The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-07-27 00:00:00

THE STOKE ABBOTT TRAGEDY.

ianid isotteodkel o rAtbhboe
twit
,1101
murder of Si 44.(419h), Aimlab° uGreltrp, pwyW,
The prisoner, who appear' to be younger then etated
In the calendar, being of abort stature, ;leaded in a
loud, collided voice, Not Guilty, on the chugs of
murder on the pert of 'he magistrates and on that of the
coroner. A jury having bean sworn,
Mr. Stock and Mr. Compton were for the prosecution,
and Mr. Cols, at the request of His Lordship, defended.
The Court was deosoly crowded throughout the dty,
fromon early hour hundreds being outeide unable to gain
ad nifttanou.
Mr. Stook opened in • very elear speech, in
which hp said t Gentlemen of the Jury,—The prisoner,
JAM., Seal, stands before you charged with the most
grievous of all the crimes known to our law—the dell.
berate iuurder of a fellow-creature. The indlottnent
alleges against him that on Friday, the 30111 of April last,
he foully and deliberately murdered • person of the
name of Sarah Ann Guppy. I need not lay to you,
therefore that nth an inquiry as this requires your
most anxious and earnest attention to the evidonoe, I
am quite nee that you will bestow that attention, sod
that you will throughout a case somewhat complicated
in its olrounistanoss, continua from first to last to watch
the evidenoe as it oomes out, in order that you may, at
the end, form an opinion such as the importanoe and
seHOIIIIIIess of the case require, founded upon that evi-
dence and that 'Mena only. My duty in the main is
only thie—to lay before you that evidence in as clear
and satisfactory a manner aa my powers will admit of;
hat, for the purpose of aiding you the better to under-
stand it, it is desirable that I should, in the diet place,
make you a etatement, whioh shall not be a very long
one, of the principal facts and ciraumstances tending to
bring home this fearful charge to the prisoner at the
bar. Having said thus much, I will at once proceed to
state what the facts of the case are as I expect to prove
them to you. The deceased person, Sarah Ann Guppy,
was a young woman of about the age of 23, the illegiti-
mate daughter of a person named Rebecca Guppy, and
the two, mother and daughter, lodged at • place called
Puokshorn with a person of the name of James Seal.
I may mention to you that the name of the prisoner at
the bar and that of the pinion with whom the deceased
lodged are the same. There is, however, no connexion
whatever between them that I know of, and we shall he
able, I hope, to prevent any of the confusion which
might arise from this identity of name by calling the
person at the bar " the prisoner," and by that nains
only, throughout the case, in order to distinguish bin'
from the other. Under the ulna roof at this spot
called Puckehoni—l shall, shortly place in your
hands this map showing the several localities I shill
have occasion to refer to—lived • person of the name of
John Hutchings. It had originally been a cottage or
house all in one, but had been eubsequently divided ,•
and in the one portion of it lived Reboot& Guppy sod
her daughter, lodging with James Seal, and in the other
portion John Hutchings and his wife. The lionise in
which Rebecca Guppy lived was the eastern part of the
building ; and it will be material to bear in mind in this
case that John notching' had • Holm or lean-to, not
adjoining hie own dwelling, which was the westernmost,
Mit adjoining the dwelling of Rebecca Guppy, which
was the easternmoist. The situation of the spot was •
very tolitary one. There was no road of any conse-
quence loading to it. There was s bridlelisth by which
they came to the house from the adjoining village.
That bridle-path went on to a place called Stoke, and
there seems to have been no other road of toy kind iu
the vicinity of the house. These people were all of
them in an humble condition of life. They worked out
of doors se field labourers, though Hotoliinge, I believe,
was in a somewhat better condition of life than the de-
ceased and her mother, having some little property—a
couple of cows which lie dimaatured on a small pieta of
ground adjoining the house, and he omiasionally fed and
sold a pig. However, they ware all persons in hum-
ble eiroutostanou, and with the exception of the dr.
waited, Sarah Ann Guppy._ they were in the habit of
going day by day to the field to work, and remaining out
the greater part of the day—a oirounatemos which was,
no doubt, well known to the prisoner at the bar, who
lived with his father In a house about 400 yards off.
The deceased did not work as the others ; she remained
generally at home 1 her health WOA not very strong i
her stature wasdiminutive 1 she was not fitted for hard
work in the field, and led a very quiet and seeluded
life at home. Site was also 4 rerun of a remarkably
quiet and inoffensive disposition, and was not much
known to the people of the neighbourhood 1 and though
she had the inisfortune of being an illogithnate child,
and so the daughter of an unchaste mother, yet, a. you
will hear in the Daum of thie eau, no violation of
chastity has ever been eommitted by hermit The pH,
Goner, who is a young person—his age, as I ass instrueted,
being IP—we-In the habit of going to Puekehorn, and
partieularly frequented the hoses of the itetehlngth and
I ellen ISIOW ye s that a very abort time Ufa the num-
der was committed he MIRO la ilutelle' owe and
apoke to Use, flutehinge on the eullteeet ef rrowing
emu money, fur the ',mrmeo. he itl ql In leg feed
rl
for his brothers mid sister., Now, ifilli Plitt this, Pot:
will appear, was a men pretense, 'fii his rather, thou
a labourer, wee nu e a person in Ind pntoqrsumitanees,
MA In mutant good work end gull. ah to ictotain
hie family. The primmer 'did not gum In n &Ming
Oa money and Mlle CUSS., epee between li in and
Hu, II Whinge about a kid of their, which e WM
041611401 Yll IMMO away. only IhentiOn it, all it
led re, utelilisse to requite
_O • prisoner not to mune
111
te her mug an III? Th eletieeesi the yrojels
inedietely
rlerure the iu er. ew, I eeni:ilim
the Nth
tOpril alta a/ Oft whlek Ma f 11 ISO
was own I . iii Ant day the IWrlelje In lap two
hensee—lhe milk age' Nebula, the math,,, inn sipliell
deal, pdi went ail navel to win!, In He lii',, and I by
Vv• II iteppened en that day that all el I , or some
them, went le work at a putt! Maass than el
rain the toilpt Fueltslierp. lelteeea, I,ll4ilicti ist,
Nem io avp eft lioiseart fin the lart linteirtiai a out
once Ile i II ink went cut rery si ,
ilp Weil!
in. an de re, w moons hotge to I is a IT, is
elsokt Millalla Olt I in the aftornotirsi it He,
Wee' oury lei keraliee,feal the ON , sap Aryry,
was lis he hang id* and op rite, and nothing
rim/Ninth e we, oust . tier in the dii{ the Oath,
Into Hutithings hese' wide they were at Inner, and
they did not petite buy dlfferenee In her been or 'kik'
I should tell ton that throtinut this eau t are
will be, as 'WM always where the trillium' are
onions taken from an humble Within life and
engaged In agrieultural ptirewite, mime I eulty in
dein' the easel time when the different events eseurred.
The witnesses simnel poegibly speak molly es to the
lime, for 'midi a elm of peep sh you know, de not
generally starry *Why, I sliAl , however, endeavour
to Sin Via time, and I think I shall be able to do so
throughout the ease within a few minutes or a quarter
of 111110 a, at the most, Ballillifl two and three o'elosk
an old woman of the name of Cornish 'same down to a
adjoin,garden hichlm houses, ono": . cautoltoinl'iivuwyasaWdsoltr:mh:nernilismindi,ehlyeialeirfinhgsWhfiarulittlininraitteduthheeedkiltoiliouWtrieell,
iitY:
aleal of glans, She wsie standing half a low hedge in
en pd commanding a twin lets view of it, for the hedge is
ehaeoeor Ildirdogimly'lolwoo,kainn:
when she heard Is Nalalith proseeding from the house in
which the demoted hoed, and she will Sell yes that,
knowing Sarah Ann Ouppy'a voice, she knew it to be
her scream. lie this so OP not. It certalrile impressed
her mind at the time that it was Sarah Ann Guyer
screaming, for she celled out twice or thrice, " Smell
Guppy I"- but got no answer. About a minute after
elle Galled out In this way, the prisoner at the bar came
out of the house in which the deceased lived. He closed
the door after him, and he was in such • position that
he must have seen the woman Corniek Immediately,
or 'host immediately, and she will tell yoe that
his first impulse' when he came out and saw her, was to
crouch down behind some palings and go along
by them, but presently he altered Ids direction and
0111110 straight towards her. filli• spoke to Idm. The
find conversation that took place between them was, of
sour.., in reference to the scream, and she
'eked him wf,st he had been doing to
Sarah Ann Guppy, and ins,ie soma charge against
him that be had been making work with the girl
Sarah Ann. He said Sarah Ann was in the house
peeling potatoes and that be had dome within to her.
Comic* then observed that one of his heads was bloody.
She asked him bow he had out his fin pr, from which
the blood was flowing freely. 'FLe said tW he had done
it cutting some grass, and it will be material for
Cal; trat in you lid's° fifgethi:ilade thr part
um remark°l about case, to
improbability of green cutting in the way babied stated,
and after eEse conversation they both returmed from
berserk* the direction of the prisoner's hones, which
WI gauged wig the same lane. She then noticed blood
nos hisolothes also. When getting to a Wearied Broad •
does-gate, the prisoner left tin, woman Corniek and
went over the gate which would lead directly to the bank
of hit father's house. The women went on towards her
b ' eau but in about eve minutes afterwards eke board
an alarm of fire proceeding from the houses at Nebo

born, which by that time were in flames. She went
back to Punkahorn, and she found the houses alums
destroyed, and the body of the poor girl, Saran Ann
Guppy, which bad been carried out into the garden,
lying there with her throat cut. Now I inust call your
attention more particularly to the circumstances of this
fire. The first alarm seems to have taken place about
4 o'clock, and Seal, who was working in the field, and
a man named Hussey who was working near him,
immediately ran to Puckshorn. Seal, as you might
expect, went into his own house, and Hussey broke
open the door of the other house, their object being to
save what property they could. Now, when Seal went
into his house he saw the body of the deceased girl lying
upon the flour, and it certainly does seem somewhat re.
markable that he did not ininiediately make any exami.
nation of it. But he was bent upon saving his property,
and he will tell you that he had no idea at the time that
Sarah Ann Guppy was dead, but he did suppose, as she
was lying there with her tape partially covered with •
handkerchief or shawl, that she had received 110614
serious injury. However, lie did not make any exami-
nation, but proceeded at first to save 1601118 part of his
property. After • little time, when he had become, I
suppose, a little more collected—for I dare say the man
finding his house in flames hardly knew at first what he
was about—he examined the body, and then found that
the poor girl was dead. The prisoner'e father, Job Seal,
came and carried the body out of the house and put it in
the orchard. Hutchings, who had also received an alarm
of the fire, had returned about nearly the same time as
Seal and Humey, and when he passed Seal's house he
Haw the girl's body lying on the floor. He then went
Into his own house,. and he will tell you, what is •
rather material fact in this case, where the lire appeared
to have begun. According to appearances, the fire had
broken out or begun in the first instance in the Holley
or lean-to adjoining the house of James Seal,
upon the eastern side—a place where Hutch.
ing* was in the habit of keeping wood, but,
where there was no fireplace of any kind ; so that it
would seem that this fire, however kindled, was not an
accidental one, but must have been the act of sonie in.
cendiary, Some of the property, I believe, was saved,
but the fire pretty well destroyed the two cottages.
And now I must call your attention to two things which
were found afterwards upon the spot where the fire had
taken place. They will both of them be very material
in this case. In the first place I shall show you that
somewhere near the deor of Seal', house • key was
found which proved to be the key of Hutchings' home,
and I shall show you that that key, when the Hutchings's
went out to labour, was habitually carried Into Seal's
house to be taken care of by Sarah Ann Guppy, the
only person, you see, who remained on the premises.
Therefore unless this key haci been reinoved by some
person or other it would not have been found outside
the door, but in the ruins of Seal's house. Of course, I
am quite unable to prove to you distinctly who carried
that key out of doors, but it will be • feature of the
case, and there will be some parts of the evidenoe point.
ing to this conclusion; and it will be for you to say
whether the explanation I suggest is reasonable or not
—that ouppoeing the prisoner had gone to the house of
James Seal for the purpose of obtaining tl,e key of
Hutoliinga's house, and enter it in order to plunder it,
the girl might have either been present when he at.
tempted to tyke the key, or sonic suddenly upon hiui ;
that he then committed the crime with which lie is
charged, and, taking the key with him, was proceeding to
the other house, occupied by Hutchinp, for the purpose
of plundering it, when, seeing the woman Comiak in the
garden looking at him, he might very naturally have.
thrown down the key to get rid of • plops of evidence
against him. A more material object that was dis•
covered, not outside, but Maids Seal's house, amidst
the ruins, and at a spot not more than two or three feet
from where the body of the poor girl was found, was a knife,
=donee( a very peculierahape—notacominon table knife
with a broad blade of about equal breadth, but a knife
that lied been worked away and sharpened down to •
point, so that it tapered off and saimind the shape of a
lancet that knife I shall prove to you by Homey—
of dune the singular shape of the blade is un•
affected by the fire—exactly resembles in shape and ap•
pearand a knife which he saw in the pomeselon of the
prisoner only the day befoie the niurder was coin.
milted, Of course he will not be able to swear positively
to It as the saine knife , but lie will tell you that the
one lie saw the prisoner with, had exactly the same ap-
pearance. as the one found In the ruble of Seal's house,
The question we have next to consider hi—where was
the prisoner at the time the fire broke out, and after.
wards during the time it was blaring lam not able to
mount for him during a portion of that tone. If he
was the person who coininitted the offence—if he was
the parkin that set the house on fire—the probability of
the ease would be that having got rid of the old woman,
Jane Cornick, by going into that gate which apparently
led to his father's house, lie returned Immediately and
set the premises at Puckshorn on Are, hoping thereby
to have removed all evidence of the online which had been
comniitted, that the body of the poor girl would have
been if not eoneunied, so much altered as to render it
difficult or imposeible to ascertain the real nature of the
death by which she lid perielied. Having adomplished
this purpose he would go away at °nom lam not able
to prove to you that he was seen on the premise, again;
but 1,1111411 be able to prove that he WM seen between
three and four o'clock by • person named Norris at a
very short distance from the premises. At that time
thefprisoner was going from the premises across a field
towards the north, a direction entirely contrary to the
direction in which his own home lay. Ido not find
that any body met with him till about half past four,
when lie was seen in quite a different part, going In the
direction of a road which lead. from the village

towerds Beaminstar. The person who saw
and whose name is Paul, was driving some sheep
for his master along the road towards Beaminiter,
and he was overtaken by the prisoner. Now
Paul had beard of the murder and the fire, and of' the :
charge which was immediately made against the mi.
loner of being the kierpetrator of both ; therefore he did
not speak to the prisoner, and the prisoner, on the other
hand, though he walked side hy side with him for some
little time, never spoke one word to him. Paul, how.
ever, though he did not speak to the prisoner, observed
his person. He saw that his Mind was bloody, and that
a finger was tied up, and he observed too that his trousers
wore wet with something or other. After they had
gone mine way down the road the prisoner turned down
a lime called Wood Lane, which goes off the Beaininster
road, leaving Paul driving his sheep. Paul, however,
having heard them things was in a state of considerable
anxiety, and having driven his sheep a little way down
the road, he went back to the entrance of the lane to
watch where the prisoner had gone and what he was
doing. He saw the prisoner engaged in a very einguler
way. The prisoner had taken up a quantity of yellow-
ish earth, a part of the toil there, and was engaged in
rubbing it on his jacket and trousers. Having seen this,
Paul went on his way, and then met police-constable
Lavender who was looking for the prisoner. Paid told
him where the prisoner was and Lavender went at
once to him. Lavender observed that the wet on the
prisoner's clothes was blood, and he asked him how he
accounted for it. Now oomes a very material feet.
The prisoner told Lavender that the way he got the
blood on his clothes was that he out himself in cutting •
stick with a knife which lie had obtained from a carter
on the road. He was not able to tell the carter's name,
nor anything about him, and as to the knife he said lie
returned it/to the carter. Now, you recollect that when
he came out of the cottage in which the poor girl was
afterwards found lying murdered, lie told the woman Cor-
nick that lie had out his finger with the grass, and never
mentioned a word about any carter or carter's knife. It
will be for you to take into consideration these two
storlea of how the blood on his person was caused. He
told Lavender that he had not been near the house at
Puckshorn since nine o'clock in the morning. Yet the
old woman saw him there as late as three. Lavender
took the prisoner into custody, and delivered him over
to Superintendent MacHale,to whom he wade somestate-
ments, one of which is certainly very important. Being
asked where he had been on the morning of the murder, he
stated that he had been at a ig•ce celled Broad winger,
about two m m miles from where lie lived, and that he had
two quarts of cider given him there, and then lie used
the expreasion that lie "did not mind what hap-
pened after ;" intimating by that, no doubt, that the
two quarts of cider had produced such an effect that he
was not able to give an account of how he had passed
the subsequent time. Now, I shall call before you a
man named Sergeant who will tell you that so far from
having gone to Breadwinner that morning and got drunk
there upon two quarks of cider, the pawner had been
working for him that morning, until two o'clock, in the
village of Stoke Abbott, assisting in the removal of Wine
timber; and, so far from becoming intoxicated, a party
of five working there had only, I believe, a quart of beer
amongst theist. Sergeant speaks positively to two
o'clock, which brings us near to the time when the
woman Cotniok first saw him, and at that time there
was not, you will hear, a particle of blood on either his
• person or his clothes. Now, gentlemen, I believe I
have gone through the leading featares of this came.
Of course, the evidence will disclose to you some other
parthulani which I have not entered into in my address.
There is only one further reunirk which I wish to make
to yco in this cue—that is. that, no doubt, there will
appear throughout a eonaiderable difficulty in amount-
ing fortheoonindmion of an dreadful a crime by a person
having apparently such mall motive to commit it as the
prisoner. Gentlemen, if you have had any large expe-
rience of criminal 08.1181 in courts of justice, you will pro-
bably recollect that it has not unfrequently happened
that whines of every degree of magnitude have been
proved to have been committed by persons without
any apparent adequate motive, and, in some
oases without any apparent motive at AIL
Whether you think that in this ease the prisoner, if he
committed the crime, was actuktecl by • desire of pos-
sessing himself of a small sum of money, which I shall
show to you was in Hutchings's cottage when the mur-
der was committed, and which the prisoner, in all pro-
bability, knew was there—it being the proceeds of the
isle of a pig, which Hutchings had killed • few days
before—or whether the evidence does not supply to your
satisfaction any motive at all for the oominimion of this
terrible crime, dill I venture to tell you, under the direc-
tion of his Lordship, that it is the duty of juries not to
speculate upon the motives of crime, which are often
of too recondite a nature for juries to encompass, but
their business is to look to the fasts proved in the case,
and if they think that the facts proved bring home to
their minds satisfactorily the conclusion that the crime
was the deed of the accused party, then they have nothing
to do with the question whether he had any adequate ince
hive or any motive at all for the perpetration of the crime.
That is the only remark I shall make, and I am quite
sure you will give it every consideration, and if, after
having heard the evidence, you may think there is such
reasonable doubt about the proof that you cannot, satis-
factorily to yowl/Ives, find the prisoner guilty, I am
sure that I and his Lordship and every person
in court will share in the satisfaction you will experience
In returning • verdict of acquittal. If, on the other
Land, the *video°, brings home the charge to the pri-
soner at the bar beyond any, reasonable doubt, then I on
quite aura that you, cal jury of Megtiadiuten, will do
year duty to your country and your god, and my that
the primer is galliY, without the fearful son'
sequences which' mil • verdict 1111 upon hint.
Mr. James Oliver was the first witness rolled. He was
examined by Mr. Compton. He explained the plan
which he had made of the houses occupied by this
Guppy's and Hntehings,the garden hedge,end the
soner's father's bowie. The diatanot how Putkohoro to
Broad Close gate was 396 yards, and from Broad Oise•
gets to the primer's father's house 138 rot& NAN
of the plan were submitted to the jury mei to. the
leanted Judge.
Oresawrisinined by Kr. Cola: It is two mgi frOrik the
willow bed neer Puoltalturn !,3= sit4wirr fiank°llZ:
the cottages were some open 2
ran along In front al the cottage.

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