced away by violence, she might give evidence against the defendant ; and therefore, in the .opi pion of that judge, ought to be allowed to give her• testimony in like manner . for him. , The first witness called for the defence was a young man, who stated that he lived in the same DAY read, knd he never even heard Ow reward men tioned in conversation at the Public Offices or else :.here, till vow that these questions wire put to him in the Court. He was taken up for this offence, account_of.being in the companr,,but did not know that any one bad accused him of the murder. He.had been, he said, at sea, and made . a voyage to China, Out had never touched at Botany ray. - Two Printer's boys, Howlet`and.gobinson,'svid, they were at.theiHarrow public_house, but not in company with the Prisoners at the time of - this transaaion: . They saw Briscoe and others go out when,:he former cvas called; and heard him on his return say, "we have had a bloody row." Neither of them had been .speetators of the scene, as they did not quit the public-house while it was going forward, as they had nothing to•do with -the bu.. siness. James Hurst was in company w;th the Prisoner Briscoe; on 'the Wednesday following the rnurder 'Briscoe asked him if, he had seen posting bills, about' the streets, describing the murder . of .a BreWer's ser vant, in Compton-street: Witness said he had not : when Briscoe entered into a detail of the insult offered to his wife by two men ; adding, that he hid sallied out: of the public house, with •Denham and others, and had dashed a knife into one of them up to:the handle ; loll Owing him up, giving it him a second time. He also said, that he had tempered his knife only a- week before, and it would turn to nothing. Chapman, an Officer, produced a knife token from ILker, which not only ati - 3wered . the apertures n►ade in the deceased's clothing, but was stated to be the 'same Smith had seen in the - possession of Briscoe the day of the 'murder, but did not turn out to be so, as it had not a buckhorn handle. All.the Witnesses disclaimed being in the feast influenced by the reward of soh offered for the con viaion of the murderers. Joseph Clarke stated himself to be House Surgeon of The -Middlesex Hospital, and was in the house wheirthe deceased was brought' there. He described the nature of the three wounds, which he conceiv ;ed must have been inflided by some pointed, sharp, -flat instrument. Of these wounds, that on the left side of the belly was the only-one mortal, as the intestines suffered by it. All 'wounds in the in. testines were considered to be mortal, thaugh some times ihey were known ; to have been : cured. - He believed the wound Mentioned to be the. cause of - the man's Lath. It: might probably have been in a better state than it.exhibited when he saw it, if it had 'not -been so long negh_;(!ted ; but that was not very Material, as, the inflammation in-Such a case does not immediately commence. He died in twelve hours after being takerfto the Hospital. Being asked as to what the deeeaSed.had said of the manner of his receiving th6Se wounds before he died, Mr. ALLEY for the Prisoners, objeaed to it, unless the deceased, at the time of his making the' declaration, was in full expedition of his approach.: ing dissolution. • Mr. Clarke said, that the deceased did not appear him to be sensible of his approaching death, upon which the coutt Over-ruled the question. The evidence for the Prosecution being here closed, Mr,. ALLEY begged leave to - ask, whether on account of the valiance in the evidence, the Court was willing to have a Special Verdiet.given. - - Mr. Baron 'said, that the variance tested with him to represent to the Jury, and when, he was in possession of the whole case, should any evidence be. called for the Prisoners, he would be better able to forth a judgment, and to direa the Jury whether or not their VerdiCt should be Special. ...The Prisoners being asked if they wished to say any thing for '.themselves, Briscoe replied that he had nothing to urge ; that he left the public : house -to go to the assistance of his ivife, but having no knife or other .sharp instrument, could not havegiven the wounds, and firmly believed them to have been inflifted by the Witness .(Wm. Smith) himself. .0n his first coining up, he said, he was knocked dowh by the deceased. Denham contented hit-Itself wi t h asserting his• innocence, and denying that he gave any blows ; and taker, not being called upon, said nothing. Mr. ALLEY then humbly begged the permission of the Court to submit, that it was, his wish to produce in the defence, a Witness the most compe. teat to prove the innocence of the parties, but . ; to whom he was apprehensive ,some objeCtions might • be made, he meant the-wifeof.Briscoe, whose tes timony could not fail of acqUitting Denham,' even were it not allowed to-operate in favour of her hus. banal. He was aware that Lord HALE had laid it down, that a wife could not be o compelled t give evidence in a case where - her husband - Was fl -1 eluded jointly with an. other or others in an Indift ment,.though her testimony might tend to convict the other parties, and have no reference to her hus band's share in the transaCtion. When he quoted this, ht was certain that he produced the strongest authority that could be cited against hint ; but, however great the respett that was justly paid to, the opinion' of Lord HALE, and,the wisdom of our AnceStors, the authorities drawn from them were - not wholly to govern eases which were quite novel in their nature. Courts must be guided as well by mo dern experience in new circumstances, as by the colleaive wisdom accumulated in the progress of time. Lord HALE here spoke of a wife not being compelled to . give evidence which may operate against her husband ; but . that was no argument, why she might not be produced in favour of a per son joined in the same indiannent with him ; and when. that wasdone,,he avast candidly confess, that here the same evidence which would go to acquit the one, must ofnecessity justify the other. However new and unprecedented his , present application may appear, he was confident the : wisdom of the Court would go before him. in ascribing it to a sense of duty to his Clients, and not to any presumption or vanity in : him ; - fir surely these Rules of LaW and Evidence, the wisdo‘n and excellence of 'which were so truly admirable, must wear an aspeEt of injustice, and even cruelty, if interposed to prevent an innocent man from bringing before a Jury the principal,. anti, perhaps the only evidence, that could acquit hitn, merely becatie the husband of the Witness was joined in the same, Indktment. Had . - dOtirt with Briscoe's family, and the witness Smith, who generally went by the natrie of Royston, but had never known or heard of this murder, or that these parties .were accused' of it, 'till the Thurs. day following, when Sinitksent his sister for him, and in his lather's..garden informed him that-ii w,s he who stabbed the man., On his cross examina,- tion lie could assign no reason for this gratuirous . disclosure, and swore that he was not attuated liv the temptation of any reward. ffe,never men tioned the:circumstance, he ;:aid, 'till he heard that Smith, who was the guilty man, had turned againat the otheri. 'Henry Cresswell, a keeper of the Counter prison, proved that Denham had voluntarily come to him to surrender. Not knowing him, he refused at first to admit him, hut - allowed hint to be detained, when he insisted on remaining. &mimell said; he ivas .prisoner confined in a cell, in the New Prison, when Smith was a prisoner there, and . that the latter old him he fan out with the others from the public house on hearing the cry of Jem ! and that he was quite safe, for, though it was he who struck the mati, he expe r aed to be ad. mitted as evidence. On being cross examined, he admitted that the conversation took place through the bars of a grat ing, that Smith was a no to him, and that at the time h e could see more of hitu than his face, and the red hankerchief he wore. A number of Witnes,es were then called to the charaaer of the Prisoners, particularly to that of Briscoe; the accounts given were in general fa vourable. Mr. Baron THomp , oN then entered upon lfii charge to the jury, which, necessarily, was ofcon! siderable length.—After which the Jury retired rot about a quarter of an hour, when, they pronounced the following Verdia Briscoe Guilty of Max.- :laughter ; Denham, di?t6 . ; Baker, Nit Which 'appeared to give general satisfaaion to one of the most crowded 'iludiences we have ever seers in that Court. The trial lasted near nine hours. The trial of Francisco, the Tyrolese, for mailer .nusly 'hooting at IV.fr. Maryan, of Lombard -street, &c. which stood for.this evening, was postponed tilt Monday. Edward Martin -was .ind4qed for feloniously stealing, on the- Bth of. Odober, twelve ounces weight of feathers, value zs. the property of Messrs. T_hOi. and Geo. Seddon. • t _ _ ..... _ Thy Prosecutors, it appearedi are eminent UP holsterers in Aldersgate-street ; the Prisoner work ed in theirekbploy. Sufipicion.being , entertained of him, an investigation tools place on the - evening of Bth of Qaober :. immediately after he had left off work, and was just outside: the premises, he was called back, taken' into the CoMpting-house searched, =When the 'property laid in the indictment was foundin his rossession. Mr. Seddon, who attended, observed, it wrts impossible to swear to the identity of feathers, though he had no doubt of those produced being his -property. None of 'the Witnesses could swear that any feathers were missed from the premises. The• Prisoner left' his defence to his Counsel.-- No Witnesses appeared in his behalf. • The jury after a very short conference Acquitted the Prisoner. Martin was tried. on a second indtdmenr, for stea;ing, on the someday, •seven knives, v;4liie. 55. and seven forks value.‘3s. 6(i. the property of Mr. Thomas, aeddon. The charge, it appeared, rose 'out of the fat, that while the Prisoner was in custody on the first charge, apartments, said to be his,,tvere searched, and tts them were found. the knives and rorki laid 'in the Indi&Ment, .which were:dtily identified as the pro• per-ty of the Prosecutor:. The-=Witness who searched the apartments wl 5 asked, by the --Pris'onees - Counsel--how lie kilo' , they were the Prisoner's lodgings. A. His wife told me so. Q. Flow do you know she was hi 3 wife ? A.' The woman said she was. This not being held sufficient evidence by the Court, the other Witnesses were questioned respeet ing the lodgings, not one of whom could swear their were the Pti4oner's. The RECORDER observed, That thc•ugh in this case the property may be clearly the Prosecutor'4 vet, as the mode of fixing the charge upon the Pri soner, was by . the intervention ; of lodgings, it was necessary those lodgings should be proved to be the Prisoner's, which not being the case, the chat - 0 could not be brought home.- Verdi& t • The RECORDER admonished the Prisoner to be careful in future—he had tw very narrow escapes- The Prisoner promised he- should never be seel' there again: FIF`I'•Y THOUSAND 'POUNDS IC P. 0 p SA TUR and Published by WIcLiAM ARMIZR Sc R IPri, (0i Sbuth Motion -street, Crosverio - -square); i for. the Firr,6er, Letters fez the Editor ; &c, (post-paid), must be addre,...:eki. Are allotted. for the First Drawn Ticket on site first and fourth Days of Drawing of the preseOr English Lottery, which begins on Monday, tF 29th of November:. - The Scheme also consists or three Prizes of ro,oool. three,of 50001. and other Capitals of toool. fool. tool. .Sze. &c. amounting in the whole to 288,000 i. The Tickets, Halves , Quarters, Eighths and Sixteenths, Stampt Shares , are sellin g on the . lowest terms at NtcHoLsor o 'fortunate Office, No. to, Cornh;!l, where, in the "present year, two Prizes of z'o,oool. and foool' each, were sold, divided into Sitars. , • DIED. On Thursday the Atli ult, Mr. COnstable, Surgeon,. At Woodtbrd. `Yesterday, at her hotise in Cheapside, Mrs. Upton. The same marniug, Miss E. Latharn w fdaughter 01 . 4"' Thomas Latham, Champion-hill. C. CKS. !!knk Stock 1'44. k 10; ia Stock 2031 .kvy 5 per Lela rzA): , i ., , i l r South Sea Stuck ~, 5 per Cent. t797,991i Ext.heti. Bills s. S. P re '" Irish 5 per Cent. Fundable ditto prem. 4 per Cent. Con, 83H • 3d Lxchequer Bills dis. 3 per Cent. R,ed. 6611 A. ()lithium ick. 911 to 3 per Cent.Con.67i 8i 8 Impel . . 3 per Lent. tato Scrip - Ditto Ann. !lank I,.Ann. 19 tl—t6 13-I6 Clank for opening. Ditto Short AWL: 4 India for Acc. • . lilt , S rrm Cons. rot Nov. 67i Sit. _~® i 1 r , e 1]