The Sun.
London, England, 1822-08-17 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. .

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—WELLS, AUGUST 15,
ILCHESTER GAOL—TRIAL OF WM. BRIDLE.
The town was quite alive so early as five this morning, with
the influx of persons to hear the trial of this information. By
half past 7 o'clock the doors of the Court were surrounded with
£xpectants of all ranks ; butno one except those who had imme-
diate business in the cause were admitted until after the arrival

of the Judge. At 8 o'clock Mr. Justice .11z cHARDSON took
his seat, and the doors were then thrown open to the public.—
Two Common Jury causes of no interest being disposed of,

THE KING V. BRIDLE
was called on. Twelve special jurors—Charles Simpson, George

- -
George, John Jones, William Shepherd, Daniel Stanton, Wm.
Dampier, Francis Rogers, Jacob Wilkinson, Shuckburgh Howe,
William Waters, Samuel Rodbard; Harry Foulkes Edgell,
Esqrs. answered to their names, and were sworn. •
Mr. SELWYN opened the proceedings. The first count
charged, that the defendant on the Ist of Jan. 58th Geo. HI.,
was Keeper of the House of Correction of Ilchester. Tharbeing
such keeper, and a person of wicked, cruel, and malicious dis-
position, and not regarding his duty as such keeper, but un-
lawfully, wrongfully, wickedly, cruelly, and maliciously devis-
ing and intending to hurt, injure, and. oppress, one Mary Cure,
who, at the several times of committing the offences in this
count mentioned, was a prisoner in the custody of defendant;
and which Mary Cure then and. there had an infant child with
her of young and tender age, of the age of six months, to'suckle
at her breast, and to cause the said Mary Cure to undergo
and endure great bodily pain, suffering and hardship, and to
injure her health, on November 18, 59th Geo. 111., and on
divers days did wickedly, maliciously, &c. without any justifi-
able cause, and against the will of the said Mary Cure, did put
up, shut, and confine, and cause the said Mary, &c. &c. to endure
great bodily pain and suffering, &c. &c. so that the infant child
was deprived of its necessary subsistence, and the milk failed,
to the great damage of the said Mary Cure, contrary to the
duty of defendant as such keeper, and to the evil example, &c.
&c. The other counts following varied the charge, and the
ninth count charged the defendant at great length, that he did-
causeane Thomas Gardiner to endure great pain and suffering
on the 20th of December, and did wickedly, maliciously, and
without any justifiable cause, and against the will and con-
sent of the said Thomas Gardiner, fix a blister upon the head
of him, the said Thomas Gardiner, and also forcibly put on him
a strait-jacket, and put him in solitary confinement, by means
of which, &c. the said Thomas Gardiner did endure great
bodily pain and suffering, &c. The other counts charged him
with assault and battery, &c.
Serjeant PELt opened the case for the Crown. He' repre-
sented it as one of the most solemn and important nature. The
Learned Serjeant gave a history of the origin of the present
proceedings. In the early part of the last year, when, from the
representations of Mr. Hunt, Commissioners were appointed
to examine into the state of the gaol, and in consequence of
their report to the House of Commons, his Majesty, through
the medium of the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment, had given directions for the prosecution, and he (Ser;eant
Pell) had now the honour to appear as the public prosecutor.—
There was nothing in the present proceedings which would, in
the slightest degree, touch on the characters of the Magistrates
of the county; and whatever might be the inquiries hereafter
instituted, would relate solely to, the conduct of the gaoler, Mr.
Bridle, on two particular occasions. The case was certainly
one which, on the part of the public, seriously required investi-
gation, and the information confined itself to the charges against
Mr. Bridle for cruelty to two of his prisoners—the one named
Maiy Cure, and the other named Thonias Gardiner. The
Learned Serjeant then stated the case, which would be given in
evidence by Mary Cure ; and certainly if he rested on this case
alone, where an unfortunate woman had been, for some offence,
which she had giyen, shut up in a dark and solitary cell, with-
out fire, in the depth of November, with an infant at her breast;
and in that state denied the proper sustenance, he should have
established that for which the defendant would be deserving of
the severest punishment. But the other case went far beyond
this, and, if it were true, equalled any thing that had'ever been
heard of in the annals of wanton cruelty and atrocity. In No-
vember, 1820, for some offence which Gardiner had given to the
governor, Bridle; the latter had him put into solitary confine-
ment, on bread and water ; and if the punishment had been
merely solitary confinement, no one, perhaps, would have com-
plained, and the law fully sanctioned the mere confinement,
thought it might be solitary ; but, if such inflictions as had
been visited upon Gardiner were to be tolerated, it were bet-
ter that there should be no gaols at all, and that people
should wander about like wild beasts ; for nothing could' be
more intolerable than the existence of such a state of things
as that he was about to state to them. The prisoner Gar-
diner was certainly a man of an extremely bad character;
but whatever might have been his character or conduct, he
could not possibly have done any thing that could justify the
treatment he had endured. He was no sooner put into solitary
confinement, than a fellow convict was sent to cut off his hair
and shave his head. He, was confined in a strait waistcoat, and
after this was done, a blister was put on his head, of a pungent
nature, and over that was placed a cap to keep it down ; and
in this most miserable state he was kept for four days, in incon-
ceivable misery, suit in pain intolerable. But this was not all.
lie was supplied with coarse and miserable food, which was laid
before him on a bench, and as his hands were tied, he was ob-
liged to kneel and eat it as a beast from the trough. Whilst he
was in this state in a cell of darkness, the tortures of the blister
became unbearable. His hands were confined to prevent his
-removing it, and in his agony, he was actually reduced to rub
his head against the stone wall of the cell ; and with the cap
and blister, off came the skin of the poor wretch's head !
Bryer, the surgeon of the gaol, who, to his lasting disgrace,
had supplied the blister for the purpose, would be called to
prove that he had done it at the request of the defendant Bridle,
and would prove, as confirmatory of his conduct, that no entry
was made of the fact on the day when it took place, but that it
was entered by Bryer, some time after, at. the request of Bridle,
when the inquiry into the case was set on foot by
.Mr. Hunt.—
The Learned Sergeant said he did not wish to introduce the
name of that Gentleman unnecessarily, but, speaking of him
only as connected with this transaction, he should say as long
as he lived, if the present charge were true, that Mr. Hunt had
acted, in this instance, as the benefactor of his country in bring-
ing it forward.—[There was a strong disposition to applaud
this part of the Learned Sergeant's speech' manifested in the
gallery.]
The UDOE said lie should feel it his duty to commit any one
who offended again in the course of the trial.
The Learned Sergeant resumed, and after commenting with
ability on the details of the case, which he said he should prove
satisfactorily to them, he implored their utmost attention tout.
Mary Cure was then called and examined by Mr. Gaselee.—
She deposed that about three years and a half ago she was con-
fined for having had a bastard child, in Ilchester gaol, when a
quarrel took place between her and Mary Smith. In conse-
quence they were both had down and locked up. It was cold,
and there was sleet and snow on the ground, She had an in-
fant four months old at her breast. It was-on a Thursday be-
tween one and two o'clock. There was no fire in the cell until
Saturday morning. There was no fire in the cell until Satur-
day •morning. The cell was very cold and had a stone floor.
Het, food Niles bread and cold water. She had not water
er.ough, and one day she was without water. She was locked
up all day and saw no one ask for water. If was on a Friday.
(in Saturday some water was brought to her in a bucket, and
which was left in the bucket which she was obliged to drink
out of, until-she came out. She was let out on Saturday morn-
ing, for an hour, into the yard and she drank at the pump.
She was not allowed to come out at all on Friday. She had. a
fire in another cell on Saturday. She Lad nothing at all to
supply the infant with, and on Friday evening she had no milk
to give it ; nor any water to. drink herself. On Saturday
morning she drank a great deal, being very thirsty. She was
well when she first went in on Thursday. She was very cold
when she was let out on Sunday morning, and on Sunday night
she was very ill, and obliged to call up Mr. Hobbs, for she was
sick and ill in her bowels. Mr. Bridle himself locked her up
on the Thursday. She knew a person named Traganza. On
Thursday morning she was locked up in a cell called the bed-
cell, which was neither light nor dark. She had before slept
up in the women's ward.
Cross-examined by Mr. Wraseraars.—She was not married,
and had had three children, and had two now. She had a ba-
sin, and cup, and saucer, in the pantry of the ward with the
other women. She was locked up for the first time at about
one o'clock, and was let out at seven o'clock. She was let out to
go from one cell to another. She did not take her basin with
her, because she did not know where she was going. She was
never asked on the first day whether she would have a fire, nor
did she say she would, be d—d if she would. She never used
such an expression during her confinement in the gaol. No
one came to her on Friday, nor was any additional rug sent to
her. She never did swear, on 'any former occasion, that she
had asked repeatedly for water on Friday, and that she could
not have any until Saturday. She never saw any one to ask
for water. She asked particularly for fire on Saturday morn-
ing, as she and her child were very cold, and begged Mr. Tra-
ganza to speak to Mr. Bridle. Tiaganza said Mr. Bridle was
engaged with company. Traganza brought her a candle, upon
her application, and she lighted a fire in the cell. This (Sa-