The Sun.
London, England, 1821-08-14 00:00:00

THE ASSIZES.

YORK, Au G. 10.-(CROWN SIDE.)
PETTY TREASON AND MURDER.

This trial excited much interest, and the Court was excei
sively crowded in everypart long before Mr. Justice HOLROYD
took his seat on the bench. The Ladies formed a large majo:-
rity of the spectators.
Ann Barber, aged 45, the wife of James Barber, was charged
by the Coroner's Inquest with the wilful murder of James Bar-
ber, her husband, by giving him white arsenic in ale and sugar,
on the 16th of March last, of which he died next morning.

Messrs. MAUDE and liAnDv conducted the prosecutiOn.
Mr. JONES defended the prisoner, but lainented that he had
not been applied to, or received hii brief, till this morning as he
was coming into Court. •
.
Mr. MAtJDE stated the outlines of the case.—The deceased
had had a small property of. his own at Rhodes-green, in the
parish of Rothwell. He had married the prisoner in 1805.
They had lived very happily till a young man of the name of
William Thomson came to live with them at MartinmaS last.
They had two children, the younger 9. or 10 years. of age. The
mother of the prisoner lived very near, and was there at the time
of his decease. Her brother had coma with another man and

prayed with the deceased on the evening before his death. The.
prisoner would be proved to have bought a pennyworth of
arsenic at 'Wakefield, on Friday, the -16th of March, and to
have given it to her husband that evening in ale and sugar.
The motive had been a criminal attachment to Thomson, with
whom she had left her house on the 26th of December, and lived
for a week with him, in a cottage of one room, which she had
taken for the purpose, at Potovens, four miles distant from her
husband's house. A horse and cart had been bought by money
left her as a legacy by her father. Thomson's name was paint-
ed on this cart, and in this cart they conveyed some furniture
for the cottage from her husband's house. The neighbours
became so indiomant, that the 'prisoner and Thomson were dri-
ven with riot f"rom their cottage. The husband received her
again, but Thomson was obliged to leave her society. It would
be proved that she refused to call in a medical man, and said on
the night of the 16th that her husband would be and before
morning. The medical man who opened the body would fully
prove that the deceased had died by poison taken into his sto-
mach, and the evidence which would be laid before' them would
leaVe no doubt that the poison had been administered by the

prisoner at the bar.
We gave an outline of - this case soon after the horrid event
occurred. After the examination of several witnesses, and the
guilt of the prisoner had been -Pally ascertained,
Mr. Justice II OLROTD summed up the evidence with•great
pains, and explained the various points of law connected with

the case.
The Jury retired for ten minutes, and found a verdict of
Guilty.
CLERK.—Ann Barber, what have you to say why sentence
of death should not be passed upon you, according to law ?
Prisoner.-7-1 am.very sorry I should be found guilty by false
Swearing.
Whin his Lordship had covered his head, and was proceed-
ing to pass sentence, she shrieked and dropped down. When
raised, she caught fast hold of the iron bar before her, and look-
ed towards his Lordship with a countenance extremely distorted
with horror at her fate, and kept making the .responses within
parentheses : the colour of her cheeks deepening as his Lordship
proceeded, till it became blood red.
Mr. Justice Il OLROYD.—Ann Barber, you have been found
guilty of the dreadful crime of murder, and a murder of a, very
aggravated nature, inasmuch as it was the murder of your hus-
band, whom, by your marriage vow, you were bound to love
and cherish.--(" It is all false swearing.")—You have been
convicted on what has appeared to me the clearest evidence.—
(" No, Sir.")—No reasonable creature can have a doubt of rout
guilt rom the clearness of the proof.—(" I am very sorry.")—
Your defence has been conducted very ably, and all the objec-
tions in point of law which could be made were urged by
your Counsel. It has been represented in the evidence as if
your husband had got rid of -himself from pain and anxiety
arising Prom your conduct. But other circumstances chew
completely that the poison was administered by yourself-
-(" No")—and on the very day on which you bought- it.—
(" I never was in that shop in my life, my Lord.")—So de-
termined were, you on his destruction, that you Said it, was
not necessary to send for a medical man, for that
.he would
be dead before morning. This effect yOu expected frOm the
deadly
,poison you had giyen him.--(" No, my Lord,. no.")—
It is deplorable, and I lament to say that the obduracy of your
heart continued even when you-saw your husband in agony
under the pain of the poison you gave. You are a dreadful' ex-
ample of the consequences of giving way to dissolute inclina-
tions. It was your dissolute inclinations that brought you'into
the miserable and ignominious situation in which you now
stand. It is impossible, in consistency with the security of
society, or with the laws of God and man, that mercy can be
extended to you. The very short time that remains for you it
is necessary that you employ in the most complete repentance.
—(Were the prisoner cried and wept in the bitterest manner.)—
Humble yourself before God, that you may receive that mercy
hereafter vihich•l regret is impossible -to lie shewn you here.—
It now only remains that I pronounce upon you the sentence of
death. (After sentence, she clung to the person who stood next
her and cried —" 0 save me, save me.")
She was asked whether she knew any reason why execution
of the sentence should be delayed, and answered in the negative.
This unhappy woman has the.appearance of having been a
sober, grave, thoughtful, andinost industrious ,person. She was
meanly clad, and looked considerably older than the calendar
represents her. -