The National Register.
London, England, 1809-03-26 00:00:00

MARCH 26.

MARY BATEMAN, THE SORCERESS.

, LEEDS, MARCH 18,.—Tke trial of Mary Bateman for the
'Wilful Murder, of Relaice:i•Perigo, wife of William Perigo, of
Brainley, near this town, commenced yesterday morning, and
continued until near nine o'clock at night. The jury without
retiring found the prisoner guilty. The Judge in a most impres-
sive Manner passed sentence of Death upon this wretched wo-
man, and as isusnal in cases of Murder ordered her body to be
given to the-Surgeons for dissection. The Prisoner todelay exe-
cution pleaded pregnancy, on which a jury of matrons was di-
rected to be immediately impannelled, and to prevent the women
from leaving court all the doors were ordered to he closed. A.
jury being formed, and charged in the usual manner, retired for
the purpose of discharging their duty and found that she was not
with quick child. The execution will of course take place on
Monday.
A singular circumstance occurred on the trial of John Leng, of
the city of York, who was indicted for wilfully, maliciously,
and unlawfifily"stabbing or cutting John Crosby of the said city,
labourer, over his left eye with a pitchfork, whereby he did
him bodily harm that his life was despaired of.—The Judge
having charged the Jury, they retired a considerable time, and
returned a verdict of---ruanstaughtcr. His Lordship _observed
they had " ails-spent their time, as the man was still living,
the prisoner could not.be guilty of manslaughter reconsider
your verdict." On a question from a juryman, his Lordship,
said, they 44 were bound to return a verdict—guilty or not
guilty." They waited some time in the Box, and then his Lord-
ship requested them again to retire, Which they did, and at
length returned a verdict of—not guilty. On which his Lord-
ship said, " It is your verdict, not mine i how you can acquit
your consciences lamat a loss to know." He then addressed
the prisoner :—" The reason why the Jury have acquitted you,
I cannot discover; you have had a narrow escape'; therefore
let me advise you to be very circumspect in your future con-
duct ; for if any thing of this sort happen again, you can hardly
expert to meet with such a Jury."
STILTING Merest.—On Friday last a very extraordinary
-wager was decided upon the road between Cambridge and Hun-
tiugdon. A Gentleman of the former place had betted a consi-
derable sum of mousy that he would go a yard from the ground
upon stilts, the di,trance of twelve miles, within the space of
four hours and a halt;-no stoppage was to be allowed, except
merely the time taken up in exchanging one pair of stills for
another, and even then his feet were not to touch the ground.
He started at the second mile stone from Cambridge, on the
Huntingdon road, to go six miles out and six in ; the first he
performed in one hour and fifty minutes, and did the distance
back in two hours and three minutes, so that he went the whole
in- three hours arid fifty-three minutes, having thirty-seven
minutes to spare beyand the time allawed him; he appeared a
good deal fatigued, and his hands, we understand, were much
•blistered, from the continued pressure upon one part. This, we
believe, is the first • performance of the kind ever attempted ;
but as novelty appears to attract, as well as direct, the manners
of the age, stating may possibly become as fashionable in these,
as stilting leas in former times.
A few days since -Mr. Jup p, a respectable farmer, at Slinfold,
near Horsham,-on entering one of his barns, heard the crying
of an infant, which attracted his attention, and at length led
him to a corner of the barn, where he discovered a rush basket,
carefully covered with a handkerchief, which he cast off, when
to ! two lovely babes, a boy and girl, about a month old, pre-
sented thearselves to the astonished farmer, who, however, im-
meJtatolv conveyed the basket with its contents to his wife. tell-
ing her, " as she had ofteu wished for children, he was now
enabled-to present her with a couple," and related the attendaut
circumstances, when Mrs. Jupp received the foundlings with
maternal kindness, and procured a careful nurse for them in the
village,. where they are now living and likely to do well. The
infants were neatly dressed, and bad each a change of baby-
linen lying by them _in the basket. They have every appear-
ance of being twins, and were baptized at a neighbouring church
(the Ministers lady -being one of the sponcers) by the names of
Moses Rush March, and Caroline Rush March. Proper means
have been taken to trace nut their unnatural parents, but no dis-
covery has brCil sziade; oar maa to whom so9picioq was at-

207

tached, was in consequence taken up, and underwent an exami-
nution before a Magistrate at Horsham, but as nothing appeared
to justify thesuspicion, he was dismissed.
LoNcr.vtrY.--There is now living in good health, at Mat.
ton's Corner, in the parish of Bolney Suffolk, a man named
Chatfield, who in December last, attained the nob of 101 years.
and under circumstances not the most favourable to such an ex-
tended period of existence, as after excessive drinking, or when
summoned to rest by the fatigue of labour, he had bed long in
the habit of taking it as convenience offered, sometimes on the
surface of a reeking dunghill, and at others on the mucky hot.
torn of a leaky hovel, for to the constitution of Morucbey (that
being his nick-uatne) they were alike harmless. Some years
ago, the old man's habitation was burht down, but to prevent
the full operation of that fiery ejectment, he took pos'se-ision of
a part of the ruins,aid retained ir, as hisprincipal lodging-place,
during the whole of the ensuing winter.
Last week some evil-dit.posed persons entered .the parish
church of Great Hrington, in lionhamptonshire, and broke open
the family vault of the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, when they
stripped the coffins contained therein of their 'plates, handless,
and ornamental furniture.

I'o L IC .E. .

MARLBOROUGH-STR MET.

SETTING FIRE TO A DWELLING HOUSR.—An oilman, *fro
resided in John's-court, Golden-square, was charged by hit
neighbours with setting tire to his apartments in the above court,
on Thursday last. It appeared, by the evidence of a Mrs. Pratt;
and other neighbours, that on an alarm of fire prevailing at eleven
o'clock on Thursday morning, the apartments rented by the pri-
soner were broke open, and a fire of combustibles, such as oil.
bladders, gunpowder, tax, &c, was discovered on the floor is
the middle of the room. The wainscoting of the room was on
fire in every part ; and from other circumstances it was suspect.,
ed that it was wilfully set on fire. The prisoner was-seen to go
out of the room ahout a quarter of an hour before the fire wav
discovered, and part of his goods were removed, -but he was not
ensured. The-prisoner was committed for trial;
AH UNEXPEcIED 111:ET1NG.--1.11 the.obove Office, a re.:
spectahie publican, a Freeholder of Middlesex, who load come
there on business, beheld at the bar his own wife, wbo eloped
sixteen months ago with a Serjeant of the Guards, and bad Pot
.since been heard of. She appeared there to perfer a complait4
against another paramour, with whom she had eloped from the
Sedeant. She fell into a swoon on beholding her husband, and
after retiring from the Office, she was put into a coach, and cow
veyed away by her lawful ou tier.

4CCI.DEA7SS OFFEZb CES, tfc.

Au inquisition was taken yestcreay in Great Cm-am-street,
before G. Hodgson, Esq. Cormer for Middlesex, on the body
of a new-born infant, found in the shore of a house in the above
street. There was no direct evidence to prove how, or in what
manner, the child came into the shore; but suspicion attached
Itself very strongly to a female servant, out of place, who bad
clandestinely left her lodgings, at a baker's shop, on which pre•
mises the child was found, and she bas since been apprehended
and committed, from Hatton-Garden Office. 'the Coroner's very
diet was delivered agreeable. to the testimony of two stlrgeont,
That the child had died from inattention tit the birth.
A family consisting of inn.; persons of the name of Smith were
drowned last week on the Cornwall coast, in consegnence of the
incursions of the sea, which swept away their dwelling in the
night of the 19th in,t, The house was situated on an eminenoe
of a hundred feet adjoining Acliftwhich gave way, and thus de-
stroyed the sniferers.
On Friday se'tmight, a singular accident happened•in Covent
Arden.—=The driver of a market-cart, who had been wantonly
heating his horse, TV as in the act of cutting the animal with a
coach-whip, when the lash caught bim round the rrck, and the
shock locked his jaw.. In this situation he was conveyed to a
surgeon for assistance, and his jaw was unlocked ; but it locked
again the same night, and he continued ins dan;;rrous state till
Sunday morning %%ben he expired. Ile has left a.wife and se-
veral children.

An infant child, about a month old, was found nt the door of
Mr. fledge, in Oxford-street, at seven o'clock on Thursday even—
ing, with n, note praying for the welfare of the child at the hands
of some kind Christians, and accounting for its exposure from
wretched poverty ; no trace has yet been discovered of the au-
natural mother the child wag conveyed to the poor house.